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Department of Psychology

Staff

Publication details for Dr Cristiana Cavina Pratesi

Steeves, JKE, Culham, JC, Duchaine, BC, Pratesi, CC, Valyear, KF, Schindler, I, Humphrey, GK, Milner, AD & Goodale, MA (2006). The fusiform face area is not sufficient for face recognition: Evidence from a patient with dense prosopagnosia and no occipital face area. Neuropsychologia 44(4): 594-609.
  • Publication type: Journal papers: academic
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0028-3932
  • Keywords: fMRI; FFA; OFA; face recognition; prosopagnosiaVISUAL FORM AGNOSIA; OBJECT RECOGNITION; DEVELOPMENTAL PROSOPAGNOSIA; FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY; SELECTIVE ACTIVATION; PERCEPTION; CORTEX; FMRI; IDENTIFICATION; DISSOCIATIONS

Author(s) from Durham

Abstract

We tested functional activation for faces in patient D.F., who
following acquired brain damage has a profound deficit in object
recognition based on form (visual form agnosia) and also prosopagnosia
that is undocumented to date. Functional imaging demonstrated that like
our control observers, D.R shows significantly more activation when
passively viewing face compared to scene images in an area that is
consistent with the fusiform face area (FFA) (p < 0.01). Control
observers also show occipital face area (OFA) activation; however,
whereas D.F.'s lesions appear to overlap the OFA bilaterally. We asked,
given that D.F. shows FFA activation for faces, to what extent is she
able to recognize faces? D.F. demonstrated a severe impairment in
higher level face processing-she could not recognize face identity,
gender or emotional expression. In contrast, she performed relatively
normally on many face categorization tasks. D.R can differentiate faces
from non-faces given sufficient texture information and processing
time, and she can do this is independent of color and illumination
information. D.F. can use configural information for categorizing faces
when they are presented in an upright but not a sideways orientation
and given that she also cannot discriminate half-faces she may rely on
a spatially symmetric feature arrangement. Faces appear to be a unique
category, which she can classify even when she has no advance knowledge
that she will be shown face images. Together, these imaging and
behavioral data support the importance of the integrity of a complex
network of regions for face identification, including more than just
the FFA-in particular the OFA, a region believed to be associated with
low-level processing. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.