Human Neural Systems for Face and Object Perception
Face perception is perhaps the most highly developed visual skill in humans. We can distinguish among an unlimited number of different individuals, and our perception of each individual’s unique identity is invariant over a wide range of changes in profile, lighting, expression, and other facial movements. The perception of changes in a face – expression and eye gaze - plays a critical role in social interaction and is perhaps an even more highly developed visual skill than is face recognition.
Faces and different categories of objects evoke distinct, topographically-organized patterns of response in the cortex of the ventral object vision pathway. We have developed a new method of fMRI data analysis, topographic pattern analysis, that revealed these patterns. This method promises to greatly enhance the sensitivity of fMRI and the power of fMRI to determine how information is represented in cortex, not merely where it is represented. The further development of topographic pattern analysis and the application of this method to new questions about the representation of faces and objects is a major focus for the laboratory.
Face perception plays a central role in social cognition, and we are also conducting research on the neural systems that mediate those aspects of face perception that are relevant to social cognition. The perception of familiar faces of individuals provides a means for examining how face perception participates in person perception and the automatic activation of knowledge about others. The perception of expression and eye gaze plays a central role in social communication, and we have shown that the perception of these aspects of faces is mediated by a neural system that is distinct from the system that mediates face identity recognition. Imitation of facial expression also plays a role in social communication and the development of empathy.
Investigating face perception draws on knowledge of cognitive and computational models, neural systems, and social cognition. The goal of the research in my laboratory is to integrate these subdisciplines to understand how face perception is represented in the human brain.
Contact:
Jim Haxby