Face-specific responses from the human inferior occipito-temporal cortex

• Published in: Neuroscience Vol. 77; no. 1; pp. 49 - 55
• Main Authors: Sams, M, Hietanen, J.K, Hari, R, Ilmoniemi, R.J, Lounasmaa, O.V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.1997; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; evoked responses; Face; Female; Form Perception - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; human; Humans; Magnetoencephalography; Male; Occipital Lobe - physiology; Pattern Recognition, Visual; perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Temporal Lobe - physiology; visual cortex; Visual Cortex - physiology; EEG, electroencephalography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; PET, positron emission tomography; face; visual cortex; MEG, magnetoencephalography; ECD, equivalent current dipole; magnetoencephalography; evoked responses; human; perception; Human; Visual stimulus; Magnetoencephalography; Evoked potential; Occipital cortex; Central nervous system; Electrophysiology; Perception; Temporal cortex; Face; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0306-4522; 1873-7544
• DOI: 10.1016/S0306-4522(96)00419-8

Whole-head neuromagnetic responses were recorded from seven subjects to pictures of faces and to various control stimuli. Four subjects displayed signals specific to faces. The combination of functional information from magnetoencephalography and anatomical data from magnetic resonance images suggests that the face-specific activity was generated in the inferior occipitotemporal cortex. All four subjects showed the face-specific response in the right hemisphere, one of them also in the left. Our results, together with recent positron emission tomography and lesion studies, suggest a right-hemisphere preponderance of face processing in the inferior occipitotemporal cortex.