Kilgour Andrea R, Kitada Ryo, Servos Philip, James Thomas W, Lederman Susan J
Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7L 3N6.
Brain Cogn. 2005 Dec;59(3):246-57. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2005.07.004. Epub 2005 Sep 12.
Many studies in visual face recognition have supported a special role for the right fusiform gyrus. Despite the fact that faces can also be recognized haptically, little is known about the neural correlates of haptic face recognition. In the current fMRI study, neurologically intact participants were intensively trained to identify specific facemasks (molded from live faces) and specific control objects. When these stimuli were presented in the scanner, facemasks activated left fusiform and right hippocampal/parahippocampal areas (and other regions) more than control objects, whereas the latter produced no activity greater than the facemasks. We conclude that these ventral occipital and temporal areas may play an important role in the haptic identification of faces at the subordinate level. We further speculate that left fusiform gyrus may be recruited more for facemasks than for control objects because of the increased need for sequential processing by the haptic system.
许多关于视觉人脸识别的研究都支持右侧梭状回发挥特殊作用。尽管通过触觉也能识别面孔，但对于触觉人脸识别的神经关联却知之甚少。在当前的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，对神经系统完好的参与者进行了强化训练，使其能够识别特定的面部面具（根据真人面部塑造）和特定的对照物体。当这些刺激物在扫描仪中呈现时，面部面具比对照物体更能激活左侧梭状回和右侧海马体/海马旁回区域（以及其他区域），而对照物体产生的活动并不比面部面具更强烈。我们得出结论，这些枕叶腹侧和颞叶区域可能在下属水平的触觉人脸识别中发挥重要作用。我们进一步推测，由于触觉系统对顺序处理的需求增加，左侧梭状回在处理面部面具时比处理对照物体时可能被更多地激活。
