Tsao Doris Y, Freiwald Winrich A, Tootell Roger B H, Livingstone Margaret S
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Science. 2006 Feb 3;311(5761):670-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1119983.
Face perception is a skill crucial to primates. In both humans and macaque monkeys, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals a system of cortical regions that show increased blood flow when the subject views images of faces, compared with images of objects. However, the stimulus selectivity of single neurons within these fMRI-identified regions has not been studied. We used fMRI to identify and target the largest face-selective region in two macaques for single-unit recording. Almost all (97%) of the visually responsive neurons in this region were strongly face selective, indicating that a dedicated cortical area exists to support face processing in the macaque.
面部感知是灵长类动物至关重要的一项技能。在人类和猕猴中,功能磁共振成像(fMRI)显示出一个皮层区域系统,当受试者观看面部图像时,与观看物体图像相比,该系统的血流量会增加。然而,这些经fMRI识别的区域内单个神经元的刺激选择性尚未得到研究。我们使用fMRI在两只猕猴中识别并定位最大的面部选择性区域,以进行单神经元记录。该区域几乎所有(97%)对视觉有反应的神经元都具有强烈的面部选择性,这表明猕猴中存在一个专门的皮层区域来支持面部处理。