Kaul Christian, Rees Geraint, Ishai Alumit
Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University New York, NY, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2011 Jan 21;4:238. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00238. eCollection 2011.
Face perception in humans is mediated by activation in a network of brain areas. Conventional univariate fMRI data analysis has not localized differential responses to viewing male as compared with viewing female faces within this network. We tested whether we could detect neural response patterns specific to viewing male vs. female faces in 40 participants. Replicating earlier work, face stimuli evoked activation in the core (inferior occipital gyrus, IOG; fusiform gyrus, FG; and superior temporal sulcus, STS), as well as extended (amygdala, inferior frontal gyrus, IFG; insula, INS; and orbitofrontal cortex, OFC) regions of the face network. Multivariate pattern classification of activity within these regions revealed successful decoding of gender information, significantly above chance, in the IOG, FG, STS, IFG, INS, and OFC, but not in the amygdala. Multiple control regions indicated that this result might be restricted to face-responsive regions. Our findings suggest that gender information is distributed across the face network and is represented in the core regions that process invariant facial features, as well as the extended regions that process changeable aspects of faces.
人类的面部感知是由大脑区域网络中的激活介导的。传统的单变量功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据分析尚未在该网络中定位出与观看女性面孔相比观看男性面孔时的差异反应。我们测试了在40名参与者中是否能够检测到观看男性与女性面孔时特有的神经反应模式。重复早期的研究工作，面部刺激在面部网络的核心区域（枕下回，IOG；梭状回，FG；颞上沟，STS）以及扩展区域（杏仁核、额下回，IFG；脑岛，INS；眶额皮质，OFC）诱发了激活。这些区域内活动的多变量模式分类显示，在IOG、FG、STS、IFG、INS和OFC中，性别信息的解码成功率显著高于随机水平，但在杏仁核中则不然。多个对照区域表明，这一结果可能仅限于对面部有反应的区域。我们的研究结果表明，性别信息分布在整个面部网络中，并在处理不变面部特征的核心区域以及处理面部可变方面的扩展区域中得到体现。
