Chan Annie W-Y, Downing Paul E
School of Psychology, Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bangor University Gwynedd, UK.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2011 Jun 2;5:51. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00051. eCollection 2011.
Much of the work on face-selective neural activity has focused on posterior, ventral areas of the human and non-human primate brain. However, electrophysiological and fMRI studies have identified face responses in the prefrontal cortex. Here we used fMRI to characterize these responses in the human prefrontal cortex compared with face selectivity in posterior ventral region. We examined a region at the junction of the right inferior frontal sulcus and the precentral sulcus (right inferior frontal junction or rIFJ) that responds more to faces than to several other object categories. We find that the rIFJ and the right fusiform face area (rFFA) are broadly similar in their responses to whole faces, headless bodies, tools, and scenes. Strikingly, however, while the rFFA preferentially responds to the whole face, the rIFJ response to faces appears to be driven primarily by the eyes. This dissociation provides clues to the functional role of the rIFJ face response. We speculate on this role with reference to emotion perception, gaze perception, and to behavioral relevance more generally.
许多关于面孔选择性神经活动的研究都集中在人类和非人类灵长类动物大脑的后部腹侧区域。然而，电生理和功能磁共振成像研究已经在额叶前皮质中发现了对面孔的反应。在这里，我们使用功能磁共振成像来描述人类额叶前皮质中的这些反应，并与后部腹侧区域的面孔选择性进行比较。我们研究了右侧额下回沟和中央前沟交界处的一个区域（右侧额下交界区或rIFJ），该区域对面孔的反应比对其他几个物体类别更强烈。我们发现，rIFJ和右侧梭状面孔区（rFFA）在对完整面孔、无头身体、工具和场景的反应上大致相似。然而，引人注目的是，虽然rFFA优先对完整面孔做出反应，但rIFJ对面孔的反应似乎主要由眼睛驱动。这种分离为rIFJ面孔反应的功能作用提供了线索。我们更广泛地参考情绪感知、注视感知和行为相关性来推测这一作用。
