Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Neuroimage. 2017 Sep;158:126-135. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.057. Epub 2017 Jun 30.
Recent evidence suggests that the function of the core system for face perception might extend beyond visual face-perception to a broader role in person perception. To critically test the broader role of core face-system in person perception, we examined the role of the core system during the perception of others in 7 congenitally blind individuals and 15 sighted subjects by measuring their neural responses using fMRI while they listened to voices and performed identity and emotion recognition tasks. We hypothesised that in people who have had no visual experience of faces, core face-system areas may assume a role in the perception of others via voices. Results showed that emotions conveyed by voices can be decoded in homologues of the core face system only in the blind. Moreover, there was a specific enhancement of response to verbal as compared to non-verbal stimuli in bilateral fusiform face areas and the right posterior superior temporal sulcus showing that the core system also assumes some language-related functions in the blind. These results indicate that, in individuals with no history of visual experience, areas of the core system for face perception may assume a role in aspects of voice perception that are relevant to social cognition and perception of others' emotions.
最近的证据表明，面部感知核心系统的功能可能不仅局限于视觉面部感知，还扩展到更广泛的人物感知角色。为了严格检验核心面部系统在人物感知中的更广泛作用，我们通过 fMRI 测量了 7 名先天性盲人个体和 15 名视力正常个体在倾听声音和进行身份识别和情感识别任务时的神经反应，研究了核心系统在他人感知中的作用。我们假设，在那些没有视觉面部体验的人中，核心面部系统区域可能会通过声音在他人感知中发挥作用。结果表明，只有在盲人中，声音所传达的情感才能在核心面部系统的同源区域中进行解码。此外，与非言语刺激相比，双侧梭状回面孔区和右侧后上颞叶回对言语刺激的反应有特定的增强，表明核心系统在盲人中也承担了一些与语言相关的功能。这些结果表明，在没有视觉体验史的个体中，面部感知核心系统的区域可能在与社会认知和他人情感感知相关的声音感知方面发挥作用。
