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Face Perception

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Neurophenotypes

Part of the book series: Innovations in Cognitive Neuroscience ((Innovations Cogn.Neuroscience))

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Abstract

Face perception is a critical and complex cognitive operation, and it poses unique the cognitive demands. This chapter addresses the question of whether face perception can be viewed as a cognitive phenotype. Evidence from neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies are summarized that reflect specialization of parts of the visual system for face processing, for example, face-tuned neurons in the superior temporal sulcus of non-human primates, and cortical regions associated with prosopagnosia in humans. Data from cognitive neuroscience (especially functional imaging studies) are presented, illustrating that many distinct brain regions show that activity in response to faces though the lateral fusiform gyrus or “fusiform face area” (FFA) shows a particularly robust response. Current interpretations of FFA activity and how it may be functionally parsed out from the activity of the occipital fusiform area and anterior temporal lobe are then laid out, and this raises the tricky question of what differs between the perception faces and non-face objects as may be expressed along these neural centers. Our discussion on face perception as a potential cognitive phenotype suggests that the domain of operation of the face perception neural mechanism is not all or none. We point instead to a more general purpose visual learning system that happens to be critical in face perception and possibly most fully realized in face perception. The processes of face perception are especially illustrative of difficulties that can be inherent in establishing evidence for a domain-specific cognitive phenotype.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

    Jennifer Richler & Isabel Gauthier

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  1. Jennifer Richler
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  2. Isabel Gauthier
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Correspondence to Jennifer Richler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Communication science & Disorders/Behavioral Neuroscience , Emerson College; Boston University school of Medicine, BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA

    Vinoth Jagaroo

  2. Marine medical centre and Marine Medical Research, Chan School of Public Health , Tufts University School of medicine and Harvard TH, BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA

    Susan L. Santangelo

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Richler, J., Gauthier, I. (2016). Face Perception. In: Jagaroo, V., Santangelo, S. (eds) Neurophenotypes. Innovations in Cognitive Neuroscience. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3846-5_11

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