FACE-SPECIFIC PROCESSING IN THE HUMAN FUSIFORM GYRUS

The perception of faces is sometimes regarded as a specialized task in volving discrete brain regions. In an attempt to identify fate-specifi c cortex, Re used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to meas ure activation evoked by faces presented in a continuously changing mo ntage of common objects or in a similar montage of nonobjects. Bilater al regions of the posterior fusiform gyrus were activated by faces vie wed among nonobjects, but when viewed among objects, faces activated o nly a focal right fusiform region. To determine whether this focal act ivation would occur for another category of familiar stimuli, subjects viewed flowers presented among nonobjects and objects. While flowers among nonobjects evoked bilateral fusiform activation, flowers among o bjects evoked no activation. These results demonstrate that both faces and flowers activate large and partially overlapping regions of infer ior extrastriate cortex. A smaller region, located primarily in the ri ght lateral fusiform gyrus, is activated specifically by faces.