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Different neural mechanisms within occipitotemporal cortex underlie repetition suppression across same and different-size faces.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Ewbank, Michael P 
Henson, Richard N 
Rowe, James B 
Stoyanova, Raliza S 
Calder, Andrew J 

Abstract

Repetition suppression (RS) (or functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation) refers to the reduction in blood oxygen level-dependent signal following repeated presentation of a stimulus. RS is frequently used to investigate the role of face-selective regions in human visual cortex and is commonly thought to be a "localized" effect, reflecting fatigue of a neuronal population representing a given stimulus. In contrast, predictive coding theories characterize RS as a consequence of "top-down" changes in between-region modulation. Differentiating between these accounts is crucial for the correct interpretation of RS effects in the face-processing network. Here, dynamic causal modeling revealed that different mechanisms underlie different forms of RS to faces in occipitotemporal cortex. For both familiar and unfamiliar faces, repetition of identical face images (same size) was associated with changes in "forward" connectivity between the occipital face area (OFA) and the fusiform face area (FFA) (OFA-to-FFA). In contrast, RS across image size was characterized by altered "backward" connectivity (FFA-to-OFA). In addition, evidence was higher for models in which information projected directly into both OFA and FFA, challenging the role of OFA as the input stage of the face-processing network. These findings suggest "size-invariant" RS to faces is a consequence of interactions between regions rather than being a localized effect.

Description

Keywords

Adolescent, Adult, Brain Mapping, Face, Female, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Male, Nerve Net, Neural Inhibition, Occipital Lobe, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Recognition, Psychology, Temporal Lobe, Young Adult

Journal Title

Cereb Cortex

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1047-3211
1460-2199

Volume Title

23

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (G0001354)
Medical Research Council (MC_U105597119)
Wellcome Trust (088324/Z/09/Z)
MRC (unknown)
Medical Research Council (MC_U105579226)
Medical Research Council (G1000183)