ArticleCurrent biology : CB2021
Dynamic Suppression of Average Facial Structure Shapes Neural Tuning in Three Macaque Face Patches.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Resting fMRI functional connectivity reflects fluctuations in inhibitory interneuron activity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Face pareidolia minimally engages macaque face selective neurons.Progress in neurobiology · 2025Article
- Neuronal Mechanisms Underlying Face Recognition in Non-human Primates.The Japanese psychological research · 2024Article
- Interacting ventral temporal gradients of timescales and functional connectivity and their relationships to visual behavior.iScience · 2024Article
- STRAIGHTMORPH: A Voice Morphing Tool for Research in Voice Communication Sciences.Open research Europe · 2024Article
- Article
- Progressive neuronal plasticity in primate visual cortex during stimulus familiarization.Science advances · 2023Article
- Article
- Encoding of 3D physical dimensions by face-selective cortical neurons.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Encoding of dynamic facial information in the middle dorsal face area.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Facial typicality and attractiveness reflect an ideal dimension of face structure.Cognitive psychology · 2023Article
- Local features drive identity responses in macaque anterior face patches.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Brain-wide functional connectivity of face patch neurons during rest.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Widespread implementations of interactive social gaze neurons in the primate prefrontal-amygdala networks.Neuron · 2022Article
- Parallel functional subnetworks embedded in the macaque face patch system.Science advances · 2022Article
- Self-tuition as an essential design feature of the brain.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- fMRI evidence that hyper-caricatured faces activate object-selective cortex.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Joint encoding of facial identity, orientation, gaze, and expression in the middle dorsal face area.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Common functional localizers to enhance NHP & cross-species neuroscience imaging research.NeuroImage · 2021Article
- A fast link between face perception and memory in the temporal pole.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
The visual perception of identity in humans and other primates is thought to draw upon cortical areas specialized for the analysis of facial structure. A prominent theory of face recognition holds that the brain computes and stores average facial structure, which it then uses to efficiently determine individual identity, though the neural mechanisms underlying this process are controversial. Here, we demonstrate that the dynamic suppression of average facial structure plays a prominent role in the responses of neurons in three fMRI-defined face patches of the macaque. Using photorealistic face stimuli that systematically varied in identity level according to a psychophysically based face space, we found that single units in the AF, AM, and ML face patches exhibited robust tuning around average facial structure. This tuning emerged after the initial excitatory response to the face and was expressed as the selective suppression of sustained responses to low-identity faces. The coincidence of this suppression with increased spike timing synchrony across the population suggests a mechanism of active inhibition underlying this effect. Control experiments confirmed that the diminished responses to low-identity faces were not due to short-term adaptation processes. We propose that the brain's neural suppression of average facial structure facilitates recognition by promoting the extraction of distinctive facial characteristics and suppressing redundant or irrelevant responses across the population.
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