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Cortical representations of bodies and faces are strongest in commonly experienced configurations

Nature Neuroscience volume 13, pages 417–418 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Faces and bodies are perhaps the most salient and evolutionarily important visual stimuli. Using human functional imaging, we found that the strength of face and body representations depends on long-term experience. Representations were strongest for stimuli in their typical combinations of visual field and side (for example, left field, right body), although all conditions were simply reflections and translations of one another. Thus, high-level representations reflect the statistics with which stimuli occur.

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Figure 1: Experimental design.
Figure 2: Discrimination of body parts and half-faces.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Behrmann, P. Downing, S. Gotts, A. Ghuman, A. Martin, H.P. Op de Beeck and W.K. Simmons for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and N. Kriegeskorte for helpful discussions. We also thank V. Elkis for assistance with fMRI data collection. This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health.

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  1. Annie W-Y Chan and Dwight J Kravitz: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Annie W-Y Chan, Dwight J Kravitz, Sandra Truong, Joseph Arizpe & Chris I Baker

Authors
  1. Annie W-Y Chan
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  2. Dwight J Kravitz
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  3. Sandra Truong
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  4. Joseph Arizpe
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Contributions

A.W.-Y.C., D.J.K., S.T. and C.I.B. designed the fMRI study. A.W.-Y.C., D.J.K. and S.T. collected and analyzed the fMRI data. A.W.-Y.C., D.J.K., J.A. and C.I.B. designed the behavioral study. J.A. collected and analyzed the behavioral data with help from A.W.-Y.C., D.J.K. and C.I.B. A.W.-Y.C., D.J.K. and C.I.B. wrote the paper with contributions from S.T. and J.A.

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Correspondence to Annie W-Y Chan.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Figures 1–15, Supplementary Data 1–11 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 3148 kb)

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Chan, AY., Kravitz, D., Truong, S. et al. Cortical representations of bodies and faces are strongest in commonly experienced configurations. Nat Neurosci 13, 417–418 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2502

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