Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on December 26, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(10):2400-2406; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl148
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Effective Connectivity within the Distributed Cortical Network for Face Perception
Institute of Neuroradiology, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Address for correspondence Alumit Ishai, PhD, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. Email address: ishai{at}hifo.unizh.ch.
Face perception elicits activation within a distributed cortical network in the human brain. The network includes visual ("core") regions, as well as limbic and prefrontal ("extended") regions, which process invariant facial features and changeable aspects of faces, respectively. We used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Dynamic Causal Modeling to investigate effective connectivity and functional organization between and within the core and the extended systems. We predicted a ventral rather than dorsal connection between the core and the extended systems during face viewing and tested whether valence and fame would alter functional coupling within the network. We found that the core system is hierarchically organized in a predominantly feed-forward fashion, and that the fusiform gyrus (FG) exerts the dominant influence on the extended system. Moreover, emotional faces increased the coupling between the FG and the amygdala, whereas famous faces increased the coupling between the FG and the orbitofrontal cortex. Our results demonstrate content-specific dynamic alterations in the functional coupling between visual-limbic and visual-prefrontal face-responsive pathways.
Key Words: cortical network dynamic causal modeling faces fMRI neuronal interaction
Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by Swiss National Science Foundation grant 3200B0-105278.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
D. Pitcher, L. Garrido, V. Walsh, and B. C. Duchaine Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Disrupts the Perception and Embodiment of Facial Expressions J. Neurosci., September 3, 2008; 28(36): 8929 - 8933. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Moeller, W. A. Freiwald, and D. Y. Tsao Patches with Links: A Unified System for Processing Faces in the Macaque Temporal Lobe Science, June 6, 2008; 320(5881): 1355 - 1359. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Bar, E. Aminoff, and A. Ishai Famous Faces Activate Contextual Associations in the Parahippocampal Cortex Cereb Cortex, June 1, 2008; 18(6): 1233 - 1238. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. L. LoPresti, K. Schon, M. D. Tricarico, J. D. Swisher, K. A. Celone, and C. E. Stern Working Memory for Social Cues Recruits Orbitofrontal Cortex and Amygdala: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Delayed Matching to Sample for Emotional Expressions J. Neurosci., April 2, 2008; 28(14): 3718 - 3728. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. A. J. van Kooten, S. J. M. C. Palmen, P. von Cappeln, H. W. M. Steinbusch, H. Korr, H. Heinsen, P. R. Hof, H. van Engeland, and C. Schmitz Neurons in the fusiform gyrus are fewer and smaller in autism Brain, April 1, 2008; 131(4): 987 - 999. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C. Thomas, L. Moya, G. Avidan, K. Humphreys, K. J. Jung, M. A. Peterson, and M. Behrmann Reduction in White Matter Connectivity, Revealed by Diffusion Tensor Imaging, May Account for Age-related Changes in Face Perception. J. Cogn. Neurosci., February 1, 2008; 20(2): 268 - 284. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Kveraga, J. Boshyan, and M. Bar Magnocellular Projections as the Trigger of Top-Down Facilitation in Recognition J. Neurosci., November 28, 2007; 27(48): 13232 - 13240. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||




