What is the fusiform face area for?

What is the fusiform face area for?

The fusiform face area (FFA, meaning spindle-shaped face area) is a part of the human visual system (while also activated in people blind from birth) that is specialized for facial recognition. It is located in the inferior temporal cortex (IT), in the fusiform gyrus (Brodmann area 37).

What activates the FFA?

The expertise hypothesis is appealing due to a number of studies showing that the FFA is activated by pictures of objects within the subject’s domain of expertise (e.g., cars for car experts, birds for birders, etc.), and that activation of the FFA increases as new expertise is acquired in the lab.

Is the fusiform face area activated when imagining faces?

A) FFA responses to faces with or without veridical face configurations. The FFA showed a strong response to the scrambled faces, which was about 93% of the activation level to the veridical faces. B) FFA responses to faces and objects in the localizer runs.

Is the fusiform face area Bilateral?

Specifically, the researchers focused on the face-preferential cortical regions (i.e., the bilateral fusiform face area; [FFA, Kanwisher et al., 1997] and the bilateral occipital area [OFA, Gauthier et al., 2000]).

What is the part of the brain that recognizes faces?

Face-selective neurons have been found in the amygdala, indicating that this region plays an important role in face recognition (Kosaka et al., 2003). Todorov (2012) proposed that the role of the amygdala in face perception is to motivate the brain to pay attention to novel socially meaningful stimuli (faces).

Who found the fusiform face area?

neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher
More than 20 years ago, neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher and others discovered that a small section of the brain located near the base of the skull responds much more strongly to faces than to other objects we see. This area, known as the fusiform face area, is believed to be specialized for identifying faces.

What area of the brain specializes in face recognition?

What happens if fusiform gyrus is damaged?

There are two types of prosopagnosia. Acquired prosopagnosia usually results from injury to the fusiform gyrus, and typically occurs in adults, while congenital prosopagnosia the ability to recognize faces nerve develops.

Is the fusiform gyrus in the fusiform face area?

The fusiform face area, or FFA, is a small region found on the inferior (bottom) surface of the temporal lobe. It is located in a gyrus called the fusiform gyrus.

What part of your brain recognizes faces?

How do you recognize faces?

The ability to recognize faces is so important in humans that the brain appears to have an area solely devoted to the task: the fusiform gyrus. Brain imaging studies consistently find that this region of the temporal lobe becomes active when people look at faces.