Perceiving Sound-Encoded Schematic Faces Activates the Left Fusiform Face Area.
(2014) Multisensory Research — p. xx (xx) (2014)
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- Abstract
- The fusiform face area (FFA) and the occipital face area (OFA) have been described as specialized in the visual processing of faces. We tested here whether these brain areas were activated when a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device (SSD) was used to explore faces. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we monitored the brain activity in proficient sighted SSD users who were discriminating schematic faces from man-made objects and other two-dimensional figures, all encoded into sounds by means of the SSD. The FFA and the OFA were then identified in the same subjects while they were discriminating the same stimuli in the visual modality. Results showed that the left FFA was activated when using the SSD to perceive faces and, to a lesser extent, man-made objects, but not meaningless two-dimensional figures. By contrast, the OFA was not activated during any of the conditions involving the SSD. We conclude that the left FFA plays a role in the processing of a face configuration at a supra-modal level, i.e. independent of the sensory modality, while the OFA seems to depend on visual inputs.
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Plaza Arancibia, P. L., Renier, L., Cuevas Quezada, I., Araneda Oyaneder, R., Grandin, C., & De Volder, A. (2014). Perceiving Sound-Encoded Schematic Faces Activates the Left Fusiform Face Area. Multisensory Research, xx (xx). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/22071 (Original work published 2014)