Neural correlate of the Thatcher Face Illusion in a monkey face-selective patch
(2015) The Journal of Neuroscience — Vol. 35, n° 27, p. 9872-9878 (2015)
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- Abstract
- Compelling evidence that our sensitivity to facial structure is conserved across the primate order comes from studies of the “Thatcher face illusion”: humans and monkeys notice changes in the orientation of facial features (e.g. the eyes) only when faces are upright, not when faces are upside down. While it is presumed that face perception in primates depends on face-selective neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex, it is not known whether these neurons respond differentially to upright faces with inverted features. Using microelectrodes guided by functional MRI mapping, we recorded cell responses in three regions of monkey IT cortex. We report an interaction in the face-selective middle lateral face patch (ML) between the global orientation of a face and the local orientation of its eyes, a response profile consistent with the perception of the Thatcher illusion. This increased sensitivity to eye orientation in upright faces resisted changes in screen location, and was not found among face-selective neurons in other areas of IT, including neurons in another face-selective region, AL. We conclude that the Thatcher face illusion is correlated with a pattern of activity in ML that encodes faces according to a flexible holistic template.
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Taubert, J. A., Van Belle, G., Vanduffel, W., Rossion, B., & VOGELS, R. (2015). Neural correlate of the Thatcher Face Illusion in a monkey face-selective patch. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(27), 9872-9878. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0446-15.2015 (Original work published 2015)