Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Face-Specific Activity in the Ventral Stream Visual Cortex Linked to Conscious Face Perception

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Neuroscience Bulletin Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

When presented with visual stimuli of face images, the ventral stream visual cortex of the human brain exhibits face-specific activity that is modulated by the physical properties of the input images. However, it is still unclear whether this activity relates to conscious face perception. We explored this issue by using the human intracranial electroencephalography technique. Our results showed that face-specific activity in the ventral stream visual cortex was significantly higher when the subjects subjectively saw faces than when they did not, even when face stimuli were presented in both conditions. In addition, the face-specific neural activity exhibited a more reliable neural response and increased posterior-anterior direction information transfer in the “seen” condition than the “unseen” condition. Furthermore, the face-specific neural activity was significantly correlated with performance. These findings support the view that face-specific activity in the ventral stream visual cortex is linked to conscious face perception.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in a freely available library at https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/zk881ps0522.

References

  1. Hoehl S, Peykarjou S. The early development of face processing—What makes faces special? Neurosci Bull 2012, 28: 765–788.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Grill-Spector K, Weiner KS, Kay K, Gomez J. The functional neuroanatomy of human face perception. Annu Rev Vis Sci 2017, 3: 167–196.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Koch C, Massimini M, Boly M, Tononi G. Neural correlates of consciousness: Progress and problems. Nat Rev Neurosci 2016, 17: 307–321.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fisch L, Privman E, Ramot M, Harel M, Nir Y, Kipervasser S. Neural “ignition”: Enhanced activation linked to perceptual awareness in human ventral stream visual cortex. Neuron 2009, 64: 562–574.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Aru J, Axmacher N, Do Lam ATA, Fell J, Elger CE, Singer W, et al. Local category-specific gamma band responses in the visual cortex do not reflect conscious perception. J Neurosci 2012, 32: 14909–14914.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Perry G. The visual gamma response to faces reflects the presence of sensory evidence and not awareness of the stimulus. R Soc Open Sci 2016, 3: 150593.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Jiang Y, He S. Cortical responses to invisible faces: Dissociating subsystems for facial-information processing. Curr Biol 2006, 16: 2023–2029.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Bar M, Tootell RB, Schacter DL, Greve DN, Fischl B, Mendola JD, et al. Cortical mechanisms specific to explicit visual object recognition. Neuron 2001, 29: 529–535.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Miller KJ. A library of human electrocorticographic data and analyses. Nat Hum Behav 2019, 3: 1225–1235.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Miller KJ, Schalk G, Hermes D, Ojemann JG, Rao RP. Spontaneous decoding of the timing and content of human object perception from cortical surface recordings reveals complementary information in the event-related potential and broadband spectral change. PLoS Comput Biol 2016, 12: e1004660.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Miller KJ, Hermes D, Pestilli F, Wig GS, Ojemann JG. Face percept formation in human ventral temporal cortex. J Neurophysiol 2017, 118: 2614–2627.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Maris E, Oostenveld R. Nonparametric statistical testing of EEG- and MEG-data. J Neurosci Methods 2007, 164: 177–190.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Li W, Li J, Cao D, Luo N, Jiang T. Neural mechanism of noise affecting face recognition. Neuroscience 2021, 468: 211–219.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ghuman AS, Brunet NM, Li Y, Konecky RO, Pyles JA, Walls SA, et al. Dynamic encoding of face information in the human fusiform gyrus. Nat Commun 2014, 5: 5672.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Ding M, Bressler SL, Yang W, Liang H. Short-window spectral analysis of cortical event-related potentials by adaptive multivariate autoregressive modeling: Data preprocessing, model validation, and variability assessment. Biol Cybern 2000, 83: 35–45.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Barnett L, Seth AK. The MVGC multivariate Granger causality toolbox: A new approach to Granger-causal inference. J Neurosci Methods 2014, 223: 50–68.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Dehaene S, Changeux JP. Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing. Neuron 2011, 70: 200–227.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Quiroga RQ, Mukamel R, Isham EA, Malach R, Fried I. Human single-neuron responses at the threshold of conscious recognition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008, 105: 3599–3604.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Engel AK, Singer W. Temporal binding and the neural correlates of sensory awareness. Trends Cogn Sci 2001, 5: 16–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Ren S, Shao H, He S. Interaction between conscious and unconscious information-processing of faces and words. Neurosci Bull 2021, 37: 1583–1594.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Gaillard R, Dehaene S, Adam C, Clémenceau S, Hasboun D, Baulac M, et al. Converging intracranial markers of conscious access. PLoS Biol 2009, 7: e61.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Schrouff J, Raccah O, Baek S, Rangarajan V, Salehi S, Mourão-Miranda J, et al. Fast temporal dynamics and causal relevance of face processing in the human temporal cortex. Nat Commun 2020, 11: 656.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Hong H, Yamins DL, Majaj NJ, DiCarlo JJ. Explicit information for category-orthogonal object properties increases along the ventral stream. Nat Neurosci 2016, 19: 613–622.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Grill-Spector K, Kushnir T, Hendler T, Malach R. The dynamics of object-selective activation correlate with recognition performance in humans. Nat Neurosci 2000, 3: 837–843.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Lloyd MA, Appel JB. Signal detection theory and the psychophysics of pain: An introduction and review. Psychosom Med 1976, 38: 79–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Duchaine B, Yovel G. A revised neural framework for face processing. Annu Rev Vis Sci 2015, 1: 393–416.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Innovation 2030 - Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Project (2021ZD0200200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62327805, 82151307, and 32271085), and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5244049). We are grateful to R. E. Perozzi and E. F. Perozzi for their assistance in language editing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Wenlu Li, Dan Cao & Tianzi Jiang

  2. School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wenlu Li & Tianzi Jiang

  3. School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Jin Li

  4. Research Center for Augmented Intelligence, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, 311100, China

    Tianzi Jiang

  5. Xiaoxiang Institute for Brain Health and Yongzhou Central Hospital, Yongzhou, 425000, China

    Tianzi Jiang

Authors
  1. Wenlu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dan Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jin Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tianzi Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jin Li or Tianzi Jiang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, W., Cao, D., Li, J. et al. Face-Specific Activity in the Ventral Stream Visual Cortex Linked to Conscious Face Perception. Neurosci. Bull. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-024-01185-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-024-01185-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation