MEG Adaptation Resolves the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Face-Sensitive Brain Responses.

Abstract

Neuroimaging techniques with high spatial-resolution have identified brain structures that are reliably activated when viewing faces and techniques with high temporal resolution have identified the time-varying temporal signature of the brain's response to faces. However, until now, colocalizing face-specific mechanisms in both time and space has proven notoriously difficult. Here, we used novel magnetoencephalographic analysis techniques to spatially localize cortical regions with trial-by-trial temporal activity that differentiates between faces and objects and to interrogate their functional sensitivity by analyzing effects of stimulus repetition on the time-locked signal. These analyses confirm a role for the right fusiform region in early to midlatency responses consistent with face identity processing and convincingly deliver upon magnetoencephalography's promise to resolve brain signals in time and space simultaneously.