Modeling face recognition in the predictive coding framework: A combined computational modeling and functional imaging study

Abstract

The learning of new facial identities and the recognition of familiar faces are crucial processes for social interactions. Recently, a combined computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study used predictive coding as a biologically plausible framework to model face identity learning and to relate specific model parameters with brain activity (Apps and Tsakiris, Nat Commun 4, 2698, 2013). On the one hand, it was shown that behavioral responses on a two-option face recognition task could be predicted by the level of contextual and facial familiarity in a computational model derived from predictive-coding principles. On the other hand, brain activity in specific brain regions was associated with these parameters. More specifically, brain activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) varied with contextual familiarity, whereas activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) covaried with the prediction error parameter that updated facial familiarity.Literature combining fMRI assessments and computational modeling in humans still needs to be expanded. Furthermore, prior results are largely not replicated. The present study was, therefore, specifically set up to replicate these previous findings. Our results support the original findings in two critical aspects. First, on a group level, the behavioral responses were modeled best by the same computational model reported by the original authors. Second, we showed that estimates of these model parameters covary with brain activity in specific, face-sensitive brain regions. Our results thus provide further evidence that the functional properties of the face perception network conform to central principles of predictive coding. However, our study yielded diverging findings on specific computational model parameters reflected in brain activity. On the one hand, we did not find any evidence of a computational involvement of the STS. On the other hand, our results showed that activity in the right FFA was associated with multiple computational model parameters. Our data do not provide evidence for functional segregation between particular face-sensitive brain regions, as previously proposed.