Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Face Inversion Effect

Abstract

The ability to recognize faces is reduced with a picture-plane inversion of the faces, known as the face inversion effect. It has been reported that the configuration of facial features, for example, the distance between the eyes and mouth, becomes less perceptible when the face is inverted. In macaque monkeys, designated cortical areas, i.e., face patches, where face images are processed, have been found in the temporal visual cortex along the ventral visual pathway. Neurons in the anterior face patch (anterior part of the inferior temporal cortex) are known to encode view-invariant identity information. Thus, the anterior face patch is believed to be the final processing stage in the face patch system. A recent study showed that the face-inversion decreases the amount of the information about facial identity and facial expression conveyed by neurons, though it did not affect the information about the global category of the stimulus images (monkey versus human versus shape). The anterior face patch may, therefore, serve as the neural basis underlying the face inversion effect.