Re: what part of the brain recognizes images (particularly faces)

Dear Sigga
Thank you for posting such an interesting question, and especially one that overlaps with my own research interests so much. First of all let me start by asking you if you are doing this as part of a project of some kind ? If so then it might be fun to get in contact my web site is here and my email details are here.

Your question asks what part of the brain recognizes images and in particular you wanted to know where faces were recognized. Lets start with object recognition.

Object Recognition

Rumiata et al (1994) investigated a single case study of a man who presented a selective deficit in recognizing pictures and real objects but could still recognize famous faces. This provides evidence for a different area for faces and object recognition. Although this study was quite extensive they did not use any functional imaging techniques to clarify their findings. Another excellent paper on object and faces recognition is Bruce & Humphries (1994) paper (in fact any thing by these two is excellent!)

This paper makes use of the neuropsychological model in attempting to locate the neurological substrate for object and face recognition. They found that there was a huge amount of data that all pointed to the fact that there did exist a dissociation between the two processes. An interesting an interesting study is McNeil & Warrington (1993) which discussed a farmer who had lost the ability to recognize human faces but still retained the ability to identify his sheep.

Face Recognition
There have been numerous studies that have explored the neurological aspect of face recognition - the most contemporary is Kanswiger's paper (1997) here they found that part of the brain called the fusiform gyrus is responsible for the recognition of faces. Faces are complex-- in fact, one could argue, they are the most complex social stimuli one could face (pardon the pun!) so what about the recognition of expressions - Considering the importance of the facial expression this really is an area that needs to be addressed. Many studies have attempted to localize the neurological substrate of expression perception - one such study which came from our lab (Phillips et al, submitted) and found that it was indeed the fusiform gyrus (replicating the Kanswiger paper) that was responsible for the perception of faces whilst the amgydala was responsible for the perception of fear. Another paper, again from our lab, carried out a similar paradigm with disgust perception and found out that the perception of disgust in others is seen by activation in an area of the brain called the anterior insula. This is really interesting as this is also part of the brain that is considered by many to be the gustatory cortex. Thus linking the perception of facial disgust to bad tastes- (the word disgust means bad-taste).

For further information please email me and I will be more than happy to help out further.

Carl Senior
References
Bruce, V. & Humphreys, G. (1994). Recognizing objects and faces. Visual cognition. (2/3) 141-180
Rumiata, R. et al (1994). Visual Object Agnosia without prosopagnosia or alexia: evidence for hierarchical theories of visual recognition. Visual Cognition. 2(1) 181 - 225.
Sergent, J. & Signoret, J. (1992). Functional and anatomical decomposition of face processing : evidence for prosopagnosia and PET study of normal subjects. In Bruce et al Processing the facial image. Oxford press.
McNeil, J. & Warrington, E. (1993). Prosophagnosia : A face specific disorder. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. 78. 143 - 149.
Kanswiger, N. et al (1997). The Fusiform gyrus: a module for the recognition of faces in the human cortex. The journal of neuroscience.
Phillips, M. et al (submitted) A Functional Investigation of facial recognition memory and the perception of happy and sad facial expressions. Human Brain Mapping. Submitted.