Implicit Distinction of the Race Underlying the Perception of Faces by Event-Related fMRI.
- Author:
Jeong Seok KIM
1
;
Bum Soo KIM
;
Sin Soo JEUN
;
So Lyung JUNG
;
Bo Young CHOE
Author Information
1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. bychoe@catholic.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Fusiform face area (FFA);
Race;
Event-Related fMRI
- MeSH:
Continental Population Groups*;
Humans;
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*;
Memory;
Parahippocampal Gyrus;
Physiological Processes
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
2005;9(1):43-49
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
A few studies have shown that the function of fusiform face area is selectively involved in the perception of faces including a race difference. We investigated the neural substrates of the face-selective region called fusiform face area in the ventral occipital-temporal cortex and same-race memory superiority in the fusiform face area by the event-related fMRI. In our fMRI study, subjects (Oriental-Korean) performed the implicit distinction of the race while they consciously made familiar-judgments, regardless of whether they considered a face as Oriental-Korean or European-American. For race distinction as an implicit task, the fusiform face areas (FFA) and the right parahippocampal gyrus had a greater response to the presentation of Oriental-Korean faces than for the European-American faces, but in the conscious race distinction between Oriental-Korean and European-American faces, there was no significant difference observed in the FFA. These results suggest that different activation in the fusiform regions and right parahippocampal gyrus resulting from superiority of same-race memory could have implicitly taken place by the physiological processes of face recognition.
