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Science 3 February 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5761, pp. 670 - 674
DOI: 10.1126/science.1119983
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Reports

A Cortical Region Consisting Entirely of Face-Selective Cells

Doris Y. Tsao,1,3*{dagger} Winrich A. Freiwald,1,3* Roger B. H. Tootell,2,4,5 Margaret S. Livingstone1

Face perception is a skill crucial to primates. In both humans and macaque monkeys, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals a system of cortical regions that show increased blood flow when the subject views images of faces, compared with images of objects. However, the stimulus selectivity of single neurons within these fMRI-identified regions has not been studied. We used fMRI to identify and target the largest face-selective region in two macaques for single-unit recording. Almost all (97%) of the visually responsive neurons in this region were strongly face selective, indicating that a dedicated cortical area exists to support face processing in the macaque.

1 Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
2 Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
3 Brain Research Institute, Center for Advanced Imaging, University of Bremen D28334, Bremen, FR Germany.
4 Massachusetts General Hospital, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
5 Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: doris{at}nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)