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Abstract:
Abstract: Numerous studies have shown that people have
superior memory for faces of their own race relative to other
races. The brain basis of this memory effect is unknown, despite
its potential social implications. We studied the brain activation
correlates of this effect using functional MRI (fMRI). Seven
Caucasian males were studied with whole-brain fMRI at 3T. Scans 1
and 2 contrasted blocks of novel or repeated photographs of either
Caucasian (CC) or African-American (AA) males. Scan 3 presented
photographs of AA males, CC males, objects, or fixation.
Intentional encoding was performed and recognition memory was
tested after each scan. Memory for same-race faces (d'=2.64) was
superior to different-race faces (d'=0.97) (p<0.05).
Novelty-associated brain activations for CC faces included
bilateral medial occipito-temporal cortex, medial temporal lobe and
dorsal occipital cortex. Novelty-associated activations for AA
faces were more prominent in prefrontal cortex and amygdala but
were less prominent in the dorsal occipital and medial
occipitotemporal regions. Faces of both races resulted in greater
medial occipitotemporal cortex and less dorsal occipital cortex
compared to objects. These results suggest that viewing same-race
faces may preferentially engage specific face-processing regions
compared to other-race faces. This differential neural processing
may account for the own-race bias in face recognition. (Supported
in part by NIH F32 NS10925-01 and OTL 2EQA101)
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