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Abstract:
Functional imaging studies of face perception have
consistently identified a region in ventral temporal cortex that
responds more to faces than other objects. Familiarity also
involves aspects of social cognition, such as ones relationship to
an individual and ones representation of that individual's
personality and outlook. Because these aspects would play a greater
role in the representation of faces that are personally familiar,
we decided to investigate whether the response to faces of people
who are personally familiar differs from the response to famous
faces. Responses to personally familiar faces (family and friends),
celebrities, strangers, and scrambled pictures were measured using
fMRI (gradient echo EPI). As expected, the strongest response to
faces was in the fusiform gyri, and this response was greater for
personally familiar faces than for famous faces. Personally
familiar faces also elicited a greater response than did famous
faces in the superior frontal gyrus, right orbitofrontal cortex,
right anterior cingulate, and right precuneus. Familiarity was
associated with decreased activity in the amygdala, with a greater
effect for personally familiar faces than for celebrities. These
frontal regions and the amygdala have been associated with the
evaluation of the emotional and social significance of stimuli.
These results indicate that personal familiarity affects the
perceptual representation of a face as well as the representation
of attributes relevant to social cognition.
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