The other face of the other-race effect: An fMRI investigation of the other-race face categorization advantage

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:49

Article

Liu, Jiangang²  Wang, Zhe³  Li, Jun⁴  Li, Ling²  Ge, Liezhong³  Tian, Jie^1,4  Lee, Kang^5,6 

[1] Chinese Acad Sci, Med Image Proc Grp, Inst Automat, Beijing 100190, Peoples R China

[2] Beijing Jiaotong Univ, Sch Comp & Informat Technol, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China

[3] Zhejiang Sci Tech Univ, Dept Psychol, Hangzhou 310018, Zhejiang, Peoples R China

[4] Xidian Univ, Sch Life Sci & Technol, Xian 710071, Shaanxi, Peoples R China

[5] Univ Toronto, Dr Eric Jackman Inst Child Study, Toronto, ON, Canada

[6] Univ Calif San Diego, Dept Psychol, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA

关键词: Face processing;    Other-race effect;    Face categorization;    Face recognition;    Fusiform face area;    Occipital face area;    fMRI;    Cortical neural resources;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.09.031

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The present study was the first to use the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology to investigate the neural correlates of race categorization of own- and other-race faces. We found that Chinese participants categorized the race of Caucasian faces more accurately and faster than that of Chinese faces, replicating the robust effect of the other-race categorization advantage. Regions of interest (ROI) analyses revealed greater neural activations when participants were categorizing own-race faces than other-race faces in the bilateral ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOT) such as the fusiform face areas (FFAs) and the occipital face areas (OFAs). Within the left FFA, there was also a significant negative correlation between the behavioral difference of own- and other-race face categorization accuracy and the activation difference between categorizing own- and other-race faces. Whole brain analyses showed that categorizing own-race faces induced greater activations in the right medial frontal cortex (MFC) and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than categorizing other-race faces. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses revealed that the frontal cortical regions interacted more strongly with the posterior VOT during the categorization of own-race faces than that of other-race faces. Overall, our findings suggest that relative to the categorization of other-race faces, more cortical resources are engaged during the categorization of own-race faces with which we have a higher level of processing expertise. This increased involvement of cortical neural sources perhaps serves to provide more in-depth processing of own-race faces (such as individuation), which in turn paradoxically results in the behavioral other-race categorization advantage. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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