congeries

how specific is our face recognition system? [pdf]

The human fusiform gyrus is specifically activated in response to faces. This observation has led to the idea that face processing takes place separately from that of other objects in a face-specific processing module.

But there is evidence that such a module might not be so specific, as the fusiform area can also show similar activations in response to birds, cars or other objects in people with expertise on these stimuli.These results provide behavioural and electrophysiological evidence against the idea that there is a face-specific processing module.

Moreover, the data indicate that the lack of functional independence between the processing of faces and other objects becomes manifest during the initial, perceptual stages of visual processing.

забавно, что в иллюстрации у них получился характерный визуальный "баг" - центр квадрата свозит вправо...