Neural correlates of person recognition.

Full Abstract

Rapidly identifying known individuals is an essential skill in human society. To elucidate the neural basis of this skill, we monitored brain activity while experimental participants demonstrated their ability to recognize people on the basis of viewing their faces. Each participant first memorized the faces of 20 individuals who were not known to the participants in advance. Each face was presented along with a voice simulating the individual speaking their name and a biographical fact. Following this learning procedure, the associated verbal information could be recalled accurately in response to each face. These learned faces were subsequently viewed together with new faces in a memory task. Subjects made a yes-no recognition decision in response to each face while also covertly retrieving the person-specific information associated with each learned face. Brain activity that accompanied this retrieval of person-specific information was contrasted to that when new faces were processed. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in 10 participants showed that several brain regions were activated during blocks of learned faces, including left hippocampus, left middle temporal gyrus, left insula, and bilateral cerebellum. Recordings of event-related brain potentials in 10 other participants tracked the time course of face processing and showed that learned faces engaged neural activity responsible for person recognition 300-600 msec after face onset. Collectively, these results suggest that the visual input of a recently learned face can rapidly trigger retrieval of associated person-specific information through reactivation of distributed cortical networks linked via hippocampal connections.

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Author information

Author/s: Paller, Ken A (KA); Ranganath, Charan (C); Gonsalves, Brian (B); LaBar, Kevin S (KS); Parrish, Todd B (TB); Gitelman, Darren R (DR); Mesulam, M-Marsel (MM); Reber, Paul J (PJ);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA. kap(-atsign-)northwestern.edu

Grants: MH58748 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; NS30863 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS) ; NS34639 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) (Learn Mem), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2003 Jul-Aug; vol 10 (issue 4) : pp 253-60

Dates: Created 2003/07/30; Completed 2003/10/23; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 12888543, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Learn Mem. 2003 Jul-Aug;10(4):240-1. (PMID: 12888540)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Brain - physiology
Evoked Potentials
Face
Female
Hippocampus - physiology

Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory - physiology
Mental Recall - physiology
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology

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