The anatomic basis of the right face-selective N170 IN acquired prosopagnosia: A combined ERP/fMRI study

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 49; no. 9; pp. 2553 - 2563
• Main Authors: Dalrymple, Kirsten A., Oruç, Ipek, Duchaine, Brad, Pancaroglu, Raika, Fox, Christopher J., Iaria, Giuseppe, Handy, Todd C., Barton, Jason J.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acquired prosopagnosia; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Case-Control Studies; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Event related potentials; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Face; Face perception; Female; fMRI; Functional Laterality - physiology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neural Pathways - physiology; Neural Pathways - physiopathology; Neurology; Occipital Lobe - physiology; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Prosopagnosia - physiopathology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reaction Time - physiology; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Reference Values; Statistics, Nonparametric; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Young Adult; fMRI; Face perception; Acquired prosopagnosia; Event related potentials; Human; Nervous system diseases; Vision disorder; Central nervous system; Visual agnosia; Electrophysiology; Cognition; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Cerebral disorder; Encephalon; Eye disease; Vision; Central nervous system disease; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Perception; Prosopagnosia; Face; Event evoked potential; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.05.003

► The N170 ERP component is larger for face stimuli compared to objects. ► We assessed the face-selectivity of the N170 in five patients with prosopagnosia. ► Neither anterior temporal, nor FFA lesions, affected face-selectivity of the N170. ► Face-selectivity was absent in two patients with lesions to the OFA and FFA. ► We conclude that the N170 requires at least two parts of the core face network.
The N170 waveform is larger over posterior temporal cortex when healthy subjects view faces than when they view other objects. Source analyses have produced mixed results regarding whether this effect originates in the fusiform face area (FFA), lateral occipital cortex, or superior temporal sulcus (STS), components of the core face network. In a complementary approach, we assessed the face-selectivity of the right N170 in five patients with acquired prosopagnosia, who also underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used a non-parametric bootstrap procedure to perform single-subject analyses, which reliably confirmed N170 face-selectivity in each of 10 control subjects. Anterior temporal lesions that spared the core face network did not affect the face-selectivity of the N170. A face-selective N170 was also present in another subject who had lost only the right FFA. However, face-selectivity was absent in two patients with lesions that eliminated the occipital face area (OFA) and FFA, sparing only the STS. Thus while the right FFA is not necessary for the face-selectivity of the N170, neither is the STS sufficient. We conclude that the face-selective N170 in prosopagnosia requires residual function of at least two components of the core face-processing network.