Visual imagery of faces and cars in face-selective visual areas

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 9; p. e0205041
• Main Authors: Sunday, Mackenzie A, McGugin, Rankin W, Tamber-Rosenau, Benjamin J, Gauthier, Isabel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 28-09-2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Autism; Automobiles; Biology and Life Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences; Data acquisition; Face; Face recognition; Facial Recognition; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Image acquisition; Information processing; Internet; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental task performance; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Pattern analysis; Pattern recognition; Perception; Perceptions; Reinstatement; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences; Studies; Visual perception; Visual system; United States > US; Nashville Tennessee
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205041

Neuroimaging provides a unique tool to investigate otherwise difficult-to-access mental processes like visual imagery. Prior studies support the idea that visual imagery is a top-down reinstatement of visual perception, and it is likely that this extends to object processing. Here we use functional MRI and multi-voxel pattern analysis to ask if mental imagery of cars engages the fusiform face area, similar to what is found during perception. We test only individuals who we assumed could imagine individual car models based on their above-average perceptual abilities with cars. Our results provide evidence that cars are represented differently from common objects in face-selective visual areas, at least in those with above-average car recognition ability. Moreover, pattern classifiers trained on data acquired during imagery can decode the neural response pattern acquired during perception, suggesting that the tested object categories are represented similarly during perception and visual imagery. The results suggest that, even at high-levels of visual processing, visual imagery mirrors perception to some extent, and that face-selective areas may in part support non-face object imagery.