Abstract
When we see a person's face, we can easily recognize their species, individual identity and emotional state. How does the brain represent such complex information? A substantial number of neurons in the macaque temporal cortex respond to faces1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying the processing ofcomplex information are not yet clear. Here we recorded the activity of single neurons in the temporal cortex of macaque monkeys while presenting visual stimuli consisting of geometric shapes, and monkey and human faces with various expressions. Information theory was used to investigate how well the neuronal responses could categorize the stimuli. We found that single neurons conveyed two different scales of facial information intheir firing patterns, starting at different latencies. Global information, categorizing stimuli as monkey faces, human faces or shapes, was conveyed in the earliest part of the responses. Fineinformation about identity or expression was conveyed later,beginning on average 51 ms after global information. We speculate that global information could be used as a ‘header’ to prepare destination areas for receiving more detailed information.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Kitazawa and B. J. Richmond for information analysis; M. Toshi and B.J. Richmond for critical comments on this manuscript; M. Shidara, K. Matsuda, K. Kansaku, S. Kanazawa, E. Rosenberg and S. Motoyasu for their help; and M. Okui, A. Kameyama and T. Takasu for technical assistance. This work was supported by Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, the Science and Technology Agency, and Japan Society for the promotion of science research fellowships for young scientists.
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Sugase, Y., Yamane, S., Ueno, S. et al. Global and fine information coded by single neurons in the temporal visual cortex. Nature 400, 869–873 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/23703
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/23703
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