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FFA: a flexible fusiform area for subordinate-level visual processing automatized by expertise

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 764–769 (2000)Cite this article

Much evidence suggests that the fusiform face area is involved in face processing. In contrast to the accompanying article by Kanwisher, we conclude that the apparent face selectivity of this area reflects a more generalized form of processing not intrinsically specific to faces.

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Figure 1: Examples of Greebles.
Figure 2: Complex selectivity of IT cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was a collaborative effort, and the order of authorship is arbitrary. We thank D. Sheinberg for his careful reading of this review. M.J.T. thanks S. Pinker for a challenging discussion on some of the issues raised here; I.G. thanks N. Kanwisher for many stimulating discussions on our diverging opinions. This work was supported by NSF Award SBR-9615819.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Box 1978, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, USA

    Michael J. Tarr

  2. Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 301 Wilson Hall, Nashville , 37240, Tennessee, USA

    Isabel Gauthier

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  2. Isabel Gauthier
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Tarr, M., Gauthier, I. FFA: a flexible fusiform area for subordinate-level visual processing automatized by expertise. Nat Neurosci 3, 764–769 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/77666

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