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Abstract

fMRI has revealed a face processing network in the macaque brain that encompasses regions in the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the lateral and ventral temporal cortex, the medial temporal lobe and in the prefrontal cortex (Tsao and Livingstone 2008; Ku, Tolias et al. 2011). However, the functionality of each individual face-responsive patch is largely unknown. In humans fMRI evidence suggests that the middle STS is important for facial expression encoding, while the ventral temporal cortex is primarily involved in identity encoding (Haxby, Hoffman et al. 2002). This is consistent with single unit studies showing facial expression selective cells in the STS and identity encoding neurons in LTG in monkeys. However, there is no equivalent evidence indicating such a functional segregation in terms of BOLD responses to face stimuli. In order to examine whether there is a similar response pattern in monkeys and to further identify more candidate brain regions which might be also important in encoding these two aspects of faces, we scanned two awake and five anesthetized monkeys at 7Tesla. Using an adaptation paradigm we found that STS was sensitive to changing facial expressions independent of changing of identities in all awake and anesthetized monkeys. In brain regions not covered in the awake monkeys, the same contrast revealed that the medial orbital frontal cortex (area 47/12 ) of four anesthetized monkeys was also sensitive to changing facial expressions. In addition, we found that the anterior hippocampus of the two awake and three anesthetized monkeys was sensitive to changing identities. The results suggest differential selectivities for the encoding of facial expressions and of identities across a network of regions in the monkey.