Development of right-lateralized self-face area

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01615
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental mechanisms and the body works
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Morita Tomoyo 大阪大学, 先導的学際研究機構, 特任准教授(常勤) (60543402)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 自己顔 / 機能的MRI / 脳発達 / 高次視覚野 / 言語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

One’s own face is a special symbol of the self. In fact, the human brain has a higher-order visual cortex (self-face area) that specializes in the processing of self-face. In adults, this self-face area is known to be lateralized in the right hemisphere. In the present study, we investigated how and when the self-face area develops. We measured brain activity when children (8-11 years), adolescents (12-15 years) and younger adults (20-24 years) viewed self-face images and those of others by using functional MRI. We found that the self-face area is formed in the right hemisphere after the mid-teens. We also showed that this visual cortex goes through a developmental process in which it responds to all faces (one's own and others' faces) in the early teens, but after the mid-teens, the response to other faces is suppressed, resulting in emergence of selective response to one's own face.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、自分の顔を専門的に処理する視覚領域（自己顔領域）は、小学生や中学生の時期には認められなかったことから、10代半ば以降に形成されることが明らかとなった。これは予想以上にゆっくりとした発達であり、10代半ばで成人と同程度に成熟すると考えられている高次連合野（右半球下前頭-頭頂領域）に位置する自己認知ネットワークよりも遅れて、自己顔領域が成熟することを意味する。脳の発達において、感覚領野は高次連合野よりも早く発達が進行し、成人様に成熟するというのが定説であるが、こうした見方に一石を投じる新しい知見と言える。