Neural mechanisms of integration and recognition of facial image information before and after saccades.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K07804
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 51020:Cognitive and brain science-related
• Research Institution: Dokkyo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Kawano Kenji 獨協医科大学, 医学部, 特任教授 (40134530)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 菅生 康子 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 研究グループ長 (40357257) ; 松田 圭司 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 主任研究員 (50358024)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 下側頭葉 / サッケード運動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We perceive the outside world by constantly moving our eyes with saccadic eye movements and capturing objects located at various positions in space on the fovea. By shifting our gaze and recapturing the face on the fovea, we recognize its details.
To investigate the neural mechanisms, we studied effects of saccadic eye movements on face-responsive neurons in the inferior temporal cortex (areas TE and TEO) of macaque monkeys.
We recorded neuronal activity using micro-electrode arrays implanted in the inferior temporal cortex while they performed fixation or saccadic tasks. Both in areas TE and TEO, face-responsive neurons, characterized by the fixation task, responded to facial stimuli when the eyes arrived at the peripheral facial stimulus. In the fixation task, the latencies of TEO neurons and TE neurons were similar, but in the saccade task, the latencies of the TEO neurons were shorter than those of the TE neurons.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で調べられたサルの下側頭葉-TE野とTEO野-で顔反応性ニューロンの反応性の違いや，周辺視と中心視での反応特性は，時間を越えて局所情報を統合し大域情報にまとめあげるという神経系に普遍的な情報処理プロセスの解明に貢献することができると考えられる。また，解像度の低い周辺視の情報を顔の認識に用いることを可能にする情報工学的手法の開発にも寄与できる可能性があると考えられる。