Intracerebral electrical stimulation of an occipital face-selective area impairs individual face discrimination
Bruno
Rossion1*,
Jacques
Jonas2, 3,
Julien
Krieg3, 4,
Laurent
Koessler3, 4,
Sophie
Colnat-Coulbois3,
Jean-Pierre
Vignal3,
Hélène
Brissart3,
Corentin
Jacques2 and
Louis
Maillard3, 4
-
1
University of Louvain, Institute of Research in Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Belgium
-
2
University of Louvain, Belgium
-
3
University Hospital of Nancy, France
-
4
Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy (CRAN), Université de Lorraine, France
Face perception is subtended by a large network of face-sensitive occipito-temporal areas, with a right hemispheric dominance. However, the role of these areas in individual face discrimination is unknown. Here we had the opportunity to test the causal link between an fMRI-defined face-selective area and behavioral individual face discrimination in a patient undergoing pre-surgical evaluation for refractory epilepsy. The patient is a 32-year-old female (KV) who has refractory right occipital epilepsy. During pre-surgical evaluation, she was implanted with three intracerebral depth electrodes in the right ventral occipito-temporal cortex (27 intracerebral contacts in total). Bipolar electrical intracerebral stimulations were applied between two contiguous contacts along a common electrode (5 seconds, 1 to 2 mA). During stimulation, the patient was presented with pairs of identical or slightly different (40%) morphs of unknown faces and was asked to tell if 2 simultaneously presented faces were different. She was presented with blocks of 5 trials, and intracerebral stimulation was performed randomly for one of these trials. Without stimulation, the patient was almost flawless (91%). However, when stimulating one contact in the most posterior face-selective area disclosed by fMRI (right occipital face area, rOFA), her performance dropped to 0% (0/6 trials). Face-selective ERPs and gamma-ERSP responses were found at this contact and evidence for sensitivity to individual faces was also found using periodic visual stimulation of blocks of different or identical faces. These findings provide evidence of transient impairment of individual face discrimination following electrical intracerebral stimulation, and point to a critical role of a right posterior face-selective area in individual face perception. They also support the functional relevance of visual adaptation effects obtained with high-level visual stimuli by means of fast periodic visual stimulation.
Keywords:
fMRI,
face perception,
intracerebral EEG,
intracerebral recording,
periodic visual stimulation
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Rossion
B,
Jonas
J,
Krieg
J,
Koessler
L,
Colnat-Coulbois
S,
Vignal
J,
Brissart
H,
Jacques
C and
Maillard
L
(2015). Intracerebral electrical stimulation of an occipital face-selective area impairs individual face discrimination.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00395
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Bruno Rossion, University of Louvain, Institute of Research in Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, bruno.rossion@uclouvain.be