Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1996 Jan 23;93(2):922–927. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.2.922

Face encoding and recognition in the human brain.

J V Haxby 1, L G Ungerleider 1, B Horwitz 1, J M Maisog 1, S I Rapoport 1, C L Grady 1
PMCID: PMC40160  PMID: 8570661

Abstract

A dissociation between human neural systems that participate in the encoding and later recognition of new memories for faces was demonstrated by measuring memory task-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography. There was almost no overlap between the brain structures associated with these memory functions. A region in the right hippocampus and adjacent cortex was activated during memory encoding but not during recognition. The most striking finding in neocortex was the lateralization of prefrontal participation. Encoding activated left prefrontal cortex, whereas recognition activated right prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that the hippocampus and adjacent cortex participate in memory function primarily at the time of new memory encoding. Moreover, face recognition is not mediated simply by recapitulation of operations performed at the time of encoding but, rather, involves anatomically dissociable operations.

Full text

PDF
922

Images in this article

923Fig. 1
on p.923
924Fig. 2
on p.924

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Buckner R. L., Petersen S. E., Ojemann J. G., Miezin F. M., Squire L. R., Raichle M. E. Functional anatomical studies of explicit and implicit memory retrieval tasks. J Neurosci. 1995 Jan;15(1 Pt 1):12–29. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-01-00012.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Friston K. J., Frith C. D., Liddle P. F., Dolan R. J., Lammertsma A. A., Frackowiak R. S. The relationship between global and local changes in PET scans. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1990 Jul;10(4):458–466. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.1990.88. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Friston K. J., Frith C. D., Liddle P. F., Frackowiak R. S. Plastic transformation of PET images. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1991 Jul-Aug;15(4):634–639. doi: 10.1097/00004728-199107000-00020. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Friston K. J., Passingham R. E., Nutt J. G., Heather J. D., Sawle G. V., Frackowiak R. S. Localisation in PET images: direct fitting of the intercommissural (AC-PC) line. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1989 Oct;9(5):690–695. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.1989.97. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. GHENT L., MISHKIN M., TEUBER H. L. Short-term memory after frontal-lobe injury in man. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1962 Oct;55:705–709. doi: 10.1037/h0047520. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Grady C. L., McIntosh A. R., Horwitz B., Maisog J. M., Ungerleider L. G., Mentis M. J., Pietrini P., Schapiro M. B., Haxby J. V. Age-related reductions in human recognition memory due to impaired encoding. Science. 1995 Jul 14;269(5221):218–221. doi: 10.1126/science.7618082. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Grasby P. M., Frith C. D., Friston K. J., Bench C., Frackowiak R. S., Dolan R. J. Functional mapping of brain areas implicated in auditory--verbal memory function. Brain. 1993 Feb;116(Pt 1):1–20. doi: 10.1093/brain/116.1.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Haxby J. V., Horwitz B., Ungerleider L. G., Maisog J. M., Pietrini P., Grady C. L. The functional organization of human extrastriate cortex: a PET-rCBF study of selective attention to faces and locations. J Neurosci. 1994 Nov;14(11 Pt 1):6336–6353. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-11-06336.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Janowsky J. S., Shimamura A. P., Kritchevsky M., Squire L. R. Cognitive impairment following frontal lobe damage and its relevance to human amnesia. Behav Neurosci. 1989 Jun;103(3):548–560. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.103.3.548. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Janowsky J. S., Shimamura A. P., Squire L. R. Source memory impairment in patients with frontal lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia. 1989;27(8):1043–1056. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(89)90184-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kapur S., Craik F. I., Tulving E., Wilson A. A., Houle S., Brown G. M. Neuroanatomical correlates of encoding in episodic memory: levels of processing effect. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Mar 15;91(6):2008–2011. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.6.2008. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. McIntosh A. R., Grady C. L., Ungerleider L. G., Haxby J. V., Rapoport S. I., Horwitz B. Network analysis of cortical visual pathways mapped with PET. J Neurosci. 1994 Feb;14(2):655–666. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-02-00655.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Meunier M., Bachevalier J., Mishkin M., Murray E. A. Effects on visual recognition of combined and separate ablations of the entorhinal and perirhinal cortex in rhesus monkeys. J Neurosci. 1993 Dec;13(12):5418–5432. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.13-12-05418.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Milner B. Interhemispheric differences in the localization of psychological processes in man. Br Med Bull. 1971 Sep;27(3):272–277. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a070866. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Milner B., Petrides M., Smith M. L. Frontal lobes and the temporal organization of memory. Hum Neurobiol. 1985;4(3):137–142. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. SCOVILLE W. B., MILNER B. Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1957 Feb;20(1):11–21. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.20.1.11. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sergent J., Ohta S., MacDonald B. Functional neuroanatomy of face and object processing. A positron emission tomography study. Brain. 1992 Feb;115(Pt 1):15–36. doi: 10.1093/brain/115.1.15. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Shallice T., Fletcher P., Frith C. D., Grasby P., Frackowiak R. S., Dolan R. J. Brain regions associated with acquisition and retrieval of verbal episodic memory. Nature. 1994 Apr 14;368(6472):633–635. doi: 10.1038/368633a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Shimamura A. P., Janowsky J. S., Squire L. R. Memory for the temporal order of events in patients with frontal lobe lesions and amnesic patients. Neuropsychologia. 1990;28(8):803–813. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(90)90004-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Smith M. L., Milner B. Differential effects of frontal-lobe lesions on cognitive estimation and spatial memory. Neuropsychologia. 1984;22(6):697–705. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(84)90096-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Squire L. R. Memory and the hippocampus: a synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans. Psychol Rev. 1992 Apr;99(2):195–231. doi: 10.1037/0033-295x.99.2.195. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Squire L. R., Ojemann J. G., Miezin F. M., Petersen S. E., Videen T. O., Raichle M. E. Activation of the hippocampus in normal humans: a functional anatomical study of memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Mar 1;89(5):1837–1841. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.5.1837. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Tulving E., Kapur S., Craik F. I., Moscovitch M., Houle S. Hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in episodic memory: positron emission tomography findings. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Mar 15;91(6):2016–2020. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.6.2016. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Tulving E., Kapur S., Markowitsch H. J., Craik F. I., Habib R., Houle S. Neuroanatomical correlates of retrieval in episodic memory: auditory sentence recognition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Mar 15;91(6):2012–2015. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.6.2012. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Zola-Morgan S. M., Squire L. R. The primate hippocampal formation: evidence for a time-limited role in memory storage. Science. 1990 Oct 12;250(4978):288–290. doi: 10.1126/science.2218534. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Zola-Morgan S., Squire L. R., Amaral D. G., Suzuki W. A. Lesions of perirhinal and parahippocampal cortex that spare the amygdala and hippocampal formation produce severe memory impairment. J Neurosci. 1989 Dec;9(12):4355–4370. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.09-12-04355.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Zola-Morgan S., Squire L. R. Neuroanatomy of memory. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1993;16:547–563. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.16.030193.002555. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES