Background

Other lesion studies in monkey inferotemporal corext have found cells that appeared to be specific for face recognition. For example, Rolls and Tovee (1995) presented monkeys with pictures of faces and other images. Recording from single cells within the IT area, Rolls and Tovee identified a class of cells that responded strongly to faces, both monkey and human, but barely responded to nonface stimuli. As has been seen in other research, this finding is consistent with what we see in the human IT area as well.

In this activity, you can select from different types of images, faces and non-faces, and see how cells in this region of the cortex respond. In particular note that the face stimulus does not have to have a particular direction towards the camera to elicit a response.

Instructions

Full Screen Mode

To see the illustration in full screen, which is recommended, press the Full Screen button, which appears at the top of the page.

Illustration Tab

On the Illustration tab, you can stimulate a region of the retina and see the effect on the single cell you are recording from.

Settings

Below is a list of the ways that you can alter the model. The settings include the following:

Choose a Human Face Stimulus: Choose from a list of face stimuli to present to the cell being recorded in the inferotemporal cortext (IT).
Choose from an Animal Face Stimulus: Choose from a list of animal face stimuli to present to the cell being recorded in the inferotemporal cortext (IT).
Choose from an Object Stimulus: Choose from a list of non-face stimuli to present to the cell being recorded in the inferotemporal cortext (IT).

Reset

Pressing this button restores the settings to their default values. It also gets you a new cell which might have a different receptive field.