Skip to main content
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses

New Research In

Physical Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Astronomy
  • Computer Sciences
  • Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

Social Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Economic Sciences
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Political Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Social Sciences

Biological Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Agricultural Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Applied Biological Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics and Computational Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology and Inflammation
  • Medical Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiology
  • Plant Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Sustainability Science
  • Systems Biology
Research Article

Optogenetic and pharmacological suppression of spatial clusters of face neurons reveal their causal role in face gender discrimination

Arash Afraz, Edward S. Boyden, and James J. DiCarlo
PNAS first published May 7, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423328112
Arash Afraz
Departments of aBrain and Cognitive Sciences and
bMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: afraz@mit.edu
Edward S. Boyden
Departments of aBrain and Cognitive Sciences and
bMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, and
cBiological Engineering,
dMIT Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
James J. DiCarlo
Departments of aBrain and Cognitive Sciences and
bMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by David J. Heeger, New York University, New York, NY, and approved March 27, 2015 (received for review December 8, 2014)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

There exist subregions of the primate brain that contain neurons that respond more to images of faces over other objects. These subregions are thought to support face-detection and discrimination behaviors. Although the role of these areas in telling faces from other objects is supported by direct evidence, their causal role in distinguishing faces from each other lacks direct experimental evidence. Using optogenetics, here we reveal their causal role in face-discrimination behavior and provide a mechanistic explanation for the process. This study is the first documentation of behavioral effects of optogenetic intervention in primate object-recognition behavior. The methods developed here facilitate the usage of the technical advantages of optogenetics for future studies of high-level vision.

Abstract

Neurons that respond more to images of faces over nonface objects were identified in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of primates three decades ago. Although it is hypothesized that perceptual discrimination between faces depends on the neural activity of IT subregions enriched with “face neurons,” such a causal link has not been directly established. Here, using optogenetic and pharmacological methods, we reversibly suppressed the neural activity in small subregions of IT cortex of macaque monkeys performing a facial gender-discrimination task. Each type of intervention independently demonstrated that suppression of IT subregions enriched in face neurons induced a contralateral deficit in face gender-discrimination behavior. The same neural suppression of other IT subregions produced no detectable change in behavior. These results establish a causal link between the neural activity in IT face neuron subregions and face gender-discrimination behavior. Also, the demonstration that brief neural suppression of specific spatial subregions of IT induces behavioral effects opens the door for applying the technical advantages of optogenetics to a systematic attack on the causal relationship between IT cortex and high-level visual perception.

  • object recognition
  • face
  • gender discrimination
  • optogenetics
  • inferior temporal cortex

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: afraz{at}mit.edu.
  • Author contributions: A.A. and J.J.D. designed research; A.A. performed research; A.A. and E.S.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; A.A. and J.J.D. analyzed data; A.A. and J.J.D. wrote the paper; and E.S.B. contributed with tool development.

  • Conflict of interest statement: E.S.B. is an inventor on multiple patents covering optogenetic tools.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • *Following the conventions of the field, the word “gender” here refers to the difference in the visual appearance of male and female faces. We are aware that “sex” is a better descriptor of this physical difference in contemporary English.

  • †Majaj NJHH, Solomon EA, DiCarlo JJ, Computation and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), February 23–26, Salt Lake City, UT.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1423328112/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Optogenetic and pharmacological suppression of spatial clusters of face neurons reveal their causal role in face gender discrimination
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Causal role of face cells in face discrimination
Arash Afraz, Edward S. Boyden, James J. DiCarlo
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 201423328; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423328112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Causal role of face cells in face discrimination
Arash Afraz, Edward S. Boyden, James J. DiCarlo
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 201423328; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423328112
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 118 (3)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Abstract depiction of a guitar and musical note
Science & Culture: At the nexus of music and medicine, some see disease treatments
Although the evidence is still limited, a growing body of research suggests music may have beneficial effects for diseases such as Parkinson’s.
Image credit: Shutterstock/agsandrew.
Scientist looking at an electronic tablet
Opinion: Standardizing gene product nomenclature—a call to action
Biomedical communities and journals need to standardize nomenclature of gene products to enhance accuracy in scientific and public communication.
Image credit: Shutterstock/greenbutterfly.
One red and one yellow modeled protein structures
Journal Club: Study reveals evolutionary origins of fold-switching protein
Shapeshifting designs could have wide-ranging pharmaceutical and biomedical applications in coming years.
Image credit: Acacia Dishman/Medical College of Wisconsin.
White and blue bird
Hazards of ozone pollution to birds
Amanda Rodewald, Ivan Rudik, and Catherine Kling talk about the hazards of ozone pollution to birds.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Goats standing in a pin
Transplantation of sperm-producing stem cells
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can improve the effectiveness of spermatogonial stem cell transplantation in mice and livestock, a study finds.
Image credit: Jon M. Oatley.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Latest Articles
  • Archive

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490