Cortical face processing systems

Faces are visual stimuli of high social importance. Facial information is extracted within visual cortex by a network of interlinked face-selective areas, each with unique functional properties. Neurons within face areas exhibit central properties of face perception like face detection by coarse facial features, holistic processing, or generation of a physical face space, and their activity has been causally linked to face perception. Some face cells combine selectivity for faces with non-visual information like familiarity. At the intersection of high-level vision and social cognition, the domain of face-processing has proven fertile ground for uncovering principles of complex information processing.