Racial distinction of the unknown facial identity recognition mechanism by event-related fMRI

A body of evidence exists indicating that the function of the fusiform area of the face is selectively involved in the perception of faces, and in particular, in perceiving racial differences. In the present study, we investigated the neural substrates of the face-selective region (the fusiform face area, FFA) in the ventral occipital-temporal cortex and examined their role in case of same-racial face recognition by employing event-related fMRI. Twelve healthy subjects (Oriental-Koreans) performed the familiarity judgment tasks while they were being presented with familiar and unknown faces of Oriental-Koreans and Caucasian-Americans. The results indicate that there are significant differences in perceiving unfamiliar faces between Oriental-Koreans and Caucasian-Americans in the FFA, whereas no significant difference was found between familiar Oriental-Korean and Caucasian-American faces in the same area. This suggests that an effect of same-race superiority exists when the perceived identity is only unfamiliar. The neural responses to Oriental-Koreans versus Caucasian-Americans in Oriental-Korean subjects likely reflect cultural evaluations of social groups as modified by individual experience.