In the post-retinotopic cortex, multiple regions have properties that imply they could plausibly contribute to face aftereffects. Such areas (
Figure 1) include (a)
intermediate-level form processing areas such as V4 (Ghose & Ts'O,
1997; Müller, Wilke, & Leopold,
2009; Pasupathy & Connor,
2002); (b)
object-generic processing areas such as the lateral occipital complex (LOC; Grill-Spector, Kourtzi, & Kanwisher,
2001; Malach et al.,
1995) and the posterior fusiform (PFS; Grill-Spector,
2009; Kim, Biederman, Lescroart, & Hayworth,
2009; Panis, Wagemans, & Op de Beeck,
2011; Pyles & Grossman,
2009; Taylor & Downing,
2011); and (c) several
areas which show face selectivity1, such as the occipital face area (OFA; Fox, Moon, Iaria, & Barton,
2009; Kovács, Cziraki, Vidnyánszky, Schweinberger, & Greenlee,
2008; Pitcher, Walsh, Yovel, & Duchaine,
2007), the fusiform face area (FFA; Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun,
1997; Kovács et al.,
2008), the superior temporal sulcus (STS; Fox et al.,
2009; Rolls,
2007; Tsao, Moeller, & Freiwald,
2008), and the anterior face patch (AFP; Rajimehr, Young, & Tootell,
2009; Tsao et al.,
2008). Behaviorally, it is established that post-retinotopic aftereffects can occur for basic shapes (e.g., line curvature, Gibson,
1933; elongation of ellipses, Regan & Hamstra,
1992; elongation of T-shapes, Susilo et al.,
2010a), suggesting potential for intermediate or object-general contributions to face aftereffects, given that these types of basic shapes are present within natural faces. Therefore, to be able to draw direct conclusions for face-level coding from a set of face aftereffect results, it would be necessary to know that the aftereffect derives entirely or almost so from
face-specific processes (i.e., c) and very little or not at all from
shape-generic processes (i.e., a and/or b).