Abstract
Ever since the identification of brain regions selective for face processing, there has been a myriad of studies demonstrating face selectivity of such regions. Likewise, brain regions selective for scene processing also have been identified in recent years. However, there have been relatively few studies investing how the two networks interact and integrate in processing faces viewed against scenes, which represents a modal depiction of our life experiences. Here we examined how activation of brain regions selective for face and scene processing may be modulated by orienting to different aspects of face-scene compound images. Specifically, participants were asked to make personality judgment regarding the face or category judgment regarding the background scene, while brain images were undertaken with the fMRI. In addition to compound images, face-only and scene-only images were used as controls. Prior to the orienting task, participants undertook the 1-back WM task to localize brain regions selective for face processing (i.e., FFA) and scene processing (i.e., PPA). The regions of interest identified via the localizer task were then used to examine the effect of orienting on brain activation. The results showed that, for FFA, brain activation was strongest with face-only images, followed by face-scene compound images when participants oriented their attention to the face and weakest for scene-only images. In contrast, for PPA, the strongest activation was found with scene-only images, followed by compound images when participants oriented their attention to scenes, and weakest for face-only images. These results collaborate with previous studies with respect to activation for brain regions selective for face and scene processing. Furthermore, they suggest that when viewing images depicting a face against a scene, our processing of such images and perhaps the memory of them may well depend on our momentary attentional allocation to either the face or scene aspect of such images.