The occipital face area (OFA) has been shown to code the presence of symmetry in faces and in vertically symmetric dot patterns. However, it is not clear whether symmetry processing of face and non-face stimuli involve overlapping neural mechanisms in OFA. This was assessed using state-dependent TMS by employing a priming paradigm. Specifically, we examined whether prior presentation of low-level symmetry affects the impact of TMS on discrimination of symmetry in subsequently presented faces - indicating that the same neural mechanisms encode symmetry in both face and non-face stimuli. Participants performed a symmetry discrimination task on a series of faces, each of which was preceded by either a vertically symmetric, a horizontally symmetric or a non-symmetric dot configuration (prime) while receiving stimulation over either the right OFA, the right Lateral Occipital Cortex (rLO) or over a control site (Vertex). Vertically symmetric dot patterns primed symmetry discrimination in faces. The key finding was that the priming effect was not affected by TMS applied over OFA; stimulation of this site (but not of rLO) impaired the discrimination of facial symmetry regardless of prime type. Overall, these results suggest that distinct neural representations in OFA are involved in symmetry detection in face and non-face stimuli.

中文翻译：

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点模式和面部对称性检测的不同神经表示形式：状态依赖的TMS研究。

枕面部区域（OFA）已显示可对面部和垂直对称点图案中的对称性进行编码。然而，尚不清楚面部和非面部刺激的对称处理是否涉及OFA中的重叠神经机制。这是通过使用启动范例使用状态依赖的TMS进行评估的。具体而言，我们检查了先前呈现的低水平对称性是否会影响TMS对随后呈现的脸部对称性歧视的影响-表示相同的神经机制对脸部和非脸部刺激均编码对称性。参与者在一系列面孔上执行了对称性识别任务，每个面孔之前都具有垂直对称，水平对称或非对称的点配置（素数），同时在右侧OFA上受到刺激，右侧枕叶皮质（rLO）或控制部位（Vertex）上方。垂直对称点图案引发了面部的对称性识别。关键发现是，在OFA上应用TMS不会影响启动作用。不论该素体类型如何，刺激该部位（而不是rLO部位）都会损害面部对称性的辨别力。总体而言，这些结果表明，在面部和非面部刺激的对称性检测中，OFA中独特的神经表示参与其中。