Although face processing has been studied extensively, the dynamics of how face-selective cortical areas are engaged remains unclear. Here we uncovered the timing of activation in core face-selective regions using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetoencephalography in humans. Processing of normal faces started in the posterior occipital areas and then proceeded to anterior regions. This bottom-up processing sequence was also observed even when internal facial features were misarranged. However, processing of two-tone Mooney faces lacking explicit prototypical facial features engaged top-down projection from the right posterior fusiform face area to right occipital face area. Further, face-specific responses elicited by contextual cues alone emerged simultaneously in the right ventral face-selective regions, suggesting parallel contextual facilitation. Together, our findings chronicle the precise timing of bottom-up, top-down, as well as context-facilitated processing sequences in the occipital-temporal face network, highlighting the importance of the top-down operations especially when faced with incomplete or ambiguous input.

中文翻译：

---

人枕颞皮质面部的自下而上和自上而下的处理

尽管已经对面部处理进行了广泛研究，但是如何选择面部选择性皮质区域的动力学仍然不清楚。在这里，我们发现了使用人的功能性磁共振成像和脑磁图技术在面部核心选择性区域激活的时机。正常面部的处理开始于枕后部区域，然后进行到前部区域。即使内部面部特征未正确排列，也观察到了这种自下而上的处理顺序。然而，缺乏明显的原型面部特征的两音门尼面部的处理从右后梭形面部区域到右枕面部区域进行了自顶向下的投影。此外，右腹面​​选择区域同时出现了仅由上下文提示引起的特定于脸的反应，建议并行的上下文促进。总之，我们的发现记载了枕-颞面部网络中自下而上，自上而下以及上下文相关的处理序列的确切时间，突显了自上而下操作的重要性，尤其是在面对输入不完整或模棱两可的情况下。