Walsh & Hoyt: Anatomy of Face Processing and Prosopagnosia

It is useful to place the anatomic data concerning prosopagnosia in the context of information from nonhuman primates and normal human functional imaging. In monkeys, face-selective neuronal responses have been found in two main regions of cortex. First is the inferotemporal cortex (IT). This includes areas of the lower bank of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), such as areas TEa and TEm. Second is the upper bank of the STS, mainly in a multimodal area designated the superior temporal polymodal area (STPa) or area TPO. Other areas with face-selective responses are located in the basal accessory nucleus of the amygdala, the ventral striatum, and the inferior prefrontal cortex. Face-sensitive neurons are a minority of cells in all these areas, ranging from 10% to 20%