Patches of face-selective cortex in the macaque frontal lobe

In primates, specialized occipital-temporal face areas support the visual analysis of faces, but it is unclear whether similarly specialized areas exist in the frontal lobe. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in alert macaques, we identified three discrete regions of highly face-selective cortex in ventral prefrontal cortex, one of which was strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere. These prefrontal face patches may constitute dedicated modules for retrieving and responding to facial information.