Reexamining the neural network involved in perception of facial expression: A meta-analysis

Perception of facial expression is essential for social interactions. Although a few competing models have enjoyed some success to map brain regions, they are also facing difficult challenges. The current study used an updated activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method of meta-analysis to explore the involvement of brain regions in facial expression processing. The sample contained 96 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies of healthy adults with the results of whole-brain analyses. The key findings revealed that the ventral pathway, especially the left fusiform face area (FFA) region, was more responsive to facial expression. The left posterior FFA showed strong involvement when participants passively viewing emotional faces without being asked to judge the type of expression or other attributes of the stimuli. Through meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) of the main brain regions in the ventral pathway, we constructed a co-activating neural network as a revised model of facial expression processing that assigns prominent roles to the amygdala, FFA, the occipital gyrus, and the inferior frontal gyrus.

Automated summary

This study used an ALE method to meta-analyze 96 neuroimaging studies and found that the left fusiform face area plays a crucial role in facial expression processing. A revised model was constructed with prominent roles assigned to the amygdala, FFA, occipital gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus in a co-activating neural network.