Abstract #0637

High Resolution fMRI of the Functionally-Defined Fusiform Face Area using 7T

Rankin Williams McGugin¹, Christopher Gatenby^2,3, Isabel Gauthier¹

¹Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; ²Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; ³Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

We imaged the inferior temporal lobe in humans at 7T, using built-in realtime fMRI analysis in combination with the 3D FFE-SENSE sequence to allow for bilateral imaging of the Fusiform Face Area (FFA). We demonstrate robust and reliable functional heterogeneity of the fine-grain neural architecture of bilateral FFA, such that clusters of voxels maximally responsive to non-face categories (irrespective of hemisphere) are spatially interdigitated amongst regions showing maximal response to faces. We demonstrate that a functionally-defined region that appears to be homogenously face-selective at standard resolution (~3mm isotropic) is, in fact, functionally heterogeneous when explored at HR.