1. Holistic processing only? The role of the right fusiform face area in radiological expertise
- Author
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Anique B. H. de Bruin, Koos van Geel, Ellen M. Kok, Simon G. F. Robben, Bettiina Sorger, Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer, Andreas Gegenfurtner, Leerstoel van Gog, Education and Learning: Development in Interaction, Vision, RS: FPN CN 1, RS: SHE - R1 - Research (OvO), Onderwijsontw & Onderwijsresearch, Beeldvorming, and MUMC+: DA BV Medisch Specialisten Radiologie (9) more...
- Subjects
Male ,Time Factors ,Visual perception ,Vision ,Social Sciences ,Diagnostic accuracy ,Diagnostic Radiology ,Task (project management) ,Visual processing ,Cognition ,Learning and Memory ,Mathematical and Statistical Techniques ,ddc:150 ,Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Psychology ,Medical Personnel ,Visual Cortex ,Brain Mapping ,Multidisciplinary ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Radiology and Imaging ,Statistics ,ENGAGEMENT ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Professions ,Pattern Recognition, Visual ,Radiological weapon ,Physical Sciences ,Medicine ,Female ,Sensory Perception ,Clinical Competence ,Radiology ,Research Article ,Cognitive psychology ,Adult ,CORTEX ,Imaging Techniques ,Science ,Neuroimaging ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Face Recognition ,Young Adult ,Diagnostic Medicine ,Memory ,Radiologists ,Reaction Time ,medicine ,Humans ,Statistical Methods ,General ,Analysis of Variance ,Cognitive Psychology ,Internship and Residency ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Fusiform face area ,Radiography ,Case-Control Studies ,People and Places ,Cognitive Science ,Population Groupings ,Perception ,Functional magnetic resonance imaging ,Photic Stimulation ,Mathematics ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Radiologists can visually detect abnormalities on radiographs within 2s, a process that resembles holistic visual processing of faces. Interestingly, there is empirical evidence using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for the involvement of the right fusiform face area (FFA) in visual-expertise tasks such as radiological image interpretation. The speed by which stimuli (e.g., faces, abnormalities) are recognized is an important characteristic of holistic processing. However, evidence for the involvement of the right FFA in holistic processing in radiology comes mostly from short or artificial tasks in which the quick, ‘holistic’ mode of diagnostic processing is not contrasted with the slower ‘search-to-find’ mode. In our fMRI study, we hypothesized that the right FFA responds selectively to the ‘holistic’ mode of diagnostic processing and less so to the ‘search-to-find’ mode. Eleven laypeople and 17 radiologists in training diagnosed 66 radiographs in 2s each (holistic mode) and subsequently checked their diagnosis in an extended (10-s) period (search-to-find mode). During data analysis, we first identified individual regions of interest (ROIs) for the right FFA using a localizer task. Then we employed ROI-based ANOVAs and obtained tentative support for the hypothesis that the right FFA shows more activation for radiologists in training versus laypeople, in particular in the holistic mode (i.e., during 2s trials), and less so in the search-to-find mode (i.e., during 10-s trials). No significant correlation was found between diagnostic performance (diagnostic accuracy) and brain-activation level within the right FFA for both, short-presentation and long-presentation diagnostic trials. Our results provide tentative evidence from a diagnostic-reasoning task that the FFA supports the holistic processing of visual stimuli in participants’ expertise domain. more...
- Published
- 2021