Data from: Short-latency preference for faces in the primate superior colliculus

Face processing is fundamental to primates and has been extensively
studied in higher-order visual cortex. Here we report that visual neurons
in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) display a preference for faces,
that the preference emerges within 50ms of stimulus onset – well before
“face patches” in visual cortex – and that this activity can distinguish
faces from other visual objects with accuracies of ~80%. This
short-latency preference in SC depends on signals routed through early
visual cortex, because inactivating the lateral geniculate nucleus, the
key relay from retina to cortex, virtually eliminates visual responses in
SC, including face-related activity. These results reveal an unexpected
circuit in the primate visual system for rapidly detecting faces in the
periphery, complementing the higher-order areas needed for recognizing
individual faces.