他種族效應 (other race effect) 的定義是：當我們看到的是跟自己不同種族的臉孔時，對這些臉孔的分辨能力、年齡判斷等等，正確率會低於看到的是自己種族的臉孔，因為比較容易覺得外國人長得都一樣，很難區別他們的不同處。而功能性核磁共振造影 (Functional magnetic resonance imaging,fMRI) 的研究顯示：人類大腦的梭狀臉孔區 (Fusiform Face Area, FFA) 是對臉孔反應最大的區域。目前以臉孔選擇區域來探討他種族效應和記憶表現的文獻非常少，他們的實驗結果是 FFA 對自己種族的反應大於其他種族 (Golby, Gabrieli, Chiao, & Eberhardt, 2001)。
本研究想了解外國人的臉孔辨識能力是否會隨生活經驗而改變，也就是若他們住在亞洲的時間越久，接觸越多亞洲臉孔，對於亞洲人的他種族效應是否會降低：其臉孔選擇區域對亞洲人的活化程度以及臉孔記憶能力是否會提高。實驗分兩階段，首先讓受試者將看到的刺激圖片 (白人、亞洲人、一般物品) 記住，接著再進行記憶測試，整個過程皆在功能性磁共振造影中進行。實驗結果發現在17個白人受試者中，居住於亞洲的時間的確和右梭狀迴對 (亞洲人vs.一般物品) 及右側梭狀迴對 (亞洲人vs.白人) 的反應呈現正相關，再次映證了神經可塑性。

It is well known that we usually do not recognize faces of other-race as well as those of own-race. Such other-race effect, or ORE, has received extensive support. One fMRI study suggested that people’s Fusiform face area (FFA) respond more activated to same- than other-race faces (Golby, Gabrieli, Chiao, & Eberhardt, 2001). This study expects that life experience will affect this result: Caucasian participants who have stayed in Asian countries, their sensitivity for Asian faces will be modulated by their years of stay in Asia. For example, the longer the Caucasian subjects live in Asia, the more activity of their face-selected area will be toward Asian faces.
Subjects are all Caucasians, with varying years of stay in Asia. They underwent fMRI while viewing pictures of Caucasian faces, Asian faces, and objects. Across these 17 subjects, this study found their fusiform gyrus activation of “Asian_faces minus Objects” are correlated with their duration of residency in Asia, supporting the experience modulation hypothesis. Besides, there is another face-selected area whose “Asian_faces minus Caucasian_faces” seems correlated with years of stay. With the evidence bridging the neural substrates and the behavior results with fMRI, this study again exemplify the adult brain plasticity.

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