Objective    To investigate the cerebral areas that response to face recognition and make a preliminary quantitative analysis on their BOLD responses properties.     Methods    BOLD-fMRI technology and block design were adopted

and the visual stimulations of face and object were presented to 10 amblyopia patients and 11 normal subjects. The data were analyzed with Functional NeuroImages software package to generate brain activation maps.     Results    Visual cortex

ventri-temporal cortex and the latter parts of parietal lobe were activated in the face and object recognition in all subjects. The accurate positions in the fusiform areas for face and object recognition were different slightly. In amblyopia patients

the extent of face activation areas reduced obviously. Essential activation deficit for the face recognition was in anisometropic amblyopia. Refractive correction significantly increased the amblyopic eye’s cortex activation.     Conclusion    In amblyopia patients

the cortex activation areas stimulated with the lazy eyes are much less than that with the sound eyes. The cortex deficit in the areas processing face recognition is obvious

but the functional deficit of areas for the object processing is not significant. The extent and the intensity of the activation are significantly increased after refraction correction. This further confirms that the refraction correction is useful for improving the visual acuity and its recovery.