[The application of modified rhomboid flap in repairing facial skin and soft tissue defect]

Objective

To explore the effectiveness of modified rhomboid flap for repairing facial skin and soft tissue defect.

Methods

Between January 2016 and May 2018, 23 patients with facial skin and soft defect were repaired by the modified rhomboid flap. There were 10 males and 13 females with the median age of 27 years (range, 11-72 years). The primary tumor included pigmented nevus in 18 cases, basal cell carcinoma in 4 cases, and squamous cell carcinoma in 1 case. The defect location was nose in 8 cases, cheek in 4 cases, malar in 6 cases, forehead in 2 cases, and upper lip in 3 cases. The defect ranged from 0.8 cm×0.8 cm to 3.9 cm×3.9 cm. According to the location and size of facial tumors, the resection area of square lesions was designed. According to the mobility of surrounding tissues and the direction of dermatoglyphic lines, the rhomboid flaps with an angle of 45-60° was designed to repair the defect by tension-free rotation.

Results

All the flaps survived and the incision healed by first intension. All patients were followed up 3-15 months (mean, 7.3 months). During follow-up, no tumor reoccurred; the color and texture of the flaps were similar with surrounding tissue. There was no obvious scar hyperplasia, nor traction of adjacent normal tissues, and patients were satisfied with the appearance.

Conclusion

The application of modified rhomboid flaps in repairing facial skin and soft tissue defects caused by resection of round facial tumor has the advantages of flexible design, simple manipulation, and less trauma.

Mapping the Passions: Toward a High-Dimensional Taxonomy of Emotional Experience and Expression

What would a comprehensive atlas of human emotions include? For 50 years, scientists have sought to map emotion-related experience, expression, physiology, and recognition in terms of the "basic six"-anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Claims about the relationships between these six emotions and prototypical facial configurations have provided the basis for a long-standing debate over the diagnostic value of expression (for review and latest installment in this debate, see Barrett et al., p. 1). Building on recent empirical findings and methodologies, we offer an alternative conceptual and methodological approach that reveals a richer taxonomy of emotion. Dozens of distinct varieties of emotion are reliably distinguished by language, evoked in distinct circumstances, and perceived in distinct expressions of the face, body, and voice. Traditional models-both the basic six and affective-circumplex model (valence and arousal)-capture a fraction of the systematic variability in emotional response. In contrast, emotion-related responses (e.g., the smile of embarrassment, triumphant postures, sympathetic vocalizations, blends of distinct expressions) can be explained by richer models of emotion. Given these developments, we discuss why tests of a basic-six model of emotion are not tests of the diagnostic value of facial expression more generally. Determining the full extent of what facial expressions can tell us, marginally and in conjunction with other behavioral and contextual cues, will require mapping the high-dimensional, continuous space of facial, bodily, and vocal signals onto richly multifaceted experiences using large-scale statistical modeling and machine-learning methods.

Facial Identification at a Virtual Reality Airport

Person identification at airports requires the comparison of a passport photograph with its bearer. In psychology, this process is typically studied with static pairs of face photographs that require identity-match (same person shown) versus mismatch (two different people) decisions, but this approach provides a limited proxy for studying how environment and social interaction factors affect this task. In this study, we explore the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) as a solution to this problem, by examining the identity matching of avatars in a VR airport. We show that facial photographs of real people can be rendered into VR avatars in a manner that preserves image and identity information (Experiments 1 to 3). We then show that identity matching of avatar pairs reflects similar cognitive processes to the matching of face photographs (Experiments 4 and 5). This pattern holds when avatar matching is assessed in a VR airport (Experiments 6 and 7). These findings demonstrate the feasibility of VR as a new method for investigating face matching in complex environments.

Touching! An Augmented Reality System for Unveiling Face Topography in Very Young Children

Developmental body topography, particularly of the face, is a fundamental research topic in the current decade. However, empirical investigation of this topic for very young children faces a number of difficulties related to the task requirements and technical procedures. In this study, we developed a new task to study the spatially-sensed position of facial parts in a self-face recognition task for 2.5- and 3.5-year-old children. Using the technique of augmented reality (AR) and 3D face tracking technology, we presented participants with their projected self-image on a screen, accompanied by a digital mark located on parts of their face. We prepared a cheerful visual and auditory reward on the screen when participants showed correct localization of the mark. We then tested whether they could indicate the position of the mark on their own faces and remain motivated for task repetition. To assess the efficacy of this task, 31 2.5- and 11 3.5-year-old children participated in this study. About half of the 2.5-year-olds and 80% of the 3.5-year-olds could perform more than 30 trials. Our new task, then, was to maintain young children’s motivation for task repetition using the cheerful visual and auditory reward. The analysis of localization errors suggested the uniqueness of spatial knowledge of self-face in young children. The efficacy of this new task for studying the development of body image has been confirmed.

Facing the truth: are there hemifacial differences in the communication of trustworthiness?

As the right hemisphere is dominant for emotion processing, the left cheek expresses emotion more intensely than the right cheek. This prompts a leftward bias: people offer the left cheek to communicate emotion and viewers perceive left cheek poses as more emotive. Perceptions of trustworthiness are positively influenced by emotional expressivity, with smiling faces deemed more trustworthy than neutral faces. Thus as the left hemiface is more emotionally expressive than the right, the present study sought to determine whether people offer the left cheek to communicate trustworthiness, and the right to express untrustworthiness. One hundred and twenty-six participants (57 males, 69 females) completed a posing task asking them to read one of two scenarios (randomly assigned: trusted babysitter; untrustworthy car salesman), consider it for 30 seconds, and then pose for a photograph communicating their trustworthiness or untrustworthiness. Contrary to expectation, binary logistic regression results indicated no posing bias for communicating trustworthiness, however people were more likely to offer the left than right cheek when posing to communicate untrustworthiness. The novel finding of a left cheek bias for untrustworthiness is previously unreported, and highlights the need for future investigations of trustworthiness to examine both sides of the trustworthy coin.

Facial aging trajectories: A common shape pattern in male and female faces is disrupted after menopause

Objectives

Despite variation in lifestyle and environment, first signs of human facial aging show between the ages of 20–30 years. It is a cumulative process of changes in the skin, soft tissue, and skeleton of the face. As quantifications of facial aging in living humans are still scarce, we set out to study age‐related changes in three‐dimensional facial shape using geometric morphometrics.

Materials and methods

We collected surface scans of 88 human faces (aged 26–90 years) from the coastal town Split (Croatia) and neighboring islands. Based on a geometric morphometric analysis of 585 measurement points (landmarks and semilandmarks), we modeled sex‐specific trajectories of average facial aging.

Results

Age‐related facial shape change was similar in both sexes until around age 50, at which time the female aging trajectory turned sharply. The overall magnitude of facial shape change (aging rate) was higher in women than men, especially in early postmenopause. Aging was generally associated with a flatter face, sagged soft tissue (“broken” jawline), deeper nasolabial folds, smaller visible areas of the eyes, thinner lips, and longer nose and ears. In postmenopausal women, facial aging was best predicted by the years since last menstruation and mainly attributable to bone resorption in the mandible.

Discussion

With high spatial and temporal resolution, we were able to extract a shared facial aging pattern in women and men, and its divergence after menopause. This fully quantitative three‐dimensional analysis of human facial aging may not only find applications in forensic and ancient human facial reconstructions, but shall include lifestyle and endocrinological measures, and also reach out to studies of social perception.

Quantification of Facial Traits

Measuring facial traits by quantitative means is a prerequisite to investigate epidemiological, clinical, and forensic questions. This measurement process has received intense attention in recent years. We divided this process into the registration of the face, landmarking, morphometric quantification, and dimension reduction. Face registration is the process of standardizing pose and landmarking annotates positions in the face with anatomic description or mathematically defined properties (pseudolandmarks). Morphometric quantification computes pre-specified transformations such as distances. Landmarking: We review face registration methods which are required by some landmarking methods. Although similar, face registration and landmarking are distinct problems. The registration phase can be seen as a pre-processing step and can be combined independently with a landmarking solution. Existing approaches for landmarking differ in their data requirements, modeling approach, and training complexity. In this review, we focus on 3D surface data as captured by commercial surface scanners but also cover methods for 2D facial pictures, when methodology overlaps. We discuss the broad categories of active shape models, template based approaches, recent deep-learning algorithms, and variations thereof such as hybrid algorithms. The type of algorithm chosen depends on the availability of pre-trained models for the data at hand, availability of an appropriate landmark set, accuracy characteristics, and training complexity. Quantification: Landmarking of anatomical landmarks is usually augmented by pseudo-landmarks, i.e., indirectly defined landmarks that densely cover the scan surface. Such a rich data set is not amenable to direct analysis but is reduced in dimensionality for downstream analysis. We review classic dimension reduction techniques used for facial data and face specific measures, such as geometric measurements and manifold learning. Finally, we review symmetry registration and discuss reliability.

Desaturation-Induced Brightness in Face Color Perception

The distinctiveness of perception of face from nonface objects has been noted previously. However, face brightness is often confounded with whiteness in the beauty industry; few studies have examined these perceptual differences. To investigate the interactions among face color attributes, we measured the effect of saturation on brightness and whiteness in both uniform color patches and face images to elucidate the relationship between these two perceptions. We found that, at constant luminance, a uniform color patch looked brighter with an increase in saturation (i.e., the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect occurred), while in contrast, brightness of a facial skin image looked less bright with increased saturation (i.e., contrary to the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect), which suggested this interaction of color attributes was influenced by top-down information. We conclude that this inverse effect of saturation on brightness for face images is not due to face recognition, color range of the skin tone, the luminance distribution, or recognition of human skin but due to the composite interactions of these facial skin factors in higher order recognition mechanisms.

Multifaceted Integration: Memory for Faces Is Subserved by Widespread Connections between Visual, Memory, Auditory, and Social Networks

Our ability to recognize others by their facial features is at the core of human social interaction, yet this ability varies widely within the general population, ranging from developmental prosopagnosia to "super-recognizers". Previous work has focused mainly on the contribution of neural activity within the well described face network to this variance. However, given the nature of face memory in everyday life, and the social context in which it takes place, we were interested in exploring how the collaboration between different networks outside the face network in humans (measured through resting state connectivity) affects face memory performance. Fifty participants (men and women) were scanned with fMRI. Our data revealed that although the nodes of the face-processing network were tightly coupled at rest, the strength of these connections did not predict face memory performance. Instead, face recognition memory was dependent on multiple connections between these face patches and regions of the medial temporal lobe memory system (including the hippocampus), and the social processing system. Moreover, this network was selective for memory for faces, and did not predict memory for other visual objects (cars). These findings suggest that in the general population, variability in face memory is dependent on how well the face processing system interacts with other processing networks, with interaction among the face patches themselves accounting for little of the variance in memory ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our ability to recognize and remember faces is one of the pillars of human social interaction. Face recognition however is a very complex skill, requiring specialized neural resources in visual cortex, as well as memory, identity, and social processing, all of which are inherent in our real-world experience of faces. Yet in the general population, people vary greatly in their face memory abilities. Here we show that in the neural domain this variability is underpinned by the integration of visual, memory and social circuits, with the strength of the connections between these circuits directly linked to face recognition ability.

The effect of sleep deprivation on objective and subjective measures of facial appearance

The faces of people who are sleep deprived are perceived by others as looking paler, less healthy and less attractive compared to when well rested. However, there is little research using objective measures to investigate sleep-loss-related changes in facial appearance. We aimed to assess the effects of sleep deprivation on skin colour, eye openness, mouth curvature and periorbital darkness using objective measures, as well as to replicate previous findings for subjective ratings. We also investigated the extent to which these facial features predicted ratings of fatigue by others and could be used to classify the sleep condition of the person. Subjects (n = 181) were randomised to one night of total sleep deprivation or a night of normal sleep (8-9 hr in bed). The following day facial photographs were taken and, in a subset (n = 141), skin colour was measured using spectrophotometry. A separate set of participants (n = 63) later rated the photographs in terms of health, paleness and fatigue. The photographs were also digitally analysed with respect to eye openness, mouth curvature and periorbital darkness. The results showed that neither sleep deprivation nor the subjects' sleepiness was related to differences in any facial variable. Similarly, there was no difference in subjective ratings between the groups. Decreased skin yellowness, less eye openness, downward mouth curvature and periorbital darkness all predicted increased fatigue ratings by others. However, the combination of appearance variables could not be accurately used to classify sleep condition. These findings have implications for both face-to-face and computerised visual assessment of sleep loss and fatigue.

Selective attentional biases towards a self-related facial feature among orthognathic patients

The present study aimed to determine what kind of face and which area of the face (eyes or mouth) rapidly capture attention among patients with dentomaxillofacial deformities (DDs). In the present experiments, faces were categorized as highly or lowly attractive (HA and LA, respectively) and as a face with dentomaxillofacial deformities (DD face). A dot-probe task and a change-detection task were utilized to examine the attentional bias to the faces and facial features, respectively. In Study 1, we found that DD patients showed an attentional bias to DD male faces compared with HA male faces, while controls showed an opposite attentional pattern. In Study 2, we found that patients responded faster to the changes in the mouths of DD male faces than those of HA and LA faces. Moreover, patients paid less attention to the mouths of HA faces than to the region of the eyes, and they paid less attention than did the controls. These results indicated that DD patients selectively directed their attention to DD male faces and the mouths of these faces. These findings were not evident in female faces. Furthermore, patients showed avoidance of the mouths of HA faces regardless of the gender of the faces.

Botulinum Toxin Application in Facial Esthetics and Recent Treatment Indications (2013-2018)

Background

Ever-changing perception of beauty from childhood to old age is changing with the revolution in cosmeceuticals science. Esthetics is an individual's perception since time immemorial. Standards of beauty have changed through centuries with increased awareness about esthetics. The face remains main source of information for identification and discrimination. It constitutes a structural ground for many nonverbal messages including the emotional state of a person, so the proverb "Face is an index of mind" holds good. The wrinkles and laxity are considered to be one of the factors for aging. Hence, escalating demand for cosmetic treatment to reduce facial wrinkles and laxity has stimulated us to search for published literature for nonsurgical techniques for enhancement of facial beauty. The review analyzed the published data to provide narrative basic review in a concise way to the beginners, clinicians, and students.

Materials and Methods

We have adopted search criteria using keywords: Botox, Botulinum toxin, incobotulinumtoxinA, esthetics, face, uses of Botox, with various Boolean operators and or in title, and abstract using PubMed search engine. The database search limited to PubMed only from January 2013 to June 2018.

Results

Various search results have been appended as annexures at the end of the article for further reference for the readers. Finally, 17 references were selected to write narrative review to meet our objectives.

Conclusion

The advancing front in the use of toxins is an emerging science for the beautification of a face. Botox exploded in to market because of efficacy, tolerability, and minimally invasive nature. The present review gives brief about the history of Botulinum toxin, types, mechanism of action, clinical indications, preparations, storage, and technique for various uses with a brief note on patient selection, contraindications, and complications.

Giant arteriovenous malformation of the face and upper lip

A 35-year-old male patient reported with the chief complaint of a large swelling in the right side of the upper lip. The lesion measured 6.5 cm measuring from the infraorbital region to the lower border of mandible on the right side of the face and 7.5 cm from the right ear lobule to the contralateral commissure of the left side of the face. On palpation, the swelling was soft, fluctuant and compressible. Pulsations were felt, and on auscultation, bruit was also heard. Computed tomography angiogram of the neck and circle of Willis showed serpiginous hyperdense vascular channels causing significant soft-tissue thickening of the upper lip, right cheek region and philtrum. Hence, the diagnosis of diffuse subcutaneous facial arteriovenous malformation involving the right cheek and philtrum was given. The entire lesion was excised. In the postoperative 2^nd month, secondary cosmetic correction or lip reconstruction was done. The patient was reviewed after 3 years; there was no recurrence of the lesion.

Object recognition in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia

Whether face and object recognition are dissociated in prosopagnosia continues to be debated: a recent review highlighted deficiencies in prior studies regarding the evidence for such a dissociation. Our goal was to study cohorts with acquired and developmental prosopagnosia with a complementary battery of tests of object recognition that address prior limitations, as well as evaluating for residual effects of object expertise. We studied 15 subjects with acquired and 12 subjects with developmental prosopagnosia on three tests: the Old/New Tests, the Cambridge Bicycle Memory Test, and the Expertise-adjusted Test of Car Recognition. Most subjects with developmental prosopagnosia were normal on the Old/New Tests: for acquired prosopagnosia, subjects with occipitotemporal lesions often showed impairments while those with anterior temporal lesions did not. Ten subjects showed a putative classical dissociation between the Cambridge Face and Bicycle Memory Tests, seven of whom had normal reaction times. Both developmental and acquired groups showed reduced car recognition on the expertise-adjusted test, though residual effects of expertise were still evident. Two subjects with developmental prosopagnosia met criteria for normal object recognition across all tests. We conclude that strong evidence for intact object recognition can be found in a few subjects but the majority show deficits, particularly those with the acquired form. Both acquired and developmental forms show residual but reduced object expertise effects.

Unusual presentation of dermatofibroma on the face: Case report

Dermatofibroma (DF; Benign Fibrous Histiocytoma) seldom presents on the face. We present an unusual case presentation of translucent nodule on the upper right cheek of the face which was diagnosed clinically as basal cell carcinoma. Physician should include DF in the differential of such lesions.

Randomized, Placebo-controlled Study of a Nutraceutical Based on Hyaluronic Acid, L-carnosine, and Methylsulfonylmethane in Facial Skin Aesthetics and Well-being

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a multicomponent nutraceutical (MCN) on facial skin. Methods: A randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blind trial was conducted involving two groups of female subjects affected by facial skin photoaging. For two months, volunteers took a daily dose of MCN containing 200mg of hyaluronic acid, 500mg of L-carnosine, and 400mg of methylsulfonylmethane, or a placebo. At Day 0 (T0) and Day 60 (T60), face skin hydration, elasticity, and sebometry were measured with an instrumental skin tester, and digital images of facial wrinkles were scored. A subject-based quali-/ quantitative assessment evaluating satisfaction/ quality of life was performed at T60. Results: The MCN and placebo groups each included 25 volunteers (mean ages: 49.3 and 47.8 years, respectively). After 60 days of MCN intake, glabella skin hydration and elasticity improved by 15.2 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively (p=0.03; p=0.004), glabella sebaceous secretion decreased by 24.2 percent (p=0.01), skin hydration and elasticity of the periocular area increased by 12.6 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, and skin hydration and elasticity of the oral commissural area increased by 17.6 percent and 16 percent, respectively (p<0.001). No significant variation occurred in the placebo group. Wrinkle depth improved slightly in the MCN group (p=0.043 in the periocular area) but not in the placebo group. A slight improvement in joint pain and mucosae/ hair appearance was reported in the questionnaire in the MCN group only. Conclusions: Our results suggest that MCN is safe and effective for facial skin aesthetics and well-being.

Changes in facial temperature measured by digital infrared thermal imaging in patients after transnasal sphenopalatine ganglion block: Retrospective observational study

Sphenopalatine ganglion block (SPGB) is a technique developed in the 1990s for the management of head and neck pain patients. Recently, transnasal sphenopalatine ganglion block (TN-SPGB) has been widely used for these patients; however, no objective methods exist for validating the success of TN-SPGB. In this study, we measured the changes in facial temperature before and 30 minutes after TN-SPGB by using digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) to validate its success.The medical records of patients, who underwent TN-SPGB and facial DITI between January 2016 and December 2017, were reviewed. TN-SPGB and facial DITI were performed 36 times in 32 patients. The changes in facial temperatures measured at the forehead (V1), maxillary area (V2), and mandibular area (V3) by using DITI before and 30 minutes after TN-SPGB were recorded and compared. The temperatures on the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of these areas were also compared. The comparison between pain relief group and pain maintenance group was analyzed.After TN-SPGB, the temperature decreased significantly on both sides of V1 (P = .0208, 0.0181). No significant differences were observed between the ipsilateral and contralateral sides (P > .05). There was no correlation between changes in temperature and changes in pain score in the pain regions after the procedure (P > .05).The temperature decreased significantly in V1 area at 30 minutes after TN-SPGB compared with the temperature before TN-SPGB. Based on these results, we propose using DITI to measure temperature changes as an objective method for verifying the success of TN-SPGB.

Management of necrotizing and non-necrotic bacterial erysipelas of the face in tropical areas: a series of four cases and a review of the literature

The necrotizing and not necrotizing acute bacterial dermohypodermitis (DHD) are acute bacterial infections of tissues situated between the skin and the muscles. The localizations of the face are infrequent, and sometimes put diagnostic difficulties with other current facial dermatosis. We report in this article 4 cases of DHD of the face with skin source, hospitalized in the service of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases of the Teaching Hospital Yalgado Ouédraogo of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). The objective is to make a current situation of their etiologies and complications, and to look for the difficulties to take care of them in a country with limited resources. The patient's care journey for this disease is long while it constitutes a medical or medical-surgical emergency. Imaging, which is essential for the diagnosis of heart valve disease and the daunting complications of necrotizing fasciitis and mediastinitis, is generally available only in tertiary hospitals. Antibiotic therapy is most often inadequate or insufficient. Anti-inflammatories, widely used, according to several authors contribute to serious forms and excess mortality. Health workers in resource-limited settings need to be better educated and guidelines issued to recognize the signs of this condition in order to enable early referral of patients in specialized settings. In addition, education of the population and hygiene awareness of skin lesions should be a priority to reduce complications.

Symmetrical Viewpoint Representations in Face-Selective Regions Convey an Advantage in the Perception and Recognition of Faces

Learning new identities is crucial for effective social interaction. A critical aspect of this process is the integration of different images from the same face into a view-invariant representation that can be used for recognition. The representation of symmetrical viewpoints has been proposed to be a key computational step in achieving view-invariance. The aim of this study was to determine whether the representation of symmetrical viewpoints in face-selective regions is directly linked to the perception and recognition of face identity. In Experiment 1, we measured fMRI responses while male and female human participants viewed images of real faces from different viewpoints (-90, -45, 0, 45, and 90° from full-face view). Within the face regions, patterns of neural response to symmetrical views (-45 and 45° or -90 and 90°) were more similar than responses to nonsymmetrical views in the fusiform face area and superior temporal sulcus, but not in the occipital face area. In Experiment 2, participants made perceptual similarity judgements to pairs of face images. Images with symmetrical viewpoints were reported as being more similar than nonsymmetric views. In Experiment 3, we asked whether symmetrical views also convey an advantage when learning new faces. We found that recognition was best when participants were tested with novel face images that were symmetrical to the learning viewpoint. Critically, the pattern of perceptual similarity and recognition across different viewpoints predicted the pattern of neural response in face-selective regions. Together, our results provide support for the functional value of symmetry as an intermediate step in generating view-invariant representations.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The recognition of identity from faces is crucial for successful social interactions. A critical step in this process is the integration of different views into a unified, view-invariant representation. The representation of symmetrical views (e.g., left profile and right profile) has been proposed as an important intermediate step in computing view-invariant representations. We found view symmetric representations were specific to some face-selective regions, but not others. We also show that these neural representations influence the perception of faces. Symmetric views were perceived to be more similar and were recognized more accurately than nonsymmetric views. Moreover, the perception and recognition of faces at different viewpoints predicted patterns of response in those face regions with view symmetric representations.

Identification of Maxillofacial Problems in Extraoral Photographs by Panel Members: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the profile and frontal photographs in determining sagittal maxillofacial problems by the panel members created from different professional groups.

METHODS

Frontal and profile photographs of four individuals with skeletal Class I, Class II Division 1, Class II Division 2, and Class III malocclusion were assessed by panel members. A total of 42 panel members from 7 different professions participated in the study. Panel members were asked to choose one of the frontal or profile photographs to be used in determining the maxillofacial problem. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Fisher's exact test were applied to evaluate the difference between the panelists.

RESULTS

Of the 42 panel members, 16% selected frontal photographs, and 84% selected profile photographs. There were no statistically significant differences between seven panels with regard to photography selection (p>0.05). When all panel members were compared with regard to gender, 17.9% of the frontal photographs and 82.1% of the profile photographs were selected by females, whereas 15.4% of the frontal photographs and 84.6% of the profile photographs were chosen by males. There was no statistically significant difference between males and females (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

It was found that the profile photograph was more preferred and informative in determining the sagittal maxillofacial problem.

Parts-based representations of perceived face movements in the superior temporal sulcus

Facial motion is a primary source of social information about other humans. Prior fMRI studies have identified regions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) that respond specifically to perceived face movements (termed fSTS), but little is known about the nature of motion representations in these regions. Here we use fMRI and multivoxel pattern analysis to characterize the representational content of the fSTS. Participants viewed a set of specific eye and mouth movements, as well as combined eye and mouth movements. Our results demonstrate that fSTS response patterns contain information about face movements, including subtle distinctions between types of eye and mouth movements. These representations generalize across the actor performing the movement, and across small differences in visual position. Critically, patterns of response to combined movements could be well predicted by linear combinations of responses to individual eye and mouth movements, pointing to a parts-based representation of complex face movements. These results indicate that the fSTS plays an intermediate role in the process of inferring social content from visually perceived face movements, containing a representation that is sufficiently abstract to generalize across low-level visual details, but still tied to the kinematics of face part movements.

Eye Movement Dynamics Differ between Encoding and Recognition of Faces

Facial recognition is widely thought to involve a holistic perceptual process, and optimal recognition performance can be rapidly achieved within two fixations. However, is facial identity encoding likewise holistic and rapid, and how do gaze dynamics during encoding relate to recognition? While having eye movements tracked, participants completed an encoding ("study") phase and subsequent recognition ("test") phase, each divided into blocks of one- or five-second stimulus presentation time conditions to distinguish the influences of experimental phase (encoding/recognition) and stimulus presentation time (short/long). Within the first two fixations, several differences between encoding and recognition were evident in the temporal and spatial dynamics of the eye-movements. Most importantly, in behavior, the long study phase presentation time alone caused improved recognition performance (i.e., longer time at recognition did not improve performance), revealing that encoding is not as rapid as recognition, since longer sequences of eye-movements are functionally required to achieve optimal encoding than to achieve optimal recognition. Together, these results are inconsistent with a scan path replay hypothesis. Rather, feature information seems to have been gradually integrated over many fixations during encoding, enabling recognition that could subsequently occur rapidly and holistically within a small number of fixations.

Diagnostic impact of reflectance confocal microscopy as a second-level examination for facial skin lesions

Background and objective

Benign and malignant facial skin lesions may be difficult to differentiate clinically and with dermoscopy. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential utility of in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) as a second‐level examination for facial skin neoplasms.

Patients and Methods

Retrospective and blinded evaluation of 160 consecutive facial lesions was carried out in two separate steps. Clinical and dermoscopic images were assessed first, followed by combined evaluation of clinical/dermoscopic and RCM images. Our study included 60 % malignant lesions, comprising 43 % melanomas, 9 % basal cell carcinomas, 5 % in situ squamous cell carcinomas and 3 % lymphomas.

Results

Ancillary RCM significantly improved diagnostic specificity for the detection of malignancy compared to clinical/dermoscopic evaluation alone (58 % vs 28 %). However, sensitivity was slightly lower for RCM‐based image evaluation (93 % vs 95 %) due to misclassification of one in situ SCC and one lymphoma. In terms of melanoma diagnosis, RCM‐based image evaluation was generally superior; sensitivity was only slightly increased (88 % vs 87 %), but melanoma specificity was significantly higher (84 % vs 58 %).

Conclusion

RCM is a valuable diagnostic adjunct for facial skin lesions; unnecessary biopsies in this cosmetically sensitive area could be reduced by one third without missing a melanoma.