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Charbonneau I, Guérette J, Cormier S, Blais C, Lalonde-Beaudoin G, Smith FW, Fiset D. The role of spatial frequencies for facial pain categorization. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14357. [PMID: 34257357 PMCID: PMC8277883 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93776-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies on low-level visual information underlying pain categorization have led to inconsistent findings. Some show an advantage for low spatial frequency information (SFs) and others a preponderance of mid SFs. This study aims to clarify this gap in knowledge since these results have different theoretical and practical implications, such as how far away an observer can be in order to categorize pain. This study addresses this question by using two complementary methods: a data-driven method without a priori expectations about the most useful SFs for pain recognition and a more ecological method that simulates the distance of stimuli presentation. We reveal a broad range of important SFs for pain recognition starting from low to relatively high SFs and showed that performance is optimal in a short to medium distance (1.2-4.8 m) but declines significantly when mid SFs are no longer available. This study reconciles previous results that show an advantage of LSFs over HSFs when using arbitrary cutoffs, but above all reveal the prominent role of mid-SFs for pain recognition across two complementary experimental tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabelle Charbonneau
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Joël Guérette
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Stéphanie Cormier
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Caroline Blais
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Guillaume Lalonde-Beaudoin
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Fraser W Smith
- University of East Anglia School of Psychology, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada.
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2
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Blais C, Linnell KJ, Caparos S, Estéphan A. Cultural Differences in Face Recognition and Potential Underlying Mechanisms. Front Psychol 2021; 12:627026. [PMID: 33927668 PMCID: PMC8076495 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to recognize a face is crucial for the success of social interactions. Understanding the visual processes underlying this ability has been the focus of a long tradition of research. Recent advances in the field have revealed that individuals having different cultural backgrounds differ in the type of visual information they use for face processing. However, the mechanisms that underpin these differences remain unknown. Here, we revisit recent findings highlighting group differences in face processing. Then, we integrate these results in a model of visual categorization developed in the field of psychophysics: the RAP framework. On the basis of this framework, we discuss potential mechanisms, whether face-specific or not, that may underlie cross-cultural differences in face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Blais
- Groupe de Neurosciences Sociales, Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
| | - Karina J Linnell
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Serge Caparos
- Laboratoire DysCo, Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Amanda Estéphan
- Groupe de Neurosciences Sociales, Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada.,Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
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3
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Pinpointing the optimal spatial frequency range for automatic neural facial fear processing. Neuroimage 2020; 221:117151. [PMID: 32673746 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2020] [Revised: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 07/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Faces convey an assortment of emotional information via low and high spatial frequencies (LSFs and HSFs). However, there is no consensus on the role of particular spatial frequency (SF) information during facial fear processing. Comparison across studies is hampered by the high variability in cut-off values for demarcating the SF spectrum and by differences in task demands. We investigated which SF information is minimally required to rapidly detect briefly presented fearful faces in an implicit and automatic manner, by sweeping through an entire SF range without constraints of predefined cut-offs for LSFs and HSFs. We combined fast periodic visual stimulation with electroencephalography. We presented neutral faces at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved every 5th image with a fearful face, allowing us to quantify an objective neural index of fear discrimination at exactly 1.2 Hz. We started from a stimulus containing either only very low or very high SFs and gradually increased the SF content by adding higher or lower SF information, respectively, to reach the full SF spectrum over the course of 70 s. We found that faces require at least SF information higher than 5.93 cycles per image (cpi) to implicitly differentiate fearful from neutral faces. However, exclusive HSF faces, even in a restricted SF range between 94.82 and 189.63 cpi already carry the critical information to extract the emotional expression of the faces.
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Plouffe-Demers MP, Fiset D, Saumure C, Duncan J, Blais C. Strategy Shift Toward Lower Spatial Frequencies in the Recognition of Dynamic Facial Expressions of Basic Emotions: When It Moves It Is Different. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1563. [PMID: 31379648 PMCID: PMC6650765 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2018] [Accepted: 06/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial expressions of emotion play a key role in social interactions. While in everyday life, their dynamic and transient nature calls for a fast processing of the visual information they contain, a majority of studies investigating the visual processes underlying their recognition have focused on their static display. The present study aimed to gain a better understanding of these processes while using more ecological dynamic facial expressions. In two experiments, we directly compared the spatial frequency (SF) tuning during the recognition of static and dynamic facial expressions. Experiment 1 revealed a shift toward lower SFs for dynamic expressions in comparison to static ones. Experiment 2 was designed to verify if changes in SF tuning curves were specific to the presence of emotional information in motion by comparing the SF tuning profiles for static, dynamic, and shuffled dynamic expressions. Results showed a similar shift toward lower SFs for shuffled expressions, suggesting that the difference found between dynamic and static expressions might not be linked to informative motion per se but to the presence of motion regardless its nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Pier Plouffe-Demers
- Département de Psychologie, Universtité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
- Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de Psychologie, Universtité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
| | - Camille Saumure
- Département de Psychologie, Universtité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
| | - Justin Duncan
- Département de Psychologie, Universtité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
- Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Caroline Blais
- Département de Psychologie, Universtité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
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Royer J, Blais C, Charbonneau I, Déry K, Tardif J, Duchaine B, Gosselin F, Fiset D. Greater reliance on the eye region predicts better face recognition ability. Cognition 2018; 181:12-20. [PMID: 30103033 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2017] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/06/2018] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Interest in using individual differences in face recognition ability to better understand the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms supporting face processing has grown substantially in recent years. The goal of this study was to determine how varying levels of face recognition ability are linked to changes in visual information extraction strategies in an identity recognition task. To address this question, fifty participants completed six tasks measuring face and object processing abilities. Using the Bubbles method (Gosselin & Schyns, 2001), we also measured each individual's use of visual information in face recognition. At the group level, our results replicate previous findings demonstrating the importance of the eye region for face identification. More importantly, we show that face processing ability is related to a systematic increase in the use of the eye area, especially the left eye from the observer's perspective. Indeed, our results suggest that the use of this region accounts for approximately 20% of the variance in face processing ability. These results support the idea that individual differences in face processing are at least partially related to the perceptual extraction strategy used during face identification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Royer
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
| | - Caroline Blais
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
| | - Isabelle Charbonneau
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
| | - Karine Déry
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada
| | - Jessica Tardif
- Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Canada
| | - Brad Duchaine
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, United States
| | | | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada.
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Estéphan A, Fiset D, Saumure C, Plouffe-Demers MP, Zhang Y, Sun D, Blais C. Time Course of Cultural Differences in Spatial Frequency Use for Face Identification. Sci Rep 2018; 8:1816. [PMID: 29379032 PMCID: PMC5788938 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-19971-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2017] [Accepted: 12/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Several previous studies of eye movements have put forward that, during face recognition, Easterners spread their attention across a greater part of their visual field than Westerners. Recently, we found that culture’s effect on the perception of faces reaches mechanisms deeper than eye movements, therefore affecting the very nature of information sampled by the visual system: that is, Westerners globally rely more than Easterners on fine-grained visual information (i.e. high spatial frequencies; SFs), whereas Easterners rely more on coarse-grained visual information (i.e. low SFs). These findings suggest that culture influences basic visual processes; however, the temporal onset and dynamics of these culture-specific perceptual differences are still unknown. Here, we investigate the time course of SF use in Western Caucasian (Canadian) and East Asian (Chinese) observers during a face identification task. Firstly, our results confirm that Easterners use relatively lower SFs than Westerners, while the latter use relatively higher SFs. More importantly, our results indicate that these differences arise as early as 34 ms after stimulus onset, and remain stable through time. Our research supports the hypothesis that Westerners and Easterners initially rely on different types of visual information during face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Estéphan
- Département de psychoéducation et de psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Québec, Canada.,Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de psychoéducation et de psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Québec, Canada
| | - Camille Saumure
- Département de psychoéducation et de psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Québec, Canada
| | | | - Ye Zhang
- Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.,Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China
| | - Dan Sun
- Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.,Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China
| | - Caroline Blais
- Département de psychoéducation et de psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Québec, Canada.
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