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Butcher N, Bennetts RJ, Sexton L, Barbanta A, Lander K. Eye movement differences when recognising and learning moving and static faces. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024:17470218241252145. [PMID: 38644390 DOI: 10.1177/17470218241252145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
Seeing a face in motion can help subsequent face recognition. Several explanations have been proposed for this "motion advantage," but other factors that might play a role have received less attention. For example, facial movement might enhance recognition by attracting attention to the internal facial features, thereby facilitating identification. However, there is no direct evidence that motion increases attention to regions of the face that facilitate identification (i.e., internal features) compared with static faces. We tested this hypothesis by recording participants' eye movements while they completed the famous face recognition (Experiment 1, N = 32), and face-learning (Experiment 2, N = 60, Experiment 3, N = 68) tasks, with presentation style manipulated (moving or static). Across all three experiments, a motion advantage was found, and participants directed a higher proportion of fixations to the internal features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) of moving faces versus static. Conversely, the proportion of fixations to the internal non-feature area (i.e., cheeks, forehead, chin) and external area (Experiment 3) was significantly reduced for moving compared with static faces (all ps < .05). Results suggest that during both familiar and unfamiliar face recognition, facial motion is associated with increased attention to internal facial features, but only during familiar face recognition is the magnitude of the motion advantage significantly related functionally to the proportion of fixations directed to the internal features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Butcher
- Department of Psychology, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK
| | | | - Laura Sexton
- Department of Psychology, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
| | | | - Karen Lander
- Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
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2
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Halder T, Ludwig K, Schenk T. Binocular rivalry reveals differential face processing in congenital prosopagnosia. Sci Rep 2024; 14:6687. [PMID: 38509151 PMCID: PMC10954711 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55023-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Congenital Prosopagnosia (CP) is an innate impairment in face perception with heterogeneous characteristics. It is still unclear if and to what degree holistic processing of faces is disrupted in CP. Such disruption would be expected to lead to a focus on local features of the face. In this study, we used binocular rivalry (BR) to implicitly measure face perception in conditions that favour holistic or local processing. The underlying assumption is that if stimulus saliency affects the perceptual dominance of a given stimulus in BR, one can deduce how salient a stimulus is for a given group (here: participants with and without CP) based on the measured perceptual dominance. A further open question is whether the deficit in face processing in CP extends to the processing of the facial display of emotions. In experiment 1, we compared predominance of upright and inverted faces displaying different emotions (fearful, happy, neutral) vs. houses between participants with CP (N = 21) and with normal face perception (N = 21). The results suggest that CP observers process emotions in faces automatically but rely more on local features than controls. The inversion of faces, which is supposed to disturb holistic processing, affected controls in a more pronounced way than participants with CP. In experiment 2, we introduced the Thatcher effect in BR by inverting the eye and mouth regions of the presented faces in the hope of further increasing the effect of face inversion. However, our expectations were not borne out by the results. Critically, both experiments showed that inversion effects were more pronounced in controls than in CP, suggesting that holistic face processing is less relevant in CP. We find BR to be a useful implicit test for assessing visual processing specificities in neurological participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa Halder
- Clinical Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstraße 13, 80802, München, Germany.
| | - Karin Ludwig
- Clinical Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstraße 13, 80802, München, Germany
| | - Thomas Schenk
- Clinical Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Leopoldstraße 13, 80802, München, Germany.
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Chung C, Choi S, Jeong H, Lee J, Lee H. Attention mechanisms and emotion judgment for Korean and American emotional faces: an eye movement study. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1235238. [PMID: 37621937 PMCID: PMC10446967 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1235238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction This study investigates attention mechanisms and the accuracy of emotion judgment among South Korean children by employing Korean and American faces in conjunction with eye-tracking technology. Methods A total of 42 participants were individually presented with photos featuring either Korean or American children, and their task was to judge the emotions conveyed through the facial expressions in each photo. The participants' eye movements during picture viewing were meticulously observed using an eye tracker. Results The analysis of the emotion judgment task outcomes revealed that the accuracy scores for discerning emotions of joy, sadness, and anger in Korean emotional faces were found to be significantly higher than those for American children. Conversely, no significant difference in accuracy scores was observed for the recognition of fear emotion between Korean and American faces. Notably, the study also uncovered distinct patterns of fixation duration among children, depending on whether they were viewing Korean or American faces. These patterns predominantly manifested in the three main facial areas of interest, namely the eyes, nose, and mouth. Discussion The observed phenomena can be best understood within the framework of the "other-race effect." Consequently, this prototype formation leads to heightened accuracy in recognizing and interpreting emotional expressions exhibited by faces belonging to the same racial group. The present study contributes to a deeper understanding of how attention mechanisms and other-race effects impact emotion judgment among South Korean children. The utilization of eye-tracking technology enhances the validity and precision of our findings, providing valuable insights for both theoretical models of face processing and practical applications in various fields such as psychology, education, and intercultural communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunghee Chung
- School of Child Studies, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| | - Sungmook Choi
- Department of English Education, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyojin Jeong
- Department of Early Childhood Education, Keimyung College University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| | - Jiyeon Lee
- School of Child Studies, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyorim Lee
- Department of Home Economics Education, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
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4
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Vassallo S, Douglas J. Visual scanpath training to emotional faces following severe traumatic brain injury: A single case design. J Eye Mov Res 2021; 14. [PMID: 34760060 PMCID: PMC8575428 DOI: 10.16910/jemr.14.4.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The visual scanpath to emotional facial expressions was recorded in BR, a 35-year-old male with chronic severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), both before and after he underwent intervention. The novel intervention paradigm combined visual scanpath training with verbal feedback and was implemented over a 3-month period using a single case design (AB) with one follow up session. At baseline BR's scanpath was restricted, characterised by gaze allocation primarily to salient facial features on the right side of the face stimulus. Following intervention his visual scanpath became more lateralised, although he continued to demonstrate an attentional bias to the right side of the face stimulus. This study is the first to demonstrate change in both the pattern and the position of the visual scanpath to emotional faces following intervention in a person with chronic severe TBI. In addition, these findings extend upon our previous work to suggest that modification of the visual scanpath through targeted facial feature training can support improved facial recognition performance in a person with severe TBI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzane Vassallo
- La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.,University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jacinta Douglas
- La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.,Summer Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
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5
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Behrmann M, Plaut DC. Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence. Perception 2020; 49:373-404. [PMID: 31980013 PMCID: PMC9944149 DOI: 10.1177/0301006619899049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Despite the similarity in structure, the hemispheres of the human brain have somewhat different functions. A traditional view of hemispheric organization asserts that there are independent and largely lateralized domain-specific regions in ventral occipitotemporal (VOTC), specialized for the recognition of distinct classes of objects. Here, we offer an alternative account of the organization of the hemispheres, with a specific focus on face and word recognition. This alternative account relies on three computational principles: distributed representations and knowledge, cooperation and competition between representations, and topography and proximity. The crux is that visual recognition results from a network of regions with graded functional specialization that is distributed across both hemispheres. Specifically, the claim is that face recognition, which is acquired relatively early in life, is processed by VOTC regions in both hemispheres. Once literacy is acquired, word recognition, which is co-lateralized with language areas, primarily engages the left VOTC and, consequently, face recognition is primarily, albeit not exclusively, mediated by the right VOTC. We review psychological and neural evidence from a range of studies conducted with normal and brain-damaged adults and children and consider findings which challenge this account. Last, we offer suggestions for future investigations whose findings may further refine this account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlene Behrmann
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - David C. Plaut
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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6
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Wang L, Baumgartner F, Kaule FR, Hanke M, Pollmann S. Individual face- and house-related eye movement patterns distinctively activate FFA and PPA. Nat Commun 2019; 10:5532. [PMID: 31797874 PMCID: PMC6892816 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13541-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2019] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated if the fusiform face area (FFA) and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) contain a representation of fixation sequences that are typically used when looking at faces or houses. Here, we instructed observers to follow a dot presented on a uniform background. The dot’s movements represented gaze paths acquired separately from observers looking at face or house pictures. Even when gaze dispersion differences were controlled, face- and house-associated gaze patterns could be discriminated by fMRI multivariate pattern analysis in FFA and PPA, more so for the current observer’s own gazes than for another observer’s gaze. The discrimination of the observer’s own gaze patterns was not observed in early visual areas (V1 – V4) or superior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields. These findings indicate a link between perception and action—the complex gaze patterns that are used to explore faces and houses—in the FFA and PPA. The fusiform face area and parahippocampal place area respond to face and scene stimuli respectively. Here, the authors show using fMRI that these brain areas are also preferentially activated by eye movements associated with looking at faces and scenes even when no images are shown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lihui Wang
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Florian Baumgartner
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Falko R Kaule
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Michael Hanke
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.,Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Stefan Pollmann
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. .,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany. .,Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
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7
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Bueno APA, Sato JR, Hornberger M. Eye tracking - The overlooked method to measure cognition in neurodegeneration? Neuropsychologia 2019; 133:107191. [PMID: 31521634 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Eye tracking (ET) studies are becoming increasingly popular due to rapid methodological and technological advances as well as the development of cost efficient and portable eye trackers. Although historically ET has been mostly employed in psychophysics or developmental cognition studies, there is also promising scope to use ET for movement disorders and measuring cognitive processes in neurodegeneration. Particularly, ET can be a powerful tool for cognitive and neuropsychological assessments of patients with pathologies affecting motor and verbal abilities, as tasks can be adapted without requiring motor (except eye movements) or verbal responses. In this review, we will examine the existing evidence of ET methods in neurodegenerative conditions and its potential clinical impact for cognitive assessment. We highlight that current evidence for ET is mostly focused on diagnostics of cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative disorders, where it is debatable whether it has any more sensitivity or specificity than existing cognitive assessments. By contrast, there is currently a lack of ET studies in more advanced disease stages, when patients' motor and verbal functions can be significantly affected, and standard cognitive assessments are challenging or often not possible. We conclude that ET is a promising method not only for cognitive diagnostics but more importantly, for potential cognitive disease tracking in progressive neurodegenerative conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- A P A Bueno
- - Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil; - Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
| | - J R Sato
- - Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil
| | - M Hornberger
- - Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; - Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich, UK
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8
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Bennetts RJ, Mole J, Bate S. Super-recognition in development: A case study of an adolescent with extraordinary face recognition skills. Cogn Neuropsychol 2017; 34:357-376. [PMID: 29165028 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2017.1402755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Face recognition abilities vary widely. While face recognition deficits have been reported in children, it is unclear whether superior face recognition skills can be encountered during development. This paper presents O.B., a 14-year-old female with extraordinary face recognition skills: a "super-recognizer" (SR). O.B. demonstrated exceptional face-processing skills across multiple tasks, with a level of performance that is comparable to adult SRs. Her superior abilities appear to be specific to face identity: She showed an exaggerated face inversion effect and her superior abilities did not extend to object processing or non-identity aspects of face recognition. Finally, an eye-movement task demonstrated that O.B. spent more time than controls examining the nose - a pattern previously reported in adult SRs. O.B. is therefore particularly skilled at extracting and using identity-specific facial cues, indicating that face and object recognition are dissociable during development, and that super recognition can be detected in adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel J Bennetts
- a School of Biological and Chemical Sciences , Queen Mary University of London , London , UK
| | - Joseph Mole
- b Oxford Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Sarah Bate
- c Department of Psychology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
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9
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Arizpe J, Walsh V, Yovel G, Baker CI. The categories, frequencies, and stability of idiosyncratic eye-movement patterns to faces. Vision Res 2016; 141:191-203. [PMID: 27940212 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2016.10.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2016] [Revised: 09/14/2016] [Accepted: 10/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The spatial pattern of eye-movements to faces considered typical for neurologically healthy individuals is a roughly T-shaped distribution over the internal facial features with peak fixation density tending toward the left eye (observer's perspective). However, recent studies indicate that striking deviations from this classic pattern are common within the population and are highly stable over time. The classic pattern actually reflects the average of these various idiosyncratic eye-movement patterns across individuals. The natural categories and respective frequencies of different types of idiosyncratic eye-movement patterns have not been specifically investigated before, so here we analyzed the spatial patterns of eye-movements for 48 participants to estimate the frequency of different kinds of individual eye-movement patterns to faces in the normal healthy population. Four natural clusters were discovered such that approximately 25% of our participants' fixation density peaks clustered over the left eye region (observer's perspective), 23% over the right eye-region, 31% over the nasion/bridge region of the nose, and 20% over the region spanning the nose, philthrum, and upper lips. We did not find any relationship between particular idiosyncratic eye-movement patterns and recognition performance. Individuals' eye-movement patterns early in a trial were more stereotyped than later ones and idiosyncratic fixation patterns evolved with time into a trial. Finally, while face inversion strongly modulated eye-movement patterns, individual patterns did not become less distinct for inverted compared to upright faces. Group-averaged fixation patterns do not represent individual patterns well, so exploration of such individual patterns is of value for future studies of visual cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Arizpe
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Boston Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Jamaica Plain, MA, USA.
| | - Vincent Walsh
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Galit Yovel
- Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Chris I Baker
- Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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10
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Bobak AK, Parris BA, Gregory NJ, Bennetts RJ, Bate S. Eye-movement strategies in developmental prosopagnosia and "super" face recognition. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 70:201-217. [PMID: 26933872 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1161059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a cognitive condition characterized by a severe deficit in face recognition. Few investigations have examined whether impairments at the early stages of processing may underpin the condition, and it is also unknown whether DP is simply the "bottom end" of the typical face-processing spectrum. To address these issues, we monitored the eye-movements of DPs, typical perceivers, and "super recognizers" (SRs) while they viewed a set of static images displaying people engaged in naturalistic social scenarios. Three key findings emerged: (a) Individuals with more severe prosopagnosia spent less time examining the internal facial region, (b) as observed in acquired prosopagnosia, some DPs spent less time examining the eyes and more time examining the mouth than controls, and (c) SRs spent more time examining the nose-a measure that also correlated with face recognition ability in controls. These findings support previous suggestions that DP is a heterogeneous condition, but suggest that at least the most severe cases represent a group of individuals that qualitatively differ from the typical population. While SRs seem to merely be those at the "top end" of normal, this work identifies the nose as a critical region for successful face recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna K Bobak
- a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
| | - Benjamin A Parris
- a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
| | - Nicola J Gregory
- a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
| | - Rachel J Bennetts
- a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
| | - Sarah Bate
- a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
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11
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Bate S, Bennetts R, Mole JA, Ainge JA, Gregory NJ, Bobak AK, Bussunt A. Rehabilitation of face-processing skills in an adolescent with prosopagnosia: Evaluation of an online perceptual training programme. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2014; 25:733-62. [DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2014.973886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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12
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Abnormal fixation in individuals with age-related macular degeneration when viewing an image of a face. Optom Vis Sci 2013; 90:45-56. [PMID: 23238260 DOI: 10.1097/opx.0b013e3182794775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE It has been reported that patients with macular disease have difficulties with face perception. Some of this difficulty may be caused by the sensory and perceptual consequences of using peripheral retina. However, strong correlations have not always been found between performance on face tasks and clinical measure of function. Based on the evidence of abnormal eye movements by patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), we explored whether abnormal fixation patterns occur when these patients view an image of a face. METHODS An OPKO OCT/SLO was used to collect structural and functional data. For each subject, the structural location of disease was determined, and the locus and stability of fixation were quantified. A SLO movie of fundus movements was recorded while the subject viewed an image of a face. RESULTS The number of fixations on internal (eyes, nose, and mouth) and external features were measured. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance found significant differences between the control and patient groups and among locations. A significant interaction between group and location was also found. Post hoc comparisons found a significantly greater proportion of fixations on external features for the AMD group than that in the control group. CONCLUSIONS The observed patterns of fixations of our subjects with AMD were similar to those observed in other groups of patients who have difficulties with face perception. For example, individuals with social phobias, Williams syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or prosopagnosia have altered face perceptions and also have a significantly greater proportion of fixations on external features of faces. Abnormal eye movement patterns and fixations may contribute to deficits in face perception in AMD patients.
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Charles Leek E, Patterson C, Paul MA, Rafal R, Cristino F. Eye movements during object recognition in visual agnosia. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:2142-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2011] [Revised: 05/01/2012] [Accepted: 05/06/2012] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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14
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Visual scan paths and recognition of facial identity in autism spectrum disorder and typical development. PLoS One 2012; 7:e37681. [PMID: 22666378 PMCID: PMC3362624 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2011] [Accepted: 04/27/2012] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Previous research suggests that many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired facial identity recognition, and also exhibit abnormal visual scanning of faces. Here, two hypotheses accounting for an association between these observations were tested: i) better facial identity recognition is associated with increased gaze time on the Eye region; ii) better facial identity recognition is associated with increased eye-movements around the face. Methodology and Principal Findings Eye-movements of 11 children with ASD and 11 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls were recorded whilst they viewed a series of faces, and then completed a two alternative forced-choice recognition memory test for the faces. Scores on the memory task were standardized according to age. In both groups, there was no evidence of an association between the proportion of time spent looking at the Eye region of faces and age-standardized recognition performance, thus the first hypothesis was rejected. However, the ‘Dynamic Scanning Index’ – which was incremented each time the participant saccaded into and out of one of the core-feature interest areas – was strongly associated with age-standardized face recognition scores in both groups, even after controlling for various other potential predictors of performance. Conclusions and Significance In support of the second hypothesis, results suggested that increased saccading between core-features was associated with more accurate face recognition ability, both in typical development and ASD. Causal directions of this relationship remain undetermined.
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Plaut DC, Behrmann M. Complementary neural representations for faces and words: a computational exploration. Cogn Neuropsychol 2012; 28:251-75. [PMID: 22185237 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.609812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
A key issue that continues to generate controversy concerns the nature of the psychological, computational, and neural mechanisms that support the visual recognition of objects such as faces and words. While some researchers claim that visual recognition is accomplished by category-specific modules dedicated to processing distinct object classes, other researchers have argued for a more distributed system with only partially specialized cortical regions. Considerable evidence from both functional neuroimaging and neuropsychology would seem to favour the modular view, and yet close examination of those data reveals rather graded patterns of specialization that support a more distributed account. This paper explores a theoretical middle ground in which the functional specialization of brain regions arises from general principles and constraints on neural representation and learning that operate throughout cortex but that nonetheless have distinct implications for different classes of stimuli. The account is supported by a computational simulation, in the form of an artificial neural network, that illustrates how cooperative and competitive interactions in the formation of neural representations for faces and words account for both their shared and distinctive properties. We set out a series of empirical predictions, which are also examined, and consider the further implications of this account.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Plaut
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213–3890, USA.
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16
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Avidan G, Tanzer M, Behrmann M. Impaired holistic processing in congenital prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:2541-52. [PMID: 21601583 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 164] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2010] [Revised: 05/01/2011] [Accepted: 05/05/2011] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
It has long been argued that face processing requires disproportionate reliance on holistic or configural processing, relative to that required for non-face object recognition, and that a disruption of such holistic processing may be causally implicated in prosopagnosia. Previously, we demonstrated that individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) did not show the normal face inversion effect (better performance for upright compared to inverted faces) and evinced a local (rather than the normal global) bias in a compound letter global/local (GL) task, supporting the claim of disrupted holistic processing in prosopagnosia. Here, we investigate further the nature of holistic processing impairments in CP, first by confirming, in a large sample of CP individuals, the absence of the normal face inversion effect and the presence of the local bias on the GL task, and, second, by employing the composite face paradigm, often regarded as the gold standard for measuring holistic face processing. In this last task, we show that, in contrast with controls, the CP group perform equivalently with aligned and misaligned faces and was impervious to (the normal) interference from the task-irrelevant bottom part of faces. Interestingly, the extent of the local bias evident in the composite task is correlated with the abnormality of performance on diagnostic face processing tasks. Furthermore, there is a significant correlation between the magnitude of the local bias in the GL and performance on the composite task. These results provide further evidence for impaired holistic processing in CP and, moreover, corroborate the critical role of this type of processing for intact face recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Galia Avidan
- Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
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Individual differences in face memory and eye fixation patterns during face learning. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2011; 137:1-9. [PMID: 21354541 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.01.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2010] [Revised: 01/22/2011] [Accepted: 01/27/2011] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between individual differences in face memory and eye fixation patterns during face learning. Participants watched short movies of 20 faces and were divided into high and low face memory groups based on their performance in a recognition memory test. No qualitative difference was observed in the eye fixation distribution between high and low groups. Both groups mostly fixed on the internal region of faces, especially the eyes. A difference in the eye fixation pattern by groups was observed in the number of fixations and total fixation time on the eyes, which reflected high face memory participants moving their eyes between the left and right eyes more frequently than low face memory participants. These findings suggest that fixation on the eyes has a functional role in face memory and is related to individual differences in face memory.
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Hannula DE, Althoff RR, Warren DE, Riggs L, Cohen NJ, Ryan JD. Worth a glance: using eye movements to investigate the cognitive neuroscience of memory. Front Hum Neurosci 2010; 4:166. [PMID: 21151363 PMCID: PMC2995997 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 170] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2010] [Accepted: 07/26/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Results of several investigations indicate that eye movements can reveal memory for elements of previous experience. These effects of memory on eye movement behavior can emerge very rapidly, changing the efficiency and even the nature of visual processing without appealing to verbal reports and without requiring conscious recollection. This aspect of eye movement based memory investigations is particularly useful when eye movement methods are used with special populations (e.g., young children, elderly individuals, and patients with severe amnesia), and also permits use of comparable paradigms in animals and humans, helping to bridge different memory literatures and permitting cross-species generalizations. Unique characteristics of eye movement methods have produced findings that challenge long-held views about the nature of memory, its organization in the brain, and its failures in special populations. Recently, eye movement methods have been successfully combined with neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, single-unit recording, and magnetoencephalography, permitting more sophisticated investigations of memory. Ultimately, combined use of eye-tracking with neuropsychological and neuroimaging methods promises to provide a more comprehensive account of brain-behavior relationships and adheres to the "converging evidence" approach to cognitive neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robert R. Althoff
- Department of Psychiatry, University of VermontBurlington, VT, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of VermontBurlington, VT, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of VermontBurlington, VT, USA
| | - David E. Warren
- Department of Neurology, University of IowaIowa City, IA, USA
| | - Lily Riggs
- Rotman Research Institute, BaycrestToronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada
| | - Neal J. Cohen
- Beckman Institute and Department of Psychology, University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign, IL, USA
| | - Jennifer D. Ryan
- Rotman Research Institute, BaycrestToronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada
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Probing the face-space of individuals with prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia 2010; 48:1828-41. [PMID: 20227431 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2009] [Revised: 03/02/2010] [Accepted: 03/06/2010] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
A useful framework for understanding the mental representation of facial identity is face-space (Valentine, 1991), a multi-dimensional cognitive map in which individual faces are coded relative to the average of previously encountered faces, and in which the distance among faces represents their perceived similarity. We examined whether individuals with prosopagnosia, a disorder characterized by an inability to recognize familiar faces despite normal visual acuity and intellectual abilities, evince behavior consistent with this underlying representational schema. To do so, we compared the performance of 6 individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP), with a group of age- and gender-matched control participants in a series of experiments involving judgments of facial identity. We used digital images of male and female faces and morphed them to varying degrees relative to an average face, to create caricatures, anti-caricatures, and anti-faces (i.e. faces of the opposite identity). Across 5 behavioral tasks, CP individuals' performance was similar to that of the control group and consistent with the face-space framework. As a test of the sensitivity of our measures in revealing face processing abnormalities, we also tested a single acquired prosopagnosic (AP) individual, whose performance on the same tasks deviated significantly from the control and CP groups. The findings suggest that, despite an inability to recognize individual identities, CPs perceive faces in a manner consistent with norm-based coding of facial identity, although their representation is likely supported by a feature-based strategy. We suggest that the apparently normal posterior cortical regions, including the fusiform face area, serve as the neural substrate for at least a coarse, feature-based face-space map in CP and that their face recognition impairment arises from the disconnection between these regions and more anterior cortical sites.
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