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Kobylkov D, Vallortigara G. Face detection mechanisms: Nature vs. nurture. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1404174. [PMID: 38812973 PMCID: PMC11133589 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1404174] [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: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024] Open
Abstract
For many animals, faces are a vitally important visual stimulus. Hence, it is not surprising that face perception has become a very popular research topic in neuroscience, with ca. 2000 papers published every year. As a result, significant progress has been made in understanding the intricate mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. However, the ontogeny of face perception, in particular the role of innate predispositions, remains largely unexplored at the neural level. Several influential studies in monkeys have suggested that seeing faces is necessary for the development of the face-selective brain domains. At the same time, behavioural experiments with newborn human babies and newly-hatched domestic chicks demonstrate that a spontaneous preference towards faces emerges early in life without pre-existing experience. Moreover, we were recently able to record face-selective neural responses in the brain of young, face-naïve chicks, thus demonstrating the existence of an innate face detection mechanism. In this review, we discuss these seemingly contradictory results and propose potential experimental approaches to resolve some of the open questions.
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2
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Pinto R, Albuquerque PB. The impact of the use of masks on trait judgments and face recognition. Mem Cognit 2024; 52:725-734. [PMID: 38012515 PMCID: PMC11111489 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-023-01495-3] [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] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Although effective in reducing virus transmission, face masks might compromise face recognition and trait judgments. With this study, we aimed to observe the influence of masks on face recognition and trait judgments-more specifically, in trustworthiness, dominance, and distinctiveness judgments. Also, we wanted to observe the possible influence of trait judgments on facial recognition for masked and unmasked faces, which has never been done before. For that, we conducted an online study where 140 participants observed and made trait judgments of masked and unmasked faces in a within-subjects design. After a distractive task, participants performed a recognition memory test. As expected, we observed a better recognition of faces shown without a mask during the study phase, which allowed the holistic processing of the faces. The worst performance was found for faces encoded with a mask but tested without it, occurring simultaneity disruption in holistic face processing and the violation of the encoding specificity principle. Regarding the trait judgments, unmasked faces were considered more distinctive, and masked faces were considered more trustworthy. More interestingly, we can conclude that facial distinctiveness predicts face recognition, regardless of mask use. In contrast, dominance judgments only predicted face recognition when faces were presented without a mask. When faces were exposed with masks, trustworthiness overrides dominance, becoming more critical to recognizing faces. We can interpret these results from an evolutionary perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raquel Pinto
- School of Psychology, University of Minho (Portugal), Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
| | - Pedro B Albuquerque
- School of Psychology, University of Minho (Portugal), Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
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3
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Deering K, Colloff MF, Bennett TC, Flowe HD. Does presenting perpetrator and innocent suspect faces from different facial angles influence the susceptibility of eyewitness memory? An investigation into the misinformation effect and eyewitness misidentification. Front Psychol 2024; 14:1213996. [PMID: 38606323 PMCID: PMC11008745 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1213996] [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: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction This study investigated the effects of face angle congruency across stages of a misinformation paradigm on lineup discrimination accuracy. Methods In a between-subjects design, participants viewed a mock crime with the perpetrator's face from the front or profile angle. They then read a news report featuring an innocent suspect's image from the same or different angle as the perpetrator had been shown. A subsequent lineup manipulated perpetrator presence and viewing angle of the lineup members, who were all shown either from the front or in profile. Results No significant difference emerged in identification errors based on angle congruency between stages. However, accuracy was higher when faces were shown from the front angle, both during the initial event and the lineup, compared to the profile angle. Discussion The results of this research underscore the importance of considering viewing angles in the construction of lineups.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Heather D. Flowe
- Applied Memory Lab, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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4
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Momen A, Hugenberg K, Wiese E. Social perception of robots is shaped by beliefs about their minds. Sci Rep 2024; 14:5459. [PMID: 38443378 PMCID: PMC10914716 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53187-w] [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: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Roboticists often imbue robots with human-like physical features to increase the likelihood that they are afforded benefits known to be associated with anthropomorphism. Similarly, deepfakes often employ computer-generated human faces to attempt to create convincing simulacra of actual humans. In the present work, we investigate whether perceivers' higher-order beliefs about faces (i.e., whether they represent actual people or android robots) modulate the extent to which perceivers deploy face-typical processing for social stimuli. Past work has shown that perceivers' recognition performance is more impacted by the inversion of faces than objects, thus highlighting that faces are processed holistically (i.e., as Gestalt), whereas objects engage feature-based processing. Here, we use an inversion task to examine whether face-typical processing is attenuated when actual human faces are labeled as non-human (i.e., android robot). This allows us to employ a task shown to be differentially sensitive to social (i.e., faces) and non-social (i.e., objects) stimuli while also randomly assigning face stimuli to seem real or fake. The results show smaller inversion effects when face stimuli were believed to represent android robots compared to when they were believed to represent humans. This suggests that robots strongly resembling humans may still fail to be perceived as "social" due pre-existing beliefs about their mechanistic nature. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Momen
- United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, USA.
- George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
| | | | - Eva Wiese
- George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
- Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Germany.
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5
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Pikoos TD, Malcolm A, Castle DJ, Rossell SL. A hierarchy of visual processing deficits in body dysmorphic disorder: a conceptual review and empirical investigation. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 2024; 29:116-140. [PMID: 38563811 DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2024.2326243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Abnormal visual processing has been proposed as a mechanism underlying excessive focus on minor appearance flaws in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Existing BDD research has not differentiated the various stages of face processing (featural, first-order configural, holistic and second-order configural) that are required for higher-order processes such as emotion recognition. This study investigated a hierarchical visual processing model to examine the nature of abnormalities in face processing in BDD. METHOD Thirty BDD participants and 27 healthy controls completed the Navon task, a featural and configural face processing task and a facial emotion labelling task. RESULTS BDD participants performed similarly to controls when processing global and local non-face stimuli on the Navon task, when detecting subtle changes in the features and spacing of a target face, and when labelling emotional faces. However, BDD participants displayed poorer performance when viewing inverted faces, indicating difficulties in configural processing. CONCLUSIONS The findings only partially support prior work. However, synthesis of results with previous findings indicates that heterogenous task methodologies may contribute to inconsistent findings. Recommendations are provided regarding the task parameters that appear most sensitive to abnormalities in BDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toni D Pikoos
- Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Amy Malcolm
- Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
| | - David J Castle
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
- Centre for Mental Health Service Innovation, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Susan L Rossell
- Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
- Psychiatry, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
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6
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Curby KM, Teichmann L, Peterson MA, Shomstein SS. Holistic processing is modulated by the probability that parts contain task-congruent information. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024; 86:471-481. [PMID: 37311999 PMCID: PMC10806016 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02738-w] [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] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Holistic processing of face and non-face stimuli has been framed as a perceptual strategy, with classic hallmarks of holistic processing, such as the composite effect, reflecting a failure of selective attention, which is a consequence of this strategy. Further, evidence that holistic processing is impacted by training different patterns of attentional prioritization suggest that it may be a result of learned attention to the whole, which renders it difficult to attend to only part of a stimulus. If so, holistic processing should be modulated by the same factors that shape attentional selection, such as the probability that distracting or task-relevant information will be present. In contrast, other accounts suggest that it is the match to an internal face template that triggers specialized holistic processing mechanisms. Here we probed these accounts by manipulating the probability, across different testing sessions, that the task-irrelevant face part in the composite face task will contain task-congruent or -incongruent information. Attentional accounts of holistic processing predict that when the probability that the task-irrelevant part contains congruent information is low (25%), holistic processing should be attenuated compared to when this probability is high (75%). In contrast, template-based accounts of holistic face processing predict that it will be unaffected by manipulation given the integrity of the faces remains intact. Experiment 1 found evidence consistent with attentional accounts of holistic face processing and Experiment 2 extends these findings to holistic processing of non-face stimuli. These findings are broadly consistent with learned attention accounts of holistic processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim M Curby
- School of Psychological Sciences and the Performance and Expertise Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
| | - Lina Teichmann
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Mary A Peterson
- Cognitive Science Program and Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Sarah S Shomstein
- Department of Psychology, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
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7
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Rodriguez AM, Festini SB. Face masks degrade our ability to remember face-name associations more than predicted by judgments of learning. Memory 2024; 32:143-155. [PMID: 38166650 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2299361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks became required attire. Face masks obstruct the bottom portion of faces, restricting face processing. The present study examined the influence face masks have on memory predictions and memory performance for new face-name associations. Participants studied face-name pairs presented for 8 s (Experiment 1) or 10 s (Experiment 2). Half of the face-name pairs included a face mask obstructing the nose and mouth of the pictured face, counterbalanced across participants. Participants provided item-by-item judgements of learning (JOLs) and completed subsequent cued recall and associative recognition memory tests. Both experiments demonstrated that face masks impaired memory for newly-learned names, however, the magnitude of the mask impact was under-predicted by JOLs. The presence of a face mask negatively influenced memory performance to a greater degree than participants' JOLs predicted. Results have implications for name learning during pandemics, as well as in settings where face masks are common (e.g., medical field).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sara B Festini
- Department of Psychology, University of Tampa, Tampa, USA
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8
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Yu Z, Moses E, Kritikos A, Pegna AJ. Looming Angry Faces: Preliminary Evidence of Differential Electrophysiological Dynamics for Filtered Stimuli via Low and High Spatial Frequencies. Brain Sci 2024; 14:98. [PMID: 38275518 PMCID: PMC10813450 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14010098] [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: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Looming motion interacts with threatening emotional cues in the initial stages of visual processing. However, the underlying neural networks are unclear. The current study investigated if the interactive effect of threat elicited by angry and looming faces is favoured by rapid, magnocellular neural pathways and if exogenous or endogenous attention influences such processing. Here, EEG/ERP techniques were used to explore the early ERP responses to moving emotional faces filtered for high spatial frequencies (HSF) and low spatial frequencies (LSF). Experiment 1 applied a passive-viewing paradigm, presenting filtered angry and neutral faces in static, approaching, or receding motions on a depth-cued background. In the second experiment, broadband faces (BSF) were included, and endogenous attention was directed to the expression of faces. Our main results showed that regardless of attentional control, P1 was enhanced by BSF angry faces, but neither HSF nor LSF faces drove the effect of facial expressions. Such findings indicate that looming motion and threatening expressions are integrated rapidly at the P1 level but that this processing relies neither on LSF nor on HSF information in isolation. The N170 was enhanced for BSF angry faces regardless of attention but was enhanced for LSF angry faces during passive viewing. These results suggest the involvement of a neural pathway reliant on LSF information at the N170 level. Taken together with previous reports from the literature, this may indicate the involvement of multiple parallel neural pathways during early visual processing of approaching emotional faces.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Alan J. Pegna
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; (Z.Y.); (E.M.); (A.K.)
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Peterson LM, Susilo T, Clifford CWG, Palmer CJ. Discrimination of facial identity based on simple contrast patterns generated by shading and shadows. Vision Res 2023; 212:108307. [PMID: 37573810 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2023.108307] [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: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 08/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
The pattern of shadows and shading across a face is determined partly by face shape and may therefore provide a cue for facial recognition. In this study, we measured the ability of human observers to discriminate facial identity based simply on the coarse pattern of contrast produced by the interaction between facial geometry and lighting direction. We used highly realistic 3D models of human heads to create images of faces illuminated from different horizontal and vertical directions, which were then converted to two-tone images ('Mooney faces') to isolate the coarse pattern of contrast. Participants were presented with pairs of two-tone faces and judged whether it was the same person in both images. Participants could discriminate facial identity based on the minimal cues within the two-tone images, though sensitivity depended on the horizontal and vertical lighting direction. Performance on the Mooney recognition task correlated with general facial recognition ability, though the role of face-specific processing in this relationship was not significant. Our results demonstrate that shading information in the form of simple contrast cues is sufficient for discriminating facial identity, and support the idea that visual processing is somewhat optimised for overhead lighting - here, in the relatively high-level context of face identity recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tirta Susilo
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | | | - Colin J Palmer
- School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
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10
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Peterson LM, Clifford CWG, Palmer CJ. Detection of Mooney faces is robust to image asymmetries produced by illumination. J Vis 2023; 23:9. [PMID: 37883106 PMCID: PMC10615147 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.12.9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Face detection relies on the visual features that are shared across different faces. An important component of the basic spatial configuration of a face is symmetry around the vertical midline. Although human faces are structurally symmetrical, they can be asymmetrical in an image due to the direction of lighting or the position of the face. In the experiments presented here, we examined how face detection from simple contrast patterns that occur across the face is affected by the image asymmetries associated with variations in the horizontal lighting direction. We presented observers with two-tone images of faces (Mooney faces) that isolated the unique pattern of contrast in the shading and shadows on a face, illuminated from a wide range of horizontal directions. In two experiments, we found that face detection is surprisingly robust to these lighting changes, with sensitivity in discriminating between face and non-face patterns reduced only at the most extreme lighting directions. This tolerance to changes in the horizontal lighting direction depended partly on the orientation of the face, vertical lighting direction, and contrast polarity. Our results provide insight into how contrast cues produced by shading and shadows occurring across the facial surface are utilized by the visual system to detect human faces.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Colin J Palmer
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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11
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Ventura P, Pereira A. Change detection versus change localization for faces, houses, and words. Perception 2023; 52:739-751. [PMID: 37554007 PMCID: PMC10510304 DOI: 10.1177/03010066231191193] [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: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023]
Abstract
Holistic processing aids in the discrimination of visually similar objects, but it may also come with a cost. Indeed holistic processing may improve the ability to detect changes to a face while impairing the ability to locate where the changes occur. We investigated the capacity to detect the occurrence of a change versus the capacity to detect the localization of a change for faces, houses, and words. Change detection was better than change localization for faces. Change localization outperformed change detection for houses. For words, there was no difference between detection and localization. We know from previous studies that words are processed holistically. However, being an object of visual expertise processed holistically, visual words are also a linguistic entity. Previously, the word composite effect was found for phonologically consistent words but not for phonologically inconsistent words. Being an object of visual expertise for which linguistic information is important, letter position information, is also crucial. Thus, the importance of localization of letters and features may augment the capacity to localize a change in words making the detection of a change and the detection of localization of a change equivalent.
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12
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Barzy M, Morgan R, Cook R, Gray KLH. Are social interactions preferentially attended in real-world scenes? Evidence from change blindness. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2023; 76:2293-2302. [PMID: 36847458 PMCID: PMC10503233 DOI: 10.1177/17470218231161044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
In change detection paradigms, changes to social or animate aspects of a scene are detected better and faster compared with non-social or inanimate aspects. While previous studies have focused on how changes to individual faces/bodies are detected, it is possible that individuals presented within a social interaction may be further prioritised, as the accurate interpretation of social interactions may convey a competitive advantage. Over three experiments, we explored change detection to complex real-world scenes, in which changes either occurred by the removal of (a) an individual on their own, (b) an individual who was interacting with others, or (c) an object. In Experiment 1 (N = 50), we measured change detection for non-interacting individuals versus objects. In Experiment 2 (N = 49), we measured change detection for interacting individuals versus objects. Finally, in Experiment 3 (N = 85), we measured change detection for non-interacting versus interacting individuals. We also ran an inverted version of each task to determine whether differences were driven by low-level visual features. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that changes to non-interacting and interacting individuals were detected better and more quickly than changes to objects. We also found inversion effects for both non-interaction and interaction changes, whereby they were detected more quickly when upright compared with inverted. No such inversion effect was seen for objects. This suggests that the high-level, social content of the images was driving the faster change detection for social versus object targets. Finally, we found that changes to individuals in non-interactions were detected faster than those presented within an interaction. Our results replicate the social advantage often found in change detection paradigms. However, we find that changes to individuals presented within social interaction configurations do not appear to be more quickly and easily detected than those in non-interacting configurations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahsa Barzy
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Rachel Morgan
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Richard Cook
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
| | - Katie LH Gray
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
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13
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Gordillo F, Arana JM, Lamas B, Pérez MÁ. Analysis of attentional biases in anxiety using 24 facial priming sequences. Cogn Process 2023; 24:339-351. [PMID: 36934379 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01132-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/20/2023]
Abstract
The processing of emotional facial expressions helps people to adjust to the physical and social environment. Furthermore, mental disorders such as anxiety have been linked to attentional biases in the processing of this type of information. Nevertheless, there are still contradictory results that might be due to the methodology used and to individual differences in the manifestation of anxiety. Our research goal was to use 24 facial priming sequences to analyse attentional biases in the detection of facial expressions of fear, considering the levels and the ways in which individuals express anxiety. With higher levels of cognitive anxiety and general trait anxiety, those sequences that began in the upper half (vs. lower half) elicited a speedier response in the detection of fear. The results are discussed within the context of other techniques and disorders that prompt a deficit in the processing of facial information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Gordillo
- Departamento de Psicología Básica, Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Salamanca, Avda. de La Merced, 109-131, 37005, Salamanca, Spain.
| | - José M Arana
- Departamento de Psicología Básica, Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Salamanca, Avda. de La Merced, 109-131, 37005, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Beatriz Lamas
- Departmento de Psicología, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Castillo de Alarcón nº 49, 28692-Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel Pérez
- Departmento de Psicología, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Castillo de Alarcón nº 49, 28692-Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain
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14
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Baldassi G, Murgia M, Prpic V, Rigutti S, Domijan D, Agostini T, Dissegna A, Fantoni C. Attentional capture in emotion comparison is orientation independent. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2023; 87:636-653. [PMID: 35552515 PMCID: PMC9928822 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01683-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Recent findings on emotion comparison show a typical pattern of motor reactivity rising from attentional capture. When pairs of emotional faces are presented simultaneously, the most intense emotional face is recognized faster (Emotional Semantic Congruency-ESC effect). Furthermore, a global response speed advantage for emotional pairs with positive rather than negative average emotion intensity is observed (i.e., emotional size effect), with the choice for the happiest face resulting in a faster response than the choice for the angriest face within the pair (i.e., the happiness advantage). In two experiments, we asked whether these effects are orientation dependent, and thus linked to whether face processing is holistic or part-based. Participants were asked to choose the angriest/happiest face in emotional pairs displayed either in upright or inverted orientation and including (Experiment 1) or not including (Experiment 2) a neutral face. Beyond an overall facilitation for upright relative to inverted pairs, results showed orientation independent ESC and emotional size effects. Furthermore, the happiness advantage was present in emotional pairs of Experiment 2 but not in emotional pairs of Experiment 1, independently from face orientation. Together, results suggest that attentional capture in emotion comparison is immaterial on the type of face processing, being orientation invariant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulio Baldassi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | - Mauro Murgia
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Sara Rigutti
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Tiziano Agostini
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | - Andrea Dissegna
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | - Carlo Fantoni
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 21, 34128, Trieste, Italy.
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15
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Lanfranco RC, Rabagliati H, Carmel D. The importance of awareness in face processing: A critical review of interocular suppression studies. Behav Brain Res 2023; 437:114116. [PMID: 36113728 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Human faces convey essential information for understanding others' mental states and intentions. The importance of faces in social interaction has prompted suggestions that some relevant facial features such as configural information, emotional expression, and gaze direction may promote preferential access to awareness. This evidence has predominantly come from interocular suppression studies, with the most common method being the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (bCFS) procedure, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. However, the procedures employed in such studies suffer from multiple methodological limitations. For example, they are unable to disentangle detection from identification processes, their results may be confounded by participants' response bias and decision criteria, they typically use small stimulus sets, and some of their results attributed to detecting high-level facial features (e.g., emotional expression) may be confounded by differences in low-level visual features (e.g., contrast, spatial frequency). In this article, we review the evidence from the bCFS procedure on whether relevant facial features promote access to awareness, discuss the main limitations of this very popular method, and propose strategies to address these issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renzo C Lanfranco
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Hugh Rabagliati
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - David Carmel
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
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16
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Yu Z, Kritikos A, Pegna AJ. Up close and emotional: Electrophysiological dynamics of approaching angry faces. Biol Psychol 2023; 176:108479. [PMID: 36566011 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that looming emotional faces are processed rapidly by the neural system, and that this apparent approach further interacts with emotion, causing an enhanced neural response for angry expressions. However, previous research has not demonstrated unequivocally if these effects are due to low-level visual features, or if they are indeed due to the emotional content of the stimuli. To address this question, the current study presented upright and inverted angry and neutral faces, which either expanded or contracted in size on a constant depth-cued background, such that they appeared to approach or retreat from the viewer. EEG/ERP measures were used to identify the time course of brain activity for these stimuli. The results showed that when faces were upright, both the P1 and N170 were enhanced for angry expressions, with the P1 being further increased with looming angry faces. The inversion of the faces caused an increase in both the P1 and N170 amplitudes, but no modulation was found for emotions. These findings show an early modulation of brain activity for upright looming angry faces and rule out the influence of low-level visual features as a contributing factor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhou Yu
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia.
| | - Ada Kritikos
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia
| | - Alan J Pegna
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia.
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17
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Schmid I, Witkower Z, Götz FM, Stieger S. Registered report: Social face evaluation: ethnicity-specific differences in the judgement of trustworthiness of faces and facial parts. Sci Rep 2022; 12:18311. [PMID: 36316450 PMCID: PMC9622746 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22709-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Social face evaluation is a common and consequential element of everyday life based on the judgement of trustworthiness. However, the particular facial regions that guide such trustworthiness judgements are largely unknown. It is also unclear whether different facial regions are consistently utilized to guide judgments for different ethnic groups, and whether previous exposure to specific ethnicities in one's social environment has an influence on trustworthiness judgements made from faces or facial regions. This registered report addressed these questions through a global online survey study that recruited Asian, Black, Latino, and White raters (N = 4580). Raters were shown full faces and specific parts of the face for an ethnically diverse, sex-balanced set of 32 targets and rated targets' trustworthiness. Multilevel modelling showed that in forming trustworthiness judgements, raters relied most strongly on the eyes (with no substantial information loss vis-à-vis full faces). Corroborating ingroup-outgroup effects, raters rated faces and facial parts of targets with whom they shared their ethnicity, sex, or eye color as significantly more trustworthy. Exposure to ethnic groups in raters' social environment predicted trustworthiness ratings of other ethnic groups in nuanced ways. That is, raters from the ambient ethnic majority provided slightly higher trustworthiness ratings for stimuli of their own ethnicity compared to minority ethnicities. In contrast, raters from an ambient ethnic minority (e.g., immigrants) provided substantially lower trustworthiness ratings for stimuli of the ethnic majority. Taken together, the current study provides a new window into the psychological processes underlying social face evaluation and its cultural generalizability. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 7 January 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.18319244 .
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Affiliation(s)
- Irina Schmid
- grid.459693.4Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria
| | - Zachary Witkower
- grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Friedrich M. Götz
- grid.17091.3e0000 0001 2288 9830Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada ,grid.47840.3f0000 0001 2181 7878Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, Berkeley, USA
| | - Stefan Stieger
- grid.459693.4Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria
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18
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Guerra N, Pinto R, Mendes PS, Rodrigues PFS, Albuquerque PB. The impact of COVID-19 on memory: Recognition for masked and unmasked faces. Front Psychol 2022; 13:960941. [PMID: 36275225 PMCID: PMC9583883 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.960941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Considering the current state of the worldwide pandemic, it is still common to encounter people wearing face protection masks. Although a safety measure against COVID-19, face masks might be compromising our capacity for face recognition. We conducted an online study where 140 participants observed masked and unmasked faces in a within-subjects design and then performed a recognition memory task. The best performance was found when there were no masks either at study and test phase, i.e., at the congruent unmasked condition. The worst performance was found for faces encoded with a mask but tested without it (i.e., masked-unmasked incongruent condition), which can be explained by the disruption in holistic face processing and the violation of the encoding specificity principle. Interestingly, considering the unmasked-masked incongruent condition, performance was probably affected by the violation of the encoding specificity principle but protected by holistic processing that occurred during encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natália Guerra
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Raquel Pinto
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Pedro S. Mendes
- Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Pedro F. S. Rodrigues
- Portucalense Institute for Human Development (INPP), Portucalense University, Porto, Portugal
| | - Pedro B. Albuquerque
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
- *Correspondence: Pedro B. Albuquerque,
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19
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Kavšek M, Heil M, Granrud CE. Holistic face processing in 4- and 7-month-old infants. INFANCY 2022; 27:1052-1067. [PMID: 36124541 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2021] [Revised: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies found an onset of holistic face processing in the age range between 0-4 and 7 months of age. To validate these studies, the present study investigated infants 4 and 7 months of age with a different experimental approach. In a habituation-dishabituation experiment, the infants were tested with stereoscopic stimuli in which stripes floated above a face, thereby occluding some parts of the face (amodal completion condition), and stereoscopic stimuli in which the same face parts floated above stripes (modal completion condition). Research with adults indicates that faces are processed holistically, that is as global wholes, in the amodal, but as independent parts in the modal completion condition, resulting in superior face recognition when the occluding bars are in front of than when they are behind the visible face parts. The present study found that infants regardless of whether they are 4 or 7 months old reliably recognized and differentiated the faces in the amodal but not in the modal completion condition. Moreover, the difference between the experimental conditions was statistically significant. These findings show that approximately at the age of 4-7 months of life, infants begin to holistically unify disjoint face parts into a coherent whole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Kavšek
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Martin Heil
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Carl E Granrud
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado, USA
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20
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Tanda T, Toyomori K, Kawahara JI. Attentional biases toward real images and drawings of negative faces. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2022; 229:103665. [PMID: 35843198 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103665] [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: 01/08/2022] [Revised: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The allocation of attention is affected by internal emotional states, such as anxiety and depression. The attention captured by real images of negative faces can be quantified by emotional probe tasks. The present study investigated whether attentional bias toward drawings of negative faces (line drawings and cartoon faces) differs from that of real faces. Non-clinical university students indicated their levels of anxiety and depression via self-report questionnaires, and completed a probe discrimination task under three face image conditions in a between-participants design. Significant correlations were found between bias scores and scores on the self-reported BDI-II under the real face condition. However, two types of face drawings were only weakly correlated with self-report scores. In our probe task to investigate attentional bias to facial stimuli in nonclinical adults, the strength of the relationship between depression and attentional bias to negative face was stronger for real faces than for face drawings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomoyuki Tanda
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
| | - Kai Toyomori
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Jun I Kawahara
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
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21
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Face dissimilarity judgments are predicted by representational distance in morphable and image-computable models. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2115047119. [PMID: 35767642 PMCID: PMC9271164 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115047119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Discerning the subtle differences between individuals’ faces is crucial for social functioning. It requires us not only to solve general challenges of object recognition (e.g., invariant recognition over changes in view or lighting) but also to be attuned to the specific ways in which face structure varies. Three-dimensional morphable models based on principal component analyses of real faces provide descriptions of statistical differences between faces, as well as tools to generate novel faces. We rendered large sets of realistic face pairs from such a model and collected similarity and same/different identity judgments. The statistical model predicted human perception as well as state-of-the-art image-computable neural networks. Results underscore the statistical tuning of face encoding. Human vision is attuned to the subtle differences between individual faces. Yet we lack a quantitative way of predicting how similar two face images look and whether they appear to show the same person. Principal component–based three-dimensional (3D) morphable models are widely used to generate stimuli in face perception research. These models capture the distribution of real human faces in terms of dimensions of physical shape and texture. How well does a “face space” based on these dimensions capture the similarity relationships humans perceive among faces? To answer this, we designed a behavioral task to collect dissimilarity and same/different identity judgments for 232 pairs of realistic faces. Stimuli sampled geometric relationships in a face space derived from principal components of 3D shape and texture (Basel face model [BFM]). We then compared a wide range of models in their ability to predict the data, including the BFM from which faces were generated, an active appearance model derived from face photographs, and image-computable models of visual perception. Euclidean distance in the BFM explained both dissimilarity and identity judgments surprisingly well. In a comparison against 16 diverse models, BFM distance was competitive with representational distances in state-of-the-art deep neural networks (DNNs), including novel DNNs trained on BFM synthetic identities or BFM latents. Models capturing the distribution of face shape and texture across individuals are not only useful tools for stimulus generation. They also capture important information about how faces are perceived, suggesting that human face representations are tuned to the statistical distribution of faces.
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22
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Tardiff CT, Koele EA, Kumar S, Messinger A, Ungerleider LG. The cortical and subcortical correlates of face pareidolia in the macaque brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:965-976. [PMID: 35445247 PMCID: PMC9629476 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Face detection is a foundational social skill for primates. This vital function is thought to be supported by specialized neural mechanisms; however, although several face-selective regions have been identified in both humans and nonhuman primates, there is no consensus about which region(s) are involved in face detection. Here, we used naturally occurring errors of face detection (i.e. objects with illusory facial features referred to as examples of 'face pareidolia') to identify regions of the macaque brain implicated in face detection. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging to test awake rhesus macaques, we discovered that a subset of face-selective patches in the inferior temporal cortex, on the lower lateral edge of the superior temporal sulcus, and the amygdala respond more to objects with illusory facial features than matched non-face objects. Multivariate analyses of the data revealed differences in the representation of illusory faces across the functionally defined regions of interest. These differences suggest that the cortical and subcortical face-selective regions contribute uniquely to the detection of facial features. We conclude that face detection is supported by a multiplexed system in the primate brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Correspondence should be addressed to Jessica Taubert, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Building 24A, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. E-mail:
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Clarissa T Tardiff
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elissa A Koele
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Susheel Kumar
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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23
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People can identify the likely owner of heartbeats by looking at individuals’ faces. Cortex 2022; 151:176-187. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Revised: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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24
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Cohen JL, Rivkin A, Dayan S, Shamban A, Werschler WP, Teller CF, Kaminer MS, Sykes JM, Weinkle SH, Garcia JK. Multimodal Facial Aesthetic Treatment on the Appearance of Aging, Social Confidence, and Psychological Well-being: HARMONY Study. Aesthet Surg J 2022; 42:NP115-NP124. [PMID: 33751048 PMCID: PMC8756087 DOI: 10.1093/asj/sjab114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background A global approach to facial rejuvenation involves multiple treatment modalities. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of multimodal facial aesthetic treatment on self-reported psychological and social outcomes. Methods HARMONY, a prospective, multicenter, 4-month study, enrolled patients aged 35 to 65 years to receive on-label treatment with a combination of hyaluronic fillers (VYC-20L, HYC-24L, and/or HYC-24L+), onabotulinumtoxinA, and bimatoprost. Fillers were injected on Day 1, with touch-ups performed on Day 14. OnabotulinumtoxinA was injected at Month 3 into glabellar lines and/or crow’s feet lines. Patients applied bimatoprost to eyelashes once daily for 17 weeks. Mean change from baseline on FACE-Q Psychological Well-being and Social Confidence Scales, FACE-Q Aging Appearance Appraisal Scale, and FACE-Q Age Appraisal Visual Analog Scale were assessed. Results Of 100 patients treated, 93 were evaluated at 4 months posttreatment. Significant improvement vs baseline was observed on the FACE-Q Scales for Psychological Well-being (mean change, −19.9; P < 0.00001), Social Confidence (mean change, −18.2; P < 0.00001), and Aging Appearance (mean change, −28.5; P < 0.0001). On average, patients’ self-assessed age was 0.1 years older than actual age at baseline and 4.5 years younger at Month 4 (P < 0.001 vs baseline). Forty-two patients experienced adverse events, all mild to moderate. Conclusions Multimodal, full facial aesthetic treatment improves patients’ self-reported psychological well-being, social confidence, aging appearance, and perceptions of chronologic age. Level of Evidence: 4
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Affiliation(s)
- Joel L Cohen
- Department of Dermatology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Alexander Rivkin
- David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Steven Dayan
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA
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25
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WANG Z, CHEN Y, LIU W, SUN YH. An eye region-specific cross-dimension covariation enhancement effect in facial featural and configural information change detection. ACTA PSYCHOLOGICA SINICA 2022. [DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1041.2022.00236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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26
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Bornet A, Choung OH, Doerig A, Whitney D, Herzog MH, Manassi M. Global and high-level effects in crowding cannot be predicted by either high-dimensional pooling or target cueing. J Vis 2021; 21:10. [PMID: 34812839 PMCID: PMC8626847 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.12.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
In visual crowding, the perception of a target deteriorates in the presence of nearby flankers. Traditionally, target-flanker interactions have been considered as local, mostly deleterious, low-level, and feature specific, occurring when information is pooled along the visual processing hierarchy. Recently, a vast literature of high-level effects in crowding (grouping effects and face-holistic crowding in particular) led to a different understanding of crowding, as a global, complex, and multilevel phenomenon that cannot be captured or explained by simple pooling models. It was recently argued that these high-level effects may still be captured by more sophisticated pooling models, such as the Texture Tiling model (TTM). Unlike simple pooling models, the high-dimensional pooling stage of the TTM preserves rich information about a crowded stimulus and, in principle, this information may be sufficient to drive high-level and global aspects of crowding. In addition, it was proposed that grouping effects in crowding may be explained by post-perceptual target cueing. Here, we extensively tested the predictions of the TTM on the results of six different studies that highlighted high-level effects in crowding. Our results show that the TTM cannot explain any of these high-level effects, and that the behavior of the model is equivalent to a simple pooling model. In addition, we show that grouping effects in crowding cannot be predicted by post-perceptual factors, such as target cueing. Taken together, these results reinforce once more the idea that complex target-flanker interactions determine crowding and that crowding occurs at multiple levels of the visual hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alban Bornet
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Oh-Hyeon Choung
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Adrien Doerig
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - David Whitney
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- Vision Science Group, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mauro Manassi
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, UK
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27
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Hansen T, Zaichkowsky J, de Jong A. Are women always better able to recognize faces? The unveiling role of exposure time. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0257741. [PMID: 34710131 PMCID: PMC8553055 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
A longer exposure time generally improves individuals’ ability to recognize faces. The current research investigates whether this effect varies between genders and whether it is influenced by the gender of the exposed faces. Based on a set of four experimental studies, we advance our knowledge of face recognition, gender, gender distribution of exposed faces, and exposure time in three main ways. First, the results reveal that women are more likely than men to suffer from a decrease in face recognition ability due to a lower exposure time. Second, the findings show that when exposure time is short (vs. long) women recognize a larger proportion of same gender faces and also recognize a larger proportion of same gender faces as compared with the proportion of same gender faces recognized by men. Third, findings reveal that when individuals are only exposed to same gender faces, women recognize more faces than men regardless whether exposure time is short, or long. In short, the findings of this research suggest that insight into the interplay between gender and exposure time length is critical to appropriately determine human beings’ ability to recognize faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Torben Hansen
- Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Ad de Jong
- Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
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28
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Linear Integration of Sensory Evidence over Space and Time Underlies Face Categorization. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7876-7893. [PMID: 34326145 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3055-20.2021] [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: 12/04/2020] [Revised: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual object recognition relies on elaborate sensory processes that transform retinal inputs to object representations, but it also requires decision-making processes that read out object representations and function over prolonged time scales. The computational properties of these decision-making processes remain underexplored for object recognition. Here, we study these computations by developing a stochastic multifeature face categorization task. Using quantitative models and tight control of spatiotemporal visual information, we demonstrate that human subjects (five males, eight females) categorize faces through an integration process that first linearly adds the evidence conferred by task-relevant features over space to create aggregated momentary evidence and then linearly integrates it over time with minimum information loss. Discrimination of stimuli along different category boundaries (e.g., identity or expression of a face) is implemented by adjusting feature weights of spatial integration. This linear but flexible integration process over space and time bridges past studies on simple perceptual decisions to complex object recognition behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although simple perceptual decision-making such as discrimination of random dot motion has been successfully explained as accumulation of sensory evidence, we lack rigorous experimental paradigms to study the mechanisms underlying complex perceptual decision-making such as discrimination of naturalistic faces. We develop a stochastic multifeature face categorization task as a systematic approach to quantify the properties and potential limitations of the decision-making processes during object recognition. We show that human face categorization could be modeled as a linear integration of sensory evidence over space and time. Our framework to study object recognition as a spatiotemporal integration process is broadly applicable to other object categories and bridges past studies of object recognition and perceptual decision-making.
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29
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Poltoratski S, Kay K, Finzi D, Grill-Spector K. Holistic face recognition is an emergent phenomenon of spatial processing in face-selective regions. Nat Commun 2021; 12:4745. [PMID: 34362883 PMCID: PMC8346587 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24806-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Spatial processing by receptive fields is a core property of the visual system. However, it is unknown how spatial processing in high-level regions contributes to recognition behavior. As face inversion is thought to disrupt typical holistic processing of information in faces, we mapped population receptive fields (pRFs) with upright and inverted faces in the human visual system. Here we show that in face-selective regions, but not primary visual cortex, pRFs and overall visual field coverage are smaller and shifted downward in response to face inversion. From these measurements, we successfully predict the relative behavioral detriment of face inversion at different positions in the visual field. This correspondence between neural measurements and behavior demonstrates how spatial processing in face-selective regions may enable holistic perception. These results not only show that spatial processing in high-level visual regions is dynamically used towards recognition, but also suggest a powerful approach for bridging neural computations by receptive fields to behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kendrick Kay
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR), Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Dawn Finzi
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Kalanit Grill-Spector
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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30
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Automatic gaze to the nose region cannot be inhibited during observation of facial expression in Eastern observers. Conscious Cogn 2021; 94:103179. [PMID: 34364139 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2020] [Revised: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 07/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Humans can extract a great deal of information about others very quickly. This is partly because the face automatically captures observers' attention. Specifically, the eyes can attract overt attention. Although it has been reported that not only the eyes but also the nose can capture initial oculomotor movement in Eastern observers, its generalizability remains unknown. In this study, we applied the "don't look" paradigm wherein participants are asked not to fixate on a specific facial region (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) during an emotion recognition task with upright (Experiment 1) and inverted (Experiment 2) faces. In both experiments, we found that participants were less able to inhibit the initial part of their fixations to the nose, which can be interpreted as the nose automatically capturing attention. Along with previous studies, our overt attention tends to be attracted by a part of the face, which is the nose region in Easterner observers.
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31
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Kauffmann L, Khazaz S, Peyrin C, Guyader N. Isolated face features are sufficient to elicit ultra-rapid and involuntary orienting responses toward faces. J Vis 2021; 21:4. [PMID: 33544121 PMCID: PMC7873494 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.2.4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that face stimuli influence the programming of eye movements by eliciting involuntary and extremely fast saccades toward them. The present study examined whether holistic processing of faces mediates these effects. We used a saccadic choice task in which participants were presented simultaneously with two images and had to perform a saccade toward the one containing a target stimulus (e.g., a face). Across three experiments, stimuli were altered via upside-down inversion (Experiment 1) or scrambling of thumbnails within the images (Experiments 2 and 3) in order to disrupt holistic processing. We found that disruption of holistic processing only had a limited impact on the latency of saccades toward face targets, which remained extremely short (minimum saccadic reaction times of only ∼120–130 ms), and did not affect the proportion of error saccades toward face distractors that captured attention more than other distractor categories. It, however, resulted in increasing error rate of saccades toward face targets. These results suggest that the processing of isolated face features is sufficient to elicit extremely fast and involuntary saccadic responses toward them. Holistic representations of faces may, however, be used as a search template to accurately detect faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louise Kauffmann
- CNRS, LPNC, University of Grenoble Alpes, University of Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, France.,CNRS, Grenoble INP, GIPSA-lab, University of Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.,
| | - Sarah Khazaz
- CNRS, LPNC, University of Grenoble Alpes, University of Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, France.,
| | - Carole Peyrin
- CNRS, LPNC, University of Grenoble Alpes, University of Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, France.,
| | - Nathalie Guyader
- CNRS, Grenoble INP, GIPSA-lab, University of Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.,
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Abstract
Artistic composition (the structural organization of pictorial elements) is often characterized by some basic rules and heuristics, but art history does not offer quantitative tools for segmenting individual elements, measuring their interactions and related operations. To discover whether a metric description of this kind is even possible, we exploit a deep-learning algorithm that attempts to capture the perceptual mechanism underlying composition in humans. We rely on a robust behavioral marker with known relevance to higher-level vision: orientation judgements, that is, telling whether a painting is hung “right-side up.” Humans can perform this task, even for abstract paintings. To account for this finding, existing models rely on “meaningful” content or specific image statistics, often in accordance with explicit rules from art theory. Our approach does not commit to any such assumptions/schemes, yet it outperforms previous models and for a larger database, encompassing a wide range of painting styles. Moreover, our model correctly reproduces human performance across several measurements from a new web-based experiment designed to test whole paintings, as well as painting fragments matched to the receptive-field size of different depths in the model. By exploiting this approach, we show that our deep learning model captures relevant characteristics of human orientation perception across styles and granularities. Interestingly, the more abstract the painting, the more our model relies on extended spatial integration of cues, a property supported by deeper layers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Lelièvre
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives Science Arts Création Recherche (EA 7410), Paris, France.,École normale supérieure, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, France., http://plelievre.com
| | - Peter Neri
- École normale supérieure, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, France.,Laboratoire des systémes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives, Paris, France., https://sites.google.com/site/neripeter/
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Mazzi C, Massironi G, Sanchez-Lopez J, De Togni L, Savazzi S. Face Recognition Deficits in a Patient With Alzheimer's Disease: Amnesia or Agnosia? The Importance of Electrophysiological Markers for Differential Diagnosis. Front Aging Neurosci 2021; 12:580609. [PMID: 33408626 PMCID: PMC7779478 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.580609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Face recognition deficits are frequently reported in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and often attributed to memory impairment. However, it has been hypothesized that failure in identifying familiar people could also be due to deficits in higher-level perceptual processes, since there is evidence showing a reduced inversion effect for faces but not for cars in AD. To address the involvement of these higher processes, we investigated event-related potential (ERP) neural correlates of faces in a patient with AD showing a face recognition deficit. Eight healthy participants were tested as a control group. Participants performed different tasks following the stimulus presentation. In experiment 1, they should indicate whether the stimulus was either a face or a house or a scrambled image. In experiments 2 and 3, they should discriminate between upright and inverted faces (in experiment 2, stimuli were faces with neutral or fearful expressions, while in experiment 3, stimuli were famous or unfamiliar faces). Electrophysiological results reveal that the typical face-specific modulation of the N170 component, which is thought to reflect the structural encoding of faces, was not present in patient MCG, despite being affected by the emotional content of the face implicitly processed by MCG. Conversely, the N400 component, which is thought to reflect the recruitment of the memory trace of the face identity, was found to be implicitly modulated in MCG. These results may identify a possible role for gnosic processes in face recognition deficits in AD and suggest the importance of adopting an integrated approach to the AD diagnosis while considering electrophysiological markers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Mazzi
- Perception and Awareness (PandA) Lab, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.,Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Gloria Massironi
- Center for Cognitive Decline and Dementia, ULSS 9 Scaligera, Verona, Italy
| | - Javier Sanchez-Lopez
- Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias Cognitivas, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico
| | - Laura De Togni
- Center for Cognitive Decline and Dementia, ULSS 9 Scaligera, Verona, Italy
| | - Silvia Savazzi
- Perception and Awareness (PandA) Lab, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.,Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
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Canas-Bajo T, Whitney D. Stimulus-Specific Individual Differences in Holistic Perception of Mooney Faces. Front Psychol 2020; 11:585921. [PMID: 33240177 PMCID: PMC7677523 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 10/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans perceive faces holistically rather than as a set of separate features. Previous work demonstrates that some individuals are better at this holistic type of processing than others. Here, we show that there are unique individual differences in holistic processing of specific Mooney faces. We operationalized the increased difficulty of recognizing a face when inverted compared to upright as a measure of the degree to which individual Mooney faces were processed holistically by individual observers. Our results show that Mooney faces vary considerably in the extent to which they tap into holistic processing; some Mooney faces require holistic processing more than others. Importantly, there is little between-subject agreement about which faces are processed holistically; specific faces that are processed holistically by one observer are not by other observers. Essentially, what counts as holistic for one person is unique to that particular observer. Interestingly, we found that the per-face, per-observer differences in face discrimination only occurred for harder Mooney faces that required relatively more holistic processing. These findings suggest that holistic processing of hard Mooney faces depends on a particular observer's experience whereas processing of easier, cartoon-like Mooney faces can proceed universally for everyone. Future work using Mooney faces in perception research should take these stimulus-specific individual differences into account to best isolate holistic processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa Canas-Bajo
- Vision Science Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - David Whitney
- Vision Science Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.,Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.,Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
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35
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Wang C, Lian R, Dong X, Mi Y, Wu S. A Neural Network Model With Gap Junction for Topological Detection. Front Comput Neurosci 2020; 14:571982. [PMID: 33178003 PMCID: PMC7591819 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2020.571982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Accepted: 10/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual information processing in the brain goes from global to local. A large volume of experimental studies has suggested that among global features, the brain perceives the topological information of an image first. Here, we propose a neural network model to elucidate the underlying computational mechanism. The model consists of two parts. The first part is a neural network in which neurons are coupled through gap junctions, mimicking the neural circuit formed by alpha ganglion cells in the retina. Gap junction plays a key role in the model, which, on one hand, facilitates the synchronized firing of a neuron group covering a connected region of an image, and on the other hand, staggers the firing moments of different neuron groups covering disconnected regions of the image. These two properties endow the network with the capacity of detecting the connectivity and closure of images. The second part of the model is a read-out neuron, which reads out the topological information that has been converted into the number of synchronized firings in the retina network. Our model provides a simple yet effective mechanism for the neural system to detect the topological information of images in ultra-speed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaoming Wang
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Academy for Advanced Interdisceplinary Studies, Beijing, China.,Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei, China.,Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Risheng Lian
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Academy for Advanced Interdisceplinary Studies, Beijing, China
| | - Xingsi Dong
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Academy for Advanced Interdisceplinary Studies, Beijing, China
| | - Yuanyuan Mi
- Center for Neurointelligence, School of Medicine, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Si Wu
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Academy for Advanced Interdisceplinary Studies, Beijing, China.,Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei, China
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Further investigation of the effects of wearing the hijab: Perception of female facial attractiveness by Emirati Muslim men living in their native Muslim country. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0239419. [PMID: 33085663 PMCID: PMC7577463 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The hijab is central to the lives of Muslim women across the world but little is known about the actual effects exerted by this garment on perceptions of the wearer. Indeed, while previous research has suggested that wearing the hijab may affect the physical attractiveness of women, the actual effect of wearing the hijab on perceptions of female facial attractiveness by Muslim men in a Muslim country is largely unknown. Accordingly, this study investigated the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim men living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates). Participants were presented with frontal-head images of women shown in three conditions: in the fully covered condition, heads were completely covered by the hijab except for the face; in the partially covered condition, heads were completely covered by the hijab except for the face and areas around the forehead and each side of the face and head; in the uncovered condition, heads had no covering at all. The findings revealed that faces where heads were uncovered or partially covered were rated as equally attractive, and both were rated as substantially more attractive than faces where heads were fully covered. Thus, while wearing the hijab can suppress female facial attractiveness to men, these findings suggest that not all hijab wearing has this effect, and female facial attractiveness for practising Muslim men living in their native Muslim country may not be reduced simply by wearing this garment. Indeed, from the findings we report, slight changes to the positioning of the hijab (the partially covered condition) produce perceptions of facial attractiveness that are no lower than when no hijab is worn, and this may have important implications for wearing the hijab in Muslim societies. Finally, we argue that the pattern of effects we observed is not explained by anti-Islamic feeling or cultural endogamy, and that a major contributory factor is that being fully covered by the hijab occludes external features, especially the hair and lateral parts of the head and face, which, when normally visible, provide a substantial perceptual contribution to human facial attractiveness.
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Abstract
Finding a face in a crowd is a real-world analog to visual search, but extending the visual search method to such complex social stimuli is rife with potential pitfalls. We need look no further than the well-cited notion that angry faces "pop out" of crowds to find evidence that stimulus confounds can lead to incorrect inferences. Indeed, long before the recent replication crisis in social psychology, stimulus confounds led to repeated demonstrations of spurious effects that were misattributed to adaptive cognitive design. We will first discuss how researchers refuted these errors with systematic "face in the crowd" experiments. We will then contend that these more careful studies revealed something that may actually be adaptive, but at the level of the signal: Happy facial expressions seem designed to be detected efficiently. We will close by suggesting that participant-level manipulations can be leveraged to reveal strategic shifts in performance in the visual search for complex stimuli such as faces. Because stimulus-level effects are held constant across such manipulations, the technique affords strong inferences about the psychological underpinnings of searching for a face in the crowd.
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Abstract
Working memory persists in the face of distraction, yet not without consequence. Previous research has shown that memory for low-level visual features is systematically influenced by the maintenance or presentation of a similar distractor stimulus. Responses are frequently biased in stimulus space towards a perceptual distractor, though this has yet to be determined for high-level stimuli. We investigated whether these influences are shared for complex visual stimuli such as faces. To quantify response accuracies for these stimuli, we used a delayed-estimation task with a computer-generated "face space" consisting of 80 faces that varied continuously as a function of age and sex. In a set of three experiments, we found that responses for a target face held in working memory were biased towards a distractor face presented during the maintenance period. The amount of response bias did not vary as a function of distance between target and distractor. Our data suggest that, similar to low-level visual features, high-level face representations in working memory are biased by the processing of related but task-irrelevant information.
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39
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What does a "face cell" want?'. Prog Neurobiol 2020; 195:101880. [PMID: 32918972 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2019] [Revised: 05/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In the 1970s Charlie Gross was among the first to identify neurons that respond selectively to faces, in the macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex. This seminal finding has been followed by numerous studies quantifying the visual features that trigger a response from face cells in order to answer the question; what do face cells want? However, the connection between face-selective activity in IT cortex and visual perception remains only partially understood. Here we present fMRI results in the macaque showing that some face patches respond to illusory facial features in objects. We argue that to fully understand the functional role of face cells, we need to develop approaches that test the extent to which their response explains what we see.
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Diego-Mas JA, Fuentes-Hurtado F, Naranjo V, Alcañiz M. The Influence of Each Facial Feature on How We Perceive and Interpret Human Faces. Iperception 2020; 11:2041669520961123. [PMID: 33062242 PMCID: PMC7533946 DOI: 10.1177/2041669520961123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2019] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial information is processed by our brain in such a way that we immediately make judgments about, for example, attractiveness or masculinity or interpret personality traits or moods of other people. The appearance of each facial feature has an effect on our perception of facial traits. This research addresses the problem of measuring the size of these effects for five facial features (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and jaw). Our proposal is a mixed feature-based and image-based approach that allows judgments to be made on complete real faces in the categorization tasks, more than on synthetic, noisy, or partial faces that can influence the assessment. Each facial feature of the faces is automatically classified considering their global appearance using principal component analysis. Using this procedure, we establish a reduced set of relevant specific attributes (each one describing a complete facial feature) to characterize faces. In this way, a more direct link can be established between perceived facial traits and what people intuitively consider an eye, an eyebrow, a nose, a mouth, or a jaw. A set of 92 male faces were classified using this procedure, and the results were related to their scores in 15 perceived facial traits. We show that the relevant features greatly depend on what we are trying to judge. Globally, the eyes have the greatest effect. However, other facial features are more relevant for some judgments like the mouth for happiness and femininity or the nose for dominance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jose A. Diego-Mas
- i3B—Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Felix Fuentes-Hurtado
- i3B—Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Valery Naranjo
- i3B—Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Mariano Alcañiz
- i3B—Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
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41
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Digit Recognition Based on Specialization, Decomposition and Holistic Processing. MACHINE LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE EXTRACTION 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/make2030015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
With the introduction of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and other classical algorithms, facial and object recognition have made significant progress. However, in a situation where there are few label examples or the environment is not ideal, such as lighting conditions, orientations, and so on, performance is disappointing. Various methods, such as data augmentation and image registration, have been used in an effort to improve accuracy; nonetheless, performance remains far from human efficiency. Advancement in cognitive science has provided us with valuable insight into how humans achieve high accuracy in identifying and discriminating between different faces and objects. These researches help us understand how the brain uses the features in the face to form a holistic representation and subsequently uses it to discriminate between faces. Our objective and contribution in this paper is to introduce a computational model that leverages these techniques, being used by our brain, to improve robustness and recognition accuracy. The hypothesis is that the biological model, our brain, achieves such high efficiency in face recognition because it is using a two-step process. We therefore postulate that, in the case of a handwritten digit, it will be easier for a learning model to learn invariant features and to generate a holistic representation than to perform classification. The model uses a variational autoencoder to generate holistic representation of handwritten digits and a Neural Network(NN) to classify them. The results obtained in this research show the effectiveness of decomposing the recognition tasks into two specialize sub-tasks, a generator, and a classifier.
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Orlandi A, Proverbio AM. ERP indices of an orientation-dependent recognition of the human body schema. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107535. [PMID: 32561310 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 06/10/2020] [Accepted: 06/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
While it is well-established that the face perception is orientation-dependent, less evidence has been provided on the effects of the orientation on the body schema processing and related attentive mechanisms. Poorer performance in same/different judgment tasks and increased occipito-temporal N1 response to the inverted (vs. upright) body schema seem to hint at an orientation-dependent perceptual mechanism. The present electrophysiological study investigated the role of attentive selection processes required to recognize the inverted (vs. upright) body schema by means of the event-related potentials (ERP). 320 different images depicting body shapes (wooden dummies) as opposed to random structures of cubes were created in 3D graphics. Thirty-two right-handed participants were presented with the stimuli in an upright and inverted orientation. They were required to alternatively recognize one of the two categories of stimuli (by button press) regardless of the orientation, during EEG recording. The body inversion led to increased reaction times during body schema recognition. A slower anterior N2, larger N1, Selection Negativity (SN), and increased parietal P300 components were elicited by the perception of the inverted body schema. Slower stimulus processing and increased attention allocation were associated with the processing of the inverted body schema. The swLORETA source reconstruction (in the SN time window) showed enhanced engagement of prefrontal, limbic, and temporal regions during the perception of the inverted body schema. At the same time, the cubes' orientation did not affect ERP amplitudes. Overall, these pieces of evidence seem to suggest a crucial role of the upright orientation in the visual recognition of the human body schema.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Orlandi
- Neuro-MI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Piazza Dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milan, Italy; Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.
| | - Alice Mado Proverbio
- Neuro-MI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Piazza Dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milan, Italy
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Eatherington CJ, Mongillo P, Lõoke M, Marinelli L. Dogs (Canis familiaris) recognise our faces in photographs: implications for existing and future research. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:711-719. [PMID: 32270351 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01382-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/03/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Dogs are an ideal species to investigate phylogenetic and ontogenetic factors contributing to face recognition. Previous research has found that dogs can recognise their owner using visual information about the person's face, presented live. However, a thorough investigation of face processing mechanisms requires the use of graphical representations and it currently remains unclear whether dogs are able to spontaneously recognise human faces in photographs. To test this, pet dogs (N = 60) were briefly separated from their owners and, to achieve reunion, they needed to select the location indicated by a photograph of their owner's face, rather than that of an unfamiliar person concurrently presented. Photographs were taken under optimal and suboptimal (non-frontally oriented and unevenly illuminated faces) conditions. Results revealed that dogs approached their owner significantly above chance level when presented with photos taken under optimal conditions. Further analysis revealed no difference in the probability of choosing the owner between the optimal and suboptimal conditions. Dogs were more likely to choose the owner if they directed a higher percentage of looking time towards the owner's photograph compared to the stranger's one. In addition, the longer the total viewing time of both photos, the higher the probability that dogs chose the stranger. A main effect of dogs' sex was also obtained, with a higher probability of male dogs choosing the owner's photograph. This study provides direct evidence that dogs are able to recognise their owner's face from photographs. The results imply that motion and three-dimensional information is not necessary for recognition. The findings also support the ecological valence of such stimuli and increase the validity of previous investigations into dog cognition that used two-dimensional representations of faces. The effects of attention may reflect differences at the individual level in attraction towards novel faces or in the recruitment of different face processing mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carla Jade Eatherington
- Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020, Legnaro, PD, Italy
| | - Paolo Mongillo
- Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020, Legnaro, PD, Italy.
| | - Miina Lõoke
- Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020, Legnaro, PD, Italy
| | - Lieta Marinelli
- Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020, Legnaro, PD, Italy
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44
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Spatio-temporal dynamics of face perception. Neuroimage 2020; 209:116531. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2019] [Revised: 12/19/2019] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
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Ritter V, Kaufmann JM, Krahmer F, Wiese H, Stangier U, Schweinberger SR. Neural Correlates of Own- and Other-Face Perception in Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Front Psychiatry 2020; 11:302. [PMID: 32395110 PMCID: PMC7196670 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2019] [Accepted: 03/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with one or more perceived flaws in one's own appearance. Previous studies provided evidence for deficits in configural and holistic processing in BDD. Preliminary evidence suggests abnormalities at an early stage of visual processing. The present study is the first examining early neurocognitive perception of the own face in BDD by using electroencephalography (EEG). We investigated the face inversion effect, in which inverted (upside-down) faces are disproportionately poorly processed compared to upright faces. This effect reflects a disruption of configural and holistic processing, and in consequence a preponderance of featural face processing. METHODS We recorded face-sensitive event-related potentials (ERPs) in 16 BDD patients and 16 healthy controls, all unmedicated. Participants viewed upright and inverted (upside-down) images of their own face and an unfamiliar other face, each in two facial emotional expressions (neutral vs. smiling). We calculated the early ERP components P100, N170, P200, N250, and the late positive component (LPC), and compared amplitudes among both groups. RESULTS In the early P100, no face inversion effects were found in both groups. In the N170, both groups exhibited the common face inversion effects, with significantly larger N170 amplitudes for inverted than upright faces. In the P200, both groups exhibited larger inversion effects to other (relative to own) faces, with larger P200 amplitudes for other upright than inverted faces. In the N250, no significant group differences were found in face processing. In the LPC, both groups exhibited larger inversion effects to other (relative to own) faces, with larger LPC amplitudes for other inverted than upright faces. These overall patterns appeared to be comparable for both groups. Smaller inversion effects to own (relative to other) faces were observed in none of these components in BDD, relative to controls. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest no evidence for abnormalities at all levels of early face processing in our observed sample of BDD patients. Further research should investigate the neural substrates underlying BDD symptomatology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viktoria Ritter
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Jürgen M Kaufmann
- Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Franziska Krahmer
- Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Holger Wiese
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Ulrich Stangier
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Stefan R Schweinberger
- Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
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46
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Yang X, Dunham Y. Hard to disrupt: Categorization and enumeration by gender and race from mixed displays. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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47
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Ölander K, Muukkonen I, Saarela TP, Salmela VR. Integration of facial features under memory load. Sci Rep 2019; 9:892. [PMID: 30696943 PMCID: PMC6351552 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37596-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2018] [Accepted: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple visual items and complex real-world objects are stored into visual working memory as a collection of independent features, not as whole or integrated objects. Storing faces into memory might differ, however, since previous studies have reported perceptual and memory advantage for whole faces compared to other objects. We investigated whether facial features can be integrated in a statistically optimal fashion and whether memory maintenance disrupts this integration. The observers adjusted a probe – either a whole face or isolated features (eyes or mouth region) – to match the identity of a target while viewing both stimuli simultaneously or after a 1.5 second retention period. Precision was better for the whole face compared to the isolated features. Perceptual precision was higher than memory precision, as expected, and memory precision further declined as the number of memorized items was increased from one to four. Interestingly, the whole-face precision was better predicted by models assuming injection of memory noise followed by integration of features than by models assuming integration of features followed by the memory noise. The results suggest equally weighted or optimal integration of facial features and indicate that feature information is preserved in visual working memory while remembering faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Ölander
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - I Muukkonen
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - T P Saarela
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - V R Salmela
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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48
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Fuentes-Hurtado F, Diego-Mas JA, Naranjo V, Alcañiz M. Automatic classification of human facial features based on their appearance. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0211314. [PMID: 30695076 PMCID: PMC6350975 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Accepted: 01/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Classification or typology systems used to categorize different human body parts have existed for many years. Nevertheless, there are very few taxonomies of facial features. Ergonomics, forensic anthropology, crime prevention or new human-machine interaction systems and online activities, like e-commerce, e-learning, games, dating or social networks, are fields in which classifications of facial features are useful, for example, to create digital interlocutors that optimize the interactions between human and machines. However, classifying isolated facial features is difficult for human observers. Previous works reported low inter-observer and intra-observer agreement in the evaluation of facial features. This work presents a computer-based procedure to automatically classify facial features based on their global appearance. This procedure deals with the difficulties associated with classifying features using judgements from human observers, and facilitates the development of taxonomies of facial features. Taxonomies obtained through this procedure are presented for eyes, mouths and noses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Fuentes-Hurtado
- I3B - Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
| | - Jose A. Diego-Mas
- I3B - Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Valery Naranjo
- I3B - Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
| | - Mariano Alcañiz
- I3B - Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
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49
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Galambos Á, Turcsán B, Oláh K, Elekes F, Gergely A, Király I, Topál J. Visual Fixation Patterns During Viewing of Half-Face Stimuli in Adults: An Eye-Tracking Study. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2478. [PMID: 30618923 PMCID: PMC6297881 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2018] [Accepted: 11/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Human faces play a special role in social cognition, since as a core signal of interpersonal communication, they convey various kinds of information (e.g., about sex, age, race, emotions, intentions). Study 1 aimed to explore how this specialization manifests itself in eye movements when looking at neutral, static, female faces. We monitored the gaze pattern of 23 adult participants using eye-tracking method. To test if template-driven processes are involved in face perception, and to see how inversion affects fixations on special facial stimuli, we presented vertically cut half-faces in upright and inverted positions (so half of each stimulus represented a half-face, whereas the other half was left blank). Our results corroborate prior findings consistently demonstrating the dominance of the triangular area marked by the eyes and the mouth, measured by the number and duration of fixations. In addition, we found evidence for so-called complementary fixations, targeted at the non-informative parts (i.e., the half that does not contain any facial information) of the pictures, suggesting that other mechanisms beyond purely stimulus-driven ones might drive looking behavior when scanning faces. Study 2 was intended to test if these systematic eye movements are face-specific or occur in case of other visual objects as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ágoston Galambos
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Borbála Turcsán
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Katalin Oláh
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Fruzsina Elekes
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anna Gergely
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ildikó Király
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - József Topál
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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50
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Sheen M, Aman Key Yekani H, Jordan TR. Investigating the effect of wearing the hijab: Perception of facial attractiveness by Emirati Muslim women living in their native Muslim country. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0199537. [PMID: 30289895 PMCID: PMC6173384 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2017] [Accepted: 06/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Hijab and other forms of Islamic veiling are important social, cultural, and religious symbols that are central to the identity of millions of Muslim women across the world. However, despite the large body of literature that exists on the political and socio-cultural aspects of Islamic veiling, little is known about how the appearance of women wearing the hijab is perceived by other Muslim women within their native Muslim country. To throw light on this important issue, the current study focussed on the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim Emirati women living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates) who themselves wore the hijab as everyday attire. Participants were shown frontal-head images of women in three different conditions: covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face), partially covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face and the hair around the forehead) and uncovered (heads with no covering). The findings showed that faces in images where heads were covered and partially covered by the hijab were rated as equally attractive but both were rated as significantly less attractive than faces in images where heads were uncovered. These findings suggest that, even for practising Muslim Emirati females living in their native Muslim country for whom wearing the hijab is a normal aspect of everyday life, perception of facial attractiveness is compromised by wearing this garment. We argue that this effect of wearing the hijab is not consistent with a preference for one's own cultural group (cultural endogamy) and may, instead, occur because wearing a hijab occludes external features, such as hair and ears, which normally contribute to the perception of human facial attractiveness. In sum, while wearing the hijab may be dominated by male attitudes towards suppressing female attractiveness towards males, the findings from this study suggest that female Muslims too perceive the negative influence of wearing the hijab on female facial attractiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Timothy R. Jordan
- Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus, Northern Cyprus
- * E-mail:
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