Williams NR, Willenbockel V, Gauthier I. Sensitivity to spatial frequency and orientation content is not specific to face perception.
Vision Res 2009;
49:2353-62. [PMID:
19576237 PMCID:
PMC2886984 DOI:
10.1016/j.visres.2009.06.019]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2009] [Revised: 06/16/2009] [Accepted: 06/18/2009] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Prior work using a matching task between images that were complementary in spatial frequency and orientation information suggested that the representation of faces, but not objects, retains low-level spatial frequency (SF) information [Biederman, I., & Kalocsai, P. (1997). Neurocomputational bases of object and face recognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B Biological Sciences, 352, 1203-1219]. In two experiments, we reexamine the claim that face perception is uniquely sensitive to changes in SF. In contrast to prior work, we used a design allowing the computation of sensitivity and response criterion for each category, and in one experiment, equalized low-level image properties across object categories. In both experiments, we find that observers are sensitive to SF and orientation changes for upright and inverted faces and non-face objects. Differential response biases across categories contributed to a larger sensitivity for faces, but even sensitivity showed a larger effect for faces, especially when faces were upright and in a front-facing view. However, when objects were inverted, or upright but shown in a three-quarter view, the matching of objects and faces was equally sensitive to SF changes. Accordingly, face perception does not appear to be uniquely affected by changes in spatial filter components.
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