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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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Sexton CL, Diogo R, Subiaul F, Bradley BJ. Raising an Eye at Facial Muscle Morphology in Canids. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:290. [PMID: 38785773 PMCID: PMC11118188 DOI: 10.3390/biology13050290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2024] [Revised: 04/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of facial muscles in dogs has been linked to human preferential selection of dogs whose faces appear to communicate information and emotion. Dogs who convey, especially with their eyes, a sense of perceived helplessness can elicit a caregiving response from humans. However, the facial muscles used to generate such expressions may not be uniquely present in all dogs, but rather specifically cultivated among various taxa and individuals. In a preliminary, qualitative gross anatomical evaluation of 10 canid specimens of various species, we find that the presence of two facial muscles previously implicated in human-directed canine communication, the levator anguli occuli medialis (LAOM) and the retractor anguli occuli lateralis (RAOL), was not unique to domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris). Our results suggest that these aspects of facial musculature do not necessarily reflect selection via human domestication and breeding. In addition to quantitatively evaluating more and other members of the Canidae family, future directions should include analyses of the impact of superficial facial features on canine communication and interspecies communication between dogs and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Courtney L. Sexton
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - Rui Diogo
- Department of Anatomy, Howard University School of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059, USA
| | - Francys Subiaul
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - Brenda J. Bradley
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
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Murray L. Ape recognition of familiar human faces changed by time and COVID-19 face masks. Heliyon 2024; 10:e27876. [PMID: 38586329 PMCID: PMC10998057 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27876] [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: 02/20/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Reports of primates being able to recognise familiar humans are rare in the literature and tend to be regarded as anecdotal. The COVID-19 pandemic created two unique conditions facilitating the observation of spontaneous face recognition in zoo apes: i) lengthy gaps in contact with human visitors due to lockdowns and zoo closures, and ii) the wearing of face masks obscuring at least half the face of familiar individuals. Here, I report on the historical context of the familiarity between a primatologist and individual apes of two species, how those apes consistently showed recognition of this particular human over a time span of up to thirty years, how facial recognition was extended to family members, and how recognition persisted even when a significant portion of the face was obscured by a mask. This constitutes, to my knowledge, the first documented cases of recognition of familiar human faces changed by time and COVID-19 face masks in two great ape species. Although based on just two individuals, the documentation of this ability is important because it arose in a more naturalistic and spontaneous context compared to typical face processing research in which primates are tested with experimental stimuli in a laboratory setting. Implications for face processing theory and applications for the therapeutic utility of faces are discussed. These observations provide insight into the evolutionary origins of face recognition and, sitting at the interface of science and society, are of interest to a wide audience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay Murray
- School of Psychology, University of Chester, Chester, CH1 4BJ, UK
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4
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Ibáñez-Berganza M, Lucibello C, Mariani L, Pezzulo G. Information-theoretical analysis of the neural code for decoupled face representation. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0295054. [PMID: 38277355 PMCID: PMC10817192 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Processing faces accurately and efficiently is a key capability of humans and other animals that engage in sophisticated social tasks. Recent studies reported a decoupled coding for faces in the primate inferotemporal cortex, with two separate neural populations coding for the geometric position of (texture-free) facial landmarks and for the image texture at fixed landmark positions, respectively. Here, we formally assess the efficiency of this decoupled coding by appealing to the information-theoretic notion of description length, which quantifies the amount of information that is saved when encoding novel facial images, with a given precision. We show that despite decoupled coding describes the facial images in terms of two sets of principal components (of landmark shape and image texture), it is more efficient (i.e., yields more information compression) than the encoding in terms of the image principal components only, which corresponds to the widely used eigenface method. The advantage of decoupled coding over eigenface coding increases with image resolution and is especially prominent when coding variants of training set images that only differ in facial expressions. Moreover, we demonstrate that decoupled coding entails better performance in three different tasks: the representation of facial images, the (daydream) sampling of novel facial images, and the recognition of facial identities and gender. In summary, our study provides a first principle perspective on the efficiency and accuracy of the decoupled coding of facial stimuli reported in the primate inferotemporal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel Ibáñez-Berganza
- IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Napoli, Italy
| | - Carlo Lucibello
- Institute for Data Science and Analytics, Bocconi University, Milano, Italy
| | - Luca Mariani
- Department of Physics “E. R. Caianiello”, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
| | - Giovanni Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Roma, Italy
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5
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Hanley CJ, Burns N, Thomas HR, Marstaller L, Burianová H. The effects of age bias on neural correlates of successful and unsuccessful response inhibition in younger and older adults. Neurobiol Aging 2023; 131:1-10. [PMID: 37535985 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.07.004] [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: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
Facilitating communication between generations has become increasingly important. However, individuals often demonstrate a preference for their own age group, which can impact social interactions, and such bias in young adults even extends to inhibitory control. To assess whether older adults also experience this phenomenon, a group of younger and older adults completed a Go/NoGo task incorporating young and old faces, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Within the networks subserving successful and unsuccessful response inhibition, patterns of activity demonstrated distinct neural age bias effects in each age group. During successful inhibition, the older adult group demonstrated significantly increased activity to other-age faces, whereas unsuccessful inhibition in the younger group produced significantly enhanced activity to other-age faces. Consequently, the findings of the study confirm that neural responses to successful and unsuccessful inhibition can be contingent on the stimulus-specific attribute of age in both younger and older adults. These findings have important implications in regard to minimizing the emergence of negative consequences, such as ageism, as a result of related implicit biases.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Natasha Burns
- School of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, UK; Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
| | - Hannah R Thomas
- School of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, UK; Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Lars Marstaller
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
| | - Hana Burianová
- School of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, UK; Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK; Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
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Kumar VA, Hulst van der RRWJ, Shome DD, Booi DI, Tandel HA, Mhatre PD. Multidimensional Indicators as Enablers on Perception of Facial Beauty and Appearance among Indian Population: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study. J Cutan Aesthet Surg 2023; 16:292-299. [PMID: 38314361 PMCID: PMC10833498 DOI: 10.4103/jcas.jcas_208_22] [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] [Indexed: 02/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Facial appearance has been a flagbearer of "beauty" since time immemorial. Perception of beauty is highly influenced by cultural, interpersonal, and intra-personal variations. Objectives This study aimed to assess the perception of facial beauty and appearance through multidimensional influencing indicators among the Indian population, and to determine whether the physically attractive person possesses more personal and socially desirable traits than the comparatively less attractive individual. Materials and Methods A study population of 474 with equal male and female population of Indian origin was selected. Their perception was assessed based on the prevalidated, self-administered questionnaire using a tool with five major multidimensional indicators. Six images were selected, three each of male and female subjects, and labeled as A, B, and C, in descending order of attractiveness. The multidimensional influencing indicator tool was self-administered to the participants and the responses were recorded individually. Results Photograph A scored the highest out of the three grading scales in both males and females. Conclusion The most attractive photograph, in both males and females, was deemed to be associated with higher scores of attractiveness and success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vaibhav Alok Kumar
- Department of Research, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Research, The Esthetic Clinics, Mumbai, India
- Department of Public Health Dentistry, GD Pol Foundation YMT Dental College, Navi Mumbai, India
| | - R R W J Hulst van der
- Department of Research, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Plastic Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
| | - Debraj Debabrata Shome
- Department of Facial Plastic Surgery and Facial Cosmetic Surgery, The Esthetic Clinics, Mumbai, India
| | - Darren I Booi
- Department of Plastic Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
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Törnqvist H, Höller H, Vsetecka K, Hoehl S, Kujala MV. Matters of development and experience: Evaluation of dog and human emotional expressions by children and adults. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288137. [PMID: 37494304 PMCID: PMC10370749 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Emotional facial expressions are an important part of across species social communication, yet the factors affecting human recognition of dog emotions have received limited attention. Here, we characterize the recognition and evaluation of dog and human emotional facial expressions by 4-and 6-year-old children and adult participants, as well as the effect of dog experience in emotion recognition. Participants rated the happiness, anger, valence, and arousal from happy, aggressive, and neutral facial images of dogs and humans. Both respondent age and experience influenced the dog emotion recognition and ratings. Aggressive dog faces were rated more often correctly by adults than 4-year-olds regardless of dog experience, whereas the 6-year-olds' and adults' performances did not differ. Happy human and dog expressions were recognized equally by all groups. Children rated aggressive dogs as more positive and lower in arousal than adults, and participants without dog experience rated aggressive dogs as more positive than those with dog experience. Children also rated aggressive dogs as more positive and lower in arousal than aggressive humans. The results confirm that recognition of dog emotions, especially aggression, increases with age, which can be related to general dog experience and brain structure maturation involved in facial emotion recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heini Törnqvist
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Hanna Höller
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Kerstin Vsetecka
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Stefanie Hoehl
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Miiamaaria V Kujala
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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Suwandschieff E, Mundry R, Kull K, Kreuzer L, Schwing R. 'Do I know you?' Categorizing individuals on the basis of familiarity in kea ( Nestor notabilis). ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230228. [PMID: 37351495 PMCID: PMC10282571 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023]
Abstract
Categorizing individuals on the basis of familiarity is an adaptive way of dealing with the complexity of the social environment. It requires the use of conceptual familiarity and is considered higher order learning. Although, it is common among many species, ecological need might require and facilitate individual differentiation among heterospecifics. This may be true for laboratory populations just as much as for domesticated species and those that live in urban contexts. However, with the exception of a few studies, populations of laboratory animals have generally been given less attention. The study at hand, therefore, addressed the question whether a laboratory population of kea parrots (Nestor notabilis) were able to apply the concept of familiarity to differentiate between human faces in a two-choice discrimination task on the touchscreen. The results illustrated that the laboratory population of kea were indeed able to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human faces in a two-choice discrimination task. The results provide novel empirical evidence on abstract categorization capacities in parrots while at the same time providing further evidence of representational insight in kea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Suwandschieff
- Research Station Haidlhof, Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Roger Mundry
- Research Station Haidlhof, Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- Platform Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Department for Primate Cognition, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Kristina Kull
- Research Station Haidlhof, Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Lena Kreuzer
- Research Station Haidlhof, Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Raoul Schwing
- Research Station Haidlhof, Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
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Langbein J, Moreno-Zambrano M, Siebert K. How do goats "read" 2D-images of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics? Front Psychol 2023; 14:1089566. [PMID: 37275711 PMCID: PMC10236219 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1089566] [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: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023] Open
Abstract
To study individual recognition in animals, discrimination tasks are often conducted by presenting 2D images of real conspecifics. However, animals may discriminate the images merely as visual stimulus combinations without establishing referential relationships to the individuals depicted. In the current study, we investigated whether goats are able to discriminate photos of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics, whether they not only process the photos as visual stimuli, but also understand them as virtual copies of real conspecifics and whether they grasp the concept of familiarity. Using a computer-controlled learning device, in three tests, goats of two experimental groups (A and B) had to discriminate portrait (Te1), profile (Te2) or headless body photos (Te3) of conspecifics. Tests were presented as 4-choice tasks, with one photo from Group A (rewarded) plus three photos from Group B (distractors). That is, the rewarded photo was familiar to Group A, but unfamiliar to Group B. Finally, in a reversal test (Te4) we reversed this principle. The goats learned the discriminations in Te1 to Te3 within two (Te1 and Te2) and three training days (Te3), respectively, and they needed between 91 [CL (66, 126)] and 174 [CL (126, 241)] trials to reach the learning criterion, with no statistically significant differences between the groups. In Te4, in contrast, the animals took 403 [Group A; CL (291, 557)] and 385 [Group B; CL (286, 519)] trials, respectively, to learn the task. The lack of spontaneous preferences for the photo of the familiar conspecific in the pretests of Te1 to Te3 in Group A, as well as the lack of differences in the number of trials to learn the discriminations between both groups, do not at first glance suggest that the goats established a correspondence between real conspecifics and their 2D representations. However, the higher number of trials in Te4 suggests that both groups formed the learning rule of choosing either the known (Group A) or the unknown goat (Group B) over the course of Te1 to Te3 and then failed after the rule was reversed, providing evidence that goats can associate 2D photos of conspecifics with real animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Langbein
- Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Dummerstorf, Germany
| | - Mauricio Moreno-Zambrano
- Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Institute of Genetics and Biometry, Dummerstorf, Germany
| | - Katrin Siebert
- Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Dummerstorf, Germany
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10
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Sogawa S, Fukushima R, Sowersby W, Awata S, Kawasaka K, Kohda M. Male Guppies Recognize Familiar Conspecific Males by Their Face. Zoolog Sci 2023; 40:168-174. [PMID: 37042696 DOI: 10.2108/zs220088] [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: 10/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2023]
Abstract
Individual recognition is a necessary cognitive ability for the maintenance of stable social relationships. Recent studies have shown that like primates, some fish species can distinguish familiar fish from unfamiliar strangers via face-recognition. However, the taxa of the studied fish species are restricted (within Perciformes) and the visual signal used for the recognition of fish remains unclear. Here, we investigated the visual signal for individual-recognition in males of a sexually dichromatic guppy (Poecilia reticulata, Cyprinodontiformes). Using guppy males, we examined the hypothesis that fish distinguish between familiar individuals and unknown strangers by their faces rather than by body coloration. We randomly presented focal fish with four types of composite photo-models: familiar (familiar-face and familiar-body = F/F), stranger (stranger-face and stranger-body = S/S), familiar face combined with stranger body (F/S) and stranger face combined with familiar body (S/F). Focal males infrequently attacked familiar-face models but frequently attacked stranger-face models, regardless of body types. These behavioral reactions indicate that guppy males discriminate between familiar and stranger males by their face, not body coloration with wide variation. Importantly, male faces contain clear individual-variation in white/metallic colored patches on the operculum visible for humans. Considering the photo-model, our results suggest that these patches might be an important visual stimulus for face-recognition in guppy males, like some cichlids. Comparative examination among males of different guppy variants, including wild type phenotype, suggests that the face color-patch is stable regardless of variation in body color, with a different genetic mechanism potentially underlying face and body colors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shumpei Sogawa
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Rio Fukushima
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Will Sowersby
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Satoshi Awata
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Kento Kawasaka
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Masanori Kohda
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan,
- Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
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Visual perception of emotion cues in dogs: a critical review of methodologies. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:727-754. [PMID: 36870003 PMCID: PMC10066124 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01762-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Revised: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
Comparative studies of human-dog cognition have grown exponentially since the 2000's, but the focus on how dogs look at us (as well as other dogs) as social partners is a more recent phenomenon despite its importance to human-dog interactions. Here, we briefly summarise the current state of research in visual perception of emotion cues in dogs and why this area is important; we then critically review its most commonly used methods, by discussing conceptual and methodological challenges and associated limitations in depth; finally, we suggest some possible solutions and recommend best practice for future research. Typically, most studies in this field have concentrated on facial emotional cues, with full body information rarely considered. There are many challenges in the way studies are conceptually designed (e.g., use of non-naturalistic stimuli) and the way researchers incorporate biases (e.g., anthropomorphism) into experimental designs, which may lead to problematic conclusions. However, technological and scientific advances offer the opportunity to gather much more valid, objective, and systematic data in this rapidly expanding field of study. Solving conceptual and methodological challenges in the field of emotion perception research in dogs will not only be beneficial in improving research in dog-human interactions, but also within the comparative psychology area, in which dogs are an important model species to study evolutionary processes.
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Pardo-Sanchez J, Tibbetts EA. Social experience drives the development of holistic face processing in paper wasps. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:465-476. [PMID: 36066686 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01666-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Most recognition is based on identifying features, but specialization for face recognition in some taxa relies on a different mechanism, termed 'holistic processing' where facial features are bound together into a gestalt which is more than the sum of its parts. Although previous work suggests that extensive experience may be required for the development of holistic processing, we lack experiments that test how age and experience interact to influence holistic processing. Here, we test how age and experience influence the development of holistic face processing in Polistes fuscatus paper wasps. Previous work has shown that P. fuscatus use facial patterns to individually identify conspecifics and wasps use holistic processing to discriminate between conspecific faces. We tested face processing in three groups of P. fuscatus: young (1-week-old), older, experienced (2-weeks-old, normal experience), and older, inexperienced (2-weeks-old, 1 week normal social experience and 1 week social isolation). Older, experienced wasps used holistic processing to discriminate between conspecific faces. In contrast, older inexperienced wasps used featural rather than holistic mechanisms to discriminate between faces. Young wasps show some evidence of holistic face processing, but this ability was less refined than older, experienced wasps. Notably, wasps only required 2 weeks of normal experience to develop holistic processing, while previous work suggests that humans may require years of experience. Overall, P. fuscatus wasps rapidly develop holistic processing for conspecific faces. Experience rather than age facilitates the transition between featural and holistic face processing mechanisms.
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13
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Huang Y. Dynamic Face Perception: The Role of Expertise in Dual Processing of Features and Configuration. JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE LIFE SCIENCES 2023. [DOI: 10.33137/juls.v16i1.40382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/25/2023]
Abstract
Face perception is the basis of many types of social information exchange, but there is controversy over its underlying mechanisms. Researchers have theorized two processing pathways underlying facial perception: configural processing and featural processing. Featural processing focuses on the individual features of a face, whereas configural processing focuses on the spatial relations of features. To resolve the debate on the relative contribution of the two pathways in face perception, researchers have proposed a dual processing model that the two pathways contribute to two different perceptions, detecting face-like patterns and identifying individual faces. The dual processing model is based on face perception experiments that primarily use static faces. As we mostly interact with dynamic faces in real life, the generalization of the model to dynamic faces will advance our understanding of how faces are perceived in real life. This paper proposes a refined dual processing model of dynamic face perception, in which expertise in dynamic face perception supports identifying individual faces, and it is a learned behaviour that develops with age. Specifically, facial motions account for the advantages of dynamic faces, compared to static faces. This paper highlights two intrinsic characteristics of facial motions that enable the advantages of dynamic faces in face perception. Firstly, facial motion provides facial information from various viewpoints, and thus supports the generalization of face perception to the unlearned view of faces. Secondly, distinctive motion patterns serve as a cue to the identity of the face.
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Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2208420120. [PMID: 36745814 PMCID: PMC9963968 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2208420120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Some animals have the remarkable capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), yet any implications for self-awareness remain uncertain and controversial. This is largely because explicit tests of the two potential mechanisms underlying MSR are still lacking: mental image of the self and kinesthetic visual matching. Here, we test the hypothesis that MSR ability in cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, is associated with a mental image of the self, in particular the self-face, like in humans. Mirror-naive fish initially attacked photograph models of both themselves and unfamiliar strangers. In contrast, after all fish had passed the mirror mark test, fish did not attack their own (motionless) images, but still frequently attacked those of unfamiliar individuals. When fish were exposed to composite photographs, the self-face/unfamiliar body were not attacked, but photographs of unfamiliar face/self-body were attacked, demonstrating that cleaner fish with MSR capacity recognize their own facial characteristics in photographs. Additionally, when presented with self-photographs with a mark placed on the throat, unmarked mirror-experienced cleaner fish demonstrated throat-scraping behaviors. When combined, our results provide clear evidence that cleaner fish recognize themselves in photographs and that the likely mechanism for MSR is associated with a mental image of the self-face, not a kinesthetic visual-matching model. Humans are also capable of having a mental image of the self-face, which is considered an example of private self-awareness. We demonstrate that combining mirror test experiments with photographs has enormous potential to further our understanding of the evolution of cognitive processes and private self-awareness across nonhuman animals.
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15
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Camcı H, Salmanpour F. Comparing the esthetic impact of virtual mandibular advancement, bichectomy, jawline, and their combination. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2023; 163:756-765. [PMID: 36646559 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajodo.2022.06.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of mandibular advancement (MA), bichectomy, jawline, and their combination on facial attractiveness. The 3-dimensional (3D) visual sculpting is a method to perform the task. METHODS FaceBuilder software, a Blender 2.93 LTS add-on, was used to generate a 3D head and face model of a female patient with Class II Division I malocclusion. MA, bichectomy, jawline, and combination modifications were performed on the model using a 3D virtual sculpting tab, and 4 new head models were created. Five hundred thirteen participants scored lateral and frontal views of the modified and reference models. The Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Wilcoxon tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS MA modification received the highest frontal and lateral image scores. The raters found the jawline frontal photograph to be the least attractive. Significant differences were observed between the lateral and frontal attractiveness scores in all modifications except bichectomy. The combination of 3 modifications in both frontal and lateral images received the second-lowest score. CONCLUSIONS Facial esthetic modifications receive different attractiveness scores in lateral or frontal evaluations. MA outperforms bichectomy and jawline augmentation in terms of improving facial attractiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Camcı
- Department of Orthodontics, Afyonkarahisar Health Science University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
| | - Farhad Salmanpour
- Department of Orthodontics, Afyonkarahisar Health Science University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
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16
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Jiang Y, Sheng F, Belkaya N, Platt ML. Oxytocin and testosterone administration amplify viewing preferences for sexual images in male rhesus macaques. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210133. [PMID: 35858095 PMCID: PMC9272140 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Social stimuli, like faces, and sexual stimuli, like genitalia, spontaneously attract visual attention in both human and non-human primates. Social orienting behaviour is thought to be modulated by neuropeptides as well as sex hormones. Using a free viewing task in which paired images of monkey faces and anogenital regions were presented simultaneously, we found that male rhesus macaques overwhelmingly preferred to view images of anogenital regions over faces. They were more likely to make an initial gaze shift towards, and spent more time viewing, anogenital regions compared with faces, and this preference was accompanied by relatively constricted pupils. On face images, monkeys mostly fixated on the forehead and eyes. These viewing preferences were found for images of both males and females. Both oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide linked to social bonding and affiliation, and testosterone (TE), a sex hormone implicated in mating and aggression, amplified the pre-existing orienting bias for female genitalia over female faces; neither treatment altered the viewing preference for male anogenital regions over male faces. Testosterone but not OT increased the probability of monkeys making the first gaze shift towards female anogenital rather than face pictures, with the strongest effects on anogenital images of young and unfamiliar females. Finally, both OT and TE promoted viewing of the forehead region of both female and male faces, which display sexual skins, but decreased the relative salience of the eyes of older males. Together, these results invite the hypothesis that both OT and TE regulate reproductive behaviours by acting as a gain control on the visual orienting network to increase attention to mating-relevant signals in the environment. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interplays between oxytocin and other neuromodulators in shaping complex social behaviours’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaoguang Jiang
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Feng Sheng
- Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- School of Management and MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science & Brain–Machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China
| | - Naz Belkaya
- Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Lisbon, 1400-038, Portugal
| | - Michael L. Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Marketing Department, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
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17
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Abassi Abu Rukab S, Khayat N, Hochstein S. High-level visual search in children with autism. J Vis 2022; 22:6. [PMID: 35994261 PMCID: PMC9419456 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.9.6] [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] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual search has been classified as easy feature search, with rapid target detection and little set size dependence, versus slower difficult search with focused attention, with set size–dependent speed. Reverse hierarchy theory attributes these classes to rapid high cortical-level vision at a glance versus low-level vision with scrutiny, attributing easy search to high-level representations. Accordingly, faces “pop out” of heterogeneous object photographs. Individuals with autism have difficulties recognizing faces, and we now asked if this disability disturbs their search for faces. We compare search times and set size slopes for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and those with neurotypical development (NT) when searching for faces. Human face targets were found rapidly, with shallow set size slopes. The between-group difference between slopes (18.8 vs. 11.3 ms/item) is significant, suggesting that faces may not “pop out” as easily, but in our view does not warrant classifying ASD face search as categorically different from that of NT children. We also tested search for different target categories, dog and lion faces, and nonface basic categories, cars and houses. The ASD group was generally a bit slower than the NT group, and their slopes were somewhat steeper. Nevertheless, the overall dependencies on target category were similar: human face search fastest, nonface categories slowest, and dog and lion faces in between. We conclude that autism may spare vision at a glance, including face detection, despite its reported effects on face recognition, which may require vision with scrutiny. This dichotomy is consistent with the two perceptual modes suggested by reverse hierarchy theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Safa'a Abassi Abu Rukab
- ELSC Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Research and Silberman Institute for Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.,
| | - Noam Khayat
- ELSC Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Research and Silberman Institute for Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.,
| | - Shaul Hochstein
- ELSC Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Research and Silberman Institute for Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.,
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18
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Yorgancigil E, Yildirim F, Urgen BA, Erdogan SB. An Exploratory Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Human-Robot Interactions With Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:883905. [PMID: 35923750 PMCID: PMC9339604 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.883905] [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: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been gaining increasing interest as a practical mobile functional brain imaging technology for understanding the neural correlates of social cognition and emotional processing in the human prefrontal cortex (PFC). Considering the cognitive complexity of human-robot interactions, the aim of this study was to explore the neural correlates of emotional processing of congruent and incongruent pairs of human and robot audio-visual stimuli in the human PFC with fNIRS methodology. Hemodynamic responses from the PFC region of 29 subjects were recorded with fNIRS during an experimental paradigm which consisted of auditory and visual presentation of human and robot stimuli. Distinct neural responses to human and robot stimuli were detected at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) regions. Presentation of robot voice elicited significantly less hemodynamic response than presentation of human voice in a left OFC channel. Meanwhile, processing of human faces elicited significantly higher hemodynamic activity when compared to processing of robot faces in two left DLPFC channels and a left OFC channel. Significant correlation between the hemodynamic and behavioral responses for the face-voice mismatch effect was found in the left OFC. Our results highlight the potential of fNIRS for unraveling the neural processing of human and robot audio-visual stimuli, which might enable optimization of social robot designs and contribute to elucidation of the neural processing of human and robot stimuli in the PFC in naturalistic conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emre Yorgancigil
- Department of Medical Engineering, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul, Turkey
- *Correspondence: Emre Yorgancigil
| | - Funda Yildirim
- Cognitive Science Master's Program, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Department of Computer Engineering, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Burcu A. Urgen
- Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Ankara, Turkey
| | - Sinem Burcu Erdogan
- Department of Medical Engineering, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul, Turkey
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19
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Towards facial recognition using likelihood ratio approach to facial landmark indices from images. FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL: REPORTS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.fsir.2021.100254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
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20
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Raghunath BL, Sng KHL, Chen SHA, Vijayaragavan V, Gulyás B, Setoh P, Esposito G. Stronger brain activation for own baby but similar activation toward babies of own and different ethnicities in parents living in a multicultural environment. Sci Rep 2022; 12:10988. [PMID: 35768627 PMCID: PMC9243063 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15289-1] [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: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Specific facial features in infants automatically elicit attention, affection, and nurturing behaviour of adults, known as the baby schema effect. There is also an innate tendency to categorize people into in-group and out-group members based on salient features such as ethnicity. Societies are becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, and there are limited investigations into the underlying neural mechanism of the baby schema effect in a multi-ethnic context. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine parents' (N = 27) neural responses to (a) non-own ethnic in-group and out-group infants, (b) non-own in-group and own infants, and (c) non-own out-group and own infants. Parents showed similar brain activations, regardless of ethnicity and kinship, in regions associated with attention, reward processing, empathy, memory, goal-directed action planning, and social cognition. The same regions were activated to a higher degree when viewing the parents' own infant. These findings contribute further understanding to the dynamics of baby schema effect in an increasingly interconnected social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bindiya Lakshmi Raghunath
- Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Kelly Hwee Leng Sng
- Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - S H Annabel Chen
- Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Office of Educational Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Vimalan Vijayaragavan
- Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Balázs Gulyás
- Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Peipei Setoh
- Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Gianluca Esposito
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
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21
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Gaze direction and face orientation modulate perceptual sensitivity to faces under interocular suppression. Sci Rep 2022; 12:7640. [PMID: 35538138 PMCID: PMC9090921 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11717-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Faces convey information essential for social interaction. Their importance has prompted suggestions that some facial features may be processed unconsciously. Although some studies have provided empirical support for this idea, it remains unclear whether these findings were due to perceptual processing or to post-perceptual decisional factors. Evidence for unconscious processing of facial features has predominantly come from the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (b-CFS) paradigm, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. For example, previous studies have found that upright faces are reported faster than inverted faces, and direct-gaze faces are reported faster than averted-gaze faces. However, this procedure suffers from important problems: observers can decide how much information they receive before committing to a report, so their detection responses may be influenced by differences in decision criteria and by stimulus identification. Here, we developed a new procedure that uses predefined exposure durations, enabling independent measurement of perceptual sensitivity and decision criteria. We found higher detection sensitivity to both upright and direct-gaze (compared to inverted and averted-gaze) faces, with no effects on decisional factors. For identification, we found both greater sensitivity and more liberal criteria for upright faces. Our findings demonstrate that face orientation and gaze direction influence perceptual sensitivity, indicating that these facial features may be processed unconsciously.
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22
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Hanley CJ, Burns N, Thomas HR, Marstaller L, Burianová H. The effects of age-bias on neural correlates of successful and unsuccessful response inhibition. Behav Brain Res 2022; 428:113877. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Revised: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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23
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Behrmann M, Avidan G. Face perception: computational insights from phylogeny. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:350-363. [PMID: 35232662 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.01.006] [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: 02/01/2021] [Revised: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Studies of face perception in primates elucidate the psychological and neural mechanisms that support this critical and complex ability. Recent progress in characterizing face perception across species, for example in insects and reptiles, has highlighted the ubiquity over phylogeny of this key ability for social interactions and survival. Here, we review the competence in face perception across species and the types of computation that support this behavior. We conclude that the computational complexity of face perception evinced by a species is not related to phylogenetic status and is, instead, largely a product of environmental context and social and adaptive pressures. Integrating findings across evolutionary data permits the derivation of computational principles that shed further light on primate face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlene Behrmann
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
| | - Galia Avidan
- Department of Psychology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
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24
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Zeng Y, Wang X, Silveira S, von Trott Zu Solz J, Simmank F, Zaytseva Y, Bao Y, Paolini M. Symmetric in the striate but asymmetric in the extrastriate cortex when processing three-quarter faces: Neural underpinnings for aesthetic appreciations. Psych J 2022; 11:720-728. [PMID: 35359029 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.539] [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: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Faces and their aesthetic appreciation are a core element of social interaction. Although studies have been made on facial processing when looking at faces with different perspectives, a direct comparison of faces in the left to the right perspective is missing. Portraits in classical Western art indicate a preference of the left compared to the right perspective, but the neural underpinnings of such an asymmetry still have to be clarified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current study focuses on the processing of three-quarter faces seen with different perspectives. Seventeen participants were asked to passively look at photographs of six male and six female faces with a neutral expression; the photographs were taken from the left, right, and frontal perspectives while keeping their focus on the eyes. The results showed that specific brain areas were involved in processing the three-quarter faces in either symmetric or asymmetric ways. Viewing left and right three-quarter faces resulted in two mirror-like activations in the striate cortex corresponding to the symmetric layout of the left and right perspectives. Viewing the left face resulted additionally in an enhanced activation also in the left extrastriate cortex. The right perspective of male faces elicited a lower activation compared to other perspectives in face-selective areas of the brain. Our findings suggest that the preference of the left three-quarter face emerges already in the early visual pathway presumably prior to facial identification, emotional processing, and aesthetic appreciation. Our observations may have general importance in disentangling different neural components and processing stages in the spatiotemporal characteristics of artistic expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifan Zeng
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Xuanyu Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sarita Silveira
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Social Neuroscience Lab, Max-Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jana von Trott Zu Solz
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fabian Simmank
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Yuliya Zaytseva
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.,Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Marco Paolini
- Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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25
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Battaglia S, Fabius JH, Moravkova K, Fracasso A, Borgomaneri S. The Neurobiological Correlates of Gaze Perception in Healthy Individuals and Neurologic Patients. Biomedicines 2022; 10:biomedicines10030627. [PMID: 35327431 PMCID: PMC8945205 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines10030627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/05/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to adaptively follow conspecific eye movements is crucial for establishing shared attention and survival. Indeed, in humans, interacting with the gaze direction of others causes the reflexive orienting of attention and the faster object detection of the signaled spatial location. The behavioral evidence of this phenomenon is called gaze-cueing. Although this effect can be conceived as automatic and reflexive, gaze-cueing is often susceptible to context. In fact, gaze-cueing was shown to interact with other factors that characterize facial stimulus, such as the kind of cue that induces attention orienting (i.e., gaze or non-symbolic cues) or the emotional expression conveyed by the gaze cues. Here, we address neuroimaging evidence, investigating the neural bases of gaze-cueing and the perception of gaze direction and how contextual factors interact with the gaze shift of attention. Evidence from neuroimaging, as well as the fields of non-invasive brain stimulation and neurologic patients, highlights the involvement of the amygdala and the superior temporal lobe (especially the superior temporal sulcus (STS)) in gaze perception. However, in this review, we also emphasized the discrepancies of the attempts to characterize the distinct functional roles of the regions in the processing of gaze. Finally, we conclude by presenting the notion of invariant representation and underline its value as a conceptual framework for the future characterization of the perceptual processing of gaze within the STS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Battaglia
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy
- Correspondence: (S.B.); (S.B.)
| | - Jasper H. Fabius
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G128QB, UK; (J.H.F.); (K.M.); (A.F.)
| | - Katarina Moravkova
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G128QB, UK; (J.H.F.); (K.M.); (A.F.)
| | - Alessio Fracasso
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G128QB, UK; (J.H.F.); (K.M.); (A.F.)
| | - Sara Borgomaneri
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy
- IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Correspondence: (S.B.); (S.B.)
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26
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Gonçalves A, Hattori Y, Adachi I. Staring death in the face: chimpanzees' attention towards conspecific skulls and the implications of a face module guiding their behaviour. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:210349. [PMID: 35345434 PMCID: PMC8941397 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Chimpanzees exhibit a variety of behaviours surrounding their dead, although much less is known about how they respond towards conspecific skeletons. We tested chimpanzees' visual attention to images of conspecific and non-conspecific stimuli (cat/chimp/dog/rat), shown simultaneously in four corners of a screen in distinct orientations (frontal/diagonal/lateral) of either one of three types (faces/skulls/skull-shaped stones). Additionally, we compared their visual attention towards chimpanzee-only stimuli (faces/skulls/skull-shaped stones). Lastly, we tested their attention towards specific regions of chimpanzee skulls. We theorized that chimpanzee skulls retaining face-like features would be perceived similarly to chimpanzee faces and thus be subjected to similar biases. Overall, supporting our hypotheses, the chimpanzees preferred conspecific-related stimuli. The results showed that chimpanzees attended: (i) significantly longer towards conspecific skulls than other species skulls (particularly in forward-facing and to a lesser extent diagonal orientations); (ii) significantly longer towards conspecific faces than other species faces at forward-facing and diagonal orientations; (iii) longer towards chimpanzee faces compared with chimpanzee skulls and skull-shaped stones, and (iv) attended significantly longer to the teeth, similar to findings for elephants. We suggest that chimpanzee skulls retain relevant, face-like features that arguably activate a domain-specific face module in chimpanzees' brains, guiding their attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- André Gonçalves
- Language and Intelligence Section, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 484-8506 Aichi, Japan
| | - Yuko Hattori
- Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 484-8506 Aichi, Japan
| | - Ikuma Adachi
- Language and Intelligence Section, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 484-8506 Aichi, Japan
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27
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Leopold DA, Averbeck BB. Self-tuition as an essential design feature of the brain. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200530. [PMID: 34957855 PMCID: PMC8710880 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
We are curious by nature, particularly when young. Evolution has endowed our brain with an inbuilt obligation to educate itself. In this perspectives article, we posit that self-tuition is an evolved principle of vertebrate brain design that is reflected in its basic architecture and critical for its normal development. Self-tuition involves coordination between functionally distinct components of the brain, with one set of areas motivating exploration that leads to the experiences that train another set. We review key hypothalamic and telencephalic structures involved in this interplay, including their anatomical connections and placement within the segmental architecture of conserved forebrain circuits. We discuss the nature of educative behaviours motivated by the hypothalamus, innate stimulus biases, the relationship to survival in early life, and mechanisms by which telencephalic areas gradually accumulate knowledge. We argue that this aspect of brain function is of paramount importance for systems neuroscience, as it confers neural specialization and allows animals to attain far more sophisticated behaviours than would be possible through genetic mechanisms alone. Self-tuition is of particular importance in humans and other primates, whose large brains and complex social cognition rely critically on experience-based learning during a protracted childhood period. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Systems neuroscience through the lens of evolutionary theory’.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A Leopold
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.,Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Bruno B Averbeck
- Section on Learning and Decision Making, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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28
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Adiletta A, Pedrana S, Rosa-Salva O, Sgadò P. Spontaneous Visual Preference for Face-Like Stimuli Is Impaired in Newly-Hatched Domestic Chicks Exposed to Valproic Acid During Embryogenesis. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:733140. [PMID: 34858146 PMCID: PMC8632556 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.733140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Faces convey a great amount of socially relevant information related to emotional and mental states, identity and intention. Processing of face information is a key mechanism for social and cognitive development, such that newborn babies are already tuned to recognize and orient to faces and simple schematic face-like patterns since the first hours of life. Similar to neonates, also non-human primates and domestic chicks have been shown to express orienting responses to faces and schematic face-like patterns. More importantly, existing studies have hypothesized that early disturbances of these mechanisms represent one of the earliest biomarker of social deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We used VPA exposure to induce neurodevelopmental changes associated with ASD in domestic chicks and tested whether VPA could impact the expression of the animals’ approach responses to schematic face-like stimuli. We found that VPA impairs the chicks’ preference responses to these social stimuli. Based on the results shown here and on previous studies, we propose the domestic chick as animal model to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying face processing deficits in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Adiletta
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Samantha Pedrana
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Orsola Rosa-Salva
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Paola Sgadò
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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Facial cues to physical strength increase attractiveness but decrease aggressiveness assessments in male Maasai of Northern Tanzania. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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30
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Human face and gaze perception is highly context specific and involves bottom-up and top-down neural processing. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 132:304-323. [PMID: 34861296 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.11.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
This review summarizes human perception and processing of face and gaze signals. Face and gaze signals are important means of non-verbal social communication. The review highlights that: (1) some evidence is available suggesting that the perception and processing of facial information starts in the prenatal period; (2) the perception and processing of face identity, expression and gaze direction is highly context specific, the effect of race and culture being a case in point. Culture affects by means of experiential shaping and social categorization the way in which information on face and gaze is collected and perceived; (3) face and gaze processing occurs in the so-called 'social brain'. Accumulating evidence suggests that the processing of facial identity, facial emotional expression and gaze involves two parallel and interacting pathways: a fast and crude subcortical route and a slower cortical pathway. The flow of information is bi-directional and includes bottom-up and top-down processing. The cortical networks particularly include the fusiform gyrus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), intraparietal sulcus, temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex.
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Entzmann L, Guyader N, Kauffmann L, Lenouvel J, Charles C, Peyrin C, Vuillaume R, Mermillod M. The Role of Emotional Content and Perceptual Saliency During the Programming of Saccades Toward Faces. Cogn Sci 2021; 45:e13042. [PMID: 34606110 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13042] [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: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 06/22/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that the human visual system can detect a face and elicit a saccadic eye movement toward it very efficiently compared to other categories of visual stimuli. In the first experiment, we tested the influence of facial expressions on fast face detection using a saccadic choice task. Face-vehicle pairs were simultaneously presented and participants were asked to saccade toward the target (the face or the vehicle). We observed that saccades toward faces were initiated faster, and more often in the correct direction, than saccades toward vehicles, regardless of the facial expressions (happy, fearful, or neutral). We also observed that saccade endpoints on face images were lower when the face was happy and higher when it was neutral. In the second experiment, we explicitly tested the detection of facial expressions. We used a saccadic choice task with emotional-neutral pairs of faces and participants were asked to saccade toward the emotional (happy or fearful) or the neutral face. Participants were faster when they were asked to saccade toward the emotional face. They also made fewer errors, especially when the emotional face was happy. Using computational modeling, we showed that this happy face advantage can, at least partly, be explained by perceptual factors. Also, saccade endpoints were lower when the target was happy than when it was fearful. Overall, we suggest that there is no automatic prioritization of emotional faces, at least for saccades with short latencies, but that salient local face features can automatically attract attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Léa Entzmann
- LPNC, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc.,GIPSA-lab, Université Grenoble Alpes CNRS Grenoble INP
| | | | - Louise Kauffmann
- LPNC, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc
| | | | - Clémence Charles
- LPNC, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc
| | - Carole Peyrin
- LPNC, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc
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32
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Kawaguchi Y, Tomonaga M, Adachi I. No evidence of spatial representation of age, but "own-age bias" like face processing found in chimpanzees. Anim Cogn 2021; 25:415-424. [PMID: 34601661 PMCID: PMC8940789 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01564-7] [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: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have revealed that non-human primates can differentiate the age category of faces. However, the knowledge about age recognition in non-human primates is very limited and whether non-human primates can process facial age information in a similar way to humans is unknown. As humans have an association between time and space (e.g., a person in an earlier life stage to the left and a person in a later life stage to the right), we investigated whether chimpanzees spatially represent conspecifics’ adult and infant faces. Chimpanzees were tested using an identical matching-to-sample task with conspecific adult and infant face stimuli. Two comparison images were presented vertically (Experiment 1) or horizontally (Experiment 2). We analyzed whether the response time was influenced by the position and age category of the target stimuli, but there was no evidence of correspondence between space and adult/infant faces. Thus, evidence of the spatial representation of the age category was not found. However, we did find that the response time was consistently faster when they discriminated between adult faces than when they discriminated between infant faces in both experiments. This result is in line with a series of human face studies that suggest the existence of an “own-age bias.” As far as we know, this is the first report of asymmetric face processing efficiency between infant and adult faces in non-human primates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri Kawaguchi
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria. .,Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan. .,Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan.
| | | | - Ikuma Adachi
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan
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Thielgen MM, Schade S, Bosé C. Face processing in police service: the relationship between laboratory-based assessment of face processing abilities and performance in a real-world identity matching task. COGNITIVE RESEARCH-PRINCIPLES AND IMPLICATIONS 2021; 6:54. [PMID: 34351527 PMCID: PMC8342700 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00317-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated whether police officers’ performance in searching for unfamiliar faces in a video-based real-world task is predicted by laboratory-based face processing tests that are typically used to assess individual differences in face processing abilities. Specifically, perceptual performance in the field was operationalized via the identification of target individuals in self-made close-circuit television (CCTV) video tapes. Police officers’ abilities in the laboratory were measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test long form (CFMT+). We hypothesized that the CFMT+ predicts individual differences in the CCTV task performance. A total of N = 186 police officers of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Police participated in the study (i.e., N = 139 novice and advanced cadets with either 3 months, 15 months or 24 months of pre-service experience; N = 47 experienced police officers with three years of pre-service experience and at least two years of full-service experience, who participated in the assessment center of the special police forces, specifically the surveillance and technical unit). Results revealed that the CFMT+ explained variance in the CCTV task. In sample 1, CFMT+ scores predicted hits, but not false alarms. In contrast, in sample 2, CFMT+ scores were correlated with both hits and false alarms. From a theoretical perspective, we discuss factors that might explain CCTV task performance. From a practical perspective, we recommend that personnel selection processes investigating individual differences of police officers’ face processing abilities should comprise of two steps. At first, laboratory-based tests of face processing abilities should be applied. Subsequently, to validate laboratory-based individual differences in face processing abilities, we recommend that work samples such as CCTV tasks from the field should be added.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus M Thielgen
- Department I - University Education, Area of Study VIII - Social Sciences, Rhineland-Palatinate Police University, Post Box 1111, 55482, Hahn-Airport, Germany.
| | - Stefan Schade
- Department I - University Education, Area of Study VIII - Social Sciences, Rhineland-Palatinate Police University, Post Box 1111, 55482, Hahn-Airport, Germany
| | - Carolin Bosé
- Department I - University Education, Area of Study VIII - Social Sciences, Rhineland-Palatinate Police University, Post Box 1111, 55482, Hahn-Airport, Germany
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34
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Bjork JM, Keyser-Marcus L, Vassileva J, Ramey T, Houghton DC, Moeller FG. Social Information Processing in Substance Use Disorders: Insights From an Emotional Go-Nogo Task. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:672488. [PMID: 34122188 PMCID: PMC8193089 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.672488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Positive social connections are crucial for recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Of interest is understanding potential social information processing (SIP) mediators of this effect. To explore whether persons with different SUD show idiosyncratic biases toward social signals, we administered an emotional go-nogo task (EGNG) to 31 individuals with Cocaine Use Disorder (CoUD), 31 with Cannabis Use Disorder (CaUD), 79 with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), and 58 controls. Participants were instructed to respond to emotional faces (Fear/Happy) but withhold responses to expressionless faces in two task blocks, with the reverse instruction in the other two blocks. Emotional faces as non-targets elicited more "false alarm" (FA) commission errors as a main effect. Groups did not differ in overall rates of hits (correct responses to target faces), but participants with CaUD and CoUD showed reduced rates of hits (relative to controls) when expressionless faces were targets. OUD participants had worse hit rates [and slower reaction times (RT)] when fearful faces (but not happy faces) were targets. CaUD participants were most affected by instruction effects (respond/"go" vs withhold response/"no-go" to emotional face) on discriminability statistic A. Participants were faster to respond to happy face targets than to expressionless faces. However, this pattern was reversed in fearful face blocks in OUD and CoUD participants. This experiment replicated previous findings of the greater salience of expressive face images, and extends this finding to SUD, where persons with CaUD may show even greater bias toward emotional faces. Conversely, OUD participants showed idiosyncratic behavior in response to fearful faces suggestive of increased attentional disruption by fear. These data suggest a mechanism by which positive social signals may contribute to recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- James M. Bjork
- Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - Lori Keyser-Marcus
- Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - Jasmin Vassileva
- Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - Tatiana Ramey
- Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - David C. Houghton
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Center for Addiction Research, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States
| | - F. Gerard Moeller
- Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
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Abstract
ABSTRACT Efficacy of treatment is heavily dependent on experience and expectations. Moreover, humans can generalize from one experience to a perceptually similar but novel situation. We investigated whether and how this applies to pain relief, using ecologically valid tonic pain stimuli treated by surreptitiously lowering the applied temperature. Using different face cues, participants experienced better treatment from one physician than another. Participants were then tested on 6 additional face cues perceptually lying between both faces. Our data from 2 independent samples (N = 18 and N = 39) show a treatment experience effect, ie, for physically identical treatments, the initially superior physician was reported to deliver stronger pain relief. More importantly, the other faces on the perceptual continuum showed a graded effect of pain relief, indicating placebo generalization. Introducing a paradigm feasible to induce placebo pain relief, we show that the generic learning principle of generalization can explain carryover effects between learned and novel treatment situations.
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36
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Sung JY, Harris OK, Hensley NM, Chemero AP, Morehouse NI. Beyond cognitive templates: re-examining template metaphors used for animal recognition and navigation. Integr Comp Biol 2021; 61:825-841. [PMID: 33970266 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icab040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The term 'cognitive template' originated from work in human-based cognitive science to describe a literal, stored, neural representation used in recognition tasks. As the study of cognition has expanded to non-human animals, the term has diffused to describe a wider range of animal cognitive tools and strategies that guide action through the recognition of and discrimination between external states. One potential reason for this non-standardized meaning and variable employment is that researchers interested in the broad range of animal recognition tasks enjoy the simplicity of the cognitive template concept and have allowed it to become shorthand for many dissimilar or unknown neural processes without deep scrutiny of how this metaphor might comport with underlying neurophysiology. We review the functional evidence for cognitive templates in fields such as perception, navigation, communication, and learning, highlighting any neural correlates identified by these studies. We find that the concept of cognitive templates has facilitated valuable exploration at the interface between animal behavior and cognition, but the quest for a literal template has failed to attain mechanistic support at the level of neurophysiology. This may be the result of a misled search for a single physical locus for the 'template' itself. We argue that recognition and discrimination processes are best treated as emergent and, as such, may not be physically localized within single structures of the brain. Rather, current evidence suggests that such tasks are accomplished through synergies between multiple distributed processes in animal nervous systems. We thus advocate for researchers to move towards a more ecological, process-oriented conception, especially when discussing the neural underpinnings of recognition-based cognitive tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Y Sung
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati
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Orczyk J, Schroeder CE, Abeles IY, Gomez-Ramirez M, Butler PD, Kajikawa Y. Comparison of Scalp ERP to Faces in Macaques and Humans. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:667611. [PMID: 33967709 PMCID: PMC8101630 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.667611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Face recognition is an essential activity of social living, common to many primate species. Underlying processes in the brain have been investigated using various techniques and compared between species. Functional imaging studies have shown face-selective cortical regions and their degree of correspondence across species. However, the temporal dynamics of face processing, particularly processing speed, are likely different between them. Across sensory modalities activation of primary sensory cortices in macaque monkeys occurs at about 3/5 the latency of corresponding activation in humans, though this human simian difference may diminish or disappear in higher cortical regions. We recorded scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) to presentation of faces in macaques and estimated the peak latency of ERP components. Comparisons of latencies between macaques (112 ms) and humans (192 ms) suggested that the 3:5 ratio could be preserved in higher cognitive regions of face processing between those species.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Orczyk
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Charles E Schroeder
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Department of Neurological Surgery, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Ilana Y Abeles
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Manuel Gomez-Ramirez
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Pamela D Butler
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Psychiatry Department, School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Yoshinao Kajikawa
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Psychiatry Department, School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, United States
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Color Tuning of Face-Selective Neurons in Macaque Inferior Temporal Cortex. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0395-20.2020. [PMID: 33483324 PMCID: PMC8174038 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0395-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2020] [Revised: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 12/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
What role does color play in the neural representation of complex shapes? We approached the question by measuring color responses of face-selective neurons, using fMRI-guided microelectrode recording of the middle and anterior face patches of inferior temporal cortex (IT) in rhesus macaques. Face-selective cells responded weakly to pure color (equiluminant) photographs of faces. But many of the cells nonetheless showed a bias for warm colors when assessed using images that preserved the luminance contrast relationships of the original photographs. This bias was also found for non-face-selective neurons. Fourier analysis uncovered two components: the first harmonic, accounting for most of the tuning, was biased toward reddish colors, corresponding to the L>M pole of the L-M cardinal axis. The second harmonic showed a bias for modulation between blue and yellow colors axis, corresponding to the S-cone axis. To test what role face-selective cells play in behavior, we related the information content of the neural population with the distribution of face colors. The analyses show that face-selective cells are not optimally tuned to discriminate face colors, but are consistent with the idea that face-selective cells contribute selectively to processing the green-red contrast of faces. The research supports the hypothesis that color-specific information related to the discrimination of objects, including faces, is handled by neural circuits that are independent of shape-selective cortex, as captured by the multistage parallel processing framework of IT (Lafer-Sousa and Conway, 2013).
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Correia-Caeiro C, Guo K, Mills D. Bodily emotional expressions are a primary source of information for dogs, but not for humans. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:267-279. [PMID: 33507407 PMCID: PMC8035094 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01471-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Revised: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Dogs have remarkable abilities to synergise their behaviour with that of people, but how dogs read facial and bodily emotional cues in comparison to humans remains unclear. Both species share the same ecological niche, are highly social and expressive, making them an ideal comparative model for intra- and inter-species emotion perception. We compared eye-tracking data from unrestrained humans and dogs when viewing dynamic and naturalistic emotional expressions in humans and dogs. Dogs attended more to the body than the head of human and dog figures, unlike humans who focused more on the head of both species. Dogs and humans also showed a clear age effect that reduced head gaze. Our results indicate a species-specific evolutionary adaptation for emotion perception, which is only partly modified for heterospecific cues. These results have important implications for managing the risk associated with human-dog interactions, where expressive and perceptual differences are crucial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catia Correia-Caeiro
- School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan.
| | - Kun Guo
- School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
| | - Daniel Mills
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
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40
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Koyano KW, Jones AP, McMahon DBT, Waidmann EN, Russ BE, Leopold DA. Dynamic Suppression of Average Facial Structure Shapes Neural Tuning in Three Macaque Face Patches. Curr Biol 2021; 31:1-12.e5. [PMID: 33065012 PMCID: PMC7855058 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2020] [Revised: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The visual perception of identity in humans and other primates is thought to draw upon cortical areas specialized for the analysis of facial structure. A prominent theory of face recognition holds that the brain computes and stores average facial structure, which it then uses to efficiently determine individual identity, though the neural mechanisms underlying this process are controversial. Here, we demonstrate that the dynamic suppression of average facial structure plays a prominent role in the responses of neurons in three fMRI-defined face patches of the macaque. Using photorealistic face stimuli that systematically varied in identity level according to a psychophysically based face space, we found that single units in the AF, AM, and ML face patches exhibited robust tuning around average facial structure. This tuning emerged after the initial excitatory response to the face and was expressed as the selective suppression of sustained responses to low-identity faces. The coincidence of this suppression with increased spike timing synchrony across the population suggests a mechanism of active inhibition underlying this effect. Control experiments confirmed that the diminished responses to low-identity faces were not due to short-term adaptation processes. We propose that the brain's neural suppression of average facial structure facilitates recognition by promoting the extraction of distinctive facial characteristics and suppressing redundant or irrelevant responses across the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenji W Koyano
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Adam P Jones
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - David B T McMahon
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Neuronal Networks Section, National Eye Institute, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elena N Waidmann
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Brian E Russ
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Center for Biomedical Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA
| | - David A Leopold
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Eye Institute, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Abo Hamza EG, Kéri S, Csigó K, Bedewy D, Moustafa AA. Pareidolia in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:746734. [PMID: 34955913 PMCID: PMC8702957 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.746734] [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] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While there are many studies on pareidolia in healthy individuals and patients with schizophrenia, to our knowledge, there are no prior studies on pareidolia in patients with bipolar disorder. Accordingly, in this study, we, for the first time, measured pareidolia in patients with bipolar disorder (N = 50), and compared that to patients with schizophrenia (N = 50) and healthy controls (N = 50). We have used (a) the scene test, which consists of 10 blurred images of natural scenes that was previously found to produce illusory face responses and (b) the noise test which had 32 black and white images consisting of visual noise and 8 images depicting human faces; participants indicated whether a face was present on these images and to point to the location where they saw the face. Illusory responses were defined as answers when observers falsely identified objects that were not on the images in the scene task (maximum illusory score: 10), and the number of noise images in which they reported the presence of a face (maximum illusory score: 32). Further, we also calculated the total pareidolia score for each task (the sum number of images with illusory responses in the scene and noise tests). The responses were scored by two independent raters with an excellent congruence (kappa > 0.9). Our results show that schizophrenia patients scored higher on pareidolia measures than both healthy controls and patients with bipolar disorder. Our findings are agreement with prior findings on more impaired cognitive processes in schizophrenia than in bipolar patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eid G Abo Hamza
- Psychology Department, College of Humanities and Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.,College of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
| | - Szabolcs Kéri
- National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Physiology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Katalin Csigó
- National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dalia Bedewy
- Psychology Department, College of Humanities and Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.,College of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
| | - Ahmed A Moustafa
- Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.,School of Psychology & Marcs Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Richardson T, Waddington M, Gilman RT. Young, formidable men show greater sensitivity to facial cues of dominance. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Törnqvist H, Somppi S, Kujala MV, Vainio O. Observing animals and humans: dogs target their gaze to the biological information in natural scenes. PeerJ 2020; 8:e10341. [PMID: 33362955 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10341/supp-1] [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: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/20/2020] [Indexed: 05/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND This study examines how dogs observe images of natural scenes containing living creatures (wild animals, dogs and humans) recorded with eye gaze tracking. Because dogs have had limited exposure to wild animals in their lives, we also consider the natural novelty of the wild animal images for the dogs. METHODS The eye gaze of dogs was recorded while they viewed natural images containing dogs, humans, and wild animals. Three categories of images were used: naturalistic landscape images containing single humans or animals, full body images containing a single human or an animal, and full body images containing a pair of humans or animals. The gazing behavior of two dog populations, family and kennel dogs, were compared. RESULTS As a main effect, dogs gazed at living creatures (object areas) longer than the background areas of the images; heads longer than bodies; heads longer than background areas; and bodies longer than background areas. Dogs gazed less at the object areas vs. the background in landscape images than in the other image categories. Both dog groups also gazed wild animal heads longer than human or dog heads in the images. When viewing single animal and human images, family dogs focused their gaze very prominently on the head areas, but in images containing a pair of animals or humans, they gazed more at the body than the head areas. In kennel dogs, the difference in gazing times of the head and body areas within single or paired images failed to reach significance. DISCUSSION Dogs focused their gaze on living creatures in all image categories, also detecting them in the natural landscape images. Generally, they also gazed at the biologically informative areas of the images, such as the head, which supports the importance of the head/face area for dogs in obtaining social information. The natural novelty of the species represented in the images as well as the image category affected the gazing behavior of dogs. Furthermore, differences in the gazing strategy between family and kennel dogs was obtained, suggesting an influence of different social living environments and life experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heini Törnqvist
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sanni Somppi
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Miiamaaria V Kujala
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Outi Vainio
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Törnqvist H, Somppi S, Kujala MV, Vainio O. Observing animals and humans: dogs target their gaze to the biological information in natural scenes. PeerJ 2020; 8:e10341. [PMID: 33362955 PMCID: PMC7749655 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background This study examines how dogs observe images of natural scenes containing living creatures (wild animals, dogs and humans) recorded with eye gaze tracking. Because dogs have had limited exposure to wild animals in their lives, we also consider the natural novelty of the wild animal images for the dogs. Methods The eye gaze of dogs was recorded while they viewed natural images containing dogs, humans, and wild animals. Three categories of images were used: naturalistic landscape images containing single humans or animals, full body images containing a single human or an animal, and full body images containing a pair of humans or animals. The gazing behavior of two dog populations, family and kennel dogs, were compared. Results As a main effect, dogs gazed at living creatures (object areas) longer than the background areas of the images; heads longer than bodies; heads longer than background areas; and bodies longer than background areas. Dogs gazed less at the object areas vs. the background in landscape images than in the other image categories. Both dog groups also gazed wild animal heads longer than human or dog heads in the images. When viewing single animal and human images, family dogs focused their gaze very prominently on the head areas, but in images containing a pair of animals or humans, they gazed more at the body than the head areas. In kennel dogs, the difference in gazing times of the head and body areas within single or paired images failed to reach significance. Discussion Dogs focused their gaze on living creatures in all image categories, also detecting them in the natural landscape images. Generally, they also gazed at the biologically informative areas of the images, such as the head, which supports the importance of the head/face area for dogs in obtaining social information. The natural novelty of the species represented in the images as well as the image category affected the gazing behavior of dogs. Furthermore, differences in the gazing strategy between family and kennel dogs was obtained, suggesting an influence of different social living environments and life experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heini Törnqvist
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sanni Somppi
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Miiamaaria V Kujala
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Outi Vainio
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Kujala MV, Kauppi JP, Törnqvist H, Helle L, Vainio O, Kujala J, Parkkonen L. Time-resolved classification of dog brain signals reveals early processing of faces, species and emotion. Sci Rep 2020; 10:19846. [PMID: 33199715 PMCID: PMC7669855 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76806-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Dogs process faces and emotional expressions much like humans, but the time windows important for face processing in dogs are largely unknown. By combining our non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) protocol on dogs with machine-learning algorithms, we show category-specific dog brain responses to pictures of human and dog facial expressions, objects, and phase-scrambled faces. We trained a support vector machine classifier with spatiotemporal EEG data to discriminate between responses to pairs of images. The classification accuracy was highest for humans or dogs vs. scrambled images, with most informative time intervals of 100–140 ms and 240–280 ms. We also detected a response sensitive to threatening dog faces at 30–40 ms; generally, responses differentiating emotional expressions were found at 130–170 ms, and differentiation of faces from objects occurred at 120–130 ms. The cortical sources underlying the highest-amplitude EEG signals were localized to the dog visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miiamaaria V Kujala
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland. .,Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, PL 57, 00014, Helsinki, Finland. .,Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 12200, 00076, Aalto, Finland.
| | - Jukka-Pekka Kauppi
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 12200, 00076, Aalto, Finland.,Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Heini Törnqvist
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, PL 57, 00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Liisa Helle
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 12200, 00076, Aalto, Finland
| | - Outi Vainio
- Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, PL 57, 00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jan Kujala
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Lauri Parkkonen
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 12200, 00076, Aalto, Finland
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Ibanez-Berganza M, Amico A, Lancia GL, Maggiore F, Monechi B, Loreto V. Unsupervised inference approach to facial attractiveness. PeerJ 2020; 8:e10210. [PMID: 33194411 PMCID: PMC7602690 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10210] [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: 04/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of facial attractiveness is a complex phenomenon which depends on how the observer perceives not only individual facial features, but also their mutual influence and interplay. In the machine learning community, this problem is typically tackled as a problem of regression of the subject-averaged rating assigned to natural faces. However, it has been conjectured that this approach does not capture the complexity of the phenomenon. It has recently been shown that different human subjects can navigate the face-space and "sculpt" their preferred modification of a reference facial portrait. Here we present an unsupervised inference study of the set of sculpted facial vectors in such experiments. We first infer minimal, interpretable and accurate probabilistic models (through Maximum Entropy and artificial neural networks) of the preferred facial variations, that encode the inter-subject variance. The application of such generative models to the supervised classification of the gender of the subject that sculpted the face reveals that it may be predicted with astonishingly high accuracy. We observe that the classification accuracy improves by increasing the order of the non-linear effective interaction. This suggests that the cognitive mechanisms related to facial discrimination in the brain do not involve the positions of single facial landmarks only, but mainly the mutual influence of couples, and even triplets and quadruplets of landmarks. Furthermore, the high prediction accuracy of the subjects' gender suggests that much relevant information regarding the subjects may influence (and be elicited from) their facial preference criteria, in agreement with the multiple motive theory of attractiveness proposed in previous works.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ambra Amico
- Chair of Systems Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gian Luca Lancia
- Department of Physics, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
| | - Federico Maggiore
- Department of Physics, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Vittorio Loreto
- Department of Physics, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
- SONY Computer Science Laboratories, Paris, France
- Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, Austria
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Colour matters more than shape for chimpanzees' recognition of developmental face changes. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18201. [PMID: 33097811 PMCID: PMC7584574 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75284-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Social primates must recognise developmental stages of other conspecifics in order to behave appropriately. Infant faces have peculiar morphological characteristics-relatively large eyes, a small nose, and small mouth-known as baby schema. In addition, the infant faces of many primate species have unique skin coloration. However, it is unclear which features serve as critical cues for chimpanzees to recognise developmental changes in their faces. The present study aimed to investigate the relative contributions of facial shape and colour to age categorisation in chimpanzees. We used a symbolic matching-to-sample task in which chimpanzees were trained to discriminate between adult and infant faces. Then, we tested how their age category judgments transferred to a series of morphed faces which systematically differed in facial shape and colour. Statistical image quantification analysis revealed significant differences both in shape and colour between adult and infant faces. However, we found that facial coloration contributed to age categorisation in chimpanzees more than facial shape. Our results showed that chimpanzees use unique infantile facial coloration as a salient cue when discriminating between adult and infant faces. The display of their developmental stages through facial colour may help chimpanzees to induce appropriate behaviour from other individuals.
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Freiwald WA. Social interaction networks in the primate brain. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2020; 65:49-58. [PMID: 33065333 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2020.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Primate brains have evolved to understand and engage with their social world. Much about the structure of this world can be gleaned from social interactions. Circuits for the analysis of and participation in social interactions have now been mapped. Increased knowledge about their functional specializations and relative spatial locations promises to greatly improve the understanding of the functional organization of the primate social brain. Detailed electrophysiology, as in the case of the face-processing network, of local operations and functional interactions between areas is necessary to uncover neural mechanisms and computation principles of social cognition. New naturalistic behavioral paradigms, behavioral tracking, and new analytical approaches for parallel non-stationary data will be important components toward a neuroscientific theory of primates' interactive minds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Winrich A Freiwald
- The Rockefeller University, New York, United States; Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, United States.
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General and own-species attentional face biases. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 83:187-198. [PMID: 33025467 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02132-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Humans demonstrate enhanced processing of human faces compared with animal faces, known as own-species bias. This bias is important for identifying people who may cause harm, as well as for recognizing friends and kin. However, growing evidence also indicates a more general face bias. Faces have high evolutionary importance beyond conspecific interactions, as they aid in detecting predators and prey. Few studies have explored the interaction of these biases together. In three experiments, we explored processing of human and animal faces, compared with each other and to nonface objects, which allowed us to examine both own-species and broader face biases. We used a dot-probe paradigm to examine human adults' covert attentional biases for task-irrelevant human faces, animal faces, and objects. We replicated the own-species attentional bias for human faces relative to animal faces. We also found an attentional bias for animal faces relative to objects, consistent with the proposal that faces broadly receive privileged processing. Our findings suggest that humans may be attracted to a broad class of faces. Further, we found that while participants rapidly attended to human faces across all cue display durations, they attended to animal faces only when they had sufficient time to process them. Our findings reveal that the dot-probe paradigm is sensitive for capturing both own-species and more general face biases, and that each has a different attentional signature, possibly reflecting their unique but overlapping evolutionary importance.
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Comparative Brain Imaging Reveals Analogous and Divergent Patterns of Species and Face Sensitivity in Humans and Dogs. J Neurosci 2020; 40:8396-8408. [PMID: 33020215 PMCID: PMC7577605 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2800-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Revised: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Conspecific-preference in social perception is evident for multiple sensory modalities and in many species. There is also a dedicated neural network for face processing in primates. However, the evolutionary origin and the relative role of neural species sensitivity and face sensitivity in visuo-social processing are largely unknown. Conspecific-preference in social perception is evident for multiple sensory modalities and in many species. There is also a dedicated neural network for face processing in primates. However, the evolutionary origin and the relative role of neural species sensitivity and face sensitivity in visuo-social processing are largely unknown. In this comparative study, species sensitivity and face sensitivity to identical visual stimuli (videos of human and dog faces and occiputs) were examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging in dogs (n = 20; 45% female) and humans (n = 30; 50% female). In dogs, the bilateral mid suprasylvian gyrus showed conspecific-preference, no regions exhibited face-preference, and the majority of the visually-responsive cortex showed greater conspecific-preference than face-preference. In humans, conspecific-preferring regions (the right amygdala/hippocampus and the posterior superior temporal sulcus) also showed face-preference, and much of the visually-responsive cortex showed greater face-preference than conspecific-preference. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPAs) identified species-sensitive regions in both species, but face-sensitive regions only in humans. Across-species representational similarity analyses (RSAs) revealed stronger correspondence between dog and human response patterns for distinguishing conspecific from heterospecific faces than other contrasts. Results unveil functional analogies in dog and human visuo-social processing of conspecificity but suggest that cortical specialization for face perception may not be ubiquitous across mammals. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To explore the evolutionary origins of human face-preference and its relationship to conspecific-preference, we conducted the first comparative and noninvasive visual neuroimaging study of a non-primate and a primate species, dogs and humans. Conspecific-preferring brain regions were observed in both species, but face-preferring brain regions were observed only in humans. In dogs, an overwhelming majority of visually-responsive cortex exhibited greater conspecific-preference than face-preference, whereas in humans, much of the visually-responsive cortex showed greater face-preference than conspecific-preference. Together, these findings unveil functional analogies and differences in the organizing principles of visuo-social processing across two phylogenetically distant mammal species.
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