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Oldrati V, Bardoni A, Poggi G, Urgesi C. Development of implicit and explicit attentional modulation of the processing of social cues conveyed by faces and bodies in children and adolescents. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1320923. [PMID: 38222848 PMCID: PMC10784122 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1320923] [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: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Emotions and sex of other people shape the way we interact in social environments. The influence of these dimensions on cognitive processing is recognized as a highly conditional phenomenon. While much of researches on the topic focused on adults, less evidence is available for the pediatric population. This study aimed at examining the development of the modulation of attention control on emotion and sex processing using facial and body expressions in children and adolescents (8–16 years old). In Experiment 1a, participants performed a Flanker task (probing space-based attention) in which they had to indicate either the emotion (happy/fearful) or the sex of the target stimulus while ignoring the distracting stimuli at the side. We found evidence for intrusion of the sex, but not emotion, of the stimuli during both sex and emotion recognition tasks, thus both at an explicit (i.e., task relevant) and implicit (i.e., task irrelevant) level. A control experiment consisting of an emotional Flanker task confirmed that, in contrast with previous findings in adults, emotion did not modulate attention control in children and adolescents even when task relevant (Experiment 1b). In Experiment 2 participants performed a same-or-different judgment task (probing feature-based attention) in which they indicated whether the central stimulus matched the lateral ones for emotion or sex. Results showed that emotional features exerted an implicit influence during sex judgements; likewise, sex features intruded on the processing of both faces and bodies during emotion judgments. Finally, Experiment 3 explored the development of the explicit attention modulation exerted by the sex dimension on the processing of faces and bodies. To this aim, participants performed a Flanker task in which they were asked to recognize the sex of faces and bodies. The results indicated that, while younger participants showed a task-relevant influence of sexual features when processing faces, older participants showed such influence when processing bodies. These findings point to a greater attentional modulation exerted by sex, as compared to emotion, during social processing in children and adolescents and suggest a developmental trend of the saliency of facial and bodily cues for the perception of others’ sex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viola Oldrati
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy
| | | | - Geraldina Poggi
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy
| | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
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Hu Y, O'Toole AJ. First impressions: Integrating faces and bodies in personality trait perception. Cognition 2023; 231:105309. [PMID: 36347653 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Faces and bodies spontaneously elicit personality trait judgments (e.g., trustworthy, dominant, lazy). We examined how trait information from the face and body combine to form first impressions of the whole person and whether trait judgments from the face and body are affected by seeing the whole person. Consistent with the trait-dependence hypothesis, Experiment 1 showed that the relative contribution of the face and body to whole-person perception varied with the trait judged. Agreeableness traits (e.g., warm, aggressive, sympathetic, trustworthy) were inferred primarily from the face, conscientiousness traits (e.g., dependable, careless) from the body, and extraversion traits (e.g., dominant, quiet, confident) from the whole person. A control experiment showed that both clothing and body shape contributed to whole-person judgments. In Experiment 2, we found that a face (body) rated in the whole person elicited a different rating than when it was rated in isolation. Specifically, when trait ratings differed for an isolated face and body of the same identity, the whole-person context biased in-context ratings of the faces and bodies towards the ratings of the context. These results showed that face and body trait perception interact more than previously assumed. We combine current and established findings to propose a novel framework to account for face-body integration in trait perception. This framework incorporates basic elements such as perceptual determinants, nonperceptual determinants, trait formation, and integration, as well as predictive factors such as the rater, the person rated, and the situation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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D'Argenio G, Finisguerra A, Urgesi C. Experience-dependent reshaping of body gender perception. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2022; 86:1184-1202. [PMID: 34387745 PMCID: PMC9090903 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01569-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Protracted exposure to specific stimuli causes biased visual aftereffects at both low- and high-level dimensions of a stimulus. Recently, it has been proposed that alterations of these aftereffects could play a role in body misperceptions. However, since previous studies have mainly addressed manipulations of body size, the relative contribution of low-level retinotopic and/or high-level object-based mechanisms is yet to be understood. In three experiments, we investigated visual aftereffects for body-gender perception, testing for the tuning of visual aftereffects across different characters and orientation. We found that exposure to a distinctively female (or male) body makes androgynous bodies appear as more masculine (or feminine) and that these aftereffects were not specific for the individual characteristics of the adapting body (Exp.1). Furthermore, exposure to only upright bodies (Exp.2) biased the perception of upright, but not of inverted bodies, while exposure to both upright and inverted bodies (Exp.3) biased perception for both. Finally, participants' sensitivity to body aftereffects was lower in individuals with greater communication deficits and deeper internalization of a male gender role. Overall, our data reveals the orientation-, but not identity-tuning of body-gender aftereffects and points to the association between alterations of the malleability of body gender perception and social deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia D'Argenio
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. giulia.d'
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, via Margreth, 3, 33100, Udine, Italy. giulia.d'
| | | | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, via Margreth, 3, 33100, Udine, Italy.
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Pasian di Prato, Udine, Italy.
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Tharmaratnam V, Patel M, Lowe MX, Cant JS. Shared cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of scene texture and scene shape. J Vis 2021; 21:11. [PMID: 34269793 PMCID: PMC8297417 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.7.11] [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: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research has demonstrated that the parahippocampal place area represents both the shape and texture features of scenes, with the importance of each feature varying according to perceived scene category. Namely, shape features are predominately more diagnostic to the processing of artificial human–made scenes, while shape and texture are equally diagnostic in natural scene processing. However, to date little is known regarding the degree of interactivity or independence observed in the processing of these scene features. Furthermore, manipulating the scope of visual attention (i.e., globally vs. locally) when processing ensembles of multiple objects—stimuli that share a functional neuroanatomical link with scenes—has been shown to affect their cognitive visual representation. It remains unknown whether manipulating the scope of attention impacts scene processing in a similar manner. Using the well-established Garner speeded-classification behavioral paradigm, we investigated the influence of both feature diagnosticity and the scope of visual attention on potential interactivity or independence in the shape and texture processing of artificial human–made scenes. The results revealed asymmetric interference between scene shape and texture processing, with the more diagnostic feature (i.e., shape) interfering with the less diagnostic feature (i.e., texture), but not vice versa. Furthermore, this interference was attenuated and enhanced with more local and global visual processing strategies, respectively. These findings suggest that the scene shape and texture processing are mediated by shared cognitive mechanisms and that, although these representations are governed primarily via feature diagnosticity, they can nevertheless be influenced by the scope of visual attention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Matthew X Lowe
- Graduate Program in Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,
| | - Jonathan S Cant
- Graduate Program in Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada.,
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Gandolfo M, Downing PE. Asymmetric visual representation of sex from human body shape. Cognition 2020; 205:104436. [PMID: 32919115 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
We efficiently infer others' states and traits from their appearance, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. One key trait is sex, which is strongly cued by the appearance of the body. What are the visual representations that link body shape to sex? Previous studies of visual sex judgment tasks find observers have a bias to report "male", particularly for ambiguous stimuli. This finding implies a representational asymmetry - that for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is "male", and "female" is determined by the presence of additional perceptual evidence. That is, female body shapes are positively coded by reference to a male default shape. This perspective makes a novel prediction in line with Treisman's studies of visual search asymmetries: female body targets should be more readily detected amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across 10 experiments (N = 32 each) we confirmed this prediction and ruled out alternative low-level explanations. The asymmetry was found with profile and frontal body silhouettes, frontal photographs, and schematised icons. Low-level confounds were controlled by balancing silhouette images for size and homogeneity, and by matching physical properties of photographs. The female advantage was nulled for inverted icons, but intact for inverted photographs, suggesting reliance on distinct cues to sex for different body depictions. Together, these findings demonstrate a principle of the perceptual coding that links bodily appearance with a significant social trait: the female body shape is coded as an extension of a male default. We conclude by offering a visual experience account of how these asymmetric representations arise in the first place.
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Foster C, Zhao M, Romero J, Black MJ, Mohler BJ, Bartels A, Bülthoff I. Decoding subcategories of human bodies from both body- and face-responsive cortical regions. Neuroimage 2019; 202:116085. [PMID: 31401238 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2018] [Revised: 07/17/2019] [Accepted: 08/07/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Our visual system can easily categorize objects (e.g. faces vs. bodies) and further differentiate them into subcategories (e.g. male vs. female). This ability is particularly important for objects of social significance, such as human faces and bodies. While many studies have demonstrated category selectivity to faces and bodies in the brain, how subcategories of faces and bodies are represented remains unclear. Here, we investigated how the brain encodes two prominent subcategories shared by both faces and bodies, sex and weight, and whether neural responses to these subcategories rely on low-level visual, high-level visual or semantic similarity. We recorded brain activity with fMRI while participants viewed faces and bodies that varied in sex, weight, and image size. The results showed that the sex of bodies can be decoded from both body- and face-responsive brain areas, with the former exhibiting more consistent size-invariant decoding than the latter. Body weight could also be decoded in face-responsive areas and in distributed body-responsive areas, and this decoding was also invariant to image size. The weight of faces could be decoded from the fusiform body area (FBA), and weight could be decoded across face and body stimuli in the extrastriate body area (EBA) and a distributed body-responsive area. The sex of well-controlled faces (e.g. excluding hairstyles) could not be decoded from face- or body-responsive regions. These results demonstrate that both face- and body-responsive brain regions encode information that can distinguish the sex and weight of bodies. Moreover, the neural patterns corresponding to sex and weight were invariant to image size and could sometimes generalize across face and body stimuli, suggesting that such subcategorical information is encoded with a high-level visual or semantic code.
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Affiliation(s)
- Celia Foster
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany; Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Mintao Zhao
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, UK
| | - Javier Romero
- Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Michael J Black
- Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Betty J Mohler
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas Bartels
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany
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Gandolfo M, Downing PE. Causal Evidence for Expression of Perceptual Expectations in Category-Selective Extrastriate Regions. Curr Biol 2019; 29:2496-2500.e3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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Gandolfo M, Downing PE. Perceiving emotion and sex from the body: evidence from the Garner task for independent processes. Cogn Emot 2019; 34:427-437. [PMID: 31234731 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2019.1634003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The appearance of the body signals socially relevant states and traits, but the how these cues are perceived is not well understood. Here we examined judgments of emotion and sex from the body's appearance. Understanding how we extract these cues is important because they are both salient and socially relevant. Participants viewed body images and either reported the emotion expressed by each body while ignoring its sex, or else reported the sex while ignoring its emotion. Following Garner's logic, two types of blocks were compared. In control blocks, the task-irrelevant dimension was fixed (e.g. all male in an emotion judgment task), whereas in orthogonal blocks it varied orthogonally to the task-relevant dimension (e.g. male-female). Where two dimensions draw on shared processes, interference results in relatively slower responses during orthogonal blocks. In contrast, a finding of no Garner interference - efficient selection of the task-relevant dimension - is taken to reflect independent processes. Bayesian analyses revealed evidence of no Garner interference between sex and emotion judgments, showing that extraction of these distinct signals from the body's appearance proceeds along largely parallel processing streams. These findings are informative about the mental architecture behind our perception of socially relevant characteristics of other people.
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Abstract
Body shape cues inferences regarding personality and health, but the neural processes underpinning such inferences remain poorly understood. Across two fMRI experiments, we test the extent to which neural networks associated with body perception and theory-of-mind (ToM) support social inferences based on body shape. Participants observed obese, muscular, and slim bodies that cued distinct social inferences as revealed in behavioural pilot experiments. To investigate judgment intentionality, the first fMRI experiment required participants to detect repeat presentations of bodies, whereas in fMRI Experiment 2 participants intentionally formed an impression. Body and ToM networks were localized using independent functional localisers. Experiment 1 revealed no differential network engagement for muscular or obese compared to slim bodies. By contrast, in Experiment 2, compared to slim bodies, forming impressions of muscular bodies engaged the body-network more, whereas the ToM-network was engaged more when forming impressions of obese bodies. These results demonstrate that social judgments based on body shape do not rely on a single neural mechanism, but rather on multiple mechanisms that are separately sensitive to body fat and muscularity. Moreover, dissociable responses are only apparent when intentionally forming an impression. Thus, these experiments show how segregated networks operate to extract socially-relevant information cued by body shape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inez M Greven
- a Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology , Bangor University , Bangor , Gwynedd , Wales, UK
| | - Paul E Downing
- a Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology , Bangor University , Bangor , Gwynedd , Wales, UK
| | - Richard Ramsey
- a Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology , Bangor University , Bangor , Gwynedd , Wales, UK
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