1
|
Rafal RD. Seeing without a Scene: Neurological Observations on the Origin and Function of the Dorsal Visual Stream. J Intell 2024; 12:50. [PMID: 38786652 PMCID: PMC11121949 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence12050050] [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: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
In all vertebrates, visual signals from each visual field project to the opposite midbrain tectum (called the superior colliculus in mammals). The tectum/colliculus computes visual salience to select targets for context-contingent visually guided behavior: a frog will orient toward a small, moving stimulus (insect prey) but away from a large, looming stimulus (a predator). In mammals, visual signals competing for behavioral salience are also transmitted to the visual cortex, where they are integrated with collicular signals and then projected via the dorsal visual stream to the parietal and frontal cortices. To control visually guided behavior, visual signals must be encoded in body-centered (egocentric) coordinates, and so visual signals must be integrated with information encoding eye position in the orbit-where the individual is looking. Eye position information is derived from copies of eye movement signals transmitted from the colliculus to the frontal and parietal cortices. In the intraparietal cortex of the dorsal stream, eye movement signals from the colliculus are used to predict the sensory consequences of action. These eye position signals are integrated with retinotopic visual signals to generate scaffolding for a visual scene that contains goal-relevant objects that are seen to have spatial relationships with each other and with the observer. Patients with degeneration of the superior colliculus, although they can see, behave as though they are blind. Bilateral damage to the intraparietal cortex of the dorsal stream causes the visual scene to disappear, leaving awareness of only one object that is lost in space. This tutorial considers what we have learned from patients with damage to the colliculus, or to the intraparietal cortex, about how the phylogenetically older midbrain and the newer mammalian dorsal cortical visual stream jointly coordinate the experience of a spatially and temporally coherent visual scene.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robert D Rafal
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Duchaine B, Rezlescu C, Garrido L, Zhang Y, Braga MV, Susilo T. The development of upright face perception depends on evolved orientation-specific mechanisms and experience. iScience 2023; 26:107763. [PMID: 37954143 PMCID: PMC10638473 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107763] [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: 10/11/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Here we examine whether our impressive ability to perceive upright faces arises from evolved orientation-specific mechanisms, our extensive experience with upright faces, or both factors. To do so, we tested Claudio, a man with a congenital joint disorder causing his head to be rotated back so that it is positioned between his shoulder blades. As a result, Claudio has seen more faces reversed in orientation to his own face than matched to it. Controls exhibited large inversion effects on all tasks, but Claudio performed similarly with upright and inverted faces in both detection and identity-matching tasks, indicating these abilities are the product of evolved mechanisms and experience. In contrast, he showed clear upright superiority when detecting "Thatcherized" faces (faces with vertically flipped features), suggesting experience plays a greater role in this judgment. Together, these findings indicate that both evolved orientation-specific mechanisms and experience contribute to our proficiency with upright faces.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brad Duchaine
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Constantin Rezlescu
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Lúcia Garrido
- Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK
| | - Yiyuan Zhang
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Maira V. Braga
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Tirta Susilo
- School of Psychology, University of Victoria Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
The Detection of Face-like Stimuli at the Edge of the Infant Visual Field. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12040493. [PMID: 35448024 PMCID: PMC9026910 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12040493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Human infants are highly sensitive to social information in their visual world. In laboratory settings, researchers have mainly studied the development of social information processing using faces presented on standard computer displays, in paradigms exploring face-to-face, direct eye contact social interactions. This is a simplification of a richer visual environment in which social information derives from the wider visual field and detection involves navigating the world with eyes, head and body movements. The present study measured 9-month-old infants’ sensitivities to face-like configurations across mid-peripheral visual areas using a detection task. Upright and inverted face-like stimuli appeared at one of three eccentricities (50°, 55° or 60°) in the left and right hemifields. Detection rates at different eccentricities were measured from video recordings. Results indicated that infant performance was heterogeneous and dropped beyond 55°, with a marginal advantage for targets appearing in the left hemifield. Infants’ orienting behaviour was not influenced by the orientation of the target stimulus. These findings are key to understanding how face stimuli are perceived outside foveal regions and are informative for the design of infant paradigms involving stimulus presentation across a wider field of view, in more naturalistic visual environments.
Collapse
|
4
|
Abstract
Humans have structures dedicated to the processing of faces, which include cortical components (e.g., areas in occipital and temporal lobes) and subcortical components (e.g., superior colliculus and amygdala). Although faces are processed more quickly than stimuli from other categories, there is a lack of consensus regarding whether subcortical structures are responsible for rapid face processing. In order to probe this, we exploited the asymmetry in the strength of projections to subcortical structures between the nasal and temporal hemiretina. Participants detected faces from unrecognizable control stimuli and performed the same task for houses. In Experiments 1 and 3, at the fastest reaction times, participants detected faces more accurately than houses. However, there was no benefit of presenting to the subcortical pathway. In Experiment 2, we probed the coarseness of the rapid pathway, making the foil stimuli more similar to faces and houses. This eliminated the rapid detection advantage, suggesting that rapid face processing is limited to coarse representations. In Experiment 4, we sought to determine whether the natural difference between spatial frequencies of faces and houses were driving the effects seen in Experiments 1 and 3. We spatially filtered the faces and houses so that they were matched. Better rapid detection was again found for faces relative to houses, but we found no benefit of preferentially presenting to the subcortical pathway. Taken together, the results of our experiments suggest a coarse rapid detection mechanism, which was not dependent on spatial frequency, with no advantage for presenting preferentially to subcortical structures.
Collapse
|
5
|
Pereira EJ, Birmingham E, Ristic J. The eyes do not have it after all? Attention is not automatically biased towards faces and eyes. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2019; 84:1407-1423. [PMID: 30603864 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1130-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2018] [Accepted: 12/07/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
It is commonly accepted that attention is spontaneously biased towards faces and eyes. However, the role of stimulus features and task settings in this finding has not yet been systematically investigated. Here, we tested if faces and facial features bias attention spontaneously when stimulus factors, task properties, response conditions, and eye movements are controlled. In three experiments, participants viewed face, house, and control scrambled face-house images in an upright and inverted orientation. The task was to discriminate a target that appeared with equal probability at the previous location of the face, house, or the control image. In all experiments, our data indicated no spontaneous biasing of attention for targets occurring at the previous location of the face. Experiment 3, which measured oculomotor biasing, suggested a reliable but infrequent saccadic bias towards the eye region of upright faces. Importantly, these results did not reflect our specific laboratory settings, as in Experiment 4, we present a full replication of a classic finding in the literature demonstrating reliable social attention bias. Together, these data suggest that attentional biasing for social information is task and context mediated, and less robust than originally thought.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Effie J Pereira
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, H3A 1B1, Montreal, QC, Canada.
| | - Elina Birmingham
- Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, V5A 1S6, BC, Canada
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, H3A 1B1, Montreal, QC, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Jóhannesson ÓI, Tagu J, Kristjánsson Á. Asymmetries of the visual system and their influence on visual performance and oculomotor dynamics. Eur J Neurosci 2018; 48:3426-3445. [PMID: 30375087 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2018] [Revised: 09/18/2018] [Accepted: 10/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Our representation of the visual field is not homogenous. There are differences in resolution not only between the fovea and regions eccentric to it, but also between the nasal and temporal hemiretinae, that can be traced to asymmetric distributions of photoreceptors and ganglion cells. We review evidence for differences in visual and attentional processing and oculomotor behaviour that can be traced to asymmetries of the visual system, mainly emphasising nasal-temporal asymmetries. Asymmetries in the visual system manifest in various measures, in basic psychophysical tests of visual performance, attentional processing, choice behaviour, saccadic peak velocity, and latencies. Nasal-temporal asymmetries on saccadic latency seem primarily to occur for express saccades. Neural asymmetries between the upper and lower hemifields are strong and cause corresponding differences in performance between the hemifields. There are interesting individual differences in asymmetric processing which seem to be related to the strength of eye dominance. These neurophysiological asymmetries and the corresponding asymmetries in visual performance and oculomotor behaviour can strongly influence experimental results in vision and must be considered during experimental design and the interpretation of results.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ómar I Jóhannesson
- Icelandic Vision Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Jérôme Tagu
- EA 7326 Vision Action Cognition Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne-Paris-Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Icelandic Vision Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.,National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Framorando D, Burra N, Bapst M, Pegna AJ. ERP responses greater for faces in the temporal compared to the nasal visual field. Neurosci Lett 2017; 665:7-12. [PMID: 29155351 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2017] [Revised: 10/06/2017] [Accepted: 11/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The distribution of retino-tectal projections is dissimilar depending on whether the receptors are situated in the nasal and temporal visual hemiretinas. Indeed, it has been claimed that the superior colliculus receives a greater proportion of its input from the temporal visual hemifield (nasal hemi-retina) relative to the nasal hemifield (temporal hemi-retina). In order to investigate whether these subcortical projections influence face processing, we investigated the early cortical ERP responses to faces and houses presented in the temporal and nasal retinas using monocular viewing. Neutral or fearful faces were presented concurrently with houses on either side of a central fixation cross, while participants were asked to discriminate changes in luminance at the center. Results showed that the lateralized N170, computed as the contralateral-ipsilateral electrode difference, was greater for faces appearing in the nasal relative to the temporal visual hemifield. This was due to a greater ipsilateral N170 for temporal relative to nasal presentations. By contrast, no difference was found across emotional expressions. The enhanced ERP response to faces appearing in the temporal visual field, suggests that the retinotectal pathway modulates cortical processing, most likely through activation of a colliculo-pulvino-amygdalar pathway, with subsequent back-projections from the amygdala to visual cortical regions. However, unattended facial expressions do not seem to modulate the response, at least at these angles of eccentricity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David Framorando
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Burra
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Mylène Bapst
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Alan J Pegna
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, 4072, Australia; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Priming Facial Gender and Emotional Valence: The Influence of Spatial Frequency on Face Perception in ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 2017; 47:927-946. [PMID: 28070789 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-3017-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) performed two priming experiments in which they implicitly processed a prime stimulus, containing high and/or low spatial frequency information, and then explicitly categorized a target face either as male/female (gender task) or as positive/negative (Valence task). Adolescents with ASD made more categorization errors than typically developing adolescents. They also showed an age-dependent improvement in categorization speed and had more difficulties with categorizing facial expressions than gender. However, in neither of the categorization tasks, we found group differences in the processing of coarse versus fine prime information. This contradicted our expectations, and indicated that the perceptual differences between adolescents with and without ASD critically depended on the processing time available for the primes.
Collapse
|
9
|
Framorando D, Bapst M, Vuille N, Pegna AJ. Naso-Temporal Asymmetries: Suppression of Emotional Faces in the Temporal Visual Hemifield. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:14. [PMID: 28197067 PMCID: PMC5281543 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2016] [Accepted: 01/09/2017] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
An ongoing debate exists regarding the possible existence of a retino-tectal visual pathway projecting to the amygdala, which would rapidly process information involving threatening or behaviorally-relevant stimuli. It has been suggested that this route might be responsible for the involuntary capture of attention by potentially dangerous stimuli. In separate studies, anatomical evidence has suggested that the retino-tectal pathway relies essentially on projections from the nasal hemiretina (temporal visual field). In this study, we chose to take advantage of this anatomical difference to further investigate whether emotional facial expressions are indeed processed through a subcortical pathway. Using EEG, participants performed a monocular spatial attention paradigm in which lateralized, task-irrelevant distractors were presented, followed by a target. The distractors were fearful faces that appeared either in nasal or temporal visual hemifield (by virtue of their monocular presentations), while the neutral face was presented simultaneously on the opposite side. Participants were asked to identify a target letter that appeared subsequently in the nasal or temporal visual hemifield. Event-related potentials (ERPs) results revealed that fearful faces appearing in the temporal visual hemifield produced a strong inhibitory response, while a negative deflection reflecting attentional capture followed presentations of fear in the nasal hemifield. These effects can be explained by a greater sensitivity of the subcortical pathway for emotional stimuli. Fearful faces conveyed through this route are processed more effectively, consequently necessitating more vigorous suppression in order for targets to be dealt with adequately.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David Framorando
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Mylène Bapst
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathalie Vuille
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Alan J Pegna
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of GenevaGeneva, Switzerland; School of Psychology, The University of QueenslandBrisbane, QLD, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Rosa-Salva O, Grassi M, Lorenzi E, Regolin L, Vallortigara G. Spontaneous preference for visual cues of animacy in naïve domestic chicks: The case of speed changes. Cognition 2016; 157:49-60. [PMID: 27592411 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.08.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2015] [Revised: 08/13/2016] [Accepted: 08/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Animacy perception arises in human adults from motion cues implying an internal energy source to the moving object. The internal energy of the object is often represented by a change in speed. The same features cause preferential attention in infants. We investigated whether speed changes affecting adults' animacy ratings elicit spontaneous social preferences in visually-naïve chicks. Human observers evaluated the similarity between the movement of a red blob stimulus and that of a living creature. The stimulus entered the screen and moved along the azimuth; halfway through its trajectory it could either continue to move at a constant speed or linearly increase in speed. The average speed, the distance covered and the overall motion duration were kept constant. Animacy ratings of humans were higher for accelerating stimuli (Exp. 1). Naïve chicks were then tested for their spontaneous preference for approaching the stimulus moving at a constant speed and trajectory or an identical stimulus, which suddenly accelerated and then decelerated again to the original speed. Chicks showed a significant preference for the 'speed-change stimulus' (Exp. 2). Two additional controls (Exp. 3 and 4) showed that matching the variability of the control 'speed-constant' stimulus to that of the 'speed-change stimulus' did not alter chicks' preference for the latter. Chicks' preference was suppressed by adding two occluders on both displays, positioned along the stimulus trajectory in such a way to occlude the moment of the speed change (Exp. 5). This confirms that, for chicks to show a preference, the moments of speed change need to be visible. Finally, chicks' preference extended to stimuli displaying a direction change, another motion cue eliciting animacy perception in human observers, if the speed- and direction-profile were consistent with each other and resembled what expected for biological entities that invert their motion direction (Exp. 6). Overall, this is the first demonstration of social predispositions for speed changes in any naïve model or non-human animal, indicating the presence of an attentional filter tuned toward one of the general properties of animate creatures. The similarity with human data suggests a phylogenetically old mechanism shared between vertebrates. Finally, the paradigm developed here provides ground for future investigations of the neural basis of these phenomena.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- O Rosa-Salva
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, 38068 Rovereto (TN), Italy.
| | - M Grassi
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - E Lorenzi
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, 38068 Rovereto (TN), Italy
| | - L Regolin
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - G Vallortigara
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, 38068 Rovereto (TN), Italy
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Abstract
Newborn infants orient preferentially toward face-like or "protoface" stimuli and recent studies suggest similar reflexive orienting responses in adults. Little is known, however, about the operation of this mechanism in childhood. An attentional-cueing procedure was therefore developed to investigate protoface orienting in early childhood. Consistent with the extant literature, 5- to 6-year-old children (n = 25) exhibited orienting toward face-like stimuli; they responded faster when target location was cued by the appearance of a protoface stimulus than when location was cued by matched control patterns. The potential of this procedure to investigate the development of typical and atypical social perception is discussed.
Collapse
|
12
|
Nakano T, Nakatani K. Cortical networks for face perception in two-month-old infants. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 281:rspb.2014.1468. [PMID: 25185999 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Newborns have an innate system for preferentially looking at an upright human face. This face preference behaviour disappears at approximately one month of age and reappears a few months later. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this U-shaped behavioural change remain unclear. Here, we isolate the functional development of the cortical visual pathway for face processing using S-cone-isolating stimulation, which blinds the subcortical visual pathway. Using luminance stimuli, which are conveyed by both the subcortical and cortical visual pathways, the preference for upright faces was not observed in two-month-old infants, but it was observed in four- and six-month-old infants, confirming the recovery phase of the U-shaped development. By contrast, using S-cone stimuli, two-month-old infants already showed a preference for upright faces, as did four- and six-month-old infants, demonstrating that the cortical visual pathway for face processing is already functioning at the bottom of the U-shape at two months of age. The present results suggest that the transient functional deterioration stems from a conflict between the subcortical and cortical functional pathways, and that the recovery thereafter involves establishing a level of coordination between the two pathways.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tamami Nakano
- Dynamic Brain Network Laboratory, Graduate School of Frontiers Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
| | - Kazuko Nakatani
- Dynamic Brain Network Laboratory, Graduate School of Frontiers Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Johnson MH, Senju A, Tomalski P. The two-process theory of face processing: modifications based on two decades of data from infants and adults. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 50:169-79. [PMID: 25454353 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 168] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2014] [Revised: 08/24/2014] [Accepted: 10/12/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Johnson and Morton (1991. Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition. Blackwell, Oxford) used Gabriel Horn's work on the filial imprinting model to inspire a two-process theory of the development of face processing in humans. In this paper we review evidence accrued over the past two decades from infants and adults, and from other primates, that informs this two-process model. While work with newborns and infants has been broadly consistent with predictions from the model, further refinements and questions have been raised. With regard to adults, we discuss more recent evidence on the extension of the model to eye contact detection, and to subcortical face processing, reviewing functional imaging and patient studies. We conclude with discussion of outstanding caveats and future directions of research in this field.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark H Johnson
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
| | - Atsushi Senju
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Przemyslaw Tomalski
- Neurocognitive Development Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, 00-183 Warsaw, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Stein T, End A, Sterzer P. Own-race and own-age biases facilitate visual awareness of faces under interocular suppression. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:582. [PMID: 25136308 PMCID: PMC4118029 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2014] [Accepted: 07/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The detection of a face in a visual scene is the first stage in the face processing hierarchy. Although all subsequent, more elaborate face processing depends on the initial detection of a face, surprisingly little is known about the perceptual mechanisms underlying face detection. Recent evidence suggests that relatively hard-wired face detection mechanisms are broadly tuned to all face-like visual patterns as long as they respect the typical spatial configuration of the eyes above the mouth. Here, we qualify this notion by showing that face detection mechanisms are also sensitive to face shape and facial surface reflectance properties. We used continuous flash suppression (CFS) to render faces invisible at the beginning of a trial and measured the time upright and inverted faces needed to break into awareness. Young Caucasian adult observers were presented with faces from their own race or from another race (race experiment) and with faces from their own age group or from another age group (age experiment). Faces matching the observers’ own race and age group were detected more quickly. Moreover, the advantage of upright over inverted faces in overcoming CFS, i.e., the face inversion effect (FIE), was larger for own-race and own-age faces. These results demonstrate that differences in face shape and surface reflectance influence access to awareness and configural face processing at the initial detection stage. Although we did not collect data from observers of another race or age group, these findings are a first indication that face detection mechanisms are shaped by visual experience with faces from one’s own social group. Such experience-based fine-tuning of face detection mechanisms may equip in-group faces with a competitive advantage for access to conscious awareness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timo Stein
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, CIMeC, University of Trento Rovereto, Italy ; Department of Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin, Germany ; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Germany
| | - Albert End
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin, Germany ; DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena Jena, Germany ; Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Hamburg, Germany
| | - Philipp Sterzer
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin, Germany ; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Germany ; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Jóhannesson ÓI, Kristjánsson Á. Violating the main sequence: asymmetries in saccadic peak velocities for saccades into the temporal versus nasal hemifields. Exp Brain Res 2013; 227:101-10. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-013-3490-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2012] [Accepted: 03/14/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
|
16
|
Tomalski P, Johnson MH. Cortical sensitivity to contrast polarity and orientation of faces is modulated by temporal-nasal hemifield asymmetry. Brain Imaging Behav 2012; 6:88-101. [PMID: 22252720 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-012-9147-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Behavioral studies demonstrate that the efficiency of detection of faces is dependent on configural and contrast polarity information characteristic to human faces. Stimulus inversion or contrast polarity reversal can disrupt this process. We investigated whether a face-sensitive event-related potential component, the N170, is modulated by the orientation and contrast polarity of highly degraded schematic face-like patterns (Experiment 1) in the same manner as it is for face photographs (Experiment 2). Inversion and/or contrast reversal delayed and enhanced the N170 for both kinds of stimuli, suggesting that a white oval with three black squares is sufficient to elicit face-sensitive cortical responses. In Experiment 3 we further tested whether the extrageniculate visual pathways modulate early cortical responses to faces. We found that the N170 responses to configural and contrast information are modulated by temporal-nasal visual field asymmetry under monocular viewing conditions, suggesting the involvement of subcortical, extrageniculate visual pathways in face detection. These results are consistent with the idea that an ontogenetically early and primitive bias to orient towards face-like patterns with relevant configural and contrast information influences the early stages of cortical face processing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Przemyslaw Tomalski
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet St., London WC1E 7HX, UK.
| | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Stein T, Peelen MV, Sterzer P. Adults' awareness of faces follows newborns' looking preferences. PLoS One 2011; 6:e29361. [PMID: 22216259 PMCID: PMC3244447 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2011] [Accepted: 11/27/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
From the first days of life, humans preferentially orient towards upright faces, likely reflecting innate subcortical mechanisms. Here, we show that binocular rivalry can reveal face detection mechanisms in adults that are surprisingly similar to inborn face detection mechanism. We used continuous flash suppression (CFS), a variant of binocular rivalry, to render stimuli invisible at the beginning of each trial and measured the time upright and inverted stimuli needed to overcome such interocular suppression. Critically, specific stimulus properties previously shown to modulate looking preferences in neonates similarly modulated adults' awareness of faces presented during CFS. First, the advantage of upright faces in overcoming CFS was strongly modulated by contrast polarity and direction of illumination. Second, schematic patterns consisting of three dark blobs were suppressed for shorter durations when the arrangement of these blobs respected the face-like configuration of the eyes and the mouth, and this effect was modulated by contrast polarity. No such effects were obtained in a binocular control experiment not involving CFS, suggesting a crucial role for face-sensitive mechanisms operating outside of conscious awareness. These findings indicate that visual awareness of faces in adults is governed by perceptual mechanisms that are sensitive to similar stimulus properties as those modulating newborns' face preferences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timo Stein
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
18
|
Abstract
I consider face processing as the brain's adaptive response to phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and task-specific factors. Focusing on wide-ranging evidence from both my own laboratory and others, evidence for a primitive “quick and dirty” route for face processing that exists prior to postnatal experience is reviewed. Next, I trace the emergence of cortical specialization for face processing influenced by individual developmental experience (ontogenetic adaptation) and suggest that this ontogenetic adaptation is also heavily constrained by the phylogenetic system. Finally, I turn to recent evidence on task-specific modulation of activity in the core face network that illustrates brain adaptation at a finer timescale than that for the other systems. Current evidence indicates that task-specific modulation of the cortical face network does not emerge until the teenage years. As previously proposed for other components of cognition, I propose that these systems are complementary to each other, each compensating for the others' weaknesses. Different face-related systems are adapted to respond to survival pressures at different timescales, from millennia, to months, to microseconds.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark H. Johnson
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Senju A, Kikuchi Y, Akechi H, Hasegawa T, Tojo Y, Osanai H, Johnson MH. Atypical modulation of face-elicited saccades in autism spectrum disorder in a double-step saccade paradigm. RESEARCH IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS 2011; 5:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2011.01.021. [PMID: 24273595 PMCID: PMC3837200 DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2011.01.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Atypical development of face processing is a major characteristic in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be due to atypical interactions between subcortical and cortical face processing. The current study investigated the saccade planning towards faces in ASD. Seventeen children with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) children observed a pair of upright or inverted face configurations flashed sequentially in two different spatial positions. The reactive saccades of participants were recorded by eye-tracking. The results did not provide evidence of overall impairment of subcortical route in ASD, However, the upright, but not the inverted, face configuration modulated the frequency of vector sum saccades (an index of subcortical control) in TD, but not in ASD. The current results suggests that children with ASD do not have overall impairment of the subcortital route, but the subcortical route may not be specialized to face processing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Atsushi Senju
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| | - Yukiko Kikuchi
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hironori Akechi
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Toshikazu Hasegawa
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Hiroo Osanai
- Centre for Education and Research, Musashino Higashi Gakuen, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mark H Johnson
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Abstract
AbstractEye contact plays a critical role in many aspects of face processing, including the processing of smiles. We propose that this is achieved by a subcortical route, which is activated by eye contact and modulates the cortical areas involve in social cognition, including the processing of facial expression. This mechanism could be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Collapse
|