Face recognition increases during saccade preparation.

PubMed

Lin, Hai; Rizak, Joshua D; Ma, Yuan-ye; Yang, Shang-chuan; Chen, Lin; Hu, Xin-tian

2014-01-01

Face perception is integral to human perception system as it underlies social interactions. Saccadic eye movements are frequently made to bring interesting visual information, such as faces, onto the fovea for detailed processing. Just before eye movement onset, the processing of some basic features, such as the orientation, of an object improves at the saccade landing point. Interestingly, there is also evidence that indicates faces are processed in early visual processing stages similar to basic features. However, it is not known whether this early enhancement of processing includes face recognition. In this study, three experiments were performed to map the timing of face presentation to the beginning of the eye movement in order to evaluate pre-saccadic face recognition. Faces were found to be similarly processed as simple objects immediately prior to saccadic movements. Starting ∼ 120 ms before a saccade to a target face, independent of whether or not the face was surrounded by other faces, the face recognition gradually improved and the critical spacing of the crowding decreased as saccade onset was approaching. These results suggest that an upcoming saccade prepares the visual system for new information about faces at the saccade landing site and may reduce the background in a crowd to target the intended face. This indicates an important role of pre-saccadic eye movement signals in human face recognition.

Finding a face in the crowd: testing the anger superiority effect in Asperger Syndrome.

PubMed

Ashwin, Chris; Wheelwright, Sally; Baron-Cohen, Simon

2006-06-01

Social threat captures attention and is processed rapidly and efficiently, with many lines of research showing involvement of the amygdala. Visual search paradigms looking at social threat have shown angry faces 'pop-out' in a crowd, compared to happy faces. Autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS) are neurodevelopmental conditions characterised by social deficits, abnormal face processing, and amygdala dysfunction. We tested adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) and AS using a facial visual search paradigm with schematic neutral and emotional faces. We found, contrary to predictions, that people with HFA/AS performed similarly to controls in many conditions. However, the effect was reduced in the HFA/AS group when using widely varying crowd sizes and when faces were inverted, suggesting a difference in face-processing style may be evident even with simple schematic faces. We conclude there are intact threat detection mechanisms in AS, under simple and predictable conditions, but that like other face-perception tasks, the visual search of threat faces task reveals atypical face-processing in HFA/AS.

Two areas for familiar face recognition in the primate brain.

PubMed

Landi, Sofia M; Freiwald, Winrich A

2017-08-11

Familiarity alters face recognition: Familiar faces are recognized more accurately than unfamiliar ones and under difficult viewing conditions when unfamiliar face recognition fails. The neural basis for this fundamental difference remains unknown. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that personally familiar faces engage the macaque face-processing network more than unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces also recruited two hitherto unknown face areas at anatomically conserved locations within the perirhinal cortex and the temporal pole. These two areas, but not the core face-processing network, responded to familiar faces emerging from a blur with a characteristic nonlinear surge, akin to the abruptness of familiar face recognition. In contrast, responses to unfamiliar faces and objects remained linear. Thus, two temporal lobe areas extend the core face-processing network into a familiar face-recognition system. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Dynamic Encoding of Face Information in the Human Fusiform Gyrus

PubMed Central

Ghuman, Avniel Singh; Brunet, Nicolas M.; Li, Yuanning; Konecky, Roma O.; Pyles, John A.; Walls, Shawn A.; Destefino, Vincent; Wang, Wei; Richardson, R. Mark

2014-01-01

Humans’ ability to rapidly and accurately detect, identify, and classify faces under variable conditions derives from a network of brain regions highly tuned to face information. The fusiform face area (FFA) is thought to be a computational hub for face processing, however temporal dynamics of face information processing in FFA remains unclear. Here we use multivariate pattern classification to decode the temporal dynamics of expression-invariant face information processing using electrodes placed directly upon FFA in humans. Early FFA activity (50-75 ms) contained information regarding whether participants were viewing a face. Activity between 200-500 ms contained expression-invariant information about which of 70 faces participants were viewing along with the individual differences in facial features and their configurations. Long-lasting (500+ ms) broadband gamma frequency activity predicted task performance. These results elucidate the dynamic computational role FFA plays in multiple face processing stages and indicate what information is used in performing these visual analyses. PMID:25482825

Dynamic encoding of face information in the human fusiform gyrus.

PubMed

Ghuman, Avniel Singh; Brunet, Nicolas M; Li, Yuanning; Konecky, Roma O; Pyles, John A; Walls, Shawn A; Destefino, Vincent; Wang, Wei; Richardson, R Mark

2014-12-08

Humans' ability to rapidly and accurately detect, identify and classify faces under variable conditions derives from a network of brain regions highly tuned to face information. The fusiform face area (FFA) is thought to be a computational hub for face processing; however, temporal dynamics of face information processing in FFA remains unclear. Here we use multivariate pattern classification to decode the temporal dynamics of expression-invariant face information processing using electrodes placed directly on FFA in humans. Early FFA activity (50-75 ms) contained information regarding whether participants were viewing a face. Activity between 200 and 500 ms contained expression-invariant information about which of 70 faces participants were viewing along with the individual differences in facial features and their configurations. Long-lasting (500+ms) broadband gamma frequency activity predicted task performance. These results elucidate the dynamic computational role FFA plays in multiple face processing stages and indicate what information is used in performing these visual analyses.

Configural and component processing in simultaneous and sequential lineup procedures.

PubMed

Flowe, Heather D; Smith, Harriet M J; Karoğlu, Nilda; Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu O; Rai, Lovedeep

2016-01-01

Configural processing supports accurate face recognition, yet it has never been examined within the context of criminal identification lineups. We tested, using the inversion paradigm, the role of configural processing in lineups. Recent research has found that face discrimination accuracy in lineups is better in a simultaneous compared to a sequential lineup procedure. Therefore, we compared configural processing in simultaneous and sequential lineups to examine whether there are differences. We had participants view a crime video, and then they attempted to identify the perpetrator from a simultaneous or sequential lineup. The test faces were presented either upright or inverted, as previous research has shown that inverting test faces disrupts configural processing. The size of the inversion effect for faces was the same across lineup procedures, indicating that configural processing underlies face recognition in both procedures. Discrimination accuracy was comparable across lineup procedures in both the upright and inversion condition. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

When false recognition is out of control: the case of facial conjunctions.

PubMed

Jones, Todd C; Bartlett, James C

2009-03-01

In three experiments, a dual-process approach to face recognition memory is examined, with a specific focus on the idea that a recollection process can be used to retrieve configural information of a studied face. Subjects could avoid, with confidence, a recognition error to conjunction lure faces (each a reconfiguration of features from separate studied faces) or feature lure faces (each based on a set of old features and a set of new features) by recalling a studied configuration. In Experiment 1, study repetition (one vs. eight presentations) was manipulated, and in Experiments 2 and 3, retention interval over a short number of trials (0-20) was manipulated. Different measures converged on the conclusion that subjects were unable to use a recollection process to retrieve configural information in an effort to temper recognition errors for conjunction or feature lure faces. A single process, familiarity, appears to be the sole process underlying recognition of conjunction and feature faces, and familiarity contributes, perhaps in whole, to discrimination of old from conjunction faces.

Abnormal Neural Activation to Faces in the Parents of Children with Autism

PubMed Central

Yucel, G. H.; Belger, A.; Bizzell, J.; Parlier, M.; Adolphs, R.; Piven, J.

2015-01-01

Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show subtle deficits in aspects of social behavior and face processing, which resemble those seen in ASD, referred to as the “Broad Autism Phenotype ” (BAP). While abnormal activation in ASD has been reported in several brain structures linked to social cognition, little is known regarding patterns in the BAP. We compared autism parents with control parents with no family history of ASD using 2 well-validated face-processing tasks. Results indicated increased activation in the autism parents to faces in the amygdala (AMY) and the fusiform gyrus (FG), 2 core face-processing regions. Exploratory analyses revealed hyper-activation of lateral occipital cortex (LOC) bilaterally in autism parents with aloof personality (“BAP+”). Findings suggest that abnormalities of the AMY and FG are related to underlying genetic liability for ASD, whereas abnormalities in the LOC and right FG are more specific to behavioral features of the BAP. Results extend our knowledge of neural circuitry underlying abnormal face processing beyond those previously reported in ASD to individuals with shared genetic liability for autism and a subset of genetically related individuals with the BAP. PMID:25056573

Orientation and Affective Expression Effects on Face Recognition in Williams Syndrome and Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Fredric E.; Lincoln, Alan J.; Lai, Zona; Ene, Michaela; Searcy, Yvonne M.; Bellugi, Ursula

2007-01-01

We sought to clarify the nature of the face processing strength commonly observed in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) by comparing the face recognition ability of persons with WS to that of persons with autism and to healthy controls under three conditions: Upright faces with neutral expressions, upright faces with varying affective…

The impact of intranasal oxytocin on attention to social emotional stimuli in patients with anorexia nervosa: a double blind within-subject cross-over experiment.

PubMed

Kim, Youl-Ri; Kim, Chan-Hyung; Park, Jin Hong; Pyo, Jimin; Treasure, Janet

2014-01-01

Social factors may be of importance causally and act as maintenance factors in patients with anorexia nervosa. Oxytocin is a neuromodulatory hormone involved in social emotional processing associated with attentional processes. This study aimed to examine the impact of oxytocin on attentional processes to social faces representing anger, disgust, and happiness in patients with anorexia nervosa. A double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject crossover design was used. Intranasal oxytocin or placebo followed by a visual probe detection task with faces depicting anger, disgust, and happiness was administered to 64 female subjects: 31 patients with anorexia nervosa and 33 control students. Attentional bias to the disgust stimuli was observed in both groups under the placebo condition. The attentional bias to disgust was reduced under the oxytocin condition (a moderate effect in the patient group). Avoidance of angry faces was observed in the patient group under the placebo condition and vigilance was observed in the healthy comparison group; both of these information processing responses were moderated by oxytocin producing an increase in vigilance in the patients. Happy/smiling faces did not elicit an attentional response in controls or the patients under either the placebo or oxytocin conditions. Oxytocin attenuated attentional vigilance to disgust in patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls. On the other hand, oxytocin changed the response to angry faces from avoidance to vigilance in patients but reduced vigilance to anger in healthy controls. We conclude that patients with anorexia nervosa appear to use different strategies/circuits to emotionally process anger from their healthy counterparts.

System for face recognition under expression variations of neutral-sampled individuals using recognized expression warping and a virtual expression-face database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petpairote, Chayanut; Madarasmi, Suthep; Chamnongthai, Kosin

2018-01-01

The practical identification of individuals using facial recognition techniques requires the matching of faces with specific expressions to faces from a neutral face database. A method for facial recognition under varied expressions against neutral face samples of individuals via recognition of expression warping and the use of a virtual expression-face database is proposed. In this method, facial expressions are recognized and the input expression faces are classified into facial expression groups. To aid facial recognition, the virtual expression-face database is sorted into average facial-expression shapes and by coarse- and fine-featured facial textures. Wrinkle information is also employed in classification by using a process of masking to adjust input faces to match the expression-face database. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method using the CMU multi-PIE, Cohn-Kanade, and AR expression-face databases, and we find that it provides significantly improved results in terms of face recognition accuracy compared to conventional methods and is acceptable for facial recognition under expression variation.

Neural mechanisms underlying the effects of face-based affective signals on memory for faces: a tentative model

PubMed Central

Tsukiura, Takashi

2012-01-01

In our daily lives, we form some impressions of other people. Although those impressions are affected by many factors, face-based affective signals such as facial expression, facial attractiveness, or trustworthiness are important. Previous psychological studies have demonstrated the impact of facial impressions on remembering other people, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this psychological process. The purpose of this article is to review recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies to investigate the effects of face-based affective signals including facial expression, facial attractiveness, and trustworthiness on memory for faces, and to propose a tentative concept for understanding this affective-cognitive interaction. On the basis of the aforementioned research, three brain regions are potentially involved in the processing of face-based affective signals. The first candidate is the amygdala, where activity is generally modulated by both affectively positive and negative signals from faces. Activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), as the second candidate, increases as a function of perceived positive signals from faces; whereas activity in the insular cortex, as the third candidate, reflects a function of face-based negative signals. In addition, neuroscientific studies have reported that the three regions are functionally connected to the memory-related hippocampal regions. These findings suggest that the effects of face-based affective signals on memory for faces could be modulated by interactions between the regions associated with the processing of face-based affective signals and the hippocampus as a memory-related region. PMID:22837740

Reward Promotes Self-Face Processing: An Event-Related Potential Study

PubMed Central

Zhan, Youlong; Chen, Jie; Xiao, Xiao; Li, Jin; Yang, Zilu; Fan, Wei; Zhong, Yiping

2016-01-01

The present study adopted a reward-priming paradigm to investigate whether and how monetary reward cues affected self-face processing. Event-related potentials were recorded during judgments of head orientation of target faces (self, friend, and stranger), with performance associated with a monetary reward. The results showed self-faces elicited larger N2 mean amplitudes than other-faces, and mean N2 amplitudes increased after monetary reward as compared with no reward cue. Moreover, an interaction effect between cue type and face type was observed for the P3 component, suggesting that both self-faces and friend-faces elicited larger P3 mean amplitudes than stranger-faces after no reward cue, with no significant difference between self-faces and friend-faces under this condition. However, self-faces elicited larger P3 mean amplitudes than friend-faces when monetary reward cues were provided. Interestingly, the enhancement of reward on friend-faces processing was observed at late positive potentials (LPP; 450–600 ms), suggesting that the LPP difference between friend-faces and stranger-faces was enhanced with monetary reward cues. Thus, we found that the enhancement effect of reward on self-relevant processing occurred at the later stages, but not at the early stage. These findings suggest that the activation of the reward expectations can enhance self-face processing, yielding a robust and sustained modulation over their overlapped brain areas where reward and self-relevant processing mechanisms may operate together. PMID:27242637

Testing Differential Holistic Processing Within a Face: No Evidence of Asymmetry from the Complete Composite Task.

PubMed

Shyi, Gary C-W; Wang, Chao-Chih

2016-01-01

The composite face task is one of the most popular research paradigms for measuring holistic processing of upright faces. The exact mechanism underlying holistic processing remains elusive and controversial, and some studies have suggested that holistic processing may not be evenly distributed, in that the top-half of a face might induce stronger holistic processing than its bottom-half counterpart. In two experiments, we further examined the possibility of asymmetric holistic processing. Prior to Experiment 1, we confirmed that perceptual discriminability was equated between top and bottom face halves; we found no differences in performance between top and bottom face halves when they were presented individually. Then, in Experiment 1, using the composite face task with the complete design to reduce response bias, we failed to obtain evidence that would support the notion of asymmetric holistic processing between top and bottom face halves. To further reduce performance variability and to remove lingering holistic effects observed in the misaligned condition in Experiment 1, we doubled the number of trials and increased misalignment between top and bottom face halves to make misalignment more salient in Experiment 2. Even with these additional manipulations, we were unable to find evidence indicative of asymmetric holistic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that holistic processing is distributed homogenously within an upright face.

Neural architecture underlying classification of face perception paradigms.

PubMed

Laird, Angela R; Riedel, Michael C; Sutherland, Matthew T; Eickhoff, Simon B; Ray, Kimberly L; Uecker, Angela M; Fox, P Mickle; Turner, Jessica A; Fox, Peter T

2015-10-01

We present a novel strategy for deriving a classification system of functional neuroimaging paradigms that relies on hierarchical clustering of experiments archived in the BrainMap database. The goal of our proof-of-concept application was to examine the underlying neural architecture of the face perception literature from a meta-analytic perspective, as these studies include a wide range of tasks. Task-based results exhibiting similar activation patterns were grouped as similar, while tasks activating different brain networks were classified as functionally distinct. We identified four sub-classes of face tasks: (1) Visuospatial Attention and Visuomotor Coordination to Faces, (2) Perception and Recognition of Faces, (3) Social Processing and Episodic Recall of Faces, and (4) Face Naming and Lexical Retrieval. Interpretation of these sub-classes supports an extension of a well-known model of face perception to include a core system for visual analysis and extended systems for personal information, emotion, and salience processing. Overall, these results demonstrate that a large-scale data mining approach can inform the evolution of theoretical cognitive models by probing the range of behavioral manipulations across experimental tasks. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of intranasal oxytocin on the neural basis of face processing in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Domes, Gregor; Heinrichs, Markus; Kumbier, Ekkehardt; Grossmann, Annette; Hauenstein, Karlheinz; Herpertz, Sabine C

2013-08-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with altered face processing and decreased activity in brain regions involved in face processing. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to promote face processing and modulate brain activity in healthy adults. The present study examined the effects of oxytocin on the neural basis of face processing in adults with Asperger syndrome (AS). A group of 14 individuals with AS and a group of 14 neurotypical control participants performed a face-matching and a house-matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The effects of a single dose of 24 IU intranasally administered oxytocin were tested in a randomized, placebo-controlled, within-subject, cross-over design. Under placebo, the AS group showed decreased activity in the right amygdala, fusiform gyrus, and inferior occipital gyrus compared with the control group during face processing. After oxytocin treatment, right amygdala activity to facial stimuli increased in the AS group. These findings indicate that oxytocin increases the saliency of social stimuli and in ASD and suggest that oxytocin might promote face processing and eye contact in individuals with ASD as prerequisites for neurotypical social interaction. Copyright © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional atlas of emotional faces processing: a voxel-based meta-analysis of 105 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

PubMed Central

Fusar-Poli, Paolo; Placentino, Anna; Carletti, Francesco; Landi, Paola; Allen, Paul; Surguladze, Simon; Benedetti, Francesco; Abbamonte, Marta; Gasparotti, Roberto; Barale, Francesco; Perez, Jorge; McGuire, Philip; Politi, Pierluigi

2009-01-01

Background Most of our social interactions involve perception of emotional information from the faces of other people. Furthermore, such emotional processes are thought to be aberrant in a range of clinical disorders, including psychosis and depression. However, the exact neurofunctional maps underlying emotional facial processing are not well defined. Methods Two independent researchers conducted separate comprehensive PubMed (1990 to May 2008) searches to find all functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using a variant of the emotional faces paradigm in healthy participants. The search terms were: “fMRI AND happy faces,” “fMRI AND sad faces,” “fMRI AND fearful faces,” “fMRI AND angry faces,” “fMRI AND disgusted faces” and “fMRI AND neutral faces.” We extracted spatial coordinates and inserted them in an electronic database. We performed activation likelihood estimation analysis for voxel-based meta-analyses. Results Of the originally identified studies, 105 met our inclusion criteria. The overall database consisted of 1785 brain coordinates that yielded an overall sample of 1600 healthy participants. Quantitative voxel-based meta-analysis of brain activation provided neurofunctional maps for 1) main effect of human faces; 2) main effect of emotional valence; and 3) modulatory effect of age, sex, explicit versus implicit processing and magnetic field strength. Processing of emotional faces was associated with increased activation in a number of visual, limbic, temporoparietal and prefrontal areas; the putamen; and the cerebellum. Happy, fearful and sad faces specifically activated the amygdala, whereas angry or disgusted faces had no effect on this brain region. Furthermore, amygdala sensitivity was greater for fearful than for happy or sad faces. Insular activation was selectively reported during processing of disgusted and angry faces. However, insular sensitivity was greater for disgusted than for angry faces. Conversely, neural response in the visual cortex and cerebellum was observable across all emotional conditions. Limitations Although the activation likelihood estimation approach is currently one of the most powerful and reliable meta-analytical methods in neuroimaging research, it is insensitive to effect sizes. Conclusion Our study has detailed neurofunctional maps to use as normative references in future fMRI studies of emotional facial processing in psychiatric populations. We found selective differences between neural networks underlying the basic emotions in limbic and insular brain regions. PMID:19949718

Affect of the unconscious: visually suppressed angry faces modulate our decisions.

PubMed

Almeida, Jorge; Pajtas, Petra E; Mahon, Bradford Z; Nakayama, Ken; Caramazza, Alfonso

2013-03-01

Emotional and affective processing imposes itself over cognitive processes and modulates our perception of the surrounding environment. In two experiments, we addressed the issue of whether nonconscious processing of affect can take place even under deep states of unawareness, such as those induced by interocular suppression techniques, and can elicit an affective response that can influence our understanding of the surrounding environment. In Experiment 1, participants judged the likeability of an unfamiliar item--a Chinese character--that was preceded by a face expressing a particular emotion (either happy or angry). The face was rendered invisible through an interocular suppression technique (continuous flash suppression; CFS). In Experiment 2, backward masking (BM), a less robust masking technique, was used to render the facial expressions invisible. We found that despite equivalent phenomenological suppression of the visual primes under CFS and BM, different patterns of affective processing were obtained with the two masking techniques. Under BM, nonconscious affective priming was obtained for both happy and angry invisible facial expressions. However, under CFS, nonconscious affective priming was obtained only for angry facial expressions. We discuss an interpretation of this dissociation between affective processing and visual masking techniques in terms of distinct routes from the retina to the amygdala.

Subliminal Face Emotion Processing: A Comparison of Fearful and Disgusted Faces

PubMed Central

Khalid, Shah; Ansorge, Ulrich

2017-01-01

Prior research has provided evidence for (1) subcortical processing of subliminal facial expressions of emotion and (2) for the emotion-specificity of these processes. Here, we investigated if this is also true for the processing of the subliminal facial display of disgust. In Experiment 1, we used differently filtered masked prime faces portraying emotionally neutral or disgusted expressions presented prior to clearly visible target faces to test if the masked primes exerted an influence on target processing nonetheless. Whereas we found evidence for subliminal face congruence or priming effects, in particular, reverse priming by low spatial frequencies disgusted face primes, we did not find any support for a subcortical origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, we compared the influence of subliminal disgusted faces with that of subliminal fearful faces and demonstrated a behavioral performance difference between the two, pointing to an emotion-specific processing of the disgusted facial expressions. In both experiments, we also tested for the dependence of the subliminal emotional face processing on spatial attention – with mixed results, suggesting an attention-independence in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2 –, and we found perfect masking of the face primes – that is, proof of the subliminality of the prime faces. Based on our findings, we speculate that subliminal facial expressions of disgust could afford easy avoidance of these faces. This could be a unique effect of disgusted faces as compared to other emotional facial displays, at least under the conditions studied here. PMID:28680413

Subliminal Face Emotion Processing: A Comparison of Fearful and Disgusted Faces.

PubMed

Khalid, Shah; Ansorge, Ulrich

2017-01-01

Prior research has provided evidence for (1) subcortical processing of subliminal facial expressions of emotion and (2) for the emotion-specificity of these processes. Here, we investigated if this is also true for the processing of the subliminal facial display of disgust. In Experiment 1, we used differently filtered masked prime faces portraying emotionally neutral or disgusted expressions presented prior to clearly visible target faces to test if the masked primes exerted an influence on target processing nonetheless. Whereas we found evidence for subliminal face congruence or priming effects, in particular, reverse priming by low spatial frequencies disgusted face primes, we did not find any support for a subcortical origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, we compared the influence of subliminal disgusted faces with that of subliminal fearful faces and demonstrated a behavioral performance difference between the two, pointing to an emotion-specific processing of the disgusted facial expressions. In both experiments, we also tested for the dependence of the subliminal emotional face processing on spatial attention - with mixed results, suggesting an attention-independence in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2 -, and we found perfect masking of the face primes - that is, proof of the subliminality of the prime faces. Based on our findings, we speculate that subliminal facial expressions of disgust could afford easy avoidance of these faces. This could be a unique effect of disgusted faces as compared to other emotional facial displays, at least under the conditions studied here.

Abnormal Neural Activation to Faces in the Parents of Children with Autism.

PubMed

Yucel, G H; Belger, A; Bizzell, J; Parlier, M; Adolphs, R; Piven, J

2015-12-01

Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show subtle deficits in aspects of social behavior and face processing, which resemble those seen in ASD, referred to as the "Broad Autism Phenotype " (BAP). While abnormal activation in ASD has been reported in several brain structures linked to social cognition, little is known regarding patterns in the BAP. We compared autism parents with control parents with no family history of ASD using 2 well-validated face-processing tasks. Results indicated increased activation in the autism parents to faces in the amygdala (AMY) and the fusiform gyrus (FG), 2 core face-processing regions. Exploratory analyses revealed hyper-activation of lateral occipital cortex (LOC) bilaterally in autism parents with aloof personality ("BAP+"). Findings suggest that abnormalities of the AMY and FG are related to underlying genetic liability for ASD, whereas abnormalities in the LOC and right FG are more specific to behavioral features of the BAP. Results extend our knowledge of neural circuitry underlying abnormal face processing beyond those previously reported in ASD to individuals with shared genetic liability for autism and a subset of genetically related individuals with the BAP. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Impaired face processing in autism: fact or artifact?

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Mottron, Laurent; Dawson, Michelle

2006-01-01

Within the last 10 years, there has been an upsurge of interest in face processing abilities in autism which has generated a proliferation of new empirical demonstrations employing a variety of measuring techniques. Observably atypical social behaviors early in the development of children with autism have led to the contention that autism is a condition where the processing of social information, particularly faces, is impaired. While several empirical sources of evidence lend support to this hypothesis, others suggest that there are conditions under which autistic individuals do not differ from typically developing persons. The present paper reviews this bulk of empirical evidence, and concludes that the versatility and abilities of face processing in persons with autism have been underestimated.

Interest and attention in facial recognition.

PubMed

Burgess, Melinda C R; Weaver, George E

2003-04-01

When applied to facial recognition, the levels of processing paradigm has yielded consistent results: faces processed in deep conditions are recognized better than faces processed under shallow conditions. However, there are multiple explanations for this occurrence. The own-race advantage in facial recognition, the tendency to recognize faces from one's own race better than faces from another race, is also consistently shown but not clearly explained. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that the levels of processing findings in facial recognition are a result of interest and attention, not differences in processing. This hypothesis was tested for both own and other faces with 105 Caucasian general psychology students. Levels of processing was manipulated as a between-subjects variable; students were asked to answer one of four types of study questions, e.g., "deep" or "shallow" processing questions, while viewing the study faces. Students' recognition of a subset of previously presented Caucasian and African-American faces from a test-set with an equal number of distractor faces was tested. They indicated their interest in and attention to the task. The typical levels of processing effect was observed with better recognition performance in the deep conditions than in the shallow conditions for both own- and other-race faces. The typical own-race advantage was also observed regardless of level of processing condition. For both own- and other-race faces, level of processing explained a significant portion of the recognition variance above and beyond what was explained by interest in and attention to the task.

The Role of Face Familiarity in Eye Tracking of Faces by Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterling, Lindsey; Dawson, Geraldine; Webb, Sara; Murias, Michael; Munson, Jeffrey; Panagiotides, Heracles; Aylward, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

It has been shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate normal activation in the fusiform gyrus when viewing familiar, but not unfamiliar faces. The current study utilized eye tracking to investigate patterns of attention underlying familiar versus unfamiliar face processing in ASD. Eye movements of 18 typically…

Age Differences in Face Processing: The Role of Perceptual Degradation and Holistic Processing.

PubMed

Boutet, Isabelle; Meinhardt-Injac, Bozana

2018-01-24

We simultaneously investigated the role of three hypotheses regarding age-related differences in face processing: perceptual degradation, impaired holistic processing, and an interaction between the two. Young adults (YA) aged 20-33-year olds, middle-age adults (MA) aged 50-64-year olds, and older adults (OA) aged 65-82-year olds were tested on the context congruency paradigm, which allows measurement of face-specific holistic processing across the life span (Meinhardt-Injac, Persike & Meinhardt, 2014. Acta Psychologica, 151, 155-163). Perceptual degradation was examined by measuring performance with faces that were not filtered (FSF), with faces filtered to preserve low spatial frequencies (LSF), and with faces filtered to preserve high spatial frequencies (HSF). We found that reducing perceptual signal strength had a greater impact on MA and OA for HSF faces, but not LSF faces. Context congruency effects were significant and of comparable magnitude across ages for FSF, LSF, and HSF faces. By using watches as control objects, we show that these holistic effects reflect face-specific mechanisms in all age groups. Our results support the perceptual degradation hypothesis for faces containing only HSF and suggest that holistic processing is preserved in aging even under conditions of reduced signal strength. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Developmental Commonalities between Object and Face Recognition in Adolescence

PubMed Central

Jüttner, Martin; Wakui, Elley; Petters, Dean; Davidoff, Jules

2016-01-01

In the visual perception literature, the recognition of faces has often been contrasted with that of non-face objects, in terms of differences with regard to the role of parts, part relations and holistic processing. However, recent evidence from developmental studies has begun to blur this sharp distinction. We review evidence for a protracted development of object recognition that is reminiscent of the well-documented slow maturation observed for faces. The prolonged development manifests itself in a retarded processing of metric part relations as opposed to that of individual parts and offers surprising parallels to developmental accounts of face recognition, even though the interpretation of the data is less clear with regard to holistic processing. We conclude that such results might indicate functional commonalities between the mechanisms underlying the recognition of faces and non-face objects, which are modulated by different task requirements in the two stimulus domains. PMID:27014176

Development of Effective Connectivity during Own- and Other-Race Face Processing: A Granger Causality Analysis

PubMed Central

Zhou, Guifei; Liu, Jiangang; Ding, Xiao Pan; Fu, Genyue; Lee, Kang

2016-01-01

Numerous developmental studies have suggested that other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition emerges as early as in infancy and develops steadily throughout childhood. However, there is very limited research on the neural mechanisms underlying this developmental ORE. The present study used Granger causality analysis (GCA) to examine the development of children's cortical networks in processing own- and other-race faces. Children were between 3 and 13 years. An old-new paradigm was used to assess their own- and other-race face recognition with ETG-4000 (Hitachi Medical Co., Japan) acquiring functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data. After preprocessing, for each participant and under each face condition, we obtained the causal map by calculating the weights of causal relations between the time courses of [oxy-Hb] of each pair of channels using GCA. To investigate further the differential causal connectivity for own-race faces and other-race faces at the group level, a repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the GCA weights for each pair of channels with the face race task (own-race face vs. other-race face) as the within-subject variable and the age as a between-subject factor (continuous variable). We found an age-related increase in functional connectivity, paralleling a similar age-related improvement in behavioral face processing ability. More importantly, we found that the significant differences in neural functional connectivity between the recognition of own-race faces and that of other-race faces were modulated by age. Thus, like the behavioral ORE, the neural ORE emerges early and undergoes a protracted developmental course. PMID:27713696

[Neural basis of self-face recognition: social aspects].

PubMed

Sugiura, Motoaki

2012-07-01

Considering the importance of the face in social survival and evidence from evolutionary psychology of visual self-recognition, it is reasonable that we expect neural mechanisms for higher social-cognitive processes to underlie self-face recognition. A decade of neuroimaging studies so far has, however, not provided an encouraging finding in this respect. Self-face specific activation has typically been reported in the areas for sensory-motor integration in the right lateral cortices. This observation appears to reflect the physical nature of the self-face which representation is developed via the detection of contingency between one's own action and sensory feedback. We have recently revealed that the medial prefrontal cortex, implicated in socially nuanced self-referential process, is activated during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for reference. The posterior cingulate cortex has also exhibited this activation modulation, and in the separate experiment showed a response to attractively manipulated self-face suggesting its relevance to positive self-value. Furthermore, the regions in the right lateral cortices typically showing self-face-specific activation have responded also to the face of one's close friend under the rich social context. This observation is potentially explained by the fact that the contingency detection for physical self-recognition also plays a role in physical social interaction, which characterizes the representation of personally familiar people. These findings demonstrate that neuroscientific exploration reveals multiple facets of the relationship between self-face recognition and social-cognitive process, and that technically the manipulation of social context is key to its success.

Preliminary evidence that different mechanisms underlie the anger superiority effect in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Isomura, Tomoko; Ogawa, Shino; Yamada, Satoko; Shibasaki, Masahiro; Masataka, Nobuo

2014-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that angry faces capture humans' attention more rapidly than emotionally positive faces. This phenomenon is referred to as the anger superiority effect (ASE). Despite atypical emotional processing, adults and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been reported to show ASE as well as typically developed (TD) individuals. So far, however, few studies have clarified whether or not the mechanisms underlying ASE are the same for both TD and ASD individuals. Here, we tested how TD and ASD children process schematic emotional faces during detection by employing a recognition task in combination with a face-in-the-crowd task. Results of the face-in-the-crowd task revealed the prevalence of ASE both in TD and ASD children. However, the results of the recognition task revealed group differences: In TD children, detection of angry faces required more configural face processing and disrupted the processing of local features. In ASD children, on the other hand, it required more feature-based processing rather than configural processing. Despite the small sample sizes, these findings provide preliminary evidence that children with ASD, in contrast to TD children, show quick detection of angry faces by extracting local features in faces. PMID:24904477

Perceptual load manipulation reveals sensitivity of the face-selective N170 to attention.

PubMed

Mohamed, Tarik N; Neumann, Markus F; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2009-05-27

It has been controversial whether the face-sensitive N170 is affected by selective attention. We manipulated attention sensu Lavie's perceptual load theory to short (200 ms) presentations of task-irrelevant unfamiliar faces or houses, while participants identified superimposed target letters 'X' versus 'N'. These targets were strings of either six identical (low load) or six different letters (high load). Under low load, we found a prominent face-selective N170 response. Under high load, however, we not only observed a dramatic reduction of the face N170 but also an unexpected enhancement of the house N170, such that face selectivity was almost completely lost. We conclude that the early stages of face processing indexed by the N170 strongly depend on selective attention.

Co-ordinated structural and functional covariance in the adolescent brain underlies face processing performance

PubMed Central

Joel Shaw, Daniel; Mareček, Radek; Grosbras, Marie-Helene; Leonard, Gabriel; Bruce Pike, G.

2016-01-01

Our ability to process complex social cues presented by faces improves during adolescence. Using multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data collected longitudinally from a sample of 38 adolescents (17 males) when they were 10, 11.5, 13 and 15 years old, we tested the possibility that there exists parallel variations in the structural and functional development of neural systems supporting face processing. By combining measures of task-related functional connectivity and brain morphology, we reveal that both the structural covariance and functional connectivity among ‘distal’ nodes of the face-processing network engaged by ambiguous faces increase during this age range. Furthermore, we show that the trajectory of increasing functional connectivity between the distal nodes occurs in tandem with the development of their structural covariance. This demonstrates a tight coupling between functional and structural maturation within the face-processing network. Finally, we demonstrate that increased functional connectivity is associated with age-related improvements of face-processing performance, particularly in females. We suggest that our findings reflect greater integration among distal elements of the neural systems supporting the processing of facial expressions. This, in turn, might facilitate an enhanced extraction of social information from faces during a time when greater importance is placed on social interactions. PMID:26772669

Neural processing of high and low spatial frequency information in faces changes across development: qualitative changes in face processing during adolescence.

PubMed

Peters, Judith C; Vlamings, Petra; Kemner, Chantal

2013-05-01

Face perception in adults depends on skilled processing of interattribute distances ('configural' processing), which is disrupted for faces presented in inverted orientation (face inversion effect or FIE). Children are not proficient in configural processing, and this might relate to an underlying immaturity to use facial information in low spatial frequency (SF) ranges, which capture the coarse information needed for configural processing. We hypothesized that during adolescence a shift from use of high to low SF information takes place. Therefore, we studied the influence of SF content on neural face processing in groups of children (9-10 years), adolescents (14-15 years) and young adults (21-29 years) by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) to upright and inverted faces which varied in SF content. Results revealed that children show a neural FIE in early processing stages (i.e. P1; generated in early visual areas), suggesting a superficial, global facial analysis. In contrast, ERPs of adults revealed an FIE at later processing stages (i.e. N170; generated in face-selective, higher visual areas). Interestingly, adolescents showed FIEs in both processing stages, suggesting a hybrid developmental stage. Furthermore, adolescents and adults showed FIEs for stimuli containing low SF information, whereas such effects were driven by both low and high SF information in children. These results indicate that face processing has a protracted maturational course into adolescence, and is dependent on changes in SF processing. During adolescence, sensitivity to configural cues is developed, which aids the fast and holistic processing that is so special for faces. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The hierarchical brain network for face recognition.

PubMed

Zhen, Zonglei; Fang, Huizhen; Liu, Jia

2013-01-01

Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified multiple cortical regions that are involved in face processing in the human brain. However, few studies have characterized the face-processing network as a functioning whole. In this study, we used fMRI to identify face-selective regions in the entire brain and then explore the hierarchical structure of the face-processing network by analyzing functional connectivity among these regions. We identified twenty-five regions mainly in the occipital, temporal and frontal cortex that showed a reliable response selective to faces (versus objects) across participants and across scan sessions. Furthermore, these regions were clustered into three relatively independent sub-networks in a face-recognition task on the basis of the strength of functional connectivity among them. The functionality of the sub-networks likely corresponds to the recognition of individual identity, retrieval of semantic knowledge and representation of emotional information. Interestingly, when the task was switched to object recognition from face recognition, the functional connectivity between the inferior occipital gyrus and the rest of the face-selective regions were significantly reduced, suggesting that this region may serve as an entry node in the face-processing network. In sum, our study provides empirical evidence for cognitive and neural models of face recognition and helps elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition at the network level.

Seeing a haptically explored face: visual facial-expression aftereffect from haptic adaptation to a face.

PubMed

Matsumiya, Kazumichi

2013-10-01

Current views on face perception assume that the visual system receives only visual facial signals. However, I show that the visual perception of faces is systematically biased by adaptation to a haptically explored face. Recently, face aftereffects (FAEs; the altered perception of faces after adaptation to a face) have been demonstrated not only in visual perception but also in haptic perception; therefore, I combined the two FAEs to examine whether the visual system receives face-related signals from the haptic modality. I found that adaptation to a haptically explored facial expression on a face mask produced a visual FAE for facial expression. This cross-modal FAE was not due to explicitly imaging a face, response bias, or adaptation to local features. Furthermore, FAEs transferred from vision to haptics. These results indicate that visual face processing depends on substrates adapted by haptic faces, which suggests that face processing relies on shared representation underlying cross-modal interactions.

Affect of the unconscious: Visually suppressed angry faces modulate our decisions

PubMed Central

Pajtas, Petra E.; Mahon, Bradford Z.; Nakayama, Ken; Caramazza, Alfonso

2016-01-01

Emotional and affective processing imposes itself over cognitive processes and modulates our perception of the surrounding environment. In two experiments, we addressed the issue of whether nonconscious processing of affect can take place even under deep states of unawareness, such as those induced by interocular suppression techniques, and can elicit an affective response that can influence our understanding of the surrounding environment. In Experiment 1, participants judged the likeability of an unfamiliar item—a Chinese character—that was preceded by a face expressing a particular emotion (either happy or angry). The face was rendered invisible through an interocular suppression technique (continuous flash suppression; CFS). In Experiment 2, backward masking (BM), a less robust masking technique, was used to render the facial expressions invisible. We found that despite equivalent phenomenological suppression of the visual primes under CFS and BM, different patterns of affective processing were obtained with the two masking techniques. Under BM, nonconscious affective priming was obtained for both happy and angry invisible facial expressions. However, under CFS, nonconscious affective priming was obtained only for angry facial expressions. We discuss an interpretation of this dissociation between affective processing and visual masking techniques in terms of distinct routes from the retina to the amygdala. PMID:23224765

Early neural activation during facial affect processing in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Leung, Rachel C; Pang, Elizabeth W; Cassel, Daniel; Brian, Jessica A; Smith, Mary Lou; Taylor, Margot J

2015-01-01

Impaired social interaction is one of the hallmarks of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Emotional faces are arguably the most critical visual social stimuli and the ability to perceive, recognize, and interpret emotions is central to social interaction and communication, and subsequently healthy social development. However, our understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying emotional face processing in adolescents with ASD is limited. We recruited 48 adolescents, 24 with high functioning ASD and 24 typically developing controls. Participants completed an implicit emotional face processing task in the MEG. We examined spatiotemporal differences in neural activation between the groups during implicit angry and happy face processing. While there were no differences in response latencies between groups across emotions, adolescents with ASD had lower accuracy on the implicit emotional face processing task when the trials included angry faces. MEG data showed atypical neural activity in adolescents with ASD during angry and happy face processing, which included atypical activity in the insula, anterior and posterior cingulate and temporal and orbitofrontal regions. Our findings demonstrate differences in neural activity during happy and angry face processing between adolescents with and without ASD. These differences in activation in social cognitive regions may index the difficulties in face processing and in comprehension of social reward and punishment in the ASD group. Thus, our results suggest that atypical neural activation contributes to impaired affect processing, and thus social cognition, in adolescents with ASD.

Face perception in women with Turner syndrome and its underlying factors.

PubMed

Anaki, David; Zadikov Mor, Tal; Gepstein, Vardit; Hochberg, Ze'ev

2016-09-01

Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal condition that affects development in females. It is characterized by short stature, ovarian failure and other congenital malformations, due to a partial or complete absence of the sex chromosome. Women with TS frequently suffer from various physical and hormonal dysfunctions, along with impairments in visual-spatial processing and social cognition difficulties. Previous research has also shown difficulties in face and emotion perception. In the current study we examined two questions: First, whether women with TS, that are impaired in face perception, also suffer from deficits in face-specific processes. The second question was whether these face impairments in TS are related to visual-spatial perceptual dysfunctions exhibited by TS individuals, or to impaired social cognition skills. Twenty-six women with TS and 26 control participants were tested on various cognitive and psychological tests to assess visual-spatial perception, face and facial expression perception, and social cognition skills. Results show that women with TS were less accurate in face perception and facial expression processing, yet they exhibited normal face-specific processes (configural and holistic processing). They also showed difficulties in spatial perception and social cognition capacities. Additional analyses revealed that their face perception impairments were related to their deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, our results do not support the claim that the impairments in face processing observed in TS are related to difficulties in social cognition. Rather, our data point to the possibility that face perception difficulties in TS stem from visual-spatial impairments and may not be specific to faces. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To hear or not to hear: Voice processing under visual load.

PubMed

Zäske, Romi; Perlich, Marie-Christin; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2016-07-01

Adaptation to female voices causes subsequent voices to be perceived as more male, and vice versa. This contrastive aftereffect disappears under spatial inattention to adaptors, suggesting that voices are not encoded automatically. According to Lavie, Hirst, de Fockert, and Viding (2004), the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli during selective attention depends on perceptual resources and working memory. Possibly due to their social significance, faces may be an exceptional domain: That is, task-irrelevant faces can escape perceptual load effects. Here we tested voice processing, to study whether voice gender aftereffects (VGAEs) depend on low or high perceptual (Exp. 1) or working memory (Exp. 2) load in a relevant visual task. Participants adapted to irrelevant voices while either searching digit displays for a target (Exp. 1) or recognizing studied digits (Exp. 2). We found that the VGAE was unaffected by perceptual load, indicating that task-irrelevant voices, like faces, can also escape perceptual-load effects. Intriguingly, the VGAE was increased under high memory load. Therefore, visual working memory load, but not general perceptual load, determines the processing of task-irrelevant voices.

Emotional arousal amplifies the effects of biased competition in the brain

PubMed Central

Lee, Tae-Ho; Sakaki, Michiko; Cheng, Ruth; Velasco, Ricardo

2014-01-01

The arousal-biased competition model predicts that arousal increases the gain on neural competition between stimuli representations. Thus, the model predicts that arousal simultaneously enhances processing of salient stimuli and impairs processing of relatively less-salient stimuli. We tested this model with a simple dot-probe task. On each trial, participants were simultaneously exposed to one face image as a salient cue stimulus and one place image as a non-salient stimulus. A border around the face cue location further increased its bottom-up saliency. Before these visual stimuli were shown, one of two tones played: one that predicted a shock (increasing arousal) or one that did not. An arousal-by-saliency interaction in category-specific brain regions (fusiform face area for salient faces and parahippocampal place area for non-salient places) indicated that brain activation associated with processing the salient stimulus was enhanced under arousal whereas activation associated with processing the non-salient stimulus was suppressed under arousal. This is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging study to demonstrate that arousal can enhance information processing for prioritized stimuli while simultaneously impairing processing of non-prioritized stimuli. Thus, it goes beyond previous research to show that arousal does not uniformly enhance perceptual processing, but instead does so selectively in ways that optimizes attention to highly salient stimuli. PMID:24532703

Dissociation between the behavioural and electrophysiological effects of the face and body composite illusions.

PubMed

Soria Bauser, Denise A; Schriewer, Elisabeth; Suchan, Boris

2015-08-01

Several studies have reported similarities between perceptual processes underlying face and body perception, particularly emphasizing the importance of configural processes. Differences between the perception of faces and the perception of bodies were observed by means of a manipulation targeting a specific subtype of configural processing: the composite illusion. The composite face illusion describes the fact that two identical top halves of a face are perceived as being different if they are presented with different bottom parts. This effect disappears, if both halves are laterally shifted. Crucially, the effect of misalignment is not observed for bodies. This study aimed to further explore differences in the time course of face and body perception by using the composite effect. The present results replicated behavioural effects illustrating that misalignment affects the perception of faces but not bodies. Thus, face but not body perception relies on holistic processing. However, differences in the time course of the processing of both stimulus categories emerged at the N170 and P200. The pattern of the behavioural data seemed to be related to the P200. Thus, the present data indicate that holistic processes associated with the effect of misalignment might occur 200 ms after stimulus onset. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Disordered high-frequency oscillation in face processing in schizophrenia patients

PubMed Central

Liu, Miaomiao; Pei, Guangying; Peng, Yinuo; Wang, Changming; Yan, Tianyi; Wu, Jinglong

2018-01-01

Abstract Schizophrenia is a complex disorder characterized by marked social dysfunctions, but the neural mechanism underlying this deficit is unknown. To investigate whether face-specific perceptual processes are influenced in schizophrenia patients, both face detection and configural analysis were assessed in normal individuals and schizophrenia patients by recording electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Here, a face processing model was built based on the frequency oscillations, and the evoked power (theta, alpha, and beta bands) and the induced power (gamma bands) were recorded while the subjects passively viewed face and nonface images presented in upright and inverted orientations. The healthy adults showed a significant face-specific effect in the alpha, beta, and gamma bands, and an inversion effect was observed in the gamma band in the occipital lobe and right temporal lobe. Importantly, the schizophrenia patients showed face-specific deficits in the low-frequency beta and gamma bands, and the face inversion effect in the gamma band was absent from the occipital lobe. All these results revealed face-specific processing in patients due to the disorder of high-frequency EEG, providing additional evidence to enrich future studies investigating neural mechanisms and serving as a marked diagnostic basis. PMID:29419668

The effect of acute citalopram on face emotion processing in remitted depression: a pharmacoMRI study.

PubMed

Anderson, Ian M; Juhasz, Gabriella; Thomas, Emma; Downey, Darragh; McKie, Shane; Deakin, J F William; Elliott, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Both reduced serotonergic (5-HT) function and negative emotional biases have been associated with vulnerability to depression. In order to investigate whether these might be related we examined 5-HT modulation of affective processing in 14 remitted depressed subjects compared with 12 never depressed controls matched for age and sex. Participants underwent function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a covert face emotion task with and without intravenous citalopram (7.5mg) pretreatment. Compared with viewing neutral faces, and irrespective of group, citalopram enhanced left anterior cingulate blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response to happy faces, right posterior insula and right lateral orbitofrontal responses to sad faces, and reduced amygdala responses bilaterally to fearful faces. In controls, relative to remitted depressed subjects, citalopram increased bilateral hippocampal responses to happy faces and increased right anterior insula response to sad faces. These findings were not accounted for by changes in BOLD responses to viewing neutral faces. These results are consistent with previous findings showing 5-HT modulation of affective processing; differences found in previously depressed participants compared with controls may contribute to emotional processing biases underlying vulnerability to depressive relapse. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

The many faces of research on face perception.

PubMed

Little, Anthony C; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M

2011-06-12

Face perception is fundamental to human social interaction. Many different types of important information are visible in faces and the processes and mechanisms involved in extracting this information are complex and can be highly specialized. The importance of faces has long been recognized by a wide range of scientists. Importantly, the range of perspectives and techniques that this breadth has brought to face perception research has, in recent years, led to many important advances in our understanding of face processing. The articles in this issue on face perception each review a particular arena of interest in face perception, variously focusing on (i) the social aspects of face perception (attraction, recognition and emotion), (ii) the neural mechanisms underlying face perception (using brain scanning, patient data, direct stimulation of the brain, visual adaptation and single-cell recording), and (iii) comparative aspects of face perception (comparing adult human abilities with those of chimpanzees and children). Here, we introduce the central themes of the issue and present an overview of the articles.

Congenital prosopagnosia: face-blind from birth.

PubMed

Behrmann, Marlene; Avidan, Galia

2005-04-01

Congenital prosopagnosia refers to the deficit in face processing that is apparent from early childhood in the absence of any underlying neurological basis and in the presence of intact sensory and intellectual function. Several such cases have been described recently and elucidating the mechanisms giving rise to this impairment should aid our understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms mediating face processing. Fundamental questions include: What is the nature and extent of the face-processing deficit in congenital prosopagnosia? Is the deficit related to a more general perceptual deficit such as the failure to process configural information? Are any neural alterations detectable using fMRI, ERP or structural analyses of the anatomy of the ventral visual cortex? We discuss these issues in relation to the existing literature and suggest directions for future research.

Interference between face and non-face domains of perceptual expertise: a replication and extension

PubMed Central

Curby, Kim M.; Gauthier, Isabel

2014-01-01

As car expertise increases, so does interference between the visual processing of faces and that of cars; this suggests performance trade-offs across domains of real-world expertise. Such interference between expert domains has been previously revealed in a relatively complex design, interleaving 2-back part-judgment task with faces and cars (Gauthier et al., 2003). However, the basis of this interference is unclear. Experiment 1A replicated the finding of interference between faces and cars, as a function of car expertise. Experiments 1B and 2 investigated the mechanisms underlying this effect by (1) providing baseline measures of performance and (2) assessing the specificity of this interference effect. Our findings support the presence of expertise-dependent interference between face and non-face domains of expertise. However, surprisingly, it is in the condition where faces are processed among cars with a disrupted configuration where expertise has a greater influence on faces. This finding highlights how expertise-related processing changes also occur for transformed objects of expertise and that such changes can also drive interference across domains of expertise. PMID:25346702

Image preprocessing study on KPCA-based face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xuan; Li, Dehua

2015-12-01

Face recognition as an important biometric identification method, with its friendly, natural, convenient advantages, has obtained more and more attention. This paper intends to research a face recognition system including face detection, feature extraction and face recognition, mainly through researching on related theory and the key technology of various preprocessing methods in face detection process, using KPCA method, focuses on the different recognition results in different preprocessing methods. In this paper, we choose YCbCr color space for skin segmentation and choose integral projection for face location. We use erosion and dilation of the opening and closing operation and illumination compensation method to preprocess face images, and then use the face recognition method based on kernel principal component analysis method for analysis and research, and the experiments were carried out using the typical face database. The algorithms experiment on MATLAB platform. Experimental results show that integration of the kernel method based on PCA algorithm under certain conditions make the extracted features represent the original image information better for using nonlinear feature extraction method, which can obtain higher recognition rate. In the image preprocessing stage, we found that images under various operations may appear different results, so as to obtain different recognition rate in recognition stage. At the same time, in the process of the kernel principal component analysis, the value of the power of the polynomial function can affect the recognition result.

Word and face processing engage overlapping distributed networks: Evidence from RSVP and EEG investigations.

PubMed

Robinson, Amanda K; Plaut, David C; Behrmann, Marlene

2017-07-01

Words and faces have vastly different visual properties, but increasing evidence suggests that word and face processing engage overlapping distributed networks. For instance, fMRI studies have shown overlapping activity for face and word processing in the fusiform gyrus despite well-characterized lateralization of these objects to the left and right hemispheres, respectively. To investigate whether face and word perception influences perception of the other stimulus class and elucidate the mechanisms underlying such interactions, we presented images using rapid serial visual presentations. Across 3 experiments, participants discriminated 2 face, word, and glasses targets (T1 and T2) embedded in a stream of images. As expected, T2 discrimination was impaired when it followed T1 by 200 to 300 ms relative to longer intertarget lags, the so-called attentional blink. Interestingly, T2 discrimination accuracy was significantly reduced at short intertarget lags when a face was followed by a word (face-word) compared with glasses-word and word-word combinations, indicating that face processing interfered with word perception. The reverse effect was not observed; that is, word-face performance was no different than the other object combinations. EEG results indicated the left N170 to T1 was correlated with the word decrement for face-word trials, but not for other object combinations. Taken together, the results suggest face processing interferes with word processing, providing evidence for overlapping neural mechanisms of these 2 object types. Furthermore, asymmetrical face-word interference points to greater overlap of face and word representations in the left than the right hemisphere. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Co-ordinated structural and functional covariance in the adolescent brain underlies face processing performance.

PubMed

Shaw, Daniel Joel; Mareček, Radek; Grosbras, Marie-Helene; Leonard, Gabriel; Pike, G Bruce; Paus, Tomáš

2016-04-01

Our ability to process complex social cues presented by faces improves during adolescence. Using multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data collected longitudinally from a sample of 38 adolescents (17 males) when they were 10, 11.5, 13 and 15 years old, we tested the possibility that there exists parallel variations in the structural and functional development of neural systems supporting face processing. By combining measures of task-related functional connectivity and brain morphology, we reveal that both the structural covariance and functional connectivity among 'distal' nodes of the face-processing network engaged by ambiguous faces increase during this age range. Furthermore, we show that the trajectory of increasing functional connectivity between the distal nodes occurs in tandem with the development of their structural covariance. This demonstrates a tight coupling between functional and structural maturation within the face-processing network. Finally, we demonstrate that increased functional connectivity is associated with age-related improvements of face-processing performance, particularly in females. We suggest that our findings reflect greater integration among distal elements of the neural systems supporting the processing of facial expressions. This, in turn, might facilitate an enhanced extraction of social information from faces during a time when greater importance is placed on social interactions. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Greater sensitivity of the cortical face processing system to perceptually-equated face detection

PubMed Central

Maher, S.; Ekstrom, T.; Tong, Y.; Nickerson, L.D.; Frederick, B.; Chen, Y.

2015-01-01

Face detection, the perceptual capacity to identify a visual stimulus as a face before probing deeper into specific attributes (such as its identity or emotion), is essential for social functioning. Despite the importance of this functional capacity, face detection and its underlying brain mechanisms are not well understood. This study evaluated the roles that the cortical face processing system, which is identified largely through studying other aspects of face perception, play in face detection. Specifically, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the activations of the fusifom face area (FFA), occipital face area (OFA) and superior temporal sulcus (STS) when face detection was isolated from other aspects of face perception and when face detection was perceptually-equated across individual human participants (n=20). During face detection, FFA and OFA were significantly activated, even for stimuli presented at perceptual-threshold levels, whereas STS was not. During tree detection, however, FFA and OFA were responsive only for highly salient (i.e., high contrast) stimuli. Moreover, activation of FFA during face detection predicted a significant portion of the perceptual performance levels that were determined psychophysically for each participant. This pattern of result indicates that FFA and OFA have a greater sensitivity to face detection signals and selectively support the initial process of face vs. non-face object perception. PMID:26592952

The Hierarchical Brain Network for Face Recognition

PubMed Central

Zhen, Zonglei; Fang, Huizhen; Liu, Jia

2013-01-01

Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified multiple cortical regions that are involved in face processing in the human brain. However, few studies have characterized the face-processing network as a functioning whole. In this study, we used fMRI to identify face-selective regions in the entire brain and then explore the hierarchical structure of the face-processing network by analyzing functional connectivity among these regions. We identified twenty-five regions mainly in the occipital, temporal and frontal cortex that showed a reliable response selective to faces (versus objects) across participants and across scan sessions. Furthermore, these regions were clustered into three relatively independent sub-networks in a face-recognition task on the basis of the strength of functional connectivity among them. The functionality of the sub-networks likely corresponds to the recognition of individual identity, retrieval of semantic knowledge and representation of emotional information. Interestingly, when the task was switched to object recognition from face recognition, the functional connectivity between the inferior occipital gyrus and the rest of the face-selective regions were significantly reduced, suggesting that this region may serve as an entry node in the face-processing network. In sum, our study provides empirical evidence for cognitive and neural models of face recognition and helps elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition at the network level. PMID:23527282

Multimodal processing of emotional information in 9-month-old infants I: emotional faces and voices.

PubMed

Otte, R A; Donkers, F C L; Braeken, M A K A; Van den Bergh, B R H

2015-04-01

Making sense of emotions manifesting in human voice is an important social skill which is influenced by emotions in other modalities, such as that of the corresponding face. Although processing emotional information from voices and faces simultaneously has been studied in adults, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying the development of this ability in infancy. Here we investigated multimodal processing of fearful and happy face/voice pairs using event-related potential (ERP) measures in a group of 84 9-month-olds. Infants were presented with emotional vocalisations (fearful/happy) preceded by the same or a different facial expression (fearful/happy). The ERP data revealed that the processing of emotional information appearing in human voice was modulated by the emotional expression appearing on the corresponding face: Infants responded with larger auditory ERPs after fearful compared to happy facial primes. This finding suggests that infants dedicate more processing capacities to potentially threatening than to non-threatening stimuli. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Structural encoding processes contribute to individual differences in face and object cognition: Inferences from psychometric test performance and event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Nowparast Rostami, Hadiseh; Sommer, Werner; Zhou, Changsong; Wilhelm, Oliver; Hildebrandt, Andrea

2017-10-01

The enhanced N1 component in event-related potentials (ERP) to face stimuli, termed N170, is considered to indicate the structural encoding of faces. Previously, individual differences in the latency of the N170 have been related to face and object cognition abilities. By orthogonally manipulating content domain (faces vs objects) and task demands (easy/speed vs difficult/accuracy) in both psychometric and EEG tasks, we investigated the uniqueness of the processes underlying face cognition as compared with object cognition and the extent to which the N1/N170 component can explain individual differences in face and object cognition abilities. Data were recorded from N = 198 healthy young adults. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that the accuracies of face perception (FP) and memory are specific abilities above general object cognition; in contrast, the speed of face processing was not differentiable from the speed of object cognition. Although there was considerable domain-general variance in the N170 shared with the N1, there was significant face-specific variance in the N170. The brain-behavior relationship showed that faster face-specific processes for structural encoding of faces are associated with higher accuracy in both perceiving and memorizing faces. Moreover, in difficult task conditions, qualitatively different processes are additionally needed for recognizing face and object stimuli as compared with easy tasks. The difficulty-dependent variance components in the N170 amplitude were related with both face and object memory (OM) performance. We discuss implications for understanding individual differences in face cognition. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Left face matching bias: right hemisphere dominance or scanning habits?

PubMed

Megreya, Ahmed M; Havard, Catriona

2011-01-01

A large body of work report a leftward bias in face processing. However, it is not clear whether this leftward bias purely reflects the dominance of the right hemisphere or is influenced by scanning habits developed by reading directions. Here, we report two experiments examining how well native readers of right to left Arabic scripts (Egyptians) could match (for identity) a target face that appeared with a companion to a line-up of 10 faces. There was a significant advantage for matching faces that appeared on the left. However, Experiment 2 found that the magnitude of this left face matching bias was almost three times weaker than the magnitude of the leftward bias shown by native readers of left to right English scripts (British). Accordingly, we suggest that the right hemisphere dominance for face processing underlies the leftward face perception bias, but with the interaction of scanning habits.

Mechanisms of hemispheric lateralization: Asymmetric interhemispheric recruitment in the face perception network.

PubMed

Frässle, Stefan; Paulus, Frieder Michel; Krach, Sören; Schweinberger, Stefan Robert; Stephan, Klaas Enno; Jansen, Andreas

2016-01-01

Perceiving human faces constitutes a fundamental ability of the human mind, integrating a wealth of information essential for social interactions in everyday life. Neuroimaging studies have unveiled a distributed neural network consisting of multiple brain regions in both hemispheres. Whereas the individual regions in the face perception network and the right-hemispheric dominance for face processing have been subject to intensive research, the functional integration among these regions and hemispheres has received considerably less attention. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for fMRI, we analyzed the effective connectivity between the core regions in the face perception network of healthy humans to unveil the mechanisms underlying both intra- and interhemispheric integration. Our results suggest that the right-hemispheric lateralization of the network is due to an asymmetric face-specific interhemispheric recruitment at an early processing stage - that is, at the level of the occipital face area (OFA) but not the fusiform face area (FFA). As a structural correlate, we found that OFA gray matter volume was correlated with this asymmetric interhemispheric recruitment. Furthermore, exploratory analyses revealed that interhemispheric connection asymmetries were correlated with the strength of pupil constriction in response to faces, a measure with potential sensitivity to holistic (as opposed to feature-based) processing of faces. Overall, our findings thus provide a mechanistic description for lateralized processes in the core face perception network, point to a decisive role of interhemispheric integration at an early stage of face processing among bilateral OFA, and tentatively indicate a relation to individual variability in processing strategies for faces. These findings provide a promising avenue for systematic investigations of the potential role of interhemispheric integration in future studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: A new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development

PubMed Central

Scherf, K. Suzanne; Behrmann, Marlene; Dahl, Ronald E.

2015-01-01

Adolescence is a time of dramatic physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes as well as a time for the development of many social-emotional problems. These characteristics raise compelling questions about accompanying neural changes that are unique to this period of development. Here, we propose that studying adolescent-specific changes in face processing and its underlying neural circuitry provides an ideal model for addressing these questions. We also use this model to formulate new hypotheses. Specifically, pubertal hormones are likely to increase motivation to master new peer-oriented developmental tasks, which will in turn, instigate the emergence of new social/affective components of face processing. We also predict that pubertal hormones have a fundamental impact on the reorganization of neural circuitry supporting face processing and propose, in particular, that, the functional connectivity, or temporal synchrony, between regions of the face-processing network will change with the emergence of these new components of face processing in adolescence. Finally, we show how this approach will help reveal why adolescence may be a period of vulnerability in brain development and suggest how it could lead to prevention and intervention strategies that facilitate more adaptive functional interactions between regions within the broader social information processing network. PMID:22483070

Threatening scenes but not threatening faces shorten time-to-contact estimates.

PubMed

DeLucia, Patricia R; Brendel, Esther; Hecht, Heiko; Stacy, Ryan L; Larsen, Jeff T

2014-08-01

We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., frontal attacks) resulted in shortened estimations and were mediated by cognitive processes, and that judgments of threatening (e.g., angry) face pictures resulted in a smaller effect and did not seem cognitively mediated. In the present study, the effects of threatening scenes and faces were compared in two different tasks. An effect of threatening scene pictures occurred in a prediction-motion task, which putatively requires cognitive motion extrapolation, but not in a relative TTC judgment task, which was designed to be less reliant on cognitive processes. An effect of threatening face pictures did not occur in either task. We propose that an object's explicit potential of threat per se, and not only emotional valence, underlies the effect of threatening scenes on TTC judgments and that such an effect occurs only when the task allows sufficient cognitive processing. Results are consistent with distinctions between predator and social fear systems and different underlying physiological mechanisms. Not all threatening information elicits the same responses, and whether an effect occurs at all may depend on the task and the degree to which the task involves cognitive processes.

Oxytocin eliminates the own-race bias in face recognition memory☆

PubMed Central

Blandón-Gitlin, Iris; Pezdek, Kathy; Saldivar, Sesar; Steelman, Erin

2015-01-01

The neuropeptide Oxytocin influences a number of social behaviors, including processing of faces. We examined whether Oxytocin facilitates the processing of out-group faces and reduce the own-race bias (ORB). The ORB is a robust phenomenon characterized by poor recognition memory of other-race faces compared to the same-race faces. In Experiment 1, participants received intranasal solutions of Oxytocin or placebo prior to viewing White and Black faces. On a subsequent recognition test, whereas in the placebo condition the same-race faces were better recognized than other-race faces, in the Oxytocin condition Black and White faces were equally well recognized, effectively eliminating the ORB. In Experiment 2, Oxytocin was administered after the study phase. The ORB resulted, but Oxytocin did not significantly reduce the effect. This study is the first to show that Oxytocin can enhance face memory of out-group members and underscore the importance of social encoding mechanisms underlying the own-race bias. PMID:23872107

Phasic alertness enhances processing of face and non-face stimuli in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Tanzer, Michal; Weinbach, Noam; Mardo, Elite; Henik, Avishai; Avidan, Galia

2016-08-01

Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) is a severe face processing impairment that occurs in the absence of any obvious brain damage and has often been associated with a more general deficit in deriving holistic relations between facial features or even between non-face shape dimensions. Here we further characterized this deficit and examined a potential way to ameliorate it. To this end we manipulated phasic alertness using alerting cues previously shown to modulate attention and enhance global processing of visual stimuli in normal observers. Specifically, we first examined whether individuals with CP, similarly to controls, would show greater global processing when exposed to an alerting cue in the context of a non-facial task (Navon global/local task). We then explored the effect of an alerting cue on face processing (upright/inverted face discrimination). Confirming previous findings, in the absence of alerting cues, controls showed a typical global bias in the Navon task and an inversion effect indexing holistic processing in the upright/inverted task, while CP failed to show these effects. Critically, when alerting cues preceded the experimental trials, both groups showed enhanced global interference and a larger inversion effect. These results suggest that phasic alertness may modulate visual processing and consequently, affect global/holistic perception. Hence, these findings further reinforce the notion that global/holistic processing may serve as a possible mechanism underlying the face processing deficit in CP. Moreover, they imply a possible route for enhancing face processing in individuals with CP and thus shed new light on potential amelioration of this disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Presentation Location of the Reference Stimuli Affects the Left-Side Bias in the Processing of Faces and Chinese Characters

PubMed Central

Li, Chenglin; Cao, Xiaohua

2017-01-01

For faces and Chinese characters, a left-side processing bias, in which observers rely more heavily on information conveyed by the left side of stimuli than the right side of stimuli, has been frequently reported in previous studies. However, it remains unclear whether this left-side bias effect is modulated by the reference stimuli's location. The present study adopted the chimeric stimuli task to investigate the influence of the presentation location of the reference stimuli on the left-side bias in face and Chinese character processing. The results demonstrated that when a reference face was presented in the left visual field of its chimeric images, which are centrally presented, the participants showed a preference higher than the no-bias threshold for the left chimeric face; this effect, however, was not observed in the right visual field. This finding indicates that the left-side bias effect in face processing is stronger when the reference face is in the left visual field. In contrast, the left-side bias was observed in Chinese character processing when the reference Chinese character was presented in either the left or right visual field. Together, these findings suggest that although faces and Chinese characters both have a left-side processing bias, the underlying neural mechanisms of this left-side bias might be different. PMID:29018391

The Presentation Location of the Reference Stimuli Affects the Left-Side Bias in the Processing of Faces and Chinese Characters.

PubMed

Li, Chenglin; Cao, Xiaohua

2017-01-01

For faces and Chinese characters, a left-side processing bias, in which observers rely more heavily on information conveyed by the left side of stimuli than the right side of stimuli, has been frequently reported in previous studies. However, it remains unclear whether this left-side bias effect is modulated by the reference stimuli's location. The present study adopted the chimeric stimuli task to investigate the influence of the presentation location of the reference stimuli on the left-side bias in face and Chinese character processing. The results demonstrated that when a reference face was presented in the left visual field of its chimeric images, which are centrally presented, the participants showed a preference higher than the no-bias threshold for the left chimeric face; this effect, however, was not observed in the right visual field. This finding indicates that the left-side bias effect in face processing is stronger when the reference face is in the left visual field. In contrast, the left-side bias was observed in Chinese character processing when the reference Chinese character was presented in either the left or right visual field. Together, these findings suggest that although faces and Chinese characters both have a left-side processing bias, the underlying neural mechanisms of this left-side bias might be different.

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females.

PubMed

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female's (but not male's) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby.

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females

PubMed Central

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female’s (but not male’s) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby. PMID:29184490

Do I Have My Attention? Speed of Processing Advantages for the Self-Face Are Not Driven by Automatic Attention Capture

PubMed Central

Keyes, Helen; Dlugokencka, Aleksandra

2014-01-01

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally – inside the focus of attention – behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally – outside the focus of attention – in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers’ names. We interpret this as a “social importance” effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture. PMID:25338170

Do I have my attention? Speed of processing advantages for the self-face are not driven by automatic attention capture.

PubMed

Keyes, Helen; Dlugokencka, Aleksandra

2014-01-01

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally - inside the focus of attention - behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally - outside the focus of attention - in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers' names. We interpret this as a "social importance" effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture.

Natural Experience Modulates the Processing of Older Adult Faces in Young Adults and 3-Year-Old Children

PubMed Central

Proietti, Valentina; Pisacane, Antonella; Macchi Cassia, Viola

2013-01-01

Just like other face dimensions, age influences the way faces are processed by adults as well as by children. However, it remains unclear under what conditions exactly such influence occurs at both ages, in that there is some mixed evidence concerning the presence of a systematic processing advantage for peer faces (own-age bias) across the lifespan. Inconsistency in the results may stem from the fact that the individual’s face representation adapts to represent the most predominant age traits of the faces present in the environment, which is reflective of the individual’s specific living conditions and social experience. In the current study we investigated the processing of younger and older adult faces in two groups of adults (Experiment 1) and two groups of 3-year-old children (Experiment 2) who accumulated different amounts of experience with elderly people. Contact with elderly adults influenced the extent to which both adult and child participants showed greater discrimination abilities and stronger sensitivity to configural/featural cues in younger versus older adult faces, as measured by the size of the inversion effect. In children, the size of the inversion effect for older adult faces was also significantly correlated with the amount of contact with elderly people. These results show that, in both adults and children, visual experience with older adult faces can tune perceptual processing strategies to the point of abolishing the discrimination disadvantage that participants typically manifest for those faces in comparison to younger adult faces. PMID:23460867

Face Recognition Is Affected by Similarity in Spatial Frequency Range to a Greater Degree Than Within-Category Object Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collin, Charles A.; Liu, Chang Hong; Troje, Nikolaus F.; McMullen, Patricia A.; Chaudhuri, Avi

2004-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that face identification is more sensitive to variations in spatial frequency content than object recognition, but none have compared how sensitive the 2 processes are to variations in spatial frequency overlap (SFO). The authors tested face and object matching accuracy under varying SFO conditions. Their results…

The Representation and Processing of Familiar Faces in Dyslexia: Differences in Age of Acquisition Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith-Spark, James H.; Moore, Viv

2009-01-01

Two under-explored areas of developmental dyslexia research, face naming and age of acquisition (AoA), were investigated. Eighteen dyslexic and 18 non-dyslexic university students named the faces of 50 well-known celebrities, matched for facial distinctiveness and familiarity. Twenty-five of the famous people were learned early in life, while the…

The neuroscience of face processing and identification in eyewitnesses and offenders.

PubMed

Werner, Nicole-Simone; Kühnel, Sina; Markowitsch, Hans J

2013-12-06

Humans are experts in face perception. We are better able to distinguish between the differences of faces and their components than between any other kind of objects. Several studies investigating the underlying neural networks provided evidence for deviated face processing in criminal individuals, although results are often confounded by accompanying mental or addiction disorders. On the other hand, face processing in non-criminal healthy persons can be of high juridical interest in cases of witnessing a felony and afterward identifying a culprit. Memory and therefore recognition of a person can be affected by many parameters and thus become distorted. But also face processing itself is modulated by different factors like facial characteristics, degree of familiarity, and emotional relation. These factors make the comparison of different cases, as well as the transfer of laboratory results to real live settings very challenging. Several neuroimaging studies have been published in recent years and some progress was made connecting certain brain activation patterns with the correct recognition of an individual. However, there is still a long way to go before brain imaging can make a reliable contribution to court procedures.

The Neuroscience of Face Processing and Identification in Eyewitnesses and Offenders

PubMed Central

Werner, Nicole-Simone; Kühnel, Sina; Markowitsch, Hans J.

2013-01-01

Humans are experts in face perception. We are better able to distinguish between the differences of faces and their components than between any other kind of objects. Several studies investigating the underlying neural networks provided evidence for deviated face processing in criminal individuals, although results are often confounded by accompanying mental or addiction disorders. On the other hand, face processing in non-criminal healthy persons can be of high juridical interest in cases of witnessing a felony and afterward identifying a culprit. Memory and therefore recognition of a person can be affected by many parameters and thus become distorted. But also face processing itself is modulated by different factors like facial characteristics, degree of familiarity, and emotional relation. These factors make the comparison of different cases, as well as the transfer of laboratory results to real live settings very challenging. Several neuroimaging studies have been published in recent years and some progress was made connecting certain brain activation patterns with the correct recognition of an individual. However, there is still a long way to go before brain imaging can make a reliable contribution to court procedures. PMID:24367306

Age differences in accuracy and choosing in eyewitness identification and face recognition.

PubMed

Searcy, J H; Bartlett, J C; Memon, A

1999-05-01

Studies of aging and face recognition show age-related increases in false recognitions of new faces. To explore implications of this false alarm effect, we had young and senior adults perform (1) three eye-witness identification tasks, using both target present and target absent lineups, and (2) and old/new recognition task in which a study list of faces was followed by a test including old and new faces, along with conjunctions of old faces. Compared with the young, seniors had lower accuracy and higher choosing rates on the lineups, and they also falsely recognized more new faces on the recognition test. However, after screening for perceptual processing deficits, there was no age difference in false recognition of conjunctions, or in discriminating old faces from conjunctions. We conclude that the false alarm effect generalizes to lineup identification, but does not extend to conjunction faces. The findings are consistent with age-related deficits in recollection of context and relative age invariance in perceptual integrative processes underlying the experience of familiarity.

The Development of Attentional Biases for Faces in Infancy: A Developmental Systems Perspective

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Greg D.; Roth, Kelly C.

2018-01-01

We present an integrative review of research and theory on major factors involved in the early development of attentional biases to faces. Research utilizing behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroscience measures with infant participants as well as comparative research with animal subjects are reviewed. We begin with coverage of research demonstrating the presence of an attentional bias for faces shortly after birth, such as newborn infants’ visual preference for face-like over non-face stimuli. The role of experience and the process of perceptual narrowing in face processing are examined as infants begin to demonstrate enhanced behavioral and neural responsiveness to mother over stranger, female over male, own- over other-race, and native over non-native faces. Next, we cover research on developmental change in infants’ neural responsiveness to faces in multimodal contexts, such as audiovisual speech. We also explore the potential influence of arousal and attention on early perceptual preferences for faces. Lastly, the potential influence of the development of attention systems in the brain on social-cognitive processing is discussed. In conclusion, we interpret the findings under the framework of Developmental Systems Theory, emphasizing the combined and distributed influence of several factors, both internal (e.g., arousal, neural development) and external (e.g., early social experience) to the developing child, in the emergence of attentional biases that lead to enhanced responsiveness and processing of faces commonly encountered in the native environment. PMID:29541043

Beauty is in the ease of the beholding: A neurophysiological test of the averageness theory of facial attractiveness

PubMed Central

Trujillo, Logan T.; Jankowitsch, Jessica M.; Langlois, Judith H.

2014-01-01

Multiple studies show that people prefer attractive over unattractive faces. But what is an attractive face and why is it preferred? Averageness theory claims that faces are perceived as attractive when their facial configuration approximates the mathematical average facial configuration of the population. Conversely, faces that deviate from this average configuration are perceived as unattractive. The theory predicts that both attractive and mathematically averaged faces should be processed more fluently than unattractive faces, whereas the averaged faces should be processed marginally more fluently than the attractive faces. We compared neurocognitive and behavioral responses to attractive, unattractive, and averaged human faces to test these predictions. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs) from 48 adults while they discriminated between human and chimpanzee faces. Participants categorized averaged and high attractive faces as “human” faster than low attractive faces. The posterior N170 (150 – 225 ms) face-evoked ERP component was smaller in response to high attractive and averaged faces versus low attractive faces. Single-trial EEG analysis indicated that this reduced ERP response arose from the engagement of fewer neural resources and not from a change in the temporal consistency of how those resources were engaged. These findings provide novel evidence that faces are perceived as attractive when they approximate a facial configuration close to the population average and suggest that processing fluency underlies preferences for attractive faces. PMID:24326966

Lateralized hybrid faces: evidence of a valence-specific bias in the processing of implicit emotions.

PubMed

Prete, Giulia; Laeng, Bruno; Tommasi, Luca

2014-01-01

It is well known that hemispheric asymmetries exist for both the analyses of low-level visual information (such as spatial frequency) and high-level visual information (such as emotional expressions). In this study, we assessed which of the above factors underlies perceptual laterality effects with "hybrid faces": a type of stimulus that allows testing for unaware processing of emotional expressions, when the emotion is displayed in the low-frequency information while an image of the same face with a neutral expression is superimposed to it. Despite hybrid faces being perceived as neutral, the emotional information modulates observers' social judgements. In the present study, participants were asked to assess friendliness of hybrid faces displayed tachistoscopically, either centrally or laterally to fixation. We found a clear influence of the hidden emotions also with lateral presentations. Happy faces were rated as more friendly and angry faces as less friendly with respect to neutral faces. In general, hybrid faces were evaluated as less friendly when they were presented in the left visual field/right hemisphere than in the right visual field/left hemisphere. The results extend the validity of the valence hypothesis in the specific domain of unaware (subcortical) emotion processing.

Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces-One element of social cognition.

PubMed

Wilhelm, Oliver; Herzmann, Grit; Kunina, Olga; Danthiir, Vanessa; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2010-09-01

Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cognition. In 2 large individual differences experiments (N = 151 and N = 209), a broad variety of face-cognition tasks were tested and the component abilities of face cognition-face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition-were identified and then replicated. Experiment 2 also showed that the 3 face-cognition abilities are clearly distinct from immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. These results converge with functional and neuroanatomical models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face memory. The results also underline the importance of distinguishing between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Together our results provide a first step toward establishing face-processing abilities as an independent ability reflecting elements of social intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Efficacy of identifying neural components in the face and emotion processing system in schizophrenia using a dynamic functional localizer.

PubMed

Arnold, Aiden E G F; Iaria, Giuseppe; Goghari, Vina M

2016-02-28

Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in face perception and emotion recognition. Despite consistent behavioural results, the neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive abilities have been difficult to isolate, in part due to differences in neuroimaging methods used between studies for identifying regions in the face processing system. Given this problem, we aimed to validate a recently developed fMRI-based dynamic functional localizer task for use in studies of psychiatric populations and specifically schizophrenia. Previously, this functional localizer successfully identified each of the core face processing regions (i.e. fusiform face area, occipital face area, superior temporal sulcus), and regions within an extended system (e.g. amygdala) in healthy individuals. In this study, we tested the functional localizer success rate in 27 schizophrenia patients and in 24 community controls. Overall, the core face processing regions were localized equally between both the schizophrenia and control group. Additionally, the amygdala, a candidate brain region from the extended system, was identified in nearly half the participants from both groups. These results indicate the effectiveness of a dynamic functional localizer at identifying regions of interest associated with face perception and emotion recognition in schizophrenia. The use of dynamic functional localizers may help standardize the investigation of the facial and emotion processing system in this and other clinical populations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrophysiological evidence for parts and wholes in visual face memory.

PubMed

Towler, John; Eimer, Martin

2016-10-01

It is often assumed that upright faces are represented in a holistic fashion, while representations of inverted faces are essentially part-based. To assess this hypothesis, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during a sequential face identity matching task where successively presented pairs of upright or inverted faces were either identical or differed with respect to their internal features, their external features, or both. Participants' task was to report on each trial whether the face pair was identical or different. To track the activation of visual face memory representations, we measured N250r components that emerge over posterior face-selective regions during the activation of visual face memory representations by a successful identity match. N250r components to full identity repetitions were smaller and emerged later for inverted as compared to upright faces, demonstrating that image inversion impairs face identity matching processes. For upright faces, N250r components were also elicited by partial repetitions of external or internal features, which suggest that the underlying identity matching processes are not exclusively based on non-decomposable holistic representations. However, the N250r to full identity repetitions was super-additive (i.e., larger than the sum of the two N250r components to partial repetitions of external or internal features) for upright faces, demonstrating that holistic representations were involved in identity matching processes. For inverted faces, N250r components to full and partial identity repetitions were strictly additive, indicating that the identity matching of external and internal features operated in an entirely part-based fashion. These results provide new electrophysiological evidence for qualitative differences between representations of upright and inverted faces in the occipital-temporal face processing system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identity-expression interaction in face perception: sex, visual field, and psychophysical factors.

PubMed

Godard, Ornella; Baudouin, Jean-Yves; Bonnet, Philippe; Fiori, Nicole

2013-01-01

We investigated the psychophysical factors underlying the identity-emotion interaction in face perception. Visual field and sex were also taken into account. Participants had to judge whether a probe face, presented in either the left or the right visual field, and a central target face belonging to same person while emotional expression varied (Experiment 1) or to judge whether probe and target faces expressed the same emotion while identity was manipulated (Experiment 2). For accuracy we replicated the mutual facilitation effect between identity and emotion; no sex or hemispheric differences were found. Processing speed measurements, however, showed a lesser degree of interference in women than in men, especially for matching identity when faces expressed different emotions after a left visual presentation probe face. Psychophysical indices can be used to determine whether these effects are perceptual (A') or instead arise at a post-perceptual decision-making stage (B"). The influence of identity on the processing of facial emotion seems to be due to perceptual factors, whereas the influence of emotion changes on identity processing seems to be related to decisional factors. In addition, men seem to be more "conservative" after a LVF/RH probe-face presentation when processing identity. Women seem to benefit from better abilities to extract facial invariant aspects relative to identity.

Task effects, performance levels, features, configurations, and holistic face processing: A reply to Rossion

PubMed Central

Riesenhuber, Maximilian; Wolff, Brian S.

2009-01-01

Summary A recent article in Acta Psychologica (“Picture-plane inversion leads to qualitative changes of face perception” by B. Rossion, 2008) criticized several aspects of an earlier paper of ours (Riesenhuber et al., “Face processing in humans is compatible with a simple shape-based model of vision”, Proc Biol Sci, 2004). We here address Rossion’s criticisms and correct some misunderstandings. To frame the discussion, we first review our previously presented computational model of face recognition in cortex (Jiang et al., “Evaluation of a shape-based model of human face discrimination using fMRI and behavioral techniques”, Neuron, 2006) that provides a concrete biologically plausible computational substrate for holistic coding, namely a neural representation learned for upright faces, in the spirit of the original simple-to-complex hierarchical model of vision by Hubel and Wiesel. We show that Rossion’s and others’ data support the model, and that there is actually a convergence of views on the mechanisms underlying face recognition, in particular regarding holistic processing. PMID:19665104

Neurobiological correlates of emotional intelligence in voice and face perception networks

PubMed Central

Karle, Kathrin N; Ethofer, Thomas; Jacob, Heike; Brück, Carolin; Erb, Michael; Lotze, Martin; Nizielski, Sophia; Schütz, Astrid; Wildgruber, Dirk; Kreifelts, Benjamin

2018-01-01

Abstract Facial expressions and voice modulations are among the most important communicational signals to convey emotional information. The ability to correctly interpret this information is highly relevant for successful social interaction and represents an integral component of emotional competencies that have been conceptualized under the term emotional intelligence. Here, we investigated the relationship of emotional intelligence as measured with the Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence-Test (MSCEIT) with cerebral voice and face processing using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging. MSCEIT scores were positively correlated with increased voice-sensitivity and gray matter volume of the insula accompanied by voice-sensitivity enhanced connectivity between the insula and the temporal voice area, indicating generally increased salience of voices. Conversely, in the face processing system, higher MSCEIT scores were associated with decreased face-sensitivity and gray matter volume of the fusiform face area. Taken together, these findings point to an alteration in the balance of cerebral voice and face processing systems in the form of an attenuated face-vs-voice bias as one potential factor underpinning emotional intelligence. PMID:29365199

Neurobiological correlates of emotional intelligence in voice and face perception networks.

PubMed

Karle, Kathrin N; Ethofer, Thomas; Jacob, Heike; Brück, Carolin; Erb, Michael; Lotze, Martin; Nizielski, Sophia; Schütz, Astrid; Wildgruber, Dirk; Kreifelts, Benjamin

2018-02-01

Facial expressions and voice modulations are among the most important communicational signals to convey emotional information. The ability to correctly interpret this information is highly relevant for successful social interaction and represents an integral component of emotional competencies that have been conceptualized under the term emotional intelligence. Here, we investigated the relationship of emotional intelligence as measured with the Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence-Test (MSCEIT) with cerebral voice and face processing using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging. MSCEIT scores were positively correlated with increased voice-sensitivity and gray matter volume of the insula accompanied by voice-sensitivity enhanced connectivity between the insula and the temporal voice area, indicating generally increased salience of voices. Conversely, in the face processing system, higher MSCEIT scores were associated with decreased face-sensitivity and gray matter volume of the fusiform face area. Taken together, these findings point to an alteration in the balance of cerebral voice and face processing systems in the form of an attenuated face-vs-voice bias as one potential factor underpinning emotional intelligence.

The development of emotion perception in face and voice during infancy.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias

2010-01-01

Interacting with others by reading their emotional expressions is an essential social skill in humans. How this ability develops during infancy and what brain processes underpin infants' perception of emotion in different modalities are the questions dealt with in this paper. Literature review. The first part provides a systematic review of behavioral findings on infants' developing emotion-reading abilities. The second part presents a set of new electrophysiological studies that provide insights into the brain processes underlying infants' developing abilities. Throughout, evidence from unimodal (face or voice) and multimodal (face and voice) processing of emotion is considered. The implications of the reviewed findings for our understanding of developmental models of emotion processing are discussed. The reviewed infant data suggest that (a) early in development, emotion enhances the sensory processing of faces and voices, (b) infants' ability to allocate increased attentional resources to negative emotional information develops earlier in the vocal domain than in the facial domain, and (c) at least by the age of 7 months, infants reliably match and recognize emotional information across face and voice.

Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: a new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development.

PubMed

Scherf, K Suzanne; Behrmann, Marlene; Dahl, Ronald E

2012-04-01

Adolescence is a time of dramatic physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes as well as a time for the development of many social-emotional problems. These characteristics raise compelling questions about accompanying neural changes that are unique to this period of development. Here, we propose that studying adolescent-specific changes in face processing and its underlying neural circuitry provides an ideal model for addressing these questions. We also use this model to formulate new hypotheses. Specifically, pubertal hormones are likely to increase motivation to master new peer-oriented developmental tasks, which will in turn, instigate the emergence of new social/affective components of face processing. We also predict that pubertal hormones have a fundamental impact on the re-organization of neural circuitry supporting face processing and propose, in particular, that, the functional connectivity, or temporal synchrony, between regions of the face-processing network will change with the emergence of these new components of face processing in adolescence. Finally, we show how this approach will help reveal why adolescence may be a period of vulnerability in brain development and suggest how it could lead to prevention and intervention strategies that facilitate more adaptive functional interactions between regions within the broader social information processing network. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Magnetic precipitate separation for Ni plating waste liquid using HTS bulk magnets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oka, T.; Kimura, T.; Mimura, D.; Fukazawa, H.; Fukui, S.; Ogawa, J.; Sato, T.; Ooizumi, M.; Yokoyama, K.; Tsujimura, M.; Terasawa, T.

2013-01-01

The magnetic separation experiment for recycling the nickel-bearing precipitates in the waste liquid from the electroless plating processes has been practically conducted under the high gradient magnetic separation technique with use of the face-to-face HTS bulk magnet system. A couple of facing magnetic poles containing Sm123 bulk superconductors were activated through the pulsed field magnetization process to 1.86 T at 38 K and 2.00 T at 37 K, respectively. The weakly magnetized metallic precipitates of Ni crystals and Ni-P compounds deposited from the waste solution after heating it and pH controlling. The high gradient magnetic separation technique was employed with the separation channels filled with the stainless steel balls with dimension of 1 and 3 mm in diameter, which periodically moved between and out of the facing magnetic poles. The Ni-bearing precipitates were effectively attracted to the magnetized ferromagnetic balls. We have succeeded in obtaining the separation ratios over 90% under the flow rates less than 1.35 L/min.

"Blindsight" and subjective awareness of fearful faces: Inversion reverses the deficits in fear perception associated with core psychopathic traits.

PubMed

Oliver, Lindsay D; Mao, Alexander; Mitchell, Derek G V

2015-01-01

Though emotional faces preferentially reach awareness, the present study utilised both objective and subjective indices of awareness to determine whether they enhance subjective awareness and "blindsight". Under continuous flash suppression, participants localised a disgusted, fearful or neutral face (objective index), and rated their confidence (subjective index). Psychopathic traits were also measured to investigate their influence on emotion perception. As predicted, fear increased localisation accuracy, subjective awareness and "blindsight" of upright faces. Coldhearted traits were inversely related to subjective awareness, but not "blindsight", of upright fearful faces. In a follow-up experiment using inverted faces, increased localisation accuracy and awareness, but not "blindsight", were observed for fear. Surprisingly, awareness of inverted fearful faces was positively correlated with coldheartedness. These results suggest that emotion enhances both pre-conscious processing and the qualitative experience of awareness, but that pre-conscious and conscious processing of emotional faces rely on at least partially dissociable cognitive mechanisms.

Face Recognition in Humans and Machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Toole, Alice; Tistarelli, Massimo

The study of human face recognition by psychologists and neuroscientists has run parallel to the development of automatic face recognition technologies by computer scientists and engineers. In both cases, there are analogous steps of data acquisition, image processing, and the formation of representations that can support the complex and diverse tasks we accomplish with faces. These processes can be understood and compared in the context of their neural and computational implementations. In this chapter, we present the essential elements of face recognition by humans and machines, taking a perspective that spans psychological, neural, and computational approaches. From the human side, we overview the methods and techniques used in the neurobiology of face recognition, the underlying neural architecture of the system, the role of visual attention, and the nature of the representations that emerges. From the computational side, we discuss face recognition technologies and the strategies they use to overcome challenges to robust operation over viewing parameters. Finally, we conclude the chapter with a look at some recent studies that compare human and machine performances at face recognition.

Neural Trade-Offs between Recognizing and Categorizing Own- and Other-Race Faces

PubMed Central

Liu, Jiangang; Wang, Zhe; Feng, Lu; Li, Jun; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2015-01-01

Behavioral research has suggested a trade-off relationship between individual recognition and race categorization of own- and other-race faces, which is an important behavioral marker of face processing expertise. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this trade-off. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology, we concurrently asked participants to recognize and categorize own- and other-race faces to examine the neural correlates of this trade-off relationship. We found that for other-race faces, the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA) responded more to recognition than categorization, whereas for own-race faces, the responses were equal for the 2 tasks. The right superior temporal sulcus (STS) responses were the opposite to those of the FFA and OFA. Further, recognition enhanced the functional connectivity from the right FFA to the right STS, whereas categorization enhanced the functional connectivity from the right OFA to the right STS. The modulatory effects of these 2 couplings were negatively correlated. Our findings suggested that within the core face processing network, although recognizing and categorizing own- and other-race faces activated the same neural substrates, there existed neural trade-offs whereby their activations and functional connectivities were modulated by face race type and task demand due to one's differential processing expertise with own- and other-race faces. PMID:24591523

Some effects of alcohol and eye movements on cross-race face learning.

PubMed

Harvey, Alistair J

2014-01-01

This study examines the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on visual scanning in cross-race face learning. The eye movements of a group of white British participants were recorded as they encoded a series of own-and different-race faces, under alcohol and placebo conditions. Intoxication reduced the rate and extent of visual scanning during face encoding, reorienting the focus of foveal attention away from the eyes and towards the nose. Differences in encoding eye movements also varied between own-and different-race face conditions as a function of alcohol. Fixations to both face types were less frequent and more lingering following intoxication, but in the placebo condition this was only the case for different-race faces. While reducing visual scanning, however, alcohol had no adverse effect on memory, only encoding restrictions associated with sober different-race face processing led to poorer recognition. These results support perceptual expertise accounts of own-race face processing, but suggest the adverse effects of alcohol on face learning published previously are not caused by foveal encoding restrictions. The implications of these findings for alcohol myopia theory are discussed.

Oxytocin eliminates the own-race bias in face recognition memory.

PubMed

Blandón-Gitlin, Iris; Pezdek, Kathy; Saldivar, Sesar; Steelman, Erin

2014-09-11

The neuropeptide Oxytocin influences a number of social behaviors, including processing of faces. We examined whether Oxytocin facilitates the processing of out-group faces and reduce the own-race bias (ORB). The ORB is a robust phenomenon characterized by poor recognition memory of other-race faces compared to the same-race faces. In Experiment 1, participants received intranasal solutions of Oxytocin or placebo prior to viewing White and Black faces. On a subsequent recognition test, whereas in the placebo condition the same-race faces were better recognized than other-race faces, in the Oxytocin condition Black and White faces were equally well recognized, effectively eliminating the ORB. In Experiment 2, Oxytocin was administered after the study phase. The ORB resulted, but Oxytocin did not significantly reduce the effect. This study is the first to show that Oxytocin can enhance face memory of out-group members and underscore the importance of social encoding mechanisms underlying the own-race bias. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Oxytocin and Social Behav. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Age-Related Changes in Amygdala-Frontal Connectivity during Emotional Face Processing from Childhood into Young Adulthood

PubMed Central

Wu, Minjie; Kujawa, Autumn; Lu, Lisa H.; Fitzgerald, Daniel A.; Klumpp, Heide; Fitzgerald, Kate D.; Monk, Christopher S.; Phan, K. Luan

2016-01-01

The ability to process and respond to emotional facial expressions is a critical skill for healthy social and emotional development. There has been growing interest in understanding the neural circuitry underlying development of emotional processing, with previous research implicating functional connectivity between amygdala and frontal regions. However, existing work has focused on threatening emotional faces, raising questions regarding the extent to which these developmental patterns are specific to threat or to emotional face processing more broadly. In the current study, we examined age-related changes in brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity during an fMRI emotional face matching task (including angry, fearful and happy faces) in 61 healthy subjects aged 7–25 years. We found age-related decreases in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity in response to happy faces but not to angry or fearful faces, and an age-related change (shifting from positive to negative correlation) in amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) functional connectivity to all emotional faces. Specifically, positive correlations between amygdala and ACC/mPFC in children changed to negative correlations in adults, which may suggest early emergence of bottom-up amygdala excitatory signaling to ACC/mPFC in children and later development of top-down inhibitory control of ACC/mPFC over amygdala in adults. Age-related changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity did not vary for processing of different facial emotions, suggesting changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity may underlie development of broad emotional processing, rather than threat-specific processing. PMID:26931629

Increased fusiform area activation in schizophrenia during processing of spatial frequency-degraded faces, as revealed by fMRI.

PubMed

Silverstein, S M; All, S D; Kasi, R; Berten, S; Essex, B; Lathrop, K L; Little, D M

2010-07-01

People with schizophrenia demonstrate perceptual organization impairments, and these are thought to contribute to their face processing difficulties. We examined the neural substrates of emotionally neutral face processing in schizophrenia by investigating neural activity under three stimulus conditions: faces characterized by the full spectrum of spatial frequencies, faces with low spatial frequency information removed [high spatial frequency (HSF) condition], and faces with high spatial frequency information removed [low spatial frequency (LSF) condition]. Face perception in the HSF condition is more reliant on local feature processing whereas perception in the LSF condition requires greater reliance on global form processing. Past studies of perceptual organization in schizophrenia indicate that patients perform relatively more poorly with degraded stimuli but also that, when global information is absent, patients may perform better than controls because of their relatively increased ability to initially process individual features. Therefore, we hypothesized that people with schizophrenia (n=14) would demonstrate greater face processing difficulties than controls (n=13) in the LSF condition, whereas they would demonstrate a smaller difference or superior performance in the HSF condition. In a gender-discrimination task, behavioral data indicated high levels of accuracy for both groups, with a trend toward an interaction involving higher patient performance in the HSF condition and poorer patient performance in the LSF condition. Patients demonstrated greater activity in the fusiform gyrus compared to controls in both degraded conditions. These data suggest that impairments in basic integration abilities may be compensated for by relatively increased activity in this region.

Orienting to face expression during encoding improves men's recognition of own gender faces.

PubMed

Fulton, Erika K; Bulluck, Megan; Hertzog, Christopher

2015-10-01

It is unclear why women have superior episodic memory of faces, but the benefit may be partially the result of women engaging in superior processing of facial expressions. Therefore, we hypothesized that orienting instructions to attend to facial expression at encoding would significantly improve men's memory of faces and possibly reduce gender differences. We directed 203 college students (122 women) to study 120 faces under instructions to orient to either the person's gender or their emotional expression. They later took a recognition test of these faces by either judging whether they had previously studied the same person or that person with the exact same expression; the latter test evaluated recollection of specific facial details. Orienting to facial expressions during encoding significantly improved men's recognition of own-gender faces and eliminated the advantage that women had for male faces under gender orienting instructions. Although gender differences in spontaneous strategy use when orienting to faces cannot fully account for gender differences in face recognition, orienting men to facial expression during encoding is one way to significantly improve their episodic memory for male faces. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Looking at faces from different angles: Europeans fixate different features in Asian and Caucasian faces.

PubMed

Brielmann, Aenne A; Bülthoff, Isabelle; Armann, Regine

2014-07-01

Race categorization of faces is a fast and automatic process and is known to affect further face processing profoundly and at earliest stages. Whether processing of own- and other-race faces might rely on different facial cues, as indicated by diverging viewing behavior, is much under debate. We therefore aimed to investigate two open questions in our study: (1) Do observers consider information from distinct facial features informative for race categorization or do they prefer to gain global face information by fixating the geometrical center of the face? (2) Does the fixation pattern, or, if facial features are considered relevant, do these features differ between own- and other-race faces? We used eye tracking to test where European observers look when viewing Asian and Caucasian faces in a race categorization task. Importantly, in order to disentangle centrally located fixations from those towards individual facial features, we presented faces in frontal, half-profile and profile views. We found that observers showed no general bias towards looking at the geometrical center of faces, but rather directed their first fixations towards distinct facial features, regardless of face race. However, participants looked at the eyes more often in Caucasian faces than in Asian faces, and there were significantly more fixations to the nose for Asian compared to Caucasian faces. Thus, observers rely on information from distinct facial features rather than facial information gained by centrally fixating the face. To what extent specific features are looked at is determined by the face's race. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Face and object encoding under perceptual load: ERP evidence.

PubMed

Neumann, Markus F; Mohamed, Tarik N; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2011-02-14

According to the perceptual load theory, processing of a task-irrelevant distractor is abolished when attentional resources are fully consumed by task-relevant material. As an exception, however, famous faces have been shown to elicit repetition modulations in event-related potentials - an N250r - despite high load at initial presentation, suggesting preserved face-encoding. Here, we recorded N250r repetition modulations by unfamiliar faces, hands, and houses, and tested face specificity of preserved encoding under high load. In an immediate (S1-S2) repetition priming paradigm, participants performed a letter identification task on S1 by indicating whether an "X" vs. "N" was among 6 different (high load condition) or 6 identical (low load condition) letters. Letter strings were superimposed on distractor faces, hands, or houses. Subsequent S2 probes were either identical repetitions of S1 distractors, non-repeated exemplars from the same category, or infrequent butterflies, to which participants responded. Independent of attentional load at S1, an occipito-temporal N250r was found for unfamiliar faces. In contrast, no repetition-related neural modulation emerged for houses or hands. This strongly suggests that a putative face-selective attention module supports encoding under high load, and that similar mechanisms are unavailable for other natural or artificial objects. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anatomical connections of the functionally-defined “face patches” in the macaque monkey

PubMed Central

Saleem, Kadharbatcha S.

2017-01-01

The neural circuits underlying face recognition provide a model for understanding visual object representation, social cognition, and hierarchical information processing. A fundamental piece of information lacking to date is the detailed anatomical connections of the face patches. Here, we injected retrograde tracers into four different face patches (PL, ML, AL, AM) to characterize their anatomical connectivity. We found that the patches are strongly and specifically connected to each other, and individual patches receive inputs from extrastriate cortex, the medial temporal lobe, and three subcortical structures (the pulvinar, claustrum, and amygdala). Inputs from prefrontal cortex were surprisingly weak. Patches were densely interconnected to one another in both feedforward and feedback directions, inconsistent with a serial hierarchy. These results provide the first direct anatomical evidence that the face patches constitute a highly specialized system, and suggest that subcortical regions may play a vital role in routing face-related information to subsequent processing stages. PMID:27263973

What's behind a face: person context coding in fusiform face area as revealed by multivoxel pattern analysis.

PubMed

van den Hurk, J; Gentile, F; Jansma, B M

2011-12-01

The identification of a face comprises processing of both visual features and conceptual knowledge. Studies showing that the fusiform face area (FFA) is sensitive to face identity generally neglect this dissociation. The present study is the first that isolates conceptual face processing by using words presented in a person context instead of faces. The design consisted of 2 different conditions. In one condition, participants were presented with blocks of words related to each other at the categorical level (e.g., brands of cars, European cities). The second condition consisted of blocks of words linked to the personality features of a specific face. Both conditions were created from the same 8 × 8 word matrix, thereby controlling for visual input across conditions. Univariate statistical contrasts did not yield any significant differences between the 2 conditions in FFA. However, a machine learning classification algorithm was able to successfully learn the functional relationship between the 2 contexts and their underlying response patterns in FFA, suggesting that these activation patterns can code for different semantic contexts. These results suggest that the level of processing in FFA goes beyond facial features. This has strong implications for the debate about the role of FFA in face identification.

Aging disrupts the neural transformations that link facial identity across views.

PubMed

Habak, Claudine; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R

2008-01-01

Healthy human aging can have adverse effects on cortical function and on the brain's ability to integrate visual information to form complex representations. Facial identification is crucial to successful social discourse, and yet, it remains unclear whether the neuronal mechanisms underlying face perception per se, and the speed with which they process information, change with age. We present face images whose discrimination relies strictly on the shape and geometry of a face at various stimulus durations. Interestingly, we demonstrate that facial identity matching is maintained with age when faces are shown in the same view (e.g., front-front or side-side), regardless of exposure duration, but degrades when faces are shown in different views (e.g., front and turned 20 degrees to the side) and does not improve at longer durations. Our results indicate that perceptual processing speed for complex representations and the mechanisms underlying same-view facial identity discrimination are maintained with age. In contrast, information is degraded in the neural transformations that represent facial identity across views. We suggest that the accumulation of useful information over time to refine a representation within a population of neurons saturates earlier in the aging visual system than it does in the younger system and contributes to the age-related deterioration of face discrimination across views.

Effects of Belongingness and Synchronicity on Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Online Cooperative Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saltarelli, Andrew John

2012-01-01

Previous research suggests asynchronous online computer-mediated communication (CMC) has deleterious effects on certain cooperative learning pedagogies (e.g., constructive controversy), but the processes underlying this effect and how it may be ameliorated remain unclear. This study tests whether asynchronous CMC thwarts belongingness needs…

The Role of Face Familiarity in Eye Tracking of Faces by Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Dawson, Geraldine; Webb, Sara; Murias, Michael; Munson, Jeffrey; Panagiotides, Heracles; Aylward, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

It has been shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate normal activation in the fusiform gyrus when viewing familiar, but not unfamiliar faces. The current study utilized eye tracking to investigate patterns of attention underlying familiar versus unfamiliar face processing in ASD. Eye movements of 18 typically developing participants and 17 individuals with ASD were recorded while passively viewing three face categories: unfamiliar non-repeating faces, a repeating highly familiar face, and a repeating previously unfamiliar face. Results suggest that individuals with ASD do not exhibit more normative gaze patterns when viewing familiar faces. A second task assessed facial recognition accuracy and response time for familiar and novel faces. The groups did not differ on accuracy or reaction times. PMID:18306030

Multiview face detection based on position estimation over multicamera surveillance system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Ching-chun; Chou, Jay; Shiu, Jia-Hou; Wang, Sheng-Jyh

2012-02-01

In this paper, we propose a multi-view face detection system that locates head positions and indicates the direction of each face in 3-D space over a multi-camera surveillance system. To locate 3-D head positions, conventional methods relied on face detection in 2-D images and projected the face regions back to 3-D space for correspondence. However, the inevitable false face detection and rejection usually degrades the system performance. Instead, our system searches for the heads and face directions over the 3-D space using a sliding cube. Each searched 3-D cube is projected onto the 2-D camera views to determine the existence and direction of human faces. Moreover, a pre-process to estimate the locations of candidate targets is illustrated to speed-up the searching process over the 3-D space. In summary, our proposed method can efficiently fuse multi-camera information and suppress the ambiguity caused by detection errors. Our evaluation shows that the proposed approach can efficiently indicate the head position and face direction on real video sequences even under serious occlusion.

How Fast is Famous Face Recognition?

PubMed Central

Barragan-Jason, Gladys; Lachat, Fanny; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.

2012-01-01

The rapid recognition of familiar faces is crucial for social interactions. However the actual speed with which recognition can be achieved remains largely unknown as most studies have been carried out without any speed constraints. Different paradigms have been used, leading to conflicting results, and although many authors suggest that face recognition is fast, the speed of face recognition has not been directly compared to “fast” visual tasks. In this study, we sought to overcome these limitations. Subjects performed three tasks, a familiarity categorization task (famous faces among unknown faces), a superordinate categorization task (human faces among animal ones), and a gender categorization task. All tasks were performed under speed constraints. The results show that, despite the use of speed constraints, subjects were slow when they had to categorize famous faces: minimum reaction time was 467 ms, which is 180 ms more than during superordinate categorization and 160 ms more than in the gender condition. Our results are compatible with a hierarchy of face processing from the superordinate level to the familiarity level. The processes taking place between detection and recognition need to be investigated in detail. PMID:23162503

Changes in the neural correlates of implicit emotional face processing during antidepressant treatment in major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Victor, Teresa A; Furey, Maura L; Fromm, Stephen J; Öhman, Arne; Drevets, Wayne C

2013-11-01

An emerging hypothesis regarding the mechanisms underlying antidepressant pharmacotherapy suggests that these agents benefit depressed patients by reversing negative emotional processing biases (Harmer, 2008). Neuropsychological indices and functional neuroimaging measures of the amygdala response show that antidepressant drugs shift implicit and explicit processing biases away from the negative valence and toward the positive valence. However, few studies have explored such biases in regions extensively connected with the amygdala, such as the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) area, where pre-treatment activity consistently has predicted clinical outcome during antidepressant treatment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate changes in haemodynamic response patterns to positive vs. negative stimuli in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) under antidepressant treatment. Participants with MDD (n = 10) underwent fMRI before and after 8 wk sertraline treatment; healthy controls (n = 10) were imaged across an equivalent interval. A backward masking task was used to elicit non-conscious neural responses to sad, happy and neutral face expressions. Haemodynamic responses to emotional face stimuli were compared between conditions and groups in the pgACC. The response to masked-sad vs. masked-happy faces (SN-HN) in pgACC in the depressed subjects was higher in the pre-treatment condition than in the post-treatment condition and this difference was significantly greater than the corresponding change across time in the controls. The treatment-associated difference was attributable to an attenuated response to sad faces and an enhanced response to happy faces. Pre-treatment pgACC responses to SN-HN correlated positively with clinical improvement during treatment. The pgACC participates with the amygdala in processing the salience of emotional stimuli. Treatment-associated functional changes in this limbic network may influence the non-conscious processing of such stimuli by reversing the negative processing bias extant in MDD.

Is fear perception special? Evidence at the level of decision-making and subjective confidence.

PubMed

Koizumi, Ai; Mobbs, Dean; Lau, Hakwan

2016-11-01

Fearful faces are believed to be prioritized in visual perception. However, it is unclear whether the processing of low-level facial features alone can facilitate such prioritization or whether higher-level mechanisms also contribute. We examined potential biases for fearful face perception at the levels of perceptual decision-making and perceptual confidence. We controlled for lower-level visual processing capacity by titrating luminance contrasts of backward masks, and the emotional intensity of fearful, angry and happy faces. Under these conditions, participants showed liberal biases in perceiving a fearful face, in both detection and discrimination tasks. This effect was stronger among individuals with reduced density in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region linked to perceptual decision-making. Moreover, participants reported higher confidence when they accurately perceived a fearful face, suggesting that fearful faces may have privileged access to consciousness. Together, the results suggest that mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex contribute to making fearful face perception special. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.

Arguments Against a Configural Processing Account of Familiar Face Recognition.

PubMed

Burton, A Mike; Schweinberger, Stefan R; Jenkins, Rob; Kaufmann, Jürgen M

2015-07-01

Face recognition is a remarkable human ability, which underlies a great deal of people's social behavior. Individuals can recognize family members, friends, and acquaintances over a very large range of conditions, and yet the processes by which they do this remain poorly understood, despite decades of research. Although a detailed understanding remains elusive, face recognition is widely thought to rely on configural processing, specifically an analysis of spatial relations between facial features (so-called second-order configurations). In this article, we challenge this traditional view, raising four problems: (1) configural theories are underspecified; (2) large configural changes leave recognition unharmed; (3) recognition is harmed by nonconfigural changes; and (4) in separate analyses of face shape and face texture, identification tends to be dominated by texture. We review evidence from a variety of sources and suggest that failure to acknowledge the impact of familiarity on facial representations may have led to an overgeneralization of the configural account. We argue instead that second-order configural information is remarkably unimportant for familiar face recognition. © The Author(s) 2015.

The neural processing of foreign-accented speech and its relationship to listener bias

PubMed Central

Yi, Han-Gyol; Smiljanic, Rajka; Chandrasekaran, Bharath

2014-01-01

Foreign-accented speech often presents a challenging listening condition. In addition to deviations from the target speech norms related to the inexperience of the nonnative speaker, listener characteristics may play a role in determining intelligibility levels. We have previously shown that an implicit visual bias for associating East Asian faces and foreignness predicts the listeners' perceptual ability to process Korean-accented English audiovisual speech (Yi et al., 2013). Here, we examine the neural mechanism underlying the influence of listener bias to foreign faces on speech perception. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, native English speakers listened to native- and Korean-accented English sentences, with or without faces. The participants' Asian-foreign association was measured using an implicit association test (IAT), conducted outside the scanner. We found that foreign-accented speech evoked greater activity in the bilateral primary auditory cortices and the inferior frontal gyri, potentially reflecting greater computational demand. Higher IAT scores, indicating greater bias, were associated with increased BOLD response to foreign-accented speech with faces in the primary auditory cortex, the early node for spectrotemporal analysis. We conclude the following: (1) foreign-accented speech perception places greater demand on the neural systems underlying speech perception; (2) face of the talker can exaggerate the perceived foreignness of foreign-accented speech; (3) implicit Asian-foreign association is associated with decreased neural efficiency in early spectrotemporal processing. PMID:25339883

Face the hierarchy: ERP and oscillatory brain responses in social rank processing.

PubMed

Breton, Audrey; Jerbi, Karim; Henaff, Marie-Anne; Cheylus, Anne; Baudouin, Jean-Yves; Schmitz, Christina; Krolak-Salmon, Pierre; Van der Henst, Jean-Baptiste

2014-01-01

Recognition of social hierarchy is a key feature that helps us navigate through our complex social environment. Neuroimaging studies have identified brain structures involved in the processing of hierarchical stimuli but the precise temporal dynamics of brain activity associated with such processing remains largely unknown. Here, we used electroencephalography to examine the effect of social hierarchy on neural responses elicited by faces. In contrast to previous studies, the key manipulation was that a hierarchical context was constructed, not by varying facial expressions, but by presenting neutral-expression faces in a game setting. Once the performance-based hierarchy was established, participants were presented with high-rank, middle-rank and low-rank player faces and had to evaluate the rank of each face with respect to their own position. Both event-related potentials and task-related oscillatory activity were investigated. Three main findings emerge from the study. First, the experimental manipulation had no effect on the early N170 component, which may suggest that hierarchy did not modulate the structural encoding of neutral-expression faces. Second, hierarchy significantly modulated the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) within a 400-700 ms time-window, with more a prominent LPP occurring when the participants processed the face of the highest-rank player. Third, high-rank faces were associated with the highest reduction of alpha power. Taken together these findings provide novel electrophysiological evidence for enhanced allocation of attentional resource in the presence of high-rank faces. At a broader level, this study brings new insights into the neural processing underlying social categorization.

Neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in cross-species face-voice matching.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias; Missana, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D; Ghazanfar, Asif A

2012-11-01

Integrating the multisensory features of talking faces is critical to learning and extracting coherent meaning from social signals. While we know much about the development of these capacities at the behavioral level, we know very little about the underlying neural processes. One prominent behavioral milestone of these capacities is the perceptual narrowing of face-voice matching, whereby young infants match faces and voices across species, but older infants do not. In the present study, we provide neurophysiological evidence for developmental decline in cross-species face-voice matching. We measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while 4- and 8-month-old infants watched and listened to congruent and incongruent audio-visual presentations of monkey vocalizations and humans mimicking monkey vocalizations. The ERP results indicated that younger infants distinguished between the congruent and the incongruent faces and voices regardless of species, whereas in older infants, the sensitivity to multisensory congruency was limited to the human face and voice. Furthermore, with development, visual and frontal brain processes and their functional connectivity became more sensitive to the congruence of human faces and voices relative to monkey faces and voices. Our data show the neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in face-voice matching and support the notion that postnatal experience with species identity is associated with neural changes in multisensory processing (Lewkowicz & Ghazanfar, 2009). © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The role of holistic processing in judgments of facial attractiveness.

PubMed

Abbas, Zara-Angela; Duchaine, Bradley

2008-01-01

Previous work has demonstrated that facial identity recognition, expression recognition, gender categorisation, and race categorisation rely on a holistic representation. Here we examine whether a holistic representation is also used for judgments of facial attractiveness. Like past studies, we used the composite paradigm to assess holistic processing (Young et al 1987, Perception 16 747-759). Experiment 1 showed that top halves of upright faces are judged to be more attractive when aligned with an attractive bottom half than when aligned with an unattractive bottom half. To assess whether this effect resulted from holistic processing or more general effects, we examined the impact of the attractive and unattractive bottom halves when upright halves were misaligned and when aligned and misaligned halves were presented upside-down. The bottom halves had no effect in either condition. These results demonstrate that the perceptual processes underlying upright facial-attractiveness judgments represent the face holistically. Our findings with attractiveness judgments and previous demonstrations involving other aspects of face processing suggest that a common holistic representation is used for most types of face processing.

On the particular vulnerability of face recognition to aging: a review of three hypotheses

PubMed Central

Boutet, Isabelle; Taler, Vanessa; Collin, Charles A.

2015-01-01

Age-related face recognition deficits are characterized by high false alarms to unfamiliar faces, are not as pronounced for other complex stimuli, and are only partially related to general age-related impairments in cognition. This paper reviews some of the underlying processes likely to be implicated in theses deficits by focusing on areas where contradictions abound as a means to highlight avenues for future research. Research pertaining to the three following hypotheses is presented: (i) perceptual deterioration, (ii) encoding of configural information, and (iii) difficulties in recollecting contextual information. The evidence surveyed provides support for the idea that all three factors are likely to contribute, under certain conditions, to the deficits in face recognition seen in older adults. We discuss how these different factors might interact in the context of a generic framework of the different stages implicated in face recognition. Several suggestions for future investigations are outlined. PMID:26347670

Age-related changes in amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotional face processing from childhood into young adulthood.

PubMed

Wu, Minjie; Kujawa, Autumn; Lu, Lisa H; Fitzgerald, Daniel A; Klumpp, Heide; Fitzgerald, Kate D; Monk, Christopher S; Phan, K Luan

2016-05-01

The ability to process and respond to emotional facial expressions is a critical skill for healthy social and emotional development. There has been growing interest in understanding the neural circuitry underlying development of emotional processing, with previous research implicating functional connectivity between amygdala and frontal regions. However, existing work has focused on threatening emotional faces, raising questions regarding the extent to which these developmental patterns are specific to threat or to emotional face processing more broadly. In the current study, we examined age-related changes in brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity during an fMRI emotional face matching task (including angry, fearful, and happy faces) in 61 healthy subjects aged 7-25 years. We found age-related decreases in ventral medial prefrontal cortex activity in response to happy faces but not to angry or fearful faces, and an age-related change (shifting from positive to negative correlation) in amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) functional connectivity to all emotional faces. Specifically, positive correlations between amygdala and ACC/mPFC in children changed to negative correlations in adults, which may suggest early emergence of bottom-up amygdala excitatory signaling to ACC/mPFC in children and later development of top-down inhibitory control of ACC/mPFC over amygdala in adults. Age-related changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity did not vary for processing of different facial emotions, suggesting changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity may underlie development of broad emotional processing, rather than threat-specific processing. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1684-1695, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intact perception but abnormal orientation towards face-like objects in young children with ASD

PubMed Central

Guillon, Quentin; Rogé, Bernadette; Afzali, Mohammad H.; Baduel, Sophie; Kruck, Jeanne; Hadjikhani, Nouchine

2016-01-01

There is ample behavioral evidence of diminished orientation towards faces as well as the presence of face perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the underlying mechanisms of these deficits are still unclear. We used face-like object stimuli that have been shown to evoke pareidolia in typically developing (TD) individuals to test the effect of a global face-like configuration on orientation and perceptual processes in young children with ASD and age-matched TD controls. We show that TD children were more likely to look first towards upright face-like objects than children with ASD, showing that a global face-like configuration elicit a stronger orientation bias in TD children as compared to children with ASD. However, once they were looking at the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, suggesting that they both perceived it as a face. Our results are in agreement with abnormal social orienting in ASD, possibly due to an abnormal tuning of the subcortical pathway, leading to poor orienting and attention towards faces. Our results also indicate that young children with ASD can perceive a generic face holistically, such as face-like objects, further demonstrating holistic processing of faces in ASD. PMID:26912096

Intact perception but abnormal orientation towards face-like objects in young children with ASD.

PubMed

Guillon, Quentin; Rogé, Bernadette; Afzali, Mohammad H; Baduel, Sophie; Kruck, Jeanne; Hadjikhani, Nouchine

2016-02-25

There is ample behavioral evidence of diminished orientation towards faces as well as the presence of face perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the underlying mechanisms of these deficits are still unclear. We used face-like object stimuli that have been shown to evoke pareidolia in typically developing (TD) individuals to test the effect of a global face-like configuration on orientation and perceptual processes in young children with ASD and age-matched TD controls. We show that TD children were more likely to look first towards upright face-like objects than children with ASD, showing that a global face-like configuration elicit a stronger orientation bias in TD children as compared to children with ASD. However, once they were looking at the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, suggesting that they both perceived it as a face. Our results are in agreement with abnormal social orienting in ASD, possibly due to an abnormal tuning of the subcortical pathway, leading to poor orienting and attention towards faces. Our results also indicate that young children with ASD can perceive a generic face holistically, such as face-like objects, further demonstrating holistic processing of faces in ASD.

The human body odor compound androstadienone increases neural conflict coupled to higher behavioral costs during an emotional Stroop task.

PubMed

Hornung, Jonas; Kogler, Lydia; Erb, Michael; Freiherr, Jessica; Derntl, Birgit

2018-05-01

The androgen derivative androstadienone (AND) is a substance found in human sweat and thus may act as human chemosignal. With the current experiment, we aimed to explore in which way AND affects interference processing during an emotional Stroop task which used human faces as target and emotional words as distractor stimuli. This was complemented by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to unravel the neural mechanism of AND-action. Based on previous accounts we expected AND to increase neural activation in areas commonly implicated in evaluation of emotional face processing and to change neural activation in brain regions linked to interference processing. For this aim, a total of 80 healthy individuals (oral contraceptive users, luteal women, men) were tested twice on two consecutive days with an emotional Stroop task using fMRI. Our results suggest that AND increases interference processing in brain areas that are heavily recruited during emotional conflict. At the same time, correlation analyses revealed that this neural interference processing was paralleled by higher behavioral costs (response times) with higher interference related brain activation under AND. Furthermore, AND elicited higher activation in regions implicated in emotional face processing including right fusiform gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and dorsomedial cortex. In this connection, neural activation was not coupled to behavioral outcome. Furthermore, despite previous accounts of increased hypothalamic activation under AND, we were not able to replicate this finding and discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy. To conclude, AND increased interference processing in regions heavily recruited during emotional conflict which was coupled to higher costs in resolving emotional conflicts with stronger interference-related brain activation under AND. At the moment it remains unclear whether these effects are due to changes in conflict detection or resolution. However, evidence most consistently suggests that AND does not draw attention to the most potent socio-emotional information (human faces) but rather highlights representations of emotional words. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of oxytocin on behavioral and ERP measures of recognition memory for own-race and other-race faces in women and men

PubMed Central

Herzmann, Grit; Bird, Christopher W.; Freeman, Megan; Curran, Tim

2013-01-01

Oxytocin has been shown to affect human social information processing including recognition memory for faces. Here we investigated the neural processes underlying the effect of oxytocin on memorizing own-race and other-race faces in men and women. In a placebo-controlled, doubleblind, between-subject study, participants received either oxytocin or placebo before studying own-race and other-race faces. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during both the study and recognition phase to investigate neural correlates of oxytocin’s effect on memory encoding, memory retrieval, and perception. Oxytocin increased the accuracy of familiarity judgments in the recognition test. Neural correlates for this effect were found in ERPs related to memory encoding and retrieval but not perception. In contrast to its facilitating effects on familiarity, oxytocin impaired recollection judgments, but in men only. Oxytocin did not differentially affect own-race and other-race faces. This study shows that oxytocin influences memory, but not perceptual processes, in a face recognition task and is the first to reveal sex differences in the effect of oxytocin on face memory. Contrary to recent findings in oxytocin and moral decision making, oxytocin did not preferentially improve memory for own-race faces. PMID:23648370

Effects of oxytocin on behavioral and ERP measures of recognition memory for own-race and other-race faces in women and men.

PubMed

Herzmann, Grit; Bird, Christopher W; Freeman, Megan; Curran, Tim

2013-10-01

Oxytocin has been shown to affect human social information processing including recognition memory for faces. Here we investigated the neural processes underlying the effect of oxytocin on memorizing own-race and other-race faces in men and women. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind, between-subject study, participants received either oxytocin or placebo before studying own-race and other-race faces. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during both the study and recognition phase to investigate neural correlates of oxytocin's effect on memory encoding, memory retrieval, and perception. Oxytocin increased the accuracy of familiarity judgments in the recognition test. Neural correlates for this effect were found in ERPs related to memory encoding and retrieval but not perception. In contrast to its facilitating effects on familiarity, oxytocin impaired recollection judgments, but in men only. Oxytocin did not differentially affect own-race and other-race faces. This study shows that oxytocin influences memory, but not perceptual processes, in a face recognition task and is the first to reveal sex differences in the effect of oxytocin on face memory. Contrary to recent findings in oxytocin and moral decision making, oxytocin did not preferentially improve memory for own-race faces. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional responses associated with self-face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Morita, Tomoyo; Kosaka, Hirotaka; Saito, Daisuke N; Ishitobi, Makoto; Munesue, Toshio; Itakura, Shoji; Omori, Masao; Okazawa, Hidehiko; Wada, Yuji; Sadato, Norihiro

2012-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show impaired emotional responses to self-face processing, but the underlying neural bases are unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated brain activity when 15 individuals with high-functioning ASD and 15 controls rated the photogenicity of self-face images and photographs of others' faces. Controls showed a strong correlation between photogenicity ratings and extent of embarrassment evoked by self-face images; this correlation was weaker among ASD individuals, indicating a decoupling between the cognitive evaluation of self-face images and emotional responses. Individuals with ASD demonstrated relatively low self-related activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which was related to specific autistic traits. There were significant group differences in the modulation of activity by embarrassment ratings in the right insular (IC) and lateral orbitofrontal cortices. Task-related activity in the right IC was lower in the ASD group. The reduced activity in the right IC for self-face images was associated with weak coupling between cognitive evaluation and emotional responses to self-face images. The PCC is responsible for self-referential processing, and the IC plays a role in emotional experience. Dysfunction in these areas could contribute to the lack of self-conscious behaviors in response to self-reflection in ASD individuals.

Retaining Critical Therapeutic Elements of Behavioral Interventions Translated For Delivery via the Internet: Recommendations and an Example Using Pain Coping Skills Training

PubMed Central

Porter, Laura S; Somers, Tamara J; McKee, Daphne C; Keefe, Francis J

2014-01-01

Evidence supporting the efficacy of behavioral interventions based on principles of cognitive behavioral therapies has spurred interest in translating these interventions for delivery via the Internet. However, the benefits of this dissemination method cannot be realized unless the translated interventions are as effective as possible. We describe a challenge that must be overcome to ensure this occurs—Internet interventions must retain therapeutic components and processes underlying the success of face-to-face interventions on which they are based. These components and processes vary in the ease with which they can be translated to the online environment. Moreover, some are subtle and may be overlooked, despite being recognized as essential to the success of face-to-face interventions. We provide preliminary guidance for retaining critical therapeutic components and processes in the translation process, using Pain Coping Skills Training for osteoarthritis pain to illustrate methods. Directions for future research are also discussed. PMID:25532216

Visual adaptation and face perception

PubMed Central

Webster, Michael A.; MacLeod, Donald I. A.

2011-01-01

The appearance of faces can be strongly affected by the characteristics of faces viewed previously. These perceptual after-effects reflect processes of sensory adaptation that are found throughout the visual system, but which have been considered only relatively recently in the context of higher level perceptual judgements. In this review, we explore the consequences of adaptation for human face perception, and the implications of adaptation for understanding the neural-coding schemes underlying the visual representation of faces. The properties of face after-effects suggest that they, in part, reflect response changes at high and possibly face-specific levels of visual processing. Yet, the form of the after-effects and the norm-based codes that they point to show many parallels with the adaptations and functional organization that are thought to underlie the encoding of perceptual attributes like colour. The nature and basis for human colour vision have been studied extensively, and we draw on ideas and principles that have been developed to account for norms and normalization in colour vision to consider potential similarities and differences in the representation and adaptation of faces. PMID:21536555

Visual adaptation and face perception.

PubMed

Webster, Michael A; MacLeod, Donald I A

2011-06-12

The appearance of faces can be strongly affected by the characteristics of faces viewed previously. These perceptual after-effects reflect processes of sensory adaptation that are found throughout the visual system, but which have been considered only relatively recently in the context of higher level perceptual judgements. In this review, we explore the consequences of adaptation for human face perception, and the implications of adaptation for understanding the neural-coding schemes underlying the visual representation of faces. The properties of face after-effects suggest that they, in part, reflect response changes at high and possibly face-specific levels of visual processing. Yet, the form of the after-effects and the norm-based codes that they point to show many parallels with the adaptations and functional organization that are thought to underlie the encoding of perceptual attributes like colour. The nature and basis for human colour vision have been studied extensively, and we draw on ideas and principles that have been developed to account for norms and normalization in colour vision to consider potential similarities and differences in the representation and adaptation of faces.

Neural Correlates of Perceptual Narrowing in Cross-Species Face-Voice Matching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grossmann, Tobias; Missana, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D.; Ghazanfar, Asif A.

2012-01-01

Integrating the multisensory features of talking faces is critical to learning and extracting coherent meaning from social signals. While we know much about the development of these capacities at the behavioral level, we know very little about the underlying neural processes. One prominent behavioral milestone of these capacities is the perceptual…

A brain-computer interface for potential non-verbal facial communication based on EEG signals related to specific emotions

PubMed Central

Kashihara, Koji

2014-01-01

Unlike assistive technology for verbal communication, the brain-machine or brain-computer interface (BMI/BCI) has not been established as a non-verbal communication tool for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Face-to-face communication enables access to rich emotional information, but individuals suffering from neurological disorders, such as ALS and autism, may not express their emotions or communicate their negative feelings. Although emotions may be inferred by looking at facial expressions, emotional prediction for neutral faces necessitates advanced judgment. The process that underlies brain neuronal responses to neutral faces and causes emotional changes remains unknown. To address this problem, therefore, this study attempted to decode conditioned emotional reactions to neutral face stimuli. This direction was motivated by the assumption that if electroencephalogram (EEG) signals can be used to detect patients' emotional responses to specific inexpressive faces, the results could be incorporated into the design and development of BMI/BCI-based non-verbal communication tools. To these ends, this study investigated how a neutral face associated with a negative emotion modulates rapid central responses in face processing and then identified cortical activities. The conditioned neutral face-triggered event-related potentials that originated from the posterior temporal lobe statistically significantly changed during late face processing (600–700 ms) after stimulus, rather than in early face processing activities, such as P1 and N170 responses. Source localization revealed that the conditioned neutral faces increased activity in the right fusiform gyrus (FG). This study also developed an efficient method for detecting implicit negative emotional responses to specific faces by using EEG signals. A classification method based on a support vector machine enables the easy classification of neutral faces that trigger specific individual emotions. In accordance with this classification, a face on a computer morphs into a sad or displeased countenance. The proposed method could be incorporated as a part of non-verbal communication tools to enable emotional expression. PMID:25206321

A brain-computer interface for potential non-verbal facial communication based on EEG signals related to specific emotions.

PubMed

Kashihara, Koji

2014-01-01

Unlike assistive technology for verbal communication, the brain-machine or brain-computer interface (BMI/BCI) has not been established as a non-verbal communication tool for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Face-to-face communication enables access to rich emotional information, but individuals suffering from neurological disorders, such as ALS and autism, may not express their emotions or communicate their negative feelings. Although emotions may be inferred by looking at facial expressions, emotional prediction for neutral faces necessitates advanced judgment. The process that underlies brain neuronal responses to neutral faces and causes emotional changes remains unknown. To address this problem, therefore, this study attempted to decode conditioned emotional reactions to neutral face stimuli. This direction was motivated by the assumption that if electroencephalogram (EEG) signals can be used to detect patients' emotional responses to specific inexpressive faces, the results could be incorporated into the design and development of BMI/BCI-based non-verbal communication tools. To these ends, this study investigated how a neutral face associated with a negative emotion modulates rapid central responses in face processing and then identified cortical activities. The conditioned neutral face-triggered event-related potentials that originated from the posterior temporal lobe statistically significantly changed during late face processing (600-700 ms) after stimulus, rather than in early face processing activities, such as P1 and N170 responses. Source localization revealed that the conditioned neutral faces increased activity in the right fusiform gyrus (FG). This study also developed an efficient method for detecting implicit negative emotional responses to specific faces by using EEG signals. A classification method based on a support vector machine enables the easy classification of neutral faces that trigger specific individual emotions. In accordance with this classification, a face on a computer morphs into a sad or displeased countenance. The proposed method could be incorporated as a part of non-verbal communication tools to enable emotional expression.

Facing aliens under globalization: changing meanings of home for Taiwanese employers of foreign domestics.

PubMed

Cheng, Shu-Ju Ada

2005-01-01

This paper is concerned with changing meanings of home for Taiwanese employers of foreign domestics under globalization. Shifting sense of home occurs for Taiwanese employers as well as foreign domestics in the process of labor migration. The author argues that Taiwanese employers, facing aliens at home, have adopted various rhetorical strategies to redefine their relationships with foreign domestics and deployed diverse practices of management within their households. As foreign domestics do housework at home, Taiwanese employers also do their own "homework," struggling to understand and cope with the process of becoming and being household employers. Their "homework" is an integral part of the globalization of domestic service.

Modulation of neuronal oscillatory activity in the beta- and gamma-band is associated with current individual anxiety levels.

PubMed

Schneider, Till R; Hipp, Joerg F; Domnick, Claudia; Carl, Christine; Büchel, Christian; Engel, Andreas K

2018-05-26

Human faces are among the most salient visual stimuli and act both as socially and emotionally relevant signals. Faces and especially faces with emotional expression receive prioritized processing in the human brain and activate a distributed network of brain areas reflected, e.g., in enhanced oscillatory neuronal activity. However, an inconsistent picture emerged so far regarding neuronal oscillatory activity across different frequency-bands modulated by emotionally and socially relevant stimuli. The individual level of anxiety among healthy populations might be one explanation for these inconsistent findings. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis whether oscillatory neuronal activity is associated with individual anxiety levels during perception of faces with neutral and fearful facial expressions. We recorded neuronal activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 27 healthy participants and determined their individual state anxiety levels. Images of human faces with neutral and fearful expressions, and physically matched visual control stimuli were presented while participants performed a simple color detection task. Spectral analyses revealed that face processing and in particular processing of fearful faces was characterized by enhanced neuronal activity in the theta- and gamma-band and decreased activity in the beta-band in early visual cortex and the fusiform gyrus (FFG). Moreover, the individuals' state anxiety levels correlated positively with the gamma-band response and negatively with the beta response in the FFG and the amygdala. Our results suggest that oscillatory neuronal activity plays an important role in affective face processing and is dependent on the individual level of state anxiety. Our work provides new insights on the role of oscillatory neuronal activity underlying processing of faces. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing.

PubMed

Germine, Laura T; Garrido, Lucia; Bruce, Lori; Hooker, Christine

2011-10-01

Human beings are social organisms with an intrinsic desire to seek and participate in social interactions. Social anhedonia is a personality trait characterized by a reduced desire for social affiliation and reduced pleasure derived from interpersonal interactions. Abnormally high levels of social anhedonia prospectively predict the development of schizophrenia and contribute to poorer outcomes for schizophrenia patients. Despite the strong association between social anhedonia and schizophrenia, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in social anhedonia have not been studied and are thus poorly understood. Deficits in face emotion recognition are related to poorer social outcomes in schizophrenia, and it has been suggested that face emotion recognition deficits may be a behavioral marker for schizophrenia liability. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see whether there are differences in the brain networks underlying basic face emotion processing in a community sample of individuals low vs. high in social anhedonia. We isolated the neural mechanisms related to face emotion processing by comparing face emotion discrimination with four other baseline conditions (identity discrimination of emotional faces, identity discrimination of neutral faces, object discrimination, and pattern discrimination). Results showed a group (high/low social anhedonia) × condition (emotion discrimination/control condition) interaction in the anterior portion of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex. As predicted, high (relative to low) social anhedonia participants showed less neural activity in face emotion processing regions during emotion discrimination as compared to each control condition. The findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with abnormalities in networks responsible for basic processes associated with social cognition, and provide a starting point for understanding the neural basis of social motivation and our drive to seek social affiliation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Restoring effects of oxytocin on the attentional preference for faces in autism.

PubMed

Kanat, M; Spenthof, I; Riedel, A; van Elst, L T; Heinrichs, M; Domes, G

2017-04-18

Reduced attentional preference for faces and symptoms of social anxiety are common in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The neuropeptide oxytocin triggers anxiolytic functions and enhances eye gaze, facial emotion recognition and neural correlates of face processing in ASD. Here we investigated whether a single dose of oxytocin increases attention to faces in ASD. As a secondary question, we explored the influence of social anxiety on these effects. We tested for oxytocin's effects on attention to neutral faces as compared to houses in a sample of 29 autistic individuals and 30 control participants using a dot-probe paradigm with two different presentation times (100 or 500 ms). A single dose of 24 IU oxytocin was administered in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Under placebo, ASD individuals paid less attention to faces presented for 500 ms than did controls. Oxytocin administration increased the allocation of attention toward faces in ASD to a level observed in controls. Secondary analyses revealed that these oxytocin effects primarily occurred in ASD individuals with high levels of social anxiety who were characterized by attentional avoidance of faces under placebo. Our results confirm a positive influence of intranasal oxytocin on social attention processes in ASD. Further, they suggest that oxytocin may in particular restore the attentional preference for facial information in ASD individuals with high social anxiety. We conclude that oxytocin's anxiolytic properties may partially account for its positive effects on socio-cognitive functioning in ASD, such as enhanced eye gaze and facial emotion recognition.

Restoring effects of oxytocin on the attentional preference for faces in autism

PubMed Central

Kanat, M; Spenthof, I; Riedel, A; van Elst, L T; Heinrichs, M; Domes, G

2017-01-01

Reduced attentional preference for faces and symptoms of social anxiety are common in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The neuropeptide oxytocin triggers anxiolytic functions and enhances eye gaze, facial emotion recognition and neural correlates of face processing in ASD. Here we investigated whether a single dose of oxytocin increases attention to faces in ASD. As a secondary question, we explored the influence of social anxiety on these effects. We tested for oxytocin's effects on attention to neutral faces as compared to houses in a sample of 29 autistic individuals and 30 control participants using a dot-probe paradigm with two different presentation times (100 or 500 ms). A single dose of 24 IU oxytocin was administered in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Under placebo, ASD individuals paid less attention to faces presented for 500 ms than did controls. Oxytocin administration increased the allocation of attention toward faces in ASD to a level observed in controls. Secondary analyses revealed that these oxytocin effects primarily occurred in ASD individuals with high levels of social anxiety who were characterized by attentional avoidance of faces under placebo. Our results confirm a positive influence of intranasal oxytocin on social attention processes in ASD. Further, they suggest that oxytocin may in particular restore the attentional preference for facial information in ASD individuals with high social anxiety. We conclude that oxytocin's anxiolytic properties may partially account for its positive effects on socio-cognitive functioning in ASD, such as enhanced eye gaze and facial emotion recognition. PMID:28418399

How chemical information processing interferes with face processing: a magnetoencephalographic study.

PubMed

Walla, Peter; Mayer, Dagmar; Deecke, Lüder; Lang, Wilfried

2005-01-01

Magnetic field changes related to face encoding were recorded in 20 healthy young participants. Faces had to be deeply encoded under four kinds of simultaneous nasal chemical stimulation. Neutral room air, phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA, rose flavor), carbon dioxide (CO2, pain), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S, rotten eggs flavor) were used as chemical stimuli. PEA and H2S represented odor stimuli, whereas CO2 was used for trigeminal stimulation (pain sensation). After the encoding of faces, the respective recognition performances were tested focusing on recognition effects related to specific chemical stimulation during encoding. The number of correctly recognized faces (hits) varied between chemical conditions. PEA stimulation during face encoding significantly increased the number of hits compared to the control condition. H2S also led to an increased mean number of hits, whereas simultaneous CO2 administration during face encoding resulted in a reduction. Analysis of the physiological data revealed two latency regions of interest. Compared to the control condition, both olfactory stimulus conditions resulted in reduced activity components peaking at about 260 ms after stimulus onset, whereas CO2 produced a strongly pronounced enhanced activity component peaking at about 700 ms after stimulus onset. Both olfactory conditions elicited only weak enhanced activities at about 700 ms, and CO2 did not show any difference activity at 260 ms after stimulus onset compared to the control condition. It is concluded that the early activity differences represent subconscious olfactory information processing leading to enhanced memory performances irrespective of the hedonic value, at least if they are only subconsciously processed. The later activity is suggested to reflect conscious CO2 perception negatively affecting face encoding and therefore leading to reduced subsequent face recognition. We interpret that conscious processing of nasal chemical stimulation competes with deep face encoding with respect to cortical resources, whereas subconscious processing of nasal chemical stimulation does not.

Can we match ultraviolet face images against their visible counterparts?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narang, Neeru; Bourlai, Thirimachos; Hornak, Lawrence A.

2015-05-01

In law enforcement and security applications, the acquisition of face images is critical in producing key trace evidence for the successful identification of potential threats. However, face recognition (FR) for face images captured using different camera sensors, and under variable illumination conditions, and expressions is very challenging. In this paper, we investigate the advantages and limitations of the heterogeneous problem of matching ultra violet (from 100 nm to 400 nm in wavelength) or UV, face images against their visible (VIS) counterparts, when all face images are captured under controlled conditions. The contributions of our work are three-fold; (i) We used a camera sensor designed with the capability to acquire UV images at short-ranges, and generated a dual-band (VIS and UV) database that is composed of multiple, full frontal, face images of 50 subjects. Two sessions were collected that span over the period of 2 months. (ii) For each dataset, we determined which set of face image pre-processing algorithms are more suitable for face matching, and, finally, (iii) we determined which FR algorithm better matches cross-band face images, resulting in high rank-1 identification rates. Experimental results show that our cross spectral matching (the heterogeneous problem, where gallery and probe sets consist of face images acquired in different spectral bands) algorithms achieve sufficient identification performance. However, we also conclude that the problem under study, is very challenging, and it requires further investigation to address real-world law enforcement or military applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is first time in the open literature the problem of cross-spectral matching of UV against VIS band face images is being investigated.

Impaired holistic processing of left-right composite faces in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Liu, Tina T; Behrmann, Marlene

2014-01-01

Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) refers to a lifelong impairment in face processing despite normal visual and intellectual skills. Many studies have suggested that the key underlying deficit in CP is one of a failure to engage holistic processing. Moreover, there has been some suggestion that, in normal observers, there may be greater involvement of the right than left hemisphere in holistic processing. To examine the proposed deficit in holistic processing and its potential hemispheric atypicality in CP, we compared the performance of 8 CP individuals with both matched controls and a large group of non-matched controls on a novel, vertical composite task. In this task, participants judged whether a cued half of a face (either left or right half) was the same or different at study and test, and the two face halves could be either aligned or misaligned. The standard index of holistic processing is one in which the unattended face half influences performance on the cued half and this influence is greater in the aligned than in the misaligned condition. Relative to controls, the CP participants, both at a group and at an individual level, did not show holistic processing in the vertical composite task. There was also no difference in performance as a function of hemifield of the cued face half in the CP individuals, and this was true in the control participants, as well. The findings clearly confirm the deficit in holistic processing in CP and reveal the useful application of this novel experimental paradigm to this population and potentially to others as well.

Feedback from the heart: Emotional learning and memory is controlled by cardiac cycle, interoceptive accuracy and personality.

PubMed

Pfeifer, Gaby; Garfinkel, Sarah N; Gould van Praag, Cassandra D; Sahota, Kuljit; Betka, Sophie; Critchley, Hugo D

2017-05-01

Feedback processing is critical to trial-and-error learning. Here, we examined whether interoceptive signals concerning the state of cardiovascular arousal influence the processing of reinforcing feedback during the learning of 'emotional' face-name pairs, with subsequent effects on retrieval. Participants (N=29) engaged in a learning task of face-name pairs (fearful, neutral, happy faces). Correct and incorrect learning decisions were reinforced by auditory feedback, which was delivered either at cardiac systole (on the heartbeat, when baroreceptors signal the contraction of the heart to the brain), or at diastole (between heartbeats during baroreceptor quiescence). We discovered a cardiac influence on feedback processing that enhanced the learning of fearful faces in people with heightened interoceptive ability. Individuals with enhanced accuracy on a heartbeat counting task learned fearful face-name pairs better when feedback was given at systole than at diastole. This effect was not present for neutral and happy faces. At retrieval, we also observed related effects of personality: First, individuals scoring higher for extraversion showed poorer retrieval accuracy. These individuals additionally manifested lower resting heart rate and lower state anxiety, suggesting that attenuated levels of cardiovascular arousal in extraverts underlies poorer performance. Second, higher extraversion scores predicted higher emotional intensity ratings of fearful faces reinforced at systole. Third, individuals scoring higher for neuroticism showed higher retrieval confidence for fearful faces reinforced at diastole. Our results show that cardiac signals shape feedback processing to influence learning of fearful faces, an effect underpinned by personality differences linked to psychophysiological arousal. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Intersubject Variability in Fearful Face Processing: The Link Between Behavior and Neural Activation

PubMed Central

Doty, Tracy J.; Japee, Shruti; Ingvar, Martin; Ungerleider, Leslie G.

2014-01-01

Stimuli that signal threat show considerable variability in the extent to which they enhance behavior, even among healthy individuals. However, the neural underpinning of this behavioral variability is not well understood. By manipulating expectation of threat in an fMRI study of fearful vs. neutral face categorization, we uncovered a network of areas underlying variability in threat processing in healthy adults. We explicitly altered expectation by presenting face images at three different expectation levels: 80%, 50%, and 20%. Subjects were instructed to report as fast and as accurately as possible whether the face was fearful (signaled threat) or not. An uninformative cue preceded each face by 4 seconds (s). By taking the difference between response times (RT) to fearful compared to neutral faces, we quantified an overall fear RT bias (i.e. faster to fearful than neutral faces) for each subject. This bias correlated positively with late trial fMRI activation (8 s after the face) during unexpected fearful face trials in bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the left subgenual cingulate cortex, and the right caudate nucleus and correlated negatively with early trial fMRI activation (4 s after the cue) during expected neutral face trials in bilateral dorsal striatum and the right ventral striatum. These results demonstrate that the variability in threat processing among healthy adults is reflected not only in behavior but also in the magnitude of activation in medial prefrontal and striatal regions that appear to encode affective value. PMID:24841078

Intersubject variability in fearful face processing: the link between behavior and neural activation.

PubMed

Doty, Tracy J; Japee, Shruti; Ingvar, Martin; Ungerleider, Leslie G

2014-12-01

Stimuli that signal threat show considerable variability in the extents to which they enhance behavior, even among healthy individuals. However, the neural underpinning of this behavioral variability is not well understood. By manipulating expectation of threat in an fMRI study of fearful versus neutral face categorization, we uncovered a network of areas underlying variability in threat processing in healthy adults. We explicitly altered expectations by presenting face images at three different expectation levels: 80 %, 50 %, and 20 %. Subjects were instructed to report as quickly and accurately as possible whether the face was fearful (signaled threat) or not. An uninformative cue preceded each face by 4 s. By taking the difference between reaction times (RTs) to fearful and neutral faces, we quantified an overall fear RT bias (i.e., faster to fearful than to neutral faces) for each subject. This bias correlated positively with late-trial fMRI activation (8 s after the face) during unexpected-fearful-face trials in bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the left subgenual cingulate cortex, and the right caudate nucleus, and correlated negatively with early-trial fMRI activation (4 s after the cue) during expected-neutral-face trials in bilateral dorsal striatum and the right ventral striatum. These results demonstrate that the variability in threat processing among healthy adults is reflected not only in behavior, but also in the magnitude of activation in medial prefrontal and striatal regions that appear to encode affective value.

The human body odor compound androstadienone leads to anger-dependent effects in an emotional Stroop but not dot-probe task using human faces.

PubMed

Hornung, Jonas; Kogler, Lydia; Wolpert, Stephan; Freiherr, Jessica; Derntl, Birgit

2017-01-01

The androgen derivative androstadienone is a substance found in human sweat and thus is a putative human chemosignal. Androstadienone has been studied with respect to effects on mood states, attractiveness ratings, physiological and neural activation. With the current experiment, we aimed to explore in which way androstadienone affects attention to social cues (human faces). Moreover, we wanted to test whether effects depend on specific emotions, the participants' sex and individual sensitivity to smell androstadienone. To do so, we investigated 56 healthy individuals (thereof 29 females taking oral contraceptives) with two attention tasks on two consecutive days (once under androstadienone, once under placebo exposure in pseudorandomized order). With an emotional dot-probe task we measured visuo-spatial cueing while an emotional Stroop task allowed us to investigate interference control. Our results suggest that androstadienone acts in a sex, task and emotion-specific manner as a reduction in interference processes in the emotional Stroop task was only apparent for angry faces in men under androstadienone exposure. More specifically, men showed a smaller difference in reaction times for congruent compared to incongruent trials. At the same time also women were slightly affected by smelling androstadienone as they classified angry faces more often correctly under androstadienone. For the emotional dot-probe task no modulation by androstadienone was observed. Furthermore, in both attention paradigms individual sensitivity to androstadienone was neither correlated with reaction times nor error rates in men and women. To conclude, exposure to androstadienone seems to potentiate the relevance of angry faces in both men and women in connection with interference control, while processes of visuo-spatial cueing remain unaffected.

The human body odor compound androstadienone leads to anger-dependent effects in an emotional Stroop but not dot-probe task using human faces

PubMed Central

Kogler, Lydia; Wolpert, Stephan; Freiherr, Jessica; Derntl, Birgit

2017-01-01

The androgen derivative androstadienone is a substance found in human sweat and thus is a putative human chemosignal. Androstadienone has been studied with respect to effects on mood states, attractiveness ratings, physiological and neural activation. With the current experiment, we aimed to explore in which way androstadienone affects attention to social cues (human faces). Moreover, we wanted to test whether effects depend on specific emotions, the participants' sex and individual sensitivity to smell androstadienone. To do so, we investigated 56 healthy individuals (thereof 29 females taking oral contraceptives) with two attention tasks on two consecutive days (once under androstadienone, once under placebo exposure in pseudorandomized order). With an emotional dot-probe task we measured visuo-spatial cueing while an emotional Stroop task allowed us to investigate interference control. Our results suggest that androstadienone acts in a sex, task and emotion-specific manner as a reduction in interference processes in the emotional Stroop task was only apparent for angry faces in men under androstadienone exposure. More specifically, men showed a smaller difference in reaction times for congruent compared to incongruent trials. At the same time also women were slightly affected by smelling androstadienone as they classified angry faces more often correctly under androstadienone. For the emotional dot-probe task no modulation by androstadienone was observed. Furthermore, in both attention paradigms individual sensitivity to androstadienone was neither correlated with reaction times nor error rates in men and women. To conclude, exposure to androstadienone seems to potentiate the relevance of angry faces in both men and women in connection with interference control, while processes of visuo-spatial cueing remain unaffected. PMID:28369152

Tracking and Student Achievement: The Role of Instruction as a Mediator

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Rebecca Anne

2013-01-01

Most public schools and districts must face the problem of how to help low-achieving students and efficiently target resources, particularly in the face of accountability under No Child Left Behind. One policy that has been employed is grouping students into classrooms by their measured or perceived ability--a process known as tracking. Research…

Influence of Temporal Expectations on Response Priming by Subliminal Faces

PubMed Central

Guex, Raphael; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2016-01-01

Unconscious processes are often assumed immune from attention influence. Recent behavioral studies suggest however that the processing of subliminal information can be influenced by temporal attention. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying these effects, we used a stringent masking paradigm together with fMRI to investigate how temporal attention modulates the processing of unseen (masked) faces. Participants performed a gender decision task on a visible neutral target face, preceded by a masked prime face that could vary in gender (same or different than target) and emotion expression (neutral or fearful). We manipulated temporal attention by instructing participants to expect targets to appear either early or late during the stimulus sequence. Orienting temporal attention to subliminal primes influenced response priming by masked faces, even when gender was incongruent. In addition, gender-congruent primes facilitated responses regardless of attention while gender-incongruent primes reduced accuracy when attended. Emotion produced no differential effects. At the neural level, incongruent and temporally unexpected primes increased brain response in regions of the fronto-parietal attention network, reflecting greater recruitment of executive control and reorienting processes. Congruent and expected primes produced higher activations in fusiform cortex, presumably reflecting facilitation of perceptual processing. These results indicate that temporal attention can influence subliminal processing of face features, and thus facilitate information integration according to task-relevance regardless of conscious awareness. They also suggest that task-congruent information between prime and target may facilitate response priming even when temporal attention is not selectively oriented to the prime onset time. PMID:27764124

Influence of Temporal Expectations on Response Priming by Subliminal Faces.

PubMed

Pichon, Swann; Guex, Raphael; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2016-01-01

Unconscious processes are often assumed immune from attention influence. Recent behavioral studies suggest however that the processing of subliminal information can be influenced by temporal attention. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying these effects, we used a stringent masking paradigm together with fMRI to investigate how temporal attention modulates the processing of unseen (masked) faces. Participants performed a gender decision task on a visible neutral target face, preceded by a masked prime face that could vary in gender (same or different than target) and emotion expression (neutral or fearful). We manipulated temporal attention by instructing participants to expect targets to appear either early or late during the stimulus sequence. Orienting temporal attention to subliminal primes influenced response priming by masked faces, even when gender was incongruent. In addition, gender-congruent primes facilitated responses regardless of attention while gender-incongruent primes reduced accuracy when attended. Emotion produced no differential effects. At the neural level, incongruent and temporally unexpected primes increased brain response in regions of the fronto-parietal attention network, reflecting greater recruitment of executive control and reorienting processes. Congruent and expected primes produced higher activations in fusiform cortex, presumably reflecting facilitation of perceptual processing. These results indicate that temporal attention can influence subliminal processing of face features, and thus facilitate information integration according to task-relevance regardless of conscious awareness. They also suggest that task-congruent information between prime and target may facilitate response priming even when temporal attention is not selectively oriented to the prime onset time.

Synthesis and identification of three-dimensional faces from image(s) and three-dimensional generic models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zexi; Cohen, Fernand

2017-11-01

We describe an approach for synthesizing a three-dimensional (3-D) face structure from an image or images of a human face taken at a priori unknown poses using gender and ethnicity specific 3-D generic models. The synthesis process starts with a generic model, which is personalized as images of the person become available using preselected landmark points that are tessellated to form a high-resolution triangular mesh. From a single image, two of the three coordinates of the model are reconstructed in accordance with the given image of the person, while the third coordinate is sampled from the generic model, and the appearance is made in accordance with the image. With multiple images, all coordinates and appearance are reconstructed in accordance with the observed images. This method allows for accurate pose estimation as well as face identification in 3-D rendering of a difficult two-dimensional (2-D) face recognition problem into a much simpler 3-D surface matching problem. The estimation of the unknown pose is achieved using the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization process. Encouraging experimental results are obtained in a controlled environment with high-resolution images under a good illumination condition, as well as for images taken in an uncontrolled environment under arbitrary illumination with low-resolution cameras.

"Why is everyone always angry with me?!": When thinking 'why' leads to generalization.

PubMed

Van Lier, Jens; Vervliet, Bram; Boddez, Yannick; Raes, Filip

2015-06-01

The degree of (over)generalization (to the self, over situations) is an important characteristic of depression and anxiety disorders. Little is known about cognitive mechanisms underlying this (over)generalization. In this context, the present study examined the effect of an abstract processing style (compared to a more concrete processing style) on generalization of angry faces to the self. An abstract processing style refers to thoughts about the meaning, causes and consequences of events or situations ('Why'-thinking). To test the impact of an abstract processing experimentally, images of angry faces were paired with the name of the participant and happy faces were paired with another person's name while participants adopted either an abstract ('Why') or a concrete ('How') processing style. A surprise recognition task, where participants were asked to indicate whether they had seen the faces before, served as a test of generalization of angry faces to the self. Results indicated that participants who adopted an abstract processing style showed more generalization of angry faces to the self and a trend towards more generalization of happy faces to the other person, relative to participants who adopted a concrete processing style. Our sample was a non-clinical student sample and thus conclusions about the generalizability to clinical samples should be done with caution. These results suggest that abstract thought may underlie the generalization of bad/failure/angry feelings toward the self ('Everyone is always angry with me') and of good feelings towards other people ('Everyone is always nicer to other people') that is often seen in depression and social anxiety disorder. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

One size does not fit all: face emotion processing impairments in semantic dementia, behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease are mediated by distinct cognitive deficits.

PubMed

Miller, Laurie A; Hsieh, Sharpley; Lah, Suncica; Savage, Sharon; Hodges, John R; Piguet, Olivier

2012-01-01

Patients with frontotemporal dementia (both behavioural variant [bvFTD] and semantic dementia [SD]) as well as those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show deficits on tests of face emotion processing, yet the mechanisms underlying these deficits have rarely been explored. We compared groups of patients with bvFTD (n = 17), SD (n = 12) or AD (n = 20) to an age- and education-matched group of healthy control subjects (n = 36) on three face emotion processing tasks (Ekman 60, Emotion Matching and Emotion Selection) and found that all three patient groups were similarly impaired. Analyses of covariance employed to partial out the influences of language and perceptual impairments, which frequently co-occur in these patients, provided evidence of different underlying cognitive mechanisms. These analyses revealed that language impairments explained the original poor scores obtained by the SD patients on the Ekman 60 and Emotion Selection tasks, which involve verbal labels. Perceptual deficits contributed to Emotion Matching performance in the bvFTD and AD patients. Importantly, all groups remained impaired on one task or more following these analyses, denoting a primary emotion processing disturbance in these dementia syndromes. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of emotion processing deficits in patients with dementia.

The implicit processing of categorical and dimensional strategies: an fMRI study of facial emotion perception

PubMed Central

Matsuda, Yoshi-Taka; Fujimura, Tomomi; Katahira, Kentaro; Okada, Masato; Ueno, Kenichi; Cheng, Kang; Okanoya, Kazuo

2013-01-01

Our understanding of facial emotion perception has been dominated by two seemingly opposing theories: the categorical and dimensional theories. However, we have recently demonstrated that hybrid processing involving both categorical and dimensional perception can be induced in an implicit manner (Fujimura etal., 2012). The underlying neural mechanisms of this hybrid processing remain unknown. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that separate neural loci might intrinsically encode categorical and dimensional processing functions that serve as a basis for hybrid processing. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural correlates while subjects passively viewed emotional faces and performed tasks that were unrelated to facial emotion processing. Activity in the right fusiform face area (FFA) increased in response to psychologically obvious emotions and decreased in response to ambiguous expressions, demonstrating the role of the FFA in categorical processing. The amygdala, insula and medial prefrontal cortex exhibited evidence of dimensional (linear) processing that correlated with physical changes in the emotional face stimuli. The occipital face area and superior temporal sulcus did not respond to these changes in the presented stimuli. Our results indicated that distinct neural loci process the physical and psychological aspects of facial emotion perception in a region-specific and implicit manner. PMID:24133426

Social and attentional aspects of echolalia in highly echolalic mentally retarded persons.

PubMed

Campbell, B; Grieve, R

1978-01-01

Echolalia was examined in a sample of highly echolalic mentally retarded individuals. When presented with a standard set of questions, under conditions differing in appropriateness for exchange of discourse (e.g., questions presented with examiner and patient face-to-face vs. questions presented with the examiner's face averted vs. questions addressed towards another person sitting silently beside the patient), subjects' frequency of echolalia varied. Besides showing considerable sensitivity to aspects of discourse exchange, subjects exhibited some limited capacity for processing linguistic information.

Perceptual Biases in Processing Facial Identity and Emotion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coolican, Jamesie; Eskes, Gail A.; McMullen, Patricia A.; Lecky, Erin

2008-01-01

Normal observers demonstrate a bias to process the left sides of faces during perceptual judgments about identity or emotion. This effect suggests a right cerebral hemisphere processing bias. To test the role of the right hemisphere and the involvement of configural processing underlying this effect, young and older control observers and patients…

Review of multiple-choice-questions and group performance - A comparison of face-to-face and virtual groups with and without facilitation

PubMed Central

Kazubke, Edda; Schüttpelz-Brauns, Katrin

2010-01-01

Background: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are often used in exams of medical education and need careful quality management for example by the application of review committees. This study investigates whether groups communicating virtually by email are similar to face-to-face groups concerning their review process performance and whether a facilitator has positive effects. Methods: 16 small groups of students were examined, which had to evaluate and correct MCQs under four different conditions. In the second part of the investigation the changed questions were given to a new random sample for the judgement of the item quality. Results: There was no significant influence of the variables “form of review committee” and “facilitation”. However, face-to-face and virtual groups clearly differed in the required treatment times. The test condition “face to face without facilitation” was generally valued most positively concerning taking over responsibility, approach to work, sense of well-being, motivation and concentration on the task. Discussion: Face-to-face and virtual groups are equally effective in the review of MCQs but differ concerning their efficiency. The application of electronic review seems to be possible but is hardly recommendable because of the long process time and technical problems. PMID:21818213

Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Beall, Paula M; Moody, Eric J; McIntosh, Daniel N; Hepburn, Susan L; Reed, Catherine L

2008-11-01

Typical adults mimic facial expressions within 1000 ms, but adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs) are associated with the development of social-emotional abilities. Such interpersonal matching may be caused by motor mirroring or emotional responses. Using facial electromyography (EMG), this study evaluated mechanisms underlying RFRs during childhood and examined possible impairment in children with ASD. Experiment 1 found RFRs to happy and angry faces (not fear faces) in 15 typically developing children from 7 to 12 years of age. RFRs of fear (not anger) in response to angry faces indicated an emotional mechanism. In 11 children (8-13 years of age) with ASD, Experiment 2 found undifferentiated RFRs to fear expressions and no consistent RFRs to happy or angry faces. However, as children with ASD aged, matching RFRs to happy faces increased significantly, suggesting the development of processes underlying matching RFRs during this period in ASD.

Parallel approaches to composite production: interfaces that behave contrary to expectation.

PubMed

Frowd, Charlie D; Bruce, Vicki; Ness, Hayley; Bowie, Leslie; Paterson, Jenny; Thomson-Bogner, Claire; McIntyre, Alexander; Hancock, Peter J B

2007-04-01

This paper examines two facial composite systems that present multiple faces during construction to more closely resemble natural face processing. A 'parallel' version of PRO-fit was evaluated, which presents facial features in sets of six or twelve, and EvoFIT, a system in development, which contains a holistic face model and an evolutionary interface. The PRO-fit parallel interface turned out not to be quite as good as the 'serial' version as it appeared to interfere with holistic face processing. Composites from EvoFIT were named almost three times better than PRO-fit, but a benefit emerged under feature encoding, suggesting that recall has a greater role for EvoFIT than was previously thought. In general, an advantage was found for feature encoding, replicating a previous finding in this area, and also for a novel 'holistic' interview.

Navon letters affect face learning and face retrieval.

PubMed

Lewis, Michael B; Mills, Claire; Hills, Peter J; Weston, Nicola

2009-01-01

Identifying the local letters of a Navon letter (a large letter made up of smaller different letters) prior to recognition causes impairment in accuracy, while identifying the global letters of a Navon letter causes an enhancement in recognition accuracy (Macrae & Lewis, 2002). This effect may result from a transfer-inappropriate processing shift (TIPS) (Schooler, 2002). The present experiment extends research on the underlying mechanism of this effect by exploring this Navon effect on face learning as well as face recognition. The results of the two experiments revealed that when the Navon task used at retrieval was the same as that used at encoding then the performance accuracy is enhanced, whereas when the processing operations mismatch at retrieval and at encoding, this impairs recognition accuracy. These results provide support for the TIPS explanation of the Navon effect.

How does cognitive load influence speech perception? An encoding hypothesis.

PubMed

Mitterer, Holger; Mattys, Sven L

2017-01-01

Two experiments investigated the conditions under which cognitive load exerts an effect on the acuity of speech perception. These experiments extend earlier research by using a different speech perception task (four-interval oddity task) and by implementing cognitive load through a task often thought to be modular, namely, face processing. In the cognitive-load conditions, participants were required to remember two faces presented before the speech stimuli. In Experiment 1, performance in the speech-perception task under cognitive load was not impaired in comparison to a no-load baseline condition. In Experiment 2, we modified the load condition minimally such that it required encoding of the two faces simultaneously with the speech stimuli. As a reference condition, we also used a visual search task that in earlier experiments had led to poorer speech perception. Both concurrent tasks led to decrements in the speech task. The results suggest that speech perception is affected even by loads thought to be processed modularly, and that, critically, encoding in working memory might be the locus of interference.

Face processing in autism spectrum disorders: from brain regions to brain networks

PubMed Central

Nomi, Jason S.; Uddin, Lucina Q.

2015-01-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by reduced attention to social stimuli including the human face. This hypo-responsiveness to stimuli that are engaging to typically developing individuals may result from dysfunctioning motivation, reward, and attention systems in the brain. Here we review an emerging neuroimaging literature that emphasizes a shift from focusing on hypo-activation of isolated brain regions such as the fusiform gyrus, amygdala, and superior temporal sulcus in ASD to a more holistic approach to understanding face perception as a process supported by distributed cortical and subcortical brain networks. We summarize evidence for atypical activation patterns within brain networks that may contribute to social deficits characteristic of the disorder. We conclude by pointing to gaps in the literature and future directions that will continue to shed light on aspects of face processing in autism that are still under-examined. In particular, we highlight the need for more developmental studies and studies examining ecologically valid and naturalistic social stimuli. PMID:25829246

Alpha-band rhythm modulation under the condition of subliminal face presentation: MEG study.

PubMed

Sakuraba, Satoshi; Kobayashi, Hana; Sakai, Shinya; Yokosawa, Koichi

2013-01-01

The human brain has two streams to process visual information: a dorsal stream and a ventral stream. Negative potential N170 or its magnetic counterpart M170 is known as the face-specific signal originating from the ventral stream. It is possible to present a visual image unconsciously by using continuous flash suppression (CFS), which is a visual masking technique adopting binocular rivalry. In this work, magnetoencephalograms were recorded during presentation of the three invisible images: face images, which are processed by the ventral stream; tool images, which could be processed by the dorsal stream, and a blank image. Alpha-band activities detected by sensors that are sensitive to M170 were compared. The alpha-band rhythm was suppressed more during presentation of face images than during presentation of the blank image (p=.028). The suppression remained for about 1 s after ending presentations. However, no significant difference was observed between tool and other images. These results suggest that alpha-band rhythm can be modulated also by unconscious visual images.

Examining the effect of down regulation under high [CO2] on the growth of soybean assimilating a semi process-based model and FACE data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakurai, G.; Iizumi, T.; Yokozawa, M.

2011-12-01

The actual impact of elevated [CO2] with the interaction of the other climatic factors on the crop growth is still debated. In many process-based crop models, the response of photosynthesis per single leaf to environmental factors is basically described using the biochemical model of Farquhar et al. (1980). However, the decline in photosynthetic enhancement known as down regulation has not been taken into account. On the other hand, the mechanisms causing photosynthetic down regulation is still unknown, which makes it difficult to include the effect of down regulation into process-based crop models. The current results of Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments have reported the effect of down regulation under actual environments. One of the effective approaches to involve these results into future crop yield prediction is developing a semi process-based crop growth model, which includes the effect of photosynthetic down regulation as a statistical model, and assimilating the data obtained in FACE experiments. In this study, we statistically estimated the parameters of a semi process-based model for soybean growth ('SPM-soybean') using a hierarchical Baysian method with the FACE data on soybeans (Morgan et al. 2005). We also evaluated the effect of down regulation on the soybean yield in future climatic conditions. The model selection analysis showed that the effective correction to the overestimation of the Farquhar's biochemical C3 model was to reduce the maximum rate of carboxylation (Vcmax) under elevated [CO2]. However, interestingly, the difference in the estimated final crop yields between the corrected model and the non-corrected model was very slight (Fig.1a) for future projection under climate change scenario (Miroc-ESM). This was due to that the reduction in Vcmax also brought about the reduction of the base dark respiration rate of leaves. Because the dark respiration rate exponentially increases with temperature, the slight difference in base respiration rate becomes a large difference under high temperature under the future climate scenarios. In other words, if the temperature rise is very small or zero under elevated [CO2] condition, the effect of down regulation significantly appears (Fig.1b). This result suggest that further experimental data that considering high CO2 effect and high temperature effect in field conditions should be important and elaborate the model projection of the future crop yield through data assimilation method.

Early stages of figure-ground segregation during perception of the face-vase.

PubMed

Pitts, Michael A; Martínez, Antígona; Brewer, James B; Hillyard, Steven A

2011-04-01

The temporal sequence of neural processes supporting figure-ground perception was investigated by recording ERPs associated with subjects' perceptions of the face-vase figure. In Experiment 1, subjects continuously reported whether they perceived the face or the vase as the foreground figure by pressing one of two buttons. Each button press triggered a probe flash to the face region, the vase region, or the borders between the two. The N170/vertex positive potential (VPP) component of the ERP elicited by probes to the face region was larger when subjects perceived the faces as figure. Preceding the N170/VPP, two additional components were identified. First, when the borders were probed, ERPs differed in amplitude as early as 110 msec after probe onset depending on subjects' figure-ground perceptions. Second, when the face or vase regions were probed, ERPs were more positive (at ∼ 150-200 msec) when that region was perceived as figure versus background. These components likely reflect an early "border ownership" stage, and a subsequent "figure-ground segregation" stage of processing. To explore the influence of attention on these stages of processing, two additional experiments were conducted. In Experiment 2, subjects selectively attended to the face or vase region, and the same early ERP components were again produced. In Experiment 3, subjects performed an identical selective attention task, but on a display lacking distinctive figure-ground borders, and neither of the early components were produced. Results from these experiments suggest sequential stages of processing underlying figure-ground perception, each which are subject to modifications by selective attention.

Social anxiety under load: the effects of perceptual load in processing emotional faces.

PubMed

Soares, Sandra C; Rocha, Marta; Neiva, Tiago; Rodrigues, Paulo; Silva, Carlos F

2015-01-01

Previous studies in the social anxiety arena have shown an impaired attentional control system, similar to that found in trait anxiety. However, the effect of task demands on social anxiety in socially threatening stimuli, such as angry faces, remains unseen. In the present study, 54 university students scoring high and low in the Social Interaction and Performance Anxiety and Avoidance Scale (SIPAAS) questionnaire, participated in a target letter discrimination task while task-irrelevant face stimuli (angry, disgust, happy, and neutral) were simultaneously presented. The results showed that high (compared to low) socially anxious individuals were more prone to distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli, particularly under high perceptual load conditions. More importantly, for such individuals, the accuracy proportions for angry faces significantly differed between the low and high perceptual load conditions, which is discussed in light of current evolutionary models of social anxiety.

Altered saccadic targets when processing facial expressions under different attentional and stimulus conditions.

PubMed

Boutsen, Frank A; Dvorak, Justin D; Pulusu, Vinay K; Ross, Elliott D

2017-04-01

Depending on a subject's attentional bias, robust changes in emotional perception occur when facial blends (different emotions expressed on upper/lower face) are presented tachistoscopically. If no instructions are given, subjects overwhelmingly identify the lower facial expression when blends are presented to either visual field. If asked to attend to the upper face, subjects overwhelmingly identify the upper facial expression in the left visual field but remain slightly biased to the lower facial expression in the right visual field. The current investigation sought to determine whether differences in initial saccadic targets could help explain the perceptual biases described above. Ten subjects were presented with full and blend facial expressions under different attentional conditions. No saccadic differences were found for left versus right visual field presentations or for full facial versus blend stimuli. When asked to identify the presented emotion, saccades were directed to the lower face. When asked to attend to the upper face, saccades were directed to the upper face. When asked to attend to the upper face and try to identify the emotion, saccades were directed to the upper face but to a lesser degree. Thus, saccadic behavior supports the concept that there are cognitive-attentional pre-attunements when subjects visually process facial expressions. However, these pre-attunements do not fully explain the perceptual superiority of the left visual field for identifying the upper facial expression when facial blends are presented tachistoscopically. Hence other perceptual factors must be in play, such as the phenomenon of virtual scanning. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abnormal brain activation during threatening face processing in schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies.

PubMed

Dong, Debo; Wang, Yulin; Jia, Xiaoyan; Li, Yingjia; Chang, Xuebin; Vandekerckhove, Marie; Luo, Cheng; Yao, Dezhong

2017-11-15

Impairment of face perception in schizophrenia is a core aspect of social cognitive dysfunction. This impairment is particularly marked in threatening face processing. Identifying reliable neural correlates of the impairment of threatening face processing is crucial for targeting more effective treatments. However, neuroimaging studies have not yet obtained robust conclusions. Through comprehensive literature search, twenty-one whole brain datasets were included in this meta-analysis. Using seed-based d-Mapping, in this voxel-based meta-analysis, we aimed to: 1) establish the most consistent brain dysfunctions related to threating face processing in schizophrenia; 2) address task-type heterogeneity in this impairment; 3) explore the effect of potential demographic or clinical moderator variables on this impairment. Main meta-analysis indicated that patients with chronic schizophrenia demonstrated attenuated activations in limbic emotional system along with compensatory over-activation in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during threatening faces processing. Sub-task analyses revealed under-activations in right amygdala and left fusiform gyrus in both implicit and explicit tasks. The remaining clusters were found to be differently involved in different types of tasks. Moreover, meta-regression analyses showed brain abnormalities in schizophrenia were partly modulated by age, gender, medication and severity of symptoms. Our results highlighted breakdowns in limbic-MPFC circuit in schizophrenia, suggesting general inability to coordinate and contextualize salient threat stimuli. These findings provide potential targets for neurotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for schizophrenia. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of attention toward facial expressions on size perception.

PubMed

Choi, Jeong-Won; Kim, Kiho; Lee, Jang-Han

2016-01-01

According to the New Look theory, size perception is affected by emotional factors. Although previous studies have attempted to explain the effects of both emotion and motivation on size perception, they have failed to identify the underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of size perception by applying attention toward facial expressions using the Ebbinghaus illusion as a measurement tool. The participants, female university students, were asked to judge the size of a target stimulus relative to the size of facial expressions (i.e., happy, angry, and neutral) surrounding the target. The results revealed that the participants perceived angry and neutral faces to be larger than happy faces. This finding indicates that individuals pay closer attention to neutral and angry faces than happy ones. These results suggest that the mechanisms underlying size perception involve cognitive processes that focus attention toward relevant stimuli and block out irrelevant stimuli.

Processing of Fear and Anger Facial Expressions: The Role of Spatial Frequency

PubMed Central

Comfort, William E.; Wang, Meng; Benton, Christopher P.; Zana, Yossi

2013-01-01

Spatial frequency (SF) components encode a portion of the affective value expressed in face images. The aim of this study was to estimate the relative weight of specific frequency spectrum bandwidth on the discrimination of anger and fear facial expressions. The general paradigm was a classification of the expression of faces morphed at varying proportions between anger and fear images in which SF adaptation and SF subtraction are expected to shift classification of facial emotion. A series of three experiments was conducted. In Experiment 1 subjects classified morphed face images that were unfiltered or filtered to remove either low (<8 cycles/face), middle (12–28 cycles/face), or high (>32 cycles/face) SF components. In Experiment 2 subjects were adapted to unfiltered or filtered prototypical (non-morphed) fear face images and subsequently classified morphed face images. In Experiment 3 subjects were adapted to unfiltered or filtered prototypical fear face images with the phase component randomized before classifying morphed face images. Removing mid frequency components from the target images shifted classification toward fear. The same shift was observed under adaptation condition to unfiltered and low- and middle-range filtered fear images. However, when the phase spectrum of the same adaptation stimuli was randomized, no adaptation effect was observed. These results suggest that medium SF components support the perception of fear more than anger at both low and high level of processing. They also suggest that the effect at high-level processing stage is related more to high-level featural and/or configural information than to the low-level frequency spectrum. PMID:23637687

Facial protection conferred by cycle safety helmets: use of digitized image processing to develop a new nondestructive test.

PubMed

Harrison, M; Shepherd, J P

1997-07-01

Cycle safety helmets are designed to prevent head injury. Although most commercially available helmets conform to one of several national and international standards, individual designs differ widely, particularly in relation to face coverage. A method was developed to assess the potential for the differing designs to protect the face from injury. A nonimpact test was assessed, using digitized image-processing software (Digithurst Ltd.) to measure the shadow cast by a helmet rim under a collimated plane light source onto the face of a mannequin headform. Twelve helmet designs available internationally were tested and ranked with respect to the direct protection conferred (area of the face directly covered by the helmet) and indirect protection (area of the face shaded). The three highest-ranking helmets for direct protection (Rosebank Stackhat, Asphalt Warrior, and Lazer Voyager) also ranked the highest for indirect protection. These helmets were more inferiorly extended and were of a more bulky construction. It was concluded that the dimensions of cycle helmets in relation to face coverage are crucial in influencing the extent to which facial protection is conferred. International test standards need urgent revision to ensure that face coverage is optimized. Lower-face protection could be achieved through incorporation of a lower-face bar to cycle helmets.

Representations in learning new faces: evidence from prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Polster, M R; Rapcsak, S Z

1996-05-01

We report the performance of a prosopagnosic patient on face learning tasks under different encoding instructions (i.e., levels of processing manipulations). R.J. performs at chance when given no encoding instructions or when given "shallow" encoding instruction to focus on facial features. By contrast, he performs relatively well with "deep" encoding instructions to rate faces in terms of personality traits or when provided with semantic and name information during the study phase. We propose that the improvement associated with deep encoding instructions may be related to the establishment of distinct visually derived and identity-specific semantic codes. The benefit associated with deep encoding in R.J., however, was found to be restricted to the specific view of the face presented at study and did not generalize to other views of the same face. These observations suggest that deep encoding instructions may enhance memory for concrete or pictorial representations of faces in patients with prosopagnosia, but that these patients cannot compensate for the inability to construct abstract structural codes that normally allow faces to be recognized from different orientations. We postulate further that R.J.'s poor performance on face learning tasks may be attributable to excessive reliance on a feature-based left hemisphere face processing system that operates primarily on view-specific representations.

Emotional face processing in pediatric bipolar disorder: evidence for functional impairments in the fusiform gyrus.

PubMed

Perlman, Susan B; Fournier, Jay C; Bebko, Genna; Bertocci, Michele A; Hinze, Amanda K; Bonar, Lisa; Almeida, Jorge R C; Versace, Amelia; Schirda, Claudiu; Travis, Michael; Gill, Mary Kay; Demeter, Christine; Diwadkar, Vaibhav A; Sunshine, Jeffrey L; Holland, Scott K; Kowatch, Robert A; Birmaher, Boris; Axelson, David; Horwitz, Sarah M; Arnold, L Eugene; Fristad, Mary A; Youngstrom, Eric A; Findling, Robert L; Phillips, Mary L

2013-12-01

Pediatric bipolar disorder involves poor social functioning, but the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Previous neuroimaging studies have found deficits in emotional face processing localized to emotional brain regions. However, few studies have examined dysfunction in other regions of the face processing circuit. This study assessed hypoactivation in key face processing regions of the brain in pediatric bipolar disorder. Youth with a bipolar spectrum diagnosis (n = 20) were matched to a nonbipolar clinical group (n = 20), with similar demographics and comorbid diagnoses, and a healthy control group (n = 20). Youth participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning which employed a task-irrelevant emotion processing design in which processing of facial emotions was not germane to task performance. Hypoactivation, isolated to the fusiform gyrus, was found when viewing animated, emerging facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fearfulness, and especially anger in pediatric bipolar participants relative to matched clinical and healthy control groups. The results of the study imply that differences exist in visual regions of the brain's face processing system and are not solely isolated to emotional brain regions such as the amygdala. Findings are discussed in relation to facial emotion recognition and fusiform gyrus deficits previously reported in the autism literature. Behavioral interventions targeting attention to facial stimuli might be explored as possible treatments for bipolar disorder in youth. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Interindividual differences in stress sensitivity: basal and stress-induced cortisol levels differentially predict neural vigilance processing under stress

PubMed Central

Klumpers, Floris; Everaerd, Daphne; Kooijman, Sabine C.; van Wingen, Guido A.; Fernández, Guillén

2016-01-01

Stress exposure is known to precipitate psychological disorders. However, large differences exist in how individuals respond to stressful situations. A major marker for stress sensitivity is hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)-axis function. Here, we studied how interindividual variance in both basal cortisol levels and stress-induced cortisol responses predicts differences in neural vigilance processing during stress exposure. Implementing a randomized, counterbalanced, crossover design, 120 healthy male participants were exposed to a stress-induction and control procedure, followed by an emotional perception task (viewing fearful and happy faces) during fMRI scanning. Stress sensitivity was assessed using physiological (salivary cortisol levels) and psychological measures (trait questionnaires). High stress-induced cortisol responses were associated with increased stress sensitivity as assessed by psychological questionnaires, a stronger stress-induced increase in medial temporal activity and greater differential amygdala responses to fearful as opposed to happy faces under control conditions. In contrast, high basal cortisol levels were related to relative stress resilience as reflected by higher extraversion scores, a lower stress-induced increase in amygdala activity and enhanced differential processing of fearful compared with happy faces under stress. These findings seem to reflect a critical role for HPA-axis signaling in stress coping; higher basal levels indicate stress resilience, whereas higher cortisol responsivity to stress might facilitate recovery in those individuals prone to react sensitively to stress. PMID:26668010

Unidirectional adaptation in tempo in pairs of chimpanzees during simultaneous tapping movement: an examination under face-to-face setup.

PubMed

Yu, Lira; Tomonaga, Masaki

2016-04-01

Many studies have reported a spontaneous nature to synchronized movement in humans and in non-human primates. However, it is not yet clear whether individuals mutually adapt their movement to each other or whether one individual significantly changes to synchronize with the other. In the current study, we examined a directionality of the tempo adaptation to understand an introductive process of interactional synchrony in pairs of chimpanzees. Four pairs, consisting of five female chimpanzees, produced a finger-tapping movement under a face-to-face experimental setup where both auditory and visual cues of the partner's movement were available. Two test conditions were prepared: alone and paired. An analysis of the tapping tempo depending on condition showed that only one chimpanzee in each pair significantly changed their tapping tempo in the direction of the partner's tapping tempo in the paired condition compared with the alone condition. The current study demonstrated that unidirectional adaptation in tempo occurs in pairs of chimpanzees when they simultaneously produce the tapping movement under auditory and visual interaction.

Orienting and maintenance of attention to threatening facial expressions in anxiety--an eye movement study.

PubMed

Holas, Pawel; Krejtz, Izabela; Cypryanska, Marzena; Nezlek, John B

2014-12-15

Cognitive models posit that anxiety disorders stem in part from underlying attentional biases to threat. Consistent with this, studies have found that the attentional bias to threat-related stimuli is greater in high vs. low anxious individuals. Nevertheless, it is not clear if similar biases exist for different threatening emotions or for any facial emotional stimulus. In the present study, we used eye-tracking to measure orienting and maintenance of attention to faces displaying anger, fear and disgust as threats, and faces displaying happiness and sadness. Using a free viewing task, we examined differences between low and high trait anxious (HTA) individuals in the attention they paid to each of these emotional faces (paired with a neutral face). We found that initial orienting was faster for angry and happy faces, and high trait anxious participants were more vigilant to fearful and disgust faces. Our results for attentional maintenance were not consistent. The results of the present study suggest that attentional processes may be more emotion-specific than previously believed. Our results suggest that attentional processes for different threatening emotions may not be the same and that attentional processes for some negative and some positive emotions may be similar. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Pre-Experimental Knowledge on Recognition Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bird, Chris M.; Davies, Rachel A.; Ward, Jamie; Burgess, Neil

2011-01-01

The influence of pre-experimental autobiographical knowledge on recognition memory was investigated using as memoranda faces that were either personally known or unknown to the participant. Under a dual process theory, such knowledge boosted both recollection- and familiarity-based recognition judgements. Under an unequal variance signal detection…

Revisiting the earliest electrophysiological correlate of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Huang, Wanyi; Wu, Xia; Hu, Liping; Wang, Lei; Ding, Yulong; Qu, Zhe

2017-10-01

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to reinvestigate the earliest face familiarity effect (FFE: ERP differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces) that genuinely reflects cognitive processes underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. To trigger relatively early FFEs, participants were required to categorize upright and inverted famous faces and unknown faces in a task that placed high demand on face recognition. More importantly, to determine whether an observed FFE was linked to on-line face recognition, systematical investigation about the relationship between the FFE and behavioral performance of face recognition was conducted. The results showed significant FFEs on P1, N170, N250, and P300 waves. The FFEs on occipital P1 and N170 (<200ms) showed reversed polarities for upright and inverted faces, and were not correlated with any behavioral measure (accuracy, response time) or modulated by learning, indicating that they might merely reflect low-level visual differences between face sets. In contrast, the later FFEs on occipito-temporal N250 (~230ms) and centro-parietal P300 (~350ms) showed consistent polarities for upright and inverted faces. The N250 FFE was individually correlated with recognition speed for upright faces, and could be obtained for inverted faces through learning. The P300 FFE was also related to behavior in many aspects. These findings provide novel evidence supporting that cognitive discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar faces starts no less than 200ms after stimulus onset, and the familiarity effect on N250 may be the first electrophysiological correlate underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Altered topology of neural circuits in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Gideon; Tanzer, Michal; Simony, Erez; Hasson, Uri; Behrmann, Marlene; Avidan, Galia

2017-08-21

Using a novel, fMRI-based inter-subject functional correlation (ISFC) approach, which isolates stimulus-locked inter-regional correlation patterns, we compared the cortical topology of the neural circuit for face processing in participants with an impairment in face recognition, congenital prosopagnosia (CP), and matched controls. Whereas the anterior temporal lobe served as the major network hub for face processing in controls, this was not the case for the CPs. Instead, this group evinced hyper-connectivity in posterior regions of the visual cortex, mostly associated with the lateral occipital and the inferior temporal cortices. Moreover, the extent of this hyper-connectivity was correlated with the face recognition deficit. These results offer new insights into the perturbed cortical topology in CP, which may serve as the underlying neural basis of the behavioral deficits typical of this disorder. The approach adopted here has the potential to uncover altered topologies in other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well.

What the Human Brain Likes About Facial Motion

PubMed Central

Schultz, Johannes; Brockhaus, Matthias; Bülthoff, Heinrich H.; Pilz, Karin S.

2013-01-01

Facial motion carries essential information about other people's emotions and intentions. Most previous studies have suggested that facial motion is mainly processed in the superior temporal sulcus (STS), but several recent studies have also shown involvement of ventral temporal face-sensitive regions. Up to now, it is not known whether the increased response to facial motion is due to an increased amount of static information in the stimulus, to the deformation of the face over time, or to increased attentional demands. We presented nonrigidly moving faces and control stimuli to participants performing a demanding task unrelated to the face stimuli. We manipulated the amount of static information by using movies with different frame rates. The fluidity of the motion was manipulated by presenting movies with frames either in the order in which they were recorded or in scrambled order. Results confirm higher activation for moving compared with static faces in STS and under certain conditions in ventral temporal face-sensitive regions. Activation was maximal at a frame rate of 12.5 Hz and smaller for scrambled movies. These results indicate that both the amount of static information and the fluid facial motion per se are important factors for the processing of dynamic faces. PMID:22535907

A special purpose knowledge-based face localization method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassanat, Ahmad; Jassim, Sabah

2008-04-01

This paper is concerned with face localization for visual speech recognition (VSR) system. Face detection and localization have got a great deal of attention in the last few years, because it is an essential pre-processing step in many techniques that handle or deal with faces, (e.g. age, face, gender, race and visual speech recognition). We shall present an efficient method for localization human's faces in video images captured on mobile constrained devices, under a wide variation in lighting conditions. We use a multiphase method that may include all or some of the following steps starting with image pre-processing, followed by a special purpose edge detection, then an image refinement step. The output image will be passed through a discrete wavelet decomposition procedure, and the computed LL sub-band at a certain level will be transformed into a binary image that will be scanned by using a special template to select a number of possible candidate locations. Finally, we fuse the scores from the wavelet step with scores determined by color information for the candidate location and employ a form of fuzzy logic to distinguish face from non-face locations. We shall present results of large number of experiments to demonstrate that the proposed face localization method is efficient and achieve high level of accuracy that outperforms existing general-purpose face detection methods.

Searching for differences in race: is there evidence for preferential detection of other-race faces?

PubMed

Lipp, Ottmar V; Terry, Deborah J; Smith, Joanne R; Tellegen, Cassandra L; Kuebbeler, Jennifer; Newey, Mareka

2009-06-01

Previous research has suggested that like animal and social fear-relevant stimuli, other-race faces (African American) are detected preferentially in visual search. Three experiments using Chinese or Indonesian faces as other-race faces yielded the opposite pattern of results: faster detection of same-race faces among other-race faces. This apparently inconsistent pattern of results was resolved by showing that Asian and African American faces are detected preferentially in tasks that have small stimulus sets and employ fixed target searches. Asian and African American other-race faces are found slower among Caucasian face backgrounds if larger stimulus sets are used in tasks with a variable mapping of stimulus to background or target. Thus, preferential detection of other-race faces was not found under task conditions in which preferential detection of animal and social fear-relevant stimuli is evident. Although consistent with the view that same-race faces are processed in more detail than other-race faces, the current findings suggest that other-race faces do not draw attention preferentially.

Effects of Acute Alcohol Consumption on the Processing of Emotion in Faces: Implications for Understanding Alcohol-Related Aggression

PubMed Central

Attwood, Angela S.; Munafò, Marcus R.

2016-01-01

The negative consequences of chronic alcohol abuse are well known, but heavy episodic consumption ("binge drinking") is also associated with significant personal and societal harms. Aggressive tendencies are increased after alcohol but the mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully understood. While effects on behavioural control are likely to be important, other effects may be involved given the widespread action of alcohol. Altered processing of social signals is associated with changes in social behaviours, including aggression, but until recently there has been little research investigating the effects of acute alcohol consumption on these outcomes. Recent work investigating the effects of acute alcohol on emotional face processing has suggested reduced sensitivity to submissive signals (sad faces) and increased perceptual bias towards provocative signals (angry faces) after alcohol consumption, which may play a role in alcohol-related aggression. Here we discuss a putative mechanism that may explain how alcohol consumption influences emotional processing and subsequent aggressive responding, via disruption of OFC-amygdala connectivity. While the importance of emotional processing on social behaviours is well established, research into acute alcohol consumption and emotional processing is still in its infancy. Further research is needed and we outline a research agenda to address gaps in the literature. PMID:24920135

Fixation to features and neural processing of facial expressions in a gender discrimination task

PubMed Central

Neath, Karly N.; Itier, Roxane J.

2017-01-01

Early face encoding, as reflected by the N170 ERP component, is sensitive to fixation to the eyes. Whether this sensitivity varies with facial expressions of emotion and can also be seen on other ERP components such as P1 and EPN, was investigated. Using eye-tracking to manipulate fixation on facial features, we found the N170 to be the only eye-sensitive component and this was true for fearful, happy and neutral faces. A different effect of fixation to features was seen for the earlier P1 that likely reflected general sensitivity to face position. An early effect of emotion (~120 ms) for happy faces was seen at occipital sites and was sustained until ~350 ms post-stimulus. For fearful faces, an early effect was seen around 80 ms followed by a later effect appearing at ~150 ms until ~300 ms at lateral posterior sites. Results suggests that in this emotion-irrelevant gender discrimination task, processing of fearful and happy expressions occurred early and largely independently of the eye-sensitivity indexed by the N170. Processing of the two emotions involved different underlying brain networks active at different times. PMID:26277653

Pretreatment Differences in BOLD Response to Emotional Faces Correlate with Antidepressant Response to Scopolamine.

PubMed

Furey, Maura L; Drevets, Wayne C; Szczepanik, Joanna; Khanna, Ashish; Nugent, Allison; Zarate, Carlos A

2015-03-28

Faster acting antidepressants and biomarkers that predict treatment response are needed to facilitate the development of more effective treatments for patients with major depressive disorders. Here, we evaluate implicitly and explicitly processed emotional faces using neuroimaging to identify potential biomarkers of treatment response to the antimuscarinic, scopolamine. Healthy participants (n=15) and unmedicated-depressed major depressive disorder patients (n=16) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover infusion study using scopolamine (4 μg/kg). Before and following scopolamine, blood oxygen-level dependent signal was measured using functional MRI during a selective attention task. Two stimuli comprised of superimposed pictures of faces and houses were presented. Participants attended to one stimulus component and performed a matching task. Face emotion was modulated (happy/sad) creating implicit (attend-houses) and explicit (attend-faces) emotion processing conditions. The pretreatment difference in blood oxygen-level dependent response to happy and sad faces under implicit and explicit conditions (emotion processing biases) within a-priori regions of interest was correlated with subsequent treatment response in major depressive disorder. Correlations were observed exclusively during implicit emotion processing in the regions of interest, which included the subgenual anterior cingulate (P<.02) and middle occipital cortices (P<.02). The magnitude and direction of differential blood oxygen-level- dependent response to implicitly processed emotional faces prior to treatment reflect the potential to respond to scopolamine. These findings replicate earlier results, highlighting the potential for pretreatment neural activity in the middle occipital cortices and subgenual anterior cingulate to inform us about the potential to respond clinically to scopolamine. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CINP 2015. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

The Facespan-the perceptual span for face recognition.

PubMed

Papinutto, Michael; Lao, Junpeng; Ramon, Meike; Caldara, Roberto; Miellet, Sébastien

2017-05-01

In reading, the perceptual span is a well-established concept that refers to the amount of information that can be read in a single fixation. Surprisingly, despite extensive empirical interest in determining the perceptual strategies deployed to process faces and an ongoing debate regarding the factors or mechanism(s) underlying efficient face processing, the perceptual span for faces-the Facespan-remains undetermined. To address this issue, we applied the gaze-contingent Spotlight technique implemented in an old-new face recognition paradigm. This procedure allowed us to parametrically vary the amount of facial information available at a fixated location in order to determine the minimal aperture size at which face recognition performance plateaus. As expected, accuracy increased nonlinearly with spotlight size apertures. Analyses of Structural Similarity comparing the available information during spotlight and natural viewing conditions indicate that the Facespan-the minimum spatial extent of preserved facial information leading to comparable performance as in natural viewing-encompasses 7° of visual angle in our viewing conditions (size of the face stimulus: 15.6°; viewing distance: 70 cm), which represents 45% of the face. The present findings provide a benchmark for future investigations that will address if and how the Facespan is modulated by factors such as cultural, developmental, idiosyncratic, or task-related differences.

5 CFR 838.1121 - Procedures and requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) COURT ORDERS AFFECTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS Court Orders Under the Child Abuse... requirements applicable to legal process under part 581 of this chapter apply to OPM's administration of child... 581 of this chapter that appears valid on its face. (2)(i) After OPM has determined that a child abuse...

Investigation of directionally solidified InGaSb ternary alloys from Ga and Sb faces of GaSb(111) under prolonged microgravity at the International Space Station

PubMed Central

Nirmal Kumar, Velu; Arivanandhan, Mukannan; Rajesh, Govindasamy; Koyama, Tadanobu; Momose, Yoshimi; Sakata, Kaoruho; Ozawa, Tetsuo; Okano, Yasunori; Inatomi, Yuko; Hayakawa, Yasuhiro

2016-01-01

InGaSb ternary alloys were grown from GaSb (111)A and B faces (Ga and Sb faces) under microgravity conditions on board the International Space Station by a vertical gradient freezing method. The dissolution process of the Ga and Sb faces of GaSb and orientation-dependent growth properties of InGaSb were analysed. The dissolution of GaSb(111)B was greater than that of (111)A, which was found from the remaining undissolved seed and feed crystals. The higher dissolution of the Sb face was explained based on the number of atoms at that face, and its bonding with the next atomic layer. The growth interface shape was almost flat in both cases. The indium composition in both InGaSb samples was uniform in the radial direction and it gradually decreased along the growth direction because of segregation. The growth rate of InGaSb from GaSb (111)B was found to be higher than that of GaSb (111)A because of the higher dissolution of GaSb (111)B. PMID:28725736

Investigation of directionally solidified InGaSb ternary alloys from Ga and Sb faces of GaSb(111) under prolonged microgravity at the International Space Station.

PubMed

Nirmal Kumar, Velu; Arivanandhan, Mukannan; Rajesh, Govindasamy; Koyama, Tadanobu; Momose, Yoshimi; Sakata, Kaoruho; Ozawa, Tetsuo; Okano, Yasunori; Inatomi, Yuko; Hayakawa, Yasuhiro

2016-01-01

InGaSb ternary alloys were grown from GaSb (111)A and B faces (Ga and Sb faces) under microgravity conditions on board the International Space Station by a vertical gradient freezing method. The dissolution process of the Ga and Sb faces of GaSb and orientation-dependent growth properties of InGaSb were analysed. The dissolution of GaSb(111)B was greater than that of (111)A, which was found from the remaining undissolved seed and feed crystals. The higher dissolution of the Sb face was explained based on the number of atoms at that face, and its bonding with the next atomic layer. The growth interface shape was almost flat in both cases. The indium composition in both InGaSb samples was uniform in the radial direction and it gradually decreased along the growth direction because of segregation. The growth rate of InGaSb from GaSb (111)B was found to be higher than that of GaSb (111)A because of the higher dissolution of GaSb (111)B.

High-accuracy and robust face recognition system based on optical parallel correlator using a temporal image sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, Eriko; Ishikawa, Mami; Ohta, Maiko; Kodate, Kashiko

2005-09-01

Face recognition is used in a wide range of security systems, such as monitoring credit card use, searching for individuals with street cameras via Internet and maintaining immigration control. There are still many technical subjects under study. For instance, the number of images that can be stored is limited under the current system, and the rate of recognition must be improved to account for photo shots taken at different angles under various conditions. We implemented a fully automatic Fast Face Recognition Optical Correlator (FARCO) system by using a 1000 frame/s optical parallel correlator designed and assembled by us. Operational speed for the 1: N (i.e. matching a pair of images among N, where N refers to the number of images in the database) identification experiment (4000 face images) amounts to less than 1.5 seconds, including the pre/post processing. From trial 1: N identification experiments using FARCO, we acquired low error rates of 2.6% False Reject Rate and 1.3% False Accept Rate. By making the most of the high-speed data-processing capability of this system, much more robustness can be achieved for various recognition conditions when large-category data are registered for a single person. We propose a face recognition algorithm for the FARCO while employing a temporal image sequence of moving images. Applying this algorithm to a natural posture, a two times higher recognition rate scored compared with our conventional system. The system has high potential for future use in a variety of purposes such as search for criminal suspects by use of street and airport video cameras, registration of babies at hospitals or handling of an immeasurable number of images in a database.

Time course of implicit processing and explicit processing of emotional faces and emotional words.

PubMed

Frühholz, Sascha; Jellinghaus, Anne; Herrmann, Manfred

2011-05-01

Facial expressions are important emotional stimuli during social interactions. Symbolic emotional cues, such as affective words, also convey information regarding emotions that is relevant for social communication. Various studies have demonstrated fast decoding of emotions from words, as was shown for faces, whereas others report a rather delayed decoding of information about emotions from words. Here, we introduced an implicit (color naming) and explicit task (emotion judgment) with facial expressions and words, both containing information about emotions, to directly compare the time course of emotion processing using event-related potentials (ERP). The data show that only negative faces affected task performance, resulting in increased error rates compared to neutral faces. Presentation of emotional faces resulted in a modulation of the N170, the EPN and the LPP components and these modulations were found during both the explicit and implicit tasks. Emotional words only affected the EPN during the explicit task, but a task-independent effect on the LPP was revealed. Finally, emotional faces modulated source activity in the extrastriate cortex underlying the generation of the N170, EPN and LPP components. Emotional words led to a modulation of source activity corresponding to the EPN and LPP, but they also affected the N170 source on the right hemisphere. These data show that facial expressions affect earlier stages of emotion processing compared to emotional words, but the emotional value of words may have been detected at early stages of emotional processing in the visual cortex, as was indicated by the extrastriate source activity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social Groups Prioritize Selective Attention to Faces: How Social Identity Shapes Distractor Interference

PubMed Central

Hill, LaBarron K.; Williams, DeWayne P.; Thayer, Julian F.

2016-01-01

Human faces automatically attract visual attention and this process appears to be guided by social group memberships. In two experiments, we examined how social groups guide selective attention toward in-group and out-group faces. Black and White participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on faces (Experiment 1). White participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (Black) compared to in-group (White) distractor faces. Likewise, Black participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (White) compared to in-group (Black) distractor faces. However, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load—when the task was visually difficult. To examine the malleability of this pattern of racial bias, a separate sample of participants were assigned to mixed-race minimal groups (Experiment 2). Participants assigned to groups were less accurate on trials with their minimal in-group members compared to minimal out-group distractor faces, regardless of race. Again, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load. Taken together, these results suggest that social identity guides selective attention toward motivationally relevant social groups—shifting from out-group bias in the domain of race to in-group bias in the domain of minimal groups—when perceptual resources are scarce. PMID:27556646

Norm-based coding of facial identity in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Walsh, Jennifer A; Maurer, Daphne; Vida, Mark D; Rhodes, Gillian; Jeffery, Linda; Rutherford, M D

2015-03-01

It is unclear whether reported deficits in face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be explained by deficits in perceptual face coding mechanisms. In the current study, we examined whether adults with ASD showed evidence of norm-based opponent coding of facial identity, a perceptual process underlying the recognition of facial identity in typical adults. We began with an original face and an averaged face and then created an anti-face that differed from the averaged face in the opposite direction from the original face by a small amount (near adaptor) or a large amount (far adaptor). To test for norm-based coding, we adapted participants on different trials to the near versus far adaptor, then asked them to judge the identity of the averaged face. We varied the size of the test and adapting faces in order to reduce any contribution of low-level adaptation. Consistent with the predictions of norm-based coding, high functioning adults with ASD (n = 27) and matched typical participants (n = 28) showed identity aftereffects that were larger for the far than near adaptor. Unlike results with children with ASD, the strength of the aftereffects were similar in the two groups. This is the first study to demonstrate norm-based coding of facial identity in adults with ASD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face-Name Association Learning and Brain Structural Substrates in Alcoholism

PubMed Central

Pitel, Anne-Lise; Chanraud, Sandra; Rohlfing, Torsten; Pfefferbaum, Adolf; Sullivan, Edith V.

2011-01-01

Background Associative learning is required for face-name association and is impaired in alcoholism, but the cognitive processes and brain structural components underlying this deficit remain unclear. It is also unknown whether prompting alcoholics to implement a deep level of processing during face-name encoding would enhance performance. Methods Abstinent alcoholics and controls performed a levels-of-processing face-name learning task. Participants indicated whether the face was that of an honest person (deep encoding) or that of a man (shallow encoding). Retrieval was examined using an associative (face-name) recognition task and a single-item (face or name only) recognition task. Participants also underwent a 3T structural MRI. Results Compared with controls, alcoholics had poorer associative and single-item recognition, each impaired to the same extent. Level of processing at encoding had little effect on recognition performance but affected reaction time. Correlations with brain volumes were generally modest and based primarily on reaction time in alcoholics, where the deeper the processing at encoding, the more restricted the correlations with brain volumes. In alcoholics, longer control task reaction times correlated modestly with volumes across several anterior to posterior brain regions; shallow encoding correlated with calcarine and striatal volumes; deep encoding correlated with precuneus and parietal volumes; associative recognition RT correlated with cerebellar volumes. In controls, poorer associative recognition with deep encoding correlated significantly with smaller volumes of frontal and striatal structures. Conclusions Despite prompting, alcoholics did not take advantage of encoding memoranda at a deep level to enhance face-name recognition accuracy. Nonetheless, conditions of deeper encoding resulted in faster reaction times and more specific relations with regional brain volumes than did shallow encoding. The normal relation between associative recognition and corticostriatal volumes was not present in alcoholics. Rather, their speeded reaction time occurred at the expense of accuracy and was related most robustly to cerebellar volumes. PMID:22509954

Face-name association learning and brain structural substrates in alcoholism.

PubMed

Pitel, Anne-Lise; Chanraud, Sandra; Rohlfing, Torsten; Pfefferbaum, Adolf; Sullivan, Edith V

2012-07-01

Associative learning is required for face-name association and is impaired in alcoholism, but the cognitive processes and brain structural components underlying this deficit remain unclear. It is also unknown whether prompting alcoholics to implement a deep level of processing during face-name encoding would enhance performance. Abstinent alcoholics and controls performed a levels-of-processing face-name learning task. Participants indicated whether the face was that of an honest person (deep encoding) or that of a man (shallow encoding). Retrieval was examined using an associative (face-name) recognition task and a single-item (face or name only) recognition task. Participants also underwent 3T structural MRI. Compared with controls, alcoholics had poorer associative and single-item learning and performed at similar levels. Level of processing at encoding had little effect on recognition performance but affected reaction time (RT). Correlations with brain volumes were generally modest and based primarily on RT in alcoholics, where the deeper the processing at encoding, the more restricted the correlations with brain volumes. In alcoholics, longer control task RTs correlated modestly with smaller tissue volumes across several anterior to posterior brain regions; shallow encoding correlated with calcarine and striatal volumes; deep encoding correlated with precuneus and parietal volumes; and associative recognition RT correlated with cerebellar volumes. In controls, poorer associative recognition with deep encoding correlated significantly with smaller volumes of frontal and striatal structures. Despite prompting, alcoholics did not take advantage of encoding memoranda at a deep level to enhance face-name recognition accuracy. Nonetheless, conditions of deeper encoding resulted in faster RTs and more specific relations with regional brain volumes than did shallow encoding. The normal relation between associative recognition and corticostriatal volumes was not present in alcoholics. Rather, their speeded RTs occurred at the expense of accuracy and were related most robustly to cerebellar volumes. Copyright © 2012 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Following the time course of face gender and expression processing: a task-dependent ERP study.

PubMed

Valdés-Conroy, Berenice; Aguado, Luis; Fernández-Cahill, María; Romero-Ferreiro, Verónica; Diéguez-Risco, Teresa

2014-05-01

The effects of task demands and the interaction between gender and expression in face perception were studied using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants performed three different tasks with male and female faces that were emotionally inexpressive or that showed happy or angry expressions. In two of the tasks (gender and expression categorization) facial properties were task-relevant while in a third task (symbol discrimination) facial information was irrelevant. Effects of expression were observed on the visual P100 component under all task conditions, suggesting the operation of an automatic process that is not influenced by task demands. The earliest interaction between expression and gender was observed later in the face-sensitive N170 component. This component showed differential modulations by specific combinations of gender and expression (e.g., angry male vs. angry female faces). Main effects of expression and task were observed in a later occipito-temporal component peaking around 230 ms post-stimulus onset (EPN or early posterior negativity). Less positive amplitudes in the presence of angry faces and during performance of the gender and expression tasks were observed. Finally, task demands also modulated a positive component peaking around 400 ms (LPC, or late positive complex) that showed enhanced amplitude for the gender task. The pattern of results obtained here adds new evidence about the sequence of operations involved in face processing and the interaction of facial properties (gender and expression) in response to different task demands. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Subliminal Perception of Facial Expressions in Individuals with Autistic Traits: A Backward Masking Study

PubMed Central

Vukusic, Svjetlana; Ciorciari, Joseph; Crewther, David P.

2017-01-01

People with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show difficulty in social communication, especially in the rapid assessment of emotion in faces. This study examined the processing of emotional faces in typically developing adults with high and low levels of autistic traits (measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient—AQ). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during viewing of backward-masked neutral, fearful and happy faces presented under two conditions: subliminal (16 ms, below the level of visual conscious awareness) and supraliminal (166 ms, above the time required for visual conscious awareness). Individuals with low and high AQ differed in the processing of subliminal faces, with the low AQ group showing an enhanced N2 amplitude for subliminal happy faces. Some group differences were found in the condition effects, with the Low AQ showing shorter frontal P3b and N4 latencies for subliminal vs. supraliminal condition. Although results did not show any group differences on the face-specific N170 component, there were shorter N170 latencies for supraliminal vs. subliminal conditions across groups. The results observed on the N2, showing group differences in subliminal emotion processing, suggest that decreased sensitivity to the reward value of social stimuli is a common feature both of people with ASD as well as people with high autistic traits from the normal population. PMID:28588465

Electrophysiological Correlates of Subliminal Perception of Facial Expressions in Individuals with Autistic Traits: A Backward Masking Study.

PubMed

Vukusic, Svjetlana; Ciorciari, Joseph; Crewther, David P

2017-01-01

People with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show difficulty in social communication, especially in the rapid assessment of emotion in faces. This study examined the processing of emotional faces in typically developing adults with high and low levels of autistic traits (measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient-AQ). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during viewing of backward-masked neutral, fearful and happy faces presented under two conditions: subliminal (16 ms, below the level of visual conscious awareness) and supraliminal (166 ms, above the time required for visual conscious awareness). Individuals with low and high AQ differed in the processing of subliminal faces, with the low AQ group showing an enhanced N2 amplitude for subliminal happy faces. Some group differences were found in the condition effects, with the Low AQ showing shorter frontal P3b and N4 latencies for subliminal vs. supraliminal condition. Although results did not show any group differences on the face-specific N170 component, there were shorter N170 latencies for supraliminal vs. subliminal conditions across groups. The results observed on the N2, showing group differences in subliminal emotion processing, suggest that decreased sensitivity to the reward value of social stimuli is a common feature both of people with ASD as well as people with high autistic traits from the normal population.

No childhood development of viewpoint-invariant face recognition: evidence from 8-year-olds and adults.

PubMed

Crookes, Kate; Robbins, Rachel A

2014-10-01

Performance on laboratory face tasks improves across childhood, not reaching adult levels until adolescence. Debate surrounds the source of this development, with recent reviews suggesting that underlying face processing mechanisms are mature early in childhood and that the improvement seen on experimental tasks instead results from general cognitive/perceptual development. One face processing mechanism that has been argued to develop slowly is the ability to encode faces in a view-invariant manner (i.e., allowing recognition across changes in viewpoint). However, many previous studies have not controlled for general cognitive factors. In the current study, 8-year-olds and adults performed a recognition memory task with two study-test viewpoint conditions: same view (study front view, test front view) and change view (study front view, test three-quarter view). To allow quantitative comparison between children and adults, performance in the same view condition was matched across the groups by increasing the learning set size for adults. Results showed poorer memory in the change view condition than in the same view condition for both adults and children. Importantly, there was no quantitative difference between children and adults in the size of decrement in memory performance resulting from a change in viewpoint. This finding adds to growing evidence that face processing mechanisms are mature early in childhood. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Interindividual differences in stress sensitivity: basal and stress-induced cortisol levels differentially predict neural vigilance processing under stress.

PubMed

Henckens, Marloes J A G; Klumpers, Floris; Everaerd, Daphne; Kooijman, Sabine C; van Wingen, Guido A; Fernández, Guillén

2016-04-01

Stress exposure is known to precipitate psychological disorders. However, large differences exist in how individuals respond to stressful situations. A major marker for stress sensitivity is hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis function. Here, we studied how interindividual variance in both basal cortisol levels and stress-induced cortisol responses predicts differences in neural vigilance processing during stress exposure. Implementing a randomized, counterbalanced, crossover design, 120 healthy male participants were exposed to a stress-induction and control procedure, followed by an emotional perception task (viewing fearful and happy faces) during fMRI scanning. Stress sensitivity was assessed using physiological (salivary cortisol levels) and psychological measures (trait questionnaires). High stress-induced cortisol responses were associated with increased stress sensitivity as assessed by psychological questionnaires, a stronger stress-induced increase in medial temporal activity and greater differential amygdala responses to fearful as opposed to happy faces under control conditions. In contrast, high basal cortisol levels were related to relative stress resilience as reflected by higher extraversion scores, a lower stress-induced increase in amygdala activity and enhanced differential processing of fearful compared with happy faces under stress. These findings seem to reflect a critical role for HPA-axis signaling in stress coping; higher basal levels indicate stress resilience, whereas higher cortisol responsivity to stress might facilitate recovery in those individuals prone to react sensitively to stress. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Intrinsic functional connectivity underlying successful emotion regulation of angry faces

PubMed Central

Morawetz, Carmen; Kellermann, Tanja; Kogler, Lydia; Radke, Sina; Blechert, Jens; Derntl, Birgit

2016-01-01

Most of our social interaction is naturally based on emotional information derived from the perception of faces of other people. Negative facial expressions of a counterpart might trigger negative emotions and initiate emotion regulatory efforts to reduce the impact of the received emotional message in a perceiver. Despite the high adaptive value of emotion regulation in social interaction, the neural underpinnings of it are largely unknown. To remedy this, this study investigated individual differences in emotion regulation effectiveness during the reappraisal of angry faces on the underlying functional activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as well as the underlying functional connectivity using resting-state fMRI. Greater emotion regulation ability was associated with greater functional activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, greater functional coupling between activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the amygdala was associated with emotion regulation success. Our findings provide a first link between prefrontal cognitive control and subcortical emotion processing systems during successful emotion regulation in an explicitly social context. PMID:27510495

Effects on automatic attention due to exposure to pictures of emotional faces while performing Chinese word judgment tasks.

PubMed

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.

Effects on Automatic Attention Due to Exposure to Pictures of Emotional Faces while Performing Chinese Word Judgment Tasks

PubMed Central

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition. PMID:24124486

Amygdala and whole-brain activity to emotional faces distinguishes major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Fournier, Jay C; Keener, Matthew T; Almeida, Jorge; Kronhaus, Dina M; Phillips, Mary L

2013-11-01

It can be clinically difficult to distinguish depressed individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). To examine potential biomarkers of difference between the two disorders, the current study examined differences in the functioning of emotion-processing neural regions during a dynamic emotional faces task. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, healthy control adults (HC) (n = 29) and depressed adults with MDD (n = 30) and BD (n = 22) performed an implicit emotional-faces task in which they identified a color label superimposed on neutral faces that dynamically morphed into one of four emotional faces (angry, fearful, sad, happy). We compared neural activation between the groups in an amygdala region-of-interest and at the whole-brain level. Adults with MDD showed significantly greater activity than adults with BD in the left amygdala to the anger condition (p = 0.01). Results of whole-brain analyses (at p < 0.005, k ≥ 20) revealed that adults with BD showed greater activity to sad faces in temporoparietal regions, primarily in the left hemisphere, whereas individuals with MDD demonstrated greater activity than those with BD to displays of anger, fear, and happiness. Many of the observed BD-MDD differences represented abnormalities in functioning compared to HC. We observed a dissociation between depressed adults with BD and MDD in the processing of emerging emotional faces. Those with BD showed greater activity during mood-congruent (i.e., sad) faces, whereas those with MDD showed greater activity for mood-incongruent (i.e., fear, anger, and happy) faces. Such findings may reflect markers of differences between BD and MDD depression in underlying pathophysiological processes. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Adaptive non-local smoothing-based weberface for illumination-insensitive face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Min; Zhu, Changming

2017-07-01

Compensating the illumination of a face image is an important process to achieve effective face recognition under severe illumination conditions. This paper present a novel illumination normalization method which specifically considers removing the illumination boundaries as well as reducing the regional illumination. We begin with the analysis of the commonly used reflectance model and then expatiate the hybrid usage of adaptive non-local smoothing and the local information coding based on Weber's law. The effectiveness and advantages of this combination are evidenced visually and experimentally. Results on Extended YaleB database show its better performance than several other famous methods.

Activation of the right fronto-temporal cortex during maternal facial recognition in young infants.

PubMed

Carlsson, Jakob; Lagercrantz, Hugo; Olson, Linus; Printz, Gordana; Bartocci, Marco

2008-09-01

Within the first days of life infants can already recognize their mother. This ability is based on several sensory mechanisms and increases during the first year of life, having its most crucial phase between 6 and 9 months when cortical circuits develop. The underlying cortical structures that are involved in this process are still unknown. Herein we report how the prefrontal cortices of healthy 6- to 9-month-old infants react to the sight of their mother's faces compared to that of an unknown female face. Concentrations of oxygenated haemoglobin [HbO2] and deoxygenated haemoglobin [HHb] were measured using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in both fronto-temporal and occipital areas on the right side during the exposure to maternal and unfamiliar faces. The infants exhibited a distinct and significantly higher activation-related haemodynamic response in the right fronto-temporal cortex following exposure to the image of their mother's face, [HbO2] (0.75 micromol/L, p < 0.001), as compared to that of an unknown face (0.25 micromol/L, p < 0.001). Event-related haemodynamic changes, suggesting cortical activation, in response to the sight of human faces were detected in 6- to 9-month old children. The right fronto-temporal cortex appears to be involved in face recognition processes at this age.

Problems of Face Recognition in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

PubMed

Chandra, Sadanandavalli Retnaswami; Patwardhan, Ketaki; Pai, Anupama Ramakanth

2017-01-01

Faces are very special as they are most essential for social cognition in humans. It is partly understood that face processing in its abstractness involves several extra striate areas. One of the most important causes for caregiver suffering in patients with anterior dementia is lack of empathy. This apart from being a behavioral disorder could be also due to failure to categorize the emotions of the people around them. Inlusion criteria: DSM IV for Bv FTD Tested for prosopagnosia - familiar faces, famous face, smiling face, crying face and reflected face using a simple picture card (figure 1). Advanced illness and mixed causes. 46 patients (15 females, 31 males) 24 had defective face recognition. (mean age 51.5),10/15 females (70%) and 14/31males(47. Familiar face recognition defect was found in 6/10 females and 6/14 males. Total- 40%(6/15) females and 19.35%(6/31)males with FTD had familiar face recognition. Famous Face: 9/10 females and 7/14 males. Total- 60% (9/15) females with FTD had famous face recognition defect as against 22.6%(7/31) males with FTD Smiling face defects in 8/10 female and no males. Total- 53.33% (8/15) females. Crying face recognition defect in 3/10 female and 2 /14 males. Total- 20%(3/15) females and 6.5%(2/31) males. Reflected face recognition defect in 4 females. Famous face recognition and positive emotion recognition defect in 80%, only 20% comprehend positive emotions, Face recognition defects are found in only 45% of males and more common in females. Face recognition is more affected in females with FTD There is differential involvement of different aspects of the face recognition could be one of the important factor underlying decline in the emotional and social behavior of these patients. Understanding these pathological processes will give more insight regarding patient behavior.

Lateralization for Processing Facial Emotions in Gay Men, Heterosexual Men, and Heterosexual Women.

PubMed

Rahman, Qazi; Yusuf, Sifat

2015-07-01

This study tested whether male sexual orientation and gender nonconformity influenced functional cerebral lateralization for the processing of facial emotions. We also tested for the effects of sex of poser and emotion displayed on putative differences. Thirty heterosexual men, 30 heterosexual women, and 40 gay men completed measures of demographic variables, recalled childhood gender nonconformity (CGN), IQ, and the Chimeric Faces Test (CFT). The CFT depicts vertically split chimeric faces, formed with one half showing a neutral expression and the other half showing an emotional expression and performance is measured using a "laterality quotient" (LQ) score. We found that heterosexual men were significantly more right-lateralized when viewing female faces compared to heterosexual women and gay men, who did not differ significantly from each other. Heterosexual women and gay men were more left-lateralized for processing female faces. There were no significant group differences in lateralization for male faces. These results remained when controlling for age and IQ scores. There was no significant effect of CGN on LQ scores. These data suggest that gay men are feminized in some aspects of functional cerebral lateralization for facial emotion. The results were discussed in relation to the selectivity of functional lateralization and putative brain mechanisms underlying sexual attraction towards opposite-sex and same-sex targets.

The effect of background music on episodic memory and autonomic responses: listening to emotionally touching music enhances facial memory capacity.

PubMed

Proverbio, Alice Mado; Mado Proverbio, C A Alice; Lozano Nasi, Valentina; Alessandra Arcari, Laura; De Benedetto, Francesco; Guardamagna, Matteo; Gazzola, Martina; Zani, Alberto

2015-10-15

The aim of this study was to investigate how background auditory processing can affect other perceptual and cognitive processes as a function of stimulus content, style and emotional nature. Previous studies have offered contrasting evidence, and it has been recently shown that listening to music negatively affected concurrent mental processing in the elderly but not in young adults. To further investigate this matter, the effect of listening to music vs. listening to the sound of rain or silence was examined by administering an old/new face memory task (involving 448 unknown faces) to a group of 54 non-musician university students. Heart rate and diastolic and systolic blood pressure were measured during an explicit face study session that was followed by a memory test. The results indicated that more efficient and faster recall of faces occurred under conditions of silence or when participants were listening to emotionally touching music. Whereas auditory background (e.g., rain or joyful music) interfered with memory encoding, listening to emotionally touching music improved memory and significantly increased heart rate. It is hypothesized that touching music is able to modify the visual perception of faces by binding facial properties with auditory and emotionally charged information (music), which may therefore result in deeper memory encoding.

The effect of background music on episodic memory and autonomic responses: listening to emotionally touching music enhances facial memory capacity

PubMed Central

Mado Proverbio, C.A. Alice; Lozano Nasi, Valentina; Alessandra Arcari, Laura; De Benedetto, Francesco; Guardamagna, Matteo; Gazzola, Martina; Zani, Alberto

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate how background auditory processing can affect other perceptual and cognitive processes as a function of stimulus content, style and emotional nature. Previous studies have offered contrasting evidence, and it has been recently shown that listening to music negatively affected concurrent mental processing in the elderly but not in young adults. To further investigate this matter, the effect of listening to music vs. listening to the sound of rain or silence was examined by administering an old/new face memory task (involving 448 unknown faces) to a group of 54 non-musician university students. Heart rate and diastolic and systolic blood pressure were measured during an explicit face study session that was followed by a memory test. The results indicated that more efficient and faster recall of faces occurred under conditions of silence or when participants were listening to emotionally touching music. Whereas auditory background (e.g., rain or joyful music) interfered with memory encoding, listening to emotionally touching music improved memory and significantly increased heart rate. It is hypothesized that touching music is able to modify the visual perception of faces by binding facial properties with auditory and emotionally charged information (music), which may therefore result in deeper memory encoding. PMID:26469712

Fixation to features and neural processing of facial expressions in a gender discrimination task.

PubMed

Neath, Karly N; Itier, Roxane J

2015-10-01

Early face encoding, as reflected by the N170 ERP component, is sensitive to fixation to the eyes. Whether this sensitivity varies with facial expressions of emotion and can also be seen on other ERP components such as P1 and EPN, was investigated. Using eye-tracking to manipulate fixation on facial features, we found the N170 to be the only eye-sensitive component and this was true for fearful, happy and neutral faces. A different effect of fixation to features was seen for the earlier P1 that likely reflected general sensitivity to face position. An early effect of emotion (∼120 ms) for happy faces was seen at occipital sites and was sustained until ∼350 ms post-stimulus. For fearful faces, an early effect was seen around 80 ms followed by a later effect appearing at ∼150 ms until ∼300 ms at lateral posterior sites. Results suggests that in this emotion-irrelevant gender discrimination task, processing of fearful and happy expressions occurred early and largely independently of the eye-sensitivity indexed by the N170. Processing of the two emotions involved different underlying brain networks active at different times. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evidence for a confidence-accuracy relationship in memory for same- and cross-race faces.

PubMed

Nguyen, Thao B; Pezdek, Kathy; Wixted, John T

2017-12-01

Discrimination accuracy is usually higher for same- than for cross-race faces, a phenomenon known as the cross-race effect (CRE). According to prior research, the CRE occurs because memories for same- and cross-race faces rely on qualitatively different processes. However, according to a continuous dual-process model of recognition memory, memories that rely on qualitatively different processes do not differ in recognition accuracy when confidence is equated. Thus, although there are differences in overall same- and cross-race discrimination accuracy, confidence-specific accuracy (i.e., recognition accuracy at a particular level of confidence) may not differ. We analysed datasets from four recognition memory studies on same- and cross-race faces to test this hypothesis. Confidence ratings reliably predicted recognition accuracy when performance was above chance levels (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) but not when performance was at chance levels (Experiment 4). Furthermore, at each level of confidence, confidence-specific accuracy for same- and cross-race faces did not significantly differ when overall performance was above chance levels (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) but significantly differed when overall performance was at chance levels (Experiment 4). Thus, under certain conditions, high-confidence same-race and cross-race identifications may be equally reliable.

Face value: eye movements and the evaluation of facial crowds in social anxiety.

PubMed

Lange, Wolf-Gero; Heuer, Kathrin; Langner, Oliver; Keijsers, Ger P J; Becker, Eni S; Rinck, Mike

2011-09-01

Scientific evidence is equivocal on whether Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is characterized by a biased negative evaluation of (grouped) facial expressions, even though it is assumed that such a bias plays a crucial role in the maintenance of the disorder. To shed light on the underlying mechanisms of face evaluation in social anxiety, the eye movements of 22 highly socially anxious (SAs) and 21 non-anxious controls (NACs) were recorded while they rated the degree of friendliness of neutral-angry and smiling-angry face combinations. While the Crowd Rating Task data showed no significant differences between SAs and NACs, the resultant eye-movement patterns revealed that SAs, compared to NACs, looked away faster when the face first fixated was angry. Additionally, in SAs the proportion of fixated angry faces was significantly higher than for other expressions. Independent of social anxiety, these fixated angry faces were the best predictor of subsequent affect ratings for either group. Angry faces influence attentional processes such as eye movements in SAs and by doing so reflect biased evaluations. As these processes do not correlate with explicit ratings of faces, however, it remains unclear at what point implicit attentional behaviors lead to anxiety-prone behaviors and the maintenance of SAD. The relevance of these findings is discussed in the light of the current theories. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion based attentional priority for storage in visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Simione, Luca; Calabrese, Lucia; Marucci, Francesco S; Belardinelli, Marta Olivetti; Raffone, Antonino; Maratos, Frances A

2014-01-01

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as 'emotional superiority'). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superiority. Therefore, to investigate prioritisation of emotional stimuli for storage in visual short-term memory (VSTM), we devised an original VSTM report procedure using schematic (angry, happy, neutral) faces in which processing competition was manipulated. In Experiment 1, display exposure time was manipulated to create competition between stimuli. Participants (n = 20) had to recall a probed stimulus from a set size of four under high (150 ms array exposure duration) and low (400 ms array exposure duration) perceptual processing competition. For the high competition condition (i.e. 150 ms exposure), results revealed an emotional superiority effect per se. In Experiment 2 (n = 20), we increased competition by manipulating set size (three versus five stimuli), whilst maintaining a constrained array exposure duration of 150 ms. Here, for the five-stimulus set size (i.e. maximal competition) only threat superiority emerged. These findings demonstrate attentional prioritisation for storage in VSTM for emotional faces. We argue that task demands modulated the availability of processing resources and consequently the relative magnitude of the emotional/threat superiority effect, with only threatening stimuli prioritised for storage in VSTM under more demanding processing conditions. Our results are discussed in light of models and theories of visual selection, and not only combine the two strands of research (i.e. visual selection and emotion), but highlight a critical factor in the processing of emotional stimuli is availability of processing resources, which is further constrained by task demands.

Fast and Famous: Looking for the Fastest Speed at Which a Face Can be Recognized

PubMed Central

Barragan-Jason, Gladys; Besson, Gabriel; Ceccaldi, Mathieu; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.

2012-01-01

Face recognition is supposed to be fast. However, the actual speed at which faces can be recognized remains unknown. To address this issue, we report two experiments run with speed constraints. In both experiments, famous faces had to be recognized among unknown ones using a large set of stimuli to prevent pre-activation of features which would speed up recognition. In the first experiment (31 participants), recognition of famous faces was investigated using a rapid go/no-go task. In the second experiment, 101 participants performed a highly time constrained recognition task using the Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure. Results indicate that the fastest speed at which a face can be recognized is around 360–390 ms. Such latencies are about 100 ms longer than the latencies recorded in similar tasks in which subjects have to detect faces among other stimuli. We discuss which model of activation of the visual ventral stream could account for such latencies. These latencies are not consistent with a purely feed-forward pass of activity throughout the visual ventral stream. An alternative is that face recognition relies on the core network underlying face processing identified in fMRI studies (OFA, FFA, and pSTS) and reentrant loops to refine face representation. However, the model of activation favored is that of an activation of the whole visual ventral stream up to anterior areas, such as the perirhinal cortex, combined with parallel and feed-back processes. Further studies are needed to assess which of these three models of activation can best account for face recognition. PMID:23460051

Achieving Methodological Alignment When Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Derek

2018-01-01

This article explores the practical challenges one faces when combining qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and process tracing (PT) in a manner that is consistent with their underlying assumptions about the nature of causal relationships. While PT builds on a mechanism-based understanding of causation, QCA as a comparative method makes claims…

Early Stages of Figure–Ground Segregation during Perception of the Face–Vase

PubMed Central

Pitts, Michael A.; Martínez, Antígona; Brewer, James B.; Hillyard, Steven A.

2011-01-01

The temporal sequence of neural processes supporting figure–ground perception was investigated by recording ERPs associated with subjects’ perceptions of the face–vase figure. In Experiment 1, subjects continuously reported whether they perceived the face or the vase as the foreground figure by pressing one of two buttons. Each button press triggered a probe flash to the face region, the vase region, or the borders between the two. The N170/vertex positive potential (VPP) component of the ERP elicited by probes to the face region was larger when subjects perceived the faces as figure. Preceding the N170/VPP, two additional components were identified. First, when the borders were probed, ERPs differed in amplitude as early as 110 msec after probe onset depending on subjects’ figure–ground perceptions. Second, when the face or vase regions were probed, ERPs were more positive (at ~150–200 msec) when that region was perceived as figure versus background. These components likely reflect an early “border ownership” stage, and a subsequent “figure–ground segregation” stage of processing. To explore the influence of attention on these stages of processing, two additional experiments were conducted. In Experiment 2, subjects selectively attended to the face or vase region, and the same early ERP components were again produced. In Experiment 3, subjects performed an identical selective attention task, but on a display lacking distinctive figure–ground borders, and neither of the early components were produced. Results from these experiments suggest sequential stages of processing underlying figure–ground perception, each which are subject to modifications by selective attention. PMID:20146604

On the facilitative effects of face motion on face recognition and its development

PubMed Central

Xiao, Naiqi G.; Perrotta, Steve; Quinn, Paul C.; Wang, Zhe; Sun, Yu-Hao P.; Lee, Kang

2014-01-01

For the past century, researchers have extensively studied human face processing and its development. These studies have advanced our understanding of not only face processing, but also visual processing in general. However, most of what we know about face processing was investigated using static face images as stimuli. Therefore, an important question arises: to what extent does our understanding of static face processing generalize to face processing in real-life contexts in which faces are mostly moving? The present article addresses this question by examining recent studies on moving face processing to uncover the influence of facial movements on face processing and its development. First, we describe evidence on the facilitative effects of facial movements on face recognition and two related theoretical hypotheses: the supplementary information hypothesis and the representation enhancement hypothesis. We then highlight several recent studies suggesting that facial movements optimize face processing by activating specific face processing strategies that accommodate to task requirements. Lastly, we review the influence of facial movements on the development of face processing in the first year of life. We focus on infants' sensitivity to facial movements and explore the facilitative effects of facial movements on infants' face recognition performance. We conclude by outlining several future directions to investigate moving face processing and emphasize the importance of including dynamic aspects of facial information to further understand face processing in real-life contexts. PMID:25009517

Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression: A New Measure of Unconscious Processing during Interocular Suppression?

PubMed Central

Stein, Timo; Hebart, Martin N.; Sterzer, Philipp

2011-01-01

Until recently, it has been thought that under interocular suppression high-level visual processing is strongly inhibited if not abolished. With the development of continuous flash suppression (CFS), a variant of binocular rivalry, this notion has now been challenged by a number of reports showing that even high-level aspects of visual stimuli, such as familiarity, affect the time stimuli need to overcome CFS and emerge into awareness. In this “breaking continuous flash suppression” (b-CFS) paradigm, differential unconscious processing during suppression is inferred when (a) speeded detection responses to initially invisible stimuli differ, and (b) no comparable differences are found in non-rivalrous control conditions supposed to measure non-specific threshold differences between stimuli. The aim of the present study was to critically evaluate these assumptions. In six experiments we compared the detection of upright and inverted faces. We found that not only under CFS, but also in control conditions upright faces were detected faster and more accurately than inverted faces, although the effect was larger during CFS. However, reaction time (RT) distributions indicated critical differences between the CFS and the control condition. When RT distributions were matched, similar effect sizes were obtained in both conditions. Moreover, subjective ratings revealed that CFS and control conditions are not perceptually comparable. These findings cast doubt on the usefulness of non-rivalrous control conditions to rule out non-specific threshold differences as a cause of shorter detection latencies during CFS. Thus, at least in its present form, the b-CFS paradigm cannot provide unequivocal evidence for unconscious processing under interocular suppression. Nevertheless, our findings also demonstrate that the b-CFS paradigm can be fruitfully applied as a highly sensitive device to probe differences between stimuli in their potency to gain access to awareness. PMID:22194718

Composite faces are not (necessarily) processed coactively: A test using systems factorial technology and logical-rule models.

PubMed

Cheng, Xue Jun; McCarthy, Callum J; Wang, Tony S L; Palmeri, Thomas J; Little, Daniel R

2018-06-01

Upright faces are thought to be processed more holistically than inverted faces. In the widely used composite face paradigm, holistic processing is inferred from interference in recognition performance from a to-be-ignored face half for upright and aligned faces compared with inverted or misaligned faces. We sought to characterize the nature of holistic processing in composite faces in computational terms. We use logical-rule models (Fifić, Little, & Nosofsky, 2010) and Systems Factorial Technology (Townsend & Nozawa, 1995) to examine whether composite faces are processed through pooling top and bottom face halves into a single processing channel-coactive processing-which is one common mechanistic definition of holistic processing. By specifically operationalizing holistic processing as the pooling of features into a single decision process in our task, we are able to distinguish it from other processing models that may underlie composite face processing. For instance, a failure of selective attention might result even when top and bottom components of composite faces are processed in serial or in parallel without processing the entire face coactively. Our results show that performance is best explained by a mixture of serial and parallel processing architectures across all 4 upright and inverted, aligned and misaligned face conditions. The results indicate multichannel, featural processing of composite faces in a manner inconsistent with the notion of coactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Tinnitus, anxiety and automatic processing of affective information: an explorative study.

PubMed

Ooms, Els; Vanheule, Stijn; Meganck, Reitske; Vinck, Bart; Watelet, Jean-Baptiste; Dhooge, Ingeborg

2013-03-01

Anxiety is found to play an important role in the severity complaint of tinnitus patients. However, when investigating anxiety in tinnitus patients, most studies make use of verbal reports of affect (e.g., self-report questionnaires and/or interviews). These methods reflect conscious appraisals of anxiety, but do not map underlying processing mechanisms. Nonetheless, such mechanisms, like the automatic processing of affective information, are important as they modulate emotional experience and emotion-related behaviour. Research showed that highly anxious people process threatening information (e.g., fearful and angry faces) faster than non-anxious people. Therefore, this study investigates whether tinnitus patients process affective stimuli (happy, sad, fearful, and angry faces) in the same way as highly anxious people do. Our sample consisted out of 67 consecutive tinnitus patients. Relationships between tinnitus severity, pitch, loudness, hearing loss, and the automatic processing of affective information were explored. Results indicate that especially in severely distressed tinnitus patients, the severity complaint is highly related to the automatic processing of fearful (r = 0.37, p < 0.05), angry (r = 0.44, p < 0.00) and happy (r = -0.44, p < 0.00) faces, and these relationships became even stronger after controlling for hearing loss. Furthermore, in contrast with findings on the relation between audiological characteristics (pitch and loudness) and conscious report of anxiety, we did find that the audiological characteristic, loudness, tends to be in some degree related to the automatic processing of fearful faces (r = 0.25, p = 0.08). We conclude that tinnitus is an anxiety-related problem on an automatic processing level.

Unattended facial expressions asymmetrically bias the concurrent processing of nonemotional information.

PubMed

Maxwell, Jeffrey S; Shackman, Alexander J; Davidson, Richard J

2005-09-01

Planned and reflexive behaviors often occur in the presence of emotional stimuli and within the context of an individual's acute emotional state. Therefore, determining the manner in which emotion and attention interact is an important step toward understanding how we function in the real world. Participants in the current investigation viewed centrally displayed, task-irrelevant, face distractors (angry, neutral, happy) while performing a lateralized go/no-go continuous performance task. Lateralized go targets and no-go lures that did not spatially overlap with the faces were employed to differentially probe processing in the left (LH) and right (RH) cerebral hemispheres. There was a significant interaction between expression and hemisphere, with an overall pattern such that angry distractors were associated with relatively more RH inhibitory errors than neutral or happy distractors and happy distractors with relatively more LH inhibitory errors than angry or neutral distractors. Simple effects analyses confirmed that angry faces differentially interfered with RH relative to LH inhibition and with inhibition in the RH relative to happy faces. A significant three-way interaction further revealed that state anxiety moderated relations between emotional expression and hemisphere. Under conditions of low cognitive load, more intense anxiety was associated with relatively greater RH than LH impairment in the presence of both happy and threatening distractors. By contrast, under high load, only angry distractors produced greater RH than LH interference as a function of anxiety.

Decoding facial blends of emotion: visual field, attentional and hemispheric biases.

PubMed

Ross, Elliott D; Shayya, Luay; Champlain, Amanda; Monnot, Marilee; Prodan, Calin I

2013-12-01

Most clinical research assumes that modulation of facial expressions is lateralized predominantly across the right-left hemiface. However, social psychological research suggests that facial expressions are organized predominantly across the upper-lower face. Because humans learn to cognitively control facial expression for social purposes, the lower face may display a false emotion, typically a smile, to enable approach behavior. In contrast, the upper face may leak a person's true feeling state by producing a brief facial blend of emotion, i.e. a different emotion on the upper versus lower face. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that upper facial emotions are processed preferentially by the right hemisphere under conditions of directed attention if facial blends of emotion are presented tachistoscopically to the mid left and right visual fields. This paper explores how facial blends are processed within the four visual quadrants. The results, combined with our previous research, demonstrate that lower more so than upper facial emotions are perceived best when presented to the viewer's left and right visual fields just above the horizontal axis. Upper facial emotions are perceived best when presented to the viewer's left visual field just above the horizontal axis under conditions of directed attention. Thus, by gazing at a person's left ear, which also avoids the social stigma of eye-to-eye contact, one's ability to decode facial expressions should be enhanced. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Toward a unified model of face and object recognition in the human visual system

PubMed Central

Wallis, Guy

2013-01-01

Our understanding of the mechanisms and neural substrates underlying visual recognition has made considerable progress over the past 30 years. During this period, accumulating evidence has led many scientists to conclude that objects and faces are recognised in fundamentally distinct ways, and in fundamentally distinct cortical areas. In the psychological literature, in particular, this dissociation has led to a palpable disconnect between theories of how we process and represent the two classes of object. This paper follows a trend in part of the recognition literature to try to reconcile what we know about these two forms of recognition by considering the effects of learning. Taking a widely accepted, self-organizing model of object recognition, this paper explains how such a system is affected by repeated exposure to specific stimulus classes. In so doing, it explains how many aspects of recognition generally regarded as unusual to faces (holistic processing, configural processing, sensitivity to inversion, the other-race effect, the prototype effect, etc.) are emergent properties of category-specific learning within such a system. Overall, the paper describes how a single model of recognition learning can and does produce the seemingly very different types of representation associated with faces and objects. PMID:23966963

Modulation of fusiform cortex activity by cholinesterase inhibition predicts effects on subsequent memory.

PubMed

Bentley, P; Driver, J; Dolan, R J

2009-09-01

Cholinergic influences on memory are likely to be expressed at several processing stages, including via well-recognized effects of acetylcholine on stimulus processing during encoding. Since previous studies have shown that cholinesterase inhibition enhances visual extrastriate cortex activity during stimulus encoding, especially under attention-demanding tasks, we tested whether this effect correlates with improved subsequent memory. In a within-subject physostigmine versus placebo design, we measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging while healthy and mild Alzheimer's disease subjects performed superficial and deep encoding tasks on face (and building) visual stimuli. We explored regions in which physostigmine modulation of face-selective neural responses correlated with physostigmine effects on subsequent recognition performance. In healthy subjects physostigmine led to enhanced later recognition for deep- versus superficially-encoded faces, which correlated across subjects with a physostigmine-induced enhancement of face-selective responses in right fusiform cortex during deep- versus superficial-encoding tasks. In contrast, the Alzheimer's disease group showed neither a depth of processing effect nor restoration of this with physostigmine. Instead, patients showed a task-independent improvement in confident memory with physostigmine, an effect that correlated with enhancements in face-selective (but task-independent) responses in bilateral fusiform cortices. Our results indicate that one mechanism by which cholinesterase inhibitors can improve memory is by enhancing extrastriate cortex stimulus selectivity at encoding, in a manner that for healthy people but not in Alzheimer's disease is dependent upon depth of processing.

Oxytocin Reduces Face Processing Time but Leaves Recognition Accuracy and Eye-Gaze Unaffected.

PubMed

Hubble, Kelly; Daughters, Katie; Manstead, Antony S R; Rees, Aled; Thapar, Anita; van Goozen, Stephanie H M

2017-01-01

Previous studies have found that oxytocin (OXT) can improve the recognition of emotional facial expressions; it has been proposed that this effect is mediated by an increase in attention to the eye-region of faces. Nevertheless, evidence in support of this claim is inconsistent, and few studies have directly tested the effect of oxytocin on emotion recognition via altered eye-gaze Methods: In a double-blind, within-subjects, randomized control experiment, 40 healthy male participants received 24 IU intranasal OXT and placebo in two identical experimental sessions separated by a 2-week interval. Visual attention to the eye-region was assessed on both occasions while participants completed a static facial emotion recognition task using medium intensity facial expressions. Although OXT had no effect on emotion recognition accuracy, recognition performance was improved because face processing was faster across emotions under the influence of OXT. This effect was marginally significant (p<.06). Consistent with a previous study using dynamic stimuli, OXT had no effect on eye-gaze patterns when viewing static emotional faces and this was not related to recognition accuracy or face processing time. These findings suggest that OXT-induced enhanced facial emotion recognition is not necessarily mediated by an increase in attention to the eye-region of faces, as previously assumed. We discuss several methodological issues which may explain discrepant findings and suggest the effect of OXT on visual attention may differ depending on task requirements. (JINS, 2017, 23, 23-33).

The Impact of Emotional States on Cognitive Control Circuitry and Function.

PubMed

Cohen, Alexandra O; Dellarco, Danielle V; Breiner, Kaitlyn; Helion, Chelsea; Heller, Aaron S; Rahdar, Ahrareh; Pedersen, Gloria; Chein, Jason; Dyke, Jonathan P; Galvan, Adriana; Casey, B J

2016-03-01

Typically in the laboratory, cognitive and emotional processes are studied separately or as a stream of fleeting emotional stimuli embedded within a cognitive task. Yet in life, thoughts and actions often occur in more lasting emotional states of arousal. The current study examines the impact of emotions on actions using a novel behavioral paradigm and functional neuroimaging to assess cognitive control under sustained states of threat (anticipation of an aversive noise) and excitement (anticipation of winning money). Thirty-eight healthy adult participants were scanned while performing an emotional go/no-go task with positive (happy faces), negative (fearful faces), and neutral (calm faces) emotional cues, under threat or excitement. Cognitive control performance was enhanced during the excited state relative to a nonarousing control condition. This enhanced performance was paralleled by heightened activity of frontoparietal and frontostriatal circuitry. In contrast, under persistent threat, cognitive control was diminished when the valence of the emotional cue conflicted with the emotional state. Successful task performance in this conflicting emotional condition was associated with increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a default mode network region implicated in complex processes such as processing emotions in the context of self and monitoring performance. This region showed positive coupling with frontoparietal circuitry implicated in cognitive control, providing support for a role of the posterior cingulate cortex in mobilizing cognitive resources to improve performance. These findings suggest that emotional states of arousal differentially modulate cognitive control and point to the potential utility of this paradigm for understanding effects of situational and pathological states of arousal on behavior.

Attachment representation modulates oxytocin effects on the processing of own-child faces in fathers.

PubMed

Waller, Christiane; Wittfoth, Matthias; Fritzsche, Konstantin; Timm, Lydia; Wittfoth-Schardt, Dina; Rottler, Edit; Heinrichs, Markus; Buchheim, Anna; Kiefer, Markus; Gündel, Harald

2015-12-01

Oxytocin (OT) plays a crucial role in parental-infant bonding and attachment. Recent functional imaging studies reveal specific attachment and reward related brain regions in individuals or within the parent-child dyad. However, the time course and functional stage of modulatory effects of OT on attachment-related processing, especially in fathers, are poorly understood. To elucidate the functional and neural mechanisms underlying the role of OT in paternal-child attachment, we performed an event-related potential study in 24 healthy fathers who received intranasal OT in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject experimental design. Participants passively viewed pictures of their own child (oC), a familiar (fC) and an unfamiliar child (ufC) while event-related potentials were recorded. Familiarity of the child's face modulated a broad negativity at occipital and temporo-parietal electrodes within a time window of 300-400ms, presumably reflecting a modulation of the N250 and N300 ERP components. The oC condition elicited a more negative potential compared to the other familiarity conditions suggesting different activation of perceptual memory representations and assignment of emotional valence. Most importantly, this familiarity effect was only observed under placebo (PL) and was abolished under OT, in particular at left temporo-parietal electrodes. This OT induced attenuation of ERP responses was related to habitual attachment representations in fathers. In summary, our results demonstrate an OT-specific effect at later stages of attachment-related face processing presumably reflecting both activation of perceptual memory representations and assignment of emotional value. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions.

PubMed

Van Den Boomen, Carlijn; Fahrenfort, Johannes J; Snijders, Tineke M; Kemner, Chantal

2015-01-01

Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process.

Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions

PubMed Central

Van Den Boomen, Carlijn; Fahrenfort, Johannes J.; Snijders, Tineke M.; Kemner, Chantal

2015-01-01

Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process. PMID:26074838

Social Capital Accumulation in Location-Based Mobile Game Playing: A Multiple-Process Approach.

PubMed

Sung, Hei-Tung; Sigerson, Leif; Cheng, Cecilia

2017-08-01

In the summer of 2016, the widespread popularization of the game Pokémon Go brought the public's attention to the possible socialization benefits associated with location-based mobile games (LBMGs), yet no studies to date have investigated this issue. LBMGs deserve greater research attention because this type of game provides a unique gaming experience that encourages players to leave their homes and navigate around their neighborhood. This distinctive feature may promote more face-to-face interactions among LBMG players. Grounded in social capital theories, the present study compared the levels of both bridging and bonding social capital between LBMG and non-LBMG players. More important, we formulated a multiple-process model to explain the hypothesized psychological mechanisms underlying social capital accumulation among LBMG players. Participants were 349 U.S. participants (57 percent men; M age  = 32.40, SD age  = 7.92, age range = 19-66). Results supported the proposed model by revealing that face-to-face interaction was crucial to the accrual of both bridging and bonding social capital among LBMG players, through enhancing their levels of communication frequency and self-disclosure. The present findings have implications for the utilization of LBMG as a potential tool to promote face-to-face interactions and accumulate social capital.

Becoming a Lunari or Taiyo expert: learned attention to parts drives holistic processing of faces.

PubMed

Chua, Kao-Wei; Richler, Jennifer J; Gauthier, Isabel

2014-06-01

Faces are processed holistically, but the locus of holistic processing remains unclear. We created two novel races of faces (Lunaris and Taiyos) to study how experience with face parts influences holistic processing. In Experiment 1, subjects individuated Lunaris wherein the top, bottom, or both face halves contained diagnostic information. Subjects who learned to attend to face parts exhibited no holistic processing. This suggests that individuation only leads to holistic processing when the whole face is attended. In Experiment 2, subjects individuated both Lunaris and Taiyos, with diagnostic information in complementary face halves of the two races. Holistic processing was measured with composites made of either diagnostic or nondiagnostic face parts. Holistic processing was only observed for composites made from diagnostic face parts, demonstrating that holistic processing can occur for diagnostic face parts that were never seen together. These results suggest that holistic processing is an expression of learned attention to diagnostic face parts. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Elastic facial movement influences part-based but not holistic processing

PubMed Central

Xiao, Naiqi G.; Quinn, Paul C.; Ge, Liezhong; Lee, Kang

2013-01-01

Face processing has been studied for decades. However, most of the empirical investigations have been conducted using static face images as stimuli. Little is known about whether static face processing findings can be generalized to real world contexts, in which faces are constantly moving. The present study investigates the nature of face processing (holistic vs. part-based) in elastic moving faces. Specifically, we focus on whether elastic moving faces, as compared to static ones, can facilitate holistic or part-based face processing. Using the composite paradigm, participants were asked to remember either an elastic moving face (i.e., a face that blinks and chews) or a static face, and then tested with a static composite face. The composite effect was (1) significantly smaller in the dynamic condition than in the static condition, (2) consistently found with different face encoding times (Experiments 1–3), and (3) present for the recognition of both upper and lower face parts (Experiment 4). These results suggest that elastic facial motion facilitates part-based processing, rather than holistic processing. Thus, while previous work with static faces has emphasized an important role for holistic processing, the current work highlights an important role for featural processing with moving faces. PMID:23398253

Different Cortical Dynamics in Face and Body Perception: An MEG study

PubMed Central

Meeren, Hanneke K. M.; de Gelder, Beatrice; Ahlfors, Seppo P.; Hämäläinen, Matti S.; Hadjikhani, Nouchine

2013-01-01

Evidence from functional neuroimaging indicates that visual perception of human faces and bodies is carried out by distributed networks of face and body-sensitive areas in the occipito-temporal cortex. However, the dynamics of activity in these areas, needed to understand their respective functional roles, are still largely unknown. We monitored brain activity with millisecond time resolution by recording magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses while participants viewed photographs of faces, bodies, and control stimuli. The cortical activity underlying the evoked responses was estimated with anatomically-constrained noise-normalised minimum-norm estimate and statistically analysed with spatiotemporal cluster analysis. Our findings point to distinct spatiotemporal organization of the neural systems for face and body perception. Face-selective cortical currents were found at early latencies (120–200 ms) in a widespread occipito-temporal network including the ventral temporal cortex (VTC). In contrast, early body-related responses were confined to the lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC). These were followed by strong sustained body-selective responses in the orbitofrontal cortex from 200–700 ms, and in the lateral temporal cortex and VTC after 500 ms latency. Our data suggest that the VTC region has a key role in the early processing of faces, but not of bodies. Instead, the LOTC, which includes the extra-striate body area (EBA), appears the dominant area for early body perception, whereas the VTC contributes to late and post-perceptual processing. PMID:24039712

Auditory to Visual Cross-Modal Adaptation for Emotion: Psychophysical and Neural Correlates.

PubMed

Wang, Xiaodong; Guo, Xiaotao; Chen, Lin; Liu, Yijun; Goldberg, Michael E; Xu, Hong

2017-02-01

Adaptation is fundamental in sensory processing and has been studied extensively within the same sensory modality. However, little is known about adaptation across sensory modalities, especially in the context of high-level processing, such as the perception of emotion. Previous studies have shown that prolonged exposure to a face exhibiting one emotion, such as happiness, leads to contrastive biases in the perception of subsequently presented faces toward the opposite emotion, such as sadness. Such work has shown the importance of adaptation in calibrating face perception based on prior visual exposure. In the present study, we showed for the first time that emotion-laden sounds, like laughter, adapt the visual perception of emotional faces, that is, subjects more frequently perceived faces as sad after listening to a happy sound. Furthermore, via electroencephalography recordings and event-related potential analysis, we showed that there was a neural correlate underlying the perceptual bias: There was an attenuated response occurring at ∼ 400 ms to happy test faces and a quickened response to sad test faces, after exposure to a happy sound. Our results provide the first direct evidence for a behavioral cross-modal adaptation effect on the perception of facial emotion, and its neural correlate. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The valence-specific laterality effect in free viewing conditions: The influence of sex, handedness, and response bias.

PubMed

Rodway, Paul; Wright, Lynn; Hardie, Scott

2003-12-01

The right hemisphere has often been viewed as having a dominant role in the processing of emotional information. Other evidence indicates that both hemispheres process emotional information but their involvement is valence specific, with the right hemisphere dealing with negative emotions and the left hemisphere preferentially processing positive emotions. This has been found under both restricted (Reuter-Lorenz & Davidson, 1981) and free viewing conditions (Jansari, Tranel, & Adophs, 2000). It remains unclear whether the valence-specific laterality effect is also sex specific or is influenced by the handedness of participants. To explore this issue we repeated Jansari et al.'s free-viewing laterality task with 78 participants. We found a valence-specific laterality effect in women but not men, with women discriminating negative emotional expressions more accurately when the face was presented on the left-hand side and discriminating positive emotions more accurately when those faces were presented on the right-hand side. These results indicate that under free viewing conditions women are more lateralised for the processing of facial emotion than are men. Handedness did not affect the lateralised processing of facial emotion. Finally, participants demonstrated a response bias on control trials, where facial emotion did not differ between the faces. Participants selected the left-hand side more frequently when they believed the expression was negative and the right-hand side more frequently when they believed the expression was positive. This response bias can cause a spurious valence-specific laterality effect which might have contributed to the conflicting findings within the literature.

Developmental prosopagnosia and super-recognition: no special role for surface reflectance processing

PubMed Central

Russell, Richard; Chatterjee, Garga; Nakayama, Ken

2011-01-01

Face recognition by normal subjects depends in roughly equal proportions on shape and surface reflectance cues, while object recognition depends predominantly on shape cues. It is possible that developmental prosopagnosics are deficient not in their ability to recognize faces per se, but rather in their ability to use reflectance cues. Similarly, super-recognizers’ exceptional ability with face recognition may be a result of superior surface reflectance perception and memory. We tested this possibility by administering tests of face perception and face recognition in which only shape or reflectance cues are available to developmental prosopagnosics, super-recognizers, and control subjects. Face recognition ability and the relative use of shape and pigmentation were unrelated in all the tests. Subjects who were better at using shape or reflectance cues were also better at using the other type of cue. These results do not support the proposal that variation in surface reflectance perception ability is the underlying cause of variation in face recognition ability. Instead, these findings support the idea that face recognition ability is related to neural circuits using representations that integrate shape and pigmentation information. PMID:22192636

The own-age bias in face memory is unrelated to differences in attention--evidence from event-related potentials.

PubMed

Neumann, Markus F; End, Albert; Luttmann, Stefanie; Schweinberger, Stefan R; Wiese, Holger

2015-03-01

Participants are more accurate at remembering faces from their own relative to a different age group (the own-age bias, or OAB). A recent socio-cognitive account has suggested that differential allocation of attention to old versus young faces underlies this phenomenon. Critically, empirical evidence for a direct relationship between attention to own- versus other-age faces and the OAB in memory is lacking. To fill this gap, we tested the roles of attention in three different experimental paradigms, and additionally analyzed event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In Experiment 1, we compared the learning of old and young faces during focused versus divided attention, but revealed similar OABs in subsequent memory for both attention conditions. Similarly, manipulating attention during learning did not differentially affect the ERPs elicited by young versus old faces. In Experiment 2, we examined the repetition effects from task-irrelevant old and young faces presented under varying attentional loads on the N250r ERP component as an index of face recognition. Independent of load, the N250r effects were comparable for both age categories. Finally, in Experiment 3 we measured the N2pc as an index of attentional selection of old versus young target faces in a visual search task. The N2pc was not significantly different for the young versus the old target search conditions, suggesting similar orientations of attention to either face age group. Overall, we propose that the OAB in memory is largely unrelated to early attentional processes. Our findings therefore contrast with the predictions from socio-cognitive accounts on own-group biases in recognition memory, and are more easily reconciled with expertise-based models.

Emotional face recognition in adolescent suicide attempters and adolescents engaging in non-suicidal self-injury.

PubMed

Seymour, Karen E; Jones, Richard N; Cushman, Grace K; Galvan, Thania; Puzia, Megan E; Kim, Kerri L; Spirito, Anthony; Dickstein, Daniel P

2016-03-01

Little is known about the bio-behavioral mechanisms underlying and differentiating suicide attempts from non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents. Adolescents who attempt suicide or engage in NSSI often report significant interpersonal and social difficulties. Emotional face recognition ability is a fundamental skill required for successful social interactions, and deficits in this ability may provide insight into the unique brain-behavior interactions underlying suicide attempts versus NSSI in adolescents. Therefore, we examined emotional face recognition ability among three mutually exclusive groups: (1) inpatient adolescents who attempted suicide (SA, n = 30); (2) inpatient adolescents engaged in NSSI (NSSI, n = 30); and (3) typically developing controls (TDC, n = 30) without psychiatric illness. Participants included adolescents aged 13-17 years, matched on age, gender and full-scale IQ. Emotional face recognition was evaluated using the diagnostic assessment of nonverbal accuracy (DANVA-2). Compared to TDC youth, adolescents with NSSI made more errors on child fearful and adult sad face recognition while controlling for psychopathology and medication status (ps < 0.05). No differences were found on emotional face recognition between NSSI and SA groups. Secondary analyses showed that compared to inpatients without major depression, those with major depression made fewer errors on adult sad face recognition even when controlling for group status (p < 0.05). Further, compared to inpatients without generalized anxiety, those with generalized anxiety made fewer recognition errors on adult happy faces even when controlling for group status (p < 0.05). Adolescent inpatients engaged in NSSI showed greater deficits in emotional face recognition than TDC, but not inpatient adolescents who attempted suicide. Further results suggest the importance of psychopathology in emotional face recognition. Replication of these preliminary results and examination of the role of context-dependent emotional processing are needed moving forward.

Face perception in high-functioning autistic adults: evidence for superior processing of face parts, not for a configural face-processing deficit.

PubMed

Lahaie, A; Mottron, L; Arguin, M; Berthiaume, C; Jemel, B; Saumier, D

2006-01-01

Configural processing in autism was studied in Experiment 1 by using the face inversion effect. A normal inversion effect was observed in the participants with autism, suggesting intact configural face processing. A priming paradigm using partial or complete faces served in Experiment 2 to assess both local and configural face processing. Overall, normal priming effects were found in participants with autism, irrespective of whether the partial face primes were intuitive face parts (i.e., eyes, nose, etc.) or arbitrary segments. An exception, however, was that participants with autism showed magnified priming with single face parts relative to typically developing control participants. The present findings argue for intact configural processing in autism along with an enhanced processing for individual face parts. The face-processing peculiarities known to characterize autism are discussed on the basis of these results and past congruent results with nonsocial stimuli.

The non-linear development of the right hemispheric specialization for human face perception.

PubMed

Lochy, Aliette; de Heering, Adélaïde; Rossion, Bruno

2017-06-24

The developmental origins of human adults' right hemispheric specialization for face perception remain unclear. On the one hand, infant studies have shown a right hemispheric advantage for face perception. On the other hand, it has been proposed that the adult right hemispheric lateralization for face perception slowly emerges during childhood due to reading acquisition, which increases left lateralized posterior responses to competing written material (e.g., visual letters and words). Since methodological approaches used in infant and children typically differ when their face capabilities are explored, resolving this issue has been difficult. Here we tested 5-year-old preschoolers varying in their level of visual letter knowledge with the same fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) paradigm leading to strongly right lateralized electrophysiological occipito-temporal face-selective responses in 4- to 6-month-old infants (de Heering and Rossion, 2015). Children's face-selective response was quantitatively larger and differed in scalp topography from infants', but did not differ across hemispheres. There was a small positive correlation between preschoolers' letter knowledge and a non-normalized index of right hemispheric specialization for faces. These observations show that previous discrepant results in the literature reflect a genuine nonlinear development of the neural processes underlying face perception and are not merely due to methodological differences across age groups. We discuss several factors that could contribute to the adult right hemispheric lateralization for faces, such as myelination of the corpus callosum and reading acquisition. Our findings point to the value of FPVS coupled with electroencephalography to assess specialized face perception processes throughout development with the same methodology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What can individual differences reveal about face processing?

PubMed Central

Yovel, Galit; Wilmer, Jeremy B.; Duchaine, Brad

2014-01-01

Faces are probably the most widely studied visual stimulus. Most research on face processing has used a group-mean approach that averages behavioral or neural responses to faces across individuals and treats variance between individuals as noise. However, individual differences in face processing can provide valuable information that complements and extends findings from group-mean studies. Here we demonstrate that studies employing an individual differences approach—examining associations and dissociations across individuals—can answer fundamental questions about the way face processing operates. In particular these studies allow us to associate and dissociate the mechanisms involved in face processing, tie behavioral face processing mechanisms to neural mechanisms, link face processing to broader capacities and quantify developmental influences on face processing. The individual differences approach we illustrate here is a powerful method that should be further explored within the domain of face processing as well as fruitfully applied across the cognitive sciences. PMID:25191241

Neurophysiological evidence (ERPs) for hemispheric processing of facial expressions of emotions: Evidence from whole face and chimeric face stimuli.

PubMed

Damaskinou, Nikoleta; Watling, Dawn

2018-05-01

This study was designed to investigate the patterns of electrophysiological responses of early emotional processing at frontocentral sites in adults and to explore whether adults' activation patterns show hemispheric lateralization for facial emotion processing. Thirty-five adults viewed full face and chimeric face stimuli. After viewing two faces, sequentially, participants were asked to decide which of the two faces was more emotive. The findings from the standard faces and the chimeric faces suggest that emotion processing is present during the early phases of face processing in the frontocentral sites. In particular, sad emotional faces are processed differently than neutral and happy (including happy chimeras) faces in these early phases of processing. Further, there were differences in the electrode amplitudes over the left and right hemisphere, particularly in the early temporal window. This research provides supporting evidence that the chimeric face test is a test of emotion processing that elicits right hemispheric processing.

Plasma facing materials and components for future fusion devices—development, characterization and performance under fusion specific loading conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linke, J.

2006-04-01

The plasma exposed components in existing and future fusion devices are strongly affected by the plasma material interaction processes. These mechanisms have a strong influence on the plasma performance; in addition they have major impact on the lifetime of the plasma facing armour and the joining interface between the plasma facing material (PFM) and the heat sink. Besides physical and chemical sputtering processes, high heat quasi-stationary fluxes during normal and intense thermal transients are of serious concern for the engineers who develop reliable wall components. In addition, the material and component degradation due to intense fluxes of energetic neutrons is another critical issue in D-T-burning fusion devices which requires extensive R&D. This paper presents an overview on the materials development and joining, the testing of PFMs and components, and the analysis of the neutron irradiation induced degradation.

Heritability maps of human face morphology through large-scale automated three-dimensional phenotyping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsagkrasoulis, Dimosthenis; Hysi, Pirro; Spector, Tim; Montana, Giovanni

2017-04-01

The human face is a complex trait under strong genetic control, as evidenced by the striking visual similarity between twins. Nevertheless, heritability estimates of facial traits have often been surprisingly low or difficult to replicate. Furthermore, the construction of facial phenotypes that correspond to naturally perceived facial features remains largely a mystery. We present here a large-scale heritability study of face geometry that aims to address these issues. High-resolution, three-dimensional facial models have been acquired on a cohort of 952 twins recruited from the TwinsUK registry, and processed through a novel landmarking workflow, GESSA (Geodesic Ensemble Surface Sampling Algorithm). The algorithm places thousands of landmarks throughout the facial surface and automatically establishes point-wise correspondence across faces. These landmarks enabled us to intuitively characterize facial geometry at a fine level of detail through curvature measurements, yielding accurate heritability maps of the human face (www.heritabilitymaps.info).

Holistic processing for other-race faces in chinese participants occurs for upright but not inverted faces.

PubMed

Crookes, Kate; Favelle, Simone; Hayward, William G

2013-01-01

Recent evidence suggests stronger holistic processing for own-race faces may underlie the own-race advantage in face memory. In previous studies Caucasian participants have demonstrated larger holistic processing effects for Caucasian over Asian faces. However, Asian participants have consistently shown similar sized effects for both Asian and Caucasian faces. We investigated two proposed explanations for the holistic processing of other-race faces by Asian participants: (1) greater other-race exposure, (2) a general global processing bias. Holistic processing was tested using the part-whole task. Participants were living in predominantly own-race environments and other-race contact was evaluated. Despite reporting significantly greater contact with own-race than other-race people, Chinese participants displayed strong holistic processing for both Asian and Caucasian upright faces. In addition, Chinese participants showed no evidence of holistic processing for inverted faces arguing against a general global processing bias explanation. Caucasian participants, in line with previous studies, displayed stronger holistic processing for Caucasian than Asian upright faces. For inverted faces there were no race-of-face differences. These results are used to suggest that Asians may make more general use of face-specific mechanisms than Caucasians.

Holistic Processing for Other-Race Faces in Chinese Participants Occurs for Upright but Not Inverted Faces

PubMed Central

Crookes, Kate; Favelle, Simone; Hayward, William G.

2013-01-01

Recent evidence suggests stronger holistic processing for own-race faces may underlie the own-race advantage in face memory. In previous studies Caucasian participants have demonstrated larger holistic processing effects for Caucasian over Asian faces. However, Asian participants have consistently shown similar sized effects for both Asian and Caucasian faces. We investigated two proposed explanations for the holistic processing of other-race faces by Asian participants: (1) greater other-race exposure, (2) a general global processing bias. Holistic processing was tested using the part-whole task. Participants were living in predominantly own-race environments and other-race contact was evaluated. Despite reporting significantly greater contact with own-race than other-race people, Chinese participants displayed strong holistic processing for both Asian and Caucasian upright faces. In addition, Chinese participants showed no evidence of holistic processing for inverted faces arguing against a general global processing bias explanation. Caucasian participants, in line with previous studies, displayed stronger holistic processing for Caucasian than Asian upright faces. For inverted faces there were no race-of-face differences. These results are used to suggest that Asians may make more general use of face-specific mechanisms than Caucasians. PMID:23386840

3D prostate histology image reconstruction: Quantifying the impact of tissue deformation and histology section location

PubMed Central

Gibson, Eli; Gaed, Mena; Gómez, José A.; Moussa, Madeleine; Pautler, Stephen; Chin, Joseph L.; Crukley, Cathie; Bauman, Glenn S.; Fenster, Aaron; Ward, Aaron D.

2013-01-01

Background: Guidelines for localizing prostate cancer on imaging are ideally informed by registered post-prostatectomy histology. 3D histology reconstruction methods can support this by reintroducing 3D spatial information lost during histology processing. The need to register small, high-grade foci drives a need for high accuracy. Accurate 3D reconstruction method design is impacted by the answers to the following central questions of this work. (1) How does prostate tissue deform during histology processing? (2) What spatial misalignment of the tissue sections is induced by microtome cutting? (3) How does the choice of reconstruction model affect histology reconstruction accuracy? Materials and Methods: Histology, paraffin block face and magnetic resonance images were acquired for 18 whole mid-gland tissue slices from six prostates. 7-15 homologous landmarks were identified on each image. Tissue deformation due to histology processing was characterized using the target registration error (TRE) after landmark-based registration under four deformation models (rigid, similarity, affine and thin-plate-spline [TPS]). The misalignment of histology sections from the front faces of tissue slices was quantified using manually identified landmarks. The impact of reconstruction models on the TRE after landmark-based reconstruction was measured under eight reconstruction models comprising one of four deformation models with and without constraining histology images to the tissue slice front faces. Results: Isotropic scaling improved the mean TRE by 0.8-1.0 mm (all results reported as 95% confidence intervals), while skew or TPS deformation improved the mean TRE by <0.1 mm. The mean misalignment was 1.1-1.9° (angle) and 0.9-1.3 mm (depth). Using isotropic scaling, the front face constraint raised the mean TRE by 0.6-0.8 mm. Conclusions: For sub-millimeter accuracy, 3D reconstruction models should not constrain histology images to the tissue slice front faces and should be flexible enough to model isotropic scaling. PMID:24392245

Face to face with emotion: holistic face processing is modulated by emotional state.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Johnson, Kareem J; Tyson, Alyssa

2012-01-01

Negative emotions are linked with a local, rather than global, visual processing style, which may preferentially facilitate feature-based, relative to holistic, processing mechanisms. Because faces are typically processed holistically, and because social contexts are prime elicitors of emotions, we examined whether negative emotions decrease holistic processing of faces. We induced positive, negative, or neutral emotions via film clips and measured holistic processing before and after the induction: participants made judgements about cued parts of chimeric faces, and holistic processing was indexed by the interference caused by task-irrelevant face parts. Emotional state significantly modulated face-processing style, with the negative emotion induction leading to decreased holistic processing. Furthermore, self-reported change in emotional state correlated with changes in holistic processing. These results contrast with general assumptions that holistic processing of faces is automatic and immune to outside influences, and they illustrate emotion's power to modulate socially relevant aspects of visual perception.

Modulation of Alpha Oscillations in the Human EEG with Facial Preference

PubMed Central

Kang, Jae-Hwan; Kim, Su Jin; Cho, Yang Seok; Kim, Sung-Phil

2015-01-01

Facial preference that results from the processing of facial information plays an important role in social interactions as well as the selection of a mate, friend, candidate, or favorite actor. However, it still remains elusive which brain regions are implicated in the neural mechanisms underlying facial preference, and how neural activities in these regions are modulated during the formation of facial preference. In the present study, we investigated the modulation of electroencephalography (EEG) oscillatory power with facial preference. For the reliable assessments of facial preference, we designed a series of passive viewing and active choice tasks. In the former task, twenty-four face stimuli were passively viewed by participants for multiple times in random order. In the latter task, the same stimuli were then evaluated by participants for their facial preference judgments. In both tasks, significant differences between the preferred and non-preferred faces groups were found in alpha band power (8–13 Hz) but not in other frequency bands. The preferred faces generated more decreases in alpha power. During the passive viewing task, significant differences in alpha power between the preferred and non-preferred face groups were observed at the left frontal regions in the early (0.15–0.4 s) period during the 1-s presentation. By contrast, during the active choice task when participants consecutively watched the first and second face for 1 s and then selected the preferred one, an alpha power difference was found for the late (0.65–0.8 s) period over the whole brain during the first face presentation and over the posterior regions during the second face presentation. These results demonstrate that the modulation of alpha activity by facial preference is a top-down process, which requires additional cognitive resources to facilitate information processing of the preferred faces that capture more visual attention than the non-preferred faces. PMID:26394328

Expectation and Surprise Determine Neural Population Responses in the Ventral Visual Stream

PubMed Central

Egner, Tobias; Monti, Jim M.; Summerfield, Christopher

2014-01-01

Visual cortex is traditionally viewed as a hierarchy of neural feature detectors, with neural population responses being driven by bottom-up stimulus features. Conversely, “predictive coding” models propose that each stage of the visual hierarchy harbors two computationally distinct classes of processing unit: representational units that encode the conditional probability of a stimulus and provide predictions to the next lower level; and error units that encode the mismatch between predictions and bottom-up evidence, and forward prediction error to the next higher level. Predictive coding therefore suggests that neural population responses in category-selective visual regions, like the fusiform face area (FFA), reflect a summation of activity related to prediction (“face expectation”) and prediction error (“face surprise”), rather than a homogenous feature detection response. We tested the rival hypotheses of the feature detection and predictive coding models by collecting functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the FFA while independently varying both stimulus features (faces vs houses) and subjects’ perceptual expectations regarding those features (low vs medium vs high face expectation). The effects of stimulus and expectation factors interacted, whereby FFA activity elicited by face and house stimuli was indistinguishable under high face expectation and maximally differentiated under low face expectation. Using computational modeling, we show that these data can be explained by predictive coding but not by feature detection models, even when the latter are augmented with attentional mechanisms. Thus, population responses in the ventral visual stream appear to be determined by feature expectation and surprise rather than by stimulus features per se. PMID:21147999

Processing of configural and componential information in face-selective cortical areas.

PubMed

Zhao, Mintao; Cheung, Sing-Hang; Wong, Alan C-N; Rhodes, Gillian; Chan, Erich K S; Chan, Winnie W L; Hayward, William G

2014-01-01

We investigated how face-selective cortical areas process configural and componential face information and how race of faces may influence these processes. Participants saw blurred (preserving configural information), scrambled (preserving componential information), and whole faces during fMRI scan, and performed a post-scan face recognition task using blurred or scrambled faces. The fusiform face area (FFA) showed stronger activation to blurred than to scrambled faces, and equivalent responses to blurred and whole faces. The occipital face area (OFA) showed stronger activation to whole than to blurred faces, which elicited similar responses to scrambled faces. Therefore, the FFA may be more tuned to process configural than componential information, whereas the OFA similarly participates in perception of both. Differences in recognizing own- and other-race blurred faces were correlated with differences in FFA activation to those faces, suggesting that configural processing within the FFA may underlie the other-race effect in face recognition.

Evaluating Productivity Predictions Under Elevated CO2 Conditions: Multi-Model Benchmarking Across FACE Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowdery, E.; Dietze, M.

2016-12-01

As atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, it is critical that terrestrial ecosystem models can accurately predict ecological responses to the changing environment. Current predictions of net primary productivity (NPP) in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration are highly variable and contain a considerable amount of uncertainty.The Predictive Ecosystem Analyzer (PEcAn) is an informatics toolbox that wraps around an ecosystem model and can be used to help identify which factors drive uncertainty. We tested a suite of models (LPJ-GUESS, MAESPA, GDAY, CLM5, DALEC, ED2), which represent a range from low to high structural complexity, across a range of Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiments: the Kennedy Space Center Open Top Chamber Experiment, the Rhinelander FACE experiment, the Duke Forest FACE experiment and the Oak Ridge Experiment on CO2 Enrichment. These tests were implemented in a novel benchmarking workflow that is automated, repeatable, and generalized to incorporate different sites and ecological models. Observational data from the FACE experiments represent a first test of this flexible, extensible approach aimed at providing repeatable tests of model process representation.To identify and evaluate the assumptions causing inter-model differences we used PEcAn to perform model sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, not only to assess the components of NPP, but also to examine system processes such nutrient uptake and and water use. Combining the observed patterns of uncertainty between multiple models with results of the recent FACE-model data synthesis project (FACE-MDS) can help identify which processes need further study and additional data constraints. These findings can be used to inform future experimental design and in turn can provide informative starting point for data assimilation.

Hemispheric differences in recognizing upper and lower facial displays of emotion.

PubMed

Prodan, C I; Orbelo, D M; Testa, J A; Ross, E D

2001-01-01

To determine if there are hemispheric differences in processing upper versus lower facial displays of emotion. Recent evidence suggests that there are two broad classes of emotions with differential hemispheric lateralization. Primary emotions (e.g. anger, fear) and associated displays are innate, are recognized across all cultures, and are thought to be modulated by the right hemisphere. Social emotions (e.g., guilt, jealousy) and associated "display rules" are learned during early child development, vary across cultures, and are thought to be modulated by the left hemisphere. Display rules are used by persons to alter, suppress or enhance primary emotional displays for social purposes. During deceitful behaviors, a subject's true emotional state is often leaked through upper rather than lower facial displays, giving rise to facial blends of emotion. We hypothesized that upper facial displays are processed preferentially by the right hemisphere, as part of the primary emotional system, while lower facial displays are processed preferentially by the left hemisphere, as part of the social emotional system. 30 strongly right-handed adult volunteers were tested tachistoscopically by randomly flashing facial displays of emotion to the right and left visual fields. The stimuli were line drawings of facial blends with different emotions displayed on the upper versus lower face. The subjects were tested under two conditions: 1) without instructions and 2) with instructions to attend to the upper face. Without instructions, the subjects robustly identified the emotion displayed on the lower face, regardless of visual field presentation. With instructions to attend to the upper face, for the left visual field they robustly identified the emotion displayed on the upper face. For the right visual field, they continued to identify the emotion displayed on the lower face, but to a lesser degree. Our results support the hypothesis that hemispheric differences exist in the ability to process upper versus lower facial displays of emotion. Attention appears to enhance the ability to explore these hemispheric differences under experimental conditions. Our data also support the recent observation that the right hemisphere has a greater ability to recognize deceitful behaviors compared with the left hemisphere. This may be attributable to the different roles the hemispheres play in modulating social versus primary emotions and related behaviors.

Uyghur face recognition method combining 2DDCT with POEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Lihamu; Ya, Ermaimaiti

2017-11-01

In this paper, in light of the reduced recognition rate and poor robustness of Uyghur face under illumination and partial occlusion, a Uyghur face recognition method combining Two Dimension Discrete Cosine Transform (2DDCT) with Patterns Oriented Edge Magnitudes (POEM) was proposed. Firstly, the Uyghur face images were divided into 8×8 block matrix, and the Uyghur face images after block processing were converted into frequency-domain status using 2DDCT; secondly, the Uyghur face images were compressed to exclude non-sensitive medium frequency parts and non-high frequency parts, so it can reduce the feature dimensions necessary for the Uyghur face images, and further reduce the amount of computation; thirdly, the corresponding POEM histograms of the Uyghur face images were obtained by calculating the feature quantity of POEM; fourthly, the POEM histograms were cascaded together as the texture histogram of the center feature point to obtain the texture features of the Uyghur face feature points; finally, classification of the training samples was carried out using deep learning algorithm. The simulation experiment results showed that the proposed algorithm further improved the recognition rate of the self-built Uyghur face database, and greatly improved the computing speed of the self-built Uyghur face database, and had strong robustness.

Holistic face perception is modulated by experience-dependent perceptual grouping.

PubMed

Curby, Kim M; Entenman, Robert J; Fleming, Justin T

2016-07-01

What role do general-purpose, experience-sensitive perceptual mechanisms play in producing characteristic features of face perception? We previously demonstrated that different-colored, misaligned framing backgrounds, designed to disrupt perceptual grouping of face parts appearing upon them, disrupt holistic face perception. In the current experiments, a similar part-judgment task with composite faces was performed: face parts appeared in either misaligned, different-colored rectangles or aligned, same-colored rectangles. To investigate whether experience can shape impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception, a pre-task fostered the perception of either (a) the misaligned, differently colored rectangle frames as parts of a single, multicolored polygon or (b) the aligned, same-colored rectangle frames as a single square shape. Faces appearing in the misaligned, differently colored rectangles were processed more holistically by those in the polygon-, compared with the square-, pre-task group. Holistic effects for faces appearing in aligned, same-colored rectangles showed the opposite pattern. Experiment 2, which included a pre-task condition fostering the perception of the aligned, same-colored frames as pairs of independent rectangles, provided converging evidence that experience can modulate impacts of perceptual grouping on holistic face perception. These results are surprising given the proposed impenetrability of holistic face perception and provide insights into the elusive mechanisms underlying holistic perception.

Brain connectivity analysis from EEG signals using stable phase-synchronized states during face perception tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamal, Wasifa; Das, Saptarshi; Maharatna, Koushik; Pan, Indranil; Kuyucu, Doga

2015-09-01

Degree of phase synchronization between different Electroencephalogram (EEG) channels is known to be the manifestation of the underlying mechanism of information coupling between different brain regions. In this paper, we apply a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) based analysis technique on EEG data, captured during face perception tasks, to explore the temporal evolution of phase synchronization, from the onset of a stimulus. Our explorations show that there exists a small set (typically 3-5) of unique synchronized patterns or synchrostates, each of which are stable of the order of milliseconds. Particularly, in the beta (β) band, which has been reported to be associated with visual processing task, the number of such stable states has been found to be three consistently. During processing of the stimulus, the switching between these states occurs abruptly but the switching characteristic follows a well-behaved and repeatable sequence. This is observed in a single subject analysis as well as a multiple-subject group-analysis in adults during face perception. We also show that although these patterns remain topographically similar for the general category of face perception task, the sequence of their occurrence and their temporal stability varies markedly between different face perception scenarios (stimuli) indicating toward different dynamical characteristics for information processing, which is stimulus-specific in nature. Subsequently, we translated these stable states into brain complex networks and derived informative network measures for characterizing the degree of segregated processing and information integration in those synchrostates, leading to a new methodology for characterizing information processing in human brain. The proposed methodology of modeling the functional brain connectivity through the synchrostates may be viewed as a new way of quantitative characterization of the cognitive ability of the subject, stimuli and information integration/segregation capability.

On the domain-specificity of the visual and non-visual face-selective regions.

PubMed

Axelrod, Vadim

2016-08-01

What happens in our brains when we see a face? The neural mechanisms of face processing - namely, the face-selective regions - have been extensively explored. Research has traditionally focused on visual cortex face-regions; more recently, the role of face-regions outside the visual cortex (i.e., non-visual-cortex face-regions) has been acknowledged as well. The major quest today is to reveal the functional role of each this region in face processing. To make progress in this direction, it is essential to understand the extent to which the face-regions, and particularly the non-visual-cortex face-regions, process only faces (i.e., face-specific, domain-specific processing) or rather are involved in a more domain-general cognitive processing. In the current functional MRI study, we systematically examined the activity of the whole face-network during face-unrelated reading task (i.e., written meaningful sentences with content unrelated to faces/people and non-words). We found that the non-visual-cortex (i.e., right lateral prefrontal cortex and posterior superior temporal sulcus), but not the visual cortex face-regions, responded significantly stronger to sentences than to non-words. In general, some degree of sentence selectivity was found in all non-visual-cortex cortex. Present result highlights the possibility that the processing in the non-visual-cortex face-selective regions might not be exclusively face-specific, but rather more or even fully domain-general. In this paper, we illustrate how the knowledge about domain-general processing in face-regions can help to advance our general understanding of face processing mechanisms. Our results therefore suggest that the problem of face processing should be approached in the broader scope of cognition in general. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Familiarity facilitates feature-based face processing.

PubMed

Visconti di Oleggio Castello, Matteo; Wheeler, Kelsey G; Cipolli, Carlo; Gobbini, M Ida

2017-01-01

Recognition of personally familiar faces is remarkably efficient, effortless and robust. We asked if feature-based face processing facilitates detection of familiar faces by testing the effect of face inversion on a visual search task for familiar and unfamiliar faces. Because face inversion disrupts configural and holistic face processing, we hypothesized that inversion would diminish the familiarity advantage to the extent that it is mediated by such processing. Subjects detected personally familiar and stranger target faces in arrays of two, four, or six face images. Subjects showed significant facilitation of personally familiar face detection for both upright and inverted faces. The effect of familiarity on target absent trials, which involved only rejection of unfamiliar face distractors, suggests that familiarity facilitates rejection of unfamiliar distractors as well as detection of familiar targets. The preserved familiarity effect for inverted faces suggests that facilitation of face detection afforded by familiarity reflects mostly feature-based processes.

A linguistic analysis of grooming strategies of online child sex offenders: Implications for our understanding of predatory sexual behavior in an increasingly computer-mediated world.

PubMed

Black, Pamela J; Wollis, Melissa; Woodworth, Michael; Hancock, Jeffrey T

2015-06-01

There is a large body of evidence to suggest that child sex offenders engage in grooming to facilitate victimization. It has been speculated that this step-by-step grooming process is also used by offenders who access their underage victims online; however, little research has been done to examine whether there are unique aspects of computer-mediated communication that impact the traditional face-to-face grooming process. This study considered the similarities and differences in the grooming process in online environments by analyzing the language used by online offenders when communicating with their victims. The transcripts of 44 convicted online offenders were analyzed to assess a proposed theory of the online grooming process (O'Connell, 2003). Using a stage-based approach, computerized text analysis examined the types of language used in each stage of the offender-victim interaction. The transcripts also were content analyzed to examine the frequency of specific techniques known to be employed by both face-to-face and online offenders, such as flattery. Results reveal that while some evidence of the strategies used by offenders throughout the grooming process are present in online environments, the order and timing of these stages appear to be different. The types (and potential underlying pattern) of strategies used in online grooming support the development of a revised model for grooming in online environments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing the visual spans for faces and letters

PubMed Central

He, Yingchen; Scholz, Jennifer M.; Gage, Rachel; Kallie, Christopher S.; Liu, Tingting; Legge, Gordon E.

2015-01-01

The visual span—the number of adjacent text letters that can be reliably recognized on one fixation—has been proposed as a sensory bottleneck that limits reading speed (Legge, Mansfield, & Chung, 2001). Like reading, searching for a face is an important daily task that involves pattern recognition. Is there a similar limitation on the number of faces that can be recognized in a single fixation? Here we report on a study in which we measured and compared the visual-span profiles for letter and face recognition. A serial two-stage model for pattern recognition was developed to interpret the data. The first stage is characterized by factors limiting recognition of isolated letters or faces, and the second stage represents the interfering effect of nearby stimuli on recognition. Our findings show that the visual span for faces is smaller than that for letters. Surprisingly, however, when differences in first-stage processing for letters and faces are accounted for, the two visual spans become nearly identical. These results suggest that the concept of visual span may describe a common sensory bottleneck that underlies different types of pattern recognition. PMID:26129858

Ecological and genetic systems underlying sustainable horticulture

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agriculture in the 21st century will face unprecedented challenges due to rising energy costs, global climate change, and increasingly scarce production resources. It will become imperative for producers to adopt sustainable systems that rely on natural system processes and use inputs as efficientl...

Looking at My Own Face: Visual Processing Strategies in Self–Other Face Recognition

PubMed Central

Chakraborty, Anya; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev

2018-01-01

We live in an age of ‘selfies.’ Yet, how we look at our own faces has seldom been systematically investigated. In this study we test if the visual processing of the highly familiar self-face is different from other faces, using psychophysics and eye-tracking. This paradigm also enabled us to test the association between the psychophysical properties of self-face representation and visual processing strategies involved in self-face recognition. Thirty-three adults performed a self-face recognition task from a series of self-other face morphs with simultaneous eye-tracking. Participants were found to look longer at the lower part of the face for self-face compared to other-face. Participants with a more distinct self-face representation, as indexed by a steeper slope of the psychometric response curve for self-face recognition, were found to look longer at upper part of the faces identified as ‘self’ vs. those identified as ‘other’. This result indicates that self-face representation can influence where we look when we process our own vs. others’ faces. We also investigated the association of autism-related traits with self-face processing metrics since autism has previously been associated with atypical self-processing. The study did not find any self-face specific association with autistic traits, suggesting that autism-related features may be related to self-processing in a domain specific manner. PMID:29487554

Emotion and sex of facial stimuli modulate conditional automaticity in behavioral and neuronal interference in healthy men.

PubMed

Kohn, Nils; Fernández, Guillén

2017-12-06

Our surrounding provides a host of sensory input, which we cannot fully process without streamlining and automatic processing. Levels of automaticity differ for different cognitive and affective processes. Situational and contextual interactions between cognitive and affective processes in turn influence the level of automaticity. Automaticity can be measured by interference in Stroop tasks. We applied an emotional version of the Stroop task to investigate how stress as a contextual factor influences the affective valence-dependent level of automaticity. 120 young, healthy men were investigated for behavioral and brain interference following a stress induction or control procedure in a counter-balanced cross-over-design. Although Stroop interference was always observed, sex and emotion of the face strongly modulated interference, which was larger for fearful and male faces. These effects suggest higher automaticity when processing happy and also female faces. Supporting behavioral patterns, brain data show lower interference related brain activity in executive control related regions in response to happy and female faces. In the absence of behavioral stress effects, congruent compared to incongruent trials (reverse interference) showed little to no deactivation under stress in response to happy female and fearful male trials. These congruency effects are potentially based on altered context- stress-related facial processing that interact with sex-emotion stereotypes. Results indicate that sex and facial emotion modulate Stroop interference in brain and behavior. These effects can be explained by altered response difficulty as a consequence of the contextual and stereotype related modulation of automaticity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parsing multiple processes of high temperature impacts on corn/soybean yield using a newly developed CLM-APSIM modeling framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, B.; Guan, K.; Chen, M.

2016-12-01

Future agricultural production faces a grand challenge of higher temperature under climate change. There are multiple physiological or metabolic processes of how high temperature affects crop yield. Specifically, we consider the following major processes: (1) direct temperature effects on photosynthesis and respiration; (2) speed-up growth rate and the shortening of growing season; (3) heat stress during reproductive stage (flowering and grain-filling); (4) high-temperature induced increase of atmospheric water demands. In this work, we use a newly developed modeling framework (CLM-APSIM) to simulate the corn and soybean growth and explicitly parse the above four processes. By combining the strength of CLM in modeling surface biophysical (e.g., hydrology and energy balance) and biogeochemical (e.g., photosynthesis and carbon-nitrogen interactions), as well as that of APSIM in modeling crop phenology and reproductive stress, the newly developed CLM-APSIM modeling framework enables us to diagnose the impacts of high temperature stress through different processes at various crop phenology stages. Ground measurements from the advanced SoyFACE facility at University of Illinois is used here to calibrate, validate, and improve the CLM-APSIM modeling framework at the site level. We finally use the CLM-APSIM modeling framework to project crop yield for the whole US Corn Belt under different climate scenarios.

Detecting emotion in others: increased insula and decreased medial prefrontal cortex activation during emotion processing in elite adventure racers

PubMed Central

Johnson, Douglas C.; Flagan, Taru; Simmons, Alan N.; Kotturi, Sante A.; Van Orden, Karl F.; Potterat, Eric G.; Swain, Judith L.; Paulus, Martin P.

2014-01-01

Understanding the neural processes that characterize elite performers is a first step to develop a neuroscience model that can be used to improve performance in stressful circumstances. Adventure racers are elite athletes that operate in small teams in the context of environmental and physical extremes. In particular, awareness of team member’s emotional status is critical to the team’s ability to navigate high-magnitude stressors. Thus, this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined the hypothesis that adventure racers would show altered emotion processing in brain areas that are important for resilience and social awareness. Elite adventure racers (n = 10) were compared with healthy volunteers (n = 12) while performing a simple emotion face-processing (modified Hariri) task during fMRI. Across three types of emotional faces, adventure racers showed greater activation in right insula, left amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate. Additionally, compared with healthy controls adventure racers showed attenuated right medial prefrontal cortex activation. These results are consistent with previous studies showing elite performers differentially activate neural substrates underlying interoception. Thus, adventure racers differentially deploy brain resources in an effort to recognize and process the internal sensations associated with emotions in others, which could be advantageous for team-based performance under stress. PMID:23171614

Categorization for Faces and Tools—Two Classes of Objects Shaped by Different Experience—Differs in Processing Timing, Brain Areas Involved, and Repetition Effects

PubMed Central

Kozunov, Vladimir; Nikolaeva, Anastasia; Stroganova, Tatiana A.

2018-01-01

The brain mechanisms that integrate the separate features of sensory input into a meaningful percept depend upon the prior experience of interaction with the object and differ between categories of objects. Recent studies using representational similarity analysis (RSA) have characterized either the spatial patterns of brain activity for different categories of objects or described how category structure in neuronal representations emerges in time, but never simultaneously. Here we applied a novel, region-based, multivariate pattern classification approach in combination with RSA to magnetoencephalography data to extract activity associated with qualitatively distinct processing stages of visual perception. We asked participants to name what they see whilst viewing bitonal visual stimuli of two categories predominantly shaped by either value-dependent or sensorimotor experience, namely faces and tools, and meaningless images. We aimed to disambiguate the spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity between the meaningful categories and determine which differences in their processing were attributable to either perceptual categorization per se, or later-stage mentalizing-related processes. We have extracted three stages of cortical activity corresponding to low-level processing, category-specific feature binding, and supra-categorical processing. All face-specific spatiotemporal patterns were associated with bilateral activation of ventral occipito-temporal areas during the feature binding stage at 140–170 ms. The tool-specific activity was found both within the categorization stage and in a later period not thought to be associated with binding processes. The tool-specific binding-related activity was detected within a 210–220 ms window and was located to the intraparietal sulcus of the left hemisphere. Brain activity common for both meaningful categories started at 250 ms and included widely distributed assemblies within parietal, temporal, and prefrontal regions. Furthermore, we hypothesized and tested whether activity within face and tool-specific binding-related patterns would demonstrate oppositely acting effects following procedural perceptual learning. We found that activity in the ventral, face-specific network increased following the stimuli repetition. In contrast, tool processing in the dorsal network adapted by reducing its activity over the repetition period. Altogether, we have demonstrated that activity associated with visual processing of faces and tools during the categorization stage differ in processing timing, brain areas involved, and in their dynamics underlying stimuli learning. PMID:29379426

Categorization for Faces and Tools-Two Classes of Objects Shaped by Different Experience-Differs in Processing Timing, Brain Areas Involved, and Repetition Effects.

PubMed

Kozunov, Vladimir; Nikolaeva, Anastasia; Stroganova, Tatiana A

2017-01-01

The brain mechanisms that integrate the separate features of sensory input into a meaningful percept depend upon the prior experience of interaction with the object and differ between categories of objects. Recent studies using representational similarity analysis (RSA) have characterized either the spatial patterns of brain activity for different categories of objects or described how category structure in neuronal representations emerges in time, but never simultaneously. Here we applied a novel, region-based, multivariate pattern classification approach in combination with RSA to magnetoencephalography data to extract activity associated with qualitatively distinct processing stages of visual perception. We asked participants to name what they see whilst viewing bitonal visual stimuli of two categories predominantly shaped by either value-dependent or sensorimotor experience, namely faces and tools, and meaningless images. We aimed to disambiguate the spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity between the meaningful categories and determine which differences in their processing were attributable to either perceptual categorization per se , or later-stage mentalizing-related processes. We have extracted three stages of cortical activity corresponding to low-level processing, category-specific feature binding, and supra-categorical processing. All face-specific spatiotemporal patterns were associated with bilateral activation of ventral occipito-temporal areas during the feature binding stage at 140-170 ms. The tool-specific activity was found both within the categorization stage and in a later period not thought to be associated with binding processes. The tool-specific binding-related activity was detected within a 210-220 ms window and was located to the intraparietal sulcus of the left hemisphere. Brain activity common for both meaningful categories started at 250 ms and included widely distributed assemblies within parietal, temporal, and prefrontal regions. Furthermore, we hypothesized and tested whether activity within face and tool-specific binding-related patterns would demonstrate oppositely acting effects following procedural perceptual learning. We found that activity in the ventral, face-specific network increased following the stimuli repetition. In contrast, tool processing in the dorsal network adapted by reducing its activity over the repetition period. Altogether, we have demonstrated that activity associated with visual processing of faces and tools during the categorization stage differ in processing timing, brain areas involved, and in their dynamics underlying stimuli learning.

Non-contact Real-time heart rate measurements based on high speed circuit technology research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jizhe; Liu, Xiaohua; Kong, Lingqin; Shi, Cong; Liu, Ming; Hui, Mei; Dong, Liquan; Zhao, Yuejin

2015-08-01

In recent years, morbidity and mortality of the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, which threaten human health greatly, increased year by year. Heart rate is an important index of these diseases. To address this status, the paper puts forward a kind of simple structure, easy operation, suitable for large populations of daily monitoring non-contact heart rate measurement. In the method we use imaging equipment video sensitive areas. The changes of light intensity reflected through the image grayscale average. The light change is caused by changes in blood volume. We video the people face which include the sensitive areas (ROI), and use high-speed processing circuit to save the video as AVI format into memory. After processing the whole video of a period of time, we draw curve of each color channel with frame number as horizontal axis. Then get heart rate from the curve. We use independent component analysis (ICA) to restrain noise of sports interference, realized the accurate extraction of heart rate signal under the motion state. We design an algorithm, based on high-speed processing circuit, for face recognition and tracking to automatically get face region. We do grayscale average processing to the recognized image, get RGB three grayscale curves, and extract a clearer pulse wave curves through independent component analysis, and then we get the heart rate under the motion state. At last, by means of compare our system with Fingertip Pulse Oximeter, result show the system can realize a more accurate measurement, the error is less than 3 pats per minute.

External and internal facial features modulate processing of vertical but not horizontal spatial relations.

PubMed

Meinhardt, Günter; Kurbel, David; Meinhardt-Injac, Bozana; Persike, Malte

2018-03-22

Some years ago an asymmetry was reported for the inversion effect for horizontal (H) and vertical (V) relational face manipulations (Goffaux & Rossion, 2007). Subsequent research examined whether a specific disruption of long-range relations underlies the H/V inversion asymmetry (Sekunova & Barton, 2008). Here, we tested how detection of changes in interocular distance (H) and eye height (V) depends on cardinal internal features and external feature surround. Results replicated the H/V inversion asymmetry. Moreover, we found very different face cue dependencies for both change types. Performance and inversion effects did not depend on the presence of other face cues for detecting H changes. In contrast, accuracy for detecting V changes strongly depended on internal and external features, showing cumulative improvement when more cues were added. Inversion effects were generally large, and larger with external feature surround. The cue independence in detecting H relational changes indicates specialized local processing tightly tuned to the eyes region, while the strong cue dependency in detecting V relational changes indicates a global mechanism of cue integration across different face regions. These findings suggest that the H/V asymmetry of the inversion effect rests on an H/V anisotropy of face cue dependency, since only the global V mechanism suffers from disruption of cue integration as the major effect of face inversion. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Gamma Activation in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically-Developing Controls When Viewing Emotions on Faces

PubMed Central

Wright, Barry; Alderson-Day, Ben; Prendergast, Garreth; Bennett, Sophie; Jordan, Jo; Whitton, Clare; Gouws, Andre; Jones, Nick; Attur, Ram; Tomlinson, Heather; Green, Gary

2012-01-01

Background Behavioural studies have highlighted irregularities in recognition of facial affect in children and young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Recent findings from studies utilising electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) have identified abnormal activation and irregular maintenance of gamma (>30 Hz) range oscillations when ASD individuals attempt basic visual and auditory tasks. Methodology/Principal Fndings The pilot study reported here is the first study to use spatial filtering techniques in MEG to explore face processing in children with ASD. We set out to examine theoretical suggestions that gamma activation underlying face processing may be different in a group of children and young people with ASD (n = 13) compared to typically developing (TD) age, gender and IQ matched controls. Beamforming and virtual electrode techniques were used to assess spatially localised induced and evoked activity. While lower-band (3–30 Hz) responses to faces were similar between groups, the ASD gamma response in occipital areas was observed to be largely absent when viewing emotions on faces. Virtual electrode analysis indicated the presence of intact evoked responses but abnormal induced activity in ASD participants. Conclusions/Significance These findings lend weight to previous suggestions that specific components of the early visual response to emotional faces is abnormal in ASD. Elucidation of the nature and specificity of these findings is worthy of further research. PMID:22859975

Increased amygdala responses to sad but not fearful faces in major depression: relation to mood state and pharmacological treatment.

PubMed

Arnone, Danilo; McKie, Shane; Elliott, Rebecca; Thomas, Emma J; Downey, Darragh; Juhasz, Gabriella; Williams, Steve R; Deakin, J F William; Anderson, Ian M

2012-08-01

Increased amygdala response to negative emotions seen in functional MRI (fMRI) has been proposed as a biomarker for negative emotion processing bias underlying depressive symptoms and vulnerability to depressive relapse that are normalized by antidepressant drug treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether abnormal amygdala responses to face emotions in depression are related to specific emotions or change in response to antidepressant treatment and whether they are present as a stable trait in medication-free patients in remission. Sixty-two medication-free unipolar depressed patients (38 were currently depressed, and 24 were in remission) and 54 healthy comparison subjects underwent an indirect face-emotion processing task during fMRI. Thirty-two currently depressed patients were treated with the antidepressant citalopram for 8 weeks. Adherence to treatment was evaluated by measuring citalopram plasma concentrations. Patients with current depression had increased bilateral amygdala responses specific to sad faces relative to healthy comparison subjects and nonmedicated patients in stable remission. Treatment with citalopram abolished the abnormal amygdala responses to sad faces in currently depressed patients but did not alter responses to fearful faces. Aberrant amygdala activation in response to sad facial emotions is specific to the depressed state and is a potential biomarker for a negative affective bias during a depressive episode.

Face and emotion expression processing and the serotonin transporter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR/rs22531.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, A; Kiy, A; Reuter, M; Sommer, W; Wilhelm, O

2016-06-01

Face cognition, including face identity and facial expression processing, is a crucial component of socio-emotional abilities, characterizing humans as highest developed social beings. However, for these trait domains molecular genetic studies investigating gene-behavior associations based on well-founded phenotype definitions are still rare. We examined the relationship between 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms - related to serotonin-reuptake - and the ability to perceive and recognize faces and emotional expressions in human faces. For this aim we conducted structural equation modeling on data from 230 young adults, obtained by using a comprehensive, multivariate task battery with maximal effort tasks. By additionally modeling fluid intelligence and immediate and delayed memory factors, we aimed to address the discriminant relationships of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms with socio-emotional abilities. We found a robust association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and facial emotion perception. Carriers of two long (L) alleles outperformed carriers of one or two S alleles. Weaker associations were present for face identity perception and memory for emotional facial expressions. There was no association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and non-social abilities, demonstrating discriminant validity of the relationships. We discuss the implications and possible neural mechanisms underlying these novel findings. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics.

PubMed

Perrett, David I; Penton-Voak, Ian S; Little, Anthony C; Tiddeman, Bernard P; Burt, D Michael; Schmidt, Natalie; Oxley, Roz; Kinloch, Nicholas; Barrett, Louise

2002-05-07

Mate preferences are shaped by infant experience of parental characteristics in a wide variety of species. Similar processes in humans may lead to physical similarity between parents and mates, yet this possibility has received little attention. The age of parents is one salient physical characteristic that offspring may attend to. The current study used computer-graphic faces to examine how preferences for age in faces were influenced by parental age. We found that women born to 'old' parents (over 30) were less impressed by youth, and more attracted to age cues in male faces than women with 'young' parents (under 30). For men, preferences for female faces were influenced by their mother's age and not their father's age, but only for long-term relationships. These data indicate that judgements of facial attractiveness in humans reflect the learning of parental characteristics.

A regional composite-face effect for species-specific recognition: Upper and lower halves play different roles in holistic processing of monkey faces.

PubMed

Wang, Zhe; Quinn, Paul C; Jin, Haiyang; Sun, Yu-Hao P; Tanaka, James W; Pascalis, Olivier; Lee, Kang

2018-04-25

Using a composite-face paradigm, we examined the holistic processing induced by Asian faces, Caucasian faces, and monkey faces with human Asian participants in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether the upper halves of two faces successively presented were the same or different. A composite-face effect was found for Asian faces and Caucasian faces, but not for monkey faces. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to judge whether the lower halves of the two faces successively presented were the same or different. A composite-face effect was found for monkey faces as well as for Asian faces and Caucasian faces. Collectively, these results reveal that own-species (i.e., own-race and other-race) faces engage holistic processing in both upper and lower halves of the face, but other-species (i.e., monkey) faces engage holistic processing only when participants are asked to match the lower halves of the face. The findings are discussed in the context of a region-based holistic processing account for the species-specific effect in face recognition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Process and domain specificity in regions engaged for face processing: an fMRI study of perceptual differentiation.

PubMed

Collins, Heather R; Zhu, Xun; Bhatt, Ramesh S; Clark, Jonathan D; Joseph, Jane E

2012-12-01

The degree to which face-specific brain regions are specialized for different kinds of perceptual processing is debated. This study parametrically varied demands on featural, first-order configural, or second-order configural processing of faces and houses in a perceptual matching task to determine the extent to which the process of perceptual differentiation was selective for faces regardless of processing type (domain-specific account), specialized for specific types of perceptual processing regardless of category (process-specific account), engaged in category-optimized processing (i.e., configural face processing or featural house processing), or reflected generalized perceptual differentiation (i.e., differentiation that crosses category and processing type boundaries). ROIs were identified in a separate localizer run or with a similarity regressor in the face-matching runs. The predominant principle accounting for fMRI signal modulation in most regions was generalized perceptual differentiation. Nearly all regions showed perceptual differentiation for both faces and houses for more than one processing type, even if the region was identified as face-preferential in the localizer run. Consistent with process specificity, some regions showed perceptual differentiation for first-order processing of faces and houses (right fusiform face area and occipito-temporal cortex and right lateral occipital complex), but not for featural or second-order processing. Somewhat consistent with domain specificity, the right inferior frontal gyrus showed perceptual differentiation only for faces in the featural matching task. The present findings demonstrate that the majority of regions involved in perceptual differentiation of faces are also involved in differentiation of other visually homogenous categories.

Process- and Domain-Specificity in Regions Engaged for Face Processing: An fMRI Study of Perceptual Differentiation

PubMed Central

Collins, Heather R.; Zhu, Xun; Bhatt, Ramesh S.; Clark, Jonathan D.; Joseph, Jane E.

2015-01-01

The degree to which face-specific brain regions are specialized for different kinds of perceptual processing is debated. The present study parametrically varied demands on featural, first-order configural or second-order configural processing of faces and houses in a perceptual matching task to determine the extent to which the process of perceptual differentiation was selective for faces regardless of processing type (domain-specific account), specialized for specific types of perceptual processing regardless of category (process-specific account), engaged in category-optimized processing (i.e., configural face processing or featural house processing) or reflected generalized perceptual differentiation (i.e. differentiation that crosses category and processing type boundaries). Regions of interest were identified in a separate localizer run or with a similarity regressor in the face-matching runs. The predominant principle accounting for fMRI signal modulation in most regions was generalized perceptual differentiation. Nearly all regions showed perceptual differentiation for both faces and houses for more than one processing type, even if the region was identified as face-preferential in the localizer run. Consistent with process-specificity, some regions showed perceptual differentiation for first-order processing of faces and houses (right fusiform face area and occipito-temporal cortex, and right lateral occipital complex), but not for featural or second-order processing. Somewhat consistent with domain-specificity, the right inferior frontal gyrus showed perceptual differentiation only for faces in the featural matching task. The present findings demonstrate that the majority of regions involved in perceptual differentiation of faces are also involved in differentiation of other visually homogenous categories. PMID:22849402

The Roles of Featural and Configural Face Processing in Snap Judgments of Sexual Orientation

PubMed Central

Tabak, Joshua A.; Zayas, Vivian

2012-01-01

Research has shown that people are able to judge sexual orientation from faces with above-chance accuracy, but little is known about how these judgments are formed. Here, we investigated the importance of well-established face processing mechanisms in such judgments: featural processing (e.g., an eye) and configural processing (e.g., spatial distance between eyes). Participants judged sexual orientation from faces presented for 50 milliseconds either upright, which recruits both configural and featural processing, or upside-down, when configural processing is strongly impaired and featural processing remains relatively intact. Although participants judged women’s and men’s sexual orientation with above-chance accuracy for upright faces and for upside-down faces, accuracy for upside-down faces was significantly reduced. The reduced judgment accuracy for upside-down faces indicates that configural face processing significantly contributes to accurate snap judgments of sexual orientation. PMID:22629321

Priming global and local processing of composite faces: revisiting the processing-bias effect on face perception.

PubMed

Gao, Zaifeng; Flevaris, Anastasia V; Robertson, Lynn C; Bentin, Shlomo

2011-07-01

We used the composite-face illusion and Navon stimuli to determine the consequences of priming local or global processing on subsequent face recognition. The composite-face illusion reflects the difficulty of ignoring the task-irrelevant half-face while attending the task-relevant half if the half-faces in the composite are aligned. On each trial, participants first matched two Navon stimuli, attending to either the global or the local level, and then matched the upper halves of two composite faces presented sequentially. Global processing of Navon stimuli increased the sensitivity to incongruence between the upper and the lower halves of the composite face, relative to a baseline in which the composite faces were not primed. Local processing of Navon stimuli did not influence the sensitivity to incongruence. Although incongruence induced a bias toward different responses, this bias was not modulated by priming. We conclude that global processing of Navon stimuli augments holistic processing of the face.

Second-order relational face processing is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

PubMed

Matheson, H E; Bilsbury, T G; McMullen, P A

2012-03-01

A large body of research suggests that faces are processed by a specialized mechanism within the human visual system. This specialized mechanism is made up of subprocesses (Maurer, LeGrand, & Mondloch, 2002). One subprocess, called second- order relational processing, analyzes the metric distances between face parts. Importantly, it is well established that other-race faces and contrast-reversed faces are associated with impaired performance on numerous face processing tasks. Here, we investigated the specificity of second-order relational processing by testing how this process is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast. Participants completed a feature displacement discrimination task, directly measuring the sensitivity to second-order relations between face parts. Across three experiments we show that, despite absolute differences in sensitivity in some conditions, inversion impaired performance in all conditions. The presence of robust inversion effects for all faces suggests that second-order relational processing can be applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

Developmental prosopagnosia and super-recognition: no special role for surface reflectance processing.

PubMed

Russell, Richard; Chatterjee, Garga; Nakayama, Ken

2012-01-01

Face recognition by normal subjects depends in roughly equal proportions on shape and surface reflectance cues, while object recognition depends predominantly on shape cues. It is possible that developmental prosopagnosics are deficient not in their ability to recognize faces per se, but rather in their ability to use reflectance cues. Similarly, super-recognizers' exceptional ability with face recognition may be a result of superior surface reflectance perception and memory. We tested this possibility by administering tests of face perception and face recognition in which only shape or reflectance cues are available to developmental prosopagnosics, super-recognizers, and control subjects. Face recognition ability and the relative use of shape and pigmentation were unrelated in all the tests. Subjects who were better at using shape or reflectance cues were also better at using the other type of cue. These results do not support the proposal that variation in surface reflectance perception ability is the underlying cause of variation in face recognition ability. Instead, these findings support the idea that face recognition ability is related to neural circuits using representations that integrate shape and pigmentation information. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Expression-dependent susceptibility to face distortions in processing of facial expressions of emotion.

PubMed

Guo, Kun; Soornack, Yoshi; Settle, Rebecca

2018-03-05

Our capability of recognizing facial expressions of emotion under different viewing conditions implies the existence of an invariant expression representation. As natural visual signals are often distorted and our perceptual strategy changes with external noise level, it is essential to understand how expression perception is susceptible to face distortion and whether the same facial cues are used to process high- and low-quality face images. We systematically manipulated face image resolution (experiment 1) and blur (experiment 2), and measured participants' expression categorization accuracy, perceived expression intensity and associated gaze patterns. Our analysis revealed a reasonable tolerance to face distortion in expression perception. Reducing image resolution up to 48 × 64 pixels or increasing image blur up to 15 cycles/image had little impact on expression assessment and associated gaze behaviour. Further distortion led to decreased expression categorization accuracy and intensity rating, increased reaction time and fixation duration, and stronger central fixation bias which was not driven by distortion-induced changes in local image saliency. Interestingly, the observed distortion effects were expression-dependent with less deterioration impact on happy and surprise expressions, suggesting this distortion-invariant facial expression perception might be achieved through the categorical model involving a non-linear configural combination of local facial features. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chaotic time series analysis of vision evoked EEG

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ningning; Wang, Hong

2010-01-01

To investigate the human brain activities for aesthetic processing, beautiful woman face picture and ugly buffoon face picture were applied. Twelve subjects were assigned the aesthetic processing task while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Event-related brain potential (ERP) was required from the 32 scalp electrodes and the ugly buffoon picture produced larger amplitudes for the N1, P2, N2, and late slow wave components. Average ERP from the ugly buffoon picture were larger than that from the beautiful woman picture. The ERP signals shows that the ugly buffoon elite higher emotion waves than the beautiful woman face, because some expression is on the face of the buffoon. Then, chaos time series analysis was carried out to calculate the largest Lyapunov exponent using small data set method and the correlation dimension using G-P algorithm. The results show that the largest Lyapunov exponents of the ERP signals are greater than zero, which indicate that the ERP signals may be chaotic. The correlations dimensions coming from the beautiful woman picture are larger than that from the ugly buffoon picture. The comparison of the correlations dimensions shows that the beautiful face can excite the brain nerve cells. The research in the paper is a persuasive proof to the opinion that cerebrum's work is chaotic under some picture stimuli.

PROCESS WATER BUILDING, TRA605. FLASH EVAPORATORS ARE PLACED ON UPPER ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

PROCESS WATER BUILDING, TRA-605. FLASH EVAPORATORS ARE PLACED ON UPPER LEVEL OF EAST SIDE OF BUILDING. WALLS WILL BE FORMED AROUND THEM. WORKING RESERVOIR BEYOND. CAMERA FACING EASTERLY. EXHAUST AIR STACK IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT RIGHT OF VIEW. INL NEGATIVE NO. 2579. Unknown Photographer, 6/18/1951 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Reactor Area, Materials & Engineering Test Reactors, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Is empathy necessary to comprehend the emotional faces? The empathic effect on attentional mechanisms (eye movements), cortical correlates (N200 event-related potentials) and facial behaviour (electromyography) in face processing.

PubMed

Balconi, Michela; Canavesio, Ylenia

2016-01-01

The present research explored the effect of social empathy on processing emotional facial expressions. Previous evidence suggested a close relationship between emotional empathy and both the ability to detect facial emotions and the attentional mechanisms involved. A multi-measure approach was adopted: we investigated the association between trait empathy (Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale) and individuals' performance (response times; RTs), attentional mechanisms (eye movements; number and duration of fixations), correlates of cortical activation (event-related potential (ERP) N200 component), and facial responsiveness (facial zygomatic and corrugator activity). Trait empathy was found to affect face detection performance (reduced RTs), attentional processes (more scanning eye movements in specific areas of interest), ERP salience effect (increased N200 amplitude), and electromyographic activity (more facial responses). A second important result was the demonstration of strong, direct correlations among these measures. We suggest that empathy may function as a social facilitator of the processes underlying the detection of facial emotion, and a general "facial response effect" is proposed to explain these results. We assumed that empathy influences cognitive and the facial responsiveness, such that empathic individuals are more skilful in processing facial emotion.

Novel face-detection method under various environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Min-Quan; Chen, Ling-Hwei

2009-06-01

We propose a method to detect a face with different poses under various environments. On the basis of skin color information, skin regions are first extracted from an input image. Next, the shoulder part is cut out by using shape information and the head part is then identified as a face candidate. For a face candidate, a set of geometric features is applied to determine if it is a profile face. If not, then a set of eyelike rectangles extracted from the face candidate and the lighting distribution are used to determine if the face candidate is a nonprofile face. Experimental results show that the proposed method is robust under a wide range of lighting conditions, different poses, and races. The detection rate for the HHI face database is 93.68%. For the Champion face database, the detection rate is 95.15%.

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing

PubMed Central

Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T.; Alpers, Georg W.

2017-01-01

Abstract The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer—conveyed by facial expression and face direction—amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. PMID:28158672

Mechanisms of face perception

PubMed Central

Tsao, Doris Y.

2009-01-01

Faces are among the most informative stimuli we ever perceive: Even a split-second glimpse of a person's face tells us their identity, sex, mood, age, race, and direction of attention. The specialness of face processing is acknowledged in the artificial vision community, where contests for face recognition algorithms abound. Neurological evidence strongly implicates a dedicated machinery for face processing in the human brain, to explain the double dissociability of face and object recognition deficits. Furthermore, it has recently become clear that macaques too have specialized neural machinery for processing faces. Here we propose a unifying hypothesis, deduced from computational, neurological, fMRI, and single-unit experiments: that what makes face processing special is that it is gated by an obligatory detection process. We will clarify this idea in concrete algorithmic terms, and show how it can explain a variety of phenomena associated with face processing. PMID:18558862

Facial Movements Facilitate Part-Based, Not Holistic, Processing in Children, Adolescents, and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Naiqi G.; Quinn, Paul C.; Ge, Liezhong; Lee, Kang

2017-01-01

Although most of the faces we encounter daily are moving ones, much of what we know about face processing and its development is based on studies using static faces that emphasize holistic processing as the hallmark of mature face processing. Here the authors examined the effects of facial movements on face processing developmentally in children…

The changing face of hemostasis testing in modern laboratories: consolidation, automation, and beyond.

PubMed

Lippi, Giuseppe; Plebani, Mario; Favaloro, Emmanuel J

2015-04-01

The reality of laboratory diagnostics as a whole, and hemostasis testing in particular, is evolving under new paradigms of efficiency. The driving forces of health care and laboratory diagnostics in the third millennium are mainly represented by macro- and microeconomics. In a world with limited resources, shattered by an unprecedented economic crisis, laboratory diagnostics is undergoing a substantial reorganization, with emergence of new models under the imperative of terms, such as bedside testing, consolidation, and networking. The paradigms under which these changes are being developed include a variety of environment, preanalytical, technological, professional, and health-care aspects. The maintenance of continued quality is indeed the major challenge to be faced in the foreseeable future. In fact, some challenges prepotently emerge during a consolidation process, which basically involve delayed testing, centrifugation, transportation, and stability of the specimens, as well as the potential mismatch of sample matrix. This article is aimed to provide an overview of the current economic scenario of laboratory diagnostics and discuss the changing face of hemostasis testing in modern laboratories, providing a synthetic overview about potential drawbacks of actualized solutions. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Dissociable patterns of medial prefrontal and amygdala activity to face identity versus emotion in bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Keener, M T; Fournier, J C; Mullin, B C; Kronhaus, D; Perlman, S B; LaBarbara, E; Almeida, J C; Phillips, M L

2012-09-01

Individuals with bipolar disorder demonstrate abnormal social function. Neuroimaging studies in bipolar disorder have shown functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion processing, but have not examined face identity processing, a key component of social function. We aimed to elucidate functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion and face identity processing in bipolar disorder. Twenty-seven individuals with bipolar disorder I currently euthymic and 27 healthy controls participated in an implicit face processing, block-design paradigm. Participants labeled color flashes that were superimposed on dynamically changing background faces comprising morphs either from neutral to prototypical emotion (happy, sad, angry and fearful) or from one identity to another identity depicting a neutral face. Whole-brain and amygdala region-of-interest (ROI) activities were compared between groups. There was no significant between-group difference looking across both emerging face emotion and identity. During processing of all emerging emotions, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala activity. During facial identity and also happy face processing, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala and medial prefrontal cortical activity compared with controls. This is the first study to examine neural circuitry supporting face identity and face emotion processing in bipolar disorder. Our findings of abnormally elevated activity in amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during face identity and happy face emotion processing suggest functional abnormalities in key regions previously implicated in social processing. This may be of future importance toward examining the abnormal self-related processing, grandiosity and social dysfunction seen in bipolar disorder.

Individual differences in anxiety predict neural measures of visual working memory for untrustworthy faces.

PubMed

Meconi, Federica; Luria, Roy; Sessa, Paola

2014-12-01

When facing strangers, one of the first evaluations people perform is to implicitly assess their trustworthiness. However, the underlying processes supporting trustworthiness appraisal are poorly understood. We hypothesized that visual working memory (VWM) maintains online face representations that are sensitive to physical cues of trustworthiness, and that differences among individuals in representing untrustworthy faces are associated with individual differences in anxiety. Participants performed a change detection task that required encoding and maintaining for a short interval the identity of one face parametrically manipulated to be either trustworthy or untrustworthy. The sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), an event-related component (ERP) time-locked to the onset of the face, was used to index the resolution of face representations in VWM. Results revealed greater SPCN amplitudes for trustworthy faces when compared with untrustworthy faces, indicating that VWM is sensitive to physical cues of trustworthiness, even in the absence of explicit trustworthiness appraisal. In addition, differences in SPCN amplitude between trustworthy and untrustworthy faces correlated with participants' anxiety, indicating that healthy college students with sub-clinical high anxiety levels represented untrustworthy faces in greater detail compared with students with sub-clinical low anxiety levels. This pattern of findings is discussed in terms of the high flexibility of aversive/avoidance and appetitive/approach motivational systems. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Deficient cortical face-sensitive N170 responses and basic visual processing in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Maher, S; Mashhoon, Y; Ekstrom, T; Lukas, S; Chen, Y

2016-01-01

Face detection, an ability to identify a visual stimulus as a face, is impaired in patients with schizophrenia. It is unclear whether impaired face processing in this psychiatric disorder results from face-specific domains or stems from more basic visual domains. In this study, we examined cortical face-sensitive N170 response in schizophrenia, taking into account deficient basic visual contrast processing. We equalized visual contrast signals among patients (n=20) and controls (n=20) and between face and tree images, based on their individual perceptual capacities (determined using psychophysical methods). We measured N170, a putative temporal marker of face processing, during face detection and tree detection. In controls, N170 amplitudes were significantly greater for faces than trees across all three visual contrast levels tested (perceptual threshold, two times perceptual threshold and 100%). In patients, however, N170 amplitudes did not differ between faces and trees, indicating diminished face selectivity (indexed by the differential responses to face vs. tree). These results indicate a lack of face-selectivity in temporal responses of brain machinery putatively responsible for face processing in schizophrenia. This neuroimaging finding suggests that face-specific processing is compromised in this psychiatric disorder. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early Adverse Caregiving Experiences and Preschoolers' Current Attachment Affect Brain Responses during Facial Familiarity Processing: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Kungl, Melanie T; Bovenschen, Ina; Spangler, Gottfried

2017-01-01

When being placed into more benign environments like foster care, children from adverse rearing backgrounds are capable of forming attachment relationships to new caregivers within the first year of placement, while certain problematic social behaviors appear to be more persistent. Assuming that early averse experiences shape neural circuits underlying social behavior, neurophysiological studies on individual differences in early social-information processing have great informative value. More precisely, ERP studies have repeatedly shown face processing to be sensitive to experience especially regarding the caregiving background. However, studies on effects of early adverse caregiving experiences are restricted to children with a history of institutionalization. Also, no study has investigated effects of attachment security as a marker of the quality of the caregiver-child relationship. Thus, the current study asks how adverse caregiving experiences and attachment security to (new) caregivers affect early- and mid-latency ERPs sensitive to facial familiarity processing. Therefore, pre-school aged foster children during their second year within the foster home were compared to an age matched control group. Attachment was assessed using the AQS and neurophysiological data was collected during a passive viewing task presenting (foster) mother and stranger faces. Foster children were comparable to the control group with regard to attachment security. On a neurophysiological level, however, the foster group showed dampened N170 amplitudes for both face types. In both foster and control children, dampened N170 amplitudes were also found for stranger as compared to (foster) mother faces, and, for insecurely attached children as compared to securely attached children. This neural pattern may be viewed as a result of poorer social interactions earlier in life. Still, there was no effect on P1 amplitudes. Indicating heightened attentional processing, Nc amplitude responses to stranger faces were found to be enhanced in foster as compared to control children. Also, insecurely attached children allocated more attentional resources for the neural processing of mother faces. The study further confirms that early brain development is highly sensitive to the quality of caregiving. The findings are also relevant from a developmental perspective as miswiring of neural circuits may possibly play a critical role in children's psycho-social adjustment.

Composite Faces Are Not (Necessarily) Processed Coactively: A Test Using Systems Factorial Technology and Logical-Rule Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Xue Jun; McCarthy, Callum J.; Wang, Tony S. L.; Palmeri, Thomas J.; Little, Daniel R.

2018-01-01

Upright faces are thought to be processed more holistically than inverted faces. In the widely used composite face paradigm, holistic processing is inferred from interference in recognition performance from a to-be-ignored face half for upright and aligned faces compared with inverted or misaligned faces. We sought to characterize the nature of…

Exploring the Williams syndrome face-processing debate: the importance of building developmental trajectories.

PubMed

Karmiloff-Smith, Annette; Thomas, Michael; Annaz, Dagmara; Humphreys, Kate; Ewing, Sandra; Brace, Nicola; Duuren, Mike; Pike, Graham; Grice, Sarah; Campbell, Ruth

2004-10-01

Face processing in Williams syndrome (WS) has been a topic of heated debate over the past decade. Initial claims about a normally developing ('intact') face-processing module were challenged by data suggesting that individuals with WS used a different balance of cognitive processes from controls, even when their behavioural scores fell within the normal range. Measurement of evoked brain potentials also point to atypical processes. However, two recent studies have claimed that people with WS process faces exactly like normal controls. In this paper, we examine the details of this continuing debate on the basis of three new face-processing experiments. In particular, for two of our experiments we built task-specific full developmental trajectories from childhood to adolescence/adulthood and plotted the WS data on these trajectories. The first experiment used photos of real faces. While it revealed broadly equivalent accuracy across groups, the WS participants were worse at configural processing when faces were upright and less sensitive than controls to face inversion. In Experiment 2, measuring face processing in a storybook context, the face inversion effect emerged clearly in controls but only weakly in the WS developmental trajectory. Unlike the controls, the Benton Face Recognition Test and the Pattern Construction results were not correlated in WS, highlighting the different developmental patterns in the two groups. Again in contrast to the controls, Experiment 3 with schematic faces and non-face stimuli revealed a configural-processing deficit in WS both with respect to their chronological age (CA) and to their level of performance on the Benton. These findings point to both delay and deviance in WS face processing and illustrate how vital it is to build developmental trajectories for each specific task.

A Comparison between the Occurrence of Pauses, Repetitions and Recasts under Conditions of Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Communication: A Preliminary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cabaroglu, Nese; Basaran, Suleyman; Roberts, Jon

2010-01-01

This study compares pauses, repetitions and recasts in matched task interactions under face-to-face and computer-mediated conditions. Six first-year English undergraduates at a Turkish University took part in Skype-based voice chat with a native speaker and face-to-face with their instructor. Preliminary quantitative analysis of transcripts showed…

Viewing strategies for simple and chimeric faces: an investigation of perceptual bias in normals and schizophrenic patients using visual scan paths.

PubMed

Phillips, M L; David, A S

1997-11-01

Left hemi-face (LHF) perceptual bias of chimeric faces in normal right-handers is well-documented. We investigated mechanisms underlying this by measuring visual scan paths in right-handed normal controls (n = 9) and schizophrenics (n = 8) for simple, full-face photographs and schematic, happy-sad chimeric faces over 5 s. Normals viewed the left side/ LHF first, more so than the right of all stimuli. Schizophrenics viewed the LHF first more than the right of stimuli for which there was a LHF choice of predominant affect. Neither group demonstrated an overall LHF perceptual bias for the chimeric stimuli. Readjustment of the initial LHF bias in controls was probably a result of increased attention to stimulus detail with scanning, whereas the schizophrenics demonstrated difficulty in redirection of the initial focus of attention. The study highlights the role of visual scan paths as a marker of normal and abnormal attentional processes. Copyright 1997 Academic Press.

The Effect of Target Sex, Sexual Dimorphism, and Facial Attractiveness on Perceptions of Target Attractiveness and Trustworthiness

PubMed Central

Hu, Yuanyan; Abbasi, Najam ul Hasan; Zhang, Yang; Chen, Hong

2018-01-01

Facial sexual dimorphism has widely demonstrated as having an influence on the facial attractiveness and social interactions. However, earlier studies show inconsistent results on the effect of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness judgments. Previous studies suggest that the level of attractiveness might work as a moderating variable among the relationship between sexual dimorphism and facial preference and have often focused on the effect of sexual dimorphism on general attractiveness ratings, rather than concentrating on trustworthiness perception. Male and female participants viewed target male and female faces that varied on attractiveness (more attractive or less attractive) and sexual dimorphism (masculine or feminine). Participants rated the attractiveness of the faces and reported how much money they would give to the target person as a measure of trust. For the facial attractiveness ratings, (a) both men and women participants preferred masculine male faces to feminine male ones under the more attractive condition, whereas preferred feminine male faces to masculine male ones under the less attractive condition; (b) all participants preferred feminine female faces to masculine female ones under the less attractive condition, while there were no differences between feminine female faces and masculine female faces under the more attractive condition. For the target trustworthiness perception, (a) participants showed no preference between masculine male faces and feminine male faces, neither under the more attractive condition nor the less attractiveness condition; (b) however, all the participants preferred masculine female faces over feminine female faces under the more attractive condition, exhibiting no preference between feminine female faces and masculine female faces under the less attractive condition. These findings suggest that the attractiveness of facial stimulus may be a reason to interpret the inconsistent results from the previous studies, which focused on the effect of facial sexual dimorphism on the facial attractiveness. Furthermore, implications about the effect of target facial sexual dimorphism on participants’ trustworthiness perception were discussed.

Neural markers of opposite-sex bias in face processing.

PubMed

Proverbio, Alice Mado; Riva, Federica; Martin, Eleonora; Zani, Alberto

2010-01-01

Some behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggest that adults prefer to view attractive faces of the opposite sex more than attractive faces of the same sex. However, unlike the other-race face effect (Caldara et al., 2004), little is known regarding the existence of an opposite-/same-sex bias in face processing. In this study, the faces of 130 attractive male and female adults were foveally presented to 40 heterosexual university students (20 men and 20 women) who were engaged in a secondary perceptual task (landscape detection). The automatic processing of face gender was investigated by recording ERPs from 128 scalp sites. Neural markers of opposite- vs. same-sex bias in face processing included larger and earlier centro-parietal N400s in response to faces of the opposite sex and a larger late positivity (LP) to same-sex faces. Analysis of intra-cortical neural generators (swLORETA) showed that facial processing-related (FG, BA37, BA20/21) and emotion-related brain areas (the right parahippocampal gyrus, BA35; uncus, BA36/38; and the cingulate gyrus, BA24) had higher activations in response to opposite- than same-sex faces. The results of this analysis, along with data obtained from ERP recordings, support the hypothesis that both genders process opposite-sex faces differently than same-sex faces. The data also suggest a hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of opposite-/same-sex faces, with the right hemisphere involved in processing same-sex faces and the left hemisphere involved in processing faces of the opposite sex. The data support previous literature suggesting a right lateralization for the representation of self-image and body awareness.

Holistic processing is finely tuned for faces of one's own race.

PubMed

Michel, Caroline; Rossion, Bruno; Han, Jaehyun; Chung, Chan-Sup; Caldara, Roberto

2006-07-01

Recognizing individual faces outside one's race poses difficulty, a phenomenon known as the other-race effect. Most researchers agree that this effect results from differential experience with same-race (SR) and other-race (OR) faces. However, the specific processes that develop with visual experience and underlie the other-race effect remain to be clarified. We tested whether the integration of facial features into a whole representation-holistic processing-was larger for SR than OR faces in Caucasians and Asians without life experience with OR faces. For both classes of participants, recognition of the upper half of a composite-face stimulus was more disrupted by the bottom half (the composite-face effect) for SR than OR faces, demonstrating that SR faces are processed more holistically than OR faces. This differential holistic processing for faces of different races, probably a by-product of visual experience, may be a critical factor in the other-race effect.

Effects of pre-experimental knowledge on recognition memory.

PubMed

Bird, Chris M; Davies, Rachel A; Ward, Jamie; Burgess, Neil

2011-01-01

The influence of pre-experimental autobiographical knowledge on recognition memory was investigated using as memoranda faces that were either personally known or unknown to the participant. Under a dual process theory, such knowledge boosted both recollection- and familiarity-based recognition judgements. Under an unequal variance signal detection model, pre-experimental knowledge increased both the variance and the separation of the target and foil memory strength distributions, boosting hits and correct rejections. Thus, pre-experimental knowledge has profound effects on the multiple, interacting processes that subserve recognition memory, and likely in the neural systems that underpin them.

Audiovisual integration supports face-name associative memory formation.

PubMed

Lee, Hweeling; Stirnberg, Rüdiger; Stöcker, Tony; Axmacher, Nikolai

2017-10-01

Prior multisensory experience influences how we perceive our environment, and hence how memories are encoded for subsequent retrieval. This study investigated if audiovisual (AV) integration and associative memory formation rely on overlapping or distinct processes. Our functional magnetic resonance imaging results demonstrate that the neural mechanisms underlying AV integration and associative memory overlap substantially. In particular, activity in anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) is increased during AV integration and also determines the success of novel AV face-name association formation. Dynamic causal modeling results further demonstrate how the anterior STS interacts with the associative memory system to facilitate successful memory formation for AV face-name associations. Specifically, the connection of fusiform gyrus to anterior STS is enhanced while the reverse connection is reduced when participants subsequently remembered both face and name. Collectively, our results demonstrate how multisensory associative memories can be formed for subsequent retrieval.

Character displacement of Cercopithecini primate visual signals

PubMed Central

Allen, William L.; Stevens, Martin; Higham, James P.

2014-01-01

Animal visual signals have the potential to act as an isolating barrier to prevent interbreeding of populations through a role in species recognition. Within communities of competing species, species recognition signals are predicted to undergo character displacement, becoming more visually distinctive from each other, however this pattern has rarely been identified. Using computational face recognition algorithms to model primate face processing, we demonstrate that the face patterns of guenons (tribe: Cercopithecini) have evolved under selection to become more visually distinctive from those of other guenon species with whom they are sympatric. The relationship between the appearances of sympatric species suggests that distinguishing conspecifics from other guenon species has been a major driver of diversification in guenon face appearance. Visual signals that have undergone character displacement may have had an important role in the tribe’s radiation, keeping populations that became geographically separated reproductively isolated on secondary contact. PMID:24967517

Configural face processing impacts race disparities in humanization and trust

PubMed Central

Cassidy, Brittany S.; Krendl, Anne C.; Stanko, Kathleen A.; Rydell, Robert J.; Young, Steven G.; Hugenberg, Kurt

2018-01-01

The dehumanization of Black Americans is an ongoing societal problem. Reducing configural face processing, a well-studied aspect of typical face encoding, decreases the activation of human-related concepts to White faces, suggesting that the extent that faces are configurally processed contributes to dehumanization. Because Black individuals are more dehumanized relative to White individuals, the current work examined how configural processing might contribute to their greater dehumanization. Study 1 showed that inverting faces (which reduces configural processing) reduced the activation of human-related concepts toward Black more than White faces. Studies 2a and 2b showed that reducing configural processing affects dehumanization by decreasing trust and increasing homogeneity among Black versus White faces. Studies 3a–d showed that configural processing effects emerge in racial outgroups for whom untrustworthiness may be a more salient group stereotype (i.e., Black, but not Asian, faces). Study 4 provided evidence that these effects are specific to reduced configural processing versus more general perceptual disfluency. Reduced configural processing may thus contribute to the greater dehumanization of Black relative to White individuals. PMID:29910510

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing.

PubMed

Bublatzky, Florian; Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T; Alpers, Georg W

2017-05-01

The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer-conveyed by facial expression and face direction-amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Electrophysiological evidence for separation between human face and non-face object processing only in the right hemisphere.

PubMed

Niina, Megumi; Okamura, Jun-ya; Wang, Gang

2015-10-01

Scalp event-related potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated larger N170 amplitudes when subjects view faces compared to items from object categories. Extensive attempts have been made to clarify face selectivity and hemispheric dominance for face processing. The purpose of this study was to investigate hemispheric differences in N170s activated by human faces and non-face objects, as well as the extent of overlap of their sources. ERP was recorded from 20 subjects while they viewed human face and non-face images. N170s obtained during the presentation of human faces appeared earlier and with larger amplitude than for other category images. Further source analysis with a two-dipole model revealed that the locations of face and object processing largely overlapped in the left hemisphere. Conversely, the source for face processing in the right hemisphere located more anterior than the source for object processing. The results suggest that the neuronal circuits for face and object processing are largely shared in the left hemisphere, with more distinct circuits in the right hemisphere. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing

PubMed Central

Richler, Jennifer J.; Floyd, R. Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically. PMID:26223027

About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing.

PubMed

Richler, Jennifer J; Floyd, R Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically.

Conscious awareness is required for holistic face processing

PubMed Central

Axelrod, Vadim; Rees, Geraint

2014-01-01

Investigating the limits of unconscious processing is essential to understand the function of consciousness. Here, we explored whether holistic face processing, a mechanism believed to be important for face processing in general, can be accomplished unconsciously. Using a novel “eyes-face” stimulus we tested whether discrimination of pairs of eyes was influenced by the surrounding face context. While the eyes were fully visible, the faces that provided context could be rendered invisible through continuous flash suppression. Two experiments with three different sets of face stimuli and a subliminal learning procedure converged to show that invisible faces did not influence perception of visible eyes. In contrast, surrounding faces, when they were clearly visible, strongly influenced perception of the eyes. Thus, we conclude that conscious awareness might be a prerequisite for holistic face processing. PMID:24950500

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender.

PubMed

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender).

Interference among the Processing of Facial Emotion, Face Race, and Face Gender

PubMed Central

Li, Yongna; Tse, Chi-Shing

2016-01-01

People can process multiple dimensions of facial properties simultaneously. Facial processing models are based on the processing of facial properties. The current study examined the processing of facial emotion, face race, and face gender using categorization tasks. The same set of Chinese, White and Black faces, each posing a neutral, happy or angry expression, was used in three experiments. Facial emotion interacted with face race in all the tasks. The interaction of face race and face gender was found in the race and gender categorization tasks, whereas the interaction of facial emotion and face gender was significant in the emotion and gender categorization tasks. These results provided evidence for a symmetric interaction between variant facial properties (emotion) and invariant facial properties (race and gender). PMID:27840621

Age-related differences in brain activity during implicit and explicit processing of fearful facial expressions.

PubMed

Zsoldos, Isabella; Cousin, Emilie; Klein-Koerkamp, Yanica; Pichat, Cédric; Hot, Pascal

2016-11-01

Age-related differences in neural correlates underlying implicit and explicit emotion processing are unclear. Within the framework of the Frontoamygdalar Age-related Differences in Emotion model (St Jacques et al., 2009), our objectives were to examine the behavioral and neural modifications that occur with age for both processes. During explicit and implicit processing of fearful faces, we expected to observe less amygdala activity in older adults (OA) than in younger adults (YA), associated with poorer recognition performance in the explicit task, and more frontal activity during implicit processing, suggesting compensation. At a behavioral level, explicit recognition of fearful faces was impaired in OA compared with YA. We did not observe any cerebral differences between OA and YA during the implicit task, whereas in the explicit task, OA recruited more frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and cingulate areas. Our findings suggest that automatic processing of emotion may be preserved during aging, whereas deliberate processing is impaired. Additional neural recruitment in OA did not appear to compensate for their behavioral deficits. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Detection of emotional faces: salient physical features guide effective visual search.

PubMed

Calvo, Manuel G; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2008-08-01

In this study, the authors investigated how salient visual features capture attention and facilitate detection of emotional facial expressions. In a visual search task, a target emotional face (happy, disgusted, fearful, angry, sad, or surprised) was presented in an array of neutral faces. Faster detection of happy and, to a lesser extent, surprised and disgusted faces was found both under upright and inverted display conditions. Inversion slowed down the detection of these faces less than that of others (fearful, angry, and sad). Accordingly, the detection advantage involves processing of featural rather than configural information. The facial features responsible for the detection advantage are located in the mouth rather than the eye region. Computationally modeled visual saliency predicted both attentional orienting and detection. Saliency was greatest for the faces (happy) and regions (mouth) that were fixated earlier and detected faster, and there was close correspondence between the onset of the modeled saliency peak and the time at which observers initially fixated the faces. The authors conclude that visual saliency of specific facial features--especially the smiling mouth--is responsible for facilitated initial orienting, which thus shortens detection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

Attention and memory bias to facial emotions underlying negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Jang, Seon-Kyeong; Park, Seon-Cheol; Lee, Seung-Hwan; Cho, Yang Seok; Choi, Kee-Hong

2016-01-01

This study assessed bias in selective attention to facial emotions in negative symptoms of schizophrenia and its influence on subsequent memory for facial emotions. Thirty people with schizophrenia who had high and low levels of negative symptoms (n = 15, respectively) and 21 healthy controls completed a visual probe detection task investigating selective attention bias (happy, sad, and angry faces randomly presented for 50, 500, or 1000 ms). A yes/no incidental facial memory task was then completed. Attention bias scores and recognition errors were calculated. Those with high negative symptoms exhibited reduced attention to emotional faces relative to neutral faces; those with low negative symptoms showed the opposite pattern when faces were presented for 500 ms regardless of the valence. Compared to healthy controls, those with high negative symptoms made more errors for happy faces in the memory task. Reduced attention to emotional faces in the probe detection task was significantly associated with less pleasure and motivation and more recognition errors for happy faces in schizophrenia group only. Attention bias away from emotional information relatively early in the attentional process and associated diminished positive memory may relate to pathological mechanisms for negative symptoms.

Applying face identification to detecting hijacking of airplane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Xuanwen; Cheng, Qiang

2004-09-01

That terrorists hijacked the airplanes and crashed the World Trade Center is disaster to civilization. To avoid the happening of hijack is critical to homeland security. To report the hijacking in time, limit the terrorist to operate the plane if happened and land the plane to the nearest airport could be an efficient way to avoid the misery. Image processing technique in human face recognition or identification could be used for this task. Before the plane take off, the face images of pilots are input into a face identification system installed in the airplane. The camera in front of pilot seat keeps taking the pilot face image during the flight and comparing it with pre-input pilot face images. If a different face is detected, a warning signal is sent to ground automatically. At the same time, the automatic cruise system is started or the plane is controlled by the ground. The terrorists will have no control over the plane. The plane will be landed to a nearest or appropriate airport under the control of the ground or cruise system. This technique could also be used in automobile industry as an image key to avoid car stealth.

Emotion-attention interactions in recognition memory for distractor faces.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Narayanan; Gupta, Rashmi

2010-04-01

Effective filtering of distractor information has been shown to be dependent on perceptual load. Given the salience of emotional information and the presence of emotion-attention interactions, we wanted to explore the recognition memory for emotional distractors especially as a function of focused attention and distributed attention by manipulating load and the spatial spread of attention. We performed two experiments to study emotion-attention interactions by measuring recognition memory performance for distractor neutral and emotional faces. Participants performed a color discrimination task (low-load) or letter identification task (high-load) with a letter string display in Experiment 1 and a high-load letter identification task with letters presented in a circular array in Experiment 2. The stimuli were presented against a distractor face background. The recognition memory results show that happy faces were recognized better than sad faces under conditions of less focused or distributed attention. When attention is more spatially focused, sad faces were recognized better than happy faces. The study provides evidence for emotion-attention interactions in which specific emotional information like sad or happy is associated with focused or distributed attention respectively. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of attention. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

The time course of face processing: startle eyeblink response modulation by face gender and expression.

PubMed

Duval, Elizabeth R; Lovelace, Christopher T; Aarant, Justin; Filion, Diane L

2013-12-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of both facial expression and face gender on startle eyeblink response patterns at varying lead intervals (300, 800, and 3500ms) indicative of attentional and emotional processes. We aimed to determine whether responses to affective faces map onto the Defense Cascade Model (Lang et al., 1997) to better understand the stages of processing during affective face viewing. At 300ms, there was an interaction between face expression and face gender with female happy and neutral faces and male angry faces producing inhibited startle. At 3500ms, there was a trend for facilitated startle during angry compared to neutral faces. These findings suggest that affective expressions are perceived differently in male and female faces, especially at short lead intervals. Future studies investigating face processing should take both face gender and expression into account. © 2013.

Implicit Recognition of Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in Schizophrenia: A Study of the Skin Conductance Response in Familiarity Disorders.

PubMed

Ameller, Aurely; Picard, Aline; D'Hondt, Fabien; Vaiva, Guillaume; Thomas, Pierre; Pins, Delphine

2017-01-01

Familiarity is a subjective sensation that contributes to person recognition. This process is described as an emotion-based memory-trace of previous meetings and could be disrupted in schizophrenia. Consequently, familiarity disorders could be involved in the impaired social interactions observed in patients with schizophrenia. Previous studies have primarily focused on famous people recognition. Our aim was to identify underlying features, such as emotional disturbances, that may contribute to familiarity disorders in schizophrenia. We hypothesize that patients with familiarity disorders will exhibit a lack of familiarity that could be detected by a flattened skin conductance response (SCR). The SCR was recorded to test the hypothesis that emotional reactivity disturbances occur in patients with schizophrenia during the categorization of specific familiar, famous and unknown faces as male or female. Forty-eight subjects were divided into the following 3 matched groups with 16 subjects per group: control subjects, schizophrenic people with familiarity disorder, and schizophrenic people without familiarity disorders. Emotional arousal is reflected by the skin conductance measures. The control subjects and the patients without familiarity disorders experienced a differential emotional response to the specific familiar faces compared with that to the unknown faces. Nevertheless, overall, the schizophrenic patients without familiarity disorders showed a weaker response across conditions compared with the control subjects. In contrast, the patients with familiarity disorders did not show any significant differences in their emotional response to the faces, regardless of the condition. Only patients with familiarity disorders fail to exhibit a difference in emotional response between familiar and non-familiar faces. These patients likely emotionally process familiar faces similarly to unknown faces. Hence, the lower feelings of familiarity in schizophrenia may be a premise enabling the emergence of familiarity disorders.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation.

PubMed

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation

PubMed Central

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing. PMID:29503612

From face processing to face recognition: Comparing three different processing levels.

PubMed

Besson, G; Barragan-Jason, G; Thorpe, S J; Fabre-Thorpe, M; Puma, S; Ceccaldi, M; Barbeau, E J

2017-01-01

Verifying that a face is from a target person (e.g. finding someone in the crowd) is a critical ability of the human face processing system. Yet how fast this can be performed is unknown. The 'entry-level shift due to expertise' hypothesis suggests that - since humans are face experts - processing faces should be as fast - or even faster - at the individual than at superordinate levels. In contrast, the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis suggests that faces are processed from coarse to fine, so that the opposite pattern should be observed. To clarify this debate, three different face processing levels were compared: (1) a superordinate face categorization level (i.e. detecting human faces among animal faces), (2) a face familiarity level (i.e. recognizing famous faces among unfamiliar ones) and (3) verifying that a face is from a target person, our condition of interest. The minimal speed at which faces can be categorized (∼260ms) or recognized as familiar (∼360ms) has largely been documented in previous studies, and thus provides boundaries to compare our condition of interest to. Twenty-seven participants were included. The recent Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure paradigm (SAB) was used since it constrains participants to use their fastest strategy. Stimuli were presented either upright or inverted. Results revealed that verifying that a face is from a target person (minimal RT at ∼260ms) was remarkably fast but longer than the face categorization level (∼240ms) and was more sensitive to face inversion. In contrast, it was much faster than recognizing a face as familiar (∼380ms), a level severely affected by face inversion. Face recognition corresponding to finding a specific person in a crowd thus appears achievable in only a quarter of a second. In favor of the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis or coarse-to-fine account of the face visual hierarchy, these results suggest a graded engagement of the face processing system across processing levels as reflected by the face inversion effects. Furthermore, they underline how verifying that a face is from a target person and detecting a face as familiar - both often referred to as "Face Recognition" - in fact differs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Age Differences in Memory Span

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chi, Michelene T. H.

1977-01-01

Three experiments were conducted to determine processes underlying age differences in the level of recall in a memory-span task. Five-year-olds recalled fewer items than adults in memory-span tasks involving both familiar and unfamiliar faces, even though the use of rehearsal and recoding strategies was minimized for adults. (MS)

5 CFR 838.1121 - Procedures and requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) COURT ORDERS AFFECTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS Court Orders Under the Child Abuse... 581 of this chapter that appears valid on its face. (2)(i) After OPM has determined that a child abuse... validity of the legal process. (ii) OPM will not delay compliance with a child abuse judgment enforcement...

5 CFR 838.1121 - Procedures and requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) COURT ORDERS AFFECTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS Court Orders Under the Child Abuse... 581 of this chapter that appears valid on its face. (2)(i) After OPM has determined that a child abuse... validity of the legal process. (ii) OPM will not delay compliance with a child abuse judgment enforcement...

5 CFR 838.1121 - Procedures and requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) COURT ORDERS AFFECTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS Court Orders Under the Child Abuse... 581 of this chapter that appears valid on its face. (2)(i) After OPM has determined that a child abuse... validity of the legal process. (ii) OPM will not delay compliance with a child abuse judgment enforcement...

5 CFR 838.1121 - Procedures and requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) COURT ORDERS AFFECTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS Court Orders Under the Child Abuse... 581 of this chapter that appears valid on its face. (2)(i) After OPM has determined that a child abuse... validity of the legal process. (ii) OPM will not delay compliance with a child abuse judgment enforcement...

The Missing Measure? Academic Identity and the Induction Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billot, Jennie; King, Virginia

2017-01-01

The effectiveness of academic induction is under-monitored by higher education institutions (HEIs) despite growing evidence that some academics, facing increased expectations and rising accountability within higher education (HE), perceive a lack of support from their institution. In this paper, we argue that HEIs should follow the example of…

Challenges Facing Students Entering Higher Education in South Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Catherine

2000-01-01

States that institutions of higher education in South Africa are in a process of redressing apartheid inequalities. Discusses how the University of Port Elizabeth in particular has addressed post-apartheid issues such as student under-preparedness, widening access, instability on campus, high student debt levels, declining enrollments, and…

Developmental changes in analytic and holistic processes in face perception.

PubMed

Joseph, Jane E; DiBartolo, Michelle D; Bhatt, Ramesh S

2015-01-01

Although infants demonstrate sensitivity to some kinds of perceptual information in faces, many face capacities continue to develop throughout childhood. One debate is the degree to which children perceive faces analytically versus holistically and how these processes undergo developmental change. In the present study, school-aged children and adults performed a perceptual matching task with upright and inverted face and house pairs that varied in similarity of featural or 2(nd) order configural information. Holistic processing was operationalized as the degree of serial processing when discriminating faces and houses [i.e., increased reaction time (RT), as more features or spacing relations were shared between stimuli]. Analytical processing was operationalized as the degree of parallel processing (or no change in RT as a function of greater similarity of features or spatial relations). Adults showed the most evidence for holistic processing (most strongly for 2(nd) order faces) and holistic processing was weaker for inverted faces and houses. Younger children (6-8 years), in contrast, showed analytical processing across all experimental manipulations. Older children (9-11 years) showed an intermediate pattern with a trend toward holistic processing of 2(nd) order faces like adults, but parallel processing in other experimental conditions like younger children. These findings indicate that holistic face representations emerge around 10 years of age. In adults both 2(nd) order and featural information are incorporated into holistic representations, whereas older children only incorporate 2(nd) order information. Holistic processing was not evident in younger children. Hence, the development of holistic face representations relies on 2(nd) order processing initially then incorporates featural information by adulthood.

Mathematics, anxiety, and the brain.

PubMed

Moustafa, Ahmed A; Tindle, Richard; Ansari, Zaheda; Doyle, Margery J; Hewedi, Doaa H; Eissa, Abeer

2017-05-24

Given that achievement in learning mathematics at school correlates with work and social achievements, it is important to understand the cognitive processes underlying abilities to learn mathematics efficiently as well as reasons underlying the occurrence of mathematics anxiety (i.e. feelings of tension and fear upon facing mathematical problems or numbers) among certain individuals. Over the last two decades, many studies have shown that learning mathematical and numerical concepts relies on many cognitive processes, including working memory, spatial skills, and linguistic abilities. In this review, we discuss the relationship between mathematical learning and cognitive processes as well as the neural substrates underlying successful mathematical learning and problem solving. More importantly, we also discuss the relationship between these cognitive processes, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics learning disabilities (dyscalculia). Our review shows that mathematical cognition relies on a complex brain network, and dysfunction to different segments of this network leads to varying manifestations of mathematical learning disabilities.

Co-Evolution of the Mating Position and Male Genitalia in Insects: A Case Study of a Hangingfly

PubMed Central

Gao, Qionghua; Hua, Baozhen

2013-01-01

Hangingflies are unique for the male providing a nuptial gift to the female during mating and taking a face-to-face hanging copulation with the female. Their male genitalia are peculiar for an extremely elongated penisfilum, a pair of well-developed epandrial lobes (9th tergum), and a pair of degenerated gonostyli. However, the co-evolution of their face-to-face copulation behavior and the male genitalia has rarely been studied hitherto. In this paper the mating behavior of the hangingfly Bittacus planus Cheng, 1949 was observed under laboratory conditions, and the morphology of the male and female external genitalia was investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy. The male provides an insect prey as a nuptial gift to the female in courtship and mating process, and commits a face-to-face copulation. During copulation, the male abdomen twists temporarily about 180° to accommodate their face-to-face mating position. The aedeagal complex has an extremely elongated penisfilum, corresponding to the elongated spermathecal duct of the female. The well-developed epandrial lobes serve as claspers to grasp the female subgenital plate during copulation, replacing the function of gonostyli, which are greatly reduced in Bittacidae. The modified proctiger assists the penisfilum to stretch and to enter into the female spermathecal duct. The possible reasons why this species might mate face-to-face are briefly discussed. PMID:24312490

Self-pacing study of faces of different races: metacognitive control over study does not eliminate the cross-race recognition effect.

PubMed

Tullis, Jonathan G; Benjamin, Aaron S; Liu, Xiping

2014-08-01

People often recognize same-race faces better than other-race faces. This cross-race effect (CRE) has been proposed to arise in part because learners devote fewer cognitive resources to encode faces of social out-groups. In three experiments, we evaluated whether learners' other-race mnemonic deficits are due to "cognitive disregard" during study and whether this disregard is under metacognitive control. Learners studied each face either for as long as they wanted (the self-paced condition) or for the average time taken by a self-paced learner (the fixed-rate condition). Self-paced learners allocated equal amounts of study time to same-race and other-race faces, and having control over study time did not change the size of the CRE. In the second and third experiments, both self-paced and fixed-rate learners were given instructions to "individuate" other-race faces. Individuation instructions caused self-paced learners to allocate more study time to other-race faces, but this did not significantly reduce the size of the CRE, even for learners who reported extensive contact with other races. We propose that the differential processing that people apply to faces of different races and the subsequent other-race mnemonic deficit are not due to learners' strategic cognitive disregard of other-race faces.

Co-evolution of the mating position and male genitalia in insects: a case study of a hangingfly.

PubMed

Gao, Qionghua; Hua, Baozhen

2013-01-01

Hangingflies are unique for the male providing a nuptial gift to the female during mating and taking a face-to-face hanging copulation with the female. Their male genitalia are peculiar for an extremely elongated penisfilum, a pair of well-developed epandrial lobes (9th tergum), and a pair of degenerated gonostyli. However, the co-evolution of their face-to-face copulation behavior and the male genitalia has rarely been studied hitherto. In this paper the mating behavior of the hangingfly Bittacus planus Cheng, 1949 was observed under laboratory conditions, and the morphology of the male and female external genitalia was investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy. The male provides an insect prey as a nuptial gift to the female in courtship and mating process, and commits a face-to-face copulation. During copulation, the male abdomen twists temporarily about 180° to accommodate their face-to-face mating position. The aedeagal complex has an extremely elongated penisfilum, corresponding to the elongated spermathecal duct of the female. The well-developed epandrial lobes serve as claspers to grasp the female subgenital plate during copulation, replacing the function of gonostyli, which are greatly reduced in Bittacidae. The modified proctiger assists the penisfilum to stretch and to enter into the female spermathecal duct. The possible reasons why this species might mate face-to-face are briefly discussed.

The Impact of Early Bilingualism on Face Recognition Processes.

PubMed

Kandel, Sonia; Burfin, Sabine; Méary, David; Ruiz-Tada, Elisa; Costa, Albert; Pascalis, Olivier

2016-01-01

Early linguistic experience has an impact on the way we decode audiovisual speech in face-to-face communication. The present study examined whether differences in visual speech decoding could be linked to a broader difference in face processing. To identify a phoneme we have to do an analysis of the speaker's face to focus on the relevant cues for speech decoding (e.g., locating the mouth with respect to the eyes). Face recognition processes were investigated through two classic effects in face recognition studies: the Other-Race Effect (ORE) and the Inversion Effect. Bilingual and monolingual participants did a face recognition task with Caucasian faces (own race), Chinese faces (other race), and cars that were presented in an Upright or Inverted position. The results revealed that monolinguals exhibited the classic ORE. Bilinguals did not. Overall, bilinguals were slower than monolinguals. These results suggest that bilinguals' face processing abilities differ from monolinguals'. Early exposure to more than one language may lead to a perceptual organization that goes beyond language processing and could extend to face analysis. We hypothesize that these differences could be due to the fact that bilinguals focus on different parts of the face than monolinguals, making them more efficient in other race face processing but slower. However, more studies using eye-tracking techniques are necessary to confirm this explanation.

A Qualitative Impairment in Face Perception in Alzheimer's Disease: Evidence from a Reduced Face Inversion Effect.

PubMed

Lavallée, Marie Maxime; Gandini, Delphine; Rouleau, Isabelle; Vallet, Guillaume T; Joannette, Maude; Kergoat, Marie-Jeanne; Busigny, Thomas; Rossion, Bruno; Joubert, Sven

2016-01-01

Prevalent face recognition difficulties in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have typically been attributed to the underlying episodic and semantic memory impairment. The aim of the current study was to determine if AD patients are also impaired at the perceptual level for faces, more specifically at extracting a visual representation of an individual face. To address this question, we investigated the matching of simultaneously presented individual faces and of other nonface familiar shapes (cars), at both upright and inverted orientation, in a group of mild AD patients and in a group of healthy older controls matched for age and education. AD patients showed a reduced inversion effect (i.e., larger performance for upright than inverted stimuli) for faces, but not for cars, both in terms of error rates and response times. While healthy participants showed a much larger decrease in performance for faces than for cars with inversion, the inversion effect did not differ significantly for faces and cars in AD. This abnormal inversion effect for faces was observed in a large subset of individual patients with AD. These results suggest that AD patients have deficits in higher-level visual processes, more specifically at perceiving individual faces, a function that relies on holistic representations specific to upright face stimuli. These deficits, combined with their memory impairment, may contribute to the difficulties in recognizing familiar people that are often reported in patients suffering from the disease and by their caregivers.

Implications of holistic face processing in autism and schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Watson, Tamara L.

2013-01-01

People with autism and schizophrenia have been shown to have a local bias in sensory processing and face recognition difficulties. A global or holistic processing strategy is known to be important when recognizing faces. Studies investigating face recognition in these populations are reviewed and show that holistic processing is employed despite lower overall performance in the tasks used. This implies that holistic processing is necessary but not sufficient for optimal face recognition and new avenues for research into face recognition based on network models of autism and schizophrenia are proposed. PMID:23847581

Conscious awareness is required for holistic face processing.

PubMed

Axelrod, Vadim; Rees, Geraint

2014-07-01

Investigating the limits of unconscious processing is essential to understand the function of consciousness. Here, we explored whether holistic face processing, a mechanism believed to be important for face processing in general, can be accomplished unconsciously. Using a novel "eyes-face" stimulus we tested whether discrimination of pairs of eyes was influenced by the surrounding face context. While the eyes were fully visible, the faces that provided context could be rendered invisible through continuous flash suppression. Two experiments with three different sets of face stimuli and a subliminal learning procedure converged to show that invisible faces did not influence perception of visible eyes. In contrast, surrounding faces, when they were clearly visible, strongly influenced perception of the eyes. Thus, we conclude that conscious awareness might be a prerequisite for holistic face processing. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Face Context Influences Local Part Processing: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Zhang, Hong; Sun, Yaoru; Zhao, Lun

2017-09-01

Perception of face parts on the basis of features is thought to be different from perception of whole faces, which is more based on configural information. Face context is also suggested to play an important role in face processing. To investigate how face context influences the early-stage perception of facial local parts, we used an oddball paradigm that tested perceptual stages of face processing rather than recognition. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by whole faces and face parts presented in four conditions (upright-normal, upright-thatcherised, inverted-normal and inverted-thatcherised), as well as the ERPs elicited by non-face objects (whole houses and house parts) with corresponding conditions. The results showed that face context significantly affected the N170 with increased amplitudes and earlier peak latency for upright normal faces. Removing face context delayed the P1 latency but did not affect the P1 amplitude prominently for both upright and inverted normal faces. Across all conditions, neither the N170 nor the P1 was modulated by house context. The significant changes on the N170 and P1 components revealed that face context influences local part processing at the early stage of face processing and this context effect might be specific for face perception. We further suggested that perceptions of whole faces and face parts are functionally distinguished.

Power effects on implicit prejudice and stereotyping: The role of intergroup face processing.

PubMed

Schmid, Petra C; Amodio, David M

2017-04-01

Power is thought to increase discrimination toward subordinate groups, yet its effect on different forms of implicit bias remains unclear. We tested whether power enhances implicit racial stereotyping, in addition to implicit prejudice (i.e., evaluative associations), and examined the effect of power on the automatic processing of faces during implicit tasks. Study 1 showed that manipulated high power increased both forms of implicit bias, relative to low power. Using a neural index of visual face processing (the N170 component of the ERP), Study 2 revealed that power affected the encoding of White ingroup vs. Black outgroup faces. Whereas high power increased the relative processing of outgroup faces during evaluative judgments in the prejudice task, it decreased the relative processing of outgroup faces during stereotype trait judgments. An indirect effect of power on implicit prejudice through enhanced processing of outgroup versus ingroup faces suggested a potential link between face processing and implicit bias. Together, these findings demonstrate that power can affect implicit prejudice and stereotyping as well as early processing of racial ingroup and outgroup faces.

Holistic processing of face configurations and components.

PubMed

Hayward, William G; Crookes, Kate; Chu, Ming Hon; Favelle, Simone K; Rhodes, Gillian

2016-10-01

Although many researchers agree that faces are processed holistically, we know relatively little about what information holistic processing captures from a face. Most studies that assess the nature of holistic processing do so with changes to the face affecting many different aspects of face information (e.g., different identities). Does holistic processing affect every aspect of a face? We used the composite task, a common means of examining the strength of holistic processing, with participants making same-different judgments about configuration changes or component changes to 1 portion of a face. Configuration changes involved changes in spatial position of the eyes, whereas component changes involved lightening or darkening the eyebrows. Composites were either aligned or misaligned, and were presented either upright or inverted. Both configuration judgments and component judgments showed evidence of holistic processing, and in both cases it was strongest for upright face composites. These results suggest that holistic processing captures a broad range of information about the face, including both configuration-based and component-based information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Deep and shallow encoding effects on face recognition: an ERP study.

PubMed

Marzi, Tessa; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2010-12-01

Event related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate whether and when brain activity related to face recognition varies according to the processing level undertaken at encoding. Recognition was assessed when preceded by a "shallow" (orientation judgement) or by a "deep" study task (occupation judgement). Moreover, we included a further manipulation by presenting at encoding faces either in the upright or inverted orientation. As expected, deeply encoded faces were recognized more accurately and more quickly with respect to shallowly encoded faces. The ERP showed three main findings: i) as witnessed by more positive-going potentials for deeply encoded faces, at early and later processing stage, face recognition was influenced by the processing strategy adopted during encoding; ii) structural encoding, indexed by the N170, turned out to be "cognitively penetrable" showing repetition priming effects for deeply encoded faces; iii) face inversion, by disrupting configural processing during encoding, influenced memory related processes for deeply encoded faces and impaired the recognition of faces shallowly processed. The present study adds weight to the concept that the depth of processing during memory encoding affects retrieval. We found that successful retrieval following deep encoding involved both familiarity- and recollection-related processes showing from 500 ms a fronto-parietal distribution, whereas shallow encoding affected only earlier processing stages reflecting perceptual priming. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early holistic face-like processing of Arcimboldo paintings in the right occipito-temporal cortex: evidence from the N170 ERP component.

PubMed

Caharel, Stéphanie; Leleu, Arnaud; Bernard, Christian; Viggiano, Maria-Pia; Lalonde, Robert; Rebaï, Mohamed

2013-11-01

The properties of the face-sensitive N170 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) were explored through an orientation discrimination task using natural faces, objects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. Because Arcimboldo paintings are composed of non-face objects but have a global face configuration, they provide great control to disentangle high-level face-like or object-like visual processes at the level of the N170, and may help to examine the implication of each hemisphere in the global/holistic processing of face formats. For upright position, N170 amplitudes in the right occipito-temporal region did not differ between natural faces and Arcimboldo paintings but were larger for both of these categories than for objects, supporting the view that as early as the N170 time-window, the right hemisphere is involved in holistic perceptual processing of face-like configurations irrespective of their features. Conversely, in the left hemisphere, N170 amplitudes differed between Arcimboldo portraits and natural faces, suggesting that this hemisphere processes local facial features. For upside-down orientation in both hemispheres, N170 amplitudes did not differ between Arcimboldo paintings and objects, but were reduced for both categories compared to natural faces, indicating that the disruption of holistic processing with inversion leads to an object-like processing of Arcimboldo paintings due to the lack of local facial features. Overall, these results provide evidence that global/holistic perceptual processing of faces and face-like formats involves the right hemisphere as early as the N170 time-window, and that the local processing of face features is rather implemented in the left hemisphere. © 2013.

Event-related potential and eye tracking evidence of the developmental dynamics of face processing.

PubMed

Meaux, Emilie; Hernandez, Nadia; Carteau-Martin, Isabelle; Martineau, Joëlle; Barthélémy, Catherine; Bonnet-Brilhault, Frédérique; Batty, Magali

2014-04-01

Although the wide neural network and specific processes related to faces have been revealed, the process by which face-processing ability develops remains unclear. An interest in faces appears early in infancy, and developmental findings to date have suggested a long maturation process of the mechanisms involved in face processing. These developmental changes may be supported by the acquisition of more efficient strategies to process faces (theory of expertise) and by the maturation of the face neural network identified in adults. This study aimed to clarify the link between event-related potential (ERP) development in response to faces and the behavioral changes in the way faces are scanned throughout childhood. Twenty-six young children (4-10 years of age) were included in two experimental paradigms, the first exploring ERPs during face processing, the second investigating the visual exploration of faces using an eye-tracking system. The results confirmed significant age-related changes in visual ERPs (P1, N170 and P2). Moreover, an increased interest in the eye region and an attentional shift from the mouth to the eyes were also revealed. The proportion of early fixations on the eye region was correlated with N170 and P2 characteristics, highlighting a link between the development of ERPs and gaze behavior. We suggest that these overall developmental dynamics may be sustained by a gradual, experience-dependent specialization in face processing (i.e. acquisition of face expertise), which produces a more automatic and efficient network associated with effortless identification of faces, and allows the emergence of human-specific social and communication skills. © 2014 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Face Gear Technology for Aerospace Power Transmission Progresses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

The use of face gears in an advanced rotorcraft transmission design was first proposed by the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company during their contracted effort with the U.S. Army under the Advanced Rotorcraft Transmission (ART) program. Face gears would be used to turn the corner between the horizontal gas turbine engine and the vertical output rotor shaft--a function currently done by spiral bevel gears. This novel gearing arrangement would substantially lower the drive system weight partly because a face gear mesh would be used to split the input power between two output gears. However, the use of face gears and their ability to operate successfully at the speeds and loads required for an aerospace environment was unknown. Therefore a proof-of-concept phase with an existing test stand at the NASA Lewis Research Center was pursued. Hardware was designed that could be tested in Lewis' Spiral Bevel Gear Test Rig. The initial testing indicated that the face gear mesh was a feasible design that could be used at high speeds and load. Surface pitting fatigue was the typical failure mode, and that could lead to tooth fracture. An interim project was conducted to see if slight modifications to the gear tooth geometry or an alternative heat treating process could overcome the surface fatigue problems. From the initial and interim tests, it was apparent that for the surface fatigue problems to be overcome the manufacturing process used for this component would have to be developed to the level used for spiral bevel gears. The current state of the art for face gear manufacturing required using less than optimal gear materials and manufacturing techniques because the surface of the tooth form does not receive final finishing after heat treatment as it does for spiral bevel gears. This resulted in less than desirable surface hardness and manufacturing tolerances. An Advanced Research and Projects Agency (ARPA) Technology Reinvestment Project has been funded to investigate the effects of manufacturing process improvements on the operating characteristics of face gears. The program is being conducted with McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., Lucas Western Inc., the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a NASA/U.S. Army team. The goal of the project is develop the grinding process, experimentally verify the improvement in face gear fatigue life, and conduct a full-scale helicopter transmission test. The theory and methodology to grind face gears has been completed, and manufacture of the test hardware is ongoing. Experimental verification on test hardware is scheduled to begin in fiscal 1996.

Face processing in Williams syndrome is already atypical in infancy.

PubMed

D'Souza, Dean; Cole, Victoria; Farran, Emily K; Brown, Janice H; Humphreys, Kate; Howard, John; Rodic, Maja; Dekker, Tessa M; D'Souza, Hana; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

2015-01-01

Face processing is a crucial socio-cognitive ability. Is it acquired progressively or does it constitute an innately-specified, face-processing module? The latter would be supported if some individuals with seriously impaired intelligence nonetheless showed intact face-processing abilities. Some theorists claim that Williams syndrome (WS) provides such evidence since, despite IQs in the 50s, adolescents/adults with WS score in the normal range on standardized face-processing tests. Others argue that atypical neural and cognitive processes underlie WS face-processing proficiencies. But what about infants with WS? Do they start with typical face-processing abilities, with atypicality developing later, or are atypicalities already evident in infancy? We used an infant familiarization/novelty design and compared infants with WS to typically developing controls as well as to a group of infants with Down syndrome matched on both mental and chronological age. Participants were familiarized with a schematic face, after which they saw a novel face in which either the features (eye shape) were changed or just the configuration of the original features. Configural changes were processed successfully by controls, but not by infants with WS who were only sensitive to featural changes and who showed syndrome-specific profiles different from infants with the other neurodevelopmental disorder. Our findings indicate that theorists can no longer use the case of WS to support claims that evolution has endowed the human brain with an independent face-processing module.

Developmental changes in analytic and holistic processes in face perception

PubMed Central

Joseph, Jane E.; DiBartolo, Michelle D.; Bhatt, Ramesh S.

2015-01-01

Although infants demonstrate sensitivity to some kinds of perceptual information in faces, many face capacities continue to develop throughout childhood. One debate is the degree to which children perceive faces analytically versus holistically and how these processes undergo developmental change. In the present study, school-aged children and adults performed a perceptual matching task with upright and inverted face and house pairs that varied in similarity of featural or 2nd order configural information. Holistic processing was operationalized as the degree of serial processing when discriminating faces and houses [i.e., increased reaction time (RT), as more features or spacing relations were shared between stimuli]. Analytical processing was operationalized as the degree of parallel processing (or no change in RT as a function of greater similarity of features or spatial relations). Adults showed the most evidence for holistic processing (most strongly for 2nd order faces) and holistic processing was weaker for inverted faces and houses. Younger children (6–8 years), in contrast, showed analytical processing across all experimental manipulations. Older children (9–11 years) showed an intermediate pattern with a trend toward holistic processing of 2nd order faces like adults, but parallel processing in other experimental conditions like younger children. These findings indicate that holistic face representations emerge around 10 years of age. In adults both 2nd order and featural information are incorporated into holistic representations, whereas older children only incorporate 2nd order information. Holistic processing was not evident in younger children. Hence, the development of holistic face representations relies on 2nd order processing initially then incorporates featural information by adulthood. PMID:26300838

Beyond the FFA: The Role of the Ventral Anterior Temporal Lobes in Face Processing

PubMed Central

Collins, Jessica A.; Olson, Ingrid R.

2014-01-01

Extensive research has supported the existence of a specialized face-processing network that is distinct from the visual processing areas used for general object recognition. The majority of this work has been aimed at characterizing the response properties of the fusiform face area (FFA) and the occipital face area (OFA), which together are thought to constitute the core network of brain areas responsible for facial identification. Although accruing evidence has shown that face-selective patches in the ventral anterior temporal lobes (vATLs) are interconnected with the FFA and OFA, and that they play a role in facial identification, the relative contribution of these brain areas to the core face-processing network has remained unarticulated. Here we review recent research critically implicating the vATLs in face perception and memory. We propose that current models of face processing should be revised such that the ventral anterior temporal lobes serve a centralized role in the visual face-processing network. We speculate that a hierarchically organized system of face processing areas extends bilaterally from the inferior occipital gyri to the vATLs, with facial representations becoming increasingly complex and abstracted from low-level perceptual features as they move forward along this network. The anterior temporal face areas may serve as the apex of this hierarchy, instantiating the final stages of face recognition. We further argue that the anterior temporal face areas are ideally suited to serve as an interface between face perception and face memory, linking perceptual representations of individual identity with person-specific semantic knowledge. PMID:24937188

Chess masters show a hallmark of face processing with chess.

PubMed

Boggan, Amy L; Bartlett, James C; Krawczyk, Daniel C

2012-02-01

Face processing has several distinctive hallmarks that researchers have attributed either to face-specific mechanisms or to extensive experience distinguishing faces. Here, we examined the face-processing hallmark of selective attention failure--as indexed by the congruency effect in the composite paradigm--in a domain of extreme expertise: chess. Among 27 experts, we found that the congruency effect was equally strong with chessboards and faces. Further, comparing these experts with recreational players and novices, we observed a trade-off: Chess expertise was positively related to the congruency effect with chess yet negatively related to the congruency effect with faces. These and other findings reveal a case of expertise-dependent, facelike processing of objects of expertise and suggest that face and expert-chess recognition share common processes.

Social contact and other-race face processing in the human brain

PubMed Central

Silvert, Laetitia; Hewstone, Miles; Nobre, Anna C.

2008-01-01

The present study investigated the influence social factors upon the neural processing of faces of other races using event-related potentials. A multi-tiered approach was used to identify face-specific stages of processing, to test for effects of race-of-face upon processing at these stages and to evaluate the impact of social contact and individuating experience upon these effects. The results showed that race-of-face has significant effects upon face processing, starting from early perceptual stages of structural encoding, and that social factors may play an important role in mediating these effects. PMID:19015091

ET Toxic Metals Replacement Review SEA Spring Face to Face

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pratz, Earl

2007-01-01

The information contained in the presentation covers development work carried out under SDS projects. The intent of the effort is to find chrome(VI) free alternates to our current chromated processing solutions. The information presented reports progress in work aimed to replace our alkaline cleaner (Turco 4215), conversion coat (Iridite 14-2) and chrome (VI) compounds used in LOx tank hydrostatic proof test solution. To date we have found candidates for use in the proof test solution and alkaline cleaner. These candidates are in the final stages of testing. Lab data is reported in the presentation.

Why Some Faces won't be Remembered: Brain Potentials Illuminate Successful Versus Unsuccessful Encoding for Same-Race and Other-Race Faces

PubMed Central

Lucas, Heather D.; Chiao, Joan Y.; Paller, Ken A.

2011-01-01

Memory is often less accurate for faces from another racial group than for faces from one's own racial group. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are a topic of active debate. Contemporary theories invoke factors such as inferior expertise with faces from other racial groups and an encoding emphasis on race-specifying information. We investigated neural mechanisms of this memory bias by recording event-related potentials while participants attempted to memorize same-race (SR) and other-race (OR) faces. Brain potentials at encoding were compared as a function of successful versus unsuccessful recognition on a subsequent-memory test. Late positive amplitudes predicted subsequent memory for SR faces and, to a lesser extent, for OR faces. By contrast, the amplitudes of earlier frontocentral N200 potentials and occipito-temporal P2 potentials were larger for later-remembered relative to later-forgotten OR faces. Furthermore, N200 and P2 amplitudes were larger for OR faces with features considered atypical of that race relative to faces that were race-stereotypical (according to a consensus from a large group of other participants). In keeping with previous reports, we infer that these earlier potentials index the processing of unique or individuating facial information, which is key to remembering a face. Individuation may tend to be uniformly high for SR faces but lower and less reliable for OR faces. Individuation may also be more readily applied for OR faces that appear less stereotypical. These electrophysiological measures thus provide novel evidence that poorer memory for OR faces stems from encoding that is inadequate because it fails to emphasize individuating information. PMID:21441983

Role of temporal processing stages by inferior temporal neurons in facial recognition.

PubMed

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Kawano, Kenji

2011-01-01

In this review, we focus on the role of temporal stages of encoded facial information in the visual system, which might enable the efficient determination of species, identity, and expression. Facial recognition is an important function of our brain and is known to be processed in the ventral visual pathway, where visual signals are processed through areas V1, V2, V4, and the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In the IT cortex, neurons show selective responses to complex visual images such as faces, and at each stage along the pathway the stimulus selectivity of the neural responses becomes sharper, particularly in the later portion of the responses. In the IT cortex of the monkey, facial information is represented by different temporal stages of neural responses, as shown in our previous study: the initial transient response of face-responsive neurons represents information about global categories, i.e., human vs. monkey vs. simple shapes, whilst the later portion of these responses represents information about detailed facial categories, i.e., expression and/or identity. This suggests that the temporal stages of the neuronal firing pattern play an important role in the coding of visual stimuli, including faces. This type of coding may be a plausible mechanism underlying the temporal dynamics of recognition, including the process of detection/categorization followed by the identification of objects. Recent single-unit studies in monkeys have also provided evidence consistent with the important role of the temporal stages of encoded facial information. For example, view-invariant facial identity information is represented in the response at a later period within a region of face-selective neurons. Consistent with these findings, temporally modulated neural activity has also been observed in human studies. These results suggest a close correlation between the temporal processing stages of facial information by IT neurons and the temporal dynamics of face recognition.

Role of Temporal Processing Stages by Inferior Temporal Neurons in Facial Recognition

PubMed Central

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Kawano, Kenji

2011-01-01

In this review, we focus on the role of temporal stages of encoded facial information in the visual system, which might enable the efficient determination of species, identity, and expression. Facial recognition is an important function of our brain and is known to be processed in the ventral visual pathway, where visual signals are processed through areas V1, V2, V4, and the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. In the IT cortex, neurons show selective responses to complex visual images such as faces, and at each stage along the pathway the stimulus selectivity of the neural responses becomes sharper, particularly in the later portion of the responses. In the IT cortex of the monkey, facial information is represented by different temporal stages of neural responses, as shown in our previous study: the initial transient response of face-responsive neurons represents information about global categories, i.e., human vs. monkey vs. simple shapes, whilst the later portion of these responses represents information about detailed facial categories, i.e., expression and/or identity. This suggests that the temporal stages of the neuronal firing pattern play an important role in the coding of visual stimuli, including faces. This type of coding may be a plausible mechanism underlying the temporal dynamics of recognition, including the process of detection/categorization followed by the identification of objects. Recent single-unit studies in monkeys have also provided evidence consistent with the important role of the temporal stages of encoded facial information. For example, view-invariant facial identity information is represented in the response at a later period within a region of face-selective neurons. Consistent with these findings, temporally modulated neural activity has also been observed in human studies. These results suggest a close correlation between the temporal processing stages of facial information by IT neurons and the temporal dynamics of face recognition. PMID:21734904

A real time mobile-based face recognition with fisherface methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arisandi, D.; Syahputra, M. F.; Putri, I. L.; Purnamawati, S.; Rahmat, R. F.; Sari, P. P.

2018-03-01

Face Recognition is a field research in Computer Vision that study about learning face and determine the identity of the face from a picture sent to the system. By utilizing this face recognition technology, learning process about people’s identity between students in a university will become simpler. With this technology, student won’t need to browse student directory in university’s server site and look for the person with certain face trait. To obtain this goal, face recognition application use image processing methods consist of two phase, pre-processing phase and recognition phase. In pre-processing phase, system will process input image into the best image for recognition phase. Purpose of this pre-processing phase is to reduce noise and increase signal in image. Next, to recognize face phase, we use Fisherface Methods. This methods is chosen because of its advantage that would help system of its limited data. Therefore from experiment the accuracy of face recognition using fisherface is 90%.

Neural bases of eye and gaze processing: The core of social cognition

PubMed Central

Itier, Roxane J.; Batty, Magali

2014-01-01

Eyes and gaze are very important stimuli for human social interactions. Recent studies suggest that impairments in recognizing face identity, facial emotions or in inferring attention and intentions of others could be linked to difficulties in extracting the relevant information from the eye region including gaze direction. In this review, we address the central role of eyes and gaze in social cognition. We start with behavioral data demonstrating the importance of the eye region and the impact of gaze on the most significant aspects of face processing. We review neuropsychological cases and data from various imaging techniques such as fMRI/PET and ERP/MEG, in an attempt to best describe the spatio-temporal networks underlying these processes. The existence of a neuronal eye detector mechanism is discussed as well as the links between eye gaze and social cognition impairments in autism. We suggest impairments in processing eyes and gaze may represent a core deficiency in several other brain pathologies and may be central to abnormal social cognition. PMID:19428496

Infants experience-dependent processing of male and female faces: Insights from eye tracking and event-related potentials

PubMed Central

Righi, Giulia; Westerlund, Alissa; Congdon, Eliza L.; Troller-Renfree, Sonya; Nelson, Charles A.

2013-01-01

The goal of the present study was to investigate infants’ processing of female and male faces. We used an event-related potential (ERP) priming task, as well as a visual-paired comparison (VPC) eye tracking task to explore how 7-month-old “female expert” infants differed in their responses to faces of different genders. Female faces elicited larger N290 amplitudes than male faces. Furthermore, infants showed a priming effect for female faces only, whereby the N290 was significantly more negative for novel females compared to primed female faces. The VPC experiment was designed to test whether infants could reliably discriminate between two female and two male faces. Analyses showed that infants were able to differentiate faces of both genders. The results of the present study suggest that 7-month olds with a large amount of female face experience show a processing advantage for forming a neural representation of female faces, compared to male faces. However, the enhanced neural sensitivity to the repetition of female faces is not due to the infants' inability to discriminate male faces. Instead, the combination of results from the two tasks suggests that the differential processing for female faces may be a signature of expert-level processing. PMID:24200421

Encoding deficit during face processing within the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Walther, Sebastian; Federspiel, Andrea; Horn, Helge; Bianchi, Piero; Wiest, Roland; Wirth, Miranka; Strik, Werner; Müller, Thomas Jörg

2009-06-30

Face processing is crucial to social interaction, but is impaired in schizophrenia patients, who experience delays in face recognition, difficulties identifying others, and misperceptions of affective content. The right fusiform face area plays an important role in the early stages of human face processing and thus may be affected in schizophrenia. The aim of the study was therefore to investigate whether face processing deficits are related to dysfunctions of the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia patients compared with controls. In a rapid, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, we investigated the encoding of new faces, as well as the recognition of newly learned, famous, and unfamiliar faces, in 13 schizophrenia patients and 21 healthy controls. We applied region of interest analysis to each individual's right fusiform face area and tested for group differences. Controls displayed higher blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activation during the memorization of faces that were later successfully recognized. In schizophrenia patients, this effect was not observed. During the recognition task, schizophrenia patients exhibited lower BOLD responses, less accuracy, and longer reaction times to famous and unfamiliar faces. Our results support the hypothesis that impaired face processing in schizophrenia is related to early-stage deficits during the encoding and recognition of faces.

Neurofunctional Underpinnings of Audiovisual Emotion Processing in Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Doyle-Thomas, Krissy A.R.; Goldberg, Jeremy; Szatmari, Peter; Hall, Geoffrey B.C.

2013-01-01

Despite successful performance on some audiovisual emotion tasks, hypoactivity has been observed in frontal and temporal integration cortices in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Little is understood about the neurofunctional network underlying this ability in individuals with ASD. Research suggests that there may be processing biases in individuals with ASD, based on their ability to obtain meaningful information from the face and/or the voice. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined brain activity in teens with ASD (n = 18) and typically developing controls (n = 16) during audiovisual and unimodal emotion processing. Teens with ASD had a significantly lower accuracy when matching an emotional face to an emotion label. However, no differences in accuracy were observed between groups when matching an emotional voice or face-voice pair to an emotion label. In both groups brain activity during audiovisual emotion matching differed significantly from activity during unimodal emotion matching. Between-group analyses of audiovisual processing revealed significantly greater activation in teens with ASD in a parietofrontal network believed to be implicated in attention, goal-directed behaviors, and semantic processing. In contrast, controls showed greater activity in frontal and temporal association cortices during this task. These results suggest that in the absence of engaging integrative emotional networks during audiovisual emotion matching, teens with ASD may have recruited the parietofrontal network as an alternate compensatory system. PMID:23750139

From development to aging: Holistic face perception in children, younger and older adults.

PubMed

Meinhardt-Injac, Bozana; Boutet, Isabelle; Persike, Malte; Meinhardt, Günter; Imhof, Margarete

2017-01-01

Few published reports examine the development of holistic face processing across the lifespan such that face-specific processes are adequately differentiated from general developmental effects. To address this gap in the literature, we used the complete design of the composite paradigm (Richler & Gauthier, 2014) with faces and non-face control objects (watches) to investigate holistic processing in children (8-10years), young adults (20-32years) and older adults (65-78years). Several modifications to past research designs were introduced to improve the ability to draw conclusions about the development of holistic processing in terms of face-specificity, response bias, and age-related differences in attention. Attentional focus (narrow vs. wide focus at study) influenced the magnitude of the composite effect without eliminating holistic face processing in all age groups. Young adults showed large composite effects for faces, but none for watches. In contrast, older adults and children showed composite effects for both faces and watches, although the effects for faces were larger. Our findings suggest that holistic processing, as measured by the composite effect, might be moderated by less efficient attentional control in children and older adults. The study also underscores the importance of including comparable complex objects when investigating face processing across the lifespan. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rapid communication: Global-local processing affects recognition of distractor emotional faces.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Narayanan; Gupta, Rashmi

2011-03-01

Recent studies have shown links between happy faces and global, distributed attention as well as sad faces to local, focused attention. Emotions have been shown to affect global-local processing. Given that studies on emotion-cognition interactions have not explored the effect of perceptual processing at different spatial scales on processing stimuli with emotional content, the present study investigated the link between perceptual focus and emotional processing. The study investigated the effects of global-local processing on the recognition of distractor faces with emotional expressions. Participants performed a digit discrimination task with digits at either the global level or the local level presented against a distractor face (happy or sad) as background. The results showed that global processing associated with broad scope of attention facilitates recognition of happy faces, and local processing associated with narrow scope of attention facilitates recognition of sad faces. The novel results of the study provide conclusive evidence for emotion-cognition interactions by demonstrating the effect of perceptual processing on emotional faces. The results along with earlier complementary results on the effect of emotion on global-local processing support a reciprocal relationship between emotional processing and global-local processing. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of selective attention.

Spatial Mechanisms within the Dorsal Visual Pathway Contribute to the Configural Processing of Faces.

PubMed

Zachariou, Valentinos; Nikas, Christine V; Safiullah, Zaid N; Gotts, Stephen J; Ungerleider, Leslie G

2017-08-01

Human face recognition is often attributed to configural processing; namely, processing the spatial relationships among the features of a face. If configural processing depends on fine-grained spatial information, do visuospatial mechanisms within the dorsal visual pathway contribute to this process? We explored this question in human adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in a same-different face detection task. Within localized, spatial-processing regions of the posterior parietal cortex, configural face differences led to significantly stronger activation compared to featural face differences, and the magnitude of this activation correlated with behavioral performance. In addition, detection of configural relative to featural face differences led to significantly stronger functional connectivity between the right FFA and the spatial processing regions of the dorsal stream, whereas detection of featural relative to configural face differences led to stronger functional connectivity between the right FFA and left FFA. Critically, TMS centered on these parietal regions impaired performance on configural but not featural face difference detections. We conclude that spatial mechanisms within the dorsal visual pathway contribute to the configural processing of facial features and, more broadly, that the dorsal stream may contribute to the veridical perception of faces. Published by Oxford University Press 2016.

En face optical coherence tomography findings in a case of Alport syndrome.

PubMed

Cho, In Hwan; Kim, Hoon Dong; Jung, Sang Joon; Park, Tae Kwann

2017-09-01

Alport syndrome is a rare hereditary disease that is associated with retinal abnormalities such as dot-and-fleck retinopathy and temporal macular thinning. The main pathophysiological process of Alport syndrome is loss of the collagen network in the basement membrane. However, the alterations in each retinal layer have not been fully evaluated. In the case presented here, we evaluated the retina of a patient with Alport syndrome using en face optical coherence tomography (OCT). The findings suggested that the primary alterations occur in the internal limiting membrane and the retinal pigment epithelium basement membrane which is a part of the Bruch's membrane. The adjacent retinal layers are damaged subsequently. In conclusion, en face OCT could be useful in evaluating retinal abnormalities and understanding their underlying pathophysiology in Alport syndrome.

Failure study of helium-cooled tungsten divertor plasma-facing units tested at DEMO relevant steady-state heat loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ritz, G.; Hirai, T.; Norajitra, P.; Reiser, J.; Giniyatulin, R.; Makhankov, A.; Mazul, I.; Pintsuk, G.; Linke, J.

2009-12-01

Tungsten was selected as armor material for the helium-cooled divertor in future DEMO-type fusion reactors and fusion power plants. After realizing the design and testing of them under cyclic thermal loads of up to ~14 MW m-2, the tungsten divertor plasma-facing units were examined by metallography; they revealed failures such as cracks at the thermal loaded and as-machined surfaces, as well as degradation of the brazing layers. Furthermore, in order to optimize the machining processes, the quality of tungsten surfaces prepared by turning, milling and using a diamond cutting wheel were examined. This paper presents a metallographic examination of the tungsten plasma-facing units as well as technical studies and the characterization on machining of tungsten and alternative brazing joints.

Can we look past people's race? The effect of combining race and a non-racial group affiliation on holistic processing.

PubMed

Sadozai, Ayesha K; Kempen, Kate; Tredoux, Colin; Robbins, Rachel A

2018-03-01

Face memory is worse for races other than one's own, in part because other-race faces are less holistically processed. Both experiential factors and social factors have been suggested as reasons for this other-race effect. Direct measures of holistic processing for race and a non-racial category in faces have never been employed, making it difficult to establish how experience and group membership interact. This study is the first to directly explore holistic processing of own-race and other-race faces, also classed by a non-racial category (university affiliation). Using a crossover design, White undergraduates (in Australia) completed the part-whole task for White (American) and Black South African faces attributed to the University of Western Sydney (own) and University of Sydney (other). Black South African undergraduates completed the same task for White and Black South African faces attributed to the University of Cape Town (own) and Stellenbosch University (other). It was hypothesised that own-race faces would be processed more holistically than other-race faces and that own-university faces would be processed more holistically than other-university faces. Results showed a significant effect of race for White participants (White faces were matched more accurately than Black faces), and wholes were matched more accurately than parts, suggesting holistic processing, but only for White faces. No effect of university was found. Black South African participants, who have more experience with other-race faces, processed wholes better than parts irrespective of race and university category. Overall, results suggest that experiential factors of race outweigh any effects of a non-racial shared group membership. The quality of experience for the named populations, stimuli presentation, and degree of individuation are discussed.

Normal composite face effects in developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Biotti, Federica; Wu, Esther; Yang, Hua; Jiahui, Guo; Duchaine, Bradley; Cook, Richard

2017-10-01

Upright face perception is thought to involve holistic processing, whereby local features are integrated into a unified whole. Consistent with this view, the top half of one face appears to fuse perceptually with the bottom half of another, when aligned spatially and presented upright. This 'composite face effect' reveals a tendency to integrate information from disparate regions when faces are presented canonically. In recent years, the relationship between susceptibility to the composite effect and face recognition ability has received extensive attention both in participants with normal face recognition and participants with developmental prosopagnosia. Previous results suggest that individuals with developmental prosopagnosia may show reduced susceptibility to the effect suggestive of diminished holistic face processing. Here we describe two studies that examine whether developmental prosopagnosia is associated with reduced composite face effects. Despite using independent samples of developmental prosopagnosics and different composite procedures, we find no evidence for reduced composite face effects. The experiments yielded similar results; highly significant composite effects in both prosopagnosic groups that were similar in magnitude to the effects found in participants with normal face processing. The composite face effects exhibited by both samples and the controls were greatly diminished when stimulus arrangements were inverted. Our finding that the whole-face binding process indexed by the composite effect is intact in developmental prosopagnosia indicates that other factors are responsible for developmental prosopagnosia. These results are also inconsistent with suggestions that susceptibility to the composite face effect and face recognition ability are tightly linked. While the holistic process revealed by the composite face effect may be necessary for typical face perception, it is not sufficient; individual differences in face recognition ability likely reflect variability in multiple sequential processes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impaired holistic processing in congenital prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Avidan, Galia; Tanzer, Michal; Behrmann, Marlene

2011-01-01

It has long been argued that face processing requires disproportionate reliance on holistic or configural processing, relative to that required for non-face object recognition, and that a disruption of such holistic processing may be causally implicated in prosopagnosia. Previously, we demonstrated that individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) did not show the normal face inversion effect (better performance for upright compared to inverted faces) and evinced a local (rather than the normal global) bias in a compound letter global/local (GL) task, supporting the claim of disrupted holistic processing in prosopagnosia. Here, we investigate further the nature of holistic processing impairments in CP, first by confirming, in a large sample of CP individuals, the absence of the normal face inversion effect and the presence of the local bias on the GL task, and, second, by employing the composite face paradigm, often regarded as the gold standard for measuring holistic face processing. In this last task, we show that, in contrast with normal individuals, the CP group perform equivalently with aligned and misaligned faces and was impervious to (the normal) interference from the task-irrelevant bottom part of faces. Interestingly, the extent of the local bias evident in the composite task is correlated with the abnormality of performance on diagnostic face processing tasks. Furthermore, there is a significant correlation between the magnitude of the local bias in the GL and performance on the composite task. These results provide further evidence for impaired holistic processing in CP and, moreover, corroborate the critical role of this type of processing for intact face recognition. PMID:21601583

Abnormal activation of the social brain during face perception in autism.

PubMed

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Joseph, Robert M; Snyder, Josh; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2007-05-01

ASD involves a fundamental impairment in processing social-communicative information from faces. Several recent studies have challenged earlier findings that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have no activation of the fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area, FFA) when viewing faces. In this study, we examined activation to faces in the broader network of face-processing modules that comprise what is known as the social brain. Using 3T functional resonance imaging, we measured BOLD signal changes in 10 ASD subjects and 7 healthy controls passively viewing nonemotional faces. We replicated our original findings of significant activation of face identity-processing areas (FFA and inferior occipital gyrus, IOG) in ASD. However, in addition, we identified hypoactivation in a more widely distributed network of brain areas involved in face processing [including the right amygdala, inferior frontal cortex (IFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and face-related somatosensory and premotor cortex]. In ASD, we found functional correlations between a subgroup of areas in the social brain that belong to the mirror neuron system (IFC, STS) and other face-processing areas. The severity of the social symptoms measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule was correlated with the right IFC cortical thickness and with functional activation in that area. When viewing faces, adults with ASD show atypical patterns of activation in regions forming the broader face-processing network and social brain, outside the core FFA and IOG regions. These patterns suggest that areas belonging to the mirror neuron system are involved in the face-processing disturbances in ASD.

Enhancement of face recognition learning in patients with brain injury using three cognitive training procedures.

PubMed

Powell, Jane; Letson, Susan; Davidoff, Jules; Valentine, Tim; Greenwood, Richard

2008-04-01

Twenty patients with impairments of face recognition, in the context of a broader pattern of cognitive deficits, were administered three new training procedures derived from contemporary theories of face processing to enhance their learning of new faces: semantic association (being given additional verbal information about the to-be-learned faces); caricaturing (presentation of caricatured versions of the faces during training and veridical versions at recognition testing); and part recognition (focusing patients on distinctive features during the training phase). Using a within-subjects design, each training procedure was applied to a different set of 10 previously unfamiliar faces and entailed six presentations of each face. In a "simple exposure" control procedure (SE), participants were given six presentations of another set of faces using the same basic protocol but with no further elaboration. Order of the four procedures was counterbalanced, and each condition was administered on a different day. A control group of 12 patients with similar levels of face recognition impairment were trained on all four sets of faces under SE conditions. Compared to the SE condition, all three training procedures resulted in more accurate discrimination between the 10 studied faces and 10 distractor faces in a post-training recognition test. This did not reflect any intrinsic lesser memorability of the faces used in the SE condition, as evidenced by the comparable performance across face sets by the control group. At the group level, the three experimental procedures were of similar efficacy, and associated cognitive deficits did not predict which technique would be most beneficial to individual patients; however, there was limited power to detect such associations. Interestingly, a pure prosopagnosic patient who was tested separately showed benefit only from the part recognition technique. Possible mechanisms for the observed effects, and implications for rehabilitation, are discussed.

Science under Scrutiny

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Lynne

2003-01-01

Increasingly, coordinators are undertaking a scrutiny of work in order to check standards in their subjects. This is done frequently for English and mathematics, where annual targets for attainment in year 6 have to be set, but less so for science. Carrying out a scrutiny of work can be a daunting and time-consuming process. Faced with a pile of…

36 CFR 1007.7 - Appeals.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... denied; (4) A request has not been decided within the time limits provided in § 1007.6; or (5) A request for expedited processing under § 1007.5(d) has been denied. (b) Time for appeal. An appeal must be..., both the envelope containing a notice of appeal and the face of the notice should bear the legend...

Facing Extinction: Organizational Learning in a Small Secondary School under Duress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Symons, Cam

2005-01-01

This study examined the process of organizational learning in a small secondary school in a company town during a protracted period of turbulence, arising from the downsizing of the community's main employer. The hypothesis was that distributed leadership among school staff created a change in teaching practices from a limited repertoire of…

Waiver Process Places Judges in Pivotal Role

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeil, Michele

2011-01-01

Although U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan ultimately decides which states get relief from key requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, a group of outside judges will wield tremendous influence in deciding states' fates. With states facing compliance deadlines under the law and Congress moving slowly on reauthorizing the Elementary and…

Overcoming Obstacles and Academic Hope: An Examination of Factors Promoting Effective Academic Success Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Michele Joann; Trujillo, Daniel J.; Boland, Donna L.; MacKinnon, Joyce L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the underlying non-cognitive processes and institutional factors that allowed first-year students to enact effective strategies for attaining academic success and persisting despite obstacles. The varying levels of academic preparation and unique obstacles faced by the student participants…

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Amygdala Activation in Youths with and without Bipolar Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Xinmin; Akula, Nirmala; Skup, Martha; Brotman, Melissa A.; Leibenluft, Ellen; McMahon, Francis J.

2010-01-01

Objective: Functional magnetic resonance imaging is commonly used to characterize brain activity underlying a variety of psychiatric disorders. A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study found that amygdala activation during a face-processing task differed between pediatric patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy controls. We…

Selective Interference on the Holistic Processing of Faces in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Olivia S.; Gauthier, Isabel

2010-01-01

Faces and objects of expertise compete for early perceptual processes and holistic processing resources (Gauthier, Curran, Curby, & Collins, 2003). Here, we examined the nature of interference on holistic face processing in working memory by comparing how various types of loads affect selective attention to parts of face composites. In dual…

Similarities in neural activations of face and Chinese character discrimination.

PubMed

Liu, Jiangang; Tian, Jie; Li, Jun; Gong, Qiyong; Lee, Kang

2009-02-18

This study compared Chinese participants' visual discrimination of Chinese faces with that of Chinese characters, which are highly similar to faces on a variety of dimensions. Both Chinese faces and characters activated the bilateral middle fusiform with high levels of correlations. These findings suggest that although the expertise systems for faces and written symbols are known to be anatomically differentiated at the later stages of processing to serve face processing or written-symbol-specific processing purposes, they may share similar neural structures in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex at the stages of visual processing.

Impaired face detection may explain some but not all cases of developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Dalrymple, Kirsten A; Duchaine, Brad

2016-05-01

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is defined by severe face recognition difficulties due to the failure to develop the visual mechanisms for processing faces. The two-process theory of face recognition (Morton & Johnson, 1991) implies that DP could result from a failure of an innate face detection system; this failure could prevent an individual from then tuning higher-level processes for face recognition (Johnson, 2005). Work with adults indicates that some individuals with DP have normal face detection whereas others are impaired. However, face detection has not been addressed in children with DP, even though their results may be especially informative because they have had less opportunity to develop strategies that could mask detection deficits. We tested the face detection abilities of seven children with DP. Four were impaired at face detection to some degree (i.e. abnormally slow, or failed to find faces) while the remaining three children had normal face detection. Hence, the cases with impaired detection are consistent with the two-process account suggesting that DP could result from a failure of face detection. However, the cases with normal detection implicate a higher-level origin. The dissociation between normal face detection and impaired identity perception also indicates that these abilities depend on different neurocognitive processes. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Face-specific and domain-general visual processing deficits in children with developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Dalrymple, Kirsten A; Elison, Jed T; Duchaine, Brad

2017-02-01

Evidence suggests that face and object recognition depend on distinct neural circuitry within the visual system. Work with adults with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) demonstrates that some individuals have preserved object recognition despite severe face recognition deficits. This face selectivity in adults with DP indicates that face- and object-processing systems can develop independently, but it is unclear at what point in development these mechanisms are separable. Determining when individuals with DP first show dissociations between faces and objects is one means to address this question. In the current study, we investigated face and object processing in six children with DP (5-12-years-old). Each child was assessed with one face perception test, two different face memory tests, and two object memory tests that were matched to the face memory tests in format and difficulty. Scores from the DP children on the matched face and object tasks were compared to within-subject data from age-matched controls. Four of the six DP children, including the 5-year-old, showed evidence of face-specific deficits, while one child appeared to have more general visual-processing deficits. The remaining child had inconsistent results. The presence of face-specific deficits in children with DP suggests that face and object perception depend on dissociable processes in childhood.

Outlining face processing skills of portrait artists: Perceptual experience with faces predicts performance.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Barsics, Catherine

2016-10-01

Most humans seem to demonstrate astonishingly high levels of skill in face processing if one considers the sophisticated level of fine-tuned discrimination that face recognition requires. However, numerous studies now indicate that the ability to process faces is not as fundamental as once thought and that performance can range from despairingly poor to extraordinarily high across people. Here we studied people who are super specialists of faces, namely portrait artists, to examine how their specific visual experience with faces relates to a range of face processing skills (perceptual discrimination, short- and longer term recognition). Artists show better perceptual discrimination and, to some extent, recognition of newly learned faces than controls. They are also more accurate on other perceptual tasks (i.e., involving non-face stimuli or mental rotation). By contrast, artists do not display an advantage compared to controls on longer term face recognition (i.e., famous faces) nor on person recognition from other sensorial modalities (i.e., voices). Finally, the face inversion effect exists in artists and controls and is not modulated by artistic practice. Advantages in face processing for artists thus seem to closely mirror perceptual and visual short term memory skills involved in portraiture. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effective connectivities of cortical regions for top-down face processing: A Dynamic Causal Modeling study

PubMed Central

Li, Jun; Liu, Jiangang; Liang, Jimin; Zhang, Hongchuan; Zhao, Jizheng; Rieth, Cory A.; Huber, David E.; Li, Wu; Shi, Guangming; Ai, Lin; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2013-01-01

To study top-down face processing, the present study used an experimental paradigm in which participants detected non-existent faces in pure noise images. Conventional BOLD signal analysis identified three regions involved in this illusory face detection. These regions included the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in addition to the right fusiform face area (FFA) and right occipital face area (OFA), both of which were previously known to be involved in both top-down and bottom-up processing of faces. We used Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) and Bayesian model selection to further analyze the data, revealing both intrinsic and modulatory effective connectivities among these three cortical regions. Specifically, our results support the claim that the orbitofrontal cortex plays a crucial role in the top-down processing of faces by regulating the activities of the occipital face area, and the occipital face area in turn detects the illusory face features in the visual stimuli and then provides this information to the fusiform face area for further analysis. PMID:20423709

Postencoding cognitive processes in the cross-race effect: Categorization and individuation during face recognition.

PubMed

Ho, Michael R; Pezdek, Kathy

2016-06-01

The cross-race effect (CRE) describes the finding that same-race faces are recognized more accurately than cross-race faces. According to social-cognitive theories of the CRE, processes of categorization and individuation at encoding account for differential recognition of same- and cross-race faces. Recent face memory research has suggested that similar but distinct categorization and individuation processes also occur postencoding, at recognition. Using a divided-attention paradigm, in Experiments 1A and 1B we tested and confirmed the hypothesis that distinct postencoding categorization and individuation processes occur during the recognition of same- and cross-race faces. Specifically, postencoding configural divided-attention tasks impaired recognition accuracy more for same-race than for cross-race faces; on the other hand, for White (but not Black) participants, postencoding featural divided-attention tasks impaired recognition accuracy more for cross-race than for same-race faces. A social categorization paradigm used in Experiments 2A and 2B tested the hypothesis that the postencoding in-group or out-group social orientation to faces affects categorization and individuation processes during the recognition of same-race and cross-race faces. Postencoding out-group orientation to faces resulted in categorization for White but not for Black participants. This was evidenced by White participants' impaired recognition accuracy for same-race but not for cross-race out-group faces. Postencoding in-group orientation to faces had no effect on recognition accuracy for either same-race or cross-race faces. The results of Experiments 2A and 2B suggest that this social orientation facilitates White but not Black participants' individuation and categorization processes at recognition. Models of recognition memory for same-race and cross-race faces need to account for processing differences that occur at both encoding and recognition.

Design of a noninvasive face mask for ocular occlusion in rats and assessment in a visual discrimination paradigm.

PubMed

Hager, Audrey M; Dringenberg, Hans C

2012-12-01

The rat visual system is structured such that the large (>90 %) majority of retinal ganglion axons reach the contralateral lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and visual cortex (V1). This anatomical design allows for the relatively selective activation of one cerebral hemisphere under monocular viewing conditions. Here, we describe the design of a harness and face mask allowing simple and noninvasive monocular occlusion in rats. The harness is constructed from synthetic fiber (shoelace-type material) and fits around the girth region and neck, allowing for easy adjustments to fit rats of various weights. The face mask consists of soft rubber material that is attached to the harness by Velcro strips. Eyeholes in the mask can be covered by additional Velcro patches to occlude either one or both eyes. Rats readily adapt to wearing the device, allowing behavioral testing under different types of viewing conditions. We show that rats successfully acquire a water-maze-based visual discrimination task under monocular viewing conditions. Following task acquisition, interocular transfer was assessed. Performance with the previously occluded, "untrained" eye was impaired, suggesting that training effects were partially confined to one cerebral hemisphere. The method described herein provides a simple and noninvasive means to restrict visual input for studies of visual processing and learning in various rodent species.

Differential emotion attribution to neutral faces of own and other races.

PubMed

Hu, Chao S; Wang, Qiandong; Han, Tong; Weare, Ethan; Fu, Genyue

2017-02-01

Past research has demonstrated differential recognition of emotion on faces of different races. This paper reports the first study to explore differential emotion attribution to neutral faces of different races. Chinese and Caucasian adults viewed a series of Chinese and Caucasian neutral faces and judged their outward facial expression: neutral, positive, or negative. The results showed that both Chinese and Caucasian viewers perceived more Chinese faces than Caucasian faces as neutral. Nevertheless, Chinese viewers attributed positive emotion to Caucasian faces more than to Chinese faces, whereas Caucasian viewers attributed negative emotion to Caucasian faces more than to Chinese faces. Moreover, Chinese viewers attributed negative and neutral emotion to the faces of both races without significant difference in frequency, whereas Caucasian viewers mostly attributed neutral emotion to the faces. These differences between Chinese and Caucasian viewers may be due to differential visual experience, culture, racial stereotype, or expectation of the experiment. We also used eye tracking among the Chinese participants to explore the relationship between face-processing strategy and emotion attribution to neutral faces. The results showed that the interaction between emotion attribution and face race was significant on face-processing strategy, such as fixation proportion on eyes and saccade amplitude. Additionally, pupil size during processing Caucasian faces was larger than during processing Chinese faces.

The framing effect and skin conductance responses.

PubMed

Ring, Patrick

2015-01-01

Individuals often rely on simple heuristics when they face complex choice situations under uncertainty. Traditionally, it has been proposed that cognitive processes are the main driver to evaluate different choice options and to finally reach a decision. Growing evidence, however, highlights a strong interrelation between judgment and decision-making (JDM) on the one hand, and emotional processes on the other hand. This also seems to apply to judgmental heuristics, i.e., decision processes that are typically considered to be fast and intuitive. In this study, participants are exposed to different probabilities of receiving an unpleasant electric shock. Information about electric shock probabilities is either positively or negatively framed. Integrated skin conductance responses (ISCRs) while waiting for electric shock realization are used as an indicator for participants' emotional arousal. This measure is compared to objective probabilities. I find evidence for a relation between emotional body reactions measured by ISCRs and the framing effect. Under negative frames, participants show significantly higher ISCRs while waiting for an electric shock to be delivered than under positive frames. This result might contribute to a better understanding of the psychological processes underlying JDM. Further studies are necessary to reveal the causality underlying this finding, i.e., whether emotional processes influence JDM or vice versa.

Piccolo genotype modulates neural correlates of emotion processing but not executive functioning.

PubMed

Woudstra, S; Bochdanovits, Z; van Tol, M-J; Veltman, D J; Zitman, F G; van Buchem, M A; van der Wee, N J; Opmeer, E M; Demenescu, L R; Aleman, A; Penninx, B W; Hoogendijk, W J

2012-04-03

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by affective symptoms and cognitive impairments, which have been associated with changes in limbic and prefrontal activity as well as with monoaminergic neurotransmission. A genome-wide association study implicated the polymorphism rs2522833 in the piccolo (PCLO) gene--involved in monoaminergic neurotransmission--as a risk factor for MDD. However, the role of the PCLO risk allele in emotion processing and executive function or its effect on their neural substrate has never been studied. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate PCLO risk allele carriers vs noncarriers during an emotional face processing task and a visuospatial planning task in 159 current MDD patients and healthy controls. In PCLO risk allele carriers, we found increased activity in the left amygdala during processing of angry and sad faces compared with noncarriers, independent of psychopathological status. During processing of fearful faces, the PCLO risk allele was associated with increased amygdala activation in MDD patients only. During the visuospatial planning task, we found no genotype effect on performance or on BOLD signal in our predefined areas as a function of increasing task load. The PCLO risk allele was found to be specifically associated with altered emotion processing, but not with executive dysfunction. Moreover, the PCLO risk allele appears to modulate amygdala function during fearful facial processing in MDD and may constitute a possible link between genotype and susceptibility for depression via altered processing of fearful stimuli. The current results may therefore aid in better understanding underlying neurobiological mechanisms in MDD.

Event-Related Potentials of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing of Emotional Faces

PubMed Central

Moradi, Afsane; Mehrinejad, Seyed Abolghasem; Ghadiri, Mohammad; Rezaei, Farzin

2017-01-01

Introduction: Emotional stimulus is processed automatically in a bottom-up way or can be processed voluntarily in a top-down way. Imaging studies have indicated that bottom-up and top-down processing are mediated through different neural systems. However, temporal differentiation of top-down versus bottom-up processing of facial emotional expressions has remained to be clarified. The present study aimed to explore the time course of these processes as indexed by the emotion-specific P100 and late positive potential (LPP) event-related potential (ERP) components in a group of healthy women. Methods: Fourteen female students of Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran aged 18–30 years, voluntarily participated in the study. The subjects completed 2 overt and covert emotional tasks during ERP acquisition. Results: The results indicated that fearful expressions significantly produced greater P100 amplitude compared to other expressions. Moreover, the P100 findings showed an interaction between emotion and processing conditions. Further analysis indicated that within the overt condition, fearful expressions elicited more P100 amplitude compared to other emotional expressions. Also, overt conditions created significantly more LPP latencies and amplitudes compared to covert conditions. Conclusion: Based on the results, early perceptual processing of fearful face expressions is enhanced in top-down way compared to bottom-up way. It also suggests that P100 may reflect an attentional bias toward fearful emotions. However, no such differentiation was observed within later processing stages of face expressions, as indexed by the ERP LPP component, in a top-down versus bottom-up way. Overall, this study provides a basis for further exploring of bottom-up and top-down processes underlying emotion and may be typically helpful for investigating the temporal characteristics associated with impaired emotional processing in psychiatric disorders. PMID:28446947

Dissociated neural basis of two behavioral hallmarks of holistic face processing: The whole-part effect and composite-face effect.

PubMed

Li, Jin; Huang, Lijie; Song, Yiying; Liu, Jia

2017-07-28

It has been long proposed that our extraordinary face recognition ability stems from holistic face processing. Two widely-used behavioral hallmarks of holistic face processing are the whole-part effect (WPE) and composite-face effect (CFE). However, it remains unknown whether these two effects reflect similar or different aspects of holistic face processing. Here we investigated this question by examining whether the WPE and CFE involved shared or distinct neural substrates in a large sample of participants (N=200). We found that the WPE and CFE showed hemispheric dissociation in the fusiform face area (FFA), that is, the WPE was correlated with face selectivity in the left FFA, while the CFE was correlated with face selectivity in the right FFA. Further, the correlation between the WPE and face selectivity was largely driven by the FFA response to faces, whereas the association between the CFE and face selectivity resulted from suppressed response to objects in the right FFA. Finally, we also observed dissociated correlation patterns of the WPE and CFE in other face-selective regions and across the whole brain. These results suggest that the WPE and CFE may reflect different aspects of holistic face processing, which shed new light on the behavioral dissociations of these two effects demonstrated in literature. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The wide window of face detection.

PubMed

Hershler, Orit; Golan, Tal; Bentin, Shlomo; Hochstein, Shaul

2010-08-20

Faces are detected more rapidly than other objects in visual scenes and search arrays, but the cause for this face advantage has been contested. In the present study, we found that under conditions of spatial uncertainty, faces were easier to detect than control targets (dog faces, clocks and cars) even in the absence of surrounding stimuli, making an explanation based only on low-level differences unlikely. This advantage improved with eccentricity in the visual field, enabling face detection in wider visual windows, and pointing to selective sparing of face detection at greater eccentricities. This face advantage might be due to perceptual factors favoring face detection. In addition, the relative face advantage is greater under flanked than non-flanked conditions, suggesting an additional, possibly attention-related benefit enabling face detection in groups of distracters.

Face repetition detection and social interest: An ERP study in adults with and without Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Key, Alexandra P; Dykens, Elisabeth M

2016-12-01

The present study examined possible neural mechanisms underlying increased social interest in persons with Williams syndrome (WS). Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) during passive viewing were used to compare incidental memory traces for repeated vs. single presentations of previously unfamiliar social (faces) and nonsocial (houses) images in 26 adults with WS and 26 typical adults. Results indicated that participants with WS developed familiarity with the repeated faces and houses (frontal N400 response), but only typical adults evidenced the parietal old/new effect (previously associated with stimulus recollection) for the repeated faces. There was also no evidence of exceptional salience of social information in WS, as ERP markers of memory for repeated faces vs. houses were not significantly different. Thus, while persons with WS exhibit behavioral evidence of increased social interest, their processing of social information in the absence of specific instructions may be relatively superficial. The ERP evidence of face repetition detection in WS was independent of IQ and the earlier perceptual differentiation of social vs. nonsocial stimuli. Large individual differences in ERPs of participants with WS may provide valuable information for understanding the WS phenotype and have relevance for educational and treatment purposes.

Individual Differences in Holistic Processing Predict the Own-Race Advantage in Recognition Memory

PubMed Central

DeGutis, Joseph; Mercado, Rogelio J.; Wilmer, Jeremy; Rosenblatt, Andrew

2013-01-01

Individuals are consistently better at recognizing own-race faces compared to other-race faces (other-race effect, ORE). One popular hypothesis is that this recognition memory ORE is caused by differential own- and other-race holistic processing, the simultaneous integration of part and configural face information into a coherent whole. Holistic processing may create a more rich, detailed memory representation of own-race faces compared to other-race faces. Despite several studies showing that own-race faces are processed more holistically than other-race faces, studies have yet to link the holistic processing ORE and the recognition memory ORE. In the current study, we sought to use a more valid method of analyzing individual differences in holistic processing by using regression to statistically remove the influence of the control condition (part trials in the part-whole task) from the condition of interest (whole trials in the part-whole task). We also employed regression to separately examine the two components of the ORE: own-race advantage (regressing other-race from own-race performance) and other-race decrement (regressing own-race from other-race performance). First, we demonstrated that own-race faces were processed more holistically than other-race faces, particularly the eye region. Notably, using regression, we showed a significant association between the own-race advantage in recognition memory and the own-race advantage in holistic processing and that these associations were weaker when examining the other-race decrement. We also demonstrated that performance on own- and other-race faces across all of our tasks was highly correlated, suggesting that the differences we found between own- and other-race faces are quantitative rather than qualitative. Together, this suggests that own- and other-race faces recruit largely similar mechanisms, that own-race faces more thoroughly engage holistic processing, and that this greater engagement of holistic processing is significantly associated with the own-race advantage in recognition memory. PMID:23593119

Individual differences in holistic processing predict the own-race advantage in recognition memory.

PubMed

Degutis, Joseph; Mercado, Rogelio J; Wilmer, Jeremy; Rosenblatt, Andrew

2013-01-01

Individuals are consistently better at recognizing own-race faces compared to other-race faces (other-race effect, ORE). One popular hypothesis is that this recognition memory ORE is caused by differential own- and other-race holistic processing, the simultaneous integration of part and configural face information into a coherent whole. Holistic processing may create a more rich, detailed memory representation of own-race faces compared to other-race faces. Despite several studies showing that own-race faces are processed more holistically than other-race faces, studies have yet to link the holistic processing ORE and the recognition memory ORE. In the current study, we sought to use a more valid method of analyzing individual differences in holistic processing by using regression to statistically remove the influence of the control condition (part trials in the part-whole task) from the condition of interest (whole trials in the part-whole task). We also employed regression to separately examine the two components of the ORE: own-race advantage (regressing other-race from own-race performance) and other-race decrement (regressing own-race from other-race performance). First, we demonstrated that own-race faces were processed more holistically than other-race faces, particularly the eye region. Notably, using regression, we showed a significant association between the own-race advantage in recognition memory and the own-race advantage in holistic processing and that these associations were weaker when examining the other-race decrement. We also demonstrated that performance on own- and other-race faces across all of our tasks was highly correlated, suggesting that the differences we found between own- and other-race faces are quantitative rather than qualitative. Together, this suggests that own- and other-race faces recruit largely similar mechanisms, that own-race faces more thoroughly engage holistic processing, and that this greater engagement of holistic processing is significantly associated with the own-race advantage in recognition memory.

Name and face learning in older adults: effects of level of processing, self-generation, and intention to learn.

PubMed

Troyer, Angela K; Häfliger, Andrea; Cadieux, Mélanie J; Craik, Fergus I M

2006-03-01

Many older adults are interested in strategies to help them learn new names. We examined the learning conditions that provide maximal benefit to name and face learning. In Experiment 1, consistent with levels-of-processing theory, name recall and recognition by 20 younger and 20 older adults was poorest with physical processing, intermediate with phonemic processing, and best with semantic processing. In Experiment 2, name and face learning in 20 younger and 20 older adults was maximized with semantic processing of names and physical processing of faces. Experiment 3 showed a benefit of self-generation and of intentional learning of name-face pairs in 24 older adults. Findings suggest that memory interventions should emphasize processing names semantically, processing faces physically, self-generating this information, and keeping in mind that memory for the names will be needed in the future.

Impairments in the Face-Processing Network in Developmental Prosopagnosia and Semantic Dementia

PubMed Central

Mendez, Mario F.; Ringman, John M.; Shapira, Jill S.

2015-01-01

Background Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) and semantic dementia (SD) may be the two most common neurologic disorders of face processing, but their main clinical and pathophysiologic differences have not been established. To identify those features, we compared patients with DP and SD. Methods Five patients with DP, five with right temporal-predominant SD, and ten normal controls underwent cognitive, visual perceptual, and face-processing tasks. Results Although the patients with SD were more cognitively impaired than those with DP, the two groups did not differ statistically on the visual perceptual tests. On the face-processing tasks, the DP group had difficulty with configural analysis and they reported relying on serial, feature-by-feature analysis or awareness of salient features to recognize faces. By contrast, the SD group had problems with person knowledge and made semantically related errors. The SD group had better face familiarity scores, suggesting a potentially useful clinical test for distinguishing SD from DP. Conclusions These two disorders of face processing represent clinically distinguishable disturbances along a right hemisphere face-processing network: DP, characterized by early configural agnosia for faces, and SD, characterized primarily by a multimodal person knowledge disorder. We discuss these preliminary findings in the context of the current literature on the face-processing network; recent studies suggest an additional right anterior temporal, unimodal face familiarity-memory deficit consistent with an “associative prosopagnosia.” PMID:26705265

Reward learning modulates the attentional processing of faces in children with and without autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Li, Tianbi; Wang, Xueqin; Pan, Junhao; Feng, Shuyuan; Gong, Mengyuan; Wu, Yaxue; Li, Guoxiang; Li, Sheng; Yi, Li

2017-11-01

The processing of social stimuli, such as human faces, is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be accounted for by their lack of social motivation. The current study examined how the attentional processing of faces in children with ASD could be modulated by the learning of face-reward associations. Sixteen high-functioning children with ASD and 20 age- and ability-matched typically developing peers participated in the experiments. All children started with a reward learning task, in which the children were presented with three female faces that were attributed with positive, negative, and neutral values, and were required to remember the faces and their associated values. After this, they were tested on the recognition of the learned faces and a visual search task in which the learned faces served as the distractor. We found a modulatory effect of the face-reward associations on the visual search but not the recognition performance in both groups despite the lower efficacy among children with ASD in learning the face-reward associations. Specifically, both groups responded faster when one of the distractor faces was associated with positive or negative values than when the distractor face was neutral, suggesting an efficient attentional processing of these reward-associated faces. Our findings provide direct evidence for the perceptual-level modulatory effect of reward learning on the attentional processing of faces in individuals with ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1797-1807. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. In our study, we tested whether the face processing of individuals with ASD could be changed when the faces were associated with different social meanings. We found no effect of social meanings on face recognition, but both groups responded faster in the visual search task when one of the distractor faces was associated with positive or negative values than when the neutral face. The findings suggest that children with ASD could efficiently process faces associated with different values like typical children. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Effects of Prior Exposure on Face Processing in Younger and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Heisz, Jennifer J.; Ryan, Jennifer D.

2011-01-01

Older adults differ from their younger counterparts in the way they view faces. We assessed whether older adults can use past experience to mitigate these typical face-processing differences; that is, we examined whether there are age-related differences in the use of memory to support current processing. Eye movements of older and younger adults were monitored as they viewed faces that varied in the type/amount of prior exposure. Prior exposure was manipulated by including famous and novel faces, and by presenting faces up to five times. We expected that older adults may have difficulty quickly establishing new representations to aid in the processing of recently presented faces, but would be able to invoke face representations that have been stored in memory long ago to aid in the processing of famous faces. Indeed, younger adults displayed effects of recent exposure with a decrease in the total fixations to the faces and a gradual increase in the proportion of fixations to the eyes. These effects of recent exposure were largely absent in older adults. In contrast, the effect of fame, revealed by a subtle increase in fixations to the inner features of famous compared to non-famous faces, was similar for younger and older adults. Our results suggest that older adults’ current processing can benefit from lifetime experience, however the full benefit of recent experience on face processing is not realized in older adults. PMID:22007169

Passive and Motivated Perception of Emotional Faces: Qualitative and Quantitative Changes in the Face Processing Network

PubMed Central

Skelly, Laurie R.; Decety, Jean

2012-01-01

Emotionally expressive faces are processed by a distributed network of interacting sub-cortical and cortical brain regions. The components of this network have been identified and described in large part by the stimulus properties to which they are sensitive, but as face processing research matures interest has broadened to also probe dynamic interactions between these regions and top-down influences such as task demand and context. While some research has tested the robustness of affective face processing by restricting available attentional resources, it is not known whether face network processing can be augmented by increased motivation to attend to affective face stimuli. Short videos of people expressing emotions were presented to healthy participants during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Motivation to attend to the videos was manipulated by providing an incentive for improved recall performance. During the motivated condition, there was greater coherence among nodes of the face processing network, more widespread correlation between signal intensity and performance, and selective signal increases in a task-relevant subset of face processing regions, including the posterior superior temporal sulcus and right amygdala. In addition, an unexpected task-related laterality effect was seen in the amygdala. These findings provide strong evidence that motivation augmentsco-activity among nodes of the face processing network and the impact of neural activity on performance. These within-subject effects highlight the necessity to consider motivation when interpreting neural function in special populations, and to further explore the effect of task demands on face processing in healthy brains. PMID:22768287

Holistic Face Processing Is Mature at 4 Years of Age: Evidence from the Composite Face Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Heering, Adelaide; Houthuys, Sarah; Rossion, Bruno

2007-01-01

Although it is acknowledged that adults integrate features into a representation of the whole face, there is still some disagreement about the onset and developmental course of holistic face processing. We tested adults and children from 4 to 6 years of age with the same paradigm measuring holistic face processing through an adaptation of the…

Semantic Learning Modifies Perceptual Face Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heisz, Jennifer J.; Shedden, Judith M.

2009-01-01

Face processing changes when a face is learned with personally relevant information. In a five-day learning paradigm, faces were presented with rich semantic stories that conveyed personal information about the faces. Event-related potentials were recorded before and after learning during a passive viewing task. When faces were novel, we observed…

Contributions of individual face features to face discrimination.

PubMed

Logan, Andrew J; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2017-08-01

Faces are highly complex stimuli that contain a host of information. Such complexity poses the following questions: (a) do observers exhibit preferences for specific information? (b) how does sensitivity to individual face parts compare? These questions were addressed by quantifying sensitivity to different face features. Discrimination thresholds were determined for synthetic faces under the following conditions: (i) 'full face': all face features visible; (ii) 'isolated feature': single feature presented in isolation; (iii) 'embedded feature': all features visible, but only one feature modified. Mean threshold elevations for isolated features, relative to full-faces, were 0.84x, 1.08, 2.12, 3.34, 4.07 and 4.47 for head-shape, hairline, nose, mouth, eyes and eyebrows respectively. Hence, when two full faces can be discriminated at threshold, the difference between the eyes is about four times less than what is required when discriminating between isolated eyes. In all cases, sensitivity was higher when features were presented in isolation than when they were embedded within a face context (threshold elevations of 0.94x, 1.74, 2.67, 2.90, 5.94 and 9.94). This reveals a specific pattern of sensitivity to face information. Observers are between two and four times more sensitive to external than internal features. The pattern for internal features (higher sensitivity for the nose, compared to mouth, eyes and eyebrows) is consistent with lower sensitivity for those parts affected by facial dynamics (e.g. facial expressions). That isolated features are easier to discriminate than embedded features supports a holistic face processing mechanism which impedes extraction of information about individual features from full faces. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seeing race: N170 responses to race and their relation to automatic racial attitudes and controlled processing.

PubMed

Ofan, Renana H; Rubin, Nava; Amodio, David M

2011-10-01

We examined the relation between neural activity reflecting early face perception processes and automatic and controlled responses to race. Participants completed a sequential evaluative priming task, in which two-tone images of Black faces, White faces, and cars appeared as primes, followed by target words categorized as pleasant or unpleasant, while encephalography was recorded. Half of these participants were alerted that the task assessed racial prejudice and could reveal their personal bias ("alerted" condition). To assess face perception processes, the N170 component of the ERP was examined. For all participants, stronger automatic pro-White bias was associated with larger N170 amplitudes to Black than White faces. For participants in the alerted condition only, larger N170 amplitudes to Black versus White faces were also associated with less controlled processing on the word categorization task. These findings suggest that preexisting racial attitudes affect early face processing and that situational factors moderate the link between early face processing and behavior.

Holistic face representation is highly orientation-specific.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Gideon; Levakov, Gidon; Avidan, Galia

2017-09-29

It has long been argued that face processing requires disproportionate reliance on holistic processing (HP), relative to that required for nonface object recognition. Nevertheless, whether the holistic nature of face perception is achieved via a unique internal representation or by the employment of an automated attention mechanism is still debated. Previous studies had used the face inversion effect (FIE), a unique face-processing marker, or the face composite task, a gold standard paradigm measuring holistic processing, to examine the validity of these two different hypotheses, with some studies combining the two paradigms. However, the results of such studies remain inconclusive, particularly pertaining to the issue of the two proposed HP mechanisms-an internal representation as opposed to an automated attention mechanism. Here, using the complete composite paradigm design, we aimed to examine whether face rotation yields a nonlinear or a linear drop in HP, thus supporting an account that face processing is based either on an orientation-dependent internal representation or on automated attention. Our results reveal that even a relatively small perturbation in face orientation (30 deg away from upright) already causes a sharp decline in HP. These findings support the face internal representation hypothesis and the notion that the holistic processing of faces is highly orientation-specific.

Increased phase synchronization during continuous face integration measured simultaneously with EEG and fMRI.

PubMed

Kottlow, Mara; Jann, Kay; Dierks, Thomas; Koenig, Thomas

2012-08-01

Gamma zero-lag phase synchronization has been measured in the animal brain during visual binding. Human scalp EEG studies used a phase locking factor (trial-to-trial phase-shift consistency) or gamma amplitude to measure binding but did not analyze common-phase signals so far. This study introduces a method to identify networks oscillating with near zero-lag phase synchronization in human subjects. We presented unpredictably moving face parts (NOFACE) which - during some periods - produced a complete schematic face (FACE). The amount of zero-lag phase synchronization was measured using global field synchronization (GFS). GFS provides global information on the amount of instantaneous coincidences in specific frequencies throughout the brain. Gamma GFS was increased during the FACE condition. To localize the underlying areas, we correlated gamma GFS with simultaneously recorded BOLD responses. Positive correlates comprised the bilateral middle fusiform gyrus and the left precuneus. These areas may form a network of areas transiently synchronized during face integration, including face-specific as well as binding-specific regions and regions for visual processing in general. Thus, the amount of zero-lag phase synchronization between remote regions of the human visual system can be measured with simultaneously acquired EEG/fMRI. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facial expression coding in children and adolescents with autism: Reduced adaptability but intact norm-based coding.

PubMed

Rhodes, Gillian; Burton, Nichola; Jeffery, Linda; Read, Ainsley; Taylor, Libby; Ewing, Louise

2018-05-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can have difficulty recognizing emotional expressions. Here, we asked whether the underlying perceptual coding of expression is disrupted. Typical individuals code expression relative to a perceptual (average) norm that is continuously updated by experience. This adaptability of face-coding mechanisms has been linked to performance on various face tasks. We used an adaptation aftereffect paradigm to characterize expression coding in children and adolescents with autism. We asked whether face expression coding is less adaptable in autism and whether there is any fundamental disruption of norm-based coding. If expression coding is norm-based, then the face aftereffects should increase with adaptor expression strength (distance from the average expression). We observed this pattern in both autistic and typically developing participants, suggesting that norm-based coding is fundamentally intact in autism. Critically, however, expression aftereffects were reduced in the autism group, indicating that expression-coding mechanisms are less readily tuned by experience. Reduced adaptability has also been reported for coding of face identity and gaze direction. Thus, there appears to be a pervasive lack of adaptability in face-coding mechanisms in autism, which could contribute to face processing and broader social difficulties in the disorder. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Fusiform gyrus face selectivity relates to individual differences in facial recognition ability.

PubMed

Furl, Nicholas; Garrido, Lúcia; Dolan, Raymond J; Driver, Jon; Duchaine, Bradley

2011-07-01

Regions of the occipital and temporal lobes, including a region in the fusiform gyrus (FG), have been proposed to constitute a "core" visual representation system for faces, in part because they show face selectivity and face repetition suppression. But recent fMRI studies of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) raise questions about whether these measures relate to face processing skills. Although DPs manifest deficient face processing, most studies to date have not shown unequivocal reductions of functional responses in the proposed core regions. We scanned 15 DPs and 15 non-DP control participants with fMRI while employing factor analysis to derive behavioral components related to face identification or other processes. Repetition suppression specific to facial identities in FG or to expression in FG and STS did not show compelling relationships with face identification ability. However, we identified robust relationships between face selectivity and face identification ability in FG across our sample for several convergent measures, including voxel-wise statistical parametric mapping, peak face selectivity in individually defined "fusiform face areas" (FFAs), and anatomical extents (cluster sizes) of those FFAs. None of these measures showed associations with behavioral expression or object recognition ability. As a group, DPs had reduced face-selective responses in bilateral FFA when compared with non-DPs. Individual DPs were also more likely than non-DPs to lack expected face-selective activity in core regions. These findings associate individual differences in face processing ability with selectivity in core face processing regions. This confirms that face selectivity can provide a valid marker for neural mechanisms that contribute to face identification ability.

The Effects of Face Inversion and Face Race on the P100 ERP.

PubMed

Colombatto, Clara; McCarthy, Gregory

2017-04-01

Research about the neural basis of face recognition has investigated the timing and anatomical substrates of different stages of face processing. Scalp-recorded ERP studies of face processing have focused on the N170, an ERP with a peak latency of ∼170 msec that has long been associated with the initial structural encoding of faces. However, several studies have reported earlier ERP differences related to faces, suggesting that face-specific processes might occur before N170. Here, we examined the influence of face inversion and face race on the timing of face-sensitive scalp-recorded ERPs by examining neural responses to upright and inverted line-drawn and luminance-matched white and black faces in a sample of white participants. We found that the P100 ERP evoked by inverted faces was significantly larger than that evoked by upright faces. Although this inversion effect was statistically significant at 100 msec, the inverted-upright ERP difference peaked at 138 msec, suggesting that it might represent an activity in neural sources that overlap with P100. Inverse modeling of the inversion effect difference waveform suggested possible neural sources in pericalcarine extrastriate visual cortex and lateral occipito-temporal cortex. We also found that the inversion effect difference wave was larger for white faces. These results are consistent with behavioral evidence that individuals process the faces of their own races more configurally than faces of other races. Taken together, the inversion and race effects observed in the current study suggest that configuration influences face processing by at least 100 msec.

Use of the Delphi process in paediatric cataract management.

PubMed

Serafino, Massimiliano; Trivedi, Rupal H; Levin, Alex V; Wilson, M Edward; Nucci, Paolo; Lambert, Scott R; Nischal, Ken K; Plager, David A; Bremond-Gignac, Dominique; Kekunnaya, Ramesh; Nishina, Sachiko; Tehrani, Nasrin N; Ventura, Marcelo C

2016-05-01

To identify areas of consensus and disagreement in the management of paediatric cataract using a modified Delphi approach among individuals recognised for publishing in this field. A modified Delphi method. International paediatric cataract experts with a publishing record in paediatric cataract management. The process consisted of three rounds of anonymous electronic questionnaires followed by a face-to-face meeting, followed by a fourth anonymous electronic questionnaire. The executive committee created questions to be used for the electronic questionnaires. Questions were designed to have unit-based, multiple choice or true-false answers. The questionnaire included issues related to the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative management of paediatric cataract. Consensus based on 85% of panellists being in agreement for electronic questionnaires or 80% for the face-to-face meeting, and near consensus based on 70%. Sixteen of 22 invited paediatric cataract surgeons agreed to participate. We arrived at consensus or near consensus for 85/108 (78.7%) questions and non-consensus for the remaining 23 (21.3%) questions. Those questions where consensus was not reached highlight areas of either poor evidence or contradicting evidence, and may help investigators identify possible research questions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Simultaneous face and voice processing in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Liu, Taosheng; Pinheiro, Ana P; Zhao, Zhongxin; Nestor, Paul G; McCarley, Robert W; Niznikiewicz, Margaret

2016-05-15

While several studies have consistently demonstrated abnormalities in the unisensory processing of face and voice in schizophrenia (SZ), the extent of abnormalities in the simultaneous processing of both types of information remains unclear. To address this issue, we used event-related potentials (ERP) methodology to probe the multisensory integration of face and non-semantic sounds in schizophrenia. EEG was recorded from 18 schizophrenia patients and 19 healthy control (HC) subjects in three conditions: neutral faces (visual condition-VIS); neutral non-semantic sounds (auditory condition-AUD); neutral faces presented simultaneously with neutral non-semantic sounds (audiovisual condition-AUDVIS). When compared with HC, the schizophrenia group showed less negative N170 to both face and face-voice stimuli; later P270 peak latency in the multimodal condition of face-voice relative to unimodal condition of face (the reverse was true in HC); reduced P400 amplitude and earlier P400 peak latency in the face but not in the voice-face condition. Thus, the analysis of ERP components suggests that deficits in the encoding of facial information extend to multimodal face-voice stimuli and that delays exist in feature extraction from multimodal face-voice stimuli in schizophrenia. In contrast, categorization processes seem to benefit from the presentation of simultaneous face-voice information. Timepoint by timepoint tests of multimodal integration did not suggest impairment in the initial stages of processing in schizophrenia. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The electrophysiological effects of the serotonin 1A receptor agonist buspirone in emotional face processing.

PubMed

Bernasconi, Fosco; Kometer, Michael; Pokorny, Thomas; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2015-04-01

Emotional face processing is critically modulated by the serotonergic system, and serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonists impair emotional face processing. However, the specific contribution of the 5-HT1A receptor remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the spatiotemporal brain mechanisms underpinning the modulation of emotional face processing induced by buspirone, a partial 5-HT1A receptor agonist. In a psychophysical discrimination of emotional faces task, we observed that the discrimination fearful versus neutral faces were reduced, but not happy versus neutral faces. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials elicited by emotional face images, after placebo and buspirone administration. Buspirone modulated response strength (i.e., global field power) in the interval 230-248ms after stimulus onset. Distributed source estimation over this time interval revealed that buspirone decreased the neural activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that was evoked by fearful faces. These results indicate temporal and valence-specific effects of buspirone on the neuronal correlates of emotional face processing. Furthermore, the reduced neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in response to fearful faces suggests a reduced attention to fearful faces. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the role of 5-HT1A receptors in emotional face processing and have implications for affective disorders that are characterized by an increased attention to negative stimuli. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in face gender recognition: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Sun, Yueting; Gao, Xiaochao; Han, Shihui

2010-04-23

Multiple level neurocognitive processes are involved in face processing in humans. The present study examined whether the early face processing such as structural encoding is modulated by task demands that manipulate attention to perceptual or social features of faces and such an effect, if any, is different between men and women. Event-related brain potentials were recorded from male and female adults while they identified a low-level perceptual feature of faces (i.e., face orientation) and a high-level social feature of faces (i.e., gender). We found that task demands that required the processing of face orientations or face gender resulted in modulations of both the early occipital/temporal negativity (N170) and the late central/parietal positivity (P3). The N170 amplitude was smaller in the gender relative to the orientation identification task whereas the P3 amplitude was larger in the gender identification task relative to the orientation identification task. In addition, these effects were much stronger in women than in men. Our findings suggest that attention to social information in faces such as gender modulates both the early encoding of facial structures and late evaluative process of faces to a greater degree in women than in men.

Is the Thatcher Illusion Modulated by Face Familiarity? Evidence from an Eye Tracking Study

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Thompson (1980) first detected and described the Thatcher Illusion, where participants instantly perceive an upright face with inverted eyes and mouth as grotesque, but fail to do so when the same face is inverted. One prominent but controversial explanation is that the processing of configural information is disrupted in inverted faces. Studies investigating the Thatcher Illusion either used famous faces or non-famous faces. Highly familiar faces were often thought to be processed in a pronounced configural mode, so they seem ideal candidates to be tested in one Thatcher study against unfamiliar faces–but this has never been addressed so far. In our study, participants evaluated 16 famous and 16 non-famous faces for their grotesqueness. We tested whether familiarity (famous/non-famous faces) modulates reaction times, correctness of grotesqueness assessments (accuracy), and eye movement patterns for the factors orientation (upright/inverted) and Thatcherisation (Thatcherised/non-Thatcherised). On a behavioural level, familiarity effects were only observable via face inversion (higher accuracy and sensitivity for famous compared to non-famous faces) but not via Thatcherisation. Regarding eye movements, however, Thatcherisation influenced the scanning of famous and non-famous faces, for instance, in scanning the mouth region of the presented faces (higher number, duration and dwell time of fixations for famous compared to non-famous faces if Thatcherised). Altogether, famous faces seem to be processed in a more elaborate, more expertise-based way than non-famous faces, whereas non-famous, inverted faces seem to cause difficulties in accurate and sensitive processing. Results are further discussed in the face of existing studies of familiar vs. unfamiliar face processing. PMID:27776145

Decision Accuracy in Computer-Mediated versus Face-to-Face Decision-Making Teams.

PubMed

Hedlund; Ilgen; Hollenbeck

1998-10-01

Changes in the way organizations are structured and advances in communication technologies are two factors that have altered the conditions under which group decisions are made. Decisions are increasingly made by teams that have a hierarchical structure and whose members have different areas of expertise. In addition, many decisions are no longer made via strictly face-to-face interaction. The present study examines the effects of two modes of communication (face-to-face or computer-mediated) on the accuracy of teams' decisions. The teams are characterized by a hierarchical structure and their members differ in expertise consistent with the framework outlined in the Multilevel Theory of team decision making presented by Hollenbeck, Ilgen, Sego, Hedlund, Major, and Phillips (1995). Sixty-four four-person teams worked for 3 h on a computer simulation interacting either face-to-face (FtF) or over a computer network. The communication mode had mixed effects on team processes in that members of FtF teams were better informed and made recommendations that were more predictive of the correct team decision, but leaders of CM teams were better able to differentiate staff members on the quality of their decisions. Controlling for the negative impact of FtF communication on staff member differentiation increased the beneficial effect of the FtF mode on overall decision making accuracy. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Face-space: A unifying concept in face recognition research.

PubMed

Valentine, Tim; Lewis, Michael B; Hills, Peter J

2016-10-01

The concept of a multidimensional psychological space, in which faces can be represented according to their perceived properties, is fundamental to the modern theorist in face processing. Yet the idea was not clearly expressed until 1991. The background that led to the development of face-space is explained, and its continuing influence on theories of face processing is discussed. Research that has explored the properties of the face-space and sought to understand caricature, including facial adaptation paradigms, is reviewed. Face-space as a theoretical framework for understanding the effect of ethnicity and the development of face recognition is evaluated. Finally, two applications of face-space in the forensic setting are discussed. From initially being presented as a model to explain distinctiveness, inversion, and the effect of ethnicity, face-space has become a central pillar in many aspects of face processing. It is currently being developed to help us understand adaptation effects with faces. While being in principle a simple concept, face-space has shaped, and continues to shape, our understanding of face perception.

Socially Important Faces Are Processed Preferentially to Other Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in a Priming Task across a Range of Viewpoints

PubMed Central

Keyes, Helen; Zalicks, Catherine

2016-01-01

Using a priming paradigm, we investigate whether socially important faces are processed preferentially compared to other familiar and unfamiliar faces, and whether any such effects are affected by changes in viewpoint. Participants were primed with frontal images of personally familiar, famous or unfamiliar faces, and responded to target images of congruent or incongruent identity, presented in frontal, three quarter or profile views. We report that participants responded significantly faster to socially important faces (a friend’s face) compared to other highly familiar (famous) faces or unfamiliar faces. Crucially, responses to famous and unfamiliar faces did not differ. This suggests that, when presented in the context of a socially important stimulus, socially unimportant familiar faces (famous faces) are treated in a similar manner to unfamiliar faces. This effect was not tied to viewpoint, and priming did not affect socially important face processing differently to other faces. PMID:27219101

Erosion products of plasma facing materials formed under ITER-like transient load and deuterium retention in them

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Putrik, A. B., E-mail: putrik@triniti.ru; Klimov, N. S.; Gasparyan, Yu. M., E-mail: yura@plasma.mephi.ru

2015-12-15

Erosion of the plasma-facing materials in particular evaporation of the materials in a fusion reactor under intense transient events is one of the problems of the ITER. The current experimental data are insufficient to predict the properties of the erosion products, a significant part of which will be formed during transient events (edge-localized modes (ELMs) and disruptions). The paper concerns the experimental investigation of the graphite and tungsten erosion products deposited under pulsed plasma load at the QSPA-T: heat load on the target was 2.6 MJ/m{sup 2} with 0.5 ms pulse duration. The designed diagnostics for measuring the deposition ratemore » made it possible to determine that the deposition of eroded material occurs during discharge, and the deposition rate is in the range (0.1–100) × 10{sup 19} at/(cm{sup 2} s), which is much higher than that for stationary processes. It is found that the relative atomic concentrations D/C and D/(W + C) in the erosion products deposited during the pulse process are on the same level as for the stationary processes. An exposure of erosion products to photonic energy densities typical of those expected at mitigated disruptions in the ITER (pulse duration of 0.5–1 ms, integral energy density of radiation of 0.1–0.5 MJ/m2) significantly decreases the concentration of trapped deuterium.« less

Modulations of 'late' event-related brain potentials in humans by dynamic audiovisual speech stimuli.

PubMed

Lebib, Riadh; Papo, David; Douiri, Abdel; de Bode, Stella; Gillon Dowens, Margaret; Baudonnière, Pierre-Marie

2004-11-30

Lipreading reliably improve speech perception during face-to-face conversation. Within the range of good dubbing, however, adults tolerate some audiovisual (AV) discrepancies and lipreading, then, can give rise to confusion. We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to study the perceptual strategies governing the intermodal processing of dynamic and bimodal speech stimuli, either congruently dubbed or not. Electrophysiological analyses revealed that non-coherent audiovisual dubbings modulated in amplitude an endogenous ERP component, the N300, we compared to a 'N400-like effect' reflecting the difficulty to integrate these conflicting pieces of information. This result adds further support for the existence of a cerebral system underlying 'integrative processes' lato sensu. Further studies should take advantage of this 'N400-like effect' with AV speech stimuli to open new perspectives in the domain of psycholinguistics.

Does Temporal Integration of Face Parts Reflect Holistic Processing?

PubMed Central

Cheung, Olivia S.; Richler, Jennifer J.; Phillips, W. Stewart; Gauthier, Isabel

2011-01-01

We examined whether temporal integration of face parts reflects holistic processing or response interference. Participants learned to name two faces “Fred” and two “Bob”. At test, top and bottom halves of different faces formed composites and were presented briefly separated in time. Replicating prior findings (Singer & Sheinberg, 2006), naming of the target halves for aligned composites was slowed when the irrelevant halves were from faces with a different name compared to that from the original face. However, no interference was observed when the irrelevant halves had identical names as the target halves but came from different learned faces, arguing against a true holistic effect. Instead, response interference was obtained when the target halves briefly preceded the irrelevant halves. Experiment 2 confirmed a double-dissociation between holistic processing vs. response interference for intact faces vs. temporally separated face halves, suggesting that simultaneous presentation of facial information is critical for holistic processing. PMID:21327378

The Right Place at the Right Time: Priming Facial Expressions with Emotional Face Components in Developmental Visual Agnosia

PubMed Central

Aviezer, Hillel; Hassin, Ran. R.; Perry, Anat; Dudarev, Veronica; Bentin, Shlomo

2012-01-01

The current study examined the nature of deficits in emotion recognition from facial expressions in case LG, an individual with a rare form of developmental visual agnosia (DVA). LG presents with profoundly impaired recognition of facial expressions, yet the underlying nature of his deficit remains unknown. During typical face processing, normal sighted individuals extract information about expressed emotions from face regions with activity diagnostic for specific emotion categories. Given LG’s impairment, we sought to shed light on his emotion perception by examining if priming facial expressions with diagnostic emotional face components would facilitate his recognition of the emotion expressed by the face. LG and control participants matched isolated face components with components appearing in a subsequently presented full-face and then categorized the face’s emotion. Critically, the matched components were from regions which were diagnostic or non-diagnostic of the emotion portrayed by the full face. In experiment 1, when the full faces were briefly presented (150 ms), LG’s performance was strongly influenced by the diagnosticity of the components: His emotion recognition was boosted within normal limits when diagnostic components were used and was obliterated when non-diagnostic components were used. By contrast, in experiment 2, when the face-exposure duration was extended (2000 ms), the beneficial effect of the diagnostic matching was diminished as was the detrimental effect of the non-diagnostic matching. These data highlight the impact of diagnostic facial features in normal expression recognition and suggest that impaired emotion recognition in DVA results from deficient visual integration across diagnostic face components. PMID:22349446

Face features and face configurations both contribute to visual crowding.

PubMed

Sun, Hsin-Mei; Balas, Benjamin

2015-02-01

Crowding refers to the inability to recognize an object in peripheral vision when other objects are presented nearby (Whitney & Levi Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 160-168, 2011). A popular explanation of crowding is that features of the target and flankers are combined inappropriately when they are located within an integration field, thus impairing target recognition (Pelli, Palomares, & Majaj Journal of Vision, 4(12), 12:1136-1169, 2004). However, it remains unclear which features of the target and flankers are combined inappropriately to cause crowding (Levi Vision Research, 48, 635-654, 2008). For example, in a complex stimulus (e.g., a face), to what extent does crowding result from the integration of features at a part-based level or at the level of global processing of the configural appearance? In this study, we used a face categorization task and different types of flankers to examine how much the magnitude of visual crowding depends on the similarity of face parts or of global configurations. We created flankers with face-like features (e.g., the eyes, nose, and mouth) in typical and scrambled configurations to examine the impacts of part appearance and global configuration on the visual crowding of faces. Additionally, we used "electrical socket" flankers that mimicked first-order face configuration but had only schematic features, to examine the extent to which global face geometry impacted crowding. Our results indicated that both face parts and configurations contribute to visual crowding, suggesting that face similarity as realized under crowded conditions includes both aspects of facial appearance.

Temporal Tuning of Word- and Face-selective Cortex.

PubMed

Yeatman, Jason D; Norcia, Anthony M

2016-11-01

Sensitivity to temporal change places fundamental limits on object processing in the visual system. An emerging consensus from the behavioral and neuroimaging literature suggests that temporal resolution differs substantially for stimuli of different complexity and for brain areas at different levels of the cortical hierarchy. Here, we used steady-state visually evoked potentials to directly measure three fundamental parameters that characterize the underlying neural response to text and face images: temporal resolution, peak temporal frequency, and response latency. We presented full-screen images of text or a human face, alternated with a scrambled image, at temporal frequencies between 1 and 12 Hz. These images elicited a robust response at the first harmonic that showed differential tuning, scalp topography, and delay for the text and face images. Face-selective responses were maximal at 4 Hz, but text-selective responses, by contrast, were maximal at 1 Hz. The topography of the text image response was strongly left-lateralized at higher stimulation rates, whereas the response to the face image was slightly right-lateralized but nearly bilateral at all frequencies. Both text and face images elicited steady-state activity at more than one apparent latency; we observed early (141-160 msec) and late (>250 msec) text- and face-selective responses. These differences in temporal tuning profiles are likely to reflect differences in the nature of the computations performed by word- and face-selective cortex. Despite the close proximity of word- and face-selective regions on the cortical surface, our measurements demonstrate substantial differences in the temporal dynamics of word- versus face-selective responses.

Neural dynamics underlying emotional transmissions between individuals

PubMed Central

Levit-Binnun, Nava; Hendler, Talma; Lerner, Yulia

2017-01-01

Abstract Emotional experiences are frequently shaped by the emotional responses of co-present others. Research has shown that people constantly monitor and adapt to the incoming social–emotional signals, even without face-to-face interaction. And yet, the neural processes underlying such emotional transmissions have not been directly studied. Here, we investigated how the human brain processes emotional cues which arrive from another, co-attending individual. We presented continuous emotional feedback to participants who viewed a movie in the scanner. Participants in the social group (but not in the control group) believed that the feedback was coming from another person who was co-viewing the same movie. We found that social–emotional feedback significantly affected the neural dynamics both in the core affect and in the medial pre-frontal regions. Specifically, the response time-courses in those regions exhibited increased similarity across recipients and increased neural alignment with the timeline of the feedback in the social compared with control group. Taken in conjunction with previous research, this study suggests that emotional cues from others shape the neural dynamics across the whole neural continuum of emotional processing in the brain. Moreover, it demonstrates that interpersonal neural alignment can serve as a neural mechanism through which affective information is conveyed between individuals. PMID:28575520

Establishing operational stability--developing human infrastructure.

PubMed

Gomez, Max A; Byers, Ernest J; Stingley, Preston; Sheridan, Robert M; Hirsch, Joshua A

2010-12-01

Over the past year, Toyota has come under harsh scrutiny as a result of several recalls. These well publicized mishaps have not only done damage to Toyota's otherwise sterling reputation for quality but have also called into question the assertions from a phalanx of followers that Toyota's production system (generically referred to as TPS or Lean) is the best method by which to structure one's systems of operation. In this article, we discuss how Toyota, faced with the pressure to grow its business, did not appropriately cadence this growth with the continued development and maintenance of the process capabilities (vis a vis the development of human infrastructure) needed to adequately support that growth. We draw parallels between the pressure Toyota faced to grow its business and the pressure neurointerventional practices face to grow theirs, and offer a methodology to support that growth without sacrificing quality.

Impaired Eye Region Search Accuracy in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Pruett, John R.; Hoertel, Sarah; Constantino, John N.; LaMacchia Moll, Angela; McVey, Kelly; Squire, Emma; Feczko, Eric; Povinelli, Daniel J.; Petersen, Steven E.

2013-01-01

To explore mechanisms underlying reduced fixation of eyes in autism, children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and typically developing children were tested in five visual search experiments: simple color feature; color-shape conjunction; face in non-face objects; mouth region; and eye region. No group differences were found for reaction time profile shapes in any of the five experiments, suggesting intact basic search mechanics in children with ASD. Contrary to early reports in the literature, but consistent with other more recent findings, we observed no superiority for conjunction search in children with ASD. Importantly, children with ASD did show reduced accuracy for eye region search (p = .005), suggesting that eyes contribute less to high-level face representations in ASD or that there is an eye region-specific disruption to attentional processes engaged by search in ASD. PMID:23516446

Impaired eye region search accuracy in children with autistic spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Pruett, John R; Hoertel, Sarah; Constantino, John N; Moll, Angela LaMacchia; McVey, Kelly; Squire, Emma; Feczko, Eric; Povinelli, Daniel J; Petersen, Steven E

2013-01-01

To explore mechanisms underlying reduced fixation of eyes in autism, children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing children were tested in five visual search experiments: simple color feature; color-shape conjunction; face in non-face objects; mouth region; and eye region. No group differences were found for reaction time profile shapes in any of the five experiments, suggesting intact basic search mechanics in children with ASD. Contrary to early reports in the literature, but consistent with other more recent findings, we observed no superiority for conjunction search in children with ASD. Importantly, children with ASD did show reduced accuracy for eye region search (p = .005), suggesting that eyes contribute less to high-level face representations in ASD or that there is an eye region-specific disruption to attentional processes engaged by search in ASD.

Not All Faces Are Processed Equally: Evidence for Featural Rather than Holistic Processing of One's Own Face in a Face-Imaging Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenberg, Seth N.; Goshen-Gottstein, Yonatan

2009-01-01

The present work considers the mental imaging of faces, with a focus in own-face imaging. Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated an own-face disadvantage, with slower generation of mental images of one's own face than of other familiar faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that mental images of facial parts are generated more quickly for one's…

Analysis of potential impacts of climate change on wildlife habitats in the U.S.

Treesearch

Linda A. Joyce; Curtis H. Flather; Marni Koopman

2008-01-01

Resource managers face many challenges in developing management recommendations for wildlife habitat under a changing climate. Our research results offer states a more consistent and holistic approach to analyzing potential threats of climate change to terrestrial wildlife habitat. This process integrates a review of the scientific literature, the State Wildlife Action...

Rising to a New Paradigm: Infusing Health and Wellness into the Music Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Deborah L.

2012-01-01

Musicians, like athletes, daily face the stark reality of physical and psychological health issues that can negatively affect or end their careers. Research shows compelling reasons for making changes to the value systems and in the educational process under which musicians are trained to help alleviate these problems. Changes would include…

Structural face encoding: How task affects the N170's sensitivity to race.

PubMed

Senholzi, Keith B; Ito, Tiffany A

2013-12-01

The N170 event-related potential (ERP) component differentiates faces from non-faces, but studies aimed at investigating whether the processing indexed by this component is also sensitive to racial differences among faces have garnered conflicting results. Here, we explore how task affects the influence of race on the N170 among White participants. N170s were larger to ingroup White faces than outgroup Black faces, but only for those required to attend to race, suggesting that attention to race can result in deeper levels of processing for ingroup members. Conversely, N170s were larger to Black faces than White faces for participants who attended to the unique identity of the faces, suggesting that attention to identity can result in preferential recruitment of cognitive resources for outgroup members. Taken together, these findings suggest that race can differentially impact face processing at early stages of encoding, but differences in processing are contingent upon one's goal state.

Eliciting interval beliefs: An experimental study

PubMed Central

Peeters, Ronald; Wolk, Leonard

2017-01-01

In this paper we study the interval scoring rule as a mechanism to elicit subjective beliefs under varying degrees of uncertainty. In our experiment, subjects forecast the termination time of a time series to be generated from a given but unknown stochastic process. Subjects gradually learn more about the underlying process over time and hence the true distribution over termination times. We conduct two treatments, one with a high and one with a low volatility process. We find that elicited intervals are better when subjects are facing a low volatility process. In this treatment, participants learn to position their intervals almost optimally over the course of the experiment. This is in contrast with the high volatility treatment, where subjects, over the course of the experiment, learn to optimize the location of their intervals but fail to provide the optimal length. PMID:28380020

Selective attention supports working memory maintenance by modulating perceptual processing of distractors.

PubMed

Sreenivasan, Kartik K; Jha, Amishi P

2007-01-01

Selective attention has been shown to bias sensory processing in favor of relevant stimuli and against irrelevant or distracting stimuli in perceptual tasks. Increasing evidence suggests that selective attention plays an important role during working memory maintenance, possibly by biasing sensory processing in favor of to-be-remembered items. In the current study, we investigated whether selective attention may also support working memory by biasing processing against irrelevant and potentially distracting information. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects (n = 22) performed a delayed-recognition task for faces and shoes. The delay period was filled with face or shoe distractors. Behavioral performance was impaired when distractors were congruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during working memory for faces) relative to when distractors were incongruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during shoe working memory). If attentional biasing against distractor processing is indeed functionally relevant in supporting working memory maintenance, perceptual processing of distractors is predicted to be attenuated when distractors are more behaviorally intrusive relative to when they are nonintrusive. As such, we predicted that perceptual processing of distracting faces, as measured by the face-sensitive N170 ERP component, would be reduced in the context of congruent (face) working memory relative to incongruent (shoe) working memory. The N170 elicited by distracting faces demonstrated reduced amplitude during congruent versus incongruent working memory. These results suggest that perceptual processing of distracting faces may be attenuated due to attentional biasing against sensory processing of distractors that are most behaviorally intrusive during working memory maintenance.

The ties to unbind: age-related differences in feature (un)binding in working memory for emotional faces.

PubMed

Pehlivanoglu, Didem; Jain, Shivangi; Ariel, Robert; Verhaeghen, Paul

2014-01-01

In the present study, we investigated age-related differences in the processing of emotional stimuli. Specifically, we were interested in whether older adults would show deficits in unbinding emotional expression (i.e., either no emotion, happiness, anger, or disgust) from bound stimuli (i.e., photographs of faces expressing these emotions), as a hyper-binding account of age-related differences in working memory would predict. Younger and older adults completed different N-Back tasks (side-by-side 0-Back, 1-Back, 2-Back) under three conditions: match/mismatch judgments based on either the identity of the face (identity condition), the face's emotional expression (expression condition), or both identity and expression of the face (both condition). The two age groups performed more slowly and with lower accuracy in the expression condition than in the both condition, indicating the presence of an unbinding process. This unbinding effect was more pronounced in older adults than in younger adults, but only in the 2-Back task. Thus, older adults seemed to have a specific deficit in unbinding in working memory. Additionally, no age-related differences were found in accuracy in the 0-Back task, but such differences emerged in the 1-Back task, and were further magnified in the 2-Back task, indicating independent age-related differences in attention/STM and working memory. Pupil dilation data confirmed that the attention/STM version of the task (1-Back) is more effortful for older adults than younger adults.

Holistic Processing of Faces: Perceptual and Decisional Components

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richler, Jennifer J.; Gauthier, Isabel; Wenger, Michael J.; Palmeri, Thomas J.

2008-01-01

Researchers have used several composite face paradigms to assess holistic processing of faces. In the selective attention paradigm, participants decide whether one face part (e.g., top) is the same as a previously seen face part. Their judgment is affected by whether the irrelevant part of the test face is the same as or different than the…

Effects of Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Constructive Controversy on Social Interdependence, Motivation, and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roseth, Cary J.; Saltarelli, Andy J.; Glass, Chris R.

2011-01-01

Cooperative learning capitalizes on the relational processes by which peers promote learning, yet it remains unclear whether these processes operate similarly in face-to-face and online settings. This study addresses this issue by comparing face-to-face and computer-mediated versions of "constructive controversy", a cooperative learning procedure…

Normative data on development of neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying attention orienting toward social-emotional stimuli: An exploratory study

PubMed Central

Lindstrom, Kara; Guyer, Amanda E.; Mogg, Karin; Bradley, Brendan P.; Fox, Nathan A.; Ernst, Monique; Nelson, Eric E.; Leibenluft, Ellen; Britton, Jennifer C.; Monk, Christopher S.; Pine, Daniel S.; Bar-Haim, Yair

2009-01-01

The ability of positive and negative facial signals to influence attention orienting is crucial to social functioning. Given the dramatic developmental change in neural architecture supporting social function, positive and negative facial cues may influence attention orienting differently in relatively young or old individuals. However, virtually no research examines such age-related differences in the neural circuitry supporting attention orienting to emotional faces. We examined age-related correlations in attention-orienting biases to positive and negative face emotions in a healthy sample (N=37; 9-40 years old) using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a dot-probe task. The dot-probe task in an fMRI setting yields both behavioral and neural indices of attention biases towards or away from an emotional cue (happy or angry face). In the full sample, angry-face attention bias scores did not correlate with age, and age did not correlate with brain activation to angry faces. However, age did positively correlate with attention bias towards happy faces; age also negatively correlated with left cuneus and left caudate activation to a happy-bias fMRI contrast. Secondary analyses suggested age-related changes in attention bias to happy faces. The tendency in younger children to direct attention away from happy faces (relative to neutral faces) was diminished in the older age groups, in tandem with increasing neural deactivation. Implications for future work on developmental changes in attention-emotion processing are discussed. PMID:19631626

Emotional modulation of visual remapping of touch.

PubMed

Cardini, Flavia; Bertini, Caterina; Serino, Andrea; Ladavas, Elisabetta

2012-10-01

The perception of tactile stimuli on the face is modulated if subjects concurrently observe a face being touched; this effect is termed "visual remapping of touch" or the VRT effect. Given the high social value of this mechanism, we investigated whether it might be modulated by specific key information processed in face-to-face interactions: facial emotional expression. In two separate experiments, participants received tactile stimuli, near the perceptual threshold, either on their right, left, or both cheeks. Concurrently, they watched several blocks of movies depicting a face with a neutral, happy, or fearful expression that was touched or just approached by human fingers (Experiment 1). Participants were asked to distinguish between unilateral and bilateral felt tactile stimulation. Tactile perception was enhanced when viewing touch toward a fearful face compared with viewing touch toward the other two expressions. In order to test whether this result can be generalized to other negative emotions or whether it is a fear-specific effect, we ran a second experiment, where participants watched movies of faces-touched or approached by fingers-with either a fearful or an angry expression (Experiment 2). In line with the first experiment, tactile perception was enhanced when subjects viewed touch toward a fearful face and not toward an angry face. Results of the present experiments are interpreted in light of different mechanisms underlying different emotions recognition, with a specific involvement of the somatosensory system when viewing a fearful expression and a resulting fear-specific modulation of the VRT effect.

Distinct neural processes are engaged in the modulation of mimicry by social group-membership and emotional expressions.

PubMed

Rauchbauer, Birgit; Majdandžić, Jasminka; Hummer, Allan; Windischberger, Christian; Lamm, Claus

2015-09-01

People often spontaneously engage in copying each other's postures and mannerisms, a phenomenon referred to as behavioral mimicry. Social psychology experiments indicate that mimicry denotes an implicit affiliative signal flexibly regulated in response to social requirements. Yet, the mediating processes and neural underpinnings of such regulation are largely unexplored. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined mimicry regulation by combining an automatic imitation task with facial stimuli, varied on two social-affective dimensions: emotional expression (angry vs happy) and ethnic group membership (in- vs out-group). Behavioral data revealed increased mimicry when happy and when out-group faces were shown. Imaging results revealed that mimicry regulation in response to happy faces was associated with increased activation in the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), right dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC), and right superior parietal lobule (SPL). Mimicry regulation in response to out-group faces was related to increased activation in the left ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), bilateral anterior insula, and mid-cingulate cortex (MCC). We suggest that mimicry in response to happy and to out-group faces is driven by distinct affiliative goals, and that mimicry regulation to attain these goals is mediated by distinct neuro-cognitive processes. Higher mimicry in response to happy faces seems to denote reciprocation of an affiliative signal. Higher mimicry in response to out-group faces, reflects an appeasement attempt towards an interaction partner perceived as threatening (an interpretation supported by implicit measures showing that out-group members are more strongly associated with threat). Our findings show that subtle social cues can result in the implicit regulation of mimicry. This regulation serves to achieve distinct affiliative goals, is mediated by different regulatory processes, and relies on distinct parts of an overarching network of task-related brain areas. Our findings shed new light on the neural mechanisms underlying the interplay between implicit action control and social cognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Holistic Processing of Faces as Measured by the Thatcher Illusion Is Intact in Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cleary, Laura; Brady, Nuala; Fitzgerald, Michael; Gallagher, Louise

2015-01-01

Impaired face perception in autism spectrum disorders is thought to reflect a perceptual style characterized by componential rather than configural processing of faces. This study investigated face processing in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders using the Thatcher illusion, a perceptual phenomenon exhibiting "inversion effects"…

An in-depth cognitive examination of individuals with superior face recognition skills.

PubMed

Bobak, Anna K; Bennetts, Rachel J; Parris, Benjamin A; Jansari, Ashok; Bate, Sarah

2016-09-01

Previous work has reported the existence of "super-recognisers" (SRs), or individuals with extraordinary face recognition skills. However, the precise underpinnings of this ability have not yet been investigated. In this paper we examine (a) the face-specificity of super recognition, (b) perception of facial identity in SRs, (c) whether SRs present with enhancements in holistic processing and (d) the consistency of these findings across different SRs. A detailed neuropsychological investigation into six SRs indicated domain-specificity in three participants, with some evidence of enhanced generalised visuo-cognitive or socio-emotional processes in the remaining individuals. While superior face-processing skills were restricted to face memory in three of the SRs, enhancements to facial identity perception were observed in the others. Notably, five of the six participants showed at least some evidence of enhanced holistic processing. These findings indicate cognitive heterogeneity in the presentation of superior face recognition, and have implications for our theoretical understanding of the typical face-processing system and the identification of superior face-processing skills in applied settings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perception of men's beauty and attractiveness by women with low sexual desire.

PubMed

Ferdenzi, Camille; Delplanque, Sylvain; Vorontsova-Wenger, Olga; Pool, Eva; Bianchi-Demicheli, Francesco; Sander, David

2015-04-01

Despite the high prevalence of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), especially among women, this sexual disorder remains poorly understood. Among the multiple factors possibly involved in HSDD, particularities in the cognitive evaluations of social stimuli need to be better characterized. Especially, beauty and attractiveness judgments, two dimensions of interpersonal perception that are related but differ on their underlying motivational aspects, may vary according to the level of sexual desire. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether women with and without HSDD differ in their evaluations of beauty and attractiveness of men's faces and voices. Young women from the general population (controls, n = 16) and with HSDD (patients, n = 16) took part in the study. They were presented with a series of neutral/nonerotic voices and faces of young men from the GEneva Faces And Voices database. Ratings of beauty (i.e., assessments of aesthetic pleasure) and of attractiveness (i.e., assessments of the personal propensity to feel attracted to someone) and the frequency to which the participants pressed a key to see or listen to each stimulus again were the main outcome measures. Ratings of attractiveness were lower than ratings of beauty in both groups of women. The dissociation between beauty and attractiveness was larger in women with HSDD than in control participants. Patients gave lower attractiveness ratings than the controls and replayed the stimuli significantly less often. These results suggest that women with HSDD are characterized by specific alterations of the motivational component of men's perception, very early in the process of interpersonal relationships. Our findings have significant implications, both in better understanding the specific cognitive processes underlying hypoactive sexual desire and more largely the evaluative processes involved in human mate choice. © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Naturalistic FMRI mapping reveals superior temporal sulcus as the hub for the distributed brain network for social perception.

PubMed

Lahnakoski, Juha M; Glerean, Enrico; Salmi, Juha; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Sams, Mikko; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2012-01-01

Despite the abundant data on brain networks processing static social signals, such as pictures of faces, the neural systems supporting social perception in naturalistic conditions are still poorly understood. Here we delineated brain networks subserving social perception under naturalistic conditions in 19 healthy humans who watched, during 3-T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a set of 137 short (approximately 16 s each, total 27 min) audiovisual movie clips depicting pre-selected social signals. Two independent raters estimated how well each clip represented eight social features (faces, human bodies, biological motion, goal-oriented actions, emotion, social interaction, pain, and speech) and six filler features (places, objects, rigid motion, people not in social interaction, non-goal-oriented action, and non-human sounds) lacking social content. These ratings were used as predictors in the fMRI analysis. The posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) responded to all social features but not to any non-social features, and the anterior STS responded to all social features except bodies and biological motion. We also found four partially segregated, extended networks for processing of specific social signals: (1) a fronto-temporal network responding to multiple social categories, (2) a fronto-parietal network preferentially activated to bodies, motion, and pain, (3) a temporo-amygdalar network responding to faces, social interaction, and speech, and (4) a fronto-insular network responding to pain, emotions, social interactions, and speech. Our results highlight the role of the pSTS in processing multiple aspects of social information, as well as the feasibility and efficiency of fMRI mapping under conditions that resemble the complexity of real life.

Rigid Facial Motion Influences Featural, But Not Holistic, Face Processing

PubMed Central

Xiao, Naiqi; Quinn, Paul C.; Ge, Liezhong; Lee, Kang

2012-01-01

We report three experiments in which we investigated the effect of rigid facial motion on face processing. Specifically, we used the face composite effect to examine whether rigid facial motion influences primarily featural or holistic processing of faces. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, participants were first familiarized with dynamic displays in which a target face turned from one side to another; then at test, participants judged whether the top half of a composite face (the top half of the target face aligned or misaligned with the bottom half of a foil face) belonged to the target face. We compared performance in the dynamic condition to various static control conditions in Experiments 1, 2, and 3, which differed from each other in terms of the display order of the multiple static images or the inter stimulus interval (ISI) between the images. We found that the size of the face composite effect in the dynamic condition was significantly smaller than that in the static conditions. In other words, the dynamic face display influenced participants to process the target faces in a part-based manner and consequently their recognition of the upper portion of the composite face at test became less interfered with by the aligned lower part of the foil face. The findings from the present experiments provide the strongest evidence to date to suggest that the rigid facial motion mainly influences facial featural, but not holistic, processing. PMID:22342561

Buckling coefficients for simply supported and camped flat, rectangular sandwich panels under edgewise compression

Treesearch

Edward W. Kuenzi; Charles B. Norris; Paul M. Jenkinson

1964-01-01

“This report presents curves of coefficients and formulas for use in calculating the buckling of flat panels of sandwich construction under edgewise compressive loads. The curves were derived for sandwich panels having one facing of either of two orthotropic materials, the other facing of an isotropic material; both facings of orthotropic material; both facings of...

Human face processing is tuned to sexual age preferences

PubMed Central

Ponseti, J.; Granert, O.; van Eimeren, T.; Jansen, O.; Wolff, S.; Beier, K.; Deuschl, G.; Bosinski, H.; Siebner, H.

2014-01-01

Human faces can motivate nurturing behaviour or sexual behaviour when adults see a child or an adult face, respectively. This suggests that face processing is tuned to detecting age cues of sexual maturity to stimulate the appropriate reproductive behaviour: either caretaking or mating. In paedophilia, sexual attraction is directed to sexually immature children. Therefore, we hypothesized that brain networks that normally are tuned to mature faces of the preferred gender show an abnormal tuning to sexual immature faces in paedophilia. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test directly for the existence of a network which is tuned to face cues of sexual maturity. During fMRI, participants sexually attracted to either adults or children were exposed to various face images. In individuals attracted to adults, adult faces activated several brain regions significantly more than child faces. These brain regions comprised areas known to be implicated in face processing, and sexual processing, including occipital areas, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and, subcortically, the putamen and nucleus caudatus. The same regions were activated in paedophiles, but with a reversed preferential response pattern. PMID:24850896

Brain Signals of Face Processing as Revealed by Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Olivares, Ela I.; Iglesias, Jaime; Saavedra, Cristina; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J.; Valdés-Sosa, Mitchell

2015-01-01

We analyze the functional significance of different event-related potentials (ERPs) as electrophysiological indices of face perception and face recognition, according to cognitive and neurofunctional models of face processing. Initially, the processing of faces seems to be supported by early extrastriate occipital cortices and revealed by modulations of the occipital P1. This early response is thought to reflect the detection of certain primary structural aspects indicating the presence grosso modo of a face within the visual field. The posterior-temporal N170 is more sensitive to the detection of faces as complex-structured stimuli and, therefore, to the presence of its distinctive organizational characteristics prior to within-category identification. In turn, the relatively late and probably more rostrally generated N250r and N400-like responses might respectively indicate processes of access and retrieval of face-related information, which is stored in long-term memory (LTM). New methods of analysis of electrophysiological and neuroanatomical data, namely, dynamic causal modeling, single-trial and time-frequency analyses, are highly recommended to advance in the knowledge of those brain mechanisms concerning face processing. PMID:26160999

Perceptual dehumanization of faces is activated by norm violations and facilitates norm enforcement.

PubMed

Fincher, Katrina M; Tetlock, Philip E

2016-02-01

This article uses methods drawn from perceptual psychology to answer a basic social psychological question: Do people process the faces of norm violators differently from those of others--and, if so, what is the functional significance? Seven studies suggest that people process these faces different and the differential processing makes it easier to punish norm violators. Studies 1 and 2 use a recognition-recall paradigm that manipulated facial-inversion and spatial frequency to show that people rely upon face-typical processing less when they perceive norm violators' faces. Study 3 uses a facial composite task to demonstrate that the effect is actor dependent, not action dependent, and to suggest that configural processing is the mechanism of perceptual change. Studies 4 and 5 use offset faces to show that configural processing is only attenuated when they belong to perpetrators who are culpable. Studies 6 and 7 show that people find it easier to punish inverted faces and harder to punish faces displayed in low spatial frequency. Taken together, these data suggest a bidirectional flow of causality between lower-order perceptual and higher-order cognitive processes in norm enforcement. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved.

Review of enhanced processes for anaerobic digestion treatment of sewage sludge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xinyuan; Han, Zeyu; Yang, Jie; Ye, Tianyi; Yang, Fang; Wu, Nan; Bao, Zhenbo

2018-02-01

Great amount of sewage sludge had been produced each year, which led to serious environmental pollution. Many new technologies had been developed recently, but they were hard to be applied in large scales. As one of the traditional technologies, anaerobic fermentation process was capable of obtaining bioenergy by biogas production under the functions of microbes. However, the anaerobic process is facing new challenges due to the low fermentation efficiency caused by the characteristics of sewage sludge itself. In order to improve the energy yield, the enhancement technologies including sewage sludge pretreatment process, co-digestion process, high-solid digestion process and two-stage fermentation process were widely studied in the literatures, which were introduced in this article.

Differential face-network adaptation in children, adolescents and adults.

PubMed

Cohen Kadosh, Kathrin; Johnson, Mark H; Henson, Richard N A; Dick, Frederic; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

2013-04-01

Faces are complex social stimuli, which can be processed both at the categorical and the individual level. Behavioral studies have shown that children take more than a decade of exposure and training to become proficient at processing faces at the individual level. The neurodevelopmental trajectories for different aspects of face-processing are still poorly understood. In this study, we used an fMR-adaptation design to investigate differential processing of three face aspects (identity, expression and gaze) in children, adolescents and adults. We found that, while all three tasks showed some overlap in activation patterns, there was a significant age effect in the occipital and temporal lobes and the inferior frontal gyrus. More importantly, the degree of adaptation differed across the three age groups in the inferior occipital gyrus, a core face processing area that has been shown in previous studies to be both integral and necessary for individual-level face processing. In the younger children, adaptation in this region seemed to suggest the use of a predominantly featural processing strategy, whereas adaptation effects in the adults exhibited a more strategic pattern that depended on the task. Interestingly, our sample of adolescents did not exhibit any differential adaptation effects; possibly reflecting increased heterogeneity in processing strategies in this age group. Our results support the notion that, in line with improving behavioral face-processing abilities, core face-responsive regions develop throughout the first two decades of life. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging.

PubMed

Brassen, Stefanie; Gamer, Matthias; Büchel, Christian

2011-07-15

Behavioral studies consistently reported an increased preference for positive experiences in older adults. The socio-emotional selectivity theory explains this positivity effect with a motivated goal shift in emotion regulation, which probably depends on available cognitive resources. The present study investigates the neurobiological mechanism underlying this hypothesis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in 21 older and 22 young subjects while performing a spatial-cueing paradigm that manipulates attentional load on emotional face distracters. We focused our analyses on the anterior cingulate cortex as a key structure of cognitive control of emotion. Elderly subjects showed a specifically increased distractibility by happy faces when more attentional resources were available for face processing. This effect was paralleled by an increased engagement of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and this frontal engagement was significantly correlated with emotional stability. The current study highlights how the brain might mediate the tendency to preferentially engage in positive information processing in healthy aging. The finding of a resource-dependency of this positivity effect suggests demanding self-regulating processes that are related to emotional well-being. These findings are of particular relevance regarding implications for the understanding, treatment, and prevention of nonsuccessful aging like highly prevalent late-life depression. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of reduced working memory storage and processing resources in the associative memory deficit of older adults: simulation studies with younger adults.

PubMed

Hara, Yoko; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2015-01-01

Previous research indicates that relative to younger adults, older adults show a larger decline in long-term memory (LTM) for associations than for the components that make up these associations. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether we can impair associative memory performance in young adults by reducing their working memory (WM) resources, hence providing potential clues regarding the underlying causes of the associative memory deficit in older adults. With two experiments, we investigated whether we can reduce younger adults' long-term associative memory using secondary tasks in which either storage or processing WM loads were manipulated, while participants learned name-face pairs and then remembered the names, the faces, and the name-face associations. Results show that reducing either the storage or the processing resources of WM produced performance patterns of an associative long-term memory deficit in young adults. Furthermore, younger adults' associative memory deficit was a function of their performance on a working memory span task. These results indicate that one potential reason older adults have an associative deficit is a reduction in their WM resources but further research is needed to assess the mechanisms involved in age-related associative memory deficits.

Getting to the Bottom of Face Processing. Species-Specific Inversion Effects for Faces and Behinds in Humans and Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes).

PubMed

Kret, Mariska E; Tomonaga, Masaki

2016-01-01

For social species such as primates, the recognition of conspecifics is crucial for their survival. As demonstrated by the 'face inversion effect', humans are experts in recognizing faces and unlike objects, recognize their identity by processing it configurally. The human face, with its distinct features such as eye-whites, eyebrows, red lips and cheeks signals emotions, intentions, health and sexual attraction and, as we will show here, shares important features with the primate behind. Chimpanzee females show a swelling and reddening of the anogenital region around the time of ovulation. This provides an important socio-sexual signal for group members, who can identify individuals by their behinds. We hypothesized that chimpanzees process behinds configurally in a way humans process faces. In four different delayed matching-to-sample tasks with upright and inverted body parts, we show that humans demonstrate a face, but not a behind inversion effect and that chimpanzees show a behind, but no clear face inversion effect. The findings suggest an evolutionary shift in socio-sexual signalling function from behinds to faces, two hairless, symmetrical and attractive body parts, which might have attuned the human brain to process faces, and the human face to become more behind-like.

The left perceptual bias for adult and infant faces in adults and 5-year-old children: face age matters.

PubMed

Proietti, Valentina; Pavone, Sarah; Ricciardelli, Paola; Macchi Cassia, Viola

2015-01-01

A large number of studies have shown that adults rely more heavily on information conveyed by the left side of the face in judging emotional state, gender and identity. This phenomenon, called left perceptual bias (LPB), suggests a right hemisphere lateralization of face processing mechanisms. Although specialization of neural mechanisms for processing over-experienced face categories begins during the first year of life, little is known about the developmental trajectory of the LPB and whether or when the bias becomes selective for specific face categories as a result of experience. To address these questions we tested adults (Experiment 1) and 5-year-old children (Experiment 2) with null or limited experience with infants in an identity matching-to-sample task with chimeric adult and infant faces, for which both adults and children have been shown to manifest differential processing abilities. Results showed that 5-year-olds manifest a leftward bias selective for adult faces, and the magnitude of the bias is larger for adult compared to infant faces in adults. This evidence is in line with earlier demonstrations of a perceptual processing advantage for adult faces in adults and children and points to the role of experience in shaping neurocognitive specialization for face processing.

The man who mistook his neuropsychologist for a popstar: when configural processing fails in acquired prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Jansari, Ashok; Miller, Scott; Pearce, Laura; Cobb, Stephanie; Sagiv, Noam; Williams, Adrian L.; Tree, Jeremy J.; Hanley, J. Richard

2015-01-01

We report the case of an individual with acquired prosopagnosia who experiences extreme difficulties in recognizing familiar faces in everyday life despite excellent object recognition skills. Formal testing indicates that he is also severely impaired at remembering pre-experimentally unfamiliar faces and that he takes an extremely long time to identify famous faces and to match unfamiliar faces. Nevertheless, he performs as accurately and quickly as controls at identifying inverted familiar and unfamiliar faces and can recognize famous faces from their external features. He also performs as accurately as controls at recognizing famous faces when fracturing conceals the configural information in the face. He shows evidence of impaired global processing but normal local processing of Navon figures. This case appears to reflect the clearest example yet of an acquired prosopagnosic patient whose familiar face recognition deficit is caused by a severe configural processing deficit in the absence of any problems in featural processing. These preserved featural skills together with apparently intact visual imagery for faces allow him to identify a surprisingly large number of famous faces when unlimited time is available. The theoretical implications of this pattern of performance for understanding the nature of acquired prosopagnosia are discussed. PMID:26236212

Visual Selective Attention Biases Contribute to the Other-Race Effect Among 9-Month-Old Infants

PubMed Central

Oakes, Lisa M.; Amso, Dima

2016-01-01

During the first year of life, infants maintain their ability to discriminate faces from their own race but become less able to differentiate other-race faces. Though this is likely due to daily experience with own-race faces, the mechanisms linking repeated exposure to optimal face processing remain unclear. One possibility is that frequent experience with own-race faces generates a selective attention bias to these faces. Selective attention elicits enhancement of attended information and suppression of distraction to improve visual processing of attended objects. Thus attention biases to own-race faces may boost processing and discrimination of these faces relative to other-race faces. We used a spatial cueing task to bias attention to own- or other-race faces among Caucasian 9-month-old infants. Infants discriminated faces in the focus of the attention bias, regardless of race, indicating that infants remained sensitive to differences among other-race faces. Instead, efficacy of face discrimination reflected the extent of attention engagement. PMID:26486228

Visual selective attention biases contribute to the other-race effect among 9-month-old infants.

PubMed

Markant, Julie; Oakes, Lisa M; Amso, Dima

2016-04-01

During the first year of life, infants maintain their ability to discriminate faces from their own race but become less able to differentiate other-race faces. Though this is likely due to daily experience with own-race faces, the mechanisms linking repeated exposure to optimal face processing remain unclear. One possibility is that frequent experience with own-race faces generates a selective attention bias to these faces. Selective attention elicits enhancement of attended information and suppression of distraction to improve visual processing of attended objects. Thus attention biases to own-race faces may boost processing and discrimination of these faces relative to other-race faces. We used a spatial cueing task to bias attention to own- or other-race faces among Caucasian 9-month-old infants. Infants discriminated faces in the focus of the attention bias, regardless of race, indicating that infants remained sensitive to differences among other-race faces. Instead, efficacy of face discrimination reflected the extent of attention engagement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The right place at the right time: priming facial expressions with emotional face components in developmental visual agnosia.

PubMed

Aviezer, Hillel; Hassin, Ran R; Perry, Anat; Dudarev, Veronica; Bentin, Shlomo

2012-04-01

The current study examined the nature of deficits in emotion recognition from facial expressions in case LG, an individual with a rare form of developmental visual agnosia (DVA). LG presents with profoundly impaired recognition of facial expressions, yet the underlying nature of his deficit remains unknown. During typical face processing, normal sighted individuals extract information about expressed emotions from face regions with activity diagnostic for specific emotion categories. Given LG's impairment, we sought to shed light on his emotion perception by examining if priming facial expressions with diagnostic emotional face components would facilitate his recognition of the emotion expressed by the face. LG and control participants matched isolated face components with components appearing in a subsequently presented full-face and then categorized the face's emotion. Critically, the matched components were from regions which were diagnostic or non-diagnostic of the emotion portrayed by the full face. In experiment 1, when the full faces were briefly presented (150 ms), LG's performance was strongly influenced by the diagnosticity of the components: his emotion recognition was boosted within normal limits when diagnostic components were used and was obliterated when non-diagnostic components were used. By contrast, in experiment 2, when the face-exposure duration was extended (2000 ms), the beneficial effect of the diagnostic matching was diminished as was the detrimental effect of the non-diagnostic matching. These data highlight the impact of diagnostic facial features in normal expression recognition and suggest that impaired emotion recognition in DVA results from deficient visual integration across diagnostic face components. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Holistic Processing of Static and Moving Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Mintao; Bülthoff, Isabelle

2017-01-01

Humans' face ability develops and matures with extensive experience in perceiving, recognizing, and interacting with faces that move most of the time. However, how facial movements affect 1 core aspect of face ability--holistic face processing--remains unclear. Here we investigated the influence of rigid facial motion on holistic and part-based…

Exploring the unconscious using faces.

PubMed

Axelrod, Vadim; Bar, Moshe; Rees, Geraint

2015-01-01

Understanding the mechanisms of unconscious processing is one of the most substantial endeavors of cognitive science. While there are many different empirical ways to address this question, the use of faces in such research has proven exceptionally fruitful. We review here what has been learned about unconscious processing through the use of faces and face-selective neural correlates. A large number of cognitive systems can be explored with faces, including emotions, social cueing and evaluation, attention, multisensory integration, and various aspects of face processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissociation of face-selective cortical responses by attention.

PubMed

Furey, Maura L; Tanskanen, Topi; Beauchamp, Michael S; Avikainen, Sari; Uutela, Kimmo; Hari, Riitta; Haxby, James V

2006-01-24

We studied attentional modulation of cortical processing of faces and houses with functional MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG detected an early, transient face-selective response. Directing attention to houses in "double-exposure" pictures of superimposed faces and houses strongly suppressed the characteristic, face-selective functional MRI response in the fusiform gyrus. By contrast, attention had no effect on the M170, the early, face-selective response detected with MEG. Late (>190 ms) category-related MEG responses elicited by faces and houses, however, were strongly modulated by attention. These results indicate that hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures of face-selective cortical processing complement each other. The hemodynamic signals reflect primarily late responses that can be modulated by feedback connections. By contrast, the early, face-specific M170 that was not modulated by attention likely reflects a rapid, feed-forward phase of face-selective processing.

Energy conservation using face detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deotale, Nilesh T.; Kalbande, Dhananjay R.; Mishra, Akassh A.

2011-10-01

Computerized Face Detection, is concerned with the difficult task of converting a video signal of a person to written text. It has several applications like face recognition, simultaneous multiple face processing, biometrics, security, video surveillance, human computer interface, image database management, digital cameras use face detection for autofocus, selecting regions of interest in photo slideshows that use a pan-and-scale and The Present Paper deals with energy conservation using face detection. Automating the process to a computer requires the use of various image processing techniques. There are various methods that can be used for Face Detection such as Contour tracking methods, Template matching, Controlled background, Model based, Motion based and color based. Basically, the video of the subject are converted into images are further selected manually for processing. However, several factors like poor illumination, movement of face, viewpoint-dependent Physical appearance, Acquisition geometry, Imaging conditions, Compression artifacts makes Face detection difficult. This paper reports an algorithm for conservation of energy using face detection for various devices. The present paper suggests Energy Conservation can be done by Detecting the Face and reducing the brightness of complete image and then adjusting the brightness of the particular area of an image where the face is located using histogram equalization.

Field test studies of our infrared-based human temperature screening system embedded with a parallel measurement approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sumriddetchkajorn, Sarun; Chaitavon, Kosom

2009-07-01

This paper introduces a parallel measurement approach for fast infrared-based human temperature screening suitable for use in a large public area. Our key idea is based on the combination of simple image processing algorithms, infrared technology, and human flow management. With this multidisciplinary concept, we arrange as many people as possible in a two-dimensional space in front of a thermal imaging camera and then highlight all human facial areas through simple image filtering, image morphological, and particle analysis processes. In this way, an individual's face in live thermal image can be located and the maximum facial skin temperature can be monitored and displayed. Our experiment shows a measured 1 ms processing time in highlighting all human face areas. With a thermal imaging camera having an FOV lens of 24° × 18° and 320 × 240 active pixels, the maximum facial skin temperatures from three people's faces located at 1.3 m from the camera can also be simultaneously monitored and displayed in a measured rate of 31 fps, limited by the looping process in determining coordinates of all faces. For our 3-day test under the ambient temperature of 24-30 °C, 57-72% relative humidity, and weak wind from the outside hospital building, hyperthermic patients can be identified with 100% sensitivity and 36.4% specificity when the temperature threshold level and the offset temperature value are appropriately chosen. Appropriately locating our system away from the building doors, air conditioners and electric fans in order to eliminate wind blow coming toward the camera lens can significantly help improve our system specificity.

Selective attention modulates high-frequency activity in the face-processing network.

PubMed

Müsch, Kathrin; Hamamé, Carlos M; Perrone-Bertolotti, Marcela; Minotti, Lorella; Kahane, Philippe; Engel, Andreas K; Lachaux, Jean-Philippe; Schneider, Till R

2014-11-01

Face processing depends on the orchestrated activity of a large-scale neuronal network. Its activity can be modulated by attention as a function of task demands. However, it remains largely unknown whether voluntary, endogenous attention and reflexive, exogenous attention to facial expressions equally affect all regions of the face-processing network, and whether such effects primarily modify the strength of the neuronal response, the latency, the duration, or the spectral characteristics. We exploited the good temporal and spatial resolution of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) and recorded from depth electrodes to uncover the fast dynamics of emotional face processing. We investigated frequency-specific responses and event-related potentials (ERP) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC), ventral temporal cortex (VTC), anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and amygdala when facial expressions were task-relevant or task-irrelevant. All investigated regions of interest (ROI) were clearly modulated by task demands and exhibited stronger changes in stimulus-induced gamma band activity (50-150 Hz) when facial expressions were task-relevant. Observed latencies demonstrate that the activation is temporally coordinated across the network, rather than serially proceeding along a processing hierarchy. Early and sustained responses to task-relevant faces in VOTC and VTC corroborate their role for the core system of face processing, but they also occurred in the anterior insula. Strong attentional modulation in the OFC and amygdala (300 msec) suggests that the extended system of the face-processing network is only recruited if the task demands active face processing. Contrary to our expectation, we rarely observed differences between fearful and neutral faces. Our results demonstrate that activity in the face-processing network is susceptible to the deployment of selective attention. Moreover, we show that endogenous attention operates along the whole face-processing network, and that these effects are reflected in frequency-specific changes in the gamma band. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can Holistic Processing Be Learned for Inverted Faces?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Rachel; McKone, Elinor

2003-01-01

The origin of "special" processing for upright faces has been a matter of ongoing debate. If it is due to generic expertise, as opposed to having some innate component, holistic processing should be learnable for stimuli other than upright faces. Here we assess inverted faces. We trained subjects to discriminate identical twins using up to 1100…

Electrocortical Reflections of Face and Gaze Processing in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemner, C.; Schuller, A-M.; Van Engeland, H.

2006-01-01

Background: Children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) show behavioral abnormalities in gaze and face processing, but recent studies have indicated that normal activation of face-specific brain areas in response to faces is possible in this group. It is not clear whether the brain activity related to gaze processing is also normal in…

Laterality Biases to Chimeric Faces in Asperger Syndrome: What Is Right about Face-Processing?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashwin, Chris; Wheelwright, Sally; Baron-Cohen, Simon

2005-01-01

People show a left visual field (LVF) bias for faces, i.e., involving the right hemisphere of the brain. Lesion and neuroimaging studies confirm the importance of the right-hemisphere and suggest separable neural pathways for processing facial identity vs. emotions. We investigated the hemispheric processing of faces in adults with and without…

Emotion Perception or Social Cognitive Complexity: What Drives Face Processing Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Jennifer A.; Creighton, Sarah E.; Rutherford, M. D.

2016-01-01

Some, but not all, relevant studies have revealed face processing deficits among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In particular, deficits are revealed in face processing tasks that involve emotion perception. The current study examined whether either deficits in processing emotional expression or deficits in processing social cognitive…

Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach.

PubMed

Ho, Tiffany C; Zhang, Shunan; Sacchet, Matthew D; Weng, Helen; Connolly, Colm G; Henje Blom, Eva; Han, Laura K M; Mobayed, Nisreen O; Yang, Tony T

2016-01-01

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates. To investigate these issues, we assessed 26 adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCL) who completed an emotion identification task of dynamically morphing faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed the behavioral data using a sequential sampling model of response time (RT) commonly used to elucidate aspects of cognition in binary perceptual decision making tasks: the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. Using a hierarchical Bayesian estimation method, we obtained group-level and individual-level estimates of LBA parameters on the facial emotion identification task. While the MDD and HCL groups did not differ in mean RT, accuracy, or group-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency (i.e., drift rate parameter of the LBA), the MDD group showed significantly reduced responses in left fusiform gyrus compared to the HCL group during the facial emotion identification task. Furthermore, within the MDD group, fMRI signal in the left fusiform gyrus during affective face processing was significantly associated with greater individual-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency. Our results therefore suggest that affective processing biases in adolescents with MDD are characterized by greater perceptual processing efficiency of affective visual information in sensory brain regions responsible for the early processing of visual information. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of our results are discussed.

Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach

PubMed Central

Ho, Tiffany C.; Zhang, Shunan; Sacchet, Matthew D.; Weng, Helen; Connolly, Colm G.; Henje Blom, Eva; Han, Laura K. M.; Mobayed, Nisreen O.; Yang, Tony T.

2016-01-01

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates. To investigate these issues, we assessed 26 adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCL) who completed an emotion identification task of dynamically morphing faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed the behavioral data using a sequential sampling model of response time (RT) commonly used to elucidate aspects of cognition in binary perceptual decision making tasks: the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. Using a hierarchical Bayesian estimation method, we obtained group-level and individual-level estimates of LBA parameters on the facial emotion identification task. While the MDD and HCL groups did not differ in mean RT, accuracy, or group-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency (i.e., drift rate parameter of the LBA), the MDD group showed significantly reduced responses in left fusiform gyrus compared to the HCL group during the facial emotion identification task. Furthermore, within the MDD group, fMRI signal in the left fusiform gyrus during affective face processing was significantly associated with greater individual-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency. Our results therefore suggest that affective processing biases in adolescents with MDD are characterized by greater perceptual processing efficiency of affective visual information in sensory brain regions responsible for the early processing of visual information. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of our results are discussed. PMID:26869950

Network Configurations in the Human Brain Reflect Choice Bias during Rapid Face Processing.

PubMed

Tu, Tao; Schneck, Noam; Muraskin, Jordan; Sajda, Paul

2017-12-13

Network interactions are likely to be instrumental in processes underlying rapid perception and cognition. Specifically, high-level and perceptual regions must interact to balance pre-existing models of the environment with new incoming stimuli. Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and fMRI (EEG/fMRI) enables temporal characterization of brain-network interactions combined with improved anatomical localization of regional activity. In this paper, we use simultaneous EEG/fMRI and multivariate dynamical systems (MDS) analysis to characterize network relationships between constitute brain areas that reflect a subject's choice for a face versus nonface categorization task. Our simultaneous EEG and fMRI analysis on 21 human subjects (12 males, 9 females) identifies early perceptual and late frontal subsystems that are selective to the categorical choice of faces versus nonfaces. We analyze the interactions between these subsystems using an MDS in the space of the BOLD signal. Our main findings show that differences between face-choice and house-choice networks are seen in the network interactions between the early and late subsystems, and that the magnitude of the difference in network interaction positively correlates with the behavioral false-positive rate of face choices. We interpret this to reflect the role of saliency and expectations likely encoded in frontal "late" regions on perceptual processes occurring in "early" perceptual regions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our choices are affected by our biases. In visual perception and cognition such biases can be commonplace and quite curious-e.g., we see a human face when staring up at a cloud formation or down at a piece of toast at the breakfast table. Here we use multimodal neuroimaging and dynamical systems analysis to measure whole-brain spatiotemporal dynamics while subjects make decisions regarding the type of object they see in rapidly flashed images. We find that the degree of interaction in these networks accounts for a substantial fraction of our bias to see faces. In general, our findings illustrate how the properties of spatiotemporal networks yield insight into the mechanisms of how we form decisions. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3712226-12$15.00/0.

Network Configurations in the Human Brain Reflect Choice Bias during Rapid Face Processing

PubMed Central

Schneck, Noam

2017-01-01

Network interactions are likely to be instrumental in processes underlying rapid perception and cognition. Specifically, high-level and perceptual regions must interact to balance pre-existing models of the environment with new incoming stimuli. Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and fMRI (EEG/fMRI) enables temporal characterization of brain–network interactions combined with improved anatomical localization of regional activity. In this paper, we use simultaneous EEG/fMRI and multivariate dynamical systems (MDS) analysis to characterize network relationships between constitute brain areas that reflect a subject's choice for a face versus nonface categorization task. Our simultaneous EEG and fMRI analysis on 21 human subjects (12 males, 9 females) identifies early perceptual and late frontal subsystems that are selective to the categorical choice of faces versus nonfaces. We analyze the interactions between these subsystems using an MDS in the space of the BOLD signal. Our main findings show that differences between face-choice and house-choice networks are seen in the network interactions between the early and late subsystems, and that the magnitude of the difference in network interaction positively correlates with the behavioral false-positive rate of face choices. We interpret this to reflect the role of saliency and expectations likely encoded in frontal “late” regions on perceptual processes occurring in “early” perceptual regions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our choices are affected by our biases. In visual perception and cognition such biases can be commonplace and quite curious—e.g., we see a human face when staring up at a cloud formation or down at a piece of toast at the breakfast table. Here we use multimodal neuroimaging and dynamical systems analysis to measure whole-brain spatiotemporal dynamics while subjects make decisions regarding the type of object they see in rapidly flashed images. We find that the degree of interaction in these networks accounts for a substantial fraction of our bias to see faces. In general, our findings illustrate how the properties of spatiotemporal networks yield insight into the mechanisms of how we form decisions. PMID:29118108

Illumination robust face recognition using spatial adaptive shadow compensation based on face intensity prior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Cheng-Ta; Huang, Kae-Horng; Lee, Chang-Hsing; Han, Chin-Chuan; Fan, Kuo-Chin

2017-12-01

Robust face recognition under illumination variations is an important and challenging task in a face recognition system, particularly for face recognition in the wild. In this paper, a face image preprocessing approach, called spatial adaptive shadow compensation (SASC), is proposed to eliminate shadows in the face image due to different lighting directions. First, spatial adaptive histogram equalization (SAHE), which uses face intensity prior model, is proposed to enhance the contrast of each local face region without generating visible noises in smooth face areas. Adaptive shadow compensation (ASC), which performs shadow compensation in each local image block, is then used to produce a wellcompensated face image appropriate for face feature extraction and recognition. Finally, null-space linear discriminant analysis (NLDA) is employed to extract discriminant features from SASC compensated images. Experiments performed on the Yale B, Yale B extended, and CMU PIE face databases have shown that the proposed SASC always yields the best face recognition accuracy. That is, SASC is more robust to face recognition under illumination variations than other shadow compensation approaches.

Functional organization of the face-sensitive areas in human occipital-temporal cortex.

PubMed

Shao, Hanyu; Weng, Xuchu; He, Sheng

2017-08-15

Human occipital-temporal cortex features several areas sensitive to faces, presumably forming the biological substrate for face perception. To date, there are piecemeal insights regarding the functional organization of these regions. They have come, however, from studies that are far from homogeneous with regard to the regions involved, the experimental design, and the data analysis approach. In order to provide an overall view of the functional organization of the face-sensitive areas, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive study that taps into the pivotal functional properties of all the face-sensitive areas, within the context of the same experimental design, and uses multiple data analysis approaches. In this study, we identified the most robustly activated face-sensitive areas in bilateral occipital-temporal cortices (i.e., AFP, aFFA, pFFA, OFA, pcSTS, pSTS) and systemically compared their regionally averaged activation and multivoxel activation patterns to 96 images from 16 object categories, including faces and non-faces. This condition-rich and single-image analysis approach critically samples the functional properties of a brain region, allowing us to test how two basic functional properties, namely face-category selectivity and face-exemplar sensitivity are distributed among these regions. Moreover, by examining the correlational structure of neural responses to the 96 images, we characterize their interactions in the greater face-processing network. We found that (1) r-pFFA showed the highest face-category selectivity, followed by l-pFFA, bilateral aFFA and OFA, and then bilateral pcSTS. In contrast, bilateral AFP and pSTS showed low face-category selectivity; (2) l-aFFA, l-pcSTS and bilateral AFP showed evidence of face-exemplar sensitivity; (3) r-OFA showed high overall response similarities with bilateral LOC and r-pFFA, suggesting it might be a transitional stage between general and face-selective information processing; (4) r-aFFA showed high face-selective response similarity with r-pFFA and r-OFA, indicating it was specifically involved in processing face information. Results also reveal two properties of these face sensitive regions across the two hemispheres: (1) the averaged left intra-hemispheric response similarity for the images was lower than the averaged right intra-hemispheric and the inter-hemispheric response similarity, implying convergence of face processing towards the right hemisphere, and (2) the response similarities between homologous regions in the two hemispheres decreased as information processing proceeded from the early, more posterior, processing stage (OFA), indicating an increasing degree of hemispheric specialization and right hemisphere bias for face information processing. This study contributes to an emerging picture of how faces are processed within the occipital and temporal cortex. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hemispheric asymmetry in holistic processing of words.

PubMed

Ventura, Paulo; Delgado, João; Ferreira, Miguel; Farinha-Fernandes, António; Guerreiro, José C; Faustino, Bruno; Leite, Isabel; Wong, Alan C-N

2018-05-13

Holistic processing has been regarded as a hallmark of face perception, indicating the automatic and obligatory tendency of the visual system to process all face parts as a perceptual unit rather than in isolation. Studies involving lateralized stimulus presentation suggest that the right hemisphere dominates holistic face processing. Holistic processing can also be shown with other categories such as words and thus it is not specific to faces or face-like expertize. Here, we used divided visual field presentation to investigate the possibly different contributions of the two hemispheres for holistic word processing. Observers performed same/different judgment on the cued parts of two sequentially presented words in the complete composite paradigm. Our data indicate a right hemisphere specialization for holistic word processing. Thus, these markers of expert object recognition are domain general.

29 CFR 1926.913 - Blasting in excavation work under compressed air.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... rock face is approaching mixed face, and when tunnel excavation is in mixed face, blasting shall be... tunnel excavation in rock face approaches mixed face, to determine the general nature and extent of rock...

29 CFR 1926.913 - Blasting in excavation work under compressed air.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... rock face is approaching mixed face, and when tunnel excavation is in mixed face, blasting shall be... tunnel excavation in rock face approaches mixed face, to determine the general nature and extent of rock...

The framing effect and skin conductance responses

PubMed Central

Ring, Patrick

2015-01-01

Individuals often rely on simple heuristics when they face complex choice situations under uncertainty. Traditionally, it has been proposed that cognitive processes are the main driver to evaluate different choice options and to finally reach a decision. Growing evidence, however, highlights a strong interrelation between judgment and decision-making (JDM) on the one hand, and emotional processes on the other hand. This also seems to apply to judgmental heuristics, i.e., decision processes that are typically considered to be fast and intuitive. In this study, participants are exposed to different probabilities of receiving an unpleasant electric shock. Information about electric shock probabilities is either positively or negatively framed. Integrated skin conductance responses (ISCRs) while waiting for electric shock realization are used as an indicator for participants' emotional arousal. This measure is compared to objective probabilities. I find evidence for a relation between emotional body reactions measured by ISCRs and the framing effect. Under negative frames, participants show significantly higher ISCRs while waiting for an electric shock to be delivered than under positive frames. This result might contribute to a better understanding of the psychological processes underlying JDM. Further studies are necessary to reveal the causality underlying this finding, i.e., whether emotional processes influence JDM or vice versa. PMID:26300747

Neural Decoding Reveals Impaired Face Configural Processing in the Right Fusiform Face Area of Individuals with Developmental Prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Zhang, Jiedong; Liu, Jia

2015-01-01

Most of human daily social interactions rely on the ability to successfully recognize faces. Yet ∼2% of the human population suffers from face blindness without any acquired brain damage [this is also known as developmental prosopagnosia (DP) or congenital prosopagnosia]). Despite the presence of severe behavioral face recognition deficits, surprisingly, a majority of DP individuals exhibit normal face selectivity in the right fusiform face area (FFA), a key brain region involved in face configural processing. This finding, together with evidence showing impairments downstream from the right FFA in DP individuals, has led some to argue that perhaps the right FFA is largely intact in DP individuals. Using fMRI multivoxel pattern analysis, here we report the discovery of a neural impairment in the right FFA of DP individuals that may play a critical role in mediating their face-processing deficits. In seven individuals with DP, we discovered that, despite the right FFA's preference for faces and it showing decoding for the different face parts, it exhibited impaired face configural decoding and did not contain distinct neural response patterns for the intact and the scrambled face configurations. This abnormality was not present throughout the ventral visual cortex, as normal neural decoding was found in an adjacent object-processing region. To our knowledge, this is the first direct neural evidence showing impaired face configural processing in the right FFA in individuals with DP. The discovery of this neural impairment provides a new clue to our understanding of the neural basis of DP. PMID:25632131

Face-to-Face Interference in Typical and Atypical Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riby, Deborah M.; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

2012-01-01

Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze…

Human versus Non-Human Face Processing: Evidence from Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Andreia; Rosset, Delphine; Deruelle, Christine

2009-01-01

Increased motivation towards social stimuli in Williams syndrome (WS) led us to hypothesize that a face's human status would have greater impact than face's orientation on WS' face processing abilities. Twenty-nine individuals with WS were asked to categorize facial emotion expressions in real, human cartoon and non-human cartoon faces presented…

Face Recognition Is Shaped by the Use of Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoll, Chloé; Palluel-Germain, Richard; Caldara, Roberto; Lao, Junpeng; Dye, Matthew W. G.; Aptel, Florent; Pascalis, Olivier

2018-01-01

Previous research has suggested that early deaf signers differ in face processing. Which aspects of face processing are changed and the role that sign language may have played in that change are however unclear. Here, we compared face categorization (human/non-human) and human face recognition performance in early profoundly deaf signers, hearing…

Locally Linear Embedding of Local Orthogonal Least Squares Images for Face Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hafizhelmi Kamaru Zaman, Fadhlan

2018-03-01

Dimensionality reduction is very important in face recognition since it ensures that high-dimensionality data can be mapped to lower dimensional space without losing salient and integral facial information. Locally Linear Embedding (LLE) has been previously used to serve this purpose, however, the process of acquiring LLE features requires high computation and resources. To overcome this limitation, we propose a locally-applied Local Orthogonal Least Squares (LOLS) model can be used as initial feature extraction before the application of LLE. By construction of least squares regression under orthogonal constraints we can preserve more discriminant information in the local subspace of facial features while reducing the overall features into a more compact form that we called LOLS images. LLE can then be applied on the LOLS images to maps its representation into a global coordinate system of much lower dimensionality. Several experiments carried out using publicly available face datasets such as AR, ORL, YaleB, and FERET under Single Sample Per Person (SSPP) constraint demonstrates that our proposed method can reduce the time required to compute LLE features while delivering better accuracy when compared to when either LLE or OLS alone is used. Comparison against several other feature extraction methods and more recent feature-learning method such as state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) also reveal the superiority of the proposed method under SSPP constraint.

Do bodily expressions compete with facial expressions? Time course of integration of emotional signals from the face and the body.

PubMed

Gu, Yuanyuan; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yue-jia

2013-01-01

The decoding of social signals from nonverbal cues plays a vital role in the social interactions of socially gregarious animals such as humans. Because nonverbal emotional signals from the face and body are normally seen together, it is important to investigate the mechanism underlying the integration of emotional signals from these two sources. We conducted a study in which the time course of the integration of facial and bodily expressions was examined via analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) while the focus of attention was manipulated. Distinctive integrating features were found during multiple stages of processing. In the first stage, threatening information from the body was extracted automatically and rapidly, as evidenced by enhanced P1 amplitudes when the subjects viewed compound face-body images with fearful bodies compared with happy bodies. In the second stage, incongruency between emotional information from the face and the body was detected and captured by N2. Incongruent compound images elicited larger N2s than did congruent compound images. The focus of attention modulated the third stage of integration. When the subjects' attention was focused on the face, images with congruent emotional signals elicited larger P3s than did images with incongruent signals, suggesting more sustained attention and elaboration of congruent emotional information extracted from the face and body. On the other hand, when the subjects' attention was focused on the body, images with fearful bodies elicited larger P3s than did images with happy bodies, indicating more sustained attention and elaboration of threatening information from the body during evaluative processes.

Hydrology of two slopes in subarctic Yukon, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carey, Sean K.; Woo, Ming-Ko

1999-11-01

Two subarctic forested slopes in central Wolf Creek basin, Yukon, were studied in 1996-1997 to determine the seasonal pattern of the hydrologic processes. A south-facing slope has a dense aspen forest on silty soils with seasonal frost only and a north-facing slope has open stands of black spruce and an organic layer on top of clay sediments with permafrost. Snowmelt is advanced by approximately one month on the south-facing slope due to greater radiation receipt. Meltwater infiltrates its seasonally frozen soil with low ice content, recharging the soil moisture reservoir but yielding no lateral surface or subsurface flow. Summer evaporation depletes this recharged moisture and any additional rainfall input, at the expense of surface or subsurface flow. The north-facing slope with an ice rich substrate hinders deep percolation. Snow meltwater is impounded within the organic layer to produce surface runoff in rills and gullies, and subsurface flow along pipes and within the matrix of the organic soil. During the summer, most subsurface flows are confined to the organic layer which has hydraulic conductivities orders of magnitudes larger than the underlying boulder-clay. Evaporation on the north-facing slope declines as both the frost table and the water table descend in the summer. A water balance of the two slopes demonstrates that vertical processes of infiltration and evaporation dominate moisture exchanges on the south-facing slope, whereas the retardation of deep drainage by frost and by clayey soil on the permafrost slope promotes a strong lateral flow component, principally within the organic layer. These results have the important implication that permafrost slopes and organic horizons are the principal controls on streamflow generation in subarctic catchments.

Do Bodily Expressions Compete with Facial Expressions? Time Course of Integration of Emotional Signals from the Face and the Body

PubMed Central

Gu, Yuanyuan; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yue-jia

2013-01-01

The decoding of social signals from nonverbal cues plays a vital role in the social interactions of socially gregarious animals such as humans. Because nonverbal emotional signals from the face and body are normally seen together, it is important to investigate the mechanism underlying the integration of emotional signals from these two sources. We conducted a study in which the time course of the integration of facial and bodily expressions was examined via analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) while the focus of attention was manipulated. Distinctive integrating features were found during multiple stages of processing. In the first stage, threatening information from the body was extracted automatically and rapidly, as evidenced by enhanced P1 amplitudes when the subjects viewed compound face-body images with fearful bodies compared with happy bodies. In the second stage, incongruency between emotional information from the face and the body was detected and captured by N2. Incongruent compound images elicited larger N2s than did congruent compound images. The focus of attention modulated the third stage of integration. When the subjects' attention was focused on the face, images with congruent emotional signals elicited larger P3s than did images with incongruent signals, suggesting more sustained attention and elaboration of congruent emotional information extracted from the face and body. On the other hand, when the subjects' attention was focused on the body, images with fearful bodies elicited larger P3s than did images with happy bodies, indicating more sustained attention and elaboration of threatening information from the body during evaluative processes. PMID:23935825

Amygdala habituation to emotional faces in adolescents with internalizing disorders, adolescents with childhood sexual abuse related PTSD and healthy adolescents.

PubMed

van den Bulk, Bianca G; Somerville, Leah H; van Hoof, Marie-José; van Lang, Natasja D J; van der Wee, Nic J A; Crone, Eveline A; Vermeiren, Robert R J M

2016-10-01

Adolescents with internalizing disorders and adolescents with childhood sexual abuse related post-traumatic stress disorder (CSA-related PTSD) show a large overlap in symptomatology. In addition, brain research indicated hyper-responsiveness and sustained activation instead of habituation of amygdala activation to emotional faces in both groups. Little is known, however, about whether the same patterns of amygdala habituation are present in these two groups. The current study examined habituation patterns of amygdala activity to emotional faces (fearful, happy and neutral) in adolescents with a DSM-IV depressive and/or anxiety disorder (N=25), adolescents with CSA-related PTSD (N=19) and healthy controls (N=26). Behaviourally, the adolescents from the internalizing and CSA-related PTSD group reported more anxiety to fearful and neutral faces than adolescents from the control group and adolescents from the CSA-related PTSD group reacted slower compared to the internalizing group. At the whole brain level, there was a significant interaction between time and group within the left amygdala. Follow-up ROI analysis showed elevated initial activity in the amygdala and rapid habituation in the CSA-related PTSD group compared to the internalizing group. These findings suggest that habituation patterns of amygdala activation provide additional information on problems with emotional face processing. Furthermore, the results suggest there are differences in the underlying neurobiological mechanisms related to emotional face processing for adolescents with internalizing disorders and adolescents with CSA-related PTSD. Possibly CSA-related PTSD is characterized by a stronger primary emotional response driven by the amygdala. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Spatially generalizable representations of facial expressions: Decoding across partial face samples.

PubMed

Greening, Steven G; Mitchell, Derek G V; Smith, Fraser W

2018-04-01

A network of cortical and sub-cortical regions is known to be important in the processing of facial expression. However, to date no study has investigated whether representations of facial expressions present in this network permit generalization across independent samples of face information (e.g., eye region vs mouth region). We presented participants with partial face samples of five expression categories in a rapid event-related fMRI experiment. We reveal a network of face-sensitive regions that contain information about facial expression categories regardless of which part of the face is presented. We further reveal that the neural information present in a subset of these regions: dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), lateral occipital and ventral temporal cortex, and even early visual cortex, enables reliable generalization across independent visual inputs (faces depicting the 'eyes only' vs 'eyes removed'). Furthermore, classification performance was correlated to behavioral performance in STS and dPFC. Our results demonstrate that both higher (e.g., STS, dPFC) and lower level cortical regions contain information useful for facial expression decoding that go beyond the visual information presented, and implicate a key role for contextual mechanisms such as cortical feedback in facial expression perception under challenging conditions of visual occlusion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of environmental conditions associated to the cardinal orientation on the reproductive phenology of the cerrado savanna tree Xylopia aromatica (Annonaceae).

PubMed

Camargo, Maria Gabriela G; Souza, Regina M; Reys, Paula; Morellato, Leonor P C

2011-09-01

The Brazilian cerrado has undergone an intense process of fragmentation, which leads to an increase in the number of remnants exposed to edge effects and associated changes on environmental conditions that may affect the phenology of plants. This study aimed to verify whether the reproductive phenology of Xylopia aromatica (Lam.) Mart. (Annonaceae) differs under different light conditions in a cerrado sensu stricto (a woody savanna) of southeastern Brazil. We compared the reproductive phenology of X. aromatica trees distributed on east and south cardinal faces of the cerrado during monthly observations, from January 2005 to December 2008. The east face had a higher light incidence, higher temperatures and canopy openness in relation to south face. X. aromatica showed seasonal reproduction at both faces of the cerrado, but the percentage of individuals, the synchrony and duration of phenophases were higher at the east face. The study demonstrated the influence of the environmental conditions associated to the cardinal orientation of the cerrado faces on the phenological pattern of X. aromatica. Similar responses may be observed for other species, ultimately affecting patterns of floral visitation and fruit production, which reinforces the importance of considering the cardinal direction in studies of edge effects and fragmentation.

[Face recognition in patients with schizophrenia].

PubMed

Doi, Hirokazu; Shinohara, Kazuyuki

2012-07-01

It is well known that patients with schizophrenia show severe deficiencies in social communication skills. These deficiencies are believed to be partly derived from abnormalities in face recognition. However, the exact nature of these abnormalities exhibited by schizophrenic patients with respect to face recognition has yet to be clarified. In the present paper, we review the main findings on face recognition deficiencies in patients with schizophrenia, particularly focusing on abnormalities in the recognition of facial expression and gaze direction, which are the primary sources of information of others' mental states. The existing studies reveal that the abnormal recognition of facial expression and gaze direction in schizophrenic patients is attributable to impairments in both perceptual processing of visual stimuli, and cognitive-emotional responses to social information. Furthermore, schizophrenic patients show malfunctions in distributed neural regions, ranging from the fusiform gyrus recruited in the structural encoding of facial stimuli, to the amygdala which plays a primary role in the detection of the emotional significance of stimuli. These findings were obtained from research in patient groups with heterogeneous characteristics. Because previous studies have indicated that impairments in face recognition in schizophrenic patients might vary according to the types of symptoms, it is of primary importance to compare the nature of face recognition deficiencies and the impairments of underlying neural functions across sub-groups of patients.

Gaze cueing by pareidolia faces.

PubMed

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2013-01-01

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.

Gaze cueing by pareidolia faces

PubMed Central

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2013-01-01

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process. PMID:25165505

Human face processing is tuned to sexual age preferences.

PubMed

Ponseti, J; Granert, O; van Eimeren, T; Jansen, O; Wolff, S; Beier, K; Deuschl, G; Bosinski, H; Siebner, H

2014-05-01

Human faces can motivate nurturing behaviour or sexual behaviour when adults see a child or an adult face, respectively. This suggests that face processing is tuned to detecting age cues of sexual maturity to stimulate the appropriate reproductive behaviour: either caretaking or mating. In paedophilia, sexual attraction is directed to sexually immature children. Therefore, we hypothesized that brain networks that normally are tuned to mature faces of the preferred gender show an abnormal tuning to sexual immature faces in paedophilia. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test directly for the existence of a network which is tuned to face cues of sexual maturity. During fMRI, participants sexually attracted to either adults or children were exposed to various face images. In individuals attracted to adults, adult faces activated several brain regions significantly more than child faces. These brain regions comprised areas known to be implicated in face processing, and sexual processing, including occipital areas, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and, subcortically, the putamen and nucleus caudatus. The same regions were activated in paedophiles, but with a reversed preferential response pattern. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Multi-pose facial correction based on Gaussian process with combined kernel function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Shuyan; Ji, Ruirui; Zhang, Fan

2018-04-01

In order to improve the recognition rate of various postures, this paper proposes a method of facial correction based on Gaussian Process which build a nonlinear regression model between the front and the side face with combined kernel function. The face images with horizontal angle from -45° to +45° can be properly corrected to front faces. Finally, Support Vector Machine is employed for face recognition. Experiments on CAS PEAL R1 face database show that Gaussian process can weaken the influence of pose changes and improve the accuracy of face recognition to certain extent.

Beyond the Face of Race: Emo-Cognitive Explorations of White Neurosis and Racial Cray-Cray

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matias, Cheryl E.; DiAngelo, Robin

2013-01-01

In this article, the authors focus on the emotional and cognitive context that underlies whiteness. They employ interdisciplinary approaches of critical Whiteness studies and critical race theory to entertain how common White responses to racial material stem from the need for Whites to deny race, a traumatizing process that begins in childhood.…

Using the Circumplex Model of Affect to Study Valence and Arousal Ratings of Emotional Faces by Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tseng, Angela; Bansal, Ravi; Liu, Jun; Gerber, Andrew J.; Goh, Suzanne; Posner, Jonathan; Colibazzi, Tiziano; Algermissen, Molly; Chiang, I-Chin; Russell, James A.; Peterson, Bradley S.

2014-01-01

The Affective Circumplex Model holds that emotions can be described as linear combinations of two underlying, independent neurophysiological systems (arousal, valence). Given research suggesting individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty processing emotions, we used the circumplex model to compare how individuals with ASD and…