David Perrett | University of St Andrews (original) (raw)

Papers by David Perrett

Research paper thumbnail of Eyelid-Openness and Mouth Curvature Influence Perceived Intelligence Beyond Attractiveness

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Prototyping and transforming visemes for animated speech

Proceedings of Computer Animation 2002 (CA 2002), 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Men’s facial masculinity: when (body) size matters

Perception, 2014

Recent studies suggest that judgments of facial masculinity reflect more than sexually dimorphic ... more Recent studies suggest that judgments of facial masculinity reflect more than sexually dimorphic shape. Here, we investigated whether the perception of masculinity is influenced by facial cues to body height and weight. We used the average differences in three-dimensional face shape of forty men and forty women to compute a morphological masculinity score, and derived analogous measures for facial correlates of height and weight based on the average face shape of short and tall, and light and heavy men. We found that facial cues to body height and weight had substantial and independent effects on the perception of masculinity. Our findings suggest that men are perceived as more masculine if they appear taller and heavier, independent of how much their face shape differs from women's. We describe a simple method to quantify how body traits are reflected in the face and to define the physical basis of psychological attributions.

Research paper thumbnail of Visual masking and RSVP reveal neural competition

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of From single cells to social perception

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2011

Research describing the cellular coding of faces in non-human primates often provides the underly... more Research describing the cellular coding of faces in non-human primates often provides the underlying physiological framework for our understanding of face processing in humans. Models of face perception, explanations of perceptual after-effects from viewing particular types of faces, and interpretation of human neuroimaging data rely on monkey neurophysiological data and the assumption that neurophysiological responses of humans are comparable to those recorded in the non-human primate. Here, we review studies that describe cells that preferentially respond to faces, and assess the link between the physiological characteristics of single cells and social perception. Principally, we describe cells recorded from the non-human primate, although a limited number of cells have been recorded in humans, and are included in order to appraise the validity of non-human physiological data for our understanding of human face and social perception.

Research paper thumbnail of Recognition of individual faces and average face prototypes by 1- and 3-month-old infants

Cognitive Development, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Partnership status and the temporal context of relationships influence human female preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape

Research paper thumbnail of Own attractiveness and perceived relationship quality shape sensitivity in women’s memory for other men on the attractiveness dimension

Research paper thumbnail of Skin colour changes during experimentally-induced sickness

Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2017

Skin colour may be an important cue to detect sickness in humans but how skin colour changes with... more Skin colour may be an important cue to detect sickness in humans but how skin colour changes with acute sickness is currently unknown. To determine possible colour changes, 22 healthy Caucasian participants were injected twice, once with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, at a dose of 2ng/kg body weight) and once with placebo (saline), in a randomised cross-over design study. Skin colour across 3 arm and 3 face locations was recorded spectrophotometrically over a period of 8h in terms of lightness (L(∗)), redness (a(∗)) and yellowness (b(∗)) in a manner that is consistent with human colour perception. In addition, carotenoid status was assessed as we predicted that a decrease it skin yellowness would reflect a drop in skin carotenoids. We found an early change in skin colouration 1-3h post LPS injection with facial skin becoming lighter and less red whilst arm skin become darker but also less red and less yellow. The LPS injection also caused a drop in plasma carotenoids from 3h onwards. Howe...

Research paper thumbnail of Subtle Increases in BMI within a Healthy Weight Range Still Reduce Womens Employment Chances in the Service Sector

Research paper thumbnail of Facial affect perception in alcoholics

Psychiatry Research, Dec 15, 2002

Satisfactory interpersonal interaction involves understanding others&... more Satisfactory interpersonal interaction involves understanding others' facial expressions. Alcoholic individuals often have severe interpersonal difficulties that may relate to poor and distorted perception of facial expressions. The importance of attention direction has been highlighted by the finding, in recent primate studies, of neurons responsible for the detection of attention direction. Studies on humans suggest that expression perception is modulated by attention direction (whether the expression is directed towards or away from the observer). Here, for the first time, the relationship between attention direction and perception of expression (anger, sadness, happiness and disgust) in alcoholic and control subjects is investigated. We used animated facial stimuli depicting different emotions to give measures of recognition accuracy and of perceptual sensitivity. Our study demonstrated that alcoholics made more errors than control subjects in recognising expressions generally and had a tendency to mis-label sad expressions directed towards them as being hostile (angry/disgusted). When asked to select the point when they started to see the expression, alcoholics, especially female alcoholics, chose higher expression intensities. This study highlights the importance of investigating the modulating effects of attention direction when studying the perception of expressions and provides an indication of how alcoholics' inappropriate social reactions may be triggered.

Research paper thumbnail of Cortical and subcortical mechanisms at the core of imitation

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 17470910701268059, Feb 22, 2007

Imitation is thought to require a perception-action matching process that utilizes the &a... more Imitation is thought to require a perception-action matching process that utilizes the "mirror neuron" system, but other cognitive functions such as error detection may also be required for even simple imitation. We sought to explore the core neural substrate of imitation by examining the imitation of simple finger actions using fMRI. Participants observed one of two actions and were instructed to imitate the action they observed, or to perform the alternative non-matching action. The contrast between imitation and non-matching actions was associated with activation in areas previously associated with imitation and "mirror neuron" functioning, including insula, intraparietal sulcus, dorsal premotor cortex, and superior temporal gyrus. Imitation was also specifically associated with activity in areas of prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), amygdala, red nucleus, thalamus, hippocampus, and substantia nigra. We suggest that lateral OFC responds to action-perception mismatch and other clusters reflect working memory, motor planning, associative learning, and visuo-motor integration of goal-directed action. Although computational models have predicted integration of these functions to enable imitation, their specific brain bases have not previously been identified. Together they offer a potentially powerful means through which matching one's actions to those of others can lead to behavioral modification and development.

Research paper thumbnail of Fruit over sunbed: Carotenoid skin colouration is found more attractive than melanin colouration

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 17470218 2014 944194, Dec 15, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Bipolar patients show mood-congruent biases in sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion when exhibiting depressed symptoms, but not when exhibiting manic symptoms

Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Dec 1, 2006

A number of studies have reported mood-congruent biases in processing facial expressions of emoti... more A number of studies have reported mood-congruent biases in processing facial expressions of emotion in depression and mania. Most of them have failed to establish that mood reliably affects relevant more than irrelevant expressions, or that the effect is specifically mood-related rather than due to resource or task difficulty artefacts. The aim was to examine, using appropriate statistical methods, whether depressed mood in bipolar patients decreases and manic mood increases sensitivity to facial expressions of happiness and vice versa for facial expressions of negative emotion. Sensitivity to facial expression of six basic emotions in bipolar patients when depressed and when manic was compared to closely matched controls. Mood-related biases in sensitivity to facial expressions of happiness and of negative affect in general operate in persons with bipolar disorder when depressed. There is little evidence of similar biases in persons with bipolar disorder when manic. These data show a mood-congruent bias in sensitivity to facial expressions in bipolar depressed patients.

Research paper thumbnail of Perceptual History Influences Neural Responses to Face and Body Postures

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1162 089892903770007353, Mar 13, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic Performance

Research paper thumbnail of Assessment of health in human faces is context-dependent

Behavioural processes, Jan 8, 2016

When making decisions between options, humans are expected to choose the option that returns the ... more When making decisions between options, humans are expected to choose the option that returns the highest benefit. In practice, however, adding inferior alternatives to the choice set can alter these decisions. Here we investigated whether decisions over the facial features that people find healthy looking can also be affected by the context in which they see those faces. To do this we examined the effect of choice set on the perception of health of images of faces of light-skinned Caucasian females. We manipulated apparent facial health by changing yellowness of the skin: the healthy faces were moderately yellow and the less healthy faces were either much more yellow or much less yellow. In each experiment, two healthy faces were presented along with a third, less healthy face. When the third face was much more yellow, participants chose the more yellow of the two healthy faces more often as the most healthy. However, when the third face was the least yellow, participants chose the ...

Research paper thumbnail of Womens Facial Redness Increases Their Perceived Attractiveness: Mediation Through Perceived Healthiness

Perception, 2016

In the present research, we investigated whether the red-attraction relation that has been observ... more In the present research, we investigated whether the red-attraction relation that has been observed for men viewing women may also be observed with regard to women’s facial redness. We manipulated facial redness by slightly increasing or decreasing the redness on the faces of baseline pictures of target women, and then had men judge the attractiveness of the women. We also examined healthiness perceptions as a mediator of the redness-attraction relation, along with several other candidate mediator variables. A series of experiments showed that increased redness led to increased ratings of attractiveness, and decreased redness led to decreased ratings of attractiveness. Perceived healthiness was documented as a mediator of the influence of female facial redness on male perceptions of attractiveness, and this mediation was independent of other candidate mediator variables. The findings highlight the importance of attending to facial coloration as an attraction-relevant cue and point t...

Research paper thumbnail of Brain mechanisms of perception and memory : from neuron to behavior

Research paper thumbnail of Women’s tuning of preferences for masculinity in 3D faces (SFA) (LMA)

Xxii Biennial International Conference on Human Ethology Belem Brasil, May 29, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Eyelid-Openness and Mouth Curvature Influence Perceived Intelligence Beyond Attractiveness

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Prototyping and transforming visemes for animated speech

Proceedings of Computer Animation 2002 (CA 2002), 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Men’s facial masculinity: when (body) size matters

Perception, 2014

Recent studies suggest that judgments of facial masculinity reflect more than sexually dimorphic ... more Recent studies suggest that judgments of facial masculinity reflect more than sexually dimorphic shape. Here, we investigated whether the perception of masculinity is influenced by facial cues to body height and weight. We used the average differences in three-dimensional face shape of forty men and forty women to compute a morphological masculinity score, and derived analogous measures for facial correlates of height and weight based on the average face shape of short and tall, and light and heavy men. We found that facial cues to body height and weight had substantial and independent effects on the perception of masculinity. Our findings suggest that men are perceived as more masculine if they appear taller and heavier, independent of how much their face shape differs from women's. We describe a simple method to quantify how body traits are reflected in the face and to define the physical basis of psychological attributions.

Research paper thumbnail of Visual masking and RSVP reveal neural competition

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of From single cells to social perception

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2011

Research describing the cellular coding of faces in non-human primates often provides the underly... more Research describing the cellular coding of faces in non-human primates often provides the underlying physiological framework for our understanding of face processing in humans. Models of face perception, explanations of perceptual after-effects from viewing particular types of faces, and interpretation of human neuroimaging data rely on monkey neurophysiological data and the assumption that neurophysiological responses of humans are comparable to those recorded in the non-human primate. Here, we review studies that describe cells that preferentially respond to faces, and assess the link between the physiological characteristics of single cells and social perception. Principally, we describe cells recorded from the non-human primate, although a limited number of cells have been recorded in humans, and are included in order to appraise the validity of non-human physiological data for our understanding of human face and social perception.

Research paper thumbnail of Recognition of individual faces and average face prototypes by 1- and 3-month-old infants

Cognitive Development, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Partnership status and the temporal context of relationships influence human female preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape

Research paper thumbnail of Own attractiveness and perceived relationship quality shape sensitivity in women’s memory for other men on the attractiveness dimension

Research paper thumbnail of Skin colour changes during experimentally-induced sickness

Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2017

Skin colour may be an important cue to detect sickness in humans but how skin colour changes with... more Skin colour may be an important cue to detect sickness in humans but how skin colour changes with acute sickness is currently unknown. To determine possible colour changes, 22 healthy Caucasian participants were injected twice, once with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, at a dose of 2ng/kg body weight) and once with placebo (saline), in a randomised cross-over design study. Skin colour across 3 arm and 3 face locations was recorded spectrophotometrically over a period of 8h in terms of lightness (L(∗)), redness (a(∗)) and yellowness (b(∗)) in a manner that is consistent with human colour perception. In addition, carotenoid status was assessed as we predicted that a decrease it skin yellowness would reflect a drop in skin carotenoids. We found an early change in skin colouration 1-3h post LPS injection with facial skin becoming lighter and less red whilst arm skin become darker but also less red and less yellow. The LPS injection also caused a drop in plasma carotenoids from 3h onwards. Howe...

Research paper thumbnail of Subtle Increases in BMI within a Healthy Weight Range Still Reduce Womens Employment Chances in the Service Sector

Research paper thumbnail of Facial affect perception in alcoholics

Psychiatry Research, Dec 15, 2002

Satisfactory interpersonal interaction involves understanding others&... more Satisfactory interpersonal interaction involves understanding others' facial expressions. Alcoholic individuals often have severe interpersonal difficulties that may relate to poor and distorted perception of facial expressions. The importance of attention direction has been highlighted by the finding, in recent primate studies, of neurons responsible for the detection of attention direction. Studies on humans suggest that expression perception is modulated by attention direction (whether the expression is directed towards or away from the observer). Here, for the first time, the relationship between attention direction and perception of expression (anger, sadness, happiness and disgust) in alcoholic and control subjects is investigated. We used animated facial stimuli depicting different emotions to give measures of recognition accuracy and of perceptual sensitivity. Our study demonstrated that alcoholics made more errors than control subjects in recognising expressions generally and had a tendency to mis-label sad expressions directed towards them as being hostile (angry/disgusted). When asked to select the point when they started to see the expression, alcoholics, especially female alcoholics, chose higher expression intensities. This study highlights the importance of investigating the modulating effects of attention direction when studying the perception of expressions and provides an indication of how alcoholics' inappropriate social reactions may be triggered.

Research paper thumbnail of Cortical and subcortical mechanisms at the core of imitation

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 17470910701268059, Feb 22, 2007

Imitation is thought to require a perception-action matching process that utilizes the &a... more Imitation is thought to require a perception-action matching process that utilizes the "mirror neuron" system, but other cognitive functions such as error detection may also be required for even simple imitation. We sought to explore the core neural substrate of imitation by examining the imitation of simple finger actions using fMRI. Participants observed one of two actions and were instructed to imitate the action they observed, or to perform the alternative non-matching action. The contrast between imitation and non-matching actions was associated with activation in areas previously associated with imitation and "mirror neuron" functioning, including insula, intraparietal sulcus, dorsal premotor cortex, and superior temporal gyrus. Imitation was also specifically associated with activity in areas of prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), amygdala, red nucleus, thalamus, hippocampus, and substantia nigra. We suggest that lateral OFC responds to action-perception mismatch and other clusters reflect working memory, motor planning, associative learning, and visuo-motor integration of goal-directed action. Although computational models have predicted integration of these functions to enable imitation, their specific brain bases have not previously been identified. Together they offer a potentially powerful means through which matching one's actions to those of others can lead to behavioral modification and development.

Research paper thumbnail of Fruit over sunbed: Carotenoid skin colouration is found more attractive than melanin colouration

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 17470218 2014 944194, Dec 15, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Bipolar patients show mood-congruent biases in sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion when exhibiting depressed symptoms, but not when exhibiting manic symptoms

Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Dec 1, 2006

A number of studies have reported mood-congruent biases in processing facial expressions of emoti... more A number of studies have reported mood-congruent biases in processing facial expressions of emotion in depression and mania. Most of them have failed to establish that mood reliably affects relevant more than irrelevant expressions, or that the effect is specifically mood-related rather than due to resource or task difficulty artefacts. The aim was to examine, using appropriate statistical methods, whether depressed mood in bipolar patients decreases and manic mood increases sensitivity to facial expressions of happiness and vice versa for facial expressions of negative emotion. Sensitivity to facial expression of six basic emotions in bipolar patients when depressed and when manic was compared to closely matched controls. Mood-related biases in sensitivity to facial expressions of happiness and of negative affect in general operate in persons with bipolar disorder when depressed. There is little evidence of similar biases in persons with bipolar disorder when manic. These data show a mood-congruent bias in sensitivity to facial expressions in bipolar depressed patients.

Research paper thumbnail of Perceptual History Influences Neural Responses to Face and Body Postures

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1162 089892903770007353, Mar 13, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic Performance

Research paper thumbnail of Assessment of health in human faces is context-dependent

Behavioural processes, Jan 8, 2016

When making decisions between options, humans are expected to choose the option that returns the ... more When making decisions between options, humans are expected to choose the option that returns the highest benefit. In practice, however, adding inferior alternatives to the choice set can alter these decisions. Here we investigated whether decisions over the facial features that people find healthy looking can also be affected by the context in which they see those faces. To do this we examined the effect of choice set on the perception of health of images of faces of light-skinned Caucasian females. We manipulated apparent facial health by changing yellowness of the skin: the healthy faces were moderately yellow and the less healthy faces were either much more yellow or much less yellow. In each experiment, two healthy faces were presented along with a third, less healthy face. When the third face was much more yellow, participants chose the more yellow of the two healthy faces more often as the most healthy. However, when the third face was the least yellow, participants chose the ...

Research paper thumbnail of Womens Facial Redness Increases Their Perceived Attractiveness: Mediation Through Perceived Healthiness

Perception, 2016

In the present research, we investigated whether the red-attraction relation that has been observ... more In the present research, we investigated whether the red-attraction relation that has been observed for men viewing women may also be observed with regard to women’s facial redness. We manipulated facial redness by slightly increasing or decreasing the redness on the faces of baseline pictures of target women, and then had men judge the attractiveness of the women. We also examined healthiness perceptions as a mediator of the redness-attraction relation, along with several other candidate mediator variables. A series of experiments showed that increased redness led to increased ratings of attractiveness, and decreased redness led to decreased ratings of attractiveness. Perceived healthiness was documented as a mediator of the influence of female facial redness on male perceptions of attractiveness, and this mediation was independent of other candidate mediator variables. The findings highlight the importance of attending to facial coloration as an attraction-relevant cue and point t...

Research paper thumbnail of Brain mechanisms of perception and memory : from neuron to behavior

Research paper thumbnail of Women’s tuning of preferences for masculinity in 3D faces (SFA) (LMA)

Xxii Biennial International Conference on Human Ethology Belem Brasil, May 29, 2014