Top down processing of faces in human brain: a behavioral study (original) (raw)
Related papers
Effect of Familiarity on the Processing of Human Faces
NeuroImage, 1999
Most brain imaging studies on face perception have investigated the processing of unknown faces and addressed mainly the question of specific face processing in the human brain. The goal of this study was to highlight the effects of familiarity on the visual processing of faces. Using [ 15 O]water 3D Positron Emission Tomography, regional cerebral blood flow distribution was measured in 11 human subjects performing an identical task (gender categorization) on both unknown and known faces. Subjects also performed two control tasks (a face recognition task and a visual pattern discrimination task). They were scanned after a training phase using videotapes during which they had been familiarized with and learned to recognize a set of faces. Two major results were obtained. On the one hand, we found bilateral activations of the fusiform gyri in the three face conditions, including the so-called fusiform-face area, a region in the right fusiform gyrus specifically devoted to face processing. This common activation suggests that different cognitive tasks performed on known and unknown faces require the involvement of this fusiform region. On the other hand, specific regional cerebral blood flow changes were related to the processing of known and unknown faces. The left amygdala, a structure involved in implicit learning of visual representations, was activated by the categorization task on unknown faces. The same task on known faces induced a relative decrease of activity in early visual areas. These differences between the two categorization tasks reveal that the human brain processes known and unknown faces differently. 1999 Academic Press
Facial Memory: The Role of the Pre-Existing Knowledge in Face Processing and Recognition
Faces are visual stimuli full of information. Depending upon the familiarity with a face, the information we can extract will differ, so the more familiarity with a face, the more information that can be extracted from it. The present article reviews the role that pre-existing knowledge of a face has in its processing. Here, we focus on behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence. The influence of familiarity in early stages (attention, perception and working memory) and in later stages (pre-semantic and semantic knowledge) of the processing are discussed. The differences in brain anatomy for familiar and unfamiliar faces are also considered. As it will be shown, experimental data seems to support that familiarity can affect even the earliest stages of the recognition.
Individual Differences in Face Cognition: Brain–Behavior Relationships
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2010
■ Individual differences in perceiving, learning, and recognizing faces, summarized under the term face cognition, have been shown on the behavioral and brain level, but connections between these levels have rarely been made. We used ERPs in structural equation models to determine the contributions of neurocognitive processes to individual differences in the accuracy and speed of face cognition as established by Wilhelm, Herzmann, Kunina, Danthiir, Schacht, and Sommer [Individual differences in face cognition, in press]. For 85 participants, we measured several ERP components and, in independent tasks and sessions, assessed face cognition abilities and other cognitive abilities, including immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. Individual differences in face cognition were unrelated to domain-general visual processes (P100) and to processes involved with memory encoding (Dm component). The ability of face cognition accuracy was moderately related to neurocognitive indicators of structural face encoding (latency of the N170) and of activating representations of both faces and person-related knowledge (latencies and amplitudes of the early and late repetition effects, ERE/N250 and LRE/N400, respectively). The ability of face cognition speed was moderately related to the amplitudes of the ERE and LRE. Thus, a substantial part of individual differences in face cognition is explained by the speed and efficiency of activating memory representations of faces and person-related knowledge. These relationships are not moderated by individual differences in established cognitive abilities. ■
Recognition of briefly presented familiar and unfamiliar faces
Psihologija, 2009
Early processing stages in the perception of familiar and unfamiliar faces were studied in four experiments by varying the type of available facial information in a four alternative forced choice recognition task. Both reaction time and recognition accuracy served as dependent measures. The observed data revealed an asymmetry in processing familiar and unfamiliar faces. A markedly weak inversion effect and strong blurring effect suggest a limited usage of spatial relations within early processing stages of unfamiliar faces. Recognition performance for whole familiar faces did not deteriorate due to blurring or the presentation of isolated internal features, suggesting a low level of representation for featural properties of familiar faces. Based on the data we propose that recognition of familiar faces relies much more on spatial relations among features, particularly internal features, than on featural characteristics. In contrast, recognition of unfamiliar faces resorts mainly to featural information.
On the organization of face memory
International Congress Series, 2003
When two 3D objects are sequentially presented, the time to judge whether they are identical is proportional to the angle between the objects implying that humans might rotate mental images of objects for identification. Similar effects were also reported for faces. In the present study we investigated the effects of familiarity of faces on reaction times in two cognitive tasks. (1) Delayed matching-to-sample task based on face identification (I-DMS task): a sample was followed by a test (match or nonmatch) after a delay. The stimuli were pictures of people's faces that were either unfamiliar or familiar to the subject. The subjects were required to identify the same person instructed in the sample; match consisted of seven images of the person viewed from seven different angles. We found that reaction times were proportional to the angle between sample and match in the I-DMS task for both unfamiliar and familiar faces, although reaction times were longer for unfamiliar faces. (2) Pair association task based on face identification (I-PA task): subjects learned four paired associates in advance of test (pre-learning): the pair consisted of a neutral geometric pattern and a human face viewed from À 45j or + 45j (obligue views). In the test, a stimuli pair was sequentially presented and the subject was required to judge whether the pair was correct or not. The correct pair consisted of the pattern and faces of the person who was associated with the pattern in the prelearning, which could be one of six images of the person viewed from six different angles. In the I-PA task we found that reaction times were influenced by the pre-learning for both unfamiliar and familiar faces. For unfamiliar faces but not for familiar faces, pre-learning shortened reaction time for the view opposite to the view that was encoded in the pre-learning. Taken together, these results indicated that representations were different between unfamiliar and familiar faces. As faces become familiar from unfamiliar, transition of representations might take place.
The neural processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces: A review and synopsis
British Journal of Psychology, 2011
Familiar faces are represented with rich visual, semantic, and emotional codes that support nearly effortless perception and recognition of these faces. Unfamiliar faces pose a greater challenge to human perception and memory systems. The established behavioural disparities for familiar and unfamiliar faces undoubtedly stem from differences in the quality and nature of their underlying neural representations. In this review, our goal is to characterize what is known about the neural pathways that respond to familiar and unfamiliar faces using data from functional neuroimaging studies. We divide our presentation by type of familiarity (famous, personal, and visual familiarity) to consider the distinct neural underpinnings of each. We conclude with a description of a recent model of person information proposed by Gobbini and Haxby and a list of open questions and promising directions for future research.
Face encoding and recognition in the human brain
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1996
A dissociation between human neural systems that participate in the encoding and later recognition of new memories for faces was demonstrated by measuring memory task-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography. There was almost no overlap between the brain structures associated with these memory functions. A region in the right hippocampus and adjacent cortex was activated during memory encoding but not during recognition. The most striking finding in neocortex was the lateralization of prefrontal participation. Encoding activated left prefrontal cortex, whereas recognition activated right prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that the hippocampus and adjacent cortex participate in memory function primarily at the time of new memory encoding. Moreover, face recognition is not mediated simply by recapitulation of operations performed at the time of encoding but, rather, involves anatomically dissociable operations.
Consciousness and cognition, 2001
A common view in face recognition research holds that there is a stored representation specific to each known face. It is also posited that semantic or memory-based information cannot influence low-level face processing. The two experiments reported in this article investigate the nature of this representation and the flow of face information processing. Participants had to search for a particular primed face among other faces. In Experiment 1, the search was done in a context where distractors had either a different degree of fame or the same degree of fame. In Experiment 2, the target face was primed either with semantic information or without any information. Both experiments demonstrated that increasing the display set size lengthened face detection time. However, the lengthening was a function of face fame. The search context also had an effect on the slope of the famous face detection. The results are explained in terms of the idea that face representations are reconstructed and that high-and low-level information are integrated into the processing. The integration process is not a conscious one.
Neurocognitive mechanisms of individual differences in face cognition: A replication and extension
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2013
Face cognition performance is related to individual differences in cognitive subprocesses, as reflected in the amplitudes and latencies of event-related brain potentials (ERPs; Herzmann, Kunina, Sommer, & Wilhelm, 2010). In order to replicate and extend these findings, 110 participants were tested on a comprehensive task battery measuring face cognition abilities and established cognitive abilities, followed by ERP recordings in a face-learning-and-recognition task. We replicated the links of the ERP components indicating the speed of structural face encoding (N170 latency) and access to structural representations in memory (early repetition effect [ERE]/ N250r) with the accuracy and speed of face cognition and with established cognitive abilities. As a novel result, we differentiated between the accuracy of face perception and face memory on the behavioral and electrophysiological levels and report a relationship between basic visual processes (P100 amplitude) and face memory. Moreover, the brain-behavior relationships for the ERE/N250r held true, even though we eliminated pictorial and perceptual structural codes from the priming effects by using backward masking of the primes with novel unfamiliar faces. On a methodological level, we demonstrated the utility of the latent difference score modeling technique to parameterize ERP difference components (e.g., ERE/N250r) on a latent level and link them to face cognition abilities.