A comparative view of face perception.

Abstract

Face perception serves as the basis for much of human social exchange. Diverse information can be extracted about an individual from a single glance at their face, including their identity, emotional state, and direction of attention. Neuropsychological and fMRI experiments reveal a complex network of specialized areas in the human brain supporting these face-reading skills. Here we consider the evolutionary roots of human face perception by exploring the manner in which different animal species view and respond to faces. We focus on behavioral experiments collected from both primates and non-primates, assessing the types of information that animals are able to extract from the faces of their conspecifics, human experimenters, and natural predators. These experiments reveal that faces are an important category of visual stimuli for animals in all major vertebrate taxa, possibly reflecting the early emergence of neural specialization for faces in vertebrate evolution. At the same time, some aspects of facial perception are only evident in primates and a few other social mammals, and may therefore have evolved to suit the needs of complex social communication. Since the human brain likely utilizes both primitive and recently evolved neural specializations for the processing of faces, comparative studies may hold the key to understanding how these parallel circuits emerged during human evolution.

Oxytocin blunts social vigilance in the rhesus macaque

“…First, OT may make gaze more determined by perceptual features of the stimulus and less responsive to the goals of the animal. The eye region is a high contrast area (28) and contrast is an image feature which normally attracts gaze during image viewing (29). OT may increase the impact of this stimulus feature on gaze (30), perhaps through down-regulating goal-directed social attention and species-typical social vigilance.…”

“…However, the gaze effects reported here and the decision making effects reported previously in this species (4) are strikingly similar to previously reported findings in humans. Like humans, the rhesus macaque is a group-living primate that uses visual displays to communicate and guide social behavior (28).…”

Objective Monitoring of mTOR Inhibitor Therapy by Three-Dimensional Facial Analysis

“…Craniofacial anomalies are a diverse set of congenital and acquired conditions with a significant individual and societal burden; they are associated with a high incidence of speech, hearing, oral function, appearance, and social morbidity (Leopold & Rhodes, 2010;Mosey, 2004). The treatment of CFA, preferably monitored in a non-invasive manner, can ameliorate this morbidity.…”

Bodily self-consciousness, and the primacy of self related signals such as the 1stperson perspective and self-location

“…Second, social complexity is a critical factor in shaping species intelligence and encephalization (Humphrey, 1976;Shultz & Dunbar, 2010). Third, behavioral and ethological testing has shown that socially oriented species across a range of taxa are capable of monitoring and interpreting the behaviors of their conspecifics (Byrne & Bates, 2010;Leopold & Rhodes, 2010). Thus there is good reason to believe that high-level social perception is common in the animal world, that its level of expression varies widely among species, and that it has coevolved with measurable changes in the brain.…”