Discriminating Grotesque from Typical Faces: Evidence from the Thatcher Illusion

Abstract

The discrimination of thatcherized faces from typical faces was explored in two simultaneous alternative forced choice tasks. Reaction times (RTs) and errors were measured in a behavioural task. Brain activation was measured in an equivalent fMRI task. In both tasks, participants were tested with upright and inverted faces. Participants were also tested on churches in the behavioural task. The behavioural task confirmed the face specificity of the illusion (by comparing inversion effects for faces against churches) but also demonstrated that the discrimination was primarily, although not exclusively, driven by attending to eyes. The fMRI task showed that, relative to inverted faces, upright grotesque faces are discriminated via activation of a network of emotion/social evaluation processing areas. On the other hand, discrimination of inverted thatcherized faces was associated with increased activation of brain areas that are typically involved in perceptual processing of faces.

It’s All in the Eyes: Subcortical and Cortical Activation during Grotesqueness Perception in Autism

“…Furthermore, we have recently shown that the efficacy of the illusion relies on a network of areas involved in social and emotional processing and which are engaged in mentalizing, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC)/orbitofrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate/precuneus. Discrimination between a typical face and a thatcherized face led to increased activation in the face-processing network when the faces were presented inverted [21]. Studies investigating face processing in normal inverted faces have yielded discrepant results.…”

“…Our previous work in a neurotypical population demonstrated the pre-eminent role of the eyes in generating the TI [21]. When looking at faces, adults with neurotypical development have a natural tendency to attend more to the eye region [25], and this is not the case in individuals with ASD [2], [3], [4].…”

“…[4], [11], [28]). Given that the eyes have been demonstrated to play a primary role in driving the TI [21], we hypothesized that cueing to the eyes would increase the sensitivity to the TI and therefore lead to heightened discrimination accuracy as well as to increased activation in cortical areas involved in social and emotional processing in participants with ASD.…”

Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

“…These earlier studies have been numerous and the relevance to people relationships highlighted (e.g., Donnelly et al, 2011;Mestry et al, 2011Utz & Carbon, 2016). However, a study of the relationships among visual processing features, age and familiarity in the one project, could, we hoped, add new information and understanding of how the decline occurs and could lead to new procedures that help reduce the decline and its effects.…”

“…These earlier researchers, beginning with Thompson (1980), used normal and "Thatcherised" images (faces with distorted elements) mostly images of celebrity faces (e.g., Julia Roberts's face), but none had combined both in the one study to our knowledge (see also Utz & Carbon, 2016). The faces are usually presented inverted or upright in conjunction with feature distortions (e.g., Bartlett & Searcy, 1993;Carbon & Leder, 2005;Donnelly, Cornes, & Menneer, 2012;Donnelly et al, 2011;Milivojevic, Clapp, Johnson, & Croballis, 2003;Rakover, 1999;Tanaka, Kaiser, Hagen, & Pearce, 2014;Valentine, 1988;Xu & Tanaka, 2013).…”