Even subtle cultural differences affect face tuning

Abstract

Culture shapes social cognition in many ways. Yet cultural impact on face tuning remains largely unclear. Here typically developing females and males from the French-speaking part of Switzerland were presented with a set of Arcimboldo-like Face-n-Food images composed of food ingredients and in different degree resembling a face. The outcome had been compared with previous findings obtained in young adults of the South-West Germany. In that study, males exhibit higher thresholds for face tuning on the Face-n-Food task than females. In Swiss participants, no gender differences exist in face tuning. Strikingly, males from the French-speaking part of Switzerland possess higher sensitivity to faces than their German peers, whereas no difference in face tuning occurs between females. The outcome indicates that even relatively subtle cultural differences as well as culture by gender interaction can modulate social cognition. Clarification of the nature of cultural impact on face tuning as well as social cognition at large is of substantial value for understanding a wide range of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Social Cognition in Down Syndrome: Face Tuning in Face-Like Non-Face Images

“…As in earlier studies with TD individuals and participants with neurodevelopmental disorders such as WS or ASD (Pavlova et al, 2015, 2016a,b, 2017b, 2018), children with DS either described a food-plate image in terms of food composition (non-face response, 0) or as a face (face response, 1). When an image had been seen as a face, DS individuals (similar to TD individuals) often exhibited emotional reaction such as smiling and astonishment.…”

“…By implementing the recently created Face-n-Food task consisting of a set of food-plate images that comprised food ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, and sausages (Pavlova et al, 2015, 2016a,b, 2017b, 2018), we examined face tuning in children with DS. The key benefit of Face-n-Food images is that their single components do not explicitly trigger face processing.…”

“…The Face-n-Food task was administered to participants. This task is described in detail elsewhere (Pavlova et al, 2015, 2016a,b, 2017b, 2018). For this task, a set of ten images was created that were composed of food ingredients (fruits, vegetables, sausages, etc.…”

“…It remains unclear whether individuals with DS experience shortage in face tuning. Recently, a new experimental tool had been proposed for studying face tuning (Pavlova et al, 2015, 2016a,b, 2017b, 2018): a set of food-plate images composed of food ingredients (fruits, vegetables, sausages; see Figures 1, 2) was created in a manner slightly bordering on the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593), an Italian painter best known for fascinating (very often grotesque and allegoric) imaginative portraits composed entirely of fruits, vegetables, plants, and flowers. The primary advantage of Face-n-Food images is that single components (food ingredients) do not explicitly trigger face processing.…”

Do you see the “face”? Individual differences in face pareidolia

“…The results showed that adult women not only more readily report seeing a face (while men still see it as food composition), but also give more overall face responses, indicating the superiority of female brains in terms of face tuning. A later study reported that such gender specificity is subject to cultural modulation (Pavlova, Heiz, Sokolov, Fallgatter, & Barisnikov, 2018). Proverbio and Galli (2016) explored the neural underpinnings of the sex difference using event-related potential (ERP) technique.…”