Fast and Famous: Looking for the Fastest Speed at Which a Face Can be Recognized

Abstract

Face recognition is supposed to be fast. However, the actual speed at which faces can be recognized remains unknown. To address this issue, we report two experiments run with speed constraints. In both experiments, famous faces had to be recognized among unknown ones using a large set of stimuli to prevent pre-activation of features which would speed up recognition. In the first experiment (31 participants), recognition of famous faces was investigated using a rapid go/no-go task. In the second experiment, 101 participants performed a highly time constrained recognition task using the Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure. Results indicate that the fastest speed at which a face can be recognized is around 360–390 ms. Such latencies are about 100 ms longer than the latencies recorded in similar tasks in which subjects have to detect faces among other stimuli. We discuss which model of activation of the visual ventral stream could account for such latencies. These latencies are not consistent with a purely feed-forward pass of activity throughout the visual ventral stream. An alternative is that face recognition relies on the core network underlying face processing identified in fMRI studies (OFA, FFA, and pSTS) and reentrant loops to refine face representation. However, the model of activation favored is that of an activation of the whole visual ventral stream up to anterior areas, such as the perirhinal cortex, combined with parallel and feed-back processes. Further studies are needed to assess which of these three models of activation can best account for face recognition.

Prioritized Detection of Personally Familiar Faces

“…In humans, recognition of a familiar individual is associated with the spontaneous retrieval of person knowledge about that individual [40]. Recognizing that a face is familiar, as compared to simply detecting a face, requires approximately an additional 100 ms of processing (according to Barragan-Jason et al’s [41], [42] estimate). We have proposed that recognition of familiar individuals is the result of activation of a distributed neural system that involves not only the visual cortex but also areas that are implicated in nonvisual cognitive functions, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, the precuneus, and the anterior temporal cortex – areas that play roles in Theory of Mind [43], [44] and autobiographical memory, and the amygdala and anterior insula – areas that play a role in emotional responses [26], [29], [35], [37], [40], [45], [46].…”

Superior explicit memory despite severe developmental amnesia: In‐depth case study and neural correlates

“…The speed and accuracy boosting (SAB) procedure was introduced by Besson, Ceccaldi, Didic, and Barbeau (2012) to constrain participants to use their fastest strategy, and has been used in several studies (Barragan-Jason, Besson, Ceccaldi, & Barbeau, 2013;Besson et al, 2015Besson et al, , 2017. Based on a classic go/nogo task, the SAB procedure constrains participants to provide a go response for targets within a given response time following stimulus onset.…”

Face Familiarity Decisions Take 200 msec in the Human Brain: Electrophysiological Evidence from a Go/No-go Speeded Task

“…However, the actual speed with which the human brain categorizes a face as familiar remains largely undetermined. A number of behavioral studies have addressed this question (Barragan-Jason, Besson, Ceccaldi, & Barbeau, 2013;Barragan-Jason, Lachat, & Barbeau, 2012;Bruce, Henderson, Newman, & Burton, 2001;Burton, Bruce, & Hancock, 1999;Tong & Nakayama, 1999;OʼToole, Edelman, & Bülthoff, 1998;Hill, Schyns, & Akamatsu, 1997;Bruce, 1982). However, because behavioral RT measures include the time to initiate and execute the motor response, these studies do not allow for a direct assessment of the speed of face familiarity categorization.…”