Perceptual face processing in developmental prosopagnosia is not sensitive to the canonical location of face parts

Towler, John; Parketny, Joanna; Eimer, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.10.018

Cited by 20 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Analogous to previous observations that N170 amplitudes are unaffected by face inversion and face scrambling in DP (Towler et al, , 2016, such a reduced sensitivity to contrast inversion should be reflected by an atypical pattern of N170 responses to contrastinverted as compared to contrast-normal face images in participants with DP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Alternatively, such N170 amplitude enhancements may also reflect the additional recruitment of neuronal populations that are involved in the processing of non-face objects (Rosburg et al, 2010;Rossion et al, 2000; see also Sadeh & Yovel, 2010, for further discussion). In contrast to control participants, DPs do not show enhanced N170 amplitudes to inverted or scrambled faces relative to standard upright faces (Towler et al, , 2016. The absence of these typical N170 amplitude modulations to face inversion and the scrambling of facial features suggests that perceptual face processing mechanisms in DP are less precisely tuned to the canonical upright orientation of faces and the prototypical spatial configuration of face parts in upright faces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…However, the presence of face-sensitive N170 components in DP does not necessarily imply that perceptual face processing mechanisms operate in exactly the same way in DPs and in control participants with unimpaired face recognition abilities. Two studies from our lab have demonstrated that DPs show atypical patterns of N170 responses when the prototypical upright configuration of face images is altered by stimulus inversion or by spatially scrambling the locations of internal facial features (Towler, Parketny, & Eimer, 2016). In participants with intact face recognition, presenting faces upside-down or scrambling face parts results in delayed and enhanced N170 components relative to intact upright face images (e.g., Bentin et al, 1996;Eimer, 2000a;Rossion et al, 1999;Zion-Golumbic, & Bentin, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The same N170 results should be observed in the present study for control participants, and the critical new question was whether DPs would show a qualitatively different pattern of N170 modulations to contrast-inverted faces. If face perception in DP was generally less well tuned to canonical face templates (e.g., Towler et al, , 2016, and also to the typical face contrast that is represented in such templates, face processing in DP may be overall less sensitive to contrast inversion relative to the control group. In this case, inversion-induced N170 modulations should be smaller or perhaps entirely absent in the DP group, regardless of whether the eye region, the rest of the face, or the whole face is contrast-inverted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reduced sensitivity to contrast signals from the eye region in developmental prosopagnosia

Fisher

Towler

Eimer

2016

Cortex

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Contrast-related signals from the eye region are known to be important for the processing of facial identity. Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have severe face recognition problems, which may be linked to deficits in the perceptual processing of identity-related information from the eyes. We tested this hypothesis by measuring N170 components in DP participants and age-matched controls in response to face images where the contrast polarity of the eyes and of other face parts was independently manipulated. In different trials, participants fixated either the eye region or the lower part of a face. In the Control group, contrast-reversal of the eyes resulted in enhanced and delayed N170 components, irrespective of the contrast of other face parts and of gaze location. In the DP group, these effects of eye contrast on N170 amplitudes were strongly and significantly reduced, demonstrating that perceptual face processing in DP is less well tuned to contrast information from the eye region. Inverting the contrast of other parts of the face affected N170 amplitudes only when fixation was outside the eye region. This effect did not differ between the two groups, indicating that DPs are not generally insensitive to the contrast polarity of face images. These results provide new evidence that a selective deficit in detecting and analysing identity-related information provided by contrast signals from the eye region may contribute to the face recognition impairment in DP.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Reduced sensitivity to contrast signals from the eye region in developmental prosopagnosia

Fisher

Towler

Eimer

2016

Cortex

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“…Most individuals with DP show normal N170 components to faces versus non-face objects (Towler, Gosling, Duchaine, & Eimer, 2012), suggesting that the ability to perceptually discriminate between faces and non-faces is largely intact. However, changes to the prototypical spatial configuration and contrast properties of face images (such as presenting face images upside-down, spatially scrambling internal facial features, or contrast-inverting the eye region) produce atypical N170 amplitude modulations in individuals with DP Towler, Parketny, & Eimer, 2016;Fisher, Towler, & Eimer, 2016b). This suggests that perceptual face processing mechanisms in DP may be less well tuned to the spatial configuration and contrast properties that are the defining features of a typical upright face, and are therefore less sensitive to deviations from a prototypical visual face template.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face identity matching is selectively impaired in developmental prosopagnosia

Fisher

Towler

Eimer

2017

Cortex

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Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have severe face recognition deficits, but the mechanisms that are responsible for these deficits have not yet been fully identified. We assessed whether the activation of visual working memory for individual faces is selectively impaired in DP. Twelve DPs and twelve age-matched control participants were tested in a task where they reported whether successively presented faces showed the same or two different individuals, and another task where they judged whether the faces showed the same or different facial expressions. Repetitions versus changes of the other currently irrelevant attribute were varied independently. DPs showed impaired performance in the identity task, but performed at the same level as controls in the expression task. An electrophysiological marker for the activation of visual face memory by identity matches (N250r component) was strongly attenuated in the DP group, and the size of this attenuation was correlated with poor performance in a standardized face recognition test. Results demonstrate an identity-specific deficit of visual face memory in DPs. Their reduced sensitivity to identity matches in the presence of other image changes could result from earlier deficits in the perceptual extraction of image-invariant visual identity cues from face images.

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Anomalous visual experience is linked to perceptual uncertainty and visual imagery vividness

Salge

Pollmann

Reeder

2020

Psychological Research

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An imbalance between top-down and bottom-up processing on perception (specifically, over-reliance on top-down processing) can lead to anomalous perception, such as illusions. One factor that may be involved in anomalous perception is visual mental imagery, which is the experience of "seeing" with the mind's eye. There are vast individual differences in self-reported imagery vividness, and more vivid imagery is linked to a more sensory-like experience. We, therefore, hypothesized that susceptibility to anomalous perception is linked to individual imagery vividness. To investigate this, we adopted a paradigm that is known to elicit the perception of faces in pure visual noise (pareidolia). In four experiments, we explored how imagery vividness contributes to this experience under different response instructions and environments. We found strong evidence that people with more vivid imagery were more likely to see faces in the noise, although removing suggestive instructions weakened this relationship. Analyses from the first two experiments led us to explore confidence as another factor in pareidolia proneness. We, therefore, modulated environment noise and added a confidence rating in a novel design. We found strong evidence that pareidolia proneness is correlated with uncertainty about real percepts. Decreasing perceptual ambiguity abolished the relationship between pareidolia proneness and both imagery vividness and confidence. The results cannot be explained by incidental face-like patterns in the noise, individual variations in response bias, perceptual sensitivity, subjective perceptual thresholds, viewing distance, testing environments, motivation, gender, or prosopagnosia. This indicates a critical role of mental imagery vividness and perceptual uncertainty in anomalous perceptual experience.

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Perceptual face processing in developmental prosopagnosia is not sensitive to the canonical location of face parts

Cited by 20 publications

References 94 publications

Reduced sensitivity to contrast signals from the eye region in developmental prosopagnosia

Reduced sensitivity to contrast signals from the eye region in developmental prosopagnosia

Face identity matching is selectively impaired in developmental prosopagnosia

Anomalous visual experience is linked to perceptual uncertainty and visual imagery vividness

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