The neural basis of visual symmetry and its role in mid‐ and high‐level visual processing

Bertamini, Marco; Silvanto, Juha; Norcia, Anthony M.; Makin, Alexis D. J.; Wagemans, Johan

doi:10.1111/nyas.13667

Cited by 70 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 147 publications

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“…Symmetry. One grouping principle for which evidence does exist, is symmetry, a higher-order regularity to which the human visual system is highly sensitive (for reviews, see Bertamini, Silvanto, Norcia, Makin, & Wagemans, 2018;Wagemans, 1997). In the study of Jacobsen and Höfel (2002), symmetry was found to be the most important factor in the aesthetic appreciation of graphic patterns.…”

Section: Simplicity Versus Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Order, complexity, and aesthetic appreciation.

Geert

Wagemans

2020

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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105

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Which stimulus and person characteristics determine aesthetic appreciation? For many centuries, philosophers and scientists have been trying to solve this complex puzzle. Through the ages, order, complexity, and the balance between order and complexity have frequently been considered as an answer to this question. The literature on the topic, however, both theoretically and empirically speaking, is rather diffuse and contradictory. In this review, we give an overview of the main theories and empirical findings relating order, complexity, and their interplay to aesthetic appreciation, focusing on research concerning the visual modality. Additionally, we propose our own view on the interplay between order and complexity, in line with the reviewed theories and findings. Besides general relations, also individual differences in order, complexity, aesthetic appreciation, and their interrelations are discussed. With this review, we hope to conceptually clarify the literature and point to new roads for investigation in the field of human aesthetics.

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Section: Simplicity Versus Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Order, complexity, and aesthetic appreciation.

Geert

Wagemans

2020

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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105

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“…The predictions of the holographic model have been tested empirically and have been shown to accurately relate to behavioural performance (Nucci & Wagemans, 2007) and neural activity (Makin et al, 2016). Makin et al (2016) conducted a large EEG/ERP study to investigate whether the W-metric predicts the amplitude of the symmetry-related component: the sustained posterior negativity (SPN; Bertamini, Silvanto, Norcia, Makin, & Wagemans, 2018;Höfel & Jacobsen, 2007;Jacobsen & Höfel, 2003;Jacobsen, Klein, & Löw, 2018;Makin, Wilton, Pecchinenda, & Bertamini, 2012;Martinovic, Jennings, Makin, Bertamini, & Angelescu, 2018;Wright, Mitchell, Dering, & Gheorghiu, 2018). Briefly, the SPN is a relative component given by the difference in amplitude between ERPs generated by symmetrical (regular) and asymmetrical (irregular) images with same local information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrophysiological responses to regularity show specificity to global form: The case of Glass patterns

Rampone

Makin

2020

Eur J of Neuroscience

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The holographic weight of evidence model (van der Helm & Leeuwenberg, J Math Psychol, 35, 1991, 151; van der Helm & Leeuwenberg, Psychol Rev, 103, 1996, 429) estimates that the perceptual goodness of moiré structures (Glass patterns), irrespective of their global form, is comparable to that of reflection symmetry. However, both behavioural and neuroscience evidences suggest that certain Glass forms (i.e. circular and radial structures) are perceptually more salient than others (i.e. translation structures) and may recruit different perceptual mechanisms. In this study, we tested whether brain responses for circular, radial and translation Glass patterns are comparable to the response for onefold bilateral reflection symmetry. We recorded an event‐related potential (ERP), called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN), which has been shown to index perceptual goodness of a range of regularities. We found that circular and radial Glass patterns generated a comparable SPN amplitude to onefold reflection symmetry (in line with the prediction of the holographic model), starting approx. 180 ms after stimulus onset. Conversely, the SPN response to translation Glass patterns had a longer latency (approx. 400 ms). These results show that Glass patterns are a special case of visual regularity, and perceptual goodness may not be fully explained by the holographic identities that constitute it. Specialised processing mechanisms might exist in the regularity‐sensitive extrastriate areas, which are tuned to global form configurations.

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“…Although this study has focused on face processing, a preference for bilateral symmetry is a more general property of the visual system (Bertamini et al, 2018;Keefe et al, 2018). The bias in neural processing is also evident in perceptual judgements showing that we are adept at discriminating small deviations in bilateral symmetry (Corballis and Beale, 1976;Rhodes et al, 2005) and find bilaterally symmetrical images more esthetically pleasing than nonsymmetric images (Jacobsen et al, 2006;Makin et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Symmetrical Viewpoint Representations in Face-Selective Regions Convey an Advantage in the Perception and Recognition of Faces

et al. 2019

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Learning new identities is crucial for effective social interaction. A critical aspect of this process is the integration of different images from the same face into a view-invariant representation that can be used for recognition. The representation of symmetrical viewpoints has been proposed to be a key computational step in achieving view-invariance. The aim of this study was to determine whether the representation of symmetrical viewpoints in face-selective regions is directly linked to the perception and recognition of face identity. In Experiment 1, we measured fMRI responses while male and female human participants viewed images of real faces from different viewpoints (Ϫ90, Ϫ45, 0, 45, and 90°from full-face view). Within the face regions, patterns of neural response to symmetrical views (Ϫ45 and 45°or Ϫ90 and 90°) were more similar than responses to nonsymmetrical views in the fusiform face area and superior temporal sulcus, but not in the occipital face area. In Experiment 2, participants made perceptual similarity judgements to pairs of face images. Images with symmetrical viewpoints were reported as being more similar than nonsymmetric views. In Experiment 3, we asked whether symmetrical views also convey an advantage when learning new faces. We found that recognition was best when participants were tested with novel face images that were symmetrical to the learning viewpoint. Critically, the pattern of perceptual similarity and recognition across different viewpoints predicted the pattern of neural response in face-selective regions. Together, our results provide support for the functional value of symmetry as an intermediate step in generating view-invariant representations.

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The neural basis of visual symmetry and its role in mid‐ and high‐level visual processing

Cited by 70 publications

References 147 publications

Order, complexity, and aesthetic appreciation.

Order, complexity, and aesthetic appreciation.

Electrophysiological responses to regularity show specificity to global form: The case of Glass patterns

Symmetrical Viewpoint Representations in Face-Selective Regions Convey an Advantage in the Perception and Recognition of Faces

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