The perception of facial attractiveness in prosopagnosia

Sadr, Javid; Duchaine, Brad; Nakayama, Ken

doi:10.1167/4.8.914

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The processing of facial attractiveness in prosopagnosic subjects has recently been investigated in subjects with congenital prosopagnosia (Sadr et al, 2004, Le Grand et al, 2006, with results that have led to mixed conclusions. One group suggested that the processing of facial attractiveness could be dissociated from the processing of facial identity (Sadr et al, 2004), while the other group concluded that impaired face perception negatively affects the development of the "tools" needed for aesthetic judgments during an early critical period (Geldart et al, 1999, Cooper and Maurer, 2002, Le Grand et al, 2006.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One group suggested that the processing of facial attractiveness could be dissociated from the processing of facial identity (Sadr et al, 2004), while the other group concluded that impaired face perception negatively affects the development of the "tools" needed for aesthetic judgments during an early critical period (Geldart et al, 1999, Cooper and Maurer, 2002, Le Grand et al, 2006. While providing data about potential behavioural correlations between identity and aesthetic facial processing, studies of congenital prosopagnosia cannot provide information about the relation between structure and function, since these subjects do not have visible lesions on neuroimaging (the same argument applies to patients in which brain lesions cannot be identified, as in the case of subject 001 in our study).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The contribution of the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus in processing facial attractiveness: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence

et al. 2008

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Current cognitive models suggest that the processing of dynamic facial attributes, including social signals such as gaze direction and facial expression, involves the superior temporal sulcus, whereas the processing of invariant facial structure such as the individuals' identity involves the fusiform face area. Where facial attractiveness, a social signal that may emerge from invariant facial structure, is processed within this dual-route model of face perception is uncertain. Here, we present two studies. First, we investigated the explicit judgments of facial attractiveness and attractiveness-motivated behaviour in patients with acquired prosopagnosia, a deficit in familiar face recognition usually associated with damage to medial occipitotemporal cortex. We found that both abilities were impaired in these patients, with some weak residual ability for attractiveness judgments found only in those patients with unilateral right occipitotemporal or bilateral anterior temporal lesions. Importantly, deficits in attractiveness perception correlated with the severity of the face recognition deficit. Second, we performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in healthy subjects that included an implicit and explicit processing of facial attractiveness. We found increased neural activity when explicitly judging facial attractiveness within a number of cortical regions including the fusiform face area, but not the superior temporal sulcus, indicating a potential contribution of the fusiform face area to this judgment. Thus, converging neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence points to a critical role of the inferior occipitotemporal cortex in the processing of facial attractiveness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus in processing facial attractiveness: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence

et al. 2008

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“…The right hemisphere is also dominant in the perception of facial attractiveness [BURT and PERRETT 1997]. Many patients with prosopagnosia (i.e., an inability to recognize familiar or famous faces) perceive FacA as do healthy people, preferring facial symmetry, geometrical typicality and feminized female faces [SADR et al 2004, LE GRAND et al 2006.…”

Section: Neurophysiological and Behavioral Reactions To Facial Attracmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial attractiveness: Variation, adaptiveness and consequences of facial preferences

Kościński

2008

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Facial attractiveness: Variation, adaptiveness and consequences of facial preferencesThis review embraces the following topics: intra- and inter-populational variation of facial preferences, relationship between facial attractiveness and mate value, biological and social effects of the perception of facial attractiveness, credibility of the adaptive perspective on facial preferences, and the phylogeny of facial attractiveness. Its main conclusions are as follows: (1) Many sources of inter-individual variation in assessments of facial attractiveness have been identified, e.g., the age, sex, biological quality, physiological state, personality, and living situation of the judge, as well as previously observed faces, physical similarity of the focal face to the judge's face, and acquaintance with and knowledge of the face owner. (2) Inter-populational consistency in perception of facial attractiveness is substantial and possesses both a biological and a cultural basis. (3) Facial attractiveness is a reliable cue to biological quality of the face owner, e.g., better parasite resistance, physical fitness, reproductive fitness, longevity, less mutational load, higher intelligence and better mental health. (4) Facially attractive people have more sexual partners, marry at a younger age, and remain single less frequently. Thereby, they have higher reproductive success than unattractive individuals. (5) As a whole, research supports the thesis that facial preferences are adaptive, that is, they evolved during the course of biological evolution because they assisted an individual in choosing a mate with good genes or a good personality.

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Seeing Faces

Perrett¹

2010

In Your Face

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The perception of facial attractiveness in prosopagnosia

Cited by 5 publications

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The contribution of the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus in processing facial attractiveness: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence

The contribution of the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus in processing facial attractiveness: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence

Facial attractiveness: Variation, adaptiveness and consequences of facial preferences

Seeing Faces

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