Fractionating Facial Memory Processes

人类在快速识别面部身份、提取面部情绪表情和记忆个体面相方面非常精通。这些技能对于有效的人际交往至关重要。这个重要的认知专业领域位于记忆和感知的交叉点。然而，当我们看到熟悉的图像时，许多记忆过程同时发生，这一事实严重限制了它们的研究。记忆研究的下一个进步阶段需要解开影响记忆性能的过多过程的纠缠。本研究项目强调从认知神经科学的角度来研究这一问题，将面部记忆的研究作为阐明知觉经验和一般记忆的关键。脑电图测量的精细时间精度与复杂的记忆行为测量相结合，使多个记忆过程和相应的神经生理信号能够独立表征。所研究的具体记忆现象包括：(1)记住一个人的面孔以及此人的传记信息和相关的个人经历；(2)在没有任何额外记忆检索的情况下，识别熟悉的面孔；(3)由于先前对同一张脸的视觉经验和在没有有意识记忆的情况下，促进了面部图像的加工（“启动”）；(4)基于概念性而非感性知识的相似无意识记忆；(5)情绪性面部表情的无意识影响。当这5种现象相互分离时获得的行为和电生理结果将有助于通过对这些认知差异的神经验证来强化这些复杂记忆现象的理论概念。在这项研究中，独立的神经信号被表征，目的是显示当人们看到一张脸时，这些过程是如何及时展开的。这些措施为进一步研究各种记忆现象的基本特征打开了大门，包括更普遍的有意识和无意识记忆。记忆的电信号一旦被识别，就可以用来确定哪些记忆功能在不同的情况下是有效的，以及不同的组成部分是如何相互作用的。富有成效的跨学科扩展包括对老年人和在相关存储和检索过程中表现出认知障碍的患者群体的这些记忆现象的研究。脑电图分析将用于产生关于神经过程和结构的更详细的假设，然后可以使用其他神经成像方法进行测试，包括关于准确和不准确的记忆。对面部记忆的全面科学理解将产生广泛的影响。通过对面部记忆的多个方面进行分类，研究结果将提供对各种记忆对行为影响的概念的见解，包括但不限于课堂上、法庭上、各种认知技能的获得以及日常人际交往中的学习和记忆。该项目将向公众宣传研究成果，将代表性不足的群体纳入科学研究，培养博士后、研究生和本科生，并为治疗与疾病相关的记忆障碍和衰老过程中的正常记忆衰退提供启示。更好地利用目击者证词、计算机化的面部识别以及人们的一般记忆，将来自于对研究中所考察和描述的面部记忆的多个方面的更好理解。

Humans are amazingly proficient at rapidly perceiving facial identity, extracting facial expressions of emotion, and remembering individual physiognomies. These skills are critical for effective human interaction. This vital realm of cognitive expertise is situated at the intersection of memory and perception. However, the fact that many memory processes occur concurrently when we see a familiar image places serious constraints on their investigation. The next stage of advancement in memory research requires disentangling the plethora of processes that in combination influence memory performance. A cognitive neuroscience perspective on this problem is emphasized in this research project, which takes the investigation of facial memory as key for elucidating perceptual expertise and memory in general. The exquisite temporal precision of EEG measures is combined with sophisticated behavioral measures of memory to allow multiple memory processes and corresponding neurophysiological signals to be characterized independently. The specific memory phenomena under investigation include: (1) Remembering a person's face together with biographical information about that person and relevant personal experiences; (2) Recognizing a face as familiar in the absence of any additional memory retrieval; (3) Facilitated processing of a facial image ("priming") due to prior visual experience with the same face and in the absence of conscious remembering; (4) Similar unconscious memory based on conceptual rather than perceptual knowledge; and (5) Unconscious influences due to emotional facial expressions. Behavioral and electrophysiological results obtained as these 5 phenomena are dissociated from each other will help to sharpen theoretical conceptions of these complex memory phenomena by providing neural validation of these cognitive distinctions. Independent neural signals being characterized in this research are intended to show how these processes unfold in time when a face is viewed. These measures are opening the door for further inquiry into the fundamental characteristics of various memory phenomena, including conscious and nonconscious memory more generally. Electrical signals of memory, once identified, can then be used to determine which memory functions are operative in different situations, and how the various components operate interactively. Fruitful cross-disciplinary extensions include investigations of these memory phenomena in elderly and patient populations who show cognitive impairments in a subset of relevant storage and retrieval processes. EEG analyses will be used to generate more detailed hypotheses about neural processes and structures, which can then be tested using other neuroimaging methods, both with respect to accurate and inaccurate memory.A comprehensive scientific understanding of facial memory will have wide-ranging impact. By fractionating multiple aspects of facial memory, the research findings will provide insights into conceptions of various memorial influences on behavior, including but not limited to learning and memory in the classroom, in a court of law, in the acquisition of various cognitive skills, and in everyday interpersonal interactions. This project will publicize research to the general public, bring underrepresented groups into scientific research, train post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students, and develop implications for treating disease-related memory disorders and normal memory decline in aging. Better use of eyewitness testimony, of computerized facial identification, and of memory for people generally, will come from improved comprehension of the multiple facets of facial memory examined and characterized in the research.