Collaborative Research: Eye movements and retinotopic face encoding in children, adults, and developmental prosopagnosia

人脸识别是社交活动的核心，而人脸识别障碍的人来自于影响他们个人和职业生活的Diffffi邪教。先前的研究表明，fl的人脸识别能力强烈地受到人们看脸的位置的影响，而且对于给定的人来说，这往往是一致的。例如，一些人总是看眼睛之间，而另一些人看起来接近鼻尖或嘴巴。研究还表明，当每个人看着他们通常fixate的位置附近时，他们识别面孔的效果最好。这些习惯表明，每个人的面部处理和眼动系统都是相互塑造或调整的，以优化识别能力。然而，关于这些因素如何影响人脸识别能力的差异，它们在成年人中是如何变化的，以及它们在儿童中是如何发展的，人们知之甚少。该项目将解决这些基本问题，并可能被证明对治疗面部识别缺陷的患者很重要。该项目将由三个部分组成：在该项目的fiRst部分，研究人员将检查18岁至50岁的成年人通常看哪里的脸，以及他们的“甜蜜点”在哪里(注视和加工之间的最佳匹配)。初步结果表明，随着年龄的增长，成年人的脸部倾向于看起来更低，这表明即使在成年后，我们面部系统的调整也会发生变化。这项研究将通过比较不同年龄段的人来检验这是否适用于更大的样本，并将通过测量相同的参与者一次又一次来探索个体凝视变化的动态。在第二部分中，研究人员将检查患有发育性面孔失认症(DP)的人在哪里看脸，以及他们看的地方是否与他们的甜蜜点很匹配。DP是一种以严重的面部识别障碍为特征的疾病。在第三部分中，研究人员将确定孩子们看脸的位置，以及他们对脸的适应随着年龄的增长会发生什么变化。预计孩子们看的方向不会改变，但他们的面部调整会随着年龄的增长而变得更加尖锐。这些可能性将通过比较不同年龄的儿童和通过对相同儿童的纵向测试来测试。该奖项反映了ff的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Face recognition is central for social interaction, and people with face recognition impairments suffer from difficulties that impact their personal and professional lives. Previous research has indicated that face recognition ability is strongly influenced by where on the face people look, and that this tends to be consistent for a given person. For example, some people always look between the eyes, while others look close to the tip of the nose or the mouth. It has also been shown that each person recognizes faces best when they look near the location they normally fixate. These habits suggest that each person's face processing and eye movement systems have been mutually shaped, or tuned, to optimize recognition ability. However, little is known about how these factors contribute to differences in face recognition ability, how they change in adults, and how they develop in children. This project will address these fundamental questions, and could prove important in treating patients with deficits in face recognition. The project will consist of three components: In the project’s first component, the investigators will examine where adults between the ages of 18 and 50 usually look on faces and where their “sweet spot” (optimal match between fixation and processing) lies. Preliminary results indicate that adults tend to look lower on faces as they age, indicating that the tuning of our face system changes even in adulthood. This study will examine whether this holds for a larger sample by comparing across ages and will explore the dynamics of gaze changes for individuals by measuring the same participants once and then again three years later. In the second component, the investigators will examine where people with developmental prosopagnosia (DP), a condition characterized by severe face recognition impairments, look on faces and whether they show a good match between where they look and their sweet spot. In the third component, the investigators will determine where children look on the face and how their tuning to faces changes as they age. It is expected that where children look will not change but that their face tuning will become sharper as they age. These possibilities will be tested by comparing children across different ages and through longitudinal testing of the same children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.