Attentional Processing in Face Perception

说明(申请人提供)：脸部歧视是人类感知专长的突出例子，因为它要求在具有类似全球组织的高度同质的刺激类别中，在个人样本层面上进行歧视。然而，识别面孔的能力似乎毫不费力，而且通常非常有效。为了达到这种效率水平，当外貌特征表明视野中存在一张脸时，就会触发特殊调整的感知过程。这些过程包括分析面部特征(例如眼睛的形状、鼻子的弧形等)。以及计算特征本身之间的精确空间度量以及它们与人脸外轮廓的空间关系。结合文献中报道的结果和我们上一个资助期的结果，我们提出，在缺乏快速有效的视觉刺激作为人脸的基本分类的情况下，允许在单个人脸之间进行区分的额外计算要么不会引起，要么是由人脸相对于物体不成比例地引起的。这种状态的后果是面部识别受损或效率低下，在极端情况下，还会出现“面部失明”，这在一些从未学会识别面部的人身上可以观察到(通常被称为先天性面孔失认症或CP)。本实验的一个目的是进一步探索面孔识别能力正常的参与者在面孔加工中的个体差异，以及CP和其他面孔缺陷人群中的面孔识别缺陷。我们还建议对因中风而右脑受损的患者进行脸部知觉研究，这些患者在整体组织受损的情况下，局部处理相对较少。我们将继续收集脑电和行为学数据，以研究成功面孔感知背后的知觉和神经机制。提出的研究有望增加我们对人类非凡的人脸识别能力的理解。重要的是，研究结果也将有助于开发有助于提高这一社会重要技能的培训计划(参见本提案初步研究部分描述的我们自己的研究的一个例子)。与公共健康相关的面孔失认症是一种知觉状态，在这种情况下，一张脸可以被识别为一张脸，但不能与其他脸区分开来，尽管视觉、认知和其他知觉能力完好无损。它可能是人脑某些区域受损(后天性失认症)或发育缺陷(先天性失认症)的结果。鉴于人脸识别技能在正常社会话语中的重要性，了解与这种能力相关的认知和神经机制将有助于更好地理解大脑如何执行这一复杂的知觉行为，并指导旨在增强人脸识别功能的康复措施的方向。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Face discrimination is an outstanding example of human perceptual expertise, as it requires discrimination at the individual exemplar level within a highly homogeneous category of stimuli with similar global organization. Yet the ability to recognize a face seems effortless and is normally very efficient. To achieve this level of efficiency, specially-tuned perceptual processes are triggered when physiognomic qualities signal the existence of a face in the visual field. These processes include the analysis of characteristic face features (e.g. shape of the eyes, arc of the nose, etc.) as well as the computation of precise spatial metrics between the features themselves as well as their spatial relations to the outer contour of a face. Combining results reported in the literature with those found during our previous funding period, we propose that in the absence of quick and efficient basic-level categorization of visual stimuli as faces, the additional computations that allow discrimination among individual faces are either not elicited or are elicited disproportionately by face compared to objects. The consequence of such a state is impaired or inefficient face identification and, in extreme cases, "face blindness", as can be observed in some individuals who never learn to identify faces (often referred to as congenital prosopagnosia or CP). One goal of the proposed experiments is to further explore individual variations in face processing among participants with normal face identification abilities as well as face identification deficits in CP and other face deficient populations. We also propose studies of face perception in selected patients with right hemisphere damage due to stroke for whom local processing can be relatively spared while global organization is impaired. We will continue to collect EEG and behavioral to study the perceptual and neural mechanisms underlying successful face perception. The studies proposed are expected to increase our understanding of the extraordinary human ability of face identification. Importantly, the results also will be useful for the development of training programs that would help to improve this socially important skill (see an example from our own research described in the preliminary studies section of this proposal). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Prosopagnosia is a perceptual condition in which a face can be recognized as a face but cannot be discriminated from other faces despite intact visual, cognitive and other perceptual abilities. It can occur as a result of damage to certain areas of the human brain (acquired prosopagnosia) or as a developmental deficit (congenital prosopagnosia). Given the importance of face recognition skills in normal social discourse, understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with this ability will lead to greater understanding of how the brain performs this complex perceptual act as well as guide the direction of rehabilitation measures designed to enhance face recognition functions.