Role of eyes in early neural face processing

面孔加工是人类大脑最重要的认知功能之一，但其潜在的神经机制仍然知之甚少。在人脸特征中，眼睛具有特殊的地位，它参与了人脸处理的各个方面，从身份识别、情感识别到注视辨别。该研究计划旨在了解面部处理中涉及的神经步骤，特别是使用眼动监测和脑电描记术记录等尖端技术来确定眼睛在面部感知早期神经阶段的作用。一条研究路线将确定整体与基于特征的处理所需的条件以及眼睛在这些过程中的作用。另一项研究将使用神经适应方法来测试参与面部早期处理阶段的面部敏感和眼睛敏感神经元群体的存在。一个新开发的早期面部编码模型将被测试。这项研究对于更好地理解面部内眼睛的处理非常重要，这在几种临床疾病中会出错。

Face processing is one of the most important cognitive functions of the human brain yet its underlying neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. Among facial features, the eyes have a special status and are involved in all aspects of face processing, from identity and emotion recognition to gaze discrimination. This research program aims at understanding the neural steps involved in face processing and in particular to determine the role of eyes in the early neural stages of face perception, using cutting edge technologies such as eye movement monitoring and electroencephalography recordings. One line of research will determine the conditions necessary for holistic versus feature based processing and the role of the eyes in these processes. Another line of research will use neural adaptation method to test for the proposed existence of face-sensitive and eye-sensitive neuronal populations involved in the early processing stages of faces. A newly developed model of early face encoding will be tested. This research is important to understand better the processing of the eyes within faces, which goes awry in several clinical disorders.