Role of eyes in early neural face processing

人脸处理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。在面部特征中，眼睛具有特殊的地位，参与了从身份识别、情绪识别到凝视辨别等面部加工的各个方面。本研究项目旨在通过眼动监测和脑电图记录等尖端技术，了解面部处理过程中的神经步骤，特别是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特征处理的必要条件，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面部敏感和眼敏感神经元群的存在，这些神经元群参与了面部的早期处理阶段。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部眼睛的处理是很重要的，这在一些临床疾病中是错误的。

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.