Impact of the visual and sociocultural environment on the processing of low-level visual information during face perception

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Face perception has long been assumed to rely on universal visual processes. In the past few years, I have shown that, on the contrary, high-level forces, such as culture, may influence mechanisms as deep as those involved in the processing of the most basic kind of visual information processed in the primary visual cortex. Differences in visual strategies may also be observed within-culture, supporting thus further the idea that in order to understand the processes involved in face perception, and visual perception more generally, studies need to investigate the diversity of strategies developed across individuals and groups of individuals. In this sense, the long-term goal of the proposed research is to contribute to the development of a comprehensive understanding of face perception by taking into account the ways in which it may be influenced by environmental (e.g. physical, cultural) and individual (e.g. ability) differences. Objectives 1 and 2 of this research program aim at extensively comparing the utilization of low-level (spatial frequencies, orientations) visual information during face processing across two cultures (Westerners and Easterners), and at studying the time course of this information utilization in the brain. Furthermore, recent work has shown that the ability to recognize faces is related to the efficiency at processing horizontal information as well as the information conveyed by the eye area. Since previous work has demonstrated that the visual strategies underlying face processing vary from one culture to another, the "optimal" visual strategy may also differ across groups. Thus, the third objective of the present research program is to verify if within-culture individual differences in face processing interact with culture. Finally, the fourth objective of the present research program is to explore potential explanations for the differences observed across cultural groups. In fact, many argue for the existence of specialized mechanisms for face processing, raising the possibility that the forces that engender different visual strategies between cultures may not be the same for face and non-face objects. So far, however, the two main theories that have been proposed to explain cultural variations in visual perception have not been assessed in the context of face perception. This research program is highly interdisciplinary, encompassing the fields of vision, face perception, cultural psychology, and neuroscience. A combination of novel psychophysical methods and electroencephalography will be used. The new knowledge provided by the proposed research program may potentially shape the way we study visual and face perception. Moreover, understanding the driving forces of the differences observed will further our knowledge of the universality vs. cultural specificity of the visual processes underlying face perception, a central question in the field of vision.