Dynamic Face Processing in Infants, Children, and Adults

人脸是我们视觉环境中最重要的刺激物之一。我们的决定是战斗、逃跑、交配、合作，还是寻求保护，往往取决于成功处理人脸的结果。无法处理面孔会导致使人衰弱的适应性问题（如自闭症）。鉴于脸的重要性，难怪大量的认知和神经科学研究一直致力于调查成年人的面部处理能力，以及这种能力是如何从婴儿期早期到成年期出现和发展的。然而，尽管我们每天遇到的面孔大多是动态移动的面孔，包括转动、点头、微笑和说话，但我们目前对人脸处理的大部分了解都来自于对静态面孔的研究。我们最近由国家科学研究委员会资助的研究表明，成年人和婴儿处理静态和动态面孔的方式截然不同。这一新发现让我们提出了一个基本问题：我们目前基于静态面孔的知识能否用于解释人类在现实生活中如何处理动态移动的面孔？以我们最近的发现为基础，目前提出的研究计划将继续并大大扩展我目前nserc资助的研究。我们的目的是研究面部运动信息在我们对人脸的处理中所起的具体作用。具体来说，我们将使用心理物理和眼动追踪方法来检查婴儿、儿童和成人的静态和动态面部处理之间的异同。我们的项目将弥补文献中的主要空白，并提供有关运动在面部处理及其发展中的作用的急需证据。我们希望我们研究项目的发现将导致对当前理论和假设的重新评估，以及对婴儿、儿童和成人面部处理的新的、更生态有效的描述的发展。此外，我们的规范数据将帮助我们评估和训练有面部处理缺陷的个体（如自闭症），使用更自然的刺激。

Human faces are one of the most important stimuli in our visual environment. Our decision to fight, to flee, to mate, to cooperate, and to seek protection often depends on the outcome of successful processing of human faces. Inability to process faces can lead to debilitating adaptive problems (e.g., autism). Given the importance of faces, it is no wonder that extensive cognitive and neuroscience research has been devoted to investigating face processing abilities in adults, and how such abilities emerge and develop from early infancy to adulthood. However, although faces we encounter on a daily basis are mostly dynamically moving faces that turn, nod, smile, and talk, most of what we currently know about human face processing has come from studies using static faces. Our recent NSERC-funded research has revealed that adults and infants process static and dynamic faces in a dramatically differently manner. This new discovery leads us to ask a fundamental question: Can our current knowledge based on static faces be used to account for how humans actually process faces in real life that are dynamically moving? Building on our recent discoveries, the present proposed program of research continues and extends my current NSERC-funded research significantly. We aim to investigate the specific role that facial motion information plays in our processing of human faces. Specifically, we will use psychophysical and eye-tracking methodologies to examine similarities and differences between static and dynamic face processing in infants, children, and adults. Our project will bridge a major gap in the literature and provide much needed evidence regarding the role of motion in face processing and its development. We hope the findings from our research program will lead to a re-evaluation of current theories and assumptions and the development of new and more ecologically valid accounts of face processing in infants, children, and adults. Further, our normative data will help us assess and perhaps train individuals with face processing deficits (e.g., autism) using more naturalistic stimuli.