scholarly journals Perceptual integration of head and eye cues to gaze direction in schizophrenia

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 180885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J. Palmer ◽  
Nathan Caruana ◽  
Colin W. G. Clifford ◽  
Kiley J. Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Contour Detection ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Head Region ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Sensory Features ◽  
The Face ◽  
Integrative Processing ◽  
Eye Region

The perceptual mechanisms that underlie social experience in schizophrenia are increasingly becoming a target of empirical research. In the context of low-level vision, there is evidence for a reduction in the integration of sensory features in schizophrenia (e.g. increased thresholds for contour detection and motion coherence). In the context of higher-level vision, comparable differences in the integration of sensory features of the face could in theory impair the recognition of important social cues. Here we examine how the sense of where other people are looking relies upon the integration of eye-region cues and head-region cues. Adults with schizophrenia viewed face images designed to elicit the ‘Wollaston illusion’, a perceptual phenomenon in which the perceived gaze direction associated with a given pair of eyes is modulated by the surrounding sensory context. We performed computational modelling of these psychophysical data to quantify individual differences in the use of facial cues to gaze direction. We find that adults with schizophrenia exhibit a robust perceptual effect whereby their sense of other people's direction of gaze is strongly biased by sensory cues relating to head orientation in addition to eye region information. These results indicate that the visual integration of facial cues to gaze direction in schizophrenia is intact, helping to constrain theories of reduced integrative processing in higher-level and lower-level vision. In addition, robust gaze processing was evident in the tested participants despite reduced performance on a theory of mind task designed to assess higher-level social cognition.

Effects of Head Orientation on Gaze Perception: How Positive Congruency Effects Can be Reversed

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Ricciardelli ◽  
Jon Driver
Keyword(s):  
Time Pressure ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Gaze Perception ◽  
Visible Part ◽  
The Face ◽  
Orientation Cues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Eye Region

Several past studies have considered how perceived head orientation may be combined with perceived gaze direction in judging where someone else is attending. In three experiments we tested the impact of different sources of information by examining the role of head orientation in gaze-direction judgements when presenting: (a) the whole face; (b) the face with the nose masked; (c) just the eye region, removing all other head-orientation cues apart from some visible part of the nose; or (d) just the eyes, with all parts of the nose masked and no head orientation cues present other than those within the eyes themselves. We also varied time pressure on gaze direction judgements. The results showed that gaze judgements were not solely driven by the eye region. Gaze perception can also be affected by parts of the head and face, but in a manner that depends on the time constraints for gaze direction judgements. While “positive” congruency effects were found with time pressure (i.e., faster left/right judgements of seen gaze when the seen head deviated towards the same side as that gaze), the opposite applied without time pressure.

Visual cells in the temporal cortex sensitive to face view and gaze direction

1985 ◽  
Vol 223 (1232) ◽  
pp. 293-317 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Visual Cells ◽  
The Face ◽  
Full Face

The direction of eye gaze and orientation of the face towards or away from another are important social signals for man and for macaque monkey. We have studied the effects of these signals in a region of the macaque temporal cortex where cells have been found to be responsive to the sight of faces. Of cells selectively responsive to the sight of the face or head but not to other objects (182 cells) 63% were sensitive to the orientation of the head. Different views of the head (full face, profile, back or top of the head, face rotated by 45° up to the ceiling or down to the floor) maximally activated different classes of cell. All classes of cell, however, remained active as the preferred view was rotated isomorphically or was changed in size or distance. Isomorphic rotation by 90–180° increased cell response latencies by 10–60 ms. Sensitivity to gaze direction was found for 64% of the cells tested that were tuned to head orientation. Eighteen cells most responsive to the full face preferred eye contact, while 18 cells tuned to the profile face preferred averted gaze. Sensitivity to gaze was thus compatible with, but could be independent of, sensitivity to head orientation. Results suggest that the recognition of one type of object may proceed via the independent high level analysis of several restricted views of the object (viewer-centred descriptions).

scholarly journals Influence of head orientation on perceived gaze direction and eye-region information

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumiko Otsuka ◽  
Colin W. G. Clifford
Keyword(s):  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Region Information ◽  
Eye Region

Quantifying the Wollaston Illusion

Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 588-599
Author(s):  
Heiko Hecht ◽  
Stefanie Siebrand ◽  
Sven Thönes
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Eye Region ◽  
Royal Society Of London

In the early 19th century, William H. Wollaston impressed the Royal Society of London with engravings of portraits. He manipulated facial features, such as the nose, and thereby dramatically changed the perceived gaze direction, although the eye region with iris and eye socket had remained unaltered. This Wollaston illusion has been replicated numerous times but never with the original stimuli. We took the eyes (pupil and iris) from Wollaston’s most prominent engraving and measured their perceived gaze direction in an analog fashion. We then systematically added facial features (eye socket, eyebrows, nose, skull, and hair). These features had the power to divert perceived gaze direction by up to 20°, which confirms Wollaston’s phenomenal observation. The effect can be thought of as an attractor effect, that is, cues that indicate a slight change in head orientation have the power to divert perceived gaze direction.

scholarly journals Neural correlates to seen gaze-direction and head orientation in the macaque monkey amygdala

Neuroscience ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 169 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Tazumi ◽  
E. Hori ◽  
R.S. Maior ◽  
T. Ono ◽  
H. Nishijo
Keyword(s):  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Head Orientation

scholarly journals Poisson's ratio over two centuries: challenging hypotheses

2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Neville Greaves
Keyword(s):  
Poisson’S Ratio ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Poisson's Ratio ◽  
Elastic Response ◽  
Scientific Advance ◽  
The Hierarchical Structure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Materials Science And Engineering

This article explores Poisson's ratio, starting with the controversy concerning its magnitude and uniqueness in the context of the molecular and continuum hypotheses competing in the development of elasticity theory in the nineteenth century, moving on to its place in the development of materials science and engineering in the twentieth century, and concluding with its recent re-emergence as a universal metric for the mechanical performance of materials on any length scale. During these episodes France lost its scientific pre-eminence as paradigms switched from mathematical to observational, and accurate experiments became the prerequisite for scientific advance. The emergence of the engineering of metals followed, and subsequently the invention of composites—both somewhat separated from the discovery of quantum mechanics and crystallography, and illustrating the bifurcation of technology and science. Nowadays disciplines are reconnecting in the face of new scientific demands. During the past two centuries, though, the shape versus volume concept embedded in Poisson's ratio has remained invariant, but its application has exploded from its origins in describing the elastic response of solids and liquids, into areas such as materials with negative Poisson's ratio, brittleness, glass formation, and a re-evaluation of traditional materials. Moreover, the two contentious hypotheses have been reconciled in their complementarity within the hierarchical structure of materials and through computational modelling.

Differential Characteristics of Face Neuron Responses Within the Anterior Superior Temporal Sulcus of Macaques

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 1252-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wania C. De Souza ◽  
Satoshi Eifuku ◽  
Ryoi Tamura ◽  
Hisao Nishijo ◽  
Taketoshi Ono
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Functional Heterogeneity ◽  
Oblique View ◽  
Macaque Monkeys ◽  
Facial Information ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rostral Region

The anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) of macaque monkeys is thought to be involved in the analysis of incoming perceptual information for face recognition or identification; face neurons in the anterior STS show tuning to facial views and/or gaze direction in the faces of others. Although it is well known that both the anatomical architecture and the connectivity differ between the rostral and caudal regions of the anterior STS, the functional heterogeneity of these regions is not well understood. We recorded the activity of face neurons in the anterior STS of macaque monkeys during the performance of a face identification task, and we compared the characteristics of face neuron responses in the caudal and rostral regions of the anterior STS. In the caudal region, facial views that elicited optimal responses were distributed among all views tested; the majority of face neurons responded symmetrically to right and left views. In contrast, the face neurons in the rostral region responded optimally to a single oblique view; right-left symmetry among the responses of these neurons was less evident. Modulation of the face neuron responses according to gaze direction was more evident in the rostral region. Some of the face neuron responses were specific to a certain combination of a particular facial view and a particular gaze direction, whereas others were associated with the relative spatial relationship between facial view and gaze direction. Taken together, these results indicated the existence of a functional heterogeneity within the anterior STS and suggested a plausible hierarchical organization of facial information processing.

Is the loss of diagnosticity of the eye region of the face a common aspect of acquired prosopagnosia?

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Rossion ◽  
Martha D. Kaiser ◽  
Daniel Bub ◽  
James W. Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
The Face ◽  
Eye Region

Parents of Children with Asperger Syndrome: What is the Cognitive Phenotype?

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 548-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Baron-Cohen ◽  
Jessica Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Asperger Syndrome ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Adult Level ◽  
Cognitive Phenotype ◽  
Embedded Figures ◽  
The Face ◽  
Genetic Hypothesis ◽  
Eye Region

Two cognitive anomalies have been found in autism: a superiority on the Embedded Figures Task and a deficit in “theory of mind.” Using adult-level versions of these tasks, the present study investigated if parents of children with Asperger Syndrome might show a mild variant of these anomalies, as might be predicted from a genetic hypothesis. Significant differences were found on both measures. Parents were significantly faster than controls on the Embedded Figures Task and slightly but significantly less accurate at interpreting photographs of the eye region of the face in terms of mental states. The results are discussed in terms of the broader cognitive phenotype of Asperger Syndrome and in terms of their implications for cognitive neuroscientific theories of the condition.

Perception of eye gaze direction in a case of acquired prosopagnosia

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Fall 2019) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Britt Erni ◽  
Roland Maurer ◽  
Dirk Kerzel ◽  
Nicolas Burra
Keyword(s):  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Brain Lesions ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Healthy Women ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
The Face

The ability to perceive the direction of eye gaze is critical in social settings. Brain lesions in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) impair this ability. We investigated the perception of gaze direction of PS, a patient suffering from acquired prosopagnosia (Rossion et al., 2003). Despite lesions in the face network, the STS was spared in PS. We assessed perception of gaze direction in PS with upright, inverted, and contrast-reversed faces. Compared to the performance of 11 healthy women matched for age and education, PS demonstrated abnormal discrimination of gaze direction with upright and contrast-reversed faces, but not with inverted faces. Our findings suggest that the inability of the patient to process faces holistically weakened her perception of gaze direction, especially in demanding tasks.

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