scholarly journals On the relation between face and object recognition in developmental prosopagnosia: Systematic association but no dissociation.

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gerlach ◽  
Solja K. Klargaard ◽  
Randi Starrfelt
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Positive Correlations

There is an ongoing debate about whether face recognition and object recognition constitute separate domains. Clarification of this issue can have important theoretical implications as face recognition is often used as a prime example of domain-specificity in mind and brain. An important source of input to this debate comes from studies of individuals with developmental prosopagnosia, suggesting that face recognition can be selectively impaired. We put the selectivity-hypothesis to test by assessing the performance of 10 subjects with developmental prosopagnosia on demanding tests of visual object processing involving both regular and degraded drawings. None of the individuals exhibited a dissociation between face and object recognition, and as a group they were significantly more affected by degradation of objects than control participants. Importantly, we also find positive correlations between the severity of the face recognition impairment and the degree of impaired performance with degraded objects. This suggests that the face and object deficits are systematically related rather than coincidental. We conclude that at present, there is no strong evidence in the literature on developmental prosopagnosia supporting domain-specific accounts of face recognition.

What Is Special about Face Recognition? Nineteen Experiments on a Person with Visual Object Agnosia and Dyslexia but Normal Face Recognition

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 555-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Moscovitch ◽  
Gordon Winocur ◽  
Marlene Behrmann
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Closed Head Injury ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Face Features ◽  
The Face

In order to study face recognition in relative isolation from visual processes that may also contribute to object recognition and reading, we investigated CK, a man with normal face recognition but with object agnosia and dyslexia caused by a closed-head injury. We administered recognition tests of up right faces, of family resemblance, of age-transformed faces, of caricatures, of cartoons, of inverted faces, and of face features, of disguised faces, of perceptually degraded faces, of fractured faces, of faces parts, and of faces whose parts were made of objects. We compared CK's performance with that of at least 12 control participants. We found that CK performed as well as controls as long as the face was upright and retained the configurational integrity among the internal facial features, the eyes, nose, and mouth. This held regardless of whether the face was disguised or degraded and whether the face was represented as a photo, a caricature, a cartoon, or a face composed of objects. In the last case, CK perceived the face but, unlike controls, was rarely aware that it was composed of objects. When the face, or just the internal features, were inverted or when the configurational gestalt was broken by fracturing the face or misaligning the top and bottom halves, CK's performance suffered far more than that of controls. We conclude that face recognition normally depends on two systems: (1) a holistic, face-specific system that is dependent on orientationspecific coding of second-order relational features (internal), which is intact in CK and (2) a part-based object-recognition system, which is damaged in CK and which contributes to face recognition when the face stimulus does not satisfy the domain-specific conditions needed to activate the face system.

Face Perception in Face Transplant Patients

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (05) ◽  
pp. 525-533
Author(s):  
Evrim Gülbetekin ◽  
Seda Bayraktar ◽  
Özlenen Özkan ◽  
Hilmi Uysal ◽  
Ömer Özkan
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Discrimination Performance ◽  
Object Discrimination ◽  
Face Transplantation ◽  
Transplant Patients ◽  
Facial Surgery ◽  
The Face

AbstractThe authors tested face discrimination, face recognition, object discrimination, and object recognition in two face transplantation patients (FTPs) who had facial injury since infancy, a patient who had a facial surgery due to a recent wound, and two control subjects. In Experiment 1, the authors showed them original faces and morphed forms of those faces and asked them to rate the similarity between the two. In Experiment 2, they showed old, new, and implicit faces and asked whether they recognized them or not. In Experiment 3, they showed them original objects and morphed forms of those objects and asked them to rate the similarity between the two. In Experiment 4, they showed old, new, and implicit objects and asked whether they recognized them or not. Object discrimination and object recognition performance did not differ between the FTPs and the controls. However, the face discrimination performance of FTP2 and face recognition performance of the FTP1 were poorer than that of the controls were. Therefore, the authors concluded that the structure of the face might affect face processing.

scholarly journals Looking at my own Face: Visual Processing Strategies in Physical Self-representation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anya Chakraborty ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
The Face ◽  
Specific Association

AbstractWe live in an age of ‘selfies’. Yet, how we look at our own faces has seldom been systematically investigated. In this study we test if visual processing of self-faces is different from other faces, using psychophysics and eye-tracking. Specifically, the association between the psychophysical properties of self-face representation and visual processing strategies involved in self-face recognition was tested. Thirty-three adults performed a self-face recognition task from a series of self-other face morphs with simultaneous eye-tracking. Participants were found to look at lower part of the face for longer duration for self-face compared to other-face. Participants with a reduced overlap between self and other face representations, as indexed by a steeper slope of the psychometric response curve for self-face recognition, spent a greater proportion of time looking at the upper regions of faces identified as self. Additionally, the association of autism-related traits with self-face processing metrics was tested, since autism has previously been associated with atypical self-processing, particularly in the psychological domain. Autistic traits were associated with reduced looking time to both self and other faces. However, no self-face specific association was noted with autistic traits, suggesting that autism-related features may be related to self-processing in a domain specific manner.

Not so fast! Response times may not reflect face recognition ability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xian Li ◽  
Maruti Mishra ◽  
Bar Yosef ◽  
Joseph DeGutis
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Efficiency Score ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Recognition Ability

Response times (RT) are commonly used to assess cognitive abilities and have recently been employed to assess face and object recognition abilities, such as quantifying the prevalence of object recognition deficits in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). However, it is unclear whether RTs from face and object processing tasks predict recognition ability beyond accuracy. To test the validity of RTs, we examined accuracy and RT on a widely-used face matching assessment modified to collect meaningful RT data, the computerized Benton Face Recognition Test (BFRT-c), and measured whether accuracy and RT predicted face recognition ability and DP/control group membership. 62 controls and 36 developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) performed the BFRT-c as well as validated measures of face recognition ability, the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and Famous Faces Test (FFT). In both controls and DPs, there was little-to-no association between BFRT-c accuracy and RT (controls: r=.07, DPs: r=.03). In controls, BFRT-c accuracy robustly predicted CFMT (r=.49), FFMT (r=.43), and a composite of these measures (r=.54), whereas BFRT-c RT was not significantly associated with these measures (all r's < .16). We also found that BFRT-c accuracy significantly differed between DPs and controls, but RT failed to differentiate the groups. These results were replicated when performing outlier removal and we also found that combined scores of accuracy and RT (inverse efficiency score and balanced integration score) did not predict face recognition ability or group membership as well as accuracy alone. Together, these results suggest that researchers should use caution when using RTs to characterize individual differences in face processing or diagnose deficits in prosopagnosia.

scholarly journals Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence

Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Behrmann ◽  
David C. Plaut
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Visual Object Recognition ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Right ◽  
Language Areas

Despite the similarity in structure, the hemispheres of the human brain have somewhat different functions. A traditional view of hemispheric organization asserts that there are independent and largely lateralized domain-specific regions in ventral occipitotemporal (VOTC), specialized for the recognition of distinct classes of objects. Here, we offer an alternative account of the organization of the hemispheres, with a specific focus on face and word recognition. This alternative account relies on three computational principles: distributed representations and knowledge, cooperation and competition between representations, and topography and proximity. The crux is that visual recognition results from a network of regions with graded functional specialization that is distributed across both hemispheres. Specifically, the claim is that face recognition, which is acquired relatively early in life, is processed by VOTC regions in both hemispheres. Once literacy is acquired, word recognition, which is co-lateralized with language areas, primarily engages the left VOTC and, consequently, face recognition is primarily, albeit not exclusively, mediated by the right VOTC. We review psychological and neural evidence from a range of studies conducted with normal and brain-damaged adults and children and consider findings which challenge this account. Last, we offer suggestions for future investigations whose findings may further refine this account.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Meaning: Spatio-temporal Dynamics of Visual Object Recognition

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1887-1899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Clarke ◽  
Kirsten I. Taylor ◽  
Lorraine K. Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Phase Synchronization ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Visual Object Recognition ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Time Courses

Research on the spatio-temporal dynamics of visual object recognition suggests a recurrent, interactive model whereby an initial feedforward sweep through the ventral stream to prefrontal cortex is followed by recurrent interactions. However, critical questions remain regarding the factors that mediate the degree of recurrent interactions necessary for meaningful object recognition. The novel prediction we test here is that recurrent interactivity is driven by increasing semantic integration demands as defined by the complexity of semantic information required by the task and driven by the stimuli. To test this prediction, we recorded magnetoencephalography data while participants named living and nonliving objects during two naming tasks. We found that the spatio-temporal dynamics of neural activity were modulated by the level of semantic integration required. Specifically, source reconstructed time courses and phase synchronization measures showed increased recurrent interactions as a function of semantic integration demands. These findings demonstrate that the cortical dynamics of object processing are modulated by the complexity of semantic information required from the visual input.

Preserved Expert Object Recognition in a Case of Visual Hemiagnosia

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Rennig ◽  
Sonja Cornelsen ◽  
Helmut Wilhelm ◽  
Marc Himmelbach ◽  
Hans-Otto Karnath
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Visual Expertise ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
The Right

We examined a stroke patient (HWS) with a unilateral lesion of the right medial ventral visual stream, involving the right fusiform and parahippocampal gyri. In a number of object recognition tests with lateralized presentations of target stimuli, HWS showed significant symptoms of hemiagnosia with contralesional recognition deficits for everyday objects. We further explored the patient's capacities of visual expertise that were acquired before the current perceptual impairment became effective. We confronted him with objects he was an expert for already before stroke onset and compared this performance with the recognition of familiar everyday objects. HWS was able to identify significantly more of the specific (“expert”) than of the everyday objects on the affected contralesional side. This observation of better expert object recognition in visual hemiagnosia allows for several interpretations. The results may be caused by enhanced information processing for expert objects in the ventral system in the affected or the intact hemisphere. Expert knowledge could trigger top–down mechanisms supporting object recognition despite of impaired basic functions of object processing. More importantly, the current work demonstrates that top–down mechanisms of visual expertise influence object recognition at an early stage, probably before visual object information propagates to modules of higher object recognition. Because HWS showed a lesion to the fusiform gyrus and spared capacities of expert object recognition, the current study emphasizes possible contributions of areas outside the ventral stream to visual expertise.

Inversion Impairs Expert Budgerigar Identity Recognition: A Face-Like Effect for a Nonface Object of Expertise

Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 647-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Campbell ◽  
James W. Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Picture Plane ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Orientation Sensitivity ◽  
Identity Recognition ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
The Face

The face-inversion effect is the finding that picture-plane inversion disproportionately impairs face recognition compared to object recognition and is now attributed to greater orientation-sensitivity of holistic processing for faces but not common objects. Yet, expert dog judges have showed similar recognition deficits for inverted dogs and inverted faces, suggesting that holistic processing is not specific to faces but to the expert recognition of perceptually similar objects. Although processing changes in expert object recognition have since been extensively documented, no other studies have observed the distinct recognition deficits for inverted objects-of-expertise that people as face experts show for faces. However, few studies have examined experts who recognize individual objects similar to how people recognize individual faces. Here we tested experts who recognize individual budgerigar birds. The effect of inversion on viewpoint-invariant budgerigar and face recognition was compared for experts and novices. Consistent with the face-inversion effect, novices showed recognition deficits for inverted faces but not for inverted budgerigars. By contrast, experts showed equal recognition deficits for inverted faces and budgerigars. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that processes underlying the face-inversion effect are specific to the expert individuation of perceptually similar objects.

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