Individual Differences in Face Identity Processing with Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1368-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buyun Xu ◽  
Joan Liu-Shuang ◽  
Bruno Rossion ◽  
James Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
The Right ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Identity Processing ◽  
Identity Task

A growing body of literature suggests that human individuals differ in their ability to process face identity. These findings mainly stem from explicit behavioral tasks, such as the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT). However, it remains an open question whether such individual differences can be found in the absence of an explicit face identity task and when faces have to be individualized at a single glance. In the current study, we tested 49 participants with a recently developed fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) paradigm [Liu-Shuang, J., Norcia, A. M., & Rossion, B. An objective index of individual face discrimination in the right occipitotemporal cortex by means of fast periodic oddball stimulation. Neuropsychologia, 52, 57–72, 2014] in EEG to rapidly, objectively, and implicitly quantify face identity processing. In the FPVS paradigm, one face identity (A) was presented at the frequency of 6 Hz, allowing only one gaze fixation, with different face identities (B, C, D) presented every fifth face (1.2 Hz; i.e., AAAABAAAACAAAAD…). Results showed a face individuation response at 1.2 Hz and its harmonics, peaking over occipitotemporal locations. The magnitude of this response showed high reliability across different recording sequences and was significant in all but two participants, with the magnitude and lateralization differing widely across participants. There was a modest but significant correlation between the individuation response amplitude and the performance of the behavioral CFMT task, despite the fact that CFMT and FPVS measured different aspects of face identity processing. Taken together, the current study highlights the FPVS approach as a promising means for studying individual differences in face identity processing.

scholarly journals Individual differences in face identity processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. McCaffery ◽  
David J. Robertson ◽  
Andrew W. Young ◽  
A. Mike Burton
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Identity Processing

Individual Differences and Hemispheric Asymmetry While Processing Emotional Words

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay M. Niccolai ◽  
Thomas Holtgraves
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Emotional Words ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
The Right

This research examined differences in the perception of emotion words as a function of individual differences in subclinical levels of depression and anxiety. Participants completed measures of depression and anxiety and performed a lexical decision task for words varying in affective valence (but equated for arousal) that were presented briefly to the right or left visual field. Participants with a lower level of depression demonstrated hemispheric asymmetry with a bias toward words presented to the left hemisphere, but participants with a higher level of depression displayed no hemispheric differences. Participants with a lower level of depression also demonstrated a bias toward positive words, a pattern that did not occur for participants with a higher level of depression. A similar pattern occurred for anxiety. Overall, this study demonstrates how variability in levels of depression and anxiety can influence the perception of emotion words, with patterns that are consistent with past research.

scholarly journals Scale Invariant Contrasts of Response Latency Distributions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natarajan Sriram ◽  
Brian A. Nosek ◽  
Anthony G. Greenwald
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Response Latency ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Scale Invariant ◽  
Scaling Effect ◽  
Latency Difference ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Right ◽  
Latency Distributions

Individual differences in general speed lead to a positive correlation between the mean and standard deviation of mean latency. This “coarse” scaling effect causes the mean latency difference (MLD) to be spuriously correlated with general speed. Within individuals, the correlation between the mean and standard deviation of trial latencies leads contrasted distributions to increase their overlap as an MLD of fixed width is translated to the right. To address this “fine” scaling effect, contrasts based on within subject latency transformations including the logarithm, standardization, and ranking were evaluated and turned out to be distinctly superior to the MLD. Notably, the mean gaussian rank latency difference was internally consistent, eliminated fine scaling, meliorated coarse scaling, reduced correlations with general speed, increased statistical power to detect within subject and between group effects, and has the potential to increase the validity of inferences drawn from response latency data.

scholarly journals The positive relationship between face identification and facial emotion perception ability extends to super-recognisers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Ali ◽  
Josh P Davis
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Emotion Perception ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Face Identification ◽  
Large Individual ◽  
Face Memory ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
Identity Processing ◽  
Typical Range

Large individual differences in face identification ability and face emotion perception ability correlate in the neurotypical population. The current study recruited a large sample of participants aged 18-70-years (n = 687). The sample included super-recognisers with exceptional face identity processing skills (n = 74) to determine whether the relationship extends to the top of the ability spectrum. Participants completed one short-term face memory test, a simultaneous face matching test, and two face emotion perception tests. Face memory and face matching scores were moderately positively correlated with each other, and with total scores on the two face emotion perception tests. Super-recognisers outperformed typical-range ability controls at the perception of anger, fear, happy, and neutral, but not disgust or sadness. Identity processing and emotion perception accuracy across the whole sample was influenced by gender and age. From a theoretical perspective, these results demonstrate that correlations found between typical-range ability participants also extend to the top end of the face identification spectrum, implying that a common mechanism may drive performance. Practically, super-recognisers possessing superior face identity processing and emotion perception might enhance the performance of organisations such as police forces or security that rely on these attributes in their staff.

Dynamics of Within-, Inter-, and Cross-Modal Attentional Modulation

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 674-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuo Kida ◽  
Koji Inui ◽  
Emi Tanaka ◽  
Ryusuke Kakigi
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Interstimulus Interval ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
The Right ◽  
Directing Attention

Numerous studies have demonstrated effects of spatial attention within single sensory modalities (within-modal spatial attention) and the effect of directing attention to one sense compared with the other senses (intermodal attention) on cortical neuronal activity. Furthermore, recent studies have been revealing that the effects of spatial attention directed to a certain location in a certain sense spread to the other senses at the same location in space (cross-modal spatial attention). The present study used magnetoencephalography to examine the temporal dynamics of the effects of within-modal and cross-modal spatial and intermodal attention on cortical processes responsive to visual stimuli. Visual or tactile stimuli were randomly presented on the left or right side at a random interstimulus interval and subjects directed attention to the left or right when vision or touch was a task-relevant modality. Sensor-space analysis showed that a response around the occipitotemporal region at around 150 ms after visual stimulation was significantly enhanced by within-modal, cross-modal spatial, and intermodal attention. A later response over the right frontal region at around 200 ms was enhanced by within-modal spatial and intermodal attention, but not by cross-modal spatial attention. These effects were estimated to originate from the occipitotemporal and lateral frontal areas, respectively. Thus the results suggest different spatiotemporal dynamics of neural representations of cross-modal attention and intermodal or within-modal attention.

scholarly journals In the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in Perceived Social Isolation Predict Regional Brain Activation to Social Stimuli

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Cacioppo ◽  
Catherine J. Norris ◽  
Jean Decety ◽  
George Monteleone ◽  
Howard Nusbaum
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Right ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation ◽  
Shed Light

Prior research has shown that perceived social isolation (loneliness) motivates people to attend to and connect with others but to do so in a self-protective and paradoxically self-defeating fashion. Although recent research has shed light on the neural correlates of social perception, cooperation, empathy, rejection, and love, little is known about how individual differences in loneliness relate to neural responses to social and emotional stimuli. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that there are at least two neural mechanisms differentiating social perception in lonely and nonlonely young adults. For pleasant depictions, lonely individuals appear to be less rewarded by social stimuli, as evidenced by weaker activation of the ventral striatum to pictures of people than of objects, whereas nonlonely individuals showed stronger activation of the ventral striatum to pictures of people than of objects. For unpleasant depictions, lonely individuals were characterized by greater activation of the visual cortex to pictures of people than of objects, suggesting that their attention is drawn more to the distress of others, whereas nonlonely individuals showed greater activation of the right and left temporo-parietal junction to pictures of people than of objects, consistent with the notion that they are more likely to reflect spontaneously on the perspective of distressed others.

scholarly journals The pitch of babies’ cries predicts their voice pitch at age 5

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 20180065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Levrero ◽  
Nicolas Mathevon ◽  
Katarzyna Pisanski ◽  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
David Reby
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Ring Finger ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Voice Pitch ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Longitudinal Study Design ◽  
The Right

Voice pitch (fundamental frequency, F 0 ) is a key dimension of our voice that varies between sexes after puberty, and also among individuals of the same sex both before and after puberty. While a recent longitudinal study indicates that inter-individual differences in voice pitch remain stable in men during adulthood and may even be determined before puberty (Fouquet et al. 2016 R. Soc. open sci. 3 , 160395. ( doi:10.1098/rsos.160395 )), whether these differences emerge in infancy remains unknown. Here, using a longitudinal study design, we investigate the hypothesis that inter-individual differences in F 0 are already present in the cries of pre-verbal babies. While based on a small sample ( n = 15), our results indicate that the F 0 of babies' cries at 4 months of age may predict the F 0 of their speech utterances at 5 years of age, explaining 41% of the inter-individual variance in voice pitch at that age in our sample. We also found that the right-hand ratio of the length of their index to ring finger (2D : 4D digit ratio), which has been proposed to constitute an index of prenatal testosterone exposure, was positively correlated with F 0 at both 4 months and 5 years of age. These findings suggest that a substantial proportion of between-individual differences in voice pitch, which convey important biosocial information about speakers, may partly originate in utero and thus already be present soon after birth.

scholarly journals Assessing animal individuality: links between personality and laterality in pigs

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 541-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Goursot ◽  
Sandra Düpjan ◽  
Ellen Kanitz ◽  
Armin Tuchscherer ◽  
Birger Puppe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Motor Functions ◽  
Salivary Testosterone ◽  
Single Motor ◽  
Selective Forces ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Cerebral Processing

Abstract Animal individuality is challenging to explain because individual differences are regulated by multiple selective forces that lead to unique combinations of characteristics. For instance, the study of personality, a core aspect of individuality, may benefit from integrating other factors underlying individual differences, such as lateralized cerebral processing. Indeed, the approach-withdrawal hypothesis (the left hemisphere controls approach behavior, the right hemisphere controls withdrawal behavior), may account for differences in boldness or exploration between left and right hemispheric dominant individuals. To analyze the relationships between personality and laterality we tested 80 male piglets with established laterality patterns for 2 motor functions (tail curling direction and the side of the snout used for manipulation) and a combined classification integrating both motor functions using cluster analysis. We analyzed basal salivary testosterone and cortisol along with their behavior in standardized tests as pre-established indicators of different personality traits (Boldness, Exploration, Activity, Sociability, and Coping). We found that the direction of the single motor biases showed significant associations with few personality traits. However, the combined laterality classification showed more, and more robust, significant associations with different personality traits compared with the single motor biases. These results supported the approach-withdrawal hypothesis because right-biased pigs were bolder and more explorative in a context of novelty. Additionally, right-biased pigs were more sociable than left-biased pigs. Therefore, the present study indicates that personality is indeed related to lateralized cerebral processing and provides insight into the multifactorial nature of individuality.

scholarly journals The neural representation of facial-emotion categories reflects conceptual structure

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (32) ◽  
pp. 15861-15870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Brooks ◽  
Junichi Chikazoe ◽  
Norihiro Sadato ◽  
Jonathan B. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Emotion Perception ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Concept Knowledge ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
The Right

Humans reliably categorize configurations of facial actions into specific emotion categories, leading some to argue that this process is invariant between individuals and cultures. However, growing behavioral evidence suggests that factors such as emotion-concept knowledge may shape the way emotions are visually perceived, leading to variability—rather than universality—in facial-emotion perception. Understanding variability in emotion perception is only emerging, and the neural basis of any impact from the structure of emotion-concept knowledge remains unknown. In a neuroimaging study, we used a representational similarity analysis (RSA) approach to measure the correspondence between the conceptual, perceptual, and neural representational structures of the six emotion categories Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise. We found that subjects exhibited individual differences in their conceptual structure of emotions, which predicted their own unique perceptual structure. When viewing faces, the representational structure of multivoxel patterns in the right fusiform gyrus was significantly predicted by a subject’s unique conceptual structure, even when controlling for potential physical similarity in the faces themselves. Finally, cross-cultural differences in emotion perception were also observed, which could be explained by individual differences in conceptual structure. Our results suggest that the representational structure of emotion expressions in visual face-processing regions may be shaped by idiosyncratic conceptual understanding of emotion categories.

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