Are Morphs a Valid Substitute for Real Multiracial Faces in Race Categorization Research?

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722198983
Author(s):  
Debbie S. Ma ◽  
Justin Kantner ◽  
Jonathan Benitez ◽  
Stephanie Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Common Method ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Multiracial Faces

The rise of the multiracial population has been met with a growing body of research examining multiracial face perception. A common method for creating multiracial face stimuli in past research has been mathematically averaging two monoracial “parent” faces of different races to create computer-generated multiracial morphs, but conclusions from research using morphs will only be accurate to the extent that morphs yield perceptual decisions similar to those that would be made with real multiracial faces. The current studies compared race classifications of real and morphed multiracial face stimuli. We found that oval-masked morphed faces were classified as multiracial significantly more often than oval-masked real multiracial faces (Studies 1 and 2), but at comparable levels to unmasked real multiracial faces (Study 2). Study 3 examined factors that could explain differences in how morphs and real multiracial faces are categorized and pointed to the potential role that unusualness/distinctiveness might play.

scholarly journals Broadening the Stimulus Set: Introducing the American Multiracial Faces Database

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chen ◽  
Jasmine B Norman ◽  
Yeseul Nam
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Person Perception ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Racial Ambiguity ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Racially Ambiguous ◽  
Multiracial Faces ◽  
Ambiguous Faces

Face-based perceptions form the basis for how people behave towards each other and, hence, are central to understanding human interaction. Studying face perception requires a large and diverse set of stimuli in order to make ecologically valid, generalizable conclusions. To date, there are no publicly available databases with a substantial number of Multiracial or racially ambiguous faces. Our systematic review of the literature on Multiracial person perception documented that published studies have relied on computer-generated faces (84% of stimuli), Black-White faces (74%), and male faces (63%). We sought to address these issues, and to broaden the diversity of available face stimuli, by creating the American Multiracial Faces Database (AMFD). The AMFD is a novel collection of 110 faces with mixed-race heritage and accompanying ratings of those faces by naive observers that are freely available to academic researchers. The faces (smiling and neutral expression poses) were rated on attractiveness, emotional expression, racial ambiguity, masculinity, racial group membership(s), gender group membership(s), warmth, competence, dominance, and trustworthiness. The large majority of the AMFD faces are racially ambiguous and can pass into at least two different racial categories. These faces will be useful to researchers seeking to study Multiracial person perception as well as those looking for racially ambiguous faces in order to study categorization processes in general. Consequently, the AMFD will be useful to a broad group of researchers who are studying face perception.

scholarly journals Non-Pregnant and Pregnant Women’s Femininity Preferences in Male Faces: Tests Based on Within- and Between-Sex Sexual Dimorphism Facial Manipulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Wen ◽  
Bin Zuo ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Shuhan Ma ◽  
Shijie Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Facial Stimulus ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Pregnancy Status ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Women’S Preferences

AbstractPast research on women’s preferences for male facial masculinity in Western cultures has produced inconsistent results. Some inconsistency may be related to the use of different facial stimulus manipulations (e.g., between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation or within-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation) that do not perfectly avoid non-facial cues, and pregnancy status may also influence women’s face preferences. We therefore recruited pregnant and nonpregnant Chinese women and manipulated the sexual dimorphism of male facial stimuli to explore the influences of manipulation methods, non-facial cues, and pregnancy status on face preferences. Results showed that: (1) in contrast with a general masculinity preference observed in Western cultures, both pregnant and nonpregnant Chinese women preferred feminized and neutral male faces generally; (2) pregnant women’s preference for feminized male faces was stable across manipulation methods, while nonpregnant women preferred feminized male faces except under between-sex sexual dimorphism manipulation; and (3) manipulation methods, rather than non-facial cues, influenced participants’ face preferences. Specifically, women showed the strongest preferences for femininity when face stimuli were manipulated by within-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation, followed by unmanipulated faces and between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation. This effect was stronger for nonpregnant women in the unmanipulated condition and for pregnant women in the between-sex sexual dimorphic facial manipulation. This research provides empirical evidence of women’s preferences for sexual dimorphism in male faces in a non-Western culture, as well as the effects of facial manipulation methods, pregnancy status, and the interactions between these factors.

Novelty preference in face perception by week-old lambs (Ovis aries)

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Orsola Rosa Salva ◽  
Simona Normando ◽  
Antonio Mollo ◽  
Lucia Regolin
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Ovis Aries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Face Stimulus ◽  
Novelty Preference ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
Face Stimuli

An extensive literature has been accumulating, in recent years, on face-processing in sheep and on the relevance of faces for social interaction in this species. In spite of this, spontaneous preferences for face or non-face stimuli in lambs have not been reported. In this study we tested the spontaneous preference of 8-day-old lambs (N = 9) for three pairs of stimuli. In each pair, one stimulus was a face-like display, whereas the other presented the same inner features displaced in unnatural positions. One pair of stimuli was obtained from photographic images of ewes’ faces, the other two pairs were schematic face-like stimuli. Lambs could differentiate the two stimuli obtained by photos of conspecifics, looking longer at the non-face stimulus (p < 0.05). We interpret this as a novelty preference, proving that few day-old lambs have already encoded the structural properties that define a face and recognize violations of those general properties.

scholarly journals Mitofusin-2: A New Mediator of Pathological Cell Proliferation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanguo Xin ◽  
Junli Li ◽  
Wenchao Wu ◽  
Xiaojing Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Mitochondrial Dynamics ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Tissue Homeostasis ◽  
Mitochondrial Network ◽  
Biological Functions ◽  
Potential Therapeutic Target ◽  
Mitofusin 2 ◽  
Growing Body

Cell proliferation is an important cellular process for physiological tissue homeostasis and remodeling. The mechanisms of cell proliferation in response to pathological stresses are not fully understood. Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles whose shape, number, and biological functions are modulated by mitochondrial dynamics, including fusion and fission. Mitofusin-2 (Mfn-2) is an essential GTPase-related mitochondrial dynamics protein for maintaining mitochondrial network and bioenergetics. A growing body of evidence indicates that Mfn-2 has a potential role in regulating cell proliferation in various cell types. Here we review these new functions of Mfn-2, highlighting its crucial role in several signaling pathways during the process of pathological cell proliferation. We conclude that Mfn-2 could be a new mediator of pathological cell proliferation and a potential therapeutic target.

scholarly journals EMOSEX – emotion prevails over sex during implicit judgment of faces

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Korb ◽  
Nace Mikus ◽  
Claudia Massaccesi ◽  
Jack Grey ◽  
Suvarnalata Xanthate Duggirala ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Voice Processing ◽  
Male To Female

Appraisals can be influenced by cultural beliefs and stereotypes. In line with this, past research has shown that judgments about the emotional expression of a face are influenced by the face’s sex, and vice versa that judgments about the sex of a person somewhat depend on the person’s facial expression. For example, participants associate anger with male faces, and female faces with happiness or sadness. However, the strength and the bidirectionality of these effects remain debated. Moreover, the interplay of a stimulus’ emotion and sex remains mostly unknown in the auditory domain. To investigate these questions, we created a novel stimulus set of 121 avatar faces and 121 human voices (available at https://bit.ly/2JkXrpy) with matched, fine-scale changes along the emotional (happy to angry) and sexual (male to female) dimensions. In a first experiment (N=76), we found clear evidence for the mutual influence of facial emotion and sex cues on ratings, and moreover for larger implicit (task-irrelevant) effects of stimulus’ emotion than of sex. These findings were replicated and extended in two preregistered studies – one laboratory categorisation study using the same face stimuli (N=108; https://osf.io/ve9an), and one online study with vocalisations (N=72; https://osf.io/vhc9g). Overall, results show that the associations of maleness-anger and femaleness-happiness exist across sensory modalities, and suggest that emotions expressed in the face and voice cannot be entirely disregarded, even when attention is mainly focused on determining stimulus’ sex. We discuss the relevance of these findings for cognitive and neural models of face and voice processing.

Regulation of apoptosis by vasoactive peptides

2001 ◽  
Vol 281 (4) ◽  
pp. L749-L761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos S. Filippatos ◽  
Nupur Gangopadhyay ◽  
Omosalewa Lalude ◽  
Narayanan Parameswaran ◽  
Sami I. Said ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Cell Death ◽  
Target Cell ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Regulatory Activity ◽  
Vasoactive Peptides ◽  
Pulmonary Physiology ◽  
Cell Specificity ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Regulate Cell Death

Although originally discovered because of their ability to affect hemodynamics, vasoactive peptides have been found to function in a variety of capacities including neurotransmission, endocrine functions, and the regulation of cell proliferation. A growing body of evidence describes the ability of vasoactive peptides to regulate cell death by apoptosis in either a positive or negative fashion depending on the peptide and the type of target cell. The available evidence to date is strongest for the peptides endothelin, angiotensin II, vasoactive intestinal peptide, atrial natriuretic peptide, and adrenomedullin. Each of these peptides is discussed, with specific regard to apoptosis, in terms of regulatory activity, target cell specificity, and potential role in pulmonary physiology.

Visual Gnosis and Face Perception

2011 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Shozo Tobimatsu
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Early Time ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Temporal Region ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face Stimuli

There are two major parallel pathways in humans: the parvocellular (P) and magnocellular (M) pathways. The former has excellent spatial resolution with color selectivity, while the latter shows excellent temporal resolution with high contrast sensitivity. Visual stimuli should be tailored to answer specific clinical and/or research questions. This chapter examines the neural mechanisms of face perception using event-related potentials (ERPs). Face stimuli of different spatial frequencies were used to investigate how low-spatial-frequency (LSF) and high-spatial-frequency (HSF) components of the face contribute to the identification and recognition of the face and facial expressions. The P100 component in the occipital area (Oz), the N170 in the posterior temporal region (T5/T6) and late components peaking at 270-390 ms (T5/T6) were analyzed. LSF enhanced P100, while N170 was augmented by HSF irrespective of facial expressions. This suggested that LSF is important for global processing of facial expressions, whereas HSF handles featural processing. There were significant amplitude differences between positive and negative LSF facial expressions in the early time windows of 270-310 ms. Subsequently, the amplitudes among negative HSF facial expressions differed significantly in the later time windows of 330–390 ms. Discrimination between positive and negative facial expressions precedes discrimination among different negative expressions in a sequential manner based on parallel visual channels. Interestingly, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased spatial frequency sensitivities for face processing. Taken together, the spatially filtered face images are useful for exploring face perception and recognition.

Barack Obama or Barry Dunham? The Appearance of Multiracial Faces is Affected by the Names Assigned to Them

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p6255 ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 1605-1608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirin F Hilliar ◽  
Richard I Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Multiracial Faces

Does semantic information in the form of stereotypical names influence participants' perceptions of the appearance of multiracial faces? Asian-Australian and European-Australian participants were asked to rate the appearance of Asian-Australian faces given typically Asian names, European-Australian faces given typically European names, multiracial faces given Asian names, and multiracial faces given European names. Participants rated the multiracial faces given European names as looking significantly ‘more European’ than the same multiracial faces given Asian names. This study demonstrates how socially derived expectations and stereotypes can influence face perception.

scholarly journals The neuropsychology of face perception: beyond simple dissociations and functional selectivity

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1571) ◽  
pp. 1726-1738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony P. Atkinson ◽  
Ralph Adolphs
Keyword(s):  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Subcortical Structures ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Face Categorization ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Visual Cortical

Face processing relies on a distributed, patchy network of cortical regions in the temporal and frontal lobes that respond disproportionately to face stimuli, other cortical regions that are not even primarily visual (such as somatosensory cortex), and subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Higher-level face perception abilities, such as judging identity, emotion and trustworthiness, appear to rely on an intact face-processing network that includes the occipital face area (OFA), whereas lower-level face categorization abilities, such as discriminating faces from objects, can be achieved without OFA, perhaps via the direct connections to the fusiform face area (FFA) from several extrastriate cortical areas. Some lesion, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings argue against a strict feed-forward hierarchical model of face perception, in which the OFA is the principal and common source of input for other visual and non-visual cortical regions involved in face perception, including the FFA, face-selective superior temporal sulcus and somatosensory cortex. Instead, these findings point to a more interactive model in which higher-level face perception abilities depend on the interplay between several functionally and anatomically distinct neural regions. Furthermore, the nature of these interactions may depend on the particular demands of the task. We review the lesion and TMS literature on this topic and highlight the dynamic and distributed nature of face processing.

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