Goffaux, V;
Greenwood, JA;
(2016)
The orientation selectivity of face identification.
Scientific Reports
, 6
, Article 34204. 10.1038/srep34204.
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Abstract
Recent work demonstrates that human face identification is most efficient when based on horizontal, rather than vertical, image structure. Because it is unclear how this specialization for upright (compared to inverted) face processing emerges in the visual system, the present study aimed to systematically characterize the orientation sensitivity profile for face identification. With upright faces, identification performance in a delayed match-to-sample task was highest for horizontally filtered images and declined sharply with oblique and vertically filtered images. Performance was well described by a Gaussian function with a bandwidth around 25°. Face inversion reshaped this sensitivity profile dramatically, with a downward shift of the entire tuning curve as well as a reduction in the amplitude of the horizontal peak and a doubling in bandwidth. The use of naturalistic outer contours (vs. a common outline mask) was also found to reshape this sensitivity profile by increasing sensitivity to oblique information in the near-horizontal range. Altogether, although face identification is sharply tuned to horizontal angles, both inversion and outline masking can profoundly reshape this orientation sensitivity profile. This combination of image- and observer-driven effects provides an insight into the functional relationship between orientation-selective processes within primary and high-level stages of the human brain.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The orientation selectivity of face identification |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/srep34204 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep34204 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Human behaviour; Object vision; Perceptionl; Sensory processing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1517947 |
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