Face Perception

Infant perception of faces

-30 minutes after birth
-eyes look at faces more rather than other complex stimuli
-has to be faces rather than scrambled faces
Face perception
-humans spend more time looking at faces than other objects
-hundreds of millions of neurons for faces (special brain areas)
-gather important info from faces
-identity
-mood
-age, race, health, attractiveness
-motives, attention
-most animals have faces
-most faces have bilateral symmetry
-most have same pattern: (positioning of these things imp.)
-mouth at bottom (have to eat)
-nose above mouth (to sniff if something should be in mouth)
-eyes above nose
-keep food out of nose and eyes
Evolutionary pressures on faces
-faces differ in different niches
-camouflage
-mimicry
Human faces: Man vs chimp
-Man: No muzzle (protruding mouth)
-chimp has muzzle but man evolved to not have it
-muzzles useful for weapon foraging
-human has small eyebrow ridges: chimp has big ridges b/c more jaw muscles
-Larger brain cavity (human 86 bil, chimp 14 bil neurons)

Brain
-Ventral route: (what pathway) what objects are, name em
-damaged FFA (fusiform face area): right hemisphere (easy to have a stroke
here)
-prosopagnosia: cant recognize faces
-self in mirror
-spouse, kids, friends
-can recognize voices
-recognize emotions, eye gaze
-Dorsal route: (how pathway) computes 3d shapes, depth, representations
-face inversion effect: ability to recognize faces much more impaired when its upside
down
Expression Agnosia (Posterior superior temporal sulcus)
-damaged pSTS: RH
-can recognize faces
-cant recognize emotions, gaze
-impairs social interactions