Face to Face

Over evolutionary time, humans have developed a selective sensitivity to features in the human face that convey information on sex, age, emotions, and intentions. This ability might not only be applied to our conspecifics nowadays, but also to other living objects (i.e., animals) and even to artificial structures, such as cars. To investigate this possibility, we asked people to report the characteristics, emotions, personality traits, and attitudes they attribute to car fronts, and we used geometric morphometrics (GM) and multivariate statistical methods to determine and visualize the corresponding shape information. Automotive features and proportions are found to covary with trait perception in a manner similar to that found with human faces. Emerging analogies are discussed. This study should have implications for both our understanding of our prehistoric psyche and its interrelation with the modern world.

Age-Dependent Face Detection and Face Categorization Performance

Empirical studies on the development of face processing skills with age show inconsistent patterns concerning qualitative vs. quantitative changes over time or the age range for peak cognitive performance. In the present study, we tested the proficiency in face detection and face categorization with a large sample of participants (N = 312; age range: 2-88 yrs). As test objects, we used so-called Mooney faces, two-tone (black and white) images of faces lacking critical information of a local, featural and relational nature, reflecting difficult real world face processing conditions. We found that performance in the assessment of gender and age from Mooney faces increases up to about age 15, and decreases from 65 years on. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of classic and recent findings from face development literature.     

Face lift

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Identify and describe the anatomy of and changes to the aging face, including changes in bone mass and structure and changes to the skin, tissue, and muscles. 2. Assess each individual's unique anatomy before embarking on face-lift surgery and incorporate various surgical techniques, including fat grafting and other corrective procedures in addition to shifting existing fat to a higher position on the face, into discussions with patients. 3. Identify risk factors and potential complications in prospective patients. 4. Describe the benefits and risks of various techniques. SUMMARY: The ability to surgically rejuvenate the aging face has progressed in parallel with plastic surgeons' understanding of facial anatomy. In turn, a more clear explanation now exists for the visible changes seen in the aging face. This article and its associated video content review the current understanding of facial anatomy as it relates to facial aging. The standard face-lift techniques are explained and their various features, both good and bad, are reviewed. The objective is for surgeons to make a better aesthetic diagnosis before embarking on face-lift surgery, and to have the ability to use the appropriate technique depending on the clinical situation.     

Face recognition.

The study of face-selective neurons in the monkey temporal lobe, and face recognition deficits in humans after brain damage have both become very active fields of investigation. Face-selective neurons appear to be members of ensembles for coding faces rather than individual face detectors or grandmother cells. They reflect the more general role of temporal cortex in pattern recognition. In humans there are a variety of face-processing impairments that result from damage to different areas, and which reflect interference at different levels of processing of the facial image.     

Face Patch Resting State Networks Link Face Processing to Social Cognition

Faces transmit a wealth of social information. How this information is exchanged between face-processing centers and brain areas supporting social cognition remains largely unclear. Here we identify these routes using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys. We find that face areas functionally connect to specific regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices, as well as subcortical structures supporting emotive, mnemonic, and cognitive functions. This establishes the existence of an extended face-recognition system in the macaque. Furthermore, the face patch resting state networks and the default mode network in monkeys show a pattern of overlap akin to that between the social brain and the default mode network in humans: this overlap specifically includes the posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial parietal, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas supporting high-level social cognition in humans. Together, these results reveal the embedding of face areas into larger brain networks and suggest that the resting state networks of the face patch system offer a new, easily accessible venue into the functional organization of the social brain and into the evolution of possibly uniquely human social skills.     

Face recognition impairments.

Face recognition impairments are often found in the context of brain injury involving the right cerebral hemisphere. Recognition impairments can be dissociated from impairments affecting the processing of other types of information carried by the face, such as expression. The face recognition impairments themselves take different forms, corresponding to idealized stages or levels of recognition. These types of error can also arise as transitory phenomena in normal everyday life. From these observations, psychologists have proposed functional models that characterize the organization of the face processing system in schematic form. Such models provide useful ways of summarizing what is known. More importantly, they also allow new findings to act as tests of each model's usefulness by the extent to which they can be readily accommodated or force revision. Examples of this are briefly considered, including delusional misidentification, impaired learning of new faces, disordered attention to faces, 'covert' recognition in prosopagnosia, and unawareness of impaired face recognition.