Does My Face FIT?: a Face Image Task Reveals Structure and Distortions of Facial Feature Representation

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2013 Oct 17

PMID 24130790

Citations 11

Authors

Christina T Fuentes

Catarina Runa

Xenxo Alvarez Blanco

Veronica Orvalho

Patrick Haggard

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite extensive research on face perception, few studies have investigated individuals' knowledge about the physical features of their own face. In this study, 50 participants indicated the location of key features of their own face, relative to an anchor point corresponding to the tip of the nose, and the results were compared to the true location of the same individual's features from a standardised photograph. Horizontal and vertical errors were analysed separately. An overall bias to underestimate vertical distances revealed a distorted face representation, with reduced face height. Factor analyses were used to identify separable subconfigurations of facial features with correlated localisation errors. Independent representations of upper and lower facial features emerged from the data pattern. The major source of variation across individuals was in representation of face shape, with a spectrum from tall/thin to short/wide representation. Visual identification of one's own face is excellent, and facial features are routinely used for establishing personal identity. However, our results show that spatial knowledge of one's own face is remarkably poor, suggesting that face representation may not contribute strongly to self-awareness.

Citing Articles

The characteristics of the implicit body model of the trunk.

Pratt S, Wand B, Hince D, Travers M, Schneider L, Kelly S Perception. 2024; 53(7):415-436.

PMID: 38706200 PMC: 11295427. DOI: 10.1177/03010066241248120.

No evidence for sex differences in tactile distance anisotropy.

Longo M Exp Brain Res. 2022; 240(2):591-600.

PMID: 34984563 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06301-7.

Tactile distance anisotropy on the feet.

Manser-Smith K, Tame L, Longo M Atten Percept Psychophys. 2021; 83(8):3227-3239.

PMID: 34240341 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02339-5.

The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face.

Mora L, Sedda A, Esteban T, Cocchini G Exp Brain Res. 2021; 239(7):2233-2249.

PMID: 34028597 PMC: 8282562. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06121-9.

Proprioceptive errors in the localization of hand landmarks: What can be learnt about the hand metric representation?.

Peviani V, Bottini G PLoS One. 2020; 15(7):e0236416.

PMID: 32735572 PMC: 7394425. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236416.

References

Uddin L, Kaplan J, Molnar-Szakacs I, Zaidel E, Iacoboni M . Self-face recognition activates a frontoparietal "mirror" network in the right hemisphere: an event-related fMRI study. Neuroimage. 2005; 25(3):926-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.12.018. View

Casey S, Newell F . The role of long-term and short-term familiarity in visual and haptic face recognition. Exp Brain Res. 2005; 166(3-4):583-91. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-005-2398-3. View

Rooney B, Keyes H, Brady N . Shared or separate mechanisms for self-face and other-face processing? Evidence from adaptation. Front Psychol. 2012; 3:66. PMC: 3296062. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00066. View

Avery G, Day R . Basis of the horizontal-vertical illusion. J Exp Psychol. 1969; 81(2):376-80. DOI: 10.1037/h0027737. View

Greenberg S, Goshen-Gottstein Y . Not all faces are processed equally: evidence for featural rather than holistic processing of one's own face in a face-imaging task. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2009; 35(2):499-508. DOI: 10.1037/a0014640. View

Keyes H, Brady N . Self-face recognition is characterized by "bilateral gain" and by faster, more accurate performance which persists when faces are inverted. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2010; 63(5):840-7. DOI: 10.1080/17470211003611264. View

Chamberlain R, McManus I, Riley H, Rankin Q, Brunswick N . Local processing enhancements associated with superior observational drawing are due to enhanced perceptual functioning, not weak central coherence. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2012; 66(7):1448-66. DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2012.750678. View

Zhou G, Cheng Z, Zhang X, Wong A . Smaller holistic processing of faces associated with face drawing experience. Psychon Bull Rev. 2012; 19(2):157-62. DOI: 10.3758/s13423-011-0174-x. View

Brady N, Campbell M, Flaherty M . Perceptual asymmetries are preserved in memory for highly familiar faces of self and friend. Brain Cogn. 2005; 58(3):334-42. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2005.01.001. View

10.

Kanwisher N, Yovel G . The fusiform face area: a cortical region specialized for the perception of faces. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2006; 361(1476):2109-28. PMC: 1857737. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1934. View

11.

Longo M, Haggard P . An implicit body representation underlying human position sense. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010; 107(26):11727-32. PMC: 2900654. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003483107. View

12.

Little A, Jones B, Burt D, Perrett D . Preferences for symmetry in faces change across the menstrual cycle. Biol Psychol. 2007; 76(3):209-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.08.003. View

13.

Devue C, Bredart S . The neural correlates of visual self-recognition. Conscious Cogn. 2010; 20(1):40-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2010.09.007. View

14.

Young A, Hellawell D, Hay D . Configurational information in face perception. Perception. 1987; 16(6):747-59. DOI: 10.1068/p160747. View

15.

Gauthier I, Skudlarski P, Gore J, Anderson A . Expertise for cars and birds recruits brain areas involved in face recognition. Nat Neurosci. 2000; 3(2):191-7. DOI: 10.1038/72140. View

16.

Ramon M, Rossion B . Hemisphere-dependent holistic processing of familiar faces. Brain Cogn. 2011; 78(1):7-13. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.10.009. View

17.

Corradi-DellAcqua C, Hesse M, Rumiati R, Fink G . Where is a nose with respect to a foot? The left posterior parietal cortex processes spatial relationships among body parts. Cereb Cortex. 2008; 18(12):2879-90. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn046. View

18.

Shin M, Park S, Park S, Seol S, Kwon J . Clinical and empirical applications of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Nat Protoc. 2007; 1(2):892-9. DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2006.115. View

19.

Bredart S . Recognising the usual orientation of one's own face: the role of asymmetrically located details. Perception. 2003; 32(7):805-11. DOI: 10.1068/p3354. View

20.

Fuentes C, Pazzaglia M, Longo M, Scivoletto G, Haggard P . Body image distortions following spinal cord injury. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2012; 84(2):201-7. DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2012-304001. View