Holistic face perception is modulated by experience-dependent perceptual grouping

Disrupting perceptual grouping of face parts impairs holistic face processing

Face perception is widely believed to involve integration of facial features into a holistic perceptual unit, but the mechanisms underlying this integration are relatively unknown. We examined whether perceptual grouping cues influence a classic marker of holistic face perception, the "composite-face effect." Participants made same-different judgments about a cued part of sequentially presented...

Face Perception Is Modulated by Sexual Preference

Face perception is mediated by a distributed neural system in the human brain . The response to faces is modulated by cognitive factors such as attention, visual imagery, and emotion ; however, the effects of gender and sexual orientation are currently unknown. We used fMRI to test whether subjects would respond more to their sexually preferred faces and predicted such modulation in the reward ...

1 Holistic face perception

Prolonged Visual Experience in Adulthood Modulates Holistic Face Perception

BACKGROUND Using the well-known composite illusion as a marker of the holistic perception of faces, we tested how prolonged visual experience with a specific population of faces (4- to 6-year-old children) modulates the face perception system in adulthood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We report a face composite effect that is larger for adult than children faces in a group of adults without...

Experience-Dependent Perceptual Grouping and Object-Based Attention

Attention can be allocated to objects as well as locations, even if the objects are partially occluded. A fundamental question concerns the nature of the ‘objects’ of this attention. Recent studies show that objects can be defined based on Gestalt grouping principles, or based on familiarity. The effects of both grouping and familiarity can be understood in terms of amore general hypothesis: th...