Face Recognition Difficulties Research Articles

Evidence for different visual processing strategy for non-face stimuli in developmental prosopagnosia

ABSTRACT We assembled a test battery to investigate developmental prosopagnosia (DP), a neurodevelopmental syndrome resulting in severe face recognition difficulties. To screen for general cognitive deficits that could explain poor face test performance, participants completed a fluid reasoning task using abstract shapes. This initial screening showed that DPs (n = 21) were more accurate than neurotypical controls (n = 90) but significantly slower, suggesting speed-accuracy trade-off. To address this, we calculated the Balanced Integration Score and found no group differences, highlighting that DPs clearly adopted a different strategy from controls. DPs’ longer response times (RT) on face tasks vs controls are commonly interpreted as evidence of impairment and of lengthy, atypical featural face processing. Our data suggest this interpretation may be unreliable since clear RT differences were also observed in two non-face tasks where DPs showed no accuracy impairment. Instead, slower RTs appear to reflect a strategy shift in DPs.

Face Feature Change Detection Ability in Developmental Prosopagnosia and Super-Recognisers.

In non-clinical populations, facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) may vary in their contribution to face identity perception. Changes to whole faces are easier to detect than changes to individual features, and eye changes are typically easier to detect than mouth changes, which in turn are easier to detect than nose changes. However, how this differs for people with face recognition difficulties (developmental prosopagnosia; DP) and for individuals with superior face recognition abilities (super-recognisers; SR) is not clear; although findings from previous studies have suggested differences, the nature of this difference is not understood. The aim of this study was to examine whether differences in the ability to detect feature changes in DPs and SRs were (a) quantitative, meaning that the pattern across feature changes remained the same but there was an overall upwards or downwards shift in performance, or (b) qualitative, meaning that the pattern across feature changes was different. Using a change detection task in which individual face features (eyes, nose, mouth) changed between sequentially presented faces, we found that while prosopagnosics showed a quantitative difference in performance with a downwards shift across all conditions, super-recognisers only showed qualitative differences: they were better able to detect when the face was the same and were marginally (but not non-significantly) worse at detecting when the eyes changed. Further, the only condition which distinguished between the three groups was the ability to identify when the same face was presented, with SRs being better than controls, and controls being better than DPs. Our findings suggest that, in feature-matching tasks, differences for DPs are due to them being overall worse at the task, while SRs use a qualitatively different strategy.

Human genetics of face recognition: discovery of MCTP2 mutations in humans with face blindness (congenital prosopagnosia).

Face recognition is important for both visual and social cognition. While prosopagnosia or face blindness has been known for seven decades and face-specific neurons for half a century, the molecular genetic mechanism is not clear. Here we report results after 17 years of research with classic genetics and modern genomics. From a large family with 18 congenital prosopagnosia (CP) members with obvious difficulties in face recognition in daily life, we uncovered a fully cosegregating private mutation in the MCTP2 gene which encodes a calcium binding transmembrane protein expressed in the brain. After screening through cohorts of 6589, we found more CPs and their families, allowing detection of more CP associated mutations in MCTP2. Face recognition differences were detected between 14 carriers with the frameshift mutation S80fs in MCTP2 and 19 noncarrying volunteers. Six families including one with 10 members showed the S80fs-CP correlation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging found association of impaired recognition of individual faces by MCTP2 mutant CPs with reduced repetition suppression to repeated facial identities in the right fusiform face area. Our results have revealed genetic predisposition of MCTP2 mutations in CP, 76 years after the initial report of prosopagnosia and 47 years after the report of the first CP. This is the first time a gene required for a higher form of visual social cognition was found in humans.

Alcohol Use Predicts Face Perception Impairments and Difficulties in Face Recognition

Background: Risky alcohol use is related to a variety of cognitive impairments, including memory and visuo-perceptual difficulties. Remarkably, no prior work has assessed whether usage of alcohol can predict difficulties perceiving facial identity. Objectives: Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether riskier alcohol consumption predicted impairments in face perception and self-reported difficulties in face recognition. Results: Participants (N = 239, male = 77) were over 18 years old and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Alcohol use was assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), while face recognition difficulties were determined by the 20-item Prosopagnosia Index questionnaire (PI20). A subsample of participants (N = 126, male = 51) completed the Cambridge Face Perception task (CFPT) to assess their face perception ability. Multiple linear regressions showed significant models of prediction on both face perception and face recognition when considering AUDIT score and age as predictors. Conclusion: This study suggested, for the first time, that risky alcohol use predicts both poorer visuo-perceptual processing for faces and self-reported difficulties in face recognition.

A randomized cross-over trial investigating the neurocognitive effects of acute exercise on face recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Difficulties in face recognition contribute to social-cognitive problems in autistic children. Evidence on behavioral interventions targeting this cognitive domain is limited. In non-autistic individuals, a single exercise session is known to elicit temporary benefits for several cognitive functions. Our study investigates whether acute aerobic exercise influences face recognition in autistic children. In a randomized order, 29 participants completed a 20-min moderately-intense cycling bout on an ergometer and a control condition. Before and after each condition, participants categorized Mooney faces and instruments during a computerized cognitive task. Simultaneously, the N170 component of event-related potentials and pupil size were recorded using electroencephalography and eyetracking, respectively. As indicated by a greater increase of reaction time in the exercise compared to the control condition, the results revealed impaired face recognition following aerobic exercise. This effect was accompanied by a lower decrease of the positive N170 amplitude and a trend towards a greater constriction of the pupil size in the exercise compared to the control condition. Our findings highlight the interplay of the physiological state and face recognition in autistic children. Exercise-induced impairments in this social-cognitive ability may be due to an interference with the learning effect that is typically seen for the structural encoding of faces.

A new Asian version of the CFMT: The Cambridge Face Memory Test - Chinese Malaysian (CFMT-MY).

The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) is one of the most important measures of individual differences in face recognition and for the diagnosis of prosopagnosia. Having two different CFMT versions using a different set of faces seems to improve the reliability of the evaluation. However, at the present time, there is only one Asian version of the test. In this study, we present the Cambridge Face Memory Test - Chinese Malaysian (CFMT-MY), a novel Asian CFMT using Chinese Malaysian faces. In Experiment 1, Chinese Malaysian participants (N = 134) completed two versions of the Asian CFMT and one object recognition test. The CFMT-MY showed a normal distribution, high internal reliability, high consistency and presented convergent and divergent validity. Additionally, in contrast to the original Asian CFMT, the CFMT-MY showed an increasing level of difficulties across stages. In Experiment 2, Caucasian participants (N = 135) completed the two versions of the Asian CFMT and the original Caucasian CFMT. Results showed that the CFMT-MY exhibited the other-race effect. Overall, the CFMT-MY seems to be suitable for the diagnosis of face recognition difficulties and could be used as a measure of face recognition ability by researchers who wish to examine face-related research questions such as individual differences or the other-race effect.

A Survey on Automated Student Attendance Management System Using Face Recognition

The old way of controlling attendance is obviously a time-consuming one that makes it tough for the person in charge to keep track of students attendance. A more practical biometric student attendance system is required as we transition from manual to automated labour, which will lessen these challenges. The issue of manual labour can be solved using a variety of biometric approaches. Face recognition is projected to be employed in the student attendance system since it is seen to be the finest biometric method. This studys major goal is to comprehend the work that has already been done on a facial recognition-based student attendance system. The current study performed a literature review of earlier works based on face recognition-based student attendance management systems. The methods, strategies, and difficulties of face recognition are described in this work. Regarding research based on facial recognition, there are several difficulties. This research suggested a camerabased student attendance system that used facial recognition technology to address this problem.

Smart office automation via faster R-CNN based face recognition and internet of things

Many constraints limit the accuracy level of classification of a face recognition system in smart office automation application, and these limitations make mask face recognition an important research area. In this research, a novel deep learning based Faster R-CNN which integrates with Internet of Things (IoT) to overcome the security issues in the office. The images of existing employees were gathered in a database and these images are pre-processed to train the neural network. Faster R-CNN employs VGG-16 as the foundation of its architecture to extract the features from pre-processed pictures. The recent development in Internet of Things (IoT) and deep learning have made it possible to addressing the difficulties of face recognition with deep neural network. Based on the feature classification, when a member of an organization approaches the door, it instantly opens. The door remains locked if it is an unknown individual. The images of a both authorized and unauthorized person were stored in a cloud and send it to the office manager for monitoring. The proposed Faster R-CNN model attain the accuracy range 99.3% better than the existing system. The proposed Faster R-CNN improves the overall accuracy ranges of 2.06%, 5.63%, 9.36%, and 3.54% better than Deep CNN, SVM, LBPH, and OMTCNN respectively.

The ability of patients with Parkinson's disease to recognize masked faces during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to evaluate the difficulties of PwP in recognizing masked faces during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 64 PwP, 58 age-matched older healthy controls (OHCs), and 61 younger healthy controls (YHCs) were included in the study. The Benton Face Recognition Test - short form (BFRT-sf) and the 13-item questionnaire on face recognition difficulties due to masks during the pandemic developed by the authors were applied to all three study groups. Both the PwP and OHC groups scored worse in BFRT-sf when compared with the YHC group (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). The number of those who had difficulty in recognizing people seen every day and the number of those who asked people to remove their masks because they did not recognize them were higher in the PWP group (p=0.026 and p=0.002, respectively). The number of individuals who looked at the posture and gait of people when they did not recognize their masked faces and those who stated that this difficulty affected their daily lives were higher in the OHC group (p=0.002 and p=0.009, respectively). The number of participants whose difficulty in recognizing masked faces decreased over time was higher in the YHC group (p=0.003). The PwP group demonstrated similar performance to their peers but differed from the YHC group in recognizing masked faces. Knowing difficulties experienced by elderly people in recognizing people who are masked can increase awareness on this issue and enhance their social interaction in pandemic conditions through measures to be taken.

Feature fusion capsule network for cow face recognition

There are many difficulties in cow face recognition, including variable individual poses, challenges in collecting individual data, complex image backgrounds, etc. An improved capsule network (CapsNet) was used to solve these problems. First, we combined convolutional and local binary pattern (LBP) texture features with a feature extractor named C-LBP. Then, by utilizing the self-attention module, the feature extraction capability was enhanced. An intermediate capsule layer was added to improve capsules utilization. We tested our model on datasets of cow faces. According to the experimental data, the proposed model improved the structure of the original CapsNet. In the middle of the training, positional data was added, giving the model a higher performance and greater resilience in cow face recognition.

New evidence of impaired expression recognition in developmental prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by lifelong face recognition difficulties. To date, it remains unclear whether or not individuals with DP experience impaired recognition of facial expressions. It has been proposed that DPs may have sufficient perceptual ability to correctly interpret facial expressions when tasks are relatively easy (e.g., the stimuli are unambiguous and viewing conditions are optimal), but exhibit subtle impairments when tested under more challenging conditions. In the present study, we sought to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to test this view.It is well-established that the surgical-type masks worn during the pandemic hinder the recognition and interpretation of facial emotion in typical participants. Relative to typical participants, we hypothesized that DPs may be disproportionately impaired when asked to interpret the facial emotion of people wearing face masks. We compared the ability of 34 DPs and 60 age-matched typical controls to recognize facial emotions i) when the whole face is visible, and ii) when the lower portion of the face is covered with a surgical mask. When expression stimuli were viewed without a mask, the DPs and typical controls exhibited similar levels of performance. However, when expression stimuli were shown with a mask, the DPs showed signs of subtle expression recognition deficits. The DPs were particularly prone to mislabeling masked expressions of happiness as emotion neutral. These results add to a growing body of evidence that under some conditions, DPs do exhibit subtle deficits of expression recognition.

Face recognition improvements in adults and children with face recognition difficulties.

While there have been decades of clinical and theoretical interest in developmental and acquired face recognition difficulties, very little work has examined their remediation. Here, we report two studies that examined the efficacy of an existing face training programme in improving face-processing skills in adults and children with developmental face recognition impairments. The programme has only been trialled in typical children to date, where 2 weeks of perceptual training (modelled on an adapted version of the popular family game Guess Who?) resulted in face-specific improvements for memory but not perception after 2 weeks of training. In Study 1, we performed a randomized, parallel groups, placebo-controlled trial of the same programme in 20 adults with a pre-existing diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Assessment tasks were administered immediately before and after training, and 2 weeks later. Face-specific gains in memory (but not perception) were observed in the experimental group and were greatest in those with the poorest face recognition skills at entry. These gains persisted 2 weeks after training ceased. In Study 2, a case-series approach was used to administer the experimental version of the training programme to four children who presented with difficulties in face recognition. Improvements in face memory were observed in three of the participants; while one also improved at face perception, there was mixed evidence for the face specificity of these gains. Together, these findings suggest plasticity in the human face recognition system through to at least mid-adulthood and also pave the way for longer-term implementations of the face training programme that will likely elicit greater gains in both adults and children.

Masked face recognition in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundFace and facial expression recognition abilities have been frequently evaluated in the assessment of social cognition disorders in patients with MS. Investigation of the effect of new difficulties emerging in the field of face recognition with the widespread use of masks during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on patients with MS may make new contributions to the literature.Material and methodsThe study included 44 patients with relapsing–remitting MS (RRMSp) and 51 controls who were matched to the case group in terms of age and education level. The Benton face recognition test-short form (BFRT-sf), Beck Depression Inventory, a close-ended 13-item survey on face recognition difficulties due to mask use during the pandemic was administered to all groups.ResultsIn the RRMSp, the mean disease duration was 8.2 ± 5.6, the mean EDSS score was 1.2 ± 1.0, and the mean MOCA test score was 27.23 ± 2.08. The mean BFRTsf was 19.9 ± 2.4 in the RRMSp and 21.6 ± 1.8 in the healthy controls.Twenty-five percent of RRMSp and 4% of the healthy controls required people to remove their masks to be able to recognize their faces. Improvement in face recognition difficulty over time was reported as 80% in the healthy controls and 34% in the RRMSp.ConclusionRRMSp had worse performance in masked face recognition and required removal of the facial masks more often than healthy controls to recognize the faces. RRMS patients did not show as much improvement in recognizing masked faces over time according to the onset of the pandemic as healthy controls.

Context-Aware Contribution Estimation for Feature Aggregation in Video Face Recognition

The difficulties in video-based face recognition, such as dramatic pose variations and low quality, can be alleviated by leveraging the rich complementary information between the frames. However, limited by the mini-batch training strategy, the current deep learning methods only utilizes the frames in each batch during training, which ignore the context of the entire video. In this paper, we propose a context-aware feature aggregation scheme to aggregate complementary information between different frames. Firstly, a two-branch structure is designed as the Context-aware feature Aggregation Network (CAN). Secondly, a context-aware training strategy using context bank is proposed, which alleviates the limitation of mini-batch samples by using the context of the entire video or several images belonging to the same ID and thus achieves global contribution estimation result. Comparative studies on benchmark datasets, such as IJB-C, YouTube Face (YTF), PaSC and COX, confirm that the proposed approach can achieve state-of-the-art level. Meanwhile, qualitative analysis on Multi-PIE dataset indicates that the contribution learned by the CAN is reasonable and beneficial to video face recognition.

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment.

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) is a self-report questionnaire used for quantifying prosopagnosic traits. This scale is intended to help researchers identify cases of developmental prosopagnosia by providing standardized self-report evidence to complement diagnostic evidence obtained from objective computer-based tasks. In order to respond appropriately to items, prosopagnosics must have some insight that their face recognition is well below average, while non-prosopagnosics need to understand that their relative face recognition ability falls within the typical range. There has been considerable debate about whether participants have the necessary insight into their face recognition abilities to respond appropriately. In the present study, we sought to determine whether the PI20 provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment. In keeping with the intended use of the instrument, we used PI20 scores to identify two groups: high-PI20 scorers (those with self-reported face recognition difficulties) and low-PI20 scorers (those with no self-reported face recognition difficulties). We found that participant groups distinguished on the basis of PI20 scores clearly differed in terms of their mean performance on objective measures of face recognition ability. We also found that high-PI20 scorers were more likely to achieve levels of face recognition accuracy associated with developmental prosopagnosia.

Persisting Prosopagnosia due to COVID-19

COVID-19 causes neurological problems including the loss of smell and taste (Mao et al., 2020), long-lasting memory, speech, and language impairments (Davis et al., 2020), and psychosis (Varatharaj et al, 2020). Visual problems have also been reported but no detailed case studies of the effects of COVID-19 on visual functions have been reported (Mao et al., 2020). Here, we provide the first report of a case of prosopagnosia following COVID-19. Annie is a 26-year-old woman who contracted COVID-19 in March 2020. She first noticed face recognition difficulties in June 2020 which have persisted for more than six months. Annie’s difficulties affect the recognition of faces that she is extremely familiar with. For example, when talking to her father she had the feeling that “My father’s voice came out of a stranger’s face.” On four tests of facial identity recognition (CFMT, Famous Faces, Old-New, Doppelganger), Annie showed clear impairments. She also scored more than one standard deviation below mean on the Cambridge Face Perception Test. In contrast, Annie scored normally on visual recognition tests involving objects and scenes, and on non-visual memory tests. Navigational deficits are common in acquired prosopagnosia (Schmidt, 2015), and Annie has noticed that her navigational abilities are substantially worse than they were before she became ill. She reports that she now has to think about where the dairy section is in her grocery store, she gets lost frequently, and has trouble finding her car in parking lots. Annie is the first documented case exhibiting selective impairments to face processing and navigation as a consequence of COVID-19. Whether a COVID-19 induced stroke caused Annie’s impairments is currently being assessed through MRI scans. Survey data we collected from 83 additional COVID-19 survivors indicates that navigational, object, and scene processing difficulties are not uncommon in COVID-19 survivors even after recovery.

Face memory and face perception in autism.

It has been argued that autistic individuals have difficulties with face memory but typical face perception. However, only one previous study has examined both face memory and face perception in the same individuals, and this study was conducted with a small group of autistic children. Here, face recognition was examined with a group of autistic adults using two face perception tasks (including one designed to avoid a neurotypical bias) and a standard test of face memory. Self-reported face recognition difficulties in everyday life were also recorded. The group of adults with autism scored lower than a matched neurotypical control group on all face tasks and reported more problems with face recognition in everyday life. On the whole, results suggest difficulties with both face perception and face memory in autistic adults, although it should be noted that a wide range of scores were recorded from the autistic individuals, with some scoring in the neurotypical range.Lay abstractIt is well known that some people with autism have difficulties recognizing faces. It is generally thought that this is not because autistic individuals cannot perceive faces, but because autistic individuals have greater problems than people without autism in remembering faces. Here, we worked with a group of autistic adults and a group of non-autistic adults to test their ability to perceive and remember faces. We also asked each person to report any difficulties that they have with recognizing faces in everyday life. We find that, as a group, people with autism have difficulties with both remembering and perceiving faces, and report more problems recognizing faces in everyday life. However, it is worth noting that we observed a wide range of scores in the group of people with autism, with some autistic participants scoring as well as the group of people without autism.

Autistic Traits are Associated with Less Precise Perceptual Integration of Face Identity.

Face recognition difficulties are common in autism and could be a consequence of perceptual atypicalities that disrupt the ability to integrate current and prior information. We tested this theory by measuring the strength of serial dependence for faces (i.e. how likely is it that current perception of a face is biased towards a previously seen face) across the broader autism phenotype. Though serial dependence was not weaker in individuals with more autistic traits, more autistic traits were associated with greater integration of less similar faces. These results suggest that serial dependence is less specialised, and may not operate optimally, in individuals with more autistic traits and could therefore be a contributing factor to autism-linked face recognition difficulties.

Face perception predicts affective theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder but not schizophrenia or typical development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SCZ) have overlapping symptomatology related to difficulties with social cognition. Yet, few studies have directly compared social cognition in ASD, SCZ, and typical development (TD). The current study examined individual differences in face recognition and its relation to affective theory of mind (ToM) in each diagnostic group. Adults with ASD (n = 31), SCZ (n = 43), and TD (n = 47) between the ages of 18 and 48 years-old with full scale IQ above 80 participated in this study. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measured affective ToM, and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) measured face perception. Adults with ASD and SCZ did not differ in their affective ToM abilities, and both groups showed affective ToM difficulties compared with TD. However, better face recognition ability uniquely predicted better affective ToM ability in ASD. Results suggest that affective ToM difficulties may relate to face processing in ASD but not SCZ. By clarifying the complex nature of individual differences in affective ToM and face recognition difficulties in these disorders, the present study suggests there may be divergent mechanisms underlying pathways to social dysfunction in ASD compared with SCZ. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Visual Imagery Vividness Extremes: Aphantasia versus Hyperphantasia.

Although Galton recognized in the 1880s that some individuals lack visual imagery, this phenomenon was mostly neglected over the following century. We recently coined the terms “aphantasia” and “hyperphantasia” to describe visual imagery vividness extremes, unlocking a sustained surge of public interest. Aphantasia is associated with subjective impairment of face recognition and autobiographical memory. Here we report the first systematic, wide-ranging neuropsychological and brain imaging study of people with aphantasia (n = 24), hyperphantasia (n = 25), and midrange imagery vividness (n = 20). Despite equivalent performance on standard memory tests, marked group differences were measured in autobiographical memory and imagination, participants with hyperphantasia outperforming controls who outperformed participants with aphantasia. Face recognition difficulties and autistic spectrum traits were reported more commonly in aphantasia. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory highlighted reduced extraversion in the aphantasia group and increased openness in the hyperphantasia group. Resting state fMRI revealed stronger connectivity between prefrontal cortices and the visual network among hyperphantasic than aphantasic participants. In an active fMRI paradigm, there was greater anterior parietal activation among hyperphantasic and control than aphantasic participants when comparing visualization of famous faces and places with perception. These behavioral and neural signatures of visual imagery vividness extremes validate and illuminate this significant but neglected dimension of individual difference.