Mooney Faces Research Articles

The effect of early visual deprivation on the development of face detection

The expertise of adults in face perception is facilitated by their ability to rapidly detect that a stimulus is a face. In two experiments, we examined the role of early visual input in the development of face detection by testing patients who had been treated as infants for bilateral congenital cataract. Experiment 1 indicated that, at age 9 to 20, patients' accuracy and response times on a Mooney face detection task were normal. Experiment 2 revealed that the neural mechanisms underlying face detection in a similar group of adult patients are abnormal: the amplitude of both the P100 and N170 event-related potential were larger in patients than in visually normal controls, and the extent of augmentation was related to the duration of deprivation. Thus, early visual experience is necessary for the establishment of normal neural networks for face detection; abnormalities at these early processing stages may contribute to the deficits we previously reported in configural face processing for this patient cohort.

The Aesthetic Aha: On the pleasure of having insights into Gestalt

Are challenging stimuli appreciated due to perceptual insights during elaboration? Drawing on the literature regarding aesthetic appreciation, several approaches can be identified. For instance, fluency of processing as well as perceptual challenge are supposed to increase appreciation: One group (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004) claims that fluency of processing increases appreciation. Others link aesthetics to engagement: Creation and manipulation of sense itself should be rewarding (Ramachandran & Hirstein, 1999). We experimentally tested the influence of insights during elaboration on liking. Pairs of stimuli – hardly detectable two-tone images including a face (Mooney face) and meaningless stimuli matched for complexity – were presented repeatedly. Having an insight as well as the intensity of the insight predicted subsequent gains in liking. This paper qualifies the role of insight (—aha!) on aesthetic appreciation through the effects of elaboration and problem-solving on understanding the processing of modern art.

Impaired Gamma-Band Activity during Perceptual Organization in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence for Dysfunctional Network Activity in Frontal-Posterior Cortices

Current theories of the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have focused on abnormal temporal coordination of neural activity in cortical circuits as a core impairment of the disorder. In the current study, we examined the possibility that gamma-band activity may be crucially involved in aberrant brain functioning in ASD. Magneto-encephalographic (MEG) data were recorded from 13 adult human participants with ASD and 16 controls during the presentation of Mooney faces. MEG data were analyzed in the 25-150 Hz frequency range and a beamforming approach was used to identify the sources of spectral power. Participants with ASD showed elevated reaction times and reduced detection rates during the perception of upright Mooney faces, while responses to inverted stimuli were in the normal range. Impaired perceptual organization in the ASD group was accompanied by a reduction in both the amplitude and phase locking of gamma-band activity. A beamforming approach identified distinct networks during perceptual organization in controls and participants with ASD. In controls, perceptual organization of Mooney faces involved increased 60-120 Hz activity in a frontoparietal network, while in the ASD group stronger activation was found in visual regions. These findings highlight the contribution of impaired gamma-band activity toward complex visual processing in ASD, suggesting atypical modulation of high-frequency power in frontoposterior networks.

Perception of Mooney faces by young infants: The role of local feature visibility, contrast polarity, and motion

We examined the ability of young infants (3- and 4-month-olds) to detect faces in the two-tone images often referred to as Mooney faces. In Experiment 1, this performance was examined in conditions of high and low visibility of local features and with either the presence or absence of the outer head contour. We found that regardless of the presence of the outer head contour, infants preferred upright over inverted two-tone face images only when local features were highly visible (Experiment 1a). We showed that this upright preference disappeared when the contrast polarity of two-tone images was reversed (Experiment 1b), reflecting operation of face-specific mechanisms. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether motion affects infants’ perception of faces in Mooney faces. We found that when the faces appeared to be rigidly moving, infants did show an upright preference in conditions of low visibility of local features (Experiment 2a). Again the preference disappeared when the contrast polarity of the image was reversed (Experiment 2b). Together, these results suggest that young infants have the ability to integrate fragmented image features to perceive faces from two-tone face images, especially if they are moving. This suggests that an interaction between motion and form rather than a purely motion-based process (e.g., structure from motion) facilitates infants’ perception of faces in ambiguous two-tone images.

The perception of two-tone Mooney faces in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Neurological experiments have revealed a complex network of areas in the human brain that respond more to faces than to other categories of objects and thus have been implemented in face categorization. The aim of this study was to investigate whether chimpanzees (n = 5), our closest living relatives, detect and categorize faces on the basis of first-order information, and whether this sensitivity is specific to faces or generalizes to other objects. In service to this aim, we created multiple categories of two-tone ‘Mooney’ objects (chimpanzee faces, shoes, human hands), because, by maximizing contrast, the Mooney transformation selectively degrades second-order information (the basis for individual discrimination in humans), leaving only first-order information intact. Two experiments used a 2AFC MTS procedure. The first experiment provided strong evidence that, like humans, chimpanzees categorize Mooney faces as faces. However, without second-order information, the chimpanzees could not match Mooney faces at the individual level. In Experiment 2, four of the five chimpanzees found it easier to categorize Mooney faces than Mooney shoes. Neurological evidence strongly indicates a dedicated neural mechanism for face categorization in the human brain, and our data suggest that chimpanzees share this level of specialization.

Neuroelectromagnetic Correlates of Perceptual Closure Processes

Perceptual closure refers to the coherent perception of an object under circumstances when the visual information is incomplete. Although the perceptual closure index observed in electroencephalography reflects that an object has been recognized, the full spatiotemporal dynamics of cortical source activity underlying perceptual closure processing remain unknown so far. To address this question, we recorded magnetoencephalographic activity in 15 subjects (11 females) during a visual closure task and performed beamforming over a sequence of successive short time windows to localize high-frequency gamma-band activity (60-100 Hz). Two-tone images of human faces (Mooney faces) were used to examine perceptual closure. Event-related fields exhibited a magnetic closure index between 250 and 325 ms. Time-frequency analyses revealed sustained high-frequency gamma-band activity associated with the processing of Mooney stimuli; closure-related gamma-band activity was observed between 200 and 300 ms over occipitotemporal channels. Time-resolved source reconstruction revealed an early (0-200 ms) coactivation of caudal inferior temporal gyrus (cITG) and regions in posterior parietal cortex (PPC). At the time of perceptual closure (200-400 ms), the activation in cITG extended to the fusiform gyrus, if a face was perceived. Our data provide the first electrophysiological evidence that perceptual closure for Mooney faces starts with an interaction between areas related to processing of three-dimensional structure from shading cues (cITG) and areas associated with the activation of long-term memory templates (PPC). Later, at the moment of perceptual closure, inferior temporal cortex areas specialized for the perceived object are activated, i.e., the fusiform gyrus related to face processing for Mooney stimuli.

Newborns' Mooney-Face Perception.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether newborns detect a face on the basis of a Gestalt representation based on first-order relational information (i.e., the basic arrangement of face features) by using Mooney stimuli. The incomplete 2-tone Mooney stimuli were used because they preclude focusing both on the local features (i.e., the fine details of the individual features) and on the second-order relational information (i.e., the distance between the internal elements); therefore, face detection can rely only on a Gestalt representation of a face. Two experiments were carried out by using a preferential looking procedure. Experiment 1 demonstrated that newborns prefer upright Mooney faces to inverted Mooney faces (180° rotated). Experiment 2 showed that newborns prefer a Mooney face as compared to a Mooney-like object equated for the number of elements in the upper part. Overall, the results indicate that newborns bind and organize the fragmentary parts of the Mooneized face stimulus into a whole and detect the first-order relations of a face on the basis of holistic processing.

Holistic crowding of Mooney faces

An object or feature is generally more difficult to identify when other objects are presented nearby, an effect referred to as crowding. Here, we used Mooney faces to examine whether crowding can also occur within and between holistic face representations (C. M. Mooney, 1957). Mooney faces are ideal stimuli for this test because no cues exist to distinguish facial features in a Mooney face; to find any facial feature, such as an eye or a nose, one must first holistically perceive the image as a face. Through a series of six experiments we tested the effect of crowding on Mooney face recognition. Our results demonstrate crowding between and within Mooney faces and fulfill the diagnostic criteria for crowding, including eccentricity dependence and lack of crowding in the fovea, critical flanker spacing consistent with less than half the eccentricity of the target, and inner-outer flanker asymmetry. Further, our results show that recognition of an upright Mooney face is more strongly impaired by upright Mooney face flankers than inverted ones. Taken together, these results suggest crowding can occur selectively between high-level representations of faces and that crowding must occur at multiple levels in the visual system.

18-Month-olds can perceive Mooney faces

The ability to detect facial information despite poor visual conditions is important for young infants. The present study investigated the developmental course of facial information detection by examining whether infants perceive Mooney faces, a well-studied type of impoverished face image. The 18-month-olds preferred upright Mooney faces to inverted ones, but 12- and 6-month-olds did not show any signs of discriminating the upright Mooney faces from inverted ones. These results indicate that 18-month-olds possess the ability to perceive Mooney faces, but definitive conclusions cannot be drawn regarding the ability to perceive Mooney faces in younger infants.

Spatial resolution of visual perception in 6- to 15-month-old infants

Event Abstract Back to Event Spatial resolution of visual perception in 6- to 15-month-old infants Faraz Farzin1* 1 University of California, Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, United States Conscious awareness of individual objects in the periphery is significantly limited, both in human infants and adults. This limit is not defined by reduced visual acuity outside the center of gaze (fovea), but by the density, or crowding, of objects. Crowding is the inability to identify individual objects when cluttered by other objects. Reflecting a fundamental limitation on the spatial resolution of the visual system, the size of the crowding region offers a measure of the resolution of visual attention or awareness. This resolution of conscious visual perception in infants is unknown. To measure the development of peripheral resolution in 6- to 15-month old infants we designed an eye-tracking paradigm to test crowding. Informed by infants’ innate preference for upright versus inverted faces, we presented pairs (one upright and one inverted) of Mooney faces, two-tone photographs that lack individual features and therefore can only be perceived as a face using holistic processing, and recorded infants’ first saccade away from central fixation to one of the faces. Faces were shown at three eccentricities, either in the presence or absence of surrounding flankers. Results reveal that infants can discriminate orientation of a Mooney face in the periphery and that flankers significantly impair discrimination at half the eccentricity of that found in adults. These findings are the first to characterize the resolution of conscious perception in infants. Conference: Conference on Neurocognitive Development, Berkeley, CA, United States, 12 Jul - 14 Jul, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Perception Citation: Farzin F (2009). Spatial resolution of visual perception in 6- to 15-month-old infants. Conference Abstract: Conference on Neurocognitive Development. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.10.004 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 06 Jul 2009; Published Online: 06 Jul 2009. * Correspondence: Faraz Farzin, University of California, Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, Davis, United States, ffarzin@ucdavis.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Faraz Farzin Google Faraz Farzin Google Scholar Faraz Farzin PubMed Faraz Farzin Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Holistic processing for faces operates over a wide range of sizes but is strongest at identification rather than conversational distances

How does holistic/configural processing, a key property of face perception, vary with distance from an observed person? Two techniques measured holistic processing in isolation from part-based contributions to face perception: salience bias to upright in transparency displays, and a difficult-to-see Mooney face. Results revealed an asymmetric inverted-U-shaped tuning to simulated observer-target distance (stimulus size and viewer-screen distance combinations). Holistic processing peaked at distances functionally relevant for identification during approach (2–10 m; equivalent head size = 6–1.3°), fell off steeply at closer distances functionally relevant for understanding emotional nuances and speech (.25–2 m), and operated over a very wide range of distances (from .46 to 23 m, 47.5–0.6°).

Altered early visual processing components in hallucination-prone individuals

Of the nonpathological general population, 0.5% experience one or more visual hallucinations on a regular basis without meeting the criteria for clinical psychosis. We investigated the relationship between a proneness to visual hallucinations in 'normal' individuals and early visual event-related potentials during the perception of faces, Mooney faces and scrambled Mooney faces. Findings indicated that individuals prone to visual hallucinations displayed significantly reduced early event-related potential components (P1, P2, but not N170) over parieto-temporal regions. These findings support previous suggestions that individuals who experience visual hallucinations exhibit abnormal early visual processing resulting from degraded visual input, in this case owing to disruption of low level visual processes.

Face processing stages: Impact of difficulty and the separation of effects

Cognitive models of face perception suggest parallel levels of processing yet there is little evidence of these levels in studies of brain function. Series of faces that engage different processes ((photographs, schematic and Mooney faces (incomplete two-tone faces)) were presented upright, inverted and scrambled; subjects performed a face/non-face discrimination while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Different patterns in N170 latency and amplitude provided evidence of multiple steps in face processing, which can be seen at the ERP level. We showed that first-order configural and holistic processing were evident at the N170. N170 latency indexed task difficulty for the upright faces, yet the face inversion effect was independent of difficulty. N170 amplitude inversion effect was unique to photographic faces. Separable ERP effects were found for the processing engaged by the three face types, although the P1 and N170 sources did not differ. Thus, it appears that common brain sources underlie the early processing stages for faces (reflected in the P1 and N170), whereas the P2 showed activation of primary visual areas for the non-photographic faces and reactivation of the same regions as the N170 for the photographic faces.

Holistic Processing of Faces: Learning Effects with Mooney Faces

The specialness of faces is seen in the face inversion effect, which disrupts the configural, but not the analytic, processing of faces. Mooney faces, which are processed holistically, allowed us to determine the contribution of holistic processing to the face inversion effect. As inverted Mooney faces are difficult to recognize as faces, we also included an intermediary training period for Mooney face recognition for half of the subjects. Early face-sensitive ERPs (N170 and P1) and P2 were measured. Behavioral data showed an increase in correct responses to inverted and upright Mooney faces after the learning phase for the experimental group. No effects were seen on P1. N170 latency did not vary with stimulus type before the intermediary phase, however, N170 amplitude was consistently larger for upright than inverted Mooney faces. After the intermediary exercise, N170 was delayed for inverted compared to upright Mooney faces. In contrast, for both groups of subjects P2 amplitude was larger for nonface stimuli, and P2 amplitude decreased after the intermediate task only for the subjects trained to recognize Mooney faces. As the usual inversion effect seen with photographic faces (delayed and larger N170) was not seen with Mooney faces, these data suggest that this effect on N170 is due to the recruitment of analytic processing. P2 reflected learning and a deeper processing of the stimuli that were not identifiable as faces.

EEG phase synchrony differences across visual perception conditions may depend on recording and analysis methods

Objective (1) To investigate the neural synchrony hypothesis by examining if there was more synchrony for upright than inverted Mooney faces, replicating a previous study; (2) to investigate whether inverted stimuli evoke neural synchrony by comparing them to a new scrambled control condition, less likely to produce face perception. Methods Multichannel EEG was recorded via nose reference while participants viewed upright, inverted, and scrambled Mooney face stimuli. Gamma-range spectral power and inter-electrode phase synchrony were calculated via a wavelet-based method for upright stimuli perceived as faces and inverted/scrambled stimuli perceived as non-faces. Results When the frequency of interest was selected from the upright condition exhibiting maximal spectral power responses (as in the previous study) greater phase synchrony was found in the upright than inverted/scrambled conditions. However, substantial synchrony was present in all conditions, suggesting that choosing the frequency of interest from the upright condition only may have been biased. In addition, artifacts related to nose reference contamination by micro-saccades were found to be differentially present across experimental conditions in the raw EEG. When frequency of interest was selected instead from each experimental condition and the data were transformed to a laplacian ‘reference free’ derivation, the between-condition phase synchrony differences disappeared. Spectral power differences were robust to the change in reference, but not the combined changes in reference and frequency selection criteria. Conclusions Synchrony differences between face/non-face perceptions depend upon frequency selection and recording reference. Optimal selection of these parameters abolishes differential synchrony between conditions. Significance Neural synchrony is present not just for face percepts for upright stimuli, but also for non-face percepts achieved for inverted/scrambled Mooney stimuli.

Isolating the special component of face recognition: peripheral identification and a Mooney face.

A previous finding argues that, for faces, configural (holistic) processing can operate even in the complete absence of part-based contributions to recognition. Here, this result is confirmed using 2 methods. In both, recognition of inverted faces (parts only) was removed altogether (chance identification of faces in the periphery; no perception of a particularly hard-to-see Mooney face). Recognition of upright faces (configural plus parts), however, remained good. The simplicity of these new "isolation" techniques makes them ideal for (a) assessing configural processing in specialist populations (e.g., children, object experts) and (b) exploring properties of configural processing for faces in detail. As an example of the latter, orientation tuning was tested. Results argue against models in which faces are rotated to upright prior to identification.

Neural responses to Mooney images reveal a modular representation of faces in human visual cortex

The way in which information about objects is represented in visual cortex remains controversial. One model of human object recognition poses that information is processed in modules, highly specialised for different categories of objects; an opposing model appeals to a distributed representation across a large network of visual areas. We addressed this debate by monitoring activity in face- and object-selective areas while human subjects viewed ambiguous face stimuli (Mooney faces). The measured neural response in the face-selective region of the fusiform gyrus was greater when subjects reported seeing a face than when they perceived the image as a collection of blobs. In contrast, there was no difference in magnetic resonance response between face and no-face perceived events in either the face-selective voxels of the superior temporal sulcus or the object-selective voxels of the parahippocampal gyrus and lateral occipital complex. These results challenge the concept that neural representation of faces is distributed and overlapping and suggest that the fusiform gyrus is tightly linked to the awareness of faces.

Prior knowledge about display inversion in biological motion perception.

Display inversion severely impedes veridical perception of point-light biological motion (Pavlova and Sokolov, 2000 Perception & Psychophysics 62 889-899; Sumi, 1984 Perception 13 283-286). Here, by using a spontaneous-recognition paradigm, we ask whether prior information about display orientation improves biological motion perception. Participants were shown a set of 180 degrees inverted point-light stimuli depicting a human walker and quadrupeds (dogs). In experiment 1, one group of observers was not aware of the orientation of stimuli, whereas the other group was told beforehand that stimuli will be presented upside down. In experiment 2, independent groups of participants informed about stimulus orientation saw the same set of stimuli, in each of which either a moving or a static background line was inserted. The findings indicate that information about display inversion is insufficient for reliable recognition of inverted point-light biological motion. Instead, prior information facilitates display recognition only when it is complemented by additional contextual elements. It appears that visual impressions from inverted point-light stimuli remain impenetrable with respect to one's knowledge about display orientation. The origins of orientation specificity in biological motion perception are discussed in relation to the recent neuroimaging data obtained with point-light stimuli and fragmented Mooney faces.

Is the N170 for faces cognitively penetrable? Evidence from repetition priming of Mooney faces of familiar and unfamiliar persons

Impoverished images of faces, two-tone Mooney faces, severely impair the ability to recognize to whom the face pertains. However, previously seeing the corresponding face in a clear format helps fame-judgments to Mooney faces. In the present experiment, we sought to demonstrate that enhancement in the perceptual encoding of Mooney faces results from top-down effects, due to previous activation of familiar face representation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained for target Mooney images of familiar and unfamiliar faces preceded by clear pictures portraying either the same photo (same photo prime), or a different photo of the same person (different photo prime) or a new unfamiliar face (no-prime). In agreement with previous findings the use of primes was effective in enhancing the recognition of familiar faces in Mooney images; this priming effect was larger in the same than in different photo priming condition. ERP data revealed that the amplitude of the N170 face-sensitive component was smaller when elicited by familiar than by unfamiliar face targets, and for familiar face targets primed by the same than by different photos (a graded priming effect). Because the priming effect was restricted to familiar faces and occurred at the peak of the N170, we suggest that the early perceptual stage of face processing is likely to be penetrable by the top-down effect due to the activation of face representations within the face recognition system.

The comparative efficacy and long-term effect of clozapine treatment on neuropsychological test performance

Previous studies have suggested that clozapine may improve neuropsychological test performance. The current study was designed to examine the comparative efficay and the long-term effect of clozapine (versus haloperidol), on neuropsychological test performance. Neuropsychological measures of executive/attention, visuospatial, and memory function were administered to schizophrenic patients at baseline, at the end of a 10-week double-blind study, and after 1 year of open clozapine treatment. Symptoms and funtcion ratings were obtained at the same time points. The 10-week double-blind study revealed significant group-by-time interactions for two measures: Categorical Fluency and WAIS-R Block Design. At the end of 1 year of open treatment there were significant improvements in Verbal Fluency, Mooney Faces Closure, and WAIS-R Block Design performance, and trend improvements in Stroop Color-Word Interference, Category Fluency, and WMS-R Logical Memory performance. Improvements in neuropsychological performance were unrelated to symptom changes. Change in selected neuropsychological measures were signigicantly correlated with improvement in quality of life. The results suggest that long-term clozapine treatment may have beneficial effects on a broad range of cognitive functions.