Face perception: an approach to the study of autism

The autistic child's ability to identify others' faces and their expressions was investigated in comparison with the ability of non-autistic children. A study of the children's ability to identify peers' from isolated facial areas revealed that the autistic children were abnormally good at this task. Reasons for these findings were investigated in a series of experiments which revealed that the autistic children were also abnormally good at recognising inverted faces and inverted text. The conclusion was drawn that the autistic children's performance was due to their possessing a perceptual integration deficit which prevents them seeing stimuli like faces and words as meaningful wholes. This was investigated further by tests of their ability to discern facial expression and the results of these studies supported the above conclusion. Tests of the children's ability to lip read revealed that the autistic children also had problems with between modality perceptual integration. Studies of their ability to produce facial expressions showed them to be poor at both spontaneous and elicited expressions. Further, whilst they were as good as controls at copying facial expression, they were less able to make use of visual feedback to improve their attempts. This was seen as further evidence for a perceptual integration deficit. Finally, a computerised study of autistic children's eye movements whilst viewing live facial expressions and other stimuli supported much of the previous findings, adding the finding that they had abnormally brief visual fixation times and that they engaged in very few feature-to-feature gaze shifts. The results were discussed and found to favour a theory in which the autistic child's problems with social and communicative competence are linked to his problems with perceptual integration. The possession versus the use of abilities was discussed, as was possible sites of neurological damage, and the possibility that autistic children lack some vital usually 'innate' abilities and propensities

Perceptual Styles of Left- and Right-Lookers

The left and right hemispheres have unique modes of processing data: the former verbal-analytic, the latter spatial-holistic. Dominant direction of lateral eye movement on answering reflective questions has been interpreted as indicating differential contralateral hemispheric activation and, by inference, predominant reliance on one or the other mode. This study tested the hypothesis that neurological organization of the brain underlies and unifies individual perceptual, cognitive, and personality style differences. Right-lookers were expected to be more obsessive-compulsive and to obtain a predicted pattern of test scores congruent with left hemispheric characteristics, while left-lookers were expected to be more hysteroid and to obtain a contrasting pattern of scores. Predictions regarding sex differences were also made. Forty-three right-handed undergraduate psychology students from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, were solicited from subjects screened for dominant direction of lateral eye movement in a related study: 11 male left-lookers, 9 male right-lookers, 12 female left-lookers, 11 female right-lookers (percentage of unilateral eye movements, 63-100%). Subjects (compensated $10.00 each) were tested individually, completing the Hysteroid:Obsessoid Questionnaire, the Rorschach Inkblot Test (following Exner\u27s Comprehensive System guidelines), with pre- and post-administrations of the State Anxiety Inventory. A 2 x 2 factorial design was utilized with independent variables \u27sex\u27 and \u27direction of lateral eye movement.\u27 An Analysis of Variance on 53 variables yielded a significant interaction on 5, with trends on 3, and significant main effects on 11, with trends on 10. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance on 4 variables yielded no overall group effect. Factor Analysis of 53 variables produced 13 factors, accounting for 86% of the variance. A Discriminant Function Analysis of these factors produced no overall effect for the independent variables or their interaction; the Analysis of Variance portion of this procedure indicated a trend on one factor. No clear patterns in test scores emerged, some results were unpredicted or contrary to expectation, and sex differences appeared important. It was concluded that critical Rorschach scoring issues need to be resolved, that sample population characteristics may be implicated, and that use of the lateral eye movement phenomenon to determine hemispheric dominance may be inadequate

The unity of the senses

Citation: Hanson, Esther Elizabeth. The unity of the senses. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1903.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: The parts of the human body that chiefly interests the student of mental science are the nerves and nerve centers, principally collected in the brain, the organs of sense, and the muscular system. The brain is the principal organ of the mind. We know that the brain is the principal organ of the mind from the local feelings that we experience during mental excitement. In most cases of bodily irritation, we can assign the place or seat of the disturbance. In ordinary circumstances we have no local consciousness of mental action, but in time of great mental agitation, or after some usual exertion of thought, the aching or oppression in the head tells where the seat of action is, precisely as aching limbs prove what muscles have been exercised during a long day's march. If the brain is diseased or injured it impairs in some way or another the power of the mind. For example, if a person receives a blow on the head it will destroy consciousness for a time. The nervous system may be divided into two parts. First, the central nervous system, consisting of the brain and the spinal cord. Second, the peripheral nervous system. We may include under the peripheral nervous system the nerve fibers running from the central system to the various parts of the body, and all collections of nerve cells outside of the great central nervous organs. In the part last mentioned are included the nervous mechanisms of the ear, eye, tongue, nose, skin, viscera and the nerves connecting them with the brain or spinal cord. The units of the nervous system are the nerve fibers, and nerve cells. We find that the entire nervous system is formed on a uniform plan. Cells or aggregations of cells, are joined to each other by nerve fibers; and all are connected directly with the brain

Using Computational Models to Understand ASD Facial Expression Recognition Patterns

Recent advances in computer vision have led to interest in studying how computer vision can simulate our own perception to better understand the intricacies of human neurobiology. Researchers have made strides in computer vision to imitate many facets of human perception, such as object detection, character recognition, and face identification. However, there have been fewer studies that try to model atypical human perception. My thesis focuses specifically on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their deficit in the facial expression recognition (FER) task. I built multiple computer vision models using hand-crafted features and also convolutional neural network architectures to explain the differences of facial expression recognition between typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with ASD. The models I created that resembled varying levels of configural processing support the hypothesis that diminished configural processing contributes to the FER deficit in individuals with ASD. The models that resembled different areas focus do not support the hypothesis that eye-avoidance and therefore focus on the bottom half of the face contributes to the FER deficit in individuals with ASD

Maori facial tattoo (Ta Moko): implications for face recognition processes.

Ta Moko is the art of the Maori tattoo. It was an integral aspect of Maori society and is currently seeing resurgence in popularity. In particular it is linked with ancestry and a sense of “Maori” pride. Ta Moko is traditionally worn by Maori males on the buttocks and on the face, while Maori women wear it on the chin and lips. With curvilinear lines and spiral patterns applied to the face with a dark pigment, the full facial Moko creates a striking appearance. Given our reliance on efficiently encoding faces this transformation could potentially interfere with how viewers normally process and recognise the human face (e.g. configural information). The pattern’s effects on recognising identity, expression, race, speech, and gender are considered, and implications are drawn, which could help wearers and viewers of Ta Moko understand why sustained attention (staring) is drawn to such especially unique faces

Relative Hemispheric Involvement During Arousal and Inhibition of Affect

The predominant view of hemispheric contributions to emotional ity focuses upon the inherent emotionality of the right hemisphere, in contrast to the logical, rational, nonemotional characteristics of the left hemisphere. However, recent research has also implicated contri butions of the left hemisphere during affective arousal (d\u27Elia & Perris, 1973, 1974; Ehrlichman & Wiener, Notes 10, 11; Harman & Ray, 1977; Tucker, Antes, Stenslie & Barnhardt, 1978; Tucker, Roth & Shearer, Note 7). Some reports have implicated the left hemisphere in negative affect (Ehrlichman & Wiener, Notes 10, 11; Harman & Ray, 1977), and the right hemisphere in positive affect (Ehrlichman & Wiener, Notes 10, 11). Others have suggested interactional conceptualizations of hemispheric contributions to emotionality (e.g., Bakan, Note 5; Galin, 1974, 1977; Tucker, Note 12), for which tentative empirical support has been reported (Tucker, Antes, Stenslie & Barnhardt, 1978; Tucker, Roth & Shearer, Note 7). From an interactional viewpoint, a given hemisphere is neither inherently rational or emotional, nor inherently positive or negative: subjective emotion is a result of the interaction between the primitive, spontaneous right hemisphere and the inhibiting, constricting left hemisphere. The present study sought to lend direction to further theorizing about the role of the cerebral hemispheres in emotionality through vary ing both the positive vs. negative dimension of the affective state, and the inhibitory vs. facilitative orientation with which the individual approaches affective arousal. Sexual arousal and aversive arousal were chosen as prototypic examples of affective arousal with positive and negative valences, respectively. Prescreened sexual and aversive slides were shown individually to 48 Introductory Psychology students (24 males, 24 females), under instructions to either facilitate or inhibit arousal. During each of the four counterbalanced, within-subjects con ditions (i.e., positive-inhibit, positive-facilitate, negative-inhibit, negative-facilitate), relative hemispheric activation was assessed via an index of auditory attentional bias (Kinsbourne, 1970; Tucker, Antes, Stenslie & Barnhardt, 1978). No direct indication of differential hemispheric involvement, as evidenced by mean attentional bias across conditions, was observed for the grouped data; a slight right bias was evident across conditions. Prediction of attentional bias using subject involvement ratings sug gested that both success in generating aversive arousal and lack of suc cess in inhibiting aversive arousal were accompanied by relatively greater right hemisphere involvement. However, greater right hemisphere activation was characterized by less physical arousal, thus emphasizing the heterogeneous nature of aversive arousal. Trait Anxiety Inventory, Sex-Guilt Inventory, and Stroop Color-Word Test scores were not effec tive predictors of attentional bias. Under instructions to facilitate arousal, subjects tended to report cognition characterized by imagery, global perception of the slides, and absence of internal verbal dialogue. Under instructions to inhibit arousal, subjects tended to report cognition characterized by internal verbal dialogue, analytic perception of the slides, and absence of imagery. Parallels were drawn between the differential cognitive strategies reported by subjects across the facilitation vs. inhibition dimension, and the differential processing characteristics of the cere bral hemispheres. These categorical data suggest relatively greater right hemisphere involvement during facilitation of arousal and rela tively greater left hemisphere involvement during inhibition of arousal, across both positive and negative affect. This result was not corrobo rated by attentional bias data; possible difficulties with the atten- tional bias paradigm are discussed. The attentional bias data do not support earlier reports that the left hemisphere is characterized by negative affect (Ehrlichman & Wiener, Notes 10, 11; Harman & Ray, 1977), while the right hemisphere is characterized by positive affect (Ehrlichman & Wiener, Notes 10, 11). In the present study, the facilitation of aversive arousal was character ized by less left and more right hemispheric involvement, while the results for sexual arousal were insignificant. Categorical analyses of subjects\u27 descriptions of their experience provide tentative support for a model of hemispheric contributions to emotionality which focuses upon the interaction between an inhibiting, constricting left hemisphere and a primitive, spontaneous right hemisphere. Implications for future research, psychopathology, and psychotherapy are discussed

The improvement of teaching music in the elementary grades through the application of psychological principles

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston Universit

Understanding the role of configural processing in face emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease

This investigation examined whether impairment in configural processing could explain deficits in face emotion recognition in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Stimuli from the Radboud Faces Database were used to compare recognition of four negative emotion expressions by older adults with PD (n=16) and matched controls (n=17). Participants were tasked with categorising emotional expressions from upright and inverted whole faces and facial composites; it is difficult to derive configural information from these two types of stimuli so featural processing should play a larger than usual role in accurate recognition of emotional expressions. We found that the PD group were impaired relative to controls in recognising anger, disgust and fearful expressions in upright faces. Then, consistent with a configural processing deficit, participants with PD showed no composite effect when attempting to identify facial expressions of anger, disgust and fear. A face inversion effect, however, was observed in the performance of all participants in both the whole faces and facial composites tasks. These findings can be explained in terms of a configural processing deficit if it is assumed that the disruption caused by facial composites was specific to configural processing, whereas inversion reduced performance by making it difficult to derive both featural and configural information from faces

Gaze Fixation during the Perception of Visual and Auditory Affective Cues

The accurate integration of audio-visual emotion cues is critical for social interactions and requires efficient processing of facial cues. Gaze behavior of typically developing young adults was measured via eye-tracking during the perception of dynamic audio-visual emotion (DAVE) stimuli. Participants were able to identify basic emotions (angry, fearful, happy, neutral) and determine the congruence of facial expression and prosody. Perception of incongruent videos resulted in increased reaction times and emotion identification consistent with the facial expression. Participants consistently demonstrated a featural processing approach across all tasks, with a significant preference for the eyes. Evidence of hemispheric lateralization was indicated by preferential fixation to the left (happy, angry) or right eye (fearful). Fixation patterns differed according to the facially expressed emotion, with the pattern that emerged during fearful movies supporting the significance of automatic threat processing. Finally, fixation pattern during the perception of incongruent movies varied according to task instructions