Laying Eyes on Headlights: Eye Movements Suggest Facial Features in Cars

Humans’ proneness to see faces even in inanimate structures such as cars has long been noticed, yet empirical evidence is scarce. To examine this tendency of anthropomorphism, participants were asked to compare specific features (such as the eyes) of a face and a car front presented next to each other. Eye movement patterns indicated on which visual information participants relied to solve the task and clearly revealed the perception of facial features in cars, such as headlights as eyes or grille as nose. Most importantly, a predominance of headlights was found in attracting and guiding people’s gaze irrespective of the feature they were asked to compare – equivalent to the role of the eyes during face perception. This response to abstract configurations is interpreted as an adaptive bias of the respective inherent mechanism for face perception and is evolutionarily reasonable with regard to a »better safe than sorry« strategy

Galectin-3 Induces a Pro-degradative/inflammatory Gene Signature in Human Chondrocytes, Teaming Up with Galectin-1 in Osteoarthritis Pathogenesis

Inflammatory chemo-and cytokines and matrix-degrading proteases underlie the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Aiming to define upstream regulators for these disease markers, we pursued initial evidence for an upregulation of members of the adhesion/growth-regulatory galectin family. Immunohistochemical localization of galectin-3 (Gal-3) in sections of human cartilage with increasing levels of degeneration revealed a linear correlation reaching a chondrocyte positivity of 60%. Presence in situ was cytoplasmic, the lectin was secreted from OA chondrocytes in culture and binding of Gal-3 yielded lactose-inhibitable surface staining. Exposure of cells to the lectin led to enhanced gene expression and secretion of functional disease markers. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis broadened this result to reveal a pro-degradative/inflammatory gene signature under the control of NF-kappa B. Fittingly, targeting this route of activation by inhibitors impaired the unfavourable response to Gal-3 binding, as also seen by shortening the lectin's collagen-like repeat region. Gal-3's activation profile overlaps with that of homodimeric galectin-1 (Gal-1) and also has distinctive (supplementing) features. Tested at subsaturating concentrations in a mixture, we found cooperation between the two galectins, apparently able to team up to promote OA pathogenesis. In summary, our results suggest that a network of endogenous lectins is relevant for initiating this process cascade

Geometric morphometric approaches to facial shape and trait attribution

Die Geometrische Morphometrie ist eine relativ neue Entwicklung innerhalb der modernen Gestaltanalyse. Ihre Methoden ermöglichen es erstmals, die gesamte Geometrie von Gesichtsabmessungen während der Analyse zu erhalten und Fragen wie die folgenden zu beantworten: Welches Muster im Gesicht ist mit einem bestimmten Hormonlevel assoziiert, und welche Gesichtseigenschaften sind es genau, die einer bestimmten Wahrnehmung zugrundeliegen? Und wichtiger, was haben diese beiden gemeinsam? Antworten auf diese Fragen erfordern eine Verbindung von physischer Anthropologie und evolutionärer Psychologie. Die Dissertation beginnt mit einer Zusammenfassung der für diese Arbeit relevanten Methoden der geometrischen Morphometrie und ihrer rezenten Geschichte, welche auch das Konzept des Psychomorphospace beinhaltet, gefolgt von vier Publikationen, die zeigen, wie dieser neue methodische Zugang systematisch seit langem offene Fragen der Gesichterforschung testet. Zwei dieser Publikationen beschäftigen sich mit für Gesichtervariation ausschlaggebenden Faktoren (pränatales Testosteron, physische Stärke), die anderen beiden mit Ausprägungen von Formen, die zu einer gesichterähnlichen Interpretation führen. Für diese vier Untersuchungen wurden geometrisch morphometrische Methoden mit Bewertungsstudien kombiniert. Die fünfte Publikation behandelt die Analyse der Blickbewegung zur Erfassung der Übergeneralisierung der Gesichterwahrnehmung auf einer vorbewussten Ebene. Die Hauptergebnisse sind, dass – entgegen früheren Annahmen – Gesichtskorrelate der pränatalen Testosteronumgebung bereits vor der männlichen Pubertät identifiziert werden können. Und zweitens, dass Gesichtsmerkmale, die mit physischer Stärke in Zusammenhang stehen, bei adulten Männern einen näheren Bezug zu wahrgenommener Maskulinität und Dominanz als zu Attraktivität haben. Es wird des Weiteren gezeigt, dass die Attribuierung von Merkmalen zu nichtlebenden Objekten mit denselben Gestaltmerkmalen generalisiert wird. Insgesamt zeigt diese Dissertation eine fruchtbare Synthese zwischen Biologischer Anthropologie und den psychologischen Disziplinen sowohl in Hinblick auf methodische als auch inhaltliche Aspekte die Gesichterforschung betreffend. In dieser Hinsicht erwies sich die Geometrische Morphometrie als mächtiges Instrument.Geometric morphometrics is a fairly recent development in modern shape analysis. This suite of methods enables, for the first time, preserving the whole geometry of facial measurements throughout the analyses. Questions such as the following can be answered: What facial shape pattern is associated with a certain hormone level and which facial features exactly determine a certain rating of appearance? And more importantly, what do these patterns have in common? Answers to these questions provide a bridge between physical anthropology and evolutionary psychology. This thesis consists of a summary and recent history of geometric morphometric methods including the concept of the psychomorphospace, followed by four articles that show how this novel approach systematically tests long pending issues in face research. Two of these issues involve determinants of human facial shape variation (prenatal testosterone exposure, physical strength) and another two the determinants of shape that lead to face-like interpretations. To address these issues, geometric morphometric methods are combined with rating studies. A fifth article deals with the overgeneralization of face perception on a preconscious level through the analysis of gaze direction. The major findings are that—against previous hypotheses—facial correlates of prenatal testosterone exposure can be identified before male puberty. Secondly, facial shape features associated with physical strength in adult men are more closely related to perceived masculinity and dominance than to attractiveness. I show that these trait attributions are generalized to inanimate objects with the same shape patterns. Altogether, this thesis presents a strong case for the fruitful synthesis of biological anthropology and psychological disciplines in both methods and research topics concerned with facial shape. In this respect, geometric morphometrics proved to be a powerful promoter

Data from: BMI and WHR are reflected in female facial shape and texture: a geometric morphometric image analysis

Facial markers of body composition are frequently studied in evolutionary psychology and are important in computational and forensic face recognition. We assessed the association of body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with facial shape and texture (color pattern) in a sample of young Middle European women by a combination of geometric morphometrics and image analysis. Faces of women with high BMI had a wider and rounder facial outline relative to the size of the eyes and lips, and relatively lower eyebrows. Furthermore, women with high BMI had a brighter and more reddish skin color than women with lower BMI. The same facial features were associated with WHR, even though BMI and WHR were only moderately correlated. Yet BMI was better predictable than WHR from facial attributes. After leave-one-out cross-validation, we were able to predict 25% of variation in BMI and 10% of variation in WHR by facial shape. Facial texture predicted only about 3-10% of variation in BMI and WHR. This indicates that facial shape primarily reflects total fat proportion, rather than the distribution of fat within the body. The association of reddish facial texture in high-BMI women may be mediated by increased blood pressure and superficial blood flow as well as diet. Our study elucidates how geometric morphometric image analysis serves to quantify the effect of biological factors such as BMI and WHR to facial shape and color, which in turn contributes to social perception