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Gandolfo M, Abassi E, Balgova E, Downing PE, Papeo L, Koldewyn K. Converging evidence that left extrastriate body area supports visual sensitivity to social interactions. Curr Biol 2024; 34:343-351.e5. [PMID: 38181794 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Revised: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
Navigating our complex social world requires processing the interactions we observe. Recent psychophysical and neuroimaging studies provide parallel evidence that the human visual system may be attuned to efficiently perceive dyadic interactions. This work implies, but has not yet demonstrated, that activity in body-selective cortical regions causally supports efficient visual perception of interactions. We adopt a multi-method approach to close this important gap. First, using a large fMRI dataset (n = 92), we found that the left hemisphere extrastriate body area (EBA) responds more to face-to-face than non-facing dyads. Second, we replicated a behavioral marker of visual sensitivity to interactions: categorization of facing dyads is more impaired by inversion than non-facing dyads. Third, in a pre-registered experiment, we used fMRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation to show that online stimulation of the left EBA, but not a nearby control region, abolishes this selective inversion effect. Activity in left EBA, thus, causally supports the efficient perception of social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Gandolfo
- Donders Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen 6525GD, the Netherlands; Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor LL572AS, Gwynedd, UK.
| | - Etienne Abassi
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Marc Jeannerod, Lyon 69500, France
| | - Eva Balgova
- Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor LL572AS, Gwynedd, UK; Department of Psychology, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3UX, Ceredigion, UK
| | - Paul E Downing
- Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor LL572AS, Gwynedd, UK
| | - Liuba Papeo
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Marc Jeannerod, Lyon 69500, France
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor LL572AS, Gwynedd, UK.
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2
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Chen N, Nakamura K, Watanabe K. Red biases sex categorization of human bodies. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1234417. [PMID: 37744612 PMCID: PMC10512458 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1234417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Color is associated with gender information (e.g., red-female). However, little has been known on the effect of color on sex recognition of human bodies. This study aimed to investigate whether the color red could influence the categorization of human bodies by sex, and the effect of contextual information. Visual stimuli were created using body silhouettes varying along the waist-to-hip ratio from female to male shapes. These stimuli were presented in conjunction with red, green, and gray colors, which were used either as body color (Experiment 1) or background color (Experiment 2). Participants were instructed to categorize the sex of the body stimuli as either male or female by pressing labeled keys. The results showed that when red was used as a body color, it induced a bias toward feminine body perception, while when used as a background color, it induced a bias toward masculine body perception. Thus, the color red influenced the sex categorization of human bodies, which being modulated by contextual information. These findings provided novel insights into the effect of contextual color cues in sex recognition of human bodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Na Chen
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Koyo Nakamura
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Katsumi Watanabe
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
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3
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Hu Y, O'Toole AJ. First impressions: Integrating faces and bodies in personality trait perception. Cognition 2023; 231:105309. [PMID: 36347653 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Faces and bodies spontaneously elicit personality trait judgments (e.g., trustworthy, dominant, lazy). We examined how trait information from the face and body combine to form first impressions of the whole person and whether trait judgments from the face and body are affected by seeing the whole person. Consistent with the trait-dependence hypothesis, Experiment 1 showed that the relative contribution of the face and body to whole-person perception varied with the trait judged. Agreeableness traits (e.g., warm, aggressive, sympathetic, trustworthy) were inferred primarily from the face, conscientiousness traits (e.g., dependable, careless) from the body, and extraversion traits (e.g., dominant, quiet, confident) from the whole person. A control experiment showed that both clothing and body shape contributed to whole-person judgments. In Experiment 2, we found that a face (body) rated in the whole person elicited a different rating than when it was rated in isolation. Specifically, when trait ratings differed for an isolated face and body of the same identity, the whole-person context biased in-context ratings of the faces and bodies towards the ratings of the context. These results showed that face and body trait perception interact more than previously assumed. We combine current and established findings to propose a novel framework to account for face-body integration in trait perception. This framework incorporates basic elements such as perceptual determinants, nonperceptual determinants, trait formation, and integration, as well as predictive factors such as the rater, the person rated, and the situation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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D’Argenio G, Finisguerra A, Urgesi C. Spatial Frequency Tuning of Body Inversion Effects. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13020190. [PMID: 36831733 PMCID: PMC9954120 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13020190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Revised: 01/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Body inversion effects (BIEs) reflect the deployment of the configural processing of body stimuli. BIE modulates the activity of body-selective areas within both the dorsal and the ventral streams, which are tuned to low (LSF) or high spatial frequencies (HSF), respectively. The specific contribution of different bands to the configural processing of bodies along gender and posture dimensions, however, is still unclear. Seventy-two participants performed a delayed matching-to-sample paradigm in which upright and inverted bodies, differing for gender or posture, could be presented in their original intact form or in the LSF- or HSF-filtered version. In the gender discrimination task, participants' performance was enhanced by the presentation of HSF images. Conversely, for the posture discrimination task, a better performance was shown for either HSF or LSF images. Importantly, comparing the amount of BIE across spatial-frequency conditions, we found greater BIEs for HSF than LSF images in both tasks, indicating that configural body processing may be better supported by HSF information, which will bias processing in the ventral stream areas. Finally, the exploitation of HSF information for the configural processing of body postures was lower in individuals with higher autistic traits, likely reflecting a stronger reliance on the local processing of body-part details.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia D’Argenio
- PhD Program in Neural and Cognitive Sciences, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34128 Trieste, Italy
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
- Correspondence: (G.D.); (C.U.)
| | | | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Pasian di Prato (Udine), 33037 Udine, Italy
- Correspondence: (G.D.); (C.U.)
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5
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Asymmetric visual representation of sex from facial appearance. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 30:585-595. [PMID: 36271178 PMCID: PMC10104929 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02199-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We efficiently infer others' traits from their faces, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. Here, we investigated how sex is represented in facial appearance. Based on previous findings from sex-judgment tasks, we hypothesized that the perceptual encoding of sex is not balanced but rather polarized: for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is "male," and the representation of female faces extends that of the male, engaging activity over unique detectors that are not activated by male faces. We tested this hypothesis with the logic of Treisman's studies of visual search asymmetries, predicting that observers should more readily detect the presence of female faces amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across three experiments (N = 32 each), each using different face stimuli, we confirmed this prediction in response time and sensitivity measures. We apply GIST analyses to the face stimuli to exclude that the search asymmetry is explained by differences in image homogeneity. These findings demonstrate a property of the coding that links facial appearance with a significant social trait: the female face is coded as an extension of a male default. We offer a mechanistic description of perceptual detectors to account for our findings and posit that the origins of this polarized coding scheme are an outcome of biased early developmental experience.
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D'Argenio G, Finisguerra A, Urgesi C. Experience-dependent reshaping of body gender perception. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2022; 86:1184-1202. [PMID: 34387745 PMCID: PMC9090903 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01569-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Protracted exposure to specific stimuli causes biased visual aftereffects at both low- and high-level dimensions of a stimulus. Recently, it has been proposed that alterations of these aftereffects could play a role in body misperceptions. However, since previous studies have mainly addressed manipulations of body size, the relative contribution of low-level retinotopic and/or high-level object-based mechanisms is yet to be understood. In three experiments, we investigated visual aftereffects for body-gender perception, testing for the tuning of visual aftereffects across different characters and orientation. We found that exposure to a distinctively female (or male) body makes androgynous bodies appear as more masculine (or feminine) and that these aftereffects were not specific for the individual characteristics of the adapting body (Exp.1). Furthermore, exposure to only upright bodies (Exp.2) biased the perception of upright, but not of inverted bodies, while exposure to both upright and inverted bodies (Exp.3) biased perception for both. Finally, participants' sensitivity to body aftereffects was lower in individuals with greater communication deficits and deeper internalization of a male gender role. Overall, our data reveals the orientation-, but not identity-tuning of body-gender aftereffects and points to the association between alterations of the malleability of body gender perception and social deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia D'Argenio
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. giulia.d'
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, via Margreth, 3, 33100, Udine, Italy. giulia.d'
| | | | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, via Margreth, 3, 33100, Udine, Italy.
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Pasian di Prato, Udine, Italy.
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Mazor M, Moran R, Fleming SM. Metacognitive asymmetries in visual perception. Neurosci Conscious 2021; 2021:niab025. [PMID: 34676104 PMCID: PMC8524176 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niab025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Representing the absence of objects is psychologically demanding. People are slower, less
confident and show lower metacognitive sensitivity (the alignment between subjective
confidence and objective accuracy) when reporting the absence compared with presence of
visual stimuli. However, what counts as a stimulus absence remains only loosely defined.
In this Registered Report, we ask whether such processing asymmetries extend beyond the
absence of whole objects to absences defined by stimulus features or expectation
violations. Our pre-registered prediction was that differences in the processing of
presence and absence reflect a default mode of reasoning: we assume an absence unless
evidence is available to the contrary. We predicted asymmetries in response time,
confidence, and metacognitive sensitivity in discriminating between stimulus categories
that vary in the presence or absence of a distinguishing feature, or in their compliance
with an expected default state. Using six pairs of stimuli in six experiments, we find
evidence that the absence of local and global stimulus features gives rise to slower, less
confident responses, similar to absences of entire stimuli. Contrary to our hypothesis,
however, the presence or absence of a local feature has no effect on metacognitive
sensitivity. Our results weigh against a proposal of a link between the detection
metacognitive asymmetry and default reasoning, and are instead consistent with a low-level
visual origin of metacognitive asymmetries for presence and absence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matan Mazor
- Institute of Neurology, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Rani Moran
- Institute of Neurology, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Stephen M Fleming
- Institute of Neurology, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
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Mazor M, Moran R, Fleming SM. Metacognitive asymmetries in visual perception. Neurosci Conscious 2021; 2021:niab005. [PMID: 34164152 PMCID: PMC8216202 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niab005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
People have better metacognitive sensitivity for decisions about the presence compared to the absence of objects. However, it is not only objects themselves that can be present or absent, but also parts of objects and other visual features. Asymmetries in visual search indicate that a disadvantage for representing absence may operate at these levels as well. Furthermore, a processing advantage for surprising signals suggests that a presence/absence asymmetry may be explained by absence being passively represented as a default state, and presence as a default-violating surprise. It is unknown whether the metacognitive asymmetry for judgments about presence and absence extends to these different levels of representation (object, feature, and default violation). To address this question and test for a link between the representation of absence and default reasoning more generally, here we measure metacognitive sensitivity for discrimination judgments between stimuli that are identical except for the presence or absence of a distinguishing feature, and for stimuli that differ in their compliance with an expected default state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matan Mazor
- Institute of Neurology, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Rani Moran
- Institute of Neurology, Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, UK
| | - Stephen M Fleming
- Institute of Neurology, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.,Institute of Neurology, Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, UK.,Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK
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