Zeugin David, Arfa Norhan, Notter Michael, Murray Micah M, Ionta Silvio
The Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology (The LINE), Department of Radiology and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology (The LINE), Department of Radiology and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; EEG Brain Mapping Core, Centre for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland.
Behav Brain Res. 2017 Aug 30;333:282-285. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.06.044. Epub 2017 Jul 8.
Face recognition is an apparently straightforward but, in fact, complex ability, encompassing the activation of at least visual and somatosensory representations. Understanding how identity shapes the interplay between these face-related affordances could clarify the mechanisms of self-other discrimination. To this aim, we exploited the so-called "face inversion effect" (FIE), a specific bias in the mental rotation of face images (of other people): with respect to inanimate objects, face images require longer time to be mentally rotated from the upside-down. Via the FIE, which suggests the activation of somatosensory mechanisms, we assessed identity-related changes in the interplay between visual and somatosensory affordances between self- and other-face representations. Methodologically, to avoid the potential interference of the somatosensory feedback associated with musculoskeletal movements, we introduced the tracking of gaze direction to record participants' response. Response times from twenty healthy participants showed the larger FIE for self- than other-faces, suggesting that the impact of somatosensory affordances on mental representation of faces varies according to identity. The present study lays the foundations of a quantifiable method to implicitly assess self-other discrimination, with possible translational benefits for early diagnosis of face processing disturbances (e.g. prosopagnosia), and for neurophysiological studies on self-other discrimination in ethological settings.
人脸识别看似简单直接，但实际上是一种复杂的能力，它至少涉及视觉和体感表征的激活。了解身份如何塑造这些与面部相关的可供性之间的相互作用，有助于阐明自我与他人辨别机制。为此，我们利用了所谓的“面部倒置效应”（FIE），即他人面部图像心理旋转中的一种特定偏差：相对于无生命物体，面部图像从倒置状态进行心理旋转所需的时间更长。通过FIE，这表明体感机制的激活，我们评估了自我与他人面部表征之间视觉和体感可供性相互作用中与身份相关的变化。在方法上，为了避免与肌肉骨骼运动相关的体感反馈的潜在干扰，我们引入了注视方向跟踪来记录参与者的反应。二十名健康参与者的反应时间表明，自我面部的FIE比他人面部的更大，这表明体感可供性对面部心理表征的影响因身份而异。本研究为隐式评估自我与他人辨别奠定了一种可量化方法的基础，这对于面部处理障碍（如面孔失认症）的早期诊断以及在行为学环境中自我与他人辨别的神经生理学研究可能具有转化意义。
