Mora Laura, Cowie Dorothy, Banissy Michael J, Cocchini Gianna
Psychology Department, Goldsmiths University of London, SE14 6NW, UK.
Department of Psychology, Durham University, DH1 3LE, UK.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2018 Nov;191:63-68. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.08.014. Epub 2018 Sep 13.
Face recognition has been the focus of multiple studies, but little is still known on how we represent the structure of one's own face. Most of the studies have focused on the topic of visual and haptic face recognition, but the metric representation of different features of one's own face is relatively unknown. We investigated the metric representation of the face in young adults by developing a proprioceptive pointing task to locate face landmarks in the first-person perspective. Our data revealed a large overestimation of width for all face features which resembles, in part, the size in somatosensory cortical representation. In contrast, face length was compartmentalised in two different regions: upper (underestimated) and bottom (overestimated); indicating size differences possibly due to functionality. We also identified shifts of the location judgments, with all face areas perceived closer to the body than they really were, due to a potential influence of the self-frame of reference. More importantly, the representation of the face appeared asymmetrical, with an overrepresentation of right side of the face, due to the influence of lateralization biases for strong right-handers. We suggest that these effects may be due to functionality influences and experience that affect the construction of face structural representation, going beyond the parallel of the somatosensory homunculus.
人脸识别一直是多项研究的焦点，但对于我们如何表征自己面部的结构，目前仍知之甚少。大多数研究都集中在视觉和触觉人脸识别的主题上，但对于自己面部不同特征的度量表征相对未知。我们通过开发一种本体感觉指向任务，以第一人称视角定位面部地标，来研究年轻人面部的度量表征。我们的数据显示，所有面部特征的宽度都被大幅高估，这在一定程度上类似于体感皮层表征中的大小。相比之下，面部长度被划分为两个不同区域：上部（被低估）和下部（被高估）；这表明大小差异可能是由于功能不同。我们还发现了位置判断的偏移，由于自我参照框架的潜在影响，所有面部区域都被感知为比实际位置更靠近身体。更重要的是，由于右利手者的偏侧化偏差影响，面部表征似乎不对称，面部右侧的表征更为突出。我们认为，这些影响可能是由于功能影响和经验，它们影响了面部结构表征的构建，超越了体感小人的平行关系。
