Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-tldsr Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-11-04T08:18:49.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The recognition of emotional expression in prosopagnosia: Decoding whole and part faces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2006

BLOSSOM CHRISTA MAREE STEPHAN ,
NORA BREEN  and
DIANA CAINE
BLOSSOM CHRISTA MAREE STEPHAN
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
NORA BREEN
Affiliation:
Neuropsychology Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia
DIANA CAINE
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prosopagnosia is currently viewed within the constraints of two competing theories of face recognition, one highlighting the analysis of features, the other focusing on configural processing of the whole face. This study investigated the role of feature analysis versus whole face configural processing in the recognition of facial expression. A prosopagnosic patient, SC made expression decisions from whole and incomplete (eyes-only and mouth-only) faces where features had been obscured. SC was impaired at recognizing some (e.g., anger, sadness, and fear), but not all (e.g., happiness) emotional expressions from the whole face. Analyses of his performance on incomplete faces indicated that his recognition of some expressions actually improved relative to his performance on the whole face condition. We argue that in SC interference from damaged configural processes seem to override an intact ability to utilize part-based or local feature cues. (JINS, 2006, 12, 884–895.)

Keywords

Agnosia for facesExpression recognitionInformation processingConfigural processingFeatural processing

Information

Type
NEUROBEHAVIORAL GRAND ROUNDS
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 12 , Issue 6 , November 2006 , pp. 884 - 895
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Adolphs, R., Gosselin, F., Buchanan, T.W., Tranel, D., Schyns, P., & Damasio, A.R. (2005). A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage. Nature, 433, 68–72.Google Scholar
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. (1994). Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human amygdala. Nature, 372, 669–672.Google Scholar
Alberts, M.L. (1973). A simple test of visual neglect. Neurology, 23, 658–664.Google Scholar
Allison, T., Puce, A., Spencer, D.D., & McCarthy, G. (1999). Electrophysiological studies of human face perception. I: Potentials generated in occipitotemporal cortex by face and non-face stimuli. Cerebral Cortex, 9, 415–430.Google Scholar
Anderson, A.K., Spencer, D.D., Fulbright, R.K., & Phelps, E.A. (2000). Contribution of the anteromedial temporal lobes to the evaluation of facial emotion. Neuropsychology, 14, 526–536.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., & Jolliffe, T. (1997). Is there a “language of the eyes”? Evidence from normal adults, and adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. Visual Cognition, 4, 311–331.Google Scholar
Bartlett, J.C. & Searcy, J. (1993). Inversion and configuration of faces. Cognitive Psychology, 25, 281–316.Google Scholar
Barton, J.J., Press, D.Z., Keenan, J.P., & O'Connor, M. (2002). Lesions of the fusiform face area impair perception of facial configuration in prosopagnosia. Neurology, 58, 71–78.Google Scholar
Barton, J.J., Zhao, J., & Keenan, J.P. (2003). Perception of global facial geometry in the inversion effect and prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 41(12), 1703–1711.Google Scholar
Baudouin, J.Y., Gilibert, D., Sansone, S., & Tiberghien, G. (2000a). When the smile is a cue to familiarity. Memory, 8, 285–292.Google Scholar
Baudouin, J.Y., Sansone, S., & Tiberghien, G. (2000b). Recognizing expression from familiar and unfamiliar faces. Pragmatics and Cognition, 8, 123–146.Google Scholar
Benton, A.L., Sivan, A.B., Hamsher, K., Varney, N.R., & Spreen, O. (1994). Contributions to Neuropsychological Assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Blair, R.J.R., Morris, J.S., Frith, C.D., Perret, D.I., & Dolan, R. (1999). Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger. Brain, 122, 883–893.Google Scholar
Bloom, L.C. & Mudd, S.A. (1991). Depth of processing approach to face recognition: A test of two theories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 17, 556–565.Google Scholar
Boutsen, L. & Humphreys, G.W. (2002). Face context interferes with local part processing in a prosopagnosic patient. Neuropsychologia, 40, 2305–2313.Google Scholar
Bruce, V. & Young, A. (1986). Understanding face recognition. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 305–327.Google Scholar
Bruyer, R., Laterre, C., Seron, X., Feyereisen, P., Strypstein, E., Pierrard, E., & Rectem, D. (1983). A case of prosopagnosia with some covert remembrance of familiar faces. Brain and Cognition, 2, 257–284.Google Scholar
Bukach, C.M., Bub, D.N., Gauthier, I., & Tarr, M.J. (2006). Perceptual expertise effects are not all or none: Spatially limited perceptual expertise for faces in a case of prosopagnosia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 48–63.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R. & Kato, T. (2000). Features are also important: Contributions of featural and configural processing to face recognition. Psychological Science, 11, 429–433.Google Scholar
Calder, A.J., Lawrence, A.D., & Young, A.W. (2001). Neuropsychology of fear and loathing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 352–363.Google Scholar
Calder, A.J., Young, A.W., Keane, J., & Dean, M. (2000). Configural information in facial expression perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26, 527–551.Google Scholar
Calder, A.J., Young, A.W., Rowland, D., Perrett, D.I., Hodges, J.R., & Etcoff, N.L. (1996). Face perception after bilateral amygdala damage: Differentially severe impairment of fear. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 699–745.Google Scholar
Campbell, R., Brooks, B., de Haan, E., & Roberts, T. (1996). Dissociating face processing skills: Decisions about lip-read speech, expression, and identity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A, 49, 295–314.Google Scholar
de Gelder, B., Bachoud-Levi, A.C., & Degos, J.D. (1998). Inversion superiority in visual agnosia may be common to a variety of orientation polarised objects besides faces. Vision Research, 38, 2855–2861.Google Scholar
de Gelder, B. & Rouw, R. (2000a). Configural face processes in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence for two separate face systems? Neuroreport, 11, 3145–3150.Google Scholar
de Gelder, B. & Rouw, R. (2000b). Paradoxical inversion effect for faces and objects in prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 38, 1271–1279.Google Scholar
Dolan, R.J., Fletcher, P., Morris, J., Kapur, N., Deakin, J.F., & Frith, C.D. (1996). Neural activation during covert processing of positive emotional facial expressions. Neuroimage, 4, 194–200.Google Scholar
Duchaine, B.C., Parker, H., & Nakayama, K. (2003). Normal recognition of emotion in a prosopagnosic. Perception, 32, 827–838.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (1976). Pictures of Facial Affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.
Ellis, H.D. & Young, A.W. (1990). Accounting for delusional misidentifications. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 239–248.Google Scholar
Ellison, J.W. & Massaro, D.W. (1997). Featural evaluation, integration, and judgement of facial affect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 23, 213–226.Google Scholar
Farah, M.J. (1990). Visual agnosia: Disorders of object recognition and what they tell us about normal vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Farah, M.J., Levinson, K.L., & Klein, K.L. (1995a). Face perception and within-category discrimination in prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 33, 661–674.Google Scholar
Farah, M.J., Wilson, K.D., Drain, H.M., & Tanaka, J.R. (1995b). The inverted face inversion effect in prosopagnosia: Evidence for mandatory, face-specific perceptual mechanisms. Vision Research, 35, 2089–2093.Google Scholar
Farah, M.J., Wilson, K.D., Drain, M., & Tanaka, J.N. (1998). What is “special” about face perception? Psychological Review, 105, 482–498.Google Scholar
Farnsworth, D. (1957). The Farnsworth–Munsell 100-Hue test for the examination of color vision. Baltimore, MD: Munsell Color Company.
Ganel, T., Goshen-Gottstein, Y., & Goodale, M.A. (2005). Interactions between the processing of gaze direction and facial expression. Vision Research, 45, 1191–1200.Google Scholar
Haig, N.D. (1985). How faces differ: A new comparative technique. Perception, 14, 601–615.Google Scholar
Hasselmo, M.E., Rolls, E.T., & Baylis, G.C. (1989). The role of expression and identity in the face-selective responses of neurons in the temporal visual cortex of the monkey. Behavioural Brain Research, 32, 203–218.Google Scholar
Haxby, J.V., Hoffman, E.A., & Gobbini, M.I. (2000). The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 223–233.Google Scholar
Haxby, J.V., Hoffman, E.A., & Gobbini, M.I. (2002). Human neural systems for face recognition and social communication. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 59–67.Google Scholar
Heywood, C.A. & Cowey, A. (1992). The role of the “face-cell” area in the discrimination and recognition of faces by monkeys. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 335, 31–38.Google Scholar
Hoffman, E.A. & Haxby, J.V. (2000). Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 80–84.Google Scholar
Humphreys, G.W. & Riddoch, M.J. (1984). Routes to object constancy: Implications from neurological impairments of object constancy. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, A37, 493–495.Google Scholar
Joubert, S., Felician, O., Barbeau, E., Sontheimer, A., Barton, J.J., Ceccaldi, M., & Poncet, M. (2003). Impaired configurational processing in a case of progressive prosopagnosia associated with predominant right temporal lobe atrophy. Brain, 126, 2537–2550.Google Scholar
Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M.M. (1997). The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 4302–4311.Google Scholar
Kurucz, J. & Feldmar, G. (1979). Prosop-affective agnosia as a symptom of cerebral organic disease. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 27, 91–95.Google Scholar
Levine, D.N. & Calvanio, R. (1989). Prosopagnosia: A defect in visual configural processing. Brain and Cognition, 10, 149–170.Google Scholar
Marotta, J.J., Genovese, C.R., & Behrmann, M. (2001). A functional MRI study of face recognition in patients with prosopagnosia. Neuroreport, 12, 1581–1587.Google Scholar
Martelli, M., Majaj, N.J., & Pelli, D.G. (2005). Are faces processed like words? A diagnostic test for recognition by parts. Journal of Vision, 5, 58–70Google Scholar
Maurer, D., Grand, R.L., & Mondloch, C.J. (2002). The many faces of configural processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 255–260.Google Scholar
McKelvie, S.J. (1973). Meaningfulness and meaning of schematic faces. Perception and Psychophysics, 14, 343–348.Google Scholar
Moscovitch, M. & Moscovitch, D.A. (2000). Super face-inversion effects for isolated internal or external features, and for fractured faces. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 17, 201–219.Google Scholar
Munte, T.F., Brack, M., Grootheer, O., Wieringa, B.M., Matzke, M., & Johannes, S. (1998). Brain potentials reveal the timing of face identity and expression judgments. Neuroscience Research, 30, 25–34.Google Scholar
Nelson, H.E. & Willison, J. (1991). The National Adult Reading Test (NART) manual, 2nd ed. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.
Nunn, J.A., Postma, P., & Pearson, R. (2001). Developmental prosopagnosia: Should it be taken at face value? Neurocase, 7, 15–27.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, C. & Bruce, V. (2001). Familiarisation with faces selectively enhances sensitivity to changes made to the eyes. Perception, 30, 755–764.Google Scholar
Oster, H., Daily, L., & Goldenthal, P. (1989). Processing facial affect. In A.W. Young & H.D. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Face Processing. North-Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Phillips, M.L., Bullmore, E.T., Howard, R., Woodruff, P.W., Wright, I.C., Williams, S.C., Simmons, A., Andrew, C., Brammer, M., & David, A.S. (1998). Investigation of facial recognition memory and happy and sad facial expression perception: An fMRI study, Psychiatry Research, 83, 127–38.Google Scholar
Rapcsak, S.Z., Polster, M.R., Comer, J.F., & Rubens, A.B. (1994). False recognition and misidentification of faces following right hemisphere damage. Cortex, 30, 565–583Google Scholar
Rolls, E.T. (1992). Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying face processing within and beyond the temporal cortical visual areas. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences, 335, 11–21.Google Scholar
Rossion, B., Gauthier, I., Tarr, M.J., Despland, P.A., Bruyer, R., Linotte, S., & Crommelinck, M. (2000). The N170 occipito-temporal component is enhanced and delayed to inverted faces but not to inverted objects: An electrophysiological account of face-specific processes in the human brain. NeuroReport, 11, 69–74.Google Scholar
Rouw, R. & de Gelder, B. (2002). Impaired face recognition does not preclude intact whole face perception. Visual Cognition, 9, 689–718.Google Scholar
Sadr, J., Jarudi, I., & Sinha, P. (2003). The role of eyebrows in face recognition. Perception, 32, 285–293.Google Scholar
Saumier, D., Arguin, M., & Lassonde, M. (2001). Prosopagnosia: A case study involving problems in processing configural information. Brain and Cognition, 46, 255–259.Google Scholar
Schweinberger, S.R. & Soukup, G.R. (1998). Asymmetric relationships among perceptions of facial identity, emotion, and facial speech. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 1748–1765.Google Scholar
Sergent, J. (1984a). Inferences from unilateral brain damage about normal hemispheric functions in visual pattern recognition. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 99–115.Google Scholar
Sergent, J. (1984b). An investigation into component and configural processes underlying face perception. British Journal of Psychology, 75, 221–242.Google Scholar
Sergent, J., Ohta, S., MacDonald, B., & Zuck, E. (1994). Segregated processing of facial identity and emotion in the human brain: A PET study. In V. Bruce & G.W. Humphreys (Eds.), Object and Face Recognition. Special issue of Visual Cognition (Vol. 1, pp. 349–369). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Shepherd, J.W., Davies, G.M., & Ellis, A.W. (1981). Studies of cue saliency. In G. Davis, H. Ellis, & J. Shepherd (Eds.), Perceiving and Remembering Faces (pp. 105–131). New York: Academic Press.
Shuttleworth, E.C., Syring, V., & Allen, N. (1982). Further observations on the nature of prosopagnosia. Brain and Cognition, 1, 302–332.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L., Cottrell, G.W., Gosselin, F., & Schyns, S.G. (2005). Transmitting and decoding facial expressions. Psychological Science, 16, 184–189.Google Scholar
Smith, C.A. & Scott, H.S. (1997). A Componential Approach to the meaning of facial expressions. In J.A. Russell & J.M. Fernandez-Dols (Eds.), The Psychology of Facial Expression. Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction, 2nd series (pp. 229–254). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
Stephan, B.C.M. & Caine, D. (submitted). The role of featural and configural information in the recognition of unfamiliar neutral and expressive faces.
Tranel, D., Damasio, A.R., & Damasio, H. (1988). Intact recognition of facial expression, gender, and age in patients with impaired recognition of facial identity. Neurology, 38, 690–696.Google Scholar
Wallbott, H.G. & Ricci-Bitti, P. (1993). Decoders' processing of emotional facial expression: A top-down or bottom-up mechanism? European Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 427–443.Google Scholar
Warrington, E.K. (1984). Manual for the Recognition Memory Test for Words and Faces. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.
Warrington, E.K. & James, M. (1991). Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP). Bury St. Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company.
Wechsler, D. (1997). Wechsler Memory Scale-III. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
White, M. (1999). Representation of facial expressions of emotion. American Journal of Psychology, 112, 371–381.Google Scholar
White, M. (2000). Parts and wholes in expression recognition. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 39–60.Google Scholar
White, M. (2001). Effect photographic negation on matching the expressions and identities of faces. Perception, 30, 969–981.Google Scholar
Young, A.W., Aggleton, J.P., Hellawell, D.J., Johnson, M., Broks, P., & Hanley, J.R. (1995). Face processing impairments after amygdalotomy. Brain, 118, 15–24.Google Scholar
Young, A.W., Newcombe, F., de Haan, E.H.F., Small, S., & Hay, D.C. (1993). Face perception after brain injury: Selective impairments affecting identity and expression. Brain, 116, 941–959.Google Scholar
Young, A.W., Rowland, D., Calder, A.J., Etcoff, N.L., Seth, A., & Perrett, D.I. (1997). Facial expression megamix. Cognition, 63, 271–313.Google Scholar