A non-specific “top-heavy” configuration bias has been proposed to explain neonatal face preference (F. Simion, E. Valenza, V. Macchi Cassia, C. Turati, & C. Umiltà, 2002). Using an eye tracker (Tobii T60), we investigated whether the top-heavy bias is still present in 3- to 5.5-month-old infants and in adults as a comparison group. Each infant and adult viewed three classes of stimuli: simple geometric patterns, face-like figures, and photographs of faces. Using area of interest analyses on fixation duration, we computed a top-heavy bias index (a number between −1 and 1) for each individual. Our results showed that the indices for the geometric and face-like patterns were about zero in infants, indicating no consistent bias for the “top-heavy” configuration. In adults, the indices for the geometric and face-like patterns were also close to zero except for the T-shaped figure and the ones that had higher rating on facedness. Moreover, the indices for photographs of faces were positive in both infants and adults, indicating significant preferences for upright natural faces over inverted ones. Taken together, we found no evidence for the top-heavy configuration bias in both infants and adults. The absence of top-heavy bias plus a clear preference for photographed upright faces in infants seem to suggest an early cognitive specialization process toward face representation.

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) suffer from motor and non-motor symptoms; 40% would develop dementia (PD-D). Impaired face and emotion processing in PD has been reported; however, the deficits of face processing in PD-D remain unclear. We investigated three essential aspects of face processing capacity in PD-D, and the associations between cognitive, neuropsychiatric assessments and task performances. Twenty-four PD-D patients (mean age: 74.0 ± 5.55) and eighteen age-matched healthy controls (HC) (mean age: 71.0 ± 6.20) received three computerized tasks, morphing-face discrimination, dynamic facial emotion recognition, and expression imitation. Compared to HC, PD-D patients had lower sensitivity (d’) and greater neural internal noises in discriminating faces; responded slower and had difficulties with negative emotions; imitated some expressions but with lower strength. Correlation analyses revealed that patients with advancing age, slow mentation, and poor cognition (but not motor symptoms) showed stronger deterioration in face perception. Importantly, these correlations were absent in the age-matched HC. The present study is among the first few examined face processing in patients with PD-D, and found consistent deficits correlated with advancing age and slow mentation. We propose that face discrimination task could be included as a potential test for the early detection of dementia in PD.

Previous infant studies on the other-race effect have favored the perceptual narrowing view, or declined sensitivities to rarely exposed other-race faces. Here we wish to provide an alternative possibility, perceptual learning, manifested by improved sensitivity for frequently exposed own-race faces in the first year of life. Using the familiarization/visual-paired comparison paradigm, we presented 4-, 6- and 9-month-old Taiwanese infants with oval-cropped Taiwanese, Caucasian, Philippine faces, and each with three different manipulations of increasing task difficulty (i.e., change identity, change eyes, and widen eye spacing). An adult experiment was first conducted to verify the task difficulty. Our results showed that, with oval-cropped faces, the 4 month-old infants could only discriminate Taiwanese “change identity” condition and not any others, suggesting an early own-race advantage at 4 months. The 6 month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in both Taiwanese and Caucasian “change identity” conditions, and proceeded to the Taiwanese “change eyes” condition. The 9-month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in the “change identity” condition of all three ethnic faces. They also passed the Taiwanese “change eyes” condition but could not extend this refined ability of detecting a change in the eyes for the Caucasian or Philippine faces. Taken together, we interpret the pattern of results as evidence supporting perceptual learning during the first year: the ability to discriminate own-race faces emerges at 4 months and continues to refine, while the ability to discriminate other-race faces emerges between 6 to 9 months and retains at 9 months. Additionally, the discrepancies in the face stimuli and methods between studies advocating the narrowing view and those supporting the learning view were discussed.

Evidence from adult psychophysics, brain imaging, and honeybee's behaviour has been reported to support the notion that topological properties are the primitives of visual representation (Chen, 1982 Science218 699–700). Here, we ask how the sensitivity to topological property might originate during development. Specifically, we tested 1.5- to 6-month-old infants' visual sensitivity for topological versus geometric properties with the forced-choice novelty preference technique. A disk and a ring were used in the topologically different condition (experiment 1), while a disk and a triangle were used in the geometrically different condition (experiment 2). Spontaneous preferences for the disk, the ring, and the triangle were measured pairwise using the preferential looking-time technique (experiment 3). The results showed that infants could reliably discriminate stimuli based on topological differences, but failed to do so with geometric differences. Moreover, in the generalisation task, infants showed higher novelty preference for the topologically different figure (the ring). In addition, the results of both experiments cannot be attributed to a spontaneous preference for the ring or for the disk. Further analysis on individual infants' age and performance revealed two distinct developmental trends. Infants seem to be sensitive to topological differences as young as 1.5 months, while their ability to discriminate geometric differences was at chance before 3 months and gradually improved with age. Taken together, our findings suggested an early sensitivity for topological property, at least for the detection of stimuli with or without a hole.

Background: Whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impairments with biological motion perception has been debated. The present study examined the ability to identify point‐light‐displayed (PLD) human actions in neurotypical (NT) adults and adults with ASD.Method: Twenty‐seven adults with ASD (mean age = 28.36) and 30 NT adults (mean age = 22.45) were tested. Both groups viewed 10 different biological motion actions contacting an object/tool and 10 without making contact. Each action was presented twice, and participant's naming responses and reaction times were recorded.Results: The ASD group had a significantly lower total number of correct items (M = 29.30 ± 5.08 out of 40) and longer response time (M = 4550 ± 1442 ms) than NT group (M = 32.77 ± 2.78; M = 3556 ± 1148 ms). Both groups were better at naming the actions without objects (ASD group: 17.33 ± 2.30, NT group: 18.67 ± 1.30) than those with objects (ASD group: 11.96 ± 3.57, NT group: 14.10 ± 1.97). Correlation analyses showed that individuals with higher Autism‐spectrum Quotient scale scores tended to make more errors and responded more slowly.Conclusion: Adults with ASD were able to identify human point‐light display biological motion actions much better than chance; however, they were less proficient compared with NT adults in terms of accuracy and speed, regardless of action type.

Previous studies examining the other-race effect in school-age children mostly focused on recognition memory performance. Here we investigated perceptual discriminability for Asian-like versus Caucasian-like morph faces in school-age Taiwanese children and adults. One-hundred-and-two 5- to 12-year-old children and twenty-three adults performed a sequential same/different face matching task, where they viewed an Asian- or a Caucasian-parent face followed by either the same parent face or a different morphed face (containing 15%, 30%, 45%, or 60% contribution from the other parent face) and judged if the two faces looked the same. We computed the d’ as the sensitivity index for each age groups. We also analyzed the group mean rejection rates as a function of the morph level and fitted with a cumulative normal distribution function. Results showed that the adults and the oldest 11-12-year-old children exhibited a greater sensitivity (d’) and a smaller discrimination threshold (μ) in the Asian-parent condition than those in the Caucasian-parent condition, indicating the presence of an own-race advantage. On the contrary, 5- to 10-year-old children showed an equal sensitivity and similar discrimination thresholds for both conditions, indicating an absence of the own-race advantage. Moreover, a gradual development in enhancing the discriminability for the Asian-parent condition was observed from age 5 to 12; however, the progression in the Caucasian-parent condition was less apparent. In sum, our findings suggest that expertise in face processing may take the entire childhood to develop, and supports the perceptual learning view of the other-race effect—the own-race advantage seen in adulthood likely reflects a result of prolonged learning specific to faces most commonly seen in one’s visual environment such as own-race faces.