Abstract
After visual adaptation to an object viewed 30 degrees from one side, when the same object was subsequently presented near the frontal view, the perceived viewing directions were biased in a direction opposite to that of the adapted viewpoint. This aftereffect was termed the viewpoint aftereffect, and supports the existence of viewer-centered object representation in the human visual system (Fang and He, 2005). The current psychophysical experiment examined whether the face viewpoint aftereffect is sensitive to the identity of the adapting and test faces. Test faces were generated through morphing an original face towards the average face and through this dimension to its anti-face. Results show that there was a partial transfer of face viewpoint aftereffect across different individuals. The strength of face viewpoint aftereffect depended on the similarity of adapting and test faces. However, even when they were extremely dissimilar (e.g. adapt to a face, and test with its anti-face), there was still a substantial viewpoint aftereffect. In an fMRI face viewpoint adaptation experiment, we found both right fusiform face area (rFFA) and right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) showed a viewpoint-tuned fMRI adaptation effect. Therefore, rSTS and rFFA could be the cortical areas in the human visual system which are responsible for the partial transfer of face viewpoint aftereffect across different individuals.
Supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, NIH and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota to F.F.