Abstract
Face aftereffects have been used extensively as a tool for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition. It has also been argued that adaptive coding, as demonstrated by face aftereffects, plays a functional role in face recognition by calibrating our face norms to reflect current experience. Face aftereffects are well established for static stimuli, but have only recently been shown for dynamic faces. If aftereffects tap high-level mechanisms that are critically involved in everyday face recognition then they should occur for moving faces. Here we ask whether the face identity aftereffect can be induced using dynamic adaptors. This aftereffect occurs when adaptation to a particular identity (e.g. Dan) biases subsequent perception toward the opposite identity (e.g. antiDan). We adapted participants to real faces that displayed either rigid (head movement), non-rigid (facial muscle movement) and no motion (static image) and tested for aftereffects in static antifaces. Adapt and test stimuli differed in size, to minimize low-level adaptation. Aftereffects were found in all conditions, suggesting that face identity aftereffects tap high-level mechanisms important for face recognition. Aftereffects were not significantly reduced in the motion conditions relative to the static condition. Indeed, the non-rigid adaptors produced significantly larger aftereffects than did the rigid or static adaptors, possibly because the social motion they displayed (speaking and smiling) elicited greater attention.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014