Face perception and cognition using motor representations : a computational approach

Publication Type:
Thesis
Issue Date:
2018
Full metadata record
Face perception and cognition skills are critically needed by humans to be proficient in social cognition. Social cognition is defined as the ability to make sense of others’ actions and react appropriately to them. For example, determining the identity of an interaction partner is an essential precondition to engaging socially with people. In addition, recognising facial expressions contributes to regulating human social exchanges. In fact, it assists in determining the mental state of the interaction partner and selecting the best subsequent behavioural response. Humans show a preference for faces at a very early stage. This preference is maintained throughout their lives and it contributes to the acquisition of face recognition skills, which develop with time and experience. However, newborns have the ability to process face stimuli and imitate observed facial expressions from birth. This early imitation behaviour is a plausible way to collect sensory-motor information about the configuration of observed facial muscles. If recognising people is acquired by encountering new faces, how do humans acquire such a skill? Are there any interactions between face recognition and facial motor information processing? If so, how do these mechanisms possibly interact? I provide answers to these research questions by looking at theories of embodied cognition. Embodied cognition research suggests that cognition extends beyond the brain to include body parts. I argue that mechanisms interacting with physical or mental aspects of the body provide sensory-motor information of the observed facial stimuli. This motor information, in turn, is sufficient for the acquisition of face identity recognition capabilities. I validate this thesis by providing mathematical models and computational simulations describing face perception and cognition. Furthermore, I show that altering the motor representations of facial configurations leads to significant deficits in face processing capabilities. The computationally simulated dysfunctions resemble the impairments observed in clinical populations affected by social disorders, namely autism, schizophrenia and psychopathy. Hence, I argue that the bodily processes modelled in this dissertation not only have causal relationships to social cognition, but they profoundly shape it. This work is a contribution to a better computational understanding of face perception and cognition and it provides initial evidence supporting embodied social cognition theories.
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