Recognizing moving faces: a psychological and neural synthesis

• Published in: Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol. 6; no. 6; pp. 261 - 266
• Main Authors: O'Toole, Alice J., Roark, Dana A., Abdi, Hervé
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; dynamic identity signatures; face perception; face recognition; facial expression; facial motion; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; neural processing of faces; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Vision; face perception; Cognitive Science; facial motion; facial expression; Neuroscience; neural processing of faces; dynamic identity signatures; Psychology; face recognition; Human; Vision; Body movement; Perception; Cognition; Review; Face; Recognition
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/S1364-6613(02)01908-3

Information for identifying a human face can be found both in the invariant structure of features and in idiosyncratic movements and gestures. When both kinds of information are available, psychological evidence indicates that: (1) dynamic information contributes more to recognition under non-optimal viewing conditions, e.g. poor illumination, low image resolution, recognition from a distance; (2) dynamic information contributes more as a viewer's experience with the face increases; and (3) a structure-from-motion analysis can make a perceptually based contribution to face recognition. A recently proposed distributed neural system for face perception, with minor modifications, can accommodate the psychological findings with moving faces. Facial motion carries both social and identity information. We review current behavioral studies of memory for moving faces and propose a neural framework that can accommodate these findings.