title: Similar neural adaptation mechanisms underlying face gender and tilt aftereffects.
abstract: Visual aftereffects have been found for a wide variety of stimuli, ranging from oriented lines to human faces, but previous results suggested that face aftereffects were qualitatively different from orientation (tilt) aftereffects. Using computational models, we predicted that these differences were due to the limited range of faces used in previous studies. Here we report psychophysical results verifying this prediction. We used the same paradigm to test tilt aftereffects (TAE) and face gender aftereffects (FAE) and found that they exhibited qualitatively similar aftereffect curves, when a sufficiently large range of test faces was used. Overall, the results suggest that similar adaptation mechanisms may underlie both high-level and low-level visual processing.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, UK.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Seriès
authors.forename: Peter J B
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hancock
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bednar
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005145:Face; D005366:Figural Aftereffect / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult