2005 — 2008 |
Haxby, James Todorov, Alexander |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Neural Mechanisms of Binding Trait Inferences to Faces
Faces are a major source of socially relevant information about other people. In the process of face perception, people not only effortlessly recognize familiar individuals and facial expressions of emotions but also retrieve specific knowledge about, and feelings towards, the person. While the neural mechanisms underlying the perceptual analysis of faces are relatively well understood, little is known about the mechanisms associating a face with a multifaceted person representation. With funding by the National Science Foundation, Dr. Alexander Todorov will investigate the neural mechanisms through which the act of face perception delivers a representation of the person with information about the person's inferred attributes. The long-term objective of the project is to identify the distributed neural network of person perception that extends beyond areas dedicated to perceptual analysis of faces (e.g., fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus). A special emphasis will be placed on the study of first impressions. The project will demonstrate the extent to which inferences acquired from minimal information modulate neural activity during face perception. The research will investigate how affective trait inferences about other people are spontaneously retrieved in face perception, the degree of automaticity of these retrieval processes, and the neural regions engaged in both implicit and explicit person evaluation. For example, the research will test whether affective trait inferences can be dissociated from explicit memory for the information that triggered these inferences, and whether such inferences can be detected below thresholds of conscious awareness. The research will be conducted using both behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments in which the information associated with faces, the conditions of face perception, and the goal of participants are systematically manipulated.
The research integrates insights from both social psychology and cognitive neuroscience and extends both fields. The findings will be important for social psychologists studying impression formation and social interaction and for cognitive neuroscientists studying the interplay of neural systems underlying perceptual and affective analysis of stimuli. The findings will have implications for social sciences, including behavioral economics and political science. The project will involve the efforts of both undergraduate and graduate students. This research will be used to guide students' research projects in psychology and psychology for public policy classes. Understanding the cognitive and neural processes underlying impression formation would help to reduce potential biases and discrimination in diverse settings where person impressions are of utmost importance and affect important social outcomes and well-being.
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0.915 |
2008 — 2012 |
Todorov, Alexander |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Neural Systems For Face Evaluation
People form impressions about other people from surprisingly minimal information, particularly from faces, which are a particularly rich source of social information. Despite the saying "don't judge a book by its cover," people automatically evaluate faces on multiple social dimensions such as competence and trustworthiness, and these evaluations predict important social outcomes ranging from electoral success to judicial sentencing decisions. In order to understand the functional and neural basis of face evaluation, it is necessary to identify the basic dimensions of face evaluation, introduce tools for formally modeling how faces vary on these dimensions, and probe the neural responses to faces that vary on these dimensions. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Alexander Todorov and colleagues at Princeton University will address these questions by combining computer modeling of how faces vary on social dimensions with behavioral studies, Virtual Reality (VR) studies, and brain imaging (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies. The studies involve not only participants who have typical face perception abilities but also prosopagnosics, those who are unable to recognize individuals by face alone. One current hypothesis is that faces are evaluated on two fundamental dimensions--valence and dominance--that are sensitive to different types of facial information. Valence evaluation of faces tracks expressions signaling whether the person should be avoided (angry expression) or approached (happy expression) and dominance evaluation is sensitive to features signaling physical strength (masculinity and facial maturity). The current studies will investigate how behavioral and brain responses to faces change as a function of their perceived valence and dominance.
The findings will be central for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying face perception and social cognition. Characterizing the processes of face evaluation is essential for building comprehensive models of person perception and social cognition and, ultimately, understanding the social brain. The findings of this research will be important for social psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, political scientists, and behavioral economists, and will be of interest to vision and computer scientists. This project also includes opportunities for research experience by undergraduate and graduate students in Social Neuroscience.
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0.915 |
2010 — 2011 |
Todorov, Alexander |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
International Travel Support: Escon
Social cognition research studies how people think about others and as well as how they think they form impressions of each other, a critical topic in today's global village. The European Social Cognition Network's annual conference provides a unique forum for international scientific exchange, focusing on recent developments. The PI conducts cutting-edge research linking social cognition to neuroscience. Funds are requested for the PI and two senior graduate students to attend the annual conference in Gothenberg, Sweden, August 25-29th, 2010. The PI is an invited plenary speaker, and the graduate students will make presentations of related work. The PI was invited to present his most recent research on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of person perception with a particular emphasis on the social dimensions of face perception. Research on face perception intersects a number of different research areas including social psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology, and addresses fundamental questions in vision, psychology, and neuroscience. The approach in the PI's lab--social cognition and social neuroscience--is multidisciplinary, using a variety of methods from behavioral and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments to computer and statistical modeling.
The conference mixes junior (70%) and senior (30%) researchers, from 15-20 countries, mostly but not all European; all present research and receive concentrated feedback. Attendees interact formally and informally, fostering international research collaboration and general networks for future contact, serving to integrate the younger researchers into the international scientific community. This travel award is a small contribution to the broader impacts of the PI's involvement in this work.
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0.915 |