The neural correlates of the face attractiveness aftereffect: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study

Abstract

Extensive behavioral evidence shows that our internal representation of faces, or face prototype, can be dynamically updated by immediate experience. This is illustrated by the robust attractiveness aftereffect phenomenon whereby originally unattractive faces become attractive after we are exposed to a set of unattractive faces. Although behavioral evidence suggests this effect to have a strong neural basis, limited neuroimaging evidence exists. Here we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy methodology (fNIRS) to bridge this gap. During the pre-adaptation trials, participants judged the attractiveness of three sets of faces: normal/undistorted faces, compressed faces (the internal features and distances between them were compressed), and expanded faces (the internal features and distances between them were stretched). Then, participants were shown extremely compressed faces for 5 minutes as adaptation stimuli, after which participants judged the same three sets of faces in post-adaptation trials. Behaviorally, after the adaptation trials, participants rated the compressed faces more attractive whereas they judged the other two sets of faces as less attractive, replicating the robust adaptation effect. fNIRS results showed that short-term exposure to compressed faces led to significant decreases in neural activity to all face types, but in a more extended network of cortical regions in the frontal and occipital cortexes for undistorted faces. Taken together, these findings suggest that the face attractiveness aftereffect mainly reflects changes in the neural representation of the face prototype in response to recent exposures to new face exemplars.

Short separation regression improves statistical significance and better localizes the hemodynamic response obtained by near-infrared spectroscopy for tasks with differing autonomic responses

“…The technique has found broad applications including studies of brain development, 3,4 functional connectivity, 5,6 cognitive science, 7,8 psychiatry and neurology, 9,10 aging, 11 and anesthesia. 12 The advantages of NIRS are the measurement of both HbO and HbR concentrations, its high-temporal resolution, low cost, and portability, while the disadvantages are low-spatial resolution and limited depth penetration.…”

Body size after-effects are adult-like from 11 years onwards

“…) Alternatively, the after-effects observed here may be driven by changes in other regions of the brain, such as those linked to associative and affective associations. As discussed by Boothroyd et al (2018), there is some initial (albeit surprising) evidence that adaptation to body weight and facial attractiveness may both involve left pre-central gyrus (Hummel et al, 2013;Fu et al, 2014), which raises questions about the extent to which adaptation to complex social stimuli like bodies are purely perceptual.…”

Measuring Appeal in Human Computer Interaction: A Cognitive Neuroscience-Based Approach

“…Researchers have relied on fNIRS for measuring appeal and aesthetic perception. For example, [18,43,44] used fNIRS in the context of aesthetics, beauty and positive reward perception. …”

“…The perception of visual aesthetic, beauty, pleasantness, and attractiveness all relate to visual appeal [4,10]. Interestingly, similar overlaps are evident on the level of neural correlates termed "hedonic brain activation" [17][18][19].…”