Speaker: Prof. Frédéric Gosselin, University of Montreal
Title: Fifteen years of research in high-level vision with classification images
Fifteen years ago, I invented a brute-force experimental technique—called Bubbles—capable of revealing the visual information that drives a measurable response. Bubbles and other classification image techniques have since met with considerable success in high-level vision. I will present what I consider to be the landmark studies, focussing on the face recognition literature. For example, I will discuss the findings that early occipito-temporal EEG activity correlates with the eye on the contralateral side of the face (Schyns et al., 2003; Smith, Gosselin & Schyns, 2004; Rousselet et al., 2014). I will discuss the discovery that the static facial features are sampled dynamically by the visual system (Vinette, Gosselin & Schyns, 2004; Blais et al., 2013). I will talk about evidence that face inversion alters face processing quantitatively, not qualitatively (Sekuler et al., 2004; Willenbockel et al., 2010; Royer et al., 2017). I will present the discovery that damage to the amygdala affects spontaneous eye processing (Adolphs et al., 2005; Gosselin et al., 2010). I will discuss the findings that culture impacts the representation of faces (Jack, Caldara & Schyns, 2012; Jack et al., 2012; Tardif et al., 2017). I will discuss the discovery of an abnormally high number of mouth cells in the amygdala of ASD individuals (Rutishauser et al., 2011; Rutishauser et al., 2013; Rutishauser, Mamelak & Adolphs, 2015; Wang et al., 2014).