Mechanism of facial color effect on facial expression perception

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26880026
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Kwansei Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Nakajima Kae 関西学院大学, 理工学研究科, 博士研究員 (50733408)
• Research Collaborator: NAKAUCHI Shigeki 豊橋技術科学大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (00252320) ; MINAMI Tetsuto 豊橋技術科学大学, エレクトロニクス先端融合研究所, 准教授 (70415842)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 顔色 / 表情 / 心理物理実験 / fMRI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to reveal facial color effect on a perception of facial expressions and its neural mechanism. In the psychophysical experiment, we compered the face and background (BG) color effects on the facial expression identification. Our results showed that expression identification was influenced by both face and BG colors. Facial color effects were significantly greater than those in the BG condition. These results suggested that facial color is intimately related to the perception of facial expression in excess of simple color. In the fMRI study, we investigated the neural basis of facial effect.
This study marks an essential first step toward to reveal the mechanisms of facial effect on a perception of facial expressions.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学