Recognition of Dynamic Facial Action Probed by Visual Adaptation

This chapter presents a psychophysical experiment in which 3D computer graphic methods were used to generate close-to-reality facial expressions to examine aspects of recognizing dynamic facial expressions in humans. The study shows that high-level aftereffects similar to those shown earlier for static faces are produced by dynamic faces. The findings indicate that the aftereffects, which are consistent for adaptation with dynamic anti-expressions, are highly expression-specific. The chapter also highlights how computer graphics-generated expressions can be used in order to rule out low-level motion aftereffects. Dynamic face stimuli were created by using a three-dimensional face model that is based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS)