Document Detail


Perceptual adaptation to facial asymmetries.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19451376     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Humans and other animals are highly sensitive to deviations from bilateral symmetry and prefer symmetric mates. Fluctuating asymmetries (FAs) are random deviations from perfect symmetry that can result from developmental instability. Human perceptions of facial asymmetry are driven by FAs and insensitive to directional asymmetries (DAs), which have a consistent direction of bias (e.g., left side always larger) across the population and are unrelated to developmental stability. We hypothesized that perceptual adaptation may filter out DAs and provide a proximate mechanism for this perceptual focus on FAs. We created a small population of faces with DAs by applying a unilateral distortion to the same side of each face. After 5 min of adaptation, (new) faces with these DAs looked less asymmetric and the most symmetric-looking distortion shifted toward the adapting asymmetry level. Parallel changes occurred for attractiveness. We suggest that perceptual adaptation may provide the proximate mechanism for an evolutionarily adaptive focus on FAs.
Authors:
Gillian Rhodes; Kim Louw; Emma Evangelista
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Psychonomic bulletin & review     Volume:  16     ISSN:  1069-9384     ISO Abbreviation:  Psychon Bull Rev     Publication Date:  2009 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-05-19     Completed Date:  2009-07-20     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9502924     Medline TA:  Psychon Bull Rev     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  503-8     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia. gill@psy.uwa.edu.au
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adaptation, Psychological*
Adolescent
Adult
Attention*
Beauty
Choice Behavior
Discrimination Learning
Facial Asymmetry / psychology*
Female
Humans
Male
Orientation
Pattern Recognition, Visual*
Perceptual Distortion
Young Adult

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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