Slide
Centre Interdisciplinaire
de Recherche et d’Innovation
en Cybersécurité et Société
de Recherche et d’Innovation
en Cybersécurité et Société
1.
Côté, L.; Lamontagne, J.; Bellerose, A.; Blais, C.; Fiset, D.
The eyes are central to face detection: revisiting the foundations of face processing Article de journal
Dans: Vision Research, vol. 243, 2026, ISSN: 00426989 (ISSN).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: adult, article, Black person, Bubbles, Categorization, Caucasian, Detection, emotion assessment, Faces, Facial Recognition, facies, female, human, human experiment, Image analysis, information processing, Information use, male, Noise, normal human, perception, Prosopagnosia, spatial frequency discrimination, task performance, visual discrimination, Young Adult
@article{cote_eyes_2026,
title = {The eyes are central to face detection: revisiting the foundations of face processing},
author = {L. Côté and J. Lamontagne and A. Bellerose and C. Blais and D. Fiset},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105030389147&doi=10.1016%2Fj.visres.2026.108785&partnerID=40&md5=752aa5d9923ac60539e36118ad41e1e6},
doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2026.108785},
issn = {00426989 (ISSN)},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-01-01},
journal = {Vision Research},
volume = {243},
abstract = {Face detection feels effortless, yet it requires finely tuned computations to extract socially meaningful signals from the visual stream. Here, we used the Bubbles method to isolate the facial features and spatial frequency information that support face categorization. Across three experiments varying in task demands and visual context, the eye region consistently emerged as the most diagnostic source of information, particularly in high spatial frequencies. This finding held whether participants distinguished faces from noise, from non-face objects, or from real-world categories—suggesting that the eyes serve as an anchor point for categorization across contexts. Strikingly, this diagnostic profile mirrors that found in face identification tasks, implying that detection and recognition may rely on shared perceptual mechanisms rather than sequential, independent processes. This overlap sheds light on longstanding ambiguities in the prosopagnosia literature, indicating that detection impairments found in patients may stem from a broader failure to extract critical eye information. More broadly, our results invite a rethinking of the early stages of face processing, suggesting that detection already involves selective use of diagnostic facial features that supports recognition, emotional decoding, and social perception. © 2026 The Author(s).},
keywords = {adult, article, Black person, Bubbles, Categorization, Caucasian, Detection, emotion assessment, Faces, Facial Recognition, facies, female, human, human experiment, Image analysis, information processing, Information use, male, Noise, normal human, perception, Prosopagnosia, spatial frequency discrimination, task performance, visual discrimination, Young Adult},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Face detection feels effortless, yet it requires finely tuned computations to extract socially meaningful signals from the visual stream. Here, we used the Bubbles method to isolate the facial features and spatial frequency information that support face categorization. Across three experiments varying in task demands and visual context, the eye region consistently emerged as the most diagnostic source of information, particularly in high spatial frequencies. This finding held whether participants distinguished faces from noise, from non-face objects, or from real-world categories—suggesting that the eyes serve as an anchor point for categorization across contexts. Strikingly, this diagnostic profile mirrors that found in face identification tasks, implying that detection and recognition may rely on shared perceptual mechanisms rather than sequential, independent processes. This overlap sheds light on longstanding ambiguities in the prosopagnosia literature, indicating that detection impairments found in patients may stem from a broader failure to extract critical eye information. More broadly, our results invite a rethinking of the early stages of face processing, suggesting that detection already involves selective use of diagnostic facial features that supports recognition, emotional decoding, and social perception. © 2026 The Author(s).
2.
Gingras, F.; Fiset, D.; Plouffe-Demers, M. -P.; Estéphan, A.; N’Guiamba, M.; Sun, D.; Zhang, Y.; Blais, C.
Cultural differences in spatial frequency tunings to faces do not generalize to visual scenes and object stimuli Article de journal
Dans: Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 33, no 1, 2026, ISSN: 10699384 (ISSN).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: Adolescent, adult, Asian, Asian People, Canada, Caucasian, China, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Cross-cultural psychology, cultural factor, Depth Perception, Face processing, Facial Recognition, female, human, Humans, male, Object processing, Pattern Recognition, physiology, Scene processing, Space Perception, Spatial frequencies, Visual, visual pattern recognition, Visual Perception, White People, Young Adult
@article{gingras_cultural_2026,
title = {Cultural differences in spatial frequency tunings to faces do not generalize to visual scenes and object stimuli},
author = {F. Gingras and D. Fiset and M. -P. Plouffe-Demers and A. Estéphan and M. N’Guiamba and D. Sun and Y. Zhang and C. Blais},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105025378146&doi=10.3758%2Fs13423-025-02832-0&partnerID=40&md5=43840b8cfa4c2df54e647f03a452f8e5},
doi = {10.3758/s13423-025-02832-0},
issn = {10699384 (ISSN)},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-01-01},
journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin and Review},
volume = {33},
number = {1},
abstract = {Previous research has identified cultural differences in visual perception, where East Asians focus more on global object structure and display a larger breadth of attention compared with Westerners. East Asians rely on lower spatial frequencies (SFs) compared to Westerners for face recognition, which may be linked to this. Investigating whether such differences extend to other high-level stimulus categories would clarify if SF tuning differences reflect more general or face specific cognitive processes. The present study compared the SF tunings of Canadians and Chinese during object (Exp. 1; N = 50) and scene (Exp. 3; N = 47) categorization. In both experiments, results did not indicate a significant difference between groups. In Experiment 3 (N = 128), we conducted an online replication of Experiment 1 while measuring the SF tunings of the same participants during face perception. Again, no significant difference between the groups was found during object categorization, but the finding that East Asians rely on lower SF than Westerners was replicated. Together, these results suggest that unique mechanisms may underlie the cultural differences in face processing, though alternative explanations, such as the feature consistency of faces, could also account for these findings. © The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2025.},
keywords = {Adolescent, adult, Asian, Asian People, Canada, Caucasian, China, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Cross-cultural psychology, cultural factor, Depth Perception, Face processing, Facial Recognition, female, human, Humans, male, Object processing, Pattern Recognition, physiology, Scene processing, Space Perception, Spatial frequencies, Visual, visual pattern recognition, Visual Perception, White People, Young Adult},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Previous research has identified cultural differences in visual perception, where East Asians focus more on global object structure and display a larger breadth of attention compared with Westerners. East Asians rely on lower spatial frequencies (SFs) compared to Westerners for face recognition, which may be linked to this. Investigating whether such differences extend to other high-level stimulus categories would clarify if SF tuning differences reflect more general or face specific cognitive processes. The present study compared the SF tunings of Canadians and Chinese during object (Exp. 1; N = 50) and scene (Exp. 3; N = 47) categorization. In both experiments, results did not indicate a significant difference between groups. In Experiment 3 (N = 128), we conducted an online replication of Experiment 1 while measuring the SF tunings of the same participants during face perception. Again, no significant difference between the groups was found during object categorization, but the finding that East Asians rely on lower SF than Westerners was replicated. Together, these results suggest that unique mechanisms may underlie the cultural differences in face processing, though alternative explanations, such as the feature consistency of faces, could also account for these findings. © The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2025.
3.
Gingras, F.; Fiset, D.; Plouffe-Demers, M. -P.; Deschênes, A.; Cormier, S.; Forget, H.; Blais, C.
Pain in the eye of the beholder: Variations in pain visual representations as a function of face ethnicity and culture Article de journal
Dans: British Journal of Psychology, vol. 114, no 3, p. 621–637, 2023, ISSN: 00071269, (Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: Caucasian, emotion, Emotions, Ethnicity, human, Humans, Pain, psychology, White People
@article{gingras_pain_2023,
title = {Pain in the eye of the beholder: Variations in pain visual representations as a function of face ethnicity and culture},
author = {F. Gingras and D. Fiset and M. -P. Plouffe-Demers and A. Deschênes and S. Cormier and H. Forget and C. Blais},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85149411004&doi=10.1111%2fbjop.12641&partnerID=40&md5=eb36c9f5071b30edaff22935109abcea},
doi = {10.1111/bjop.12641},
issn = {00071269},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
journal = {British Journal of Psychology},
volume = {114},
number = {3},
pages = {621–637},
publisher = {John Wiley and Sons Ltd},
abstract = {Pain experienced by Black individuals is systematically underestimated, and recent studies have shown that part of this bias is rooted in perceptual factors. We used Reverse Correlation to estimate visual representations of the pain expression in Black and White faces, in participants originating from both Western and African countries. Groups of raters were then asked to evaluate the presence of pain and other emotions in these representations. A second group of White raters then evaluated those same representations placed over a neutral background face (50% White; 50% Black). Image-based analyses show significant effects of culture and face ethnicity, but no interaction between the two factors. Western representations were more likely to be judged as expressing pain than African representations. For both cultural groups, raters also perceived more pain in White face representations than in Black face representations. However, when changing the background stimulus to the neutral background face, this effect of face ethnic profile disappeared. Overall, these results suggest that individuals have different expectations of how pain is expressed by Black and White individuals, and that cultural factors may explain a part of this phenomenon. © 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.},
note = {Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd},
keywords = {Caucasian, emotion, Emotions, Ethnicity, human, Humans, Pain, psychology, White People},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Pain experienced by Black individuals is systematically underestimated, and recent studies have shown that part of this bias is rooted in perceptual factors. We used Reverse Correlation to estimate visual representations of the pain expression in Black and White faces, in participants originating from both Western and African countries. Groups of raters were then asked to evaluate the presence of pain and other emotions in these representations. A second group of White raters then evaluated those same representations placed over a neutral background face (50% White; 50% Black). Image-based analyses show significant effects of culture and face ethnicity, but no interaction between the two factors. Western representations were more likely to be judged as expressing pain than African representations. For both cultural groups, raters also perceived more pain in White face representations than in Black face representations. However, when changing the background stimulus to the neutral background face, this effect of face ethnic profile disappeared. Overall, these results suggest that individuals have different expectations of how pain is expressed by Black and White individuals, and that cultural factors may explain a part of this phenomenon. © 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.
4.
Charbonneau, I.; Robinson, K.; Blais, C.; Fiset, D.
Implicit race attitudes modulate visual information extraction for trustworthiness judgments Article de journal
Dans: PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no 9 September, 2020, ISSN: 19326203, (Publisher: Public Library of Science).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: adult, African American, African Americans, article, Attitude, Caucasian, decision making, Ethics, European Continental Ancestry Group, extraction, eyelash, Facial Expression, facies, female, human, Humans, Judgment, male, perception, physiology, psychology, Racism, Social Perception, Stereotyping, visual information, wrinkle, Young Adult
@article{charbonneau_implicit_2020,
title = {Implicit race attitudes modulate visual information extraction for trustworthiness judgments},
author = {I. Charbonneau and K. Robinson and C. Blais and D. Fiset},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85091622106&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0239305&partnerID=40&md5=18ca2332affc9cb41d17afc8c450b0b4},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0239305},
issn = {19326203},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
volume = {15},
number = {9 September},
publisher = {Public Library of Science},
abstract = {Black people are still considered to be one of the most stigmatized groups and have to face multiple prejudices that undermine their well-being. Assumptions and beliefs about other racial groups are quite pervasive and have been shown to impact basic social tasks such as face processing. For example, individuals with high racial prejudice conceptualize other-race faces as less trustworthy and more criminal. However, it is unknown if implicit racial bias could modulate even low-level perceptual mechanisms such as spatial frequency (SF) extraction when judging the level of trustworthiness of other-race faces. The present study showed that although similar facial features are used to judge the trustworthiness of White and Black faces, own-race faces are processed in lower SF (i.e. coarse information such as the contour of the face and blurred shapes as opposed to high SF representing fine-grained information such as eyelashes or fine wrinkles). This pattern was modulated by implicit race biases: higher implicit biases are associated with a significantly higher reliance on low SF with White than with Black faces. Copyright: © 2020 Charbonneau et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.},
note = {Publisher: Public Library of Science},
keywords = {adult, African American, African Americans, article, Attitude, Caucasian, decision making, Ethics, European Continental Ancestry Group, extraction, eyelash, Facial Expression, facies, female, human, Humans, Judgment, male, perception, physiology, psychology, Racism, Social Perception, Stereotyping, visual information, wrinkle, Young Adult},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Black people are still considered to be one of the most stigmatized groups and have to face multiple prejudices that undermine their well-being. Assumptions and beliefs about other racial groups are quite pervasive and have been shown to impact basic social tasks such as face processing. For example, individuals with high racial prejudice conceptualize other-race faces as less trustworthy and more criminal. However, it is unknown if implicit racial bias could modulate even low-level perceptual mechanisms such as spatial frequency (SF) extraction when judging the level of trustworthiness of other-race faces. The present study showed that although similar facial features are used to judge the trustworthiness of White and Black faces, own-race faces are processed in lower SF (i.e. coarse information such as the contour of the face and blurred shapes as opposed to high SF representing fine-grained information such as eyelashes or fine wrinkles). This pattern was modulated by implicit race biases: higher implicit biases are associated with a significantly higher reliance on low SF with White than with Black faces. Copyright: © 2020 Charbonneau et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
5.
Estéphan, A.; Fiset, D.; Saumure, C.; Plouffe-Demers, M. -P.; Zhang, Y.; Sun, D.; Blais, C.
Time course of cultural differences in spatial frequency use for face identification Article de journal
Dans: Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no 1, 2018, ISSN: 20452322, (Publisher: Nature Publishing Group).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: adult, article, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, attention, Canada, Caucasian, European Continental Ancestry Group, eye movement, Eye movements, Facial Recognition, female, financial management, human, human experiment, Humans, male, Pattern Recognition, physiology, stimulus, Visual, visual information, Young Adult
@article{estephan_time_2018,
title = {Time course of cultural differences in spatial frequency use for face identification},
author = {A. Estéphan and D. Fiset and C. Saumure and M. -P. Plouffe-Demers and Y. Zhang and D. Sun and C. Blais},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85041296131&doi=10.1038%2fs41598-018-19971-1&partnerID=40&md5=b9e70f2d9ac7c641171bd6e450316846},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-19971-1},
issn = {20452322},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
abstract = {Several previous studies of eye movements have put forward that, during face recognition, Easterners spread their attention across a greater part of their visual field than Westerners. Recently, we found that culture's effect on the perception of faces reaches mechanisms deeper than eye movements, therefore affecting the very nature of information sampled by the visual system: That is, Westerners globally rely more than Easterners on fine-grained visual information (i.e. high spatial frequencies; SFs), whereas Easterners rely more on coarse-grained visual information (i.e. low SFs). These findings suggest that culture influences basic visual processes; however, the temporal onset and dynamics of these culturespecific perceptual differences are still unknown. Here, we investigate the time course of SF use in Western Caucasian (Canadian) and East Asian (Chinese) observers during a face identification task. Firstly, our results confirm that Easterners use relatively lower SFs than Westerners, while the latter use relatively higher SFs. More importantly, our results indicate that these differences arise as early as 34 ms after stimulus onset, and remain stable through time. Our research supports the hypothesis that Westerners and Easterners initially rely on different types of visual information during face processing. © The Author(s) 2018.},
note = {Publisher: Nature Publishing Group},
keywords = {adult, article, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, attention, Canada, Caucasian, European Continental Ancestry Group, eye movement, Eye movements, Facial Recognition, female, financial management, human, human experiment, Humans, male, Pattern Recognition, physiology, stimulus, Visual, visual information, Young Adult},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Several previous studies of eye movements have put forward that, during face recognition, Easterners spread their attention across a greater part of their visual field than Westerners. Recently, we found that culture's effect on the perception of faces reaches mechanisms deeper than eye movements, therefore affecting the very nature of information sampled by the visual system: That is, Westerners globally rely more than Easterners on fine-grained visual information (i.e. high spatial frequencies; SFs), whereas Easterners rely more on coarse-grained visual information (i.e. low SFs). These findings suggest that culture influences basic visual processes; however, the temporal onset and dynamics of these culturespecific perceptual differences are still unknown. Here, we investigate the time course of SF use in Western Caucasian (Canadian) and East Asian (Chinese) observers during a face identification task. Firstly, our results confirm that Easterners use relatively lower SFs than Westerners, while the latter use relatively higher SFs. More importantly, our results indicate that these differences arise as early as 34 ms after stimulus onset, and remain stable through time. Our research supports the hypothesis that Westerners and Easterners initially rely on different types of visual information during face processing. © The Author(s) 2018.
6.
Blais, C.; Jack, R. E.; Scheepers, C.; Fiset, D.; Caldara, R.
Culture shapes how we look at faces Article de journal
Dans: PLoS ONE, vol. 3, no 8, 2008, ISSN: 19326203 (ISSN).
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: adult, article, Asian, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Caucasian, Classification, Cross-Cultural Comparison, cultural anthropology, cultural factor, Culture, East Asian, European Continental Ancestry Group, Eye, eye fixation, eye movement, Eye movements, Face, face asymmetry, face recognition, female, Fixation, histology, human, human experiment, Humans, Learning, male, methodology, Mouth, normal human, Nose, observer variation, Ocular, physiology, race difference, recognition, Recognition (Psychology), vision, visual memory, Visual Perception
@article{blais_culture_2008,
title = {Culture shapes how we look at faces},
author = {C. Blais and R. E. Jack and C. Scheepers and D. Fiset and R. Caldara},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-51549087752&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0003022&partnerID=40&md5=e75dcf9792dbd03fd1ef5894b81bfc4f},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0003022},
issn = {19326203 (ISSN)},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
volume = {3},
number = {8},
abstract = {Background: Face processing, amongst many basic visual skills, is thought to be invariant across all humans. From as early as 1965, studies of eye movements have consistently revealed a systematic triangular sequence of fixations over the eyes and the mouth, suggesting that faces elicit a universal, biologically-determined information extraction pattern. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we monitored the eye movements of Western Caucasian and East Asian observers while they learned, recognized, and categorized by race Western Caucasian and East Asian faces. Western Caucasian observers reproduced a scattered triangular pattern of fixations for faces of both races and across tasks. Contrary to intuition, East Asian observers focused more on the central region of the face. Conclusions/Significance: These results demonstrate that face processing can no longer be considered as arising from a universal series of perceptual events. The strategy employed to extract visual information from faces differs across cultures. © 2008 Blais et al.},
keywords = {adult, article, Asian, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Caucasian, Classification, Cross-Cultural Comparison, cultural anthropology, cultural factor, Culture, East Asian, European Continental Ancestry Group, Eye, eye fixation, eye movement, Eye movements, Face, face asymmetry, face recognition, female, Fixation, histology, human, human experiment, Humans, Learning, male, methodology, Mouth, normal human, Nose, observer variation, Ocular, physiology, race difference, recognition, Recognition (Psychology), vision, visual memory, Visual Perception},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Background: Face processing, amongst many basic visual skills, is thought to be invariant across all humans. From as early as 1965, studies of eye movements have consistently revealed a systematic triangular sequence of fixations over the eyes and the mouth, suggesting that faces elicit a universal, biologically-determined information extraction pattern. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we monitored the eye movements of Western Caucasian and East Asian observers while they learned, recognized, and categorized by race Western Caucasian and East Asian faces. Western Caucasian observers reproduced a scattered triangular pattern of fixations for faces of both races and across tasks. Contrary to intuition, East Asian observers focused more on the central region of the face. Conclusions/Significance: These results demonstrate that face processing can no longer be considered as arising from a universal series of perceptual events. The strategy employed to extract visual information from faces differs across cultures. © 2008 Blais et al.