Biology subjects

Cant, J. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Cant, J. S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Face ensembles reshape the neural other-race effect

The other-race effect (ORE), poorer recognition of other-race (OR) than same-race (SR) faces, is established for individual faces, but its neural expression during group viewing remains unclear. Twenty-two East Asian adults viewed East Asian and White faces in different formats: individually and in six-face ensembles during EEG recording. Behavioral testing confirmed an SR advantage. Decoding and generative reconstruction characterized neural discriminability, geometry, dynamics, sensor-level information, and recoverable content. Single SR faces were more discriminable, more dispersed in face space, and reconstructed more accurately. Ensembles preserved racial-composition information but reduced the cumulative SR-OR decoding difference and showed instead an early OR advantage. Reconstructions supported identification of individual faces and ensemble summaries, with an overall SR advantage but no reliable race-by-format interaction. Independent judgments revealed race- and format-dependent shifts in reconstructed age, valence, and arousal. These findings reveal a neural ORE whose expression depends on viewing context and representational measure.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Evidence for dimensional representations and anticipatory dynamics in facial expression perception

Expression recognition relies on the ability to distinguish subtle visual differences across a range of facial expressions. Here, we examine the neural representation of dynamic expressions as reflected by electroencephalography (EEG) data in human adults. We find that a wide range of expressions (i.e., 14 emotional and 10 conversational expressions) can be decoded from neural signals, and that their representational structure evinces the classic dimensions of valence and arousal. Critically, we recover, through EEG-based video reconstruction, dynamic representations whose content succeeds in capturing even fine differences across related expressions (e.g., happy-satiated versus schadenfreude). Further, time-resolved decoding reveals anticipatory dynamics that maximize accuracy before the occurrence of an apex expression in the visual stimulus. These results are validated against behavioral data, which yield static reconstructions consistent with their neural counterparts. Thus, our results shed light on the representational basis of expression recognition and serve to recover the dynamic content of visual experience.

neuroscience↗