When individuals see a face, they infer two main types of information. The face is identified as a specific stimulus belonging to a unique individual, taking into account change in appearance, aging, and so forth. Second, facial expression is interpreted for its emotional content, which sets the modality for the social interaction. The dissociation between facial identity and facial expression processing, as well as between facial expression and structural features of a facial stimulus, has been well documented by the cognitive model of face recognition proposed by Bruce and Young.( Yovel, G., & Kanwisher, N.) This model supposes that there are almost seven distinct types of information that can be derived from the face, such as structure, expression, and identity information. These types of information, which differ in terms of cognitive and functional subprocesses, are called codes. An example of this functional distinction is derived from the clinical field. Some prosopagnosic patients can still recognize and read emotional clues from faces, despite their failure to recognize the face of close relatives and even of themselves. Nevertheless, a main question is whether the cognitive processes involved in distinct aspects of face processing may be topographically separated in specific brain regions. (Bruce, V., & Young, A. W.)
Face processing relies on configural processing, which is thought to be particularly disrupted by inversion. It is often assumed that processing of faces is somehow special as it involves the efficient use of relational information. In the present study, we investigate whether processing of relational information (distances between local components) is also involved when faces differ by components, since some types of componential differences (e.g. shape changes) might affect relational information (e.g. distance between edge of nose and corner of eye) even if the location of the feature's centre does not change..............
