Study of Visual Mecanisms Involved in Face Recognition (HUMVIS)

Since the 19th century, perception has been regarded as an inferential process in which sensory input is compared with prior knowledge, namely the internalised representation of the visual environment. This notion is central to the understanding of everyday perception and cognition in general, and is attracting much attention in various areas of psychology and cognitive neuroscience. However, it is unclear whether and how the primary visual refinement that is thought to underlie the convergence of bottom-up inputs with top-down prior knowledge applies to the processing of meaningful stimuli in our everyday lives. The investigators have shown that human face processing mechanisms are shaped by prior knowledge that the horizontal range of face information conveys the richest and most reliable cues. Furthermore, investigators' previous data suggest that the primary visual cortex is recruited during the progressive refinement of face representation. Using very high field neuroimaging, the present project proposes to follow the neural mechanisms underlying the cortical refinement of horizontal information in human face processing, and to study their contribution to behaviour.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy; Young Healthy Adults
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: 3Tesla magnetic resonance imaging of the healthy human visual system

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Valerie Goffaux, PhD; Phone Number: 003210473877; Email: Valerie.goffaux@uclouvain.be
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Laurence Dricot, PhD; Phone Number: 0032 479 230 206; Email: laurence.dricot@uclouvain.be

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Participants will be screened (see annex 2) to ascertain they fit with all these inclusion criteria:

• Be between 18 and 50 years old,
• have normal eyesight or eyesight corrected with contact lenses,
• Have no neurological disorder,
• Not have had a skull fracture or head surgery,
• Have no chronic progressive illness or mental deficiency,
• Have no metal parts in their body (dental braces or pins, metal plates, pacemakers, implanted prostheses, etc.),
• Have no tattoos containing metallic particles or implanted jewellery (e.g. piercings) that cannot be removed,
• Not to have worked with metals,
• Do not take any medicines or substances that may affect brain function (e.g. drugs, energy drinks, alcohol),
• Not to be pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Do not be claustrophobic.

Exclusion Criteria:

Participants presenting a counter-indication (responding yes to one of the questions of the screening questionnaire, see annex 2) to participate will be excluded from participation.

Participants will be screened to ascertain they do not present any of these counter-indications to the participation to the MRI measurement. We will exclude people with these characteristics:

• Be younger than 18 or older than 50 years old,
• have poor eyesight,
• Have neurological disorder,
• have had a skull fracture or head surgery,
• Have a chronic progressive illness or mental deficiency,
• Have metal parts in their body (dental braces or pins, metal plates, pacemakers, implanted prostheses, etc.),
• Have tattoos containing metallic particles or implanted jewellery (e.g. piercings) that cannot be removed,
• have worked with metals,
• take medicines or substances that may affect brain function (e.g. drugs, energy drinks, alcohol),
• pregnant or breastfeeding.
• claustrophobic.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Study of the visual mechanisms involved in face perception

Other: 3Tesla magnetic resonance imaging of the healthy human visual system; The present project presents a series of monocentric MRI studies carried out on healthy adult human volunteers. All neuroimaging will be performed at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc (CUSL, IRM de recherche). Participants will not directly benefit from their participation. All studies will manipulate the visual properties of the experimental stimuli in a within-subject way, and therefore do not rely on any participation group assignation/randomization method. The duration of studies will vary between 3h to 6h, i.e., from 2 to 4x1h30 3Tesla magnetic resonance imaging sessions depending on the experimental design.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Orientation tuning in the visual system	fMRI will be used to analyse brain responses along the ventral visual pathway to the visual presentation of orientation-filtered visual face and scene stimuli	2 years
Emergence of orientation tuning over processing course in the visual system	fMRI will be used to analyse brain responses along the ventral visual pathway to the visual presentation of temporally masked orientation-filtered visual stimuli	2 years
Receptive field mapping of the visual system	fMRI will be used to measure population receptive fields using stimuli varying in position and size randomly	2 years
Behavioral task performance	Participants will identify famous faces presented on-screen and respond via keypress.	2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Université Catholique de Louvain
• Investigators: Study Director: Valerie Goffaux, PhD, Université Catholique de Louvain; Principal Investigator: Mrittika Dey, Master, Université Catholique de Louvain

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): March 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 15, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 15, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 7, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 24, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 24, 2025
• Last Verified: February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; 3 Tesla; face perception; human vision; orientation selectivity
• Other Study ID Numbers: HUMVIS

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No