View-adaptation reveals coding of face pose along image, not object, axes
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Updated: May 20, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Benjamin Balas1, Nayar Valente
1Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, United States. Benjamin.balas@ndsu.edu
Abstract:
High-level adaptation effects reveal important features of the neural coding of objects and faces. View-adaptation in particular is a highly useful means of characterizing how depth rotation of the face is represented and therefore, how view-invariant recognition of the face may be achieved. In the present study, we used view adaptation to determine the extent to which depth rotations of a face are represented in an image-based or object-based manner. Specifically, we dissociated object-based axes from image-based axes via a 90° planar rotation of the adapting face and observed that participants' responses pre- and post-adaptation are most consistent with an image-based representation of depth rotations of the face. We discuss our data in the context of previous results describing the impact of planar rotation on related aspects of face perception.
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