ABSTRACT

Beauty filters, while often employed for retouching photos to appear more attractive on social media, when used in excess cause images to give a distorted impression. The neural mechanisms underlying this change in facial attractiveness according to beauty retouching level remain unknown. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in women as they viewed photos of their own face or unknown faces that had been retouched at three levels: no, mild, and extreme. The activity in the nucleus accumbens (NA) exhibited a positive correlation with facial attractiveness, whereas amygdala activity showed a negative correlation with attractiveness. Even though the participants rated others’ faces as more attractive than their own, the NA showed increased activity only for their mildly retouched own face and the amygdala exhibited greater activation in the others’ faces condition than the own face condition. Moreover, amygdala activity was greater for extremely retouched faces than for unretouched or mildly retouched faces for both conditions. Frontotemporal and cortical midline areas showed greater activation for one’s own than others’ faces, but such self-related activation was absent when extremely retouched. These results suggest that neural activity dynamically switches between the NA and amygdala according to perceived attractiveness of one’s face.

摘要

美颜滤镜虽然经常用于修饰照片以在社交媒体上显得更有吸引力，但过度使用会导致图像给人一种扭曲的印象。根据美容修饰水平，这种面部吸引力变化背后的神经机制仍然未知。本研究使用功能性磁共振成像对女性进行功能性磁共振成像，因为她们查看自己的面部照片或经过修饰的未知面部照片，分为三个级别：不，轻度和极端。伏隔核（NA）的活动与面部吸引力呈正相关，而杏仁核活动与吸引力呈负相关。尽管参与者认为别人的脸比自己的更有吸引力，NA 仅在他们轻微修饰的自己的脸上表现出增加的活动，而杏仁核在其他人的面部条件下表现出比自己的面部条件更大的激活。此外，在两种情况下，极度修饰的面部的杏仁核活动都大于未修饰或轻度修饰的面部。额颞叶和皮层中线区域对自己的脸比其他人的脸表现出更大的激活，但是当极度修饰时，这种自我相关的激活就消失了。这些结果表明，神经活动根据人脸的感知吸引力在 NA 和杏仁核之间动态切换。额颞叶和皮层中线区域对自己的脸比其他人的脸表现出更大的激活，但是当极度修饰时，这种自我相关的激活就消失了。这些结果表明，神经活动根据人脸的感知吸引力在 NA 和杏仁核之间动态切换。额颞叶和皮层中线区域对自己的脸比其他人的脸表现出更大的激活，但是当极度修饰时，这种自我相关的激活就消失了。这些结果表明，神经活动根据人脸的感知吸引力在 NA 和杏仁核之间动态切换。