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Abstract
Rhesus macaques are the most popular model species for studying the neural basis of
visual face processing and social interaction using intracranial methods. However,
the challenge of creating realistic, dynamic, and parametric macaque face stimuli
has limited the experimental control and ethological validity of existing approaches.
We performed statistical analyses of in vivo computed tomography data to generate
an anatomically accurate, three-dimensional representation of Rhesus macaque cranio-facial
morphology. The surface structures were further edited, rigged and textured by a professional
digital artist with careful reference to photographs of macaque facial expression,
colouration and pelage. The model offers precise, continuous, parametric control of
craniofacial shape, emotional expression, head orientation, eye gaze direction, and
many other parameters that can be adjusted to render either static or dynamic high-resolution
faces. Example single-unit responses to such stimuli in macaque inferotemporal cortex
demonstrate the value of parametric control over facial appearance and behaviours.
The generation of such a high-dimensionality and systematically controlled stimulus
set of conspecific faces, with accurate craniofacial modeling and professional finalization
of facial details, is currently not achievable using existing methods. The results
herald a new set of possibilities in adaptive sampling of a high-dimensional and socially
meaningful feature space, thus opening the door to systematic testing of hypotheses
about the abundant neural specialization for faces found in the primate.