Human faces present complex visual patterns that mediate a rich variety of social activity including recognition, emotion, and intention. In recent years considerable progress has been made in understanding how these complex images are interpreted by the brain, and in the development of computer systems for the processing, transmission, and graphical display of faces. This volume provides state-of-the-art reviews of the processes involved in perceiving and recognizing faces, with perspectives from neurophysiology, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology. It also includes contributions from engineering and computer science where the techniques of visualization offer some of the richest avenues for future progress. The authors are internationally recognized experts drawn from these various disciplines, and they review their own recent contributions to the field. Much of the current impetus and excitement comes from the remarkable degree of communication and collaboration, often spanning traditional disciplinary boundaries, that characterizes this field of research which is well illustrated by the chapters assembled in this volume.

In our daily lives, in our memories and fantasies, our mental worlds overflow with faces. But what do we really know about this most remarkable feature of the human body? Why do we have faces at all, and brains that are good at reading them? What do our looks say - and not say - about our personalities?
And perhaps the most compelling question of all: Why are we attracted to some faces more than others? 'In Your Face' is an engaging and authoritative tour of the science of facial beauty and face perception.
David Perrett, the pre-eminent scholar in the field, reveals and interprets the most remarkable findings and in the process demolishes many popular myths, setting the record straight on what neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are teaching us about beauty. The record is more surprising and often more unsettling than you might think.