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Topic · Cognitive Neuroscience

Face Recognition and Perception

Face Recognition and Perception is a research topic within Cognitive Neuroscience. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the neural mechanisms underlying face perception, recognition, and emotional expression processing in the human brain. It delves into topics such as the distributed cortical network for face perception, functional compartmentalization in the ventral temporal cortex, and the role of social cognition in facial identity and emotion recognition. The use of fMRI data and multivariate pattern analysis is prominent in decoding mental states and visual contents from brain activity.

  • Face Perception
  • Neural Mechanisms
  • Visual Cortex
  • Emotional Expressions
  • fMRI Data
  • Social Cognition
  • Object Recognition
  • Facial Identity
  • Cortical Processing
  • Emotion Recognition
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Face Recognition and Perception

Which countries lead Face Recognition and Perception research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (973 and 540 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 973 works
  2. 2 China 540 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 347 works
  4. 4 Germany 312 works
  5. 5 Japan 237 works
  6. 6 Canada 205 works
  7. 7 Italy 161 works
  8. 8 France 138 works
  9. 9 Australia 113 works
  10. 10 India 98 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 31.2%China: 17.3%United Kingdom: 11.1%Germany: 10.0%6 others listed: 30.5%31%largest
United States973 · 31.2%China540 · 17.3%United Kingdom347 · 11.1%Germany312 · 10.0%6 others listed952 · 30.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Face Recognition and Perception research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Face Recognition and Perception research, followed by University of Toronto and Harvard University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 50 works
  2. 2 University of TorontoCanada 33 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 33 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 29 works
  5. 5 KU LeuvenBelgium 27 works
  6. 6 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 26 works
  7. 7 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 26 works
  8. 8 Max Planck SocietyGermany 26 works
  9. 9 University of YorkUnited Kingdom 22 works
  10. 10 The University of QueenslandAustralia 21 works

Who are the leading researchers in Face Recognition and Perception?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Face Recognition and Perception include Yoshua Bengio, Karl John Friston and Dan J. Stein.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  3. 3 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  4. 4 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  5. 5 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k citations
  6. 6 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  7. 7 Clifford R. Jack United States 218k citations
  8. 8 Stephen M. Smith United Kingdom 214k citations
  9. 9 Ronald Carl Petersen United States 207k citations
  10. 10 Trevor William Robbins United Kingdom 199k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Face Recognition and Perception?

The most cited paper in Face Recognition and Perception is "Learning the parts of objects by non-negative matrix factorization" (Daniel D. Lee, H. Sebastian Seung, 1999), with 14,302 citations. Next come "An argument for basic emotions" (9,629) and "The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception" (8,016).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Learning the parts of objects by non-negative matrix factorization Daniel D. Lee, H. Sebastian Seung · Nature Oct 1999 14,302
2 An argument for basic emotions Paul Ekman · Cognition & Emotion May 1992 9,629
3 The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception Nancy Kanwisher, Josh H. McDermott, Marvin M. Chun · Journal of Neuroscience Open access Jun 1997 8,016
4 Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Richard M. Shiffrin, Walter Schneider · Psychological Review Mar 1977 7,177
5 Self-Perception Theory Daryl J. Bem · Advances in experimental social psychology Book chapter 1972 5,282
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Face Recognition and Perception research done?

The largest centres of Face Recognition and Perception research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Tokyo (Japan), London (United Kingdom) and Toronto (Canada). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Giessen and York.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 113 works
  2. 2 TokyoJapan 80 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 74 works
  4. 4 TorontoCanada 54 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 53 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 53 works
  7. 7 ShanghaiChina 46 works
  8. 8 CambridgeUnited States 42 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 36 works
  10. 10 BerlinGermany 34 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GiessenDE · 21.3 works15×
  2. YorkGB · 22.3 works15×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Face Recognition and Perception than the world average.

See Face Recognition and Perception on the map

Where is the best place to study Face Recognition and Perception?

Among universities, judged by research, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 15.47%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Johns Hopkins Univer…Harvard UniversityMassachusetts Instit…University College L…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 75.418.6%5.1×26 +76.8%
2Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 70.213.5%8.5×20 -14.2%
3Harvard UniversityUnited States 68.414.2%3.0×32 -10.8%
4University College LondonUnited Kingdom 68.213.2%4.9×26 -8.8%
5University of BonnGermany 63.525.5%5.8×9 +163.2%
6Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 63.216.8%8.0×16 -5.4%
7University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 60.517.2%4.2×17 -8.4%
8KU LeuvenBelgium 59.98.7%8.2×27 +1.4%
9The University of QueenslandAustralia 59.812.4%6.7×22 +108.9%
10Justus-Liebig-Universität GießenGermany 58.614.6%25.0×18 +89.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Face Recognition and Perception, country by country

Is Face Recognition and Perception research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2010. The fastest-growing topics are Face Recognition and Perception.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Face Recognition and Perception as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.011% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Face Recognition and Perception0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Face Recognition and Perception over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Face Recognition and Perception9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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