Facial cues to age perception using three-dimensional analysis

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 13;14(2):e0209639. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209639. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

To clarify cues for age perception, the three-dimensional head and face forms of Japanese women were analyzed. It is known that age-related transformations are mainly caused by changes in soft tissue during adulthood. A homologous polygon model was created by fitting template meshes to each study participant to obtain three-dimensional data for analyzing whole head and face forms. Using principal component analysis of the vertices coordinates of these models, 26 principal components were extracted (contribution ratios >0.5%), which accounted for more than 90% of the total variance. Among the principal components, five had a significant correlation with the perceived ages of the participants (p < 0.05). Transformations with these principal components in the age-related direction produced aged faces. Moreover, the older the perceived age, the larger the ratio of age-manifesting participants, namely participants who had one or more age-related principal component score greater than +1.0 σ in the age-related direction. Therefore, these five principal components were regarded as aging factors. A cluster analysis of the five aging factors revealed that all of the participants fell into one of four groups, meaning that specific combinations of factors could be used as cues for age perception in each group. These results suggest that Japanese women can be classified into four groups according to age-related transformations of soft tissue in the face.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aging*
  • Asian People
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Cues
  • Face*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional* / methods
  • Middle Aged
  • Models, Statistical
  • Principal Component Analysis
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Perception
  • Visual Perception
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This study was fully funded by Kao Corporation (http://www.kao.com/) and all authors were permanent employees of Kao Corporation. Kao Corporation provided support in the form of salaries for all authors, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.