Facial Recognition Pattern before and after Lower Eyelid Blepharoplasty: An Eye Tracking Analysis

Abstract

This study investigated eye movement patterns using eye tracking technology when looking at preoperative and postoperative images of patients that underwent bilateral periorbital cosmetic surgery. The sequence of facial recognition before surgery was periorbital-nose-perioral, whereas following surgery it was nose-periorbital-perioral. This study revealed that the sequence of facial feature recognition is influenced by the aesthetic liking of the observer and that alteration to facial features influences the sequence of facial feature recognition. The eye movement pattern, however, seems to follow the internal representation of beauty where aesthetically pleasing facial features are observed later during first image exposure and are viewed shorter.

Keywords: Blepharoplasty; Eye tracking analyses; Facial anatomy; Facial recognition; Periorbital anatomy.