The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes , nose and mouth , and through which animals express many of their emotions . The face is crucial for human identity , and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect the psyche adversely.
23-412: The face is a part of the body, the front of the head. Face may also refer to: Face The front of the human head is called the face. It includes several distinct areas, of which the main features are: Facial appearance is vital for human recognition and communication . Facial muscles in humans allow expression of emotions . The face is itself a highly sensitive region of
46-453: A caricature form. By extension, anything which is the forward or world-facing part of a system which has internal structure is considered its "face", like the façade of a building. For example, a public relations or press officer might be called the "face" of the organization he or she represents. "Face" is also used metaphorically in a sociological context to refer to reputation or standing in society, particularly Chinese society, and
69-464: A face is not merely a set of facial features, but is rather something meaningful in its form. This is consistent with the Gestalt theory that an image is seen in its entirety, not by its individual parts. According to Gary L. Allen, people adapted to respond more to faces during evolution as the natural result of being a social species. Allen suggests that the purpose of recognizing faces has its roots in
92-542: A face more easily recognized in association with a pronounced portion of the face of the individual in question—for example, a caricature of Osama bin Laden might focus on his facial hair and nose; a caricature of George W. Bush might enlarge his ears to the size of an elephant's; a caricature of Jay Leno may pronounce his head and chin; and a caricature of Mick Jagger might enlarge his lips. Exaggeration of memorable features helps people to recognize others when presented in
115-626: A person's reactions and predict the probability of ensuing behaviors". One study used the Multimodal Emotion Recognition Test to attempt to determine how to measure emotion. This research aimed at using a measuring device to accomplish what many people do every day: read emotion in a face. The muscles of the face play a prominent role in the expression of emotion, and vary among different individuals, giving rise to additional diversity in expression and facial features. People are also relatively good at determining if
138-482: A smile is real or fake. A recent study looked at individuals judging forced and genuine smiles. While young and elderly participants equally could tell the difference for smiling young people, the "older adult participants outperformed young adult participants in distinguishing between posed and spontaneous smiles". This suggests that with experience and age, we become more accurate at perceiving true emotions across various age groups. Gestalt psychologists theorize that
161-445: A version of a gene associated with lip thickness – possibly selected for due to adaption to cold climate via fat distribution – introgressed from ancient humans – Denisovans – into the modern humans Native Americans . Another study found look-alike humans ( doppelgängers ) have genetic similarities, sharing genes affecting not only the face but also some phenotypes of physique and behavior . A study identified genes controlling
184-442: Is a route of administration used for drugs such as insulin : because it possesses few blood vessels, the tissue absorbs drugs slowly. Subcutaneous injection is believed to be the most effective manner to administer some drugs, such as human growth hormones. Just as the subcutaneous tissue can store fat, it can also provide good storage space for drugs that need to be released gradually because of limited blood flow. " Skin popping "
207-434: Is considered a major factor in human well-being and the perception of health in humans. Genes are a major factor in the particular appearance of a person's face with the high similarity of faces of identical twins indicating that most of facial variability is determined genetically. Studies have identified genes and gene regions determining face shape and differences in various facial features. A 2021 study found that
230-403: Is spoken of as a resource which can be won or lost. Because of the association with individuality, the anonymous person is sometimes referred to as "faceless". Subcutaneous tissue The subcutaneous tissue (from Latin subcutaneous 'beneath the skin'), also called the hypodermis , hypoderm (from Greek 'beneath the skin'), subcutis , or superficial fascia ,
253-419: Is the lowermost layer of the integumentary system in vertebrates . The types of cells found in the layer are fibroblasts , adipose cells , and macrophages . The subcutaneous tissue is derived from the mesoderm , but unlike the dermis , it is not derived from the mesoderm's dermatome region. It consists primarily of loose connective tissue and contains larger blood vessels and nerves than those found in
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#1732779570396276-497: The exposome (such as harmful substances of the general environment, workplace and cosmetics), psychological factors, and behavior (such as smoking, sleep, physical activity and sun damage ). Mechanisms underlying these include changes related to peptides (notably collagen ), inflammation , production of various proteins (notably elastin and other ECM proteins ), the structure of subcutaneous tissue , hormones , fibers (such as elastic fibers or elasticity) and
299-510: The fusiform gyrus , is activated by faces, and it is activated differently for shy and social people. A study confirmed that "when viewing images of strangers, shy adults exhibited significantly less activation in the fusiform gyri than did social adults". Furthermore, particular areas respond more to a face that is considered attractive, as seen in another study: "Facial beauty evokes a widely distributed neural network involving perceptual, decision-making and reward circuits. In those experiments,
322-577: The skin barrier . The desire of many to look young for their age and/or attractive has led to the establishment of a large cosmetics industry , which is largely concerned with make-up that is applied on top of the skin (topically) to temporarily change appearance but it or dermatology also develop anti-aging products (and related products and procedures) that in some cases affect underlying biology and are partly applied preventively. Facial traits are also used in biometrics and there have been attempts at reproducible quantifications. Skin health
345-477: The "parent-infant attraction, a quick and low-effort means by which parents and infants form an internal representation of each other, reducing the likelihood that the parent will abandon his or her offspring because of recognition failure". Allen's work takes a psychological perspective that combines evolutionary theories with Gestalt psychology. Research has indicated that certain areas of the brain respond particularly well to faces. The fusiform face area , within
368-409: The body's nutritional state. It acts as padding and as an energy reserve, as well as providing some minor thermoregulation via insulation. Subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin, as opposed to visceral fat , which is found in the peritoneal cavity , and can be measured using body fat calipers to give a rough estimate of total body adiposity . Injection into the subcutaneous tissue
391-410: The dermis. It is a major site of fat storage in the body. In arthropods , a hypodermis can refer to an epidermal layer of cells that secretes the chitinous cuticle . The term also refers to a layer of cells lying immediately below the epidermis of plants. The hypodermis forms an important insulating layer and/or food store in some animals, such as whales and hibernating mammals. In some plants,
414-688: The eyes, or of parts of them, is used in biometric identification to uniquely identify individuals. The shape of the face is influenced by the bone-structure of the skull , and each face is unique through the anatomical variation present in the bones of the viscerocranium (and neurocranium ). The bones involved in shaping the face are mainly the maxilla , mandible , nasal bone , zygomatic bone , and frontal bone . Also important are various soft tissues , such as fat , hair and skin (of which color may vary). The face changes over time, and features common in children or babies , such as prominent buccal fat-pads disappear over time, their role in
437-527: The human body and its expression may change when the brain is stimulated by any of the many human senses , such as touch , temperature , smell , taste , hearing , movement , hunger , or visual stimuli . The face is the feature which best distinguishes a person . Specialized regions of the human brain , such as the fusiform face area (FFA), enable facial recognition; when these are damaged , it may be impossible to recognize faces even of intimate family members. The pattern of specific organs, such as
460-488: The hypodermis is a layer of cells immediately below the epidermis of leaves. It is often mechanically strengthened, for example, in pine leaves, forming an extra protective layer or a water storage tissue. Subcutaneous fat is the most widely distributed subcutaneous tissue layer. It is composed of adipocytes, which are grouped together in lobules separated by connective tissue . The number of adipocytes varies among different body areas, while their size varies according to
483-739: The infant being to stabilize the cheeks during suckling . While the buccal fat-pads often diminish in size, the prominence of bones increase with age as they grow and develop. Facial shape – such as facial symmetry – is an important determinant of beauty . Visible variable features of the face other than shapes and proportions include color (paleness, sun tan and genetic default pigmentation ), hair (length, color , loss , graying ), wrinkles , facial hair (e.g. beards ), skin sagging, discolorations ( dark spots , freckles and eye circles ), pore -variabilities, skin blemishes ( pimples , scars , burn marks ). Many of these features can also vary over time due to aging , skin care , nutrition,
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#1732779570396506-504: The perceptual response across FFA and LOC remained present even when subjects were not attending explicitly to facial beauty". Cosmetic surgery can be used to alter the appearance of the facial features. Maxillofacial surgery may also be used in cases of facial trauma , injury to the face and skin diseases. Severely disfigured individuals have recently received full face transplants and partial transplants of skin and muscle tissue. Caricatures often exaggerate facial features to make
529-407: The shape of the nose and chin. Biological databases may be used to aggregate and discover associations between facial phenotypes and genes. Faces are essential to expressing emotion , consciously or unconsciously. A frown denotes disapproval; a smile usually means someone is pleased. Being able to read emotion in another's face is "the fundamental basis for empathy and the ability to interpret
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