EEG-Based Assessment of Perceived Realness in Stylized Face Images

In this paper, we investigate the perception of realness in rendered face images experimentally using electroencephalography. To this end, we presented ten subjects with 36 character images based on six different faces (varying in gender and emotional expression) rendered at six different levels of realness ranging from abstract, cartoon-like renderings to real photographs. In the first psychophysical part of our study, we asked participants to rate perceived realness, appeal, familiarity, reassurance, and attractiveness for the presented characters. In the second part, we recorded the electroencephalogram when presenting the character images at a stimulation frequency of f stim = 5 Hz. We show that the amplitudes of the odd harmonics of the elicited steady-state visual evoked potential correlate with the psychophysical responses (|ρ| = 0.83, p < 0.05).