FACES Expanded (FACES-X) - Images

Expanded Facial Stimulus Database • Sera Gonzalez, UT Dallas • Ariana Plummer, UT Dallas • BoKyung Park, UT Dallas • Brittany Cassidy, UNC-Greensboro • Kendra Seaman, UT Dallas Psychology and neuroscience research often lack representation of different racial groups in editing, writing, and participation (Roberts et al., 2020; Abiodun, 2019). With some notable exceptions, this underrepresentation also extends to the stimuli used in lab-based studies. Several years ago, Natalie Ebner and her colleagues at The Max Planck Institute for Human Development created a database of facial expression stimuli that included younger, middle-aged, and older adults (FACES). Expanding the range of ages in facial stimuli has greatly facilitated the study of emotion, motivation, and cognition across the adult life span. However, this stimulus set is limited to white men and women. In this project, we aim to build on this work by creating a new FACES – Expanded (FACES-X) dataset featuring images of canonical emotional expressions from young, middle-aged, and older individuals who are African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Asian. Additionally, these stimuli can be used to improve neuropsychological assessments in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) research. The resulting validated database will support the development of race-matched assessments, reduce diagnostic bias, and advance health equity in ADRD research. This study is funded by an internal BBS Pilot Grant to KLS, internal startup funding to BP, an NIH Diversity supplement to SG, and a BvB Foundation grant to KLS.