Investigating the role of the internal features of the face in competition for representation by modulation of the face-sensitive N170
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1
University of Auckland, School of Psychology, New Zealand
When two or more faces are presented at the same time, they appear to 'compete' for representation in the visual system (R. Desimone & J. Duncan, Ann. Rev. Neurosci., 1995). Evidence for this idea comes from several studies investigating the modulation of the face-sensitive N170 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) by competition between faces (e.g., C. Jacques & B. Rossion, J. Vis., 2006). The N170 evoked by the presentation of a face image is attenuated in amplitude when the face is flanked by other face images compared to when it is flanked by other objects or by phase-scrambled faces. Some studies have suggested that the internal features of the face - in particular the eye region - may be especially important in the face-sensitivity of the N170 (Itier, Alain, Sedore and McIntosh (2007); however a majority of studies have failed to report modulations of the N170 that support this idea. In the present study we employed the competitive modulation of N170 amplitude as a paradigm to explore the role that the features of the face play in competition for representation. We presented face stimuli drawn from three categories of internal face stimuli: features intact (FI), no eye region (NER), or no internal features (NIF). These stimuli were presented flanked either by stimuli from the same category, a different category or phase-scrambled control images. The N170 showed greater attenuation when intact internal faces were presented in the context of faces that appear more face-like (i.e. with FI and NER flankers) than with faces without any face-like features (NIF flankers). These data are suggestive that the eye regions do not play a dominant role in the face-sensitivity of the N170.
Keywords:
EEG,
Event-related potentials,
face recognition,
N170,
perceptual categorization
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Cognition and Executive Processes
Citation:
Vogeti
S and
Corballis
PM
(2015). Investigating the role of the internal features of the face in competition for representation by modulation of the face-sensitive N170.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00386
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Miss. Sreekari Vogeti, University of Auckland, School of Psychology, Auckland, New Zealand, svogeti@hotmail.com