We examined processing of change in facial expression. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were elicited by successive presentation of two different faces without interval. Smile faces were preceded by either a neutral face of the same person, a smile face of a different person, or a neutral face of a different person, which generated expressional, individual, or both expressional and individual change, respectively. For the preceding faces, there were no differences in face-specific N170. In contrast, the second faces elicited a larger N170 for expressional change relative to individual or both changes, which indicates that facial expression was processed in the early stage of face processing in the posterior temporal region, when they are presented in change context.
In order to investigate the relationship between the appearance of illusory figures and the wave form of visual evoked potentials (VEPs), 8 different visual pattern stimuli were presented to 8 normal subjects. Four of the stimuli (experimental stimuli) produced subjective figures and contours (squares and discs). The 4 other stimuli (reference stimuli), although equal to the experimental stimuli in the amount of physical energy, did not produce the illusion of squares or discs. Electrodes were placed on the scalp at central and occipital locations. Three prominent peaks in the occipital record were observed in all subjects. An amplitude difference of VEP N180 (N2) between the subjective figures and the reference stimuli was found in the values for each subject. Enhancement of the VEP of the illusory figure stimuli was observed for a specific component (N2), whereas the amplitude values at the central components and the occipital P120 (P2) and P280 (P3) were almost the same as the reference values. The VEP (N2 component) amplitude enhancement at the occipital area for subjective figure stimuli suggests that illusory contour formation takes place at higher levels in the visual system. This was known from experiments using dichoptic presentation.
To elucidate the discriminating processes of surface depth and boundary form in global stereopsis, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were investigated by the detection of combinations of the attributes in random sequences. The attentional relevance of depth or form was associated with selection negativities (SNs) over the lateral occipito-temporal regions initiating at about 200 ms post-stimulus. The initial SNs were elicited irrespective of relevance to the other feature; the following parts increased only for stimuli with crossed disparity having the relevant dimension of the other feature, suggesting the independent selection of stereoscopic depth and form followed by the perceptual integration into an object.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.