Age-related changes in processing faces from detection to identification: ERP evidence

Abstract

We examined the ability of people 70 to 90 years old to apply global, configural and featural faceprocessing strategies. In addition we investigated age-related changes in the ability to categorize faces at basic, subordinate and individual levels. Using the N170 potential as index of early face processing and the P300 component as index of categorical decision making and effort, we found significant age-related perceptual changes which slowed and somewhat impaired face processing. Specifically, older participants had problems integrating face features into global structures, demonstrating enhanced dependence on distal global information. They did not apply configural computations by default while processing faces which suggests that, unless identification is required, they process faces only at a basic level. These perceptual changes could be the cause for slower and less accurate subordinate categorization, particularly when it is based on details. At the neural levels face processing was not right-lateralized, reflecting excessive involvement of the left hemisphere in perception leading to a more general reduction of inter-hemispheric asymmetry. In addition we found excessive but nonselective activation of frontal regions adding support to the view that executive control and particularly inhibition of irrelevant input are reduced in the elderly.Evidence from human (Bian and Andersen, 2008;Fiorentini, et al., 1996;Habak and Faubert, 2000) and monkey research (e.g. Wang, et al., 2005;Zhang, et al., 2008) indicates that, though not dramatically (e.g. Norman, et al., 2008), the efficiency of visual perception declines with age even in healthy individuals. Within this framework age-associated changes in face recognition have been the focus of many studies using performance (e.g. Bartlett and Fulton, 1991;Boutet and Faubert, 2006;Habak, et al., 2008) as well as EEG (e.g. Pfutze, et al., 2002) and hemodynamic neuroimaging (e.g. Grady, 2002;Grady, et al., 2007) methods. Most of these studies revealed reduced face recognition ability in the elderly (e.g. Lott, et al., 2005;Searcy, et al., 1999), even more so than it is evident for object recognition (Boutet © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved Address for Correspondence: Shlomo Bentin, PhD Department of Psychology Hebrew University Jerusalem 91905 Israel shlomo.bentin@huji.ac.il Tel xx972 2 5881090 Fax xx972 2 5825659. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.Disclosure Statement We declare no actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or...

Face recognition memory across the adult life span: Event-related potential evidence from the own-age bias.

“…N170 amplitude also increased with participant age, replicating and extending previous reports for old (Daniel & Bentin, 2012;de Fockert. Ramchurn.…”

“…In a similar way, both N170 (Wiese et al, in press;Wiese, Schweinberger, & Hansen, 2008) and the vertex positive potential (VPP; Ebner, He, Fichtenholtz, McCarthy, & Johnson, 2011), which is assumed to be the frontocentral positive counterpart of N170 (Jeffreys, 1989;Joyce & Rossion, 2005), have been reported to be larger for old as compared with young faces. Finally, N170 has been observed to be delayed (Gazzaley et al, 2008;Rousselet et al, 2009;Wiese, Schweinberger, & Hansen, 2008) and increased (Daniel & Bentin, 2012;Gao et al, 2009;Rousselet et al, 2009) in older or middleaged (Chaby, George, Renault, & Fiori, 2003) relative to young participants. At some variance with these results, an earlier study by Pfütze, Sommer, and Schweinberger (2002) did not detect age-related changes in the N170.…”

Age-related differences in face recognition: Neural correlates of repetition and semantic priming in young and older adults.

“…Similarly, some studies observed an enhanced N170 amplitude in older adults (Daniel & Bentin, 2012;Gao et al, 2009;Rousselet et al, 2009), while others did not . N170 amplitude differences have been suggested to reflect more effortful processing during early stages of face perception in older adults, which is also in line with the finding of smaller N170 inversion effects in this age group (e.g., Gao et al, 2009;Komes et al, 2015).…”

Human electrophysiological reflections of the recruitment of perceptual processing during actions that engage memory

“…Impedances were kept below 50 kX and the recording was initially referenced to the vertex electrode (Cz) before being converted to an average reference. In accordance with other studies examining the N170, we applied an offline bandpass filter of 0.5-30 Hz (Daniel & Bentin, 2010;Taylor, McCarthy, Saliba, & Degiovanni, 1999). Then the EEG was segmented into 600-ms epochs, time-locked to the auditory action cue (epochs extended from 100 ms prior to the tone to 500 ms after the tone).…”