Attention to individual identities modulates face processing

Abstract

The ability of attention to apply in a flexible manner to several types of information at various stages of processing has been studied extensively. However, the susceptibility of these effects to the nature of the idiosyncratic items being attended is less understood. In the current study, we used symbolic cues to orient the attention of participants to the subsequent appearance of the face of a famous person (the former king of Spain) or an unfamiliar face. These were matched in perceptual characteristics. Behavioral effects showed that face-specific attention optimized response speed in an orthogonal task when the target matched the cue (valid trials) compared to when it did not (invalid trials). According to topographical analyses of the electrophysiological data, the famous and unfamiliar faces engaged dissociable brain circuits in two different temporal windows, from 144 to 300 ms after target processing, and at a later 456-492 ms epoch. In addition, orienting attention to specific faces modulated the perceptual stages reflected in the P1 and N170 potentials but with a different laterality pattern that depended on the familiarity of the faces. Whereas only attention to the famous face enhanced the P1 potential at left posterior electrodes, with no corresponding effect for the unfamiliar face at this stage, the N170 was modulated at left posterior sites for the famous item and at right homologous electrodes for the unfamiliar face. Intermediate processing stages, previously linked to facial identity processing indexed by the P2 and N2 potentials, reflected item familiarity but were not affected by the cueing manipulation. At the P3 level, attention influenced again item processing but did so in an equivalent manner for the famous and unfamiliar face. Our results, showing that identity-specific attention modulates perceptual stages of facial processing at different locations depending on idiosyncratic stimulus familiarity, may inform comparison of studies employing items with different degrees of novelty.

Am I the same person across my life span? An event‐related brain potentials study of the temporal perspective in self‐identity

“…Additionally, previous research has suggested that the access to self-face representation may be also enhanced automatically (Geng et al, 2012;Ma & Han, 2010) or even when self-recognition is irrelevant to the task (Scott, Luciana, Wewerka, & Nelson, 2005;Sui, Zhu, & Han, 2006). Hence, this effect seems to be task-independent, and it is associated with early and later components, as recently proposed (Humphreys & Sui, 2016;Sui & Humphreys, 2015); in contrast, other faces seems to be more influenced by attentional modulations and thus dependent on task demands (Morgan, Klein, Boehm, Shapiro, & Linden, 2008;Ruz, Aranda, Sarmiento, & Sanabria, 2015).…”