Early visually evoked electrophysiological responses over the human brain (P1, N170) show stable patterns of face-sensitivity from 4 years to adulthood

Abstract

Whether the development of face recognition abilities truly reflects changes in how faces, specifically, are perceived, or rather can be attributed to more general perceptual or cognitive development, is debated. Event-related potential (ERP) recordings on the scalp offer promise for this issue because they allow brain responses to complex visual stimuli to be relatively well isolated from other sensory, cognitive and motor processes. ERP studies in 5- to 16-year-old children report large age-related changes in amplitude, latency (decreases) and topographical distribution of the early visual components, the P1 and the occipito-temporal N170. To test the face specificity of these effects, we recorded high-density ERPs to pictures of faces, cars, and their phase-scrambled versions from 72 children between the ages of 4 and 17, and a group of adults. We found that none of the previously reported age-dependent changes in amplitude, latency or topography of the P1 or N170 were specific to faces. Most importantly, when we controlled for age-related variations of the P1, the N170 appeared remarkably similar in amplitude and topography across development, with much smaller age-related decreases in latencies than previously reported. At all ages the N170 showed equivalent face-sensitivity: it had the same topography and right hemisphere dominance, it was absent for meaningless (scrambled) stimuli, and larger and earlier for faces than cars. The data also illustrate the large amount of inter-individual and inter-trial variance in young children's data, which causes the N170 to merge with a later component, the N250, in grand-averaged data. Based on our observations, we suggest that the previously reported “bi-fid” N170 of young children is in fact the N250. Overall, our data indicate that the electrophysiological markers of face-sensitive perceptual processes are present from 4 years of age and do not appear to change throughout development.

Cognitive emotion regulation in children: Reappraisal of emotional faces modulates neural source activity in a frontoparietal network

“…With increasing age, mean activity was reduced in the visual cortex (Fig. 4, top), which is consistent with age-related decreases in the amplitudes of visual ERPs (Taylor et al, 2004;Kuefner et al, 2010;Sumich et al, 2012). Moreover, an agerelated reduction in EEG power was linked to a decrease in gray matter volume (Whitford et al, 2007).…”

Effects of interstimulus intervals on behavioral, heart rate, and event‐related potential indices of infant engagement and sustained attention

“…The N290 was examined from 200–400 ms after stimulus onset, the P400 was analyzed from 350–650 ms after stimulus onset, and the Nc was analyzed from 350–750 ms after stimulus onset. Peak-to-trough differences between the N290 peak and the preceding positive peak were calculated in order to control for the potential effect of slow waves (Guy et al, in press; Kuefner, de Heering, Jacques, Palmero-Soler, & Rossion, 2010; Peykajou et al, 2013). Mean amplitude was measured for the P400 and the Nc components.…”

Three-Month-Olds’ Brain Responses to Upright and Inverted Faces and Cars

“…Previous studies have compared the processing of faces and cars both in children and in adults (Bentin et al, 1996;Kuefner, de Heering, Jacques, Palmero-Soler, & Rossion, 2010). The N170 was elicited with larger amplitude and shorter latency in response to faces compared to cars in children aged 4-17 years (Kuefner et al, 2010) and in adults (Bentin et al, 1996). In a study with adults, inversion of face and car stimuli led to an increase in N170 latency (Itier, Latinus, & Taylor, 2006).…”

“…Cars were chosen as comparison category because, when seen in full front view, like faces they have a specific configuration of features (e.g., headlights underneath a windshield) and a vertical line of symmetry. Previous studies have compared the processing of faces and cars both in children and in adults (Bentin et al, 1996;Kuefner, de Heering, Jacques, Palmero-Soler, & Rossion, 2010). The N170 was elicited with larger amplitude and shorter latency in response to faces compared to cars in children aged 4-17 years (Kuefner et al, 2010) and in adults (Bentin et al, 1996).…”