Electrophysiological correlates of face distortion after-effects

Abstract

When observers are exposed to a distorted face the perceived configuration of a subsequently presented face is altered, a phenomenon called face distortion after-effect (FDAE). We compared the face-related components of the event-related potential (ERP) after adaptation to noise images--veridical and distorted faces. We found large bilateral adaptation effects on the P100 and N170 components that are related to face detection. Moreover, we found smaller adaptation effects on the N170, recorded over the right hemisphere, which can be related to the behavioural distortion after-effect and to face configurations. Our results suggest that the observed ERP adaptation effects are general for various steps of face processing and that the FDAEs similarly to gender after-effects are related to the early face-specific ERP components.

Altering second-order configurations reduces the adaptation effects on early face-sensitive event-related potential components

“…The N170 did not show any difference between featurally or configurally manipulated faces neither when the participants had to make same/different judgements, nor when they were explicitly instructed to focus on the featural or configural differences between the members of each face pair. On the other hand, other studies suggest that the N170 of the right hemisphere reflects neural functions that are related to the processing of CONF 2nd as well (Scott and Nelson, 2006; Zimmer and Kovacs, 2011). Scott and Nelson (2006) recorded ERPs to previously familiarized faces in which either the eyes and mouth were displaced while leaving the CONF 1st unaffected, or the same features were replaced by those of another individual without any change in their position.…”

Neural correlates of after-effects caused by adaptation to multiple face displays

“…perceived as having expanded features). Since then, face after-effects (FAE) were described to different facial properties and were used extensively to study face perception (Fang and He 2005;Fox and Barton 2007;Jaquet et al 2007;Jenkins et al 2006;Kovács et al 2006;Leopold et al 2001;Rhodes et al 2003;Ryu et al 2008;Schweinberger et al 2007;Webster et al 2004;Webster and MacLin 1999;Zimmer and Kovács 2010). Previous face after-effect studies usually relied on similar paradigms, where a single face was used as an adaptor and after a short inter-stimulus interval the participants had to make a decision about a subsequently presented target face.…”

The early visual encoding of a face (N170) is viewpoint-dependent: A parametric ERP-adaptation study

“…That is, in contrast to less consistent earlier face-sensitive responses, for instance at the level of the P1, the larger N170 to faces is not accounted for by low-level visual cues and the N170 is evoked by many different formats of faces (e.g., Sagiv & Bentin, 2001; for reviews Rossion, 2014;. In order to understand further the nature of this early face representation, a number of relatively recent studies have used an ERP adaptation paradigm in which a face stimulus is preceded by a stimulus of another category, or a face stimulus under a different format (e.g., Eimer, Kiss, & Nicholas, 2010;Kovacs et al, 2006;Zimmer & Kovács, 2011). However, to our knowledge, no studies have compared the N170 response to a given head orientation preceded by a face under the same or a different head orientation.…”