Neural timing of the other‐race effect across the lifespan: A review

Abstract

Face race influences the way we process faces, so that faces of a different ethnic group are processed for identity less efficiently than faces of one's ethnic group ‐ a phenomenon known as the Other‐Race Effect (ORE). Although widely replicated, the ORE is still poorly characterized in terms of its development and the underlying mechanisms. In the last two decades, the Event‐Related Potential (ERP) technique has brought insight into the mechanisms underlying the ORE and has demonstrated potential to clarify its development. Here, we review the ERP evidence for a differential neural processing of own‐race and other‐race faces throughout the lifespan. In infants, race‐related processing differences emerged at the N290 and P400 (structural encoding) stages. In children, race affected the P100 (early processing, attention) perceptual stage and was implicitly encoded at the N400 (semantic processing) stage. In adults, processing difficulties for other‐race faces emerged at the N170 (structural encoding), P200 (configuration processing) and N250 (accessing individual representations) perceptual stages. Early in processing, race was implicitly encoded from other‐race faces (N100, P200 attentional biases) and in‐depth processing preferentially applied to own‐race faces (N200 attentional bias). Encoding appeared less efficient (Dm effects) and retrieval less recollection‐based (old/new effects) for other‐race faces. Evidence admits the contribution of perceptual, attentional, and motivational processes to the development and functioning of the ORE, offering no conclusive support for perceptual or socio‐cognitive accounts. Cross‐racial and non‐cross‐racial studies provided convergent evidence. Future research would need to include less represented ethnic populations and the developmental population.

The speed of race

“…Indeed, at 60% and 100% coherence levels, a very early P1 effect was observed, with higher amplitudes for other- than same-race faces ( Figures 9 and 10 ). While the P1 is an inconsistent index of race processing (see Serafini and Pesciarelli, 2023 for review), some studies have found an enhancement for other-race faces ( Anzures and Mildort, 2021 ), and have been interpreted as reflecting differences in how people process configural information in same- and other-race faces ( Hahn et al. , 2012 ; Wang et al.…”

“…, 2020 ), with others reporting no P1 modulation of race at all ( Senholzi and Ito, 2013 ; Vizioli et al. , 2010a , b , see Serafini and Pesciarelli, 2023 for review.) In a mixed result, He et al.…”

The culture of perceptual expertise and the other‐race effect

“…These results show that the classification of faces at the level of race comes at the expense of recognizing faces at an individual person level. At the neural level, the primary and subordinate level processing of own‐ and other‐race faces are characterized by the different event‐related potentials brain components (N170 and N250; Serafini & Pesciarelli, 2022) and in neuroimaging, differential activation of the OFA and FFA brain regions (Ficco et al, 2022).…”

Community diversity and the other-race effect in infancy

“…The other-race effect (ORE) is one possible mechanism contributing to the development of implicit racial bias (Lee et al, 2017 ; Quinn et al, 2018 , 2019 ). The ORE is a perceptual phenomenon whereby individuals process faces of other races less efficiently and have poorer recognition of other-race faces compared to faces of their own racial identity (Kelly et al, 2007 ; Rhodes and Baron, 2019 ; Serafini and Pesciarelli, 2022 ). The ORE emerges in infancy, but the strength of the effect may depend on early individual experience with faces of diverse races and ethnicities (Sangrigoli and De Schonen, 2004 ; Sangrigoli et al, 2005 ; Bar-Haim et al, 2006 ; Heron-Delaney et al, 2011 ; Spangler et al, 2013 ; Sugden, 2016 ; Tham et al, 2019 ; Zhou et al, 2019 , 2022 ; Hwang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…General limitations of infant research impact the current scarcity of literature in this area, including difficulty accessing infant populations and high rates of data loss. Both behavioral and neural studies of the ORE additionally lack sample diversity, particularly for Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Indigenous populations (Serafini and Pesciarelli, 2022 ). Of the infant ORE studies reviewed here, 12 included homogenous samples of White infants (Sangrigoli and De Schonen, 2004 ; Kelly et al, 2005 , 2007 ; Heron-Delaney et al, 2011 ; Spangler et al, 2013 ; Macchi Cassia et al, 2014 ; Fassbender et al, 2016 ; Quinn et al, 2016 ; Krasotkina et al, 2020 ; Hillairet de Boisferon et al, 2021 ; Clerc et al, 2022 ; Damon et al, 2022 ), four included homogenous samples of East Asian infants (Kelly et al, 2009 ; Liu et al, 2015 ; Tham et al, 2019 ; Ujiie et al, 2021 ), and only three included any Black, Hispanic, or bi-/multi-racial infants (Bar-Haim et al, 2006 ; Sugden, 2016 ; Hwang et al, 2021 ).…”