Electrophysiological evidence of facial inversion with rapid serial visual presentation

• Published in: Biological psychology Vol. 92; no. 2; pp. 395 - 402
• Main Authors: Luo, Wenbo, He, Weiqi, Yang, Suyong, Feng, Wenfeng, Chen, Taolin, Wang, Lili, Gan, Tian, Luo, Yue-jia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-02-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Analysis of Variance; Antibodies; Attention; Attentional blink; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping; Data processing; Discrimination (Psychology); Electroencephalography; Event-related potential; Event-related potentials; Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology; Face; Face inversion effect; Facial Expression; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hemispheric laterality; Humans; Inversion; Male; N170; Pattern recognition; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Signal Detection, Psychological; Young Adult; Event-related potential; Attentional blink; N170; P1; Face inversion effect; Rapid serial visual présentation; Electrophysiology; Spatial orientation; Inversion; Face; Event evoked potential
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.11.019

► N170 component show a robust face inversion effect in the RSVP paradigm. ► The N170 and P3, but not the P1, components are modulated by time-based attention. ► N170 amplitude was modulated by attentional blink from behavioral data.
Using measurements of event-related potentials (ERPs) during a facial recognition task, we aimed to investigate the facial inversion effect and the role of time-based attention in processing upright and inverted faces. We presented upright and inverted faces at the T2 (target 2) position using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. Our results indicate that the N170 component shows the usual face inversion effect (FIE), in which inverted faces elicit larger N170 amplitudes and a longer elicit N170 latency. We also found that upright faces elicit larger P1 amplitudes than inverted faces over the left hemisphere. This study indicates that the N170 and P3, but not the P1, components are modulated by time-based attention. In addition, we found that the N170 amplitude was modulated by an attentional blink (AB) based on behavioral data. These results suggest that the disruption of facial configuration processing caused by inverted faces is relatively independent of attentional resources.