TY - JOUR
T1 - Early ERP components differentially extract facial features
T2 - Evidence for spatial frequency-and-contrast detectors
AU - Nakashima, Taisuke
AU - Kaneko, Kunihiko
AU - Goto, Yoshinobu
AU - Abe, Tomotaka
AU - Mitsudo, Takako
AU - Ogata, Katsuya
AU - Makinouchi, Akifumi
AU - Tobimatsu, Shozo
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Professor G.G. Celesia (Department of Neurology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL) for his critical comments regarding this manuscript. We thank Professor H. Sakamoto (Department of Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) for helpful advice regarding the image processing using MATLAB. We also thank Dr. N. Kinukawa (Department of Medical Informatics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) for advice regarding the statistical analysis. This study was supported in part by The 2004 Satow’s Research Fund for Behavioral Science, Kyushu University Foundation, Grants-in-Aid for Scientists (nos. 16390253 and 16200005) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan and Grants-in-Aid for the 21st Century COE Program and Kyushu University COE program.
PY - 2008/12
Y1 - 2008/12
N2 - It is generally accepted that the N170 component of an event-related potential (ERP) reflects the structural encoding of faces and is specialized for face processing. Recent neuroimaging and ERP studies have demonstrated that spatial frequency is a crucial factor for face recognition. To clarify which early ERP components reflect either coarse (low spatial frequency, LSF) or fine (high spatial frequency, HSF) processing of faces, we recorded ERPs induced by manipulated face stimuli. By filtering the original grayscale faces (broadband spatial frequency) spatially, we created LSF and HSF face stimuli. Next, we created physically equiluminant (PEL) face stimuli to eliminate the effects of lower order information, such as luminance and contrast. The P1 amplitude at the occipital region was augmented by LSF faces, while the N170 amplitude increased for HSF faces. The occipital P1 amplitude for PEL faces was relatively unaffected compared with that for PEL houses. In addition, the occipital N2 for PEL faces was spatiotemporally separable from N170 in a time-window between P1 and N170. These results indicate that P1 reflects coarse processing of faces, and that the face robustness further assures face-specific processing in the early component. Moreover, N2 reflects the early contrast processing of faces whereas N170 analyzes the fine facial features. Our findings suggest the presence of spatial frequency-and-contrast detectors for face processing.
AB - It is generally accepted that the N170 component of an event-related potential (ERP) reflects the structural encoding of faces and is specialized for face processing. Recent neuroimaging and ERP studies have demonstrated that spatial frequency is a crucial factor for face recognition. To clarify which early ERP components reflect either coarse (low spatial frequency, LSF) or fine (high spatial frequency, HSF) processing of faces, we recorded ERPs induced by manipulated face stimuli. By filtering the original grayscale faces (broadband spatial frequency) spatially, we created LSF and HSF face stimuli. Next, we created physically equiluminant (PEL) face stimuli to eliminate the effects of lower order information, such as luminance and contrast. The P1 amplitude at the occipital region was augmented by LSF faces, while the N170 amplitude increased for HSF faces. The occipital P1 amplitude for PEL faces was relatively unaffected compared with that for PEL houses. In addition, the occipital N2 for PEL faces was spatiotemporally separable from N170 in a time-window between P1 and N170. These results indicate that P1 reflects coarse processing of faces, and that the face robustness further assures face-specific processing in the early component. Moreover, N2 reflects the early contrast processing of faces whereas N170 analyzes the fine facial features. Our findings suggest the presence of spatial frequency-and-contrast detectors for face processing.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neures.2008.08.009
DO - 10.1016/j.neures.2008.08.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 18809442
AN - SCOPUS:55649085025
SN - 0168-0102
VL - 62
SP - 225
EP - 235
JO - Neuroscience Research
JF - Neuroscience Research
IS - 4
ER -