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Neural adaptation is related to face repetition irrespective of identity: a reappraisal of the N170 effect

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Abstract

Event-related potentials offer evidence for face distinctive neural activity that peaks at about 170 ms following the onset of face stimuli (the N170 effect). We investigated the role of the perceptual mechanism reflected by the N170 effect by comparing the adaptation of the N170 amplitude when target faces were preceded either by identical face images or by different faces relative to when they were preceded by objects. In two experiments, we demonstrate that the N170 is equally adapted by repetition of the same or different faces. Thus, our findings show that the N170 is sensitive to the category rather than the identity of a face. This outcome supports the hypothesis that the N170 effect reflects the activity of a perceptual mechanism which discriminates faces from objects and streams face stimuli to dedicated circuits, specialized in encoding and decoding information about the face.

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Notes

  1. As with the presentation duration, this background was chosen because this study was done in preparation for a masking experiment, for which such backgrounds are beneficial.

  2. Very short presentation times were chosen because this study was done in preparation for a masking experiment, in which short presentation times were crucial.

  3. Similar analysis including the additional sites P7/8, P07/8, yielded a similar pattern of adaptation (Supplementary Figure 1). For the sake of clarity, we present here only the P9/P10 analysis. The full analysis is available from the corresponding author upon request.

  4. Since in some participants the amplitudes elicited by eggs were positive and in order to avoid ratios larger than 1 (which would be meaningless), we elevated the baseline by subtracting the maximum positive amplitude observed across eggs and faces and participants from all individual ERPs.

  5. The Mauchly’s test of sphericity was insignificant throughout; therefore, the degrees of freedom were not corrected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Ido Amihai

  2. Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Leon Y. Deouell & Shlomo Bentin

  3. Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Leon Y. Deouell & Shlomo Bentin

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  1. Ido Amihai
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  2. Leon Y. Deouell
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  3. Shlomo Bentin
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Correspondence to Shlomo Bentin.

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Amihai, I., Deouell, L.Y. & Bentin, S. Neural adaptation is related to face repetition irrespective of identity: a reappraisal of the N170 effect. Exp Brain Res 209, 193–204 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2546-x

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