Electrophysiological and hemodynamic correlates of processing isolated faces have been investigated extensively over the last decade. A question not addressed thus far is whether the visual scene, which normally surrounds a face or a facial expression, has an influence on how the face is processed. Here we investigated this issue by presenting faces in natural contexts and measuring whether the...

Face identification and categorization are essential for social communication. The N170 event-related potential (ERP) is considered to be a biomarker of face perception. To elucidate the neural basis of species-dependent face processing, we recorded 128-ch high-density ERPs in 14 healthy adults while they viewed the images of morphed faces. The morphed stimuli contained different proportions of...

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have highlighted an occipito-temporal potential, the N170, which is larger for faces than for other categories and delayed by stimulus inversion of faces, but not of other objects. We examined how high-pass and low-pass filtering modulate such early differences between the processing of faces and objects. Sixteen grey-scale pictures of faces and cars were f...

The spatial distances among the features of a face are commonly referred to as second-order relations, and the coding of these properties is often regarded as a cornerstone in face recognition. Previous studies have provided mixed results regarding whether the N170, a face-sensitive component of the event-related potential, is sensitive to second-order relations. Here we investigated this issue...

We examined the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in memory retrieval monitoring. Event-related potentials were recorded while patients with VMPFC lesions and matched controls viewed faces of personal acquaintances, and of famous and nonfamous people, and indicated whether they had personally encountered these individuals. Patients were more likely than controls to make both false ...

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) are strongly impaired in recognizing faces, but it is controversial whether this deficit is linked to atypical visual-perceptual face processing mechanisms. Previous behavioural studies have suggested that face perception in DP might be less sensitive to the canonical spatial configuration of face parts in upright faces. To test this prediction,...

Scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) in humans indicate that face and object processing differ approximately 170 ms following stimulus presentation, at the point of the N170 occipitotemporal component. The N170 is delayed and enhanced to inverted faces but not to inverted objects. We tested whether this inversion effect reflects early mechanisms exclusive to faces or whether it generalizes to ...

Human perception of faces is widely believed to rely on automatic processing by a domain-specific, modular component of the visual system. Scalp-recorded event-related potential (ERP) recordings indicate that faces receive special stimulus processing at around 170 ms poststimulus onset, in that faces evoke an enhanced occipital negative wave, known as the N170, relative to the activity elicited...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a strong heritable basis, as evidenced by twin concordance rates. Within ASD, symptom domains may arise via independent genetic contributions, with varying heritabilities and genetic mechanisms. In this article, we explore social functioning in the form of (i) electrophysiological and behavioral measures of face processing (P1 and N170) and (ii) social behavio...