title: The Benton-Van Allen faces: a lateralized tachistoscopic study.
abstract: The Benton-Van Allen Facial Recognition Test (FRT) was adapted to a lateralized same-different task. The lateralized same targets were either physically identical to the central upright faces or had the same face identity but were transformed (3/4-views or shadowed faces). Faces were also modified to include or exclude external features. There was a left hemifield (right hemisphere) advantage only for the most difficult, shadowed faces. The absence of a left hemifield advantage for the matching of upright faces to identical or 3/4-view faces shows bilateral competence for face processing, both by physical and by face identity, and confirms previous observations that the FRT does not discriminate left from right hemisphere-damaged patients. Removal of external features affected performance in the right but not the left visual field, suggesting that the left hemisphere uses a less feature-dependent mechanism than the right hemisphere. This effect was only present in females, who were more lateralized than males.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles 90024-1563.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Püschel
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zaidel
mesh_terms: D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012737:Sex Factors; D014794:Visual Fields; D014796:Visual Perception