title: ERPs associated with familiarity and degree of familiarity during face recognition.
abstract: Event-related potentials (ERPs) triggered by three different faces (unfamiliar, famous, and the subject's own) were analyzed during passive viewing. A familiarity effect was defined as a significant difference between the two familiar faces as opposed to the unfamiliar face. A degree of familiarity effect was defined as a significant difference between all three conditions. The results show a familiarity effect 170 ms after stimulus onset (N170), with larger amplitudes seen for both familiar faces. Conversely, a degree of familiarity effect arose approximately 250 ms after stimulus onset (P2) in the form of progressively smaller amplitudes as a function of familiarity (subject's face < famous face < unfamiliar). These results demonstrate that the structural encoding of faces, as reflected by N170 activities, can be modulated by familiarity and that facial representations acquire specific properties as a result of experience. Moreover, these results confirm the hypothesis that N170 is sensitive to face versus, object discriminations and to the discrimination among faces.
authors.affiliation: Université de Rouen, Faculté des Sciences, Labo PSY.CO EA-1780, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan, France. med.rebai@wanadoo.fr
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caharel
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poiroux
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thibaut
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lalonde
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rebai
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*