Event-related potentials and time course of the "other-race" face classification advantage.
Other-race faces are less accurately recognized than same race faces but classified faster by race. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we captured the brain temporal dynamics of face classification by race processing performed by 12 Caucasian participants. As expected, participants were faster to classify by race Asian than Caucasian faces. ERPs results identified the occurrence of the other-race face classification advantage at around 240 ms, in a stage related to the processing of visual information at the semantic level. The elaboration of individual face structural representation, reflected in the N170 face-sensitive component, was insufficient to achieve this process. Altogether, these findings suggest that the lesser experience of other-race faces engender fewer semantic representations, which in turn accelerate their speed of processing.
Caldara
Roberto
R
Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, University of Geneva, 40 boulevard du Pont d'Arve, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. roberto.caldara@pse.unige.ch
Rossion
Bruno
B
Bovet
Pierre
P
Hauert
Claude-Alain
CA
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D044469:Racial Groups; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology