title: Early stages (P100) of face perception in humans as measured with event-related potentials (ERPs).
abstract: According to current ERP literature, face specific activity is reflected by a negative component over the inferior occipito-temporal cortex between 140 and 180 ms after stimulus onset (N170). A recently published study (Liu et al., 2002) using magnetoencephalography (MEG) clearly indicated that a face-selective component can be observed at 100 ms (M100) which is about 70 ms earlier than reported in most previous studies. Here we report these early differences at 107 ms between the ERPs of faces and buildings over the occipito-temporal cortex using electroencephalography. To exclude contrast differences as the main factor for this P100 differences we replicated this study using pictures of faces and scrambled faces. Both studies indicated that face processing starts already at approximately 100 ms with an initial stage which can be measured not only with MEG but also with ERPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Wuerzburg, Germany. Martin.Hermann@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: A-C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ehlis
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ellgring
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fallgatter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*