Does inversion abolish the left chimeric face processing advantage?
Experiments using chimeric stimuli have shown that the right hemisphere is more influential in processing facial information. Here, again, we found clear evidence that study participants used the information from the left side of the face to inform their gender decisions when chimeric male/female, female/male stimuli were presented. Most interestingly though, this effect was not only present for upright faces but also for inverted (flipped) faces (although the effect was significantly reduced). We propose that the chimeric bias effects found here argue against the idea that inversion destroys the right hemisphere superiority for faces. If this was indeed the case, flipping the chimeric faces should have resulted in a loss of the left face bias. This was not the case.
Butler
Stephen H
SH
Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. s.butler@psy.gla.ac.uk
Harvey
Monika
M
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*