Attention to faces modulates early face processing during low but not high face discriminability.
In the present study, we investigated whether attention to faces results in sensory gain modulation. Participants were cued to attend either to faces or to scenes in superimposed face-scene images for which face discriminability was manipulated parametrically. The face-sensitive N170 event-related potential component was used as a measure of early face processing. Attention to faces modulated N170 amplitude, but only when faces were not highly discriminable. Additionally, directing attention to faces modulated later processing (~230-300 msec) for all discriminability levels. These results demonstrate that attention to faces can modulate perceptual processing of faces at multiple stages of processing, including early sensory levels. Critically, the early attentional benefit is present only when the "face signal" (i.e., the perceptual quality of the face) in the environment is suboptimal.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. kks@mail.med.upenn.edu
Kartik K
KK
Sreenivasan
Jonathan M
JM
Goldstein
Audrey G
AG
Lustig
Luis R
LR
Rivas
Amishi P
AP
Jha
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D055815:Young Adult