Gradual inversion affects the processing of human body shapes.
Inversion (rotation around 180 degrees ) impairs body recognition and affects early electrophysiological responses (especially the N170). However, the relationship between electrophysiological responses and behavior is as yet unclear. Furthermore, the presence of the head seems to have an impact on body recognition performances as well as on related electrophysiological responses. The present study aimed to investigate the course of behavioral and electrophysiological body inversion effects depending upon the degree of deviation from the upright position (0 degrees , 360 degrees ) to the inverted position (180 degrees ). Body stimuli were presented either with heads (masked face) or without heads in a delayed matching task. For human bodies presented with and without heads, there was a quadratic relationship between the angle of rotation and the behavioral performance as well as the N170 amplitude, with maximum performance disruption at 180 degrees deviation from the upright stimulus. The data indicate that configural body processing occurs during the structural encoding of body stimuli.
Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Universitässtrasse 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany. denise.minnebusch@rub.de
Denise A
DA
Minnebusch
Philipp M
PM
Keune
Boris
B
Suchan
Irene
I
Daum
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture