Perceptual interactions between visual processing of facial familiarity and emotional expression: an event-related potentials study during task-switching.
Models of face processing suggest that facial familiarity and expression processes involve independent visual systems. But under some conditions, the two processes interact, as when selective attention is solicited, and/or when a link is established between consecutive stimuli. To assess these assumptions during perceptual face processing, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used while subjects discriminated either familiarity or expression in a task-switching paradigm. Switched trials were designed with competitor priming, the unattended dimension being previously attended. The results indicate interactions appearing in the right hemisphere during the perceptual encoding stage (N170) when subjects processed either familiarity or expression during switched trials. These interactions gain both hemispheres during memory retrieval (P2) and in terms of accuracy. Altogether, these results confirm the critical role of the right hemisphere in perceiving faces and their expressions. Moreover, they suggest that familiarity and expression can interact in both directions.
Leleu
Arnaud
A
Université de Rouen, U.F.R. des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, Laboratoire Psychologie & Neurosciences de la Cognition et de l'Affectivité (Psy-NCA EA.4306), 1 Rue Lavoisier, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, France.
Caharel
Stéphanie
S
Carré
Julie
J
Montalan
Benoît
B
Snoussi
Molka
M
Vom Hofe
Alain
A
Charvin
Heidi
H
Lalonde
Robert
R
Rebaï
Mohamed
M
D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult