The temporal dynamics of familiar face recognition: Event-related brain potentials reveal the efficient activation of facial identity representations

Wiese, Holger; Popova, Tsvetomila; Lidborg, Linda H.; Burton, A. Mike

Abstract

While it is widely known that humans are typically highly accurate at recognizing familiar faces, it is less clear how efficiently recognition is achieved. In a series of three experiments, we used event-related brain potentials (ERP) in a repetition priming paradigm to examine the efficiency of familiar face recognition. Specifically, we varied the presentation time of the prime stimulus between 500ms and 33ms (Experiments 1 and 2), and additionally used backward masks (Experiment 3) to prevent the potential occurrence of visual aftereffects. Crucially, to test for the recognition of facial identity rather than a specific picture, we used different images of the same facial identities in repetition conditions. We observed clear ERP repetition priming effects between 300 and 500ms after target onset at all prime durations, which suggests that the prime stimulus was sufficiently well processed to allow for facilitated recognition of the target in all conditions. This finding held true even in severely restricted viewing conditions including very brief prime durations and backward masks. We conclude that the facial recognition system is both highly effective and efficient, thus allowing for our impressive ability to recognise the faces that we know. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.]

Citation

Wiese, H., Popova, T., Lidborg, L. H., & Burton, A. M. (2024). The temporal dynamics of familiar face recognition: Event-related brain potentials reveal the efficient activation of facial identity representations. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 204, Article 112423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2024.112423

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 17, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-10
• Deposit Date: Aug 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 27, 2024
• Journal: International Journal of Psychophysiology
• Print ISSN: 0167-8760
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 204
• Article Number: 112423
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2024.112423
• Keywords: N250r, Face recognition, Familiarity, Event-related potentials, Repetition priming
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2771658