Rapid adaptation of the m170 response: importance of face parts

Face perception is often characterized as depending on configural, rather than part-based, processing. Here we examined the relative contributions of configuration and parts to early "face-selective" processing at the M170, a magnetoencephalographic response approximately 170 ms after stimulus onset, using adaptation. Previously (Harris and Nakayama 2007), we showed that rapid successive presentation of 2 stimuli (stimulus-onset asynchrony < 800 ms) attenuates the M170 response. Such adaptation is face-selective, with greater attenuation when faces are preceded by other faces than by houses. This technique therefore provides an independent method to assess the nature of this early neurophysiological marker. In these experiments, we measured the adapting power of face configurations versus parts using upright and inverted faces (Experiment 1), face-like configurations of black ovals versus scrambled nonface configurations of face parts (Experiment 2), and isolated face parts (Experiment 3). Although face configurations alone do not produce face-selective adaptation, scrambled and even isolated face parts adapt the M170 response to a similar extent as full faces. Thus, at least for the relatively early face-selective M170 response, face parts produce face-selective adaptation but face configurations do not. These results suggest that face parts are important at relatively early stages of face perception.