Configural processing of other-race faces is delayed but not decreased

The processing of other-race faces has been suggested to differ from own-race face processing with regard to the extent to which configural and/or holistic information is taken into account. We aimed at investigating the underlying mechanisms more precisely by applying event-related potentials (ERP). We presented upright and inverted own-race, other-race, and other-species faces (apes), as well as non-facial control stimuli (houses), and analysed the effects of stimulus type and inversion on the N170. Peak latencies for same-race, other-race, other-species, and non-face stimuli gradually increased, and inversion of all types of face stimuli led to an additional delay. Importantly, the two factors did not interact for face stimuli. Inversion increased N170 amplitudes for own- and other-race faces only. We conclude that early perceptual mechanisms of face processing are not qualitatively different for own- and other-race faces. Instead, the same underlying processes appear to work less efficiently for other-race faces.