Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography
Published on: July 26, 2019
Seeing face-like objects: an event-related potential study
Owen Churches1, Simon Baron-Cohen, Howard Ring
1Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ofc20@cam.ac.uk
Abstract:
The N170 event-related potential component is larger to faces than to other objects but also varies in amplitude between non-face objects. This study investigated the hypotheses that these differences are related to the perceived face-likeness of the objects. Event-related potentials were recorded from 18 participants who classified objects as 'face like' or 'non-face like'. Images of actual faces were also presented. The N170 was larger (more negative) to objects classified as face like than to those classified as non-face like. These data suggest that the amplitude of the N170 to objects is affected by the face-likeness of the objects.
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