Attentional modulations of event-related brain potentials sensitive to faces

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to centrally and peripherally presented faces and chairs under conditions where one stimulus category was attended and the other unattended. It was studied whether selective attention affects ERP components sensitive to the presence of faces. When compared with chairs, faces elicited larger N1 amplitudes at lateral temporal electrodes and a midline positivity in the same latency range. The latter effect was only found for central faces. Attention to centrally presented faces was reflected in enhanced posterior N1 amplitudes. This effect may be related to an attentional modulation of processing within face-specific brain areas. It was not elicited by chairs or peripheral faces. Beyond 200msec post-stimulus, a category-unspecific attentional negativity was found at all recording sites for centrally and peripherally presented face and nonface stimuli.