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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 29, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Published on: July 31, 2016

Face-sensitive processes one hundred milliseconds after picture onset.

Benjamin Dering¹, Clara D Martin, Sancho Moro

¹School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, UK.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|September 29, 2011

Summary

The P1 brainwave component reliably detects faces early on, unaffected by image cropping or morphing. The N170 component, however, is artificially enhanced by cropping and cannot distinguish faces from cars.

Keywords:

N170 P100 event-related brain potentials face processing visual object categorization

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Last Updated: May 29, 2026

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Neuroscience

Background:

The human face is extensively studied in visual neuroscience.
Event-related potential (ERP) studies investigate face processing markers like P1 and N170.
Debate exists on whether P1 and N170 are category-selective for faces.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if P1 and N170 are reliable category-selective markers for face processing.
To investigate the effects of image manipulation (cropping, morphing) on P1 and N170.
To compare face processing with other object categories like cars and butterflies.

Main Methods:

Recorded ERPs in response to unaltered and cropped images of faces, cars, and butterflies.
Used face-car morphs to manipulate perceived face-likeness.
Matched stimuli for size, luminance, and contrast across conditions.

Main Results:

Cropping enhanced the N170 component but did not significantly modulate P1.
N170 failed to differentiate between faces and cars in morphing experiments.
P1 amplitude was consistently modulated by face stimuli, irrespective of cropping or morphing.

Conclusions:

P1 serves as a robust, early (around 100ms) indicator of face-sensitive processing.
N170 is less reliable and susceptible to image manipulations like cropping.
P1 offers a more stable neural marker for face detection compared to N170.