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An ERP study of expectancy violation in face perception
M A Bobes1, M Valdés-Sosa, E Olivares
1Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neurosciences, Havana, Cuba.
Brain and Cognition
|September 1, 1994
Summary
Viewing face parts creates expectations. Incongruent features trigger an enhanced negativity (N374), while incorrect configurations elicit late positive components, suggesting separate processing of facial information.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)
Background:
- Facial expectancies are formed by feature-content and configuration knowledge.
- Previous research indicates specific neural responses to facial incongruities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the electrophysiological correlates of expectancy violations in face perception.
- To differentiate the neural processing of feature-content versus configuration anomalies in faces.
Main Methods:
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants viewed familiar face parts.
- Experiments involved completing faces with congruent/incongruent features or correct/incorrect configurations.
- Analysis focused on specific ERP components like N374 and late positive components.
Main Results:
- Incongruent feature completions elicited an enhanced negativity (N374), primarily over the right scalp.
- Configuration distortions (jumbled or displaced features) were associated with late positive components.
- The N374 component may serve as a non-linguistic analog to the N400 component.
Conclusions:
- Distinct ERP signatures differentiate violations of feature-content and configuration expectancies.
- This suggests that information about facial features and their spatial arrangement are processed separately.