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Wiese H, Schipper M, Popova T, Burton AM, Young AW. Personal familiarity of faces, animals, objects, and scenes: Distinct perceptual and overlapping conceptual representations. Cognition 2023; 241:105625. [PMID: 37769520 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
While face, object, and scene recognition are often studied at a basic categorization level (e.g. "a face", "a car", "a kitchen"), we frequently recognise individual items of these categories as unique entities (e.g. "my mother", "my car", "my kitchen"). This recognition of individual identity is essential to appropriate behaviour in our world. However, relatively little is known about how we recognise individually familiar visual stimuli. Using event-related brain potentials, the present study examined whether and to what extent the underlying neural representations of personally familiar items are similar or different across different categories. In three experiments, we examined the recognition of personally highly familiar faces, animals, indoor scenes, and objects. We observed relatively distinct familiarity effects in an early time window (200-400 ms), with a clearly right-lateralized occipito-temporal scalp distribution for human faces and more bilateral and posterior distributions for other stimulus categories, presumably reflecting access to at least partly discrete visual long-term representations. In contrast, we found clearly overlapping familiarity effects in a later time window (starting 400 to 500 ms after stimulus onset), again with a mainly right occipito-temporal scalp distribution, for all stimulus categories. These later effects appear to reflect the sustained activation of conceptual properties relevant to any potential interaction. We conclude that familiarity for items from the various visual stimulus categories tested here is represented differently at the perceptual level, while relatively overlapping conceptual mechanisms allow for the preparation of impending potential interaction with the environment.
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Popova T, Wiese H. Developing familiarity during the first eight months of knowing a person: A longitudinal EEG study on face and identity learning. Cortex 2023; 165:26-37. [PMID: 37245406 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
It is well-established that familiar and unfamiliar faces are processed differently, but surprisingly little is known about how familiarity builds up over time and how novel faces gradually become represented in the brain. Here, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in a pre-registered, longitudinal study to examine the neural processes accompanying face and identity learning during the first eight months of knowing a person. Specifically, we examined how increasing real-life familiarity affects visual recognition (N250 Familiarity Effect) and the integration of person-related knowledge (Sustained Familiarity Effect, SFE). Sixteen first-year undergraduates were tested in three sessions, approximately one, five, and eight months after the start of the academic year, with highly variable "ambient" images of a new friend they had met at university and of an unfamiliar person. We observed clear ERP familiarity effects for the new friend after one month of familiarity. While there was an increase in the N250 effect over the course of the study, no change in the SFE was observed. These results suggest that visual face representations develop faster relative to the integration of identity-specific knowledge.
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How quickly do we learn new faces in everyday life? Neurophysiological evidence for face identity learning after a brief real-life encounter. Cortex 2023; 159:205-216. [PMID: 36640620 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 10/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Faces learnt in a single experimental session elicit a familiarity effect in event-related brain potentials (ERPs), with more negative amplitudes for newly learnt relative to unfamiliar faces in the N250 component. However, no ERP study has examined face learning following a brief real-life encounter, and it is not clear how long it takes to learn new faces in such ecologically more valid conditions. To investigate these questions, the present study examined whether robust image-independent representations, as reflected in the N250 familiarity effect, could be established after a brief unconstrained social interaction by analysing the ERPs elicited by highly variable images of the newly learnt identity and an unfamiliar person. Significant N250 familiarity effects were observed after a 30-min (Experiment 1) and a 10-min (Experiment 2) encounter, and a trend was observed after 5 min of learning (Experiment 3), demonstrating that 5-10 min of exposure were sufficient for the initial establishment of image-independent representations. Additionally, the magnitude of the effects reported after 10 and 30 min was comparable suggesting that the first 10 min of a social encounter might be crucial, with extra 20 min from the same encounter not adding further benefit for the initial formation of robust face representations.
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Popova T, Wiese H. The time it takes to truly know someone: Neurophysiological correlates of face and identity learning during the first two years. Biol Psychol 2022; 170:108312. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Revised: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Bigelow FJ, Clark GM, Lum JAG, Enticott PG. The development of neural responses to emotional faces: A review of evidence from event-related potentials during early and middle childhood. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 51:100992. [PMID: 34329806 PMCID: PMC8339225 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial emotion processing (FEP) develops throughout childhood and provides crucial social information necessary for the interpretation and prediction of others' behaviour. This systematic review, which includes a meta-regression component, sought to explore the development of FEP event-related potentials (P100, N170, and late positive potential [LPP]) in children aged three to twelve years. Thirty-four studies, representing data from 1511 children, were included in the review. The combination of meta-regression and systematic review suggest that P100 amplitude decreases with increasing age in response to emotional facial stimuli. P100 latency may show a gradual decrease around the age of ten. In terms of the N170, it is suggested that amplitude follows a non-linear trend with age, and latency may decrease in early childhood before plateauing during middle childhood. Of note, review of the literature indicates that substantial methodological differences and high levels of heterogeneity exist. We suggest future research considers these results within the context of emotion-specific development, whilst also acknowledging how this may relate to individual social functioning skills across early-to-middle childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felicity J Bigelow
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
| | - Gillian M Clark
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Jarrad A G Lum
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Peter G Enticott
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
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Wiese H, Anderson D, Beierholm U, Tüttenberg SC, Young AW, Burton AM. Detecting a viewer's familiarity with a face: Evidence from event-related brain potentials and classifier analyses. Psychophysiology 2021; 59:e13950. [PMID: 34587297 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Revised: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Human observers recognize the faces of people they know efficiently and without apparent effort. Consequently, recognizing a familiar face is often assumed to be an automatic process beyond voluntary control. However, there are circumstances in which a person might seek to hide their recognition of a particular face. The present study therefore used event-related potentials (ERPs) and a classifier based on logistic regression to determine if it is possible to detect whether a viewer is familiar with a particular face, regardless of whether the participant is willing to acknowledge it or not. In three experiments, participants were presented with highly variable "ambient" images of personally familiar and unfamiliar faces, while performing an incidental butterfly detection task (Experiment 1), an explicit familiarity judgment task (Experiment 2), and a concealed familiarity task in which they were asked to deny familiarity with one truly known facial identity while acknowledging familiarity with a second known identity (Experiment 3). In all three experiments, we observed substantially more negative ERP amplitudes at occipito-temporal electrodes for familiar relative to unfamiliar faces starting approximately 200 ms after stimulus onset. Both the earlier N250 familiarity effect, reflecting visual recognition of a known face, and the later sustained familiarity effect, reflecting the integration of visual with additional identity-specific information, were similar across experiments and thus independent of task demands. These results were further supported by the classifier analysis. We conclude that ERP correlates of familiar face recognition are largely independent of voluntary control and discuss potential applications in forensic settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holger Wiese
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | | | | | | | | | - A Mike Burton
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
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Šoškić A, Jovanović V, Styles SJ, Kappenman ES, Ković V. How to do Better N400 Studies: Reproducibility, Consistency and Adherence to Research Standards in the Existing Literature. Neuropsychol Rev 2021; 32:577-600. [PMID: 34374003 PMCID: PMC9381463 DOI: 10.1007/s11065-021-09513-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Given the complexity of ERP recording and processing pipeline, the resulting variability of methodological options, and the potential for these decisions to influence study outcomes, it is important to understand how ERP studies are conducted in practice and to what extent researchers are transparent about their data collection and analysis procedures. The review gives an overview of methodology reporting in a sample of 132 ERP papers, published between January 1980 – June 2018 in journals included in two large databases: Web of Science and PubMed. Because ERP methodology partly depends on the study design, we focused on a well-established component (the N400) in the most commonly assessed population (healthy neurotypical adults), in one of its most common modalities (visual images). The review provides insights into 73 properties of study design, data pre-processing, measurement, statistics, visualization of results, and references to supplemental information across studies within the same subfield. For each of the examined methodological decisions, the degree of consistency, clarity of reporting and deviations from the guidelines for best practice were examined. Overall, the results show that each study had a unique approach to ERP data recording, processing and analysis, and that at least some details were missing from all papers. In the review, we highlight the most common reporting omissions and deviations from established recommendations, as well as areas in which there was the least consistency. Additionally, we provide guidance for a priori selection of the N400 measurement window and electrode locations based on the results of previous studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anđela Šoškić
- Teacher Education Faculty, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia. .,Laboratory for Neurocognition and Applied Cognition, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
| | - Vojislav Jovanović
- Laboratory for Neurocognition and Applied Cognition, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Suzy J Styles
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Centre for Research and Development On Learning (CRADLE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), A*Star Research Entities, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Emily S Kappenman
- Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Vanja Ković
- Laboratory for Neurocognition and Applied Cognition, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
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Brain Signals of Face Processing as Revealed by Event-Related Potentials. Behav Neurol 2015; 2015:514361. [PMID: 26160999 PMCID: PMC4487272 DOI: 10.1155/2015/514361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2015] [Revised: 05/10/2015] [Accepted: 05/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
We analyze the functional significance of different event-related potentials (ERPs) as electrophysiological indices of face perception and face recognition, according to cognitive and neurofunctional models of face processing. Initially, the processing of faces seems to be supported by early extrastriate occipital cortices and revealed by modulations of the occipital P1. This early response is thought to reflect the detection of certain primary structural aspects indicating the presence grosso modo of a face within the visual field. The posterior-temporal N170 is more sensitive to the detection of faces as complex-structured stimuli and, therefore, to the presence of its distinctive organizational characteristics prior to within-category identification. In turn, the relatively late and probably more rostrally generated N250r and N400-like responses might respectively indicate processes of access and retrieval of face-related information, which is stored in long-term memory (LTM). New methods of analysis of electrophysiological and neuroanatomical data, namely, dynamic causal modeling, single-trial and time-frequency analyses, are highly recommended to advance in the knowledge of those brain mechanisms concerning face processing.
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Single-trial EEG-informed fMRI reveals spatial dependency of BOLD signal on early and late IC-ERP amplitudes during face recognition. Neuroimage 2014; 100:325-36. [PMID: 24910070 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.05.075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2013] [Revised: 05/27/2014] [Accepted: 05/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Simultaneous EEG-fMRI has opened up new avenues for improving the spatio-temporal resolution of functional brain studies. However, this method usually suffers from poor EEG quality, especially for evoked potentials (ERPs), due to specific artifacts. As such, the use of EEG-informed fMRI analysis in the context of cognitive studies has particularly focused on optimizing narrow ERP time windows of interest, which ignores the rich diverse temporal information of the EEG signal. Here, we propose to use simultaneous EEG-fMRI to investigate the neural cascade occurring during face recognition in 14 healthy volunteers by using the successive ERP peaks recorded during the cognitive part of this process. N170, N400 and P600 peaks, commonly associated with face recognition, were successfully and reproducibly identified for each trial and each subject by using a group independent component analysis (ICA). For the first time we use this group ICA to extract several independent components (IC) corresponding to the sequence of activation and used single-trial peaks as modulation parameters in a general linear model (GLM) of fMRI data. We obtained an occipital-temporal-frontal stream of BOLD signal modulation, in accordance with the three successive IC-ERPs providing an unprecedented spatio-temporal characterization of the whole cognitive process as defined by BOLD signal modulation. By using this approach, the pattern of EEG-informed BOLD modulation provided improved characterization of the network involved than the fMRI-only analysis or the source reconstruction of the three ERPs; the latter techniques showing only two regions in common localized in the occipital lobe.
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Saavedra C, Olivares EI, Iglesias J. Cognitive decline effects at an early stage: Evidence from N170 and VPP. Neurosci Lett 2012; 518:149-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.04.075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2012] [Revised: 04/27/2012] [Accepted: 04/29/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Saavedra C, Iglesias J, Olivares EI. Event-Related Potentials Elicited By Face Identity Processing In Elderly Adults With Cognitive Impairment. Exp Aging Res 2012; 38:220-45. [DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2012.660057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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