RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Face inversion reveals holistic processing of peripheral faces
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 112433
DO 10.1101/112433
A1 Petra Kovács
A1 Balázs Knakker
A1 Petra Hermann
A1 Gyula Kovács
A1 Zoltán Vidnyánszky
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/02/28/112433.abstract
AB Face perception is accomplished by face-selective neural processes, involving holistic processing that enables highly efficient integration of facial features into a whole face representation. It has been shown that in face-selective regions of the ventral temporal cortex, neural resources involved in holistic processing are primarily dedicated to the central portion of the visual field. These findings raise the intriguing possibility that holistic processing might be the privilege of centrally presented faces and could be strongly diminished in the case of peripheral faces. We addressed this question using the face inversion effect, a well established marker of holistic face processing. The behavioral results revealed impaired identity discrimination performance for inverted peripheral faces scaled according to the V1 magnification factor, compared to upright presented faces. The size of peripheral face inversion effect (FIE) was comparable to that found for centrally displayed faces. Face inversion affected the early ERP responses to faces in two time intervals. The earliest FIE was most pronounced in the time window between 130-140 ms following stimulus presentation, for both centrally and peripherally displayed faces and in the latter case, it was present only over the contralateral hemisphere. The timing of the next component FIE corresponded closely with the temporal interval of the N170 ERP component and showed strong right hemisphere lateralization, both when faces were displayed in the left or right visual field. Furthermore, we also showed that centrally presented face masks impaired peripheral face identity discrimination performance, but did not reduce the magnitude of the FIE. These findings revealed robust behavioral and neural inversion effects for peripheral faces and thus suggest that faces are processed holistically throughout the visual field.Highlights Robust behavioral and neural inversion effect was found for peripheral faces.P1 ERP component is modulated by inverted central and contralateral faces.N170 ERP component is modulated by centrally and peripherally presented faces.Neural face inversion effect shows strong right hemisphere lateralization.Faces are processed holistically throughout the visual field.