Abstract
Faces automatically draw attention, allowing rapid assessments of personality and likely behaviour. How we respond to people is, however, highly dependent on whether we know who they are. According to face processing models person knowledge comes from an extended neural system that includes structures linked to episodic memory. Here we use scalp recorded brain signals to demonstrate the specific role of episodic memory processes during face processing. In two experiments we recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while participants made identify, familiar or unknown responses to famous faces. ERPs revealed neural signals previously associated with episodic recollection for identify but not familiar faces. These findings provide novel evidence suggesting that recollection is central to face processing, providing one source of person knowledge that can be used to moderate the initial impressions gleaned from the core neural system that supports face recognition.
Highlights
When we encounter somebody our response depends on whether we know who they are
This merger of face processing and memory models leaves open an intriguing question – in what way does episodic memory contribute to person knowledge? To address this issue we present a study of person identification using a neural marker of episodic memory
Our primary focus is on the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) old/new effects, for completeness here we present a final set of analyses targeting two ERP components that are often modulated in face processing tasks, namely the N170 and N250
Summary
When we encounter somebody our response depends on whether we know who they are. Even unknown faces contain information that provides immediate clues to a range of characteristics, from trustworthiness (Fenske et al, 2005) to likely aggressiveness (Lefevre and Lewis, 2014). Whilst early models of face processing focussed predominantly on semantic memory as the source of person knowledge (e.g., Bruce and Young, 1986), more recent neuroanatomical accounts have highlighted the additional importance of episodic memory (Gobbini and Haxby, 2007). The aim of the current investigation is to ask whether episodic memory contributes to person knowledge through recollection or familiarity Both retrieval processes have been associated with distinct brain signals. The current investigation examines memory for famous faces, which have been shown to elicit the standard left parietal effect (Nie et al, 2014) In this context ERPs provide a robust means of measuring the contribution of episodic retrieval to performance. The critical question is which of the two brain signals linked episodic retrieval will be observed
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