Abstract
Perceptually categorizing a face to its racial belonging may have important consequences on interacting with people. However, race categorical perception (CP) has been scarcely investigated nor its developmental pathway. In this study, we tested the neurolinguistics rewiring hypothesis, stating that language acquisition modulates the brain processing of social perceptual categories. Accordingly, we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of race CP in a group of adults and children between 3 and 5 years of age. For both groups we found a greater modulation of the N400 connected with the processing of between category boundaries (i.e., faces belonging to different race groups) than within-category boundaries (i.e., different faces belonging to the same race group). This effect was the same in both adults and children, as shown by the comparable between-group amplitude of the differential wave (DW) elicited by the between-category faces. Remarkably, this effect was positively correlated with racial-labels acquisition, but not with age, in children. Finally, brain source analysis revealed the activation of a more modularized cortical network in adults than in children, with unique activation of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which are areas connected to language processing. These are the first results accounting for an effect of language in rewiring brain connectedness when processing racial categories.
Highlights
Categorizing a face to its racial belonging may have important consequences on interacting with people
An additional analysis showed no significant N170 modulatory effects induced by the race itself when comparing the brain responses evoked by the Asian vs. the Caucasian standard faces
Despite the overall between-group differences in face-related event-related potential (ERP) responses in terms of latency due to maturational issues, the extent to which it was affected by categorical perception was quite comparable between children and adults
Summary
Categorizing a face to its racial belonging may have important consequences on interacting with people. It has been proposed that low-order visual phenomena as face color and shape might bias face perception from very early developmental stages[7] This account is supported by studies showing that infants as young as 3 month-old do show preliminary preference for[8] and better recognition of own-race faces[9]. A recent study showed that even 6-month-old infants, to adults, perceptually create racial categories[10] In other words, both low (perceptual) and high (cultural) order processes have been endorsed as possible routes constraining face categorization during development. This component has been purposely measured since it provides a relative measure of the category-dependent ERP modulation regardless the absolute amplitude magnitude of the scalp responses, that may show age-related morphological differences (deHaan, 2007)
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