Identity-specific neural responses to three categories of face familiarity (own, friend, stranger) using fast periodic visual stimulation

Abstract

Previous studies have focused on the modulatory effects of face familiarity on different components of an event-related potential (ERP), but there is controversy in the literature regarding the precise component that reflects the process of identity recognition. This may be partly explained by limits to this waveform analysis approach, as waveforms elicited by the presentation of a face are likely to reflect a variety of different cognitive processes that overlap in time. Using fast periodic visual stimulation and EEG (FPVS-EEG), we directly measured the electrophysiological response reflecting identity-specific recognition after isolating it from responses attributable to low-level visual processing and face-selective processes that are not identity-specific. The observed response therefore provides a robust and objective measure of the recognition of a personally familiar face generated bilaterally in the occipito-temporal region. We tested the magnitude of this identity-specific response to three categories of familiarity: the own-face (high familiarity), a friend's face (moderate familiarity), and a stranger's face (no familiarity). We found the largest response to the participant's own-face, followed by an intermediate response to a highly personally familiar face, and the smallest response to an unfamiliar face. An additional response was observed over the posterior cortical midline for familiar faces only, consistent with theories that familiar identity recognition also triggers post-perceptual semantic processing.