Abstract
Faces are visual objects that hold special significance as the icons of other minds. Previous researchers using event-related potentials (ERPs) have found that faces are uniquely associated with an increased N170/vertex positive potential (VPP) and a more sustained frontal positivity. Here, we examined the processing of faces as objects vs. faces as cues to minds by contrasting images of faces possessing minds (human faces), faces lacking minds (doll faces), and non-face objects (i.e., clocks). Although both doll and human faces were associated with an increased N170/VPP from 175–200 ms following stimulus onset, only human faces were associated with a sustained positivity beyond 400 ms. Our data suggest that the N170/VPP reflects the object-based processing of faces, whether of dolls or humans; on the other hand, the later positivity appears to uniquely index the processing of human faces—which are more salient and convey information about identity and the presence of other minds.
Highlights
Faces are the observable icons of unobservable minds
Grand average stimulus-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by images of clocks, doll faces, and human faces, are presented in Figure 2 at two midline frontal-central sites: AFz and Cz
The vertex positive potential (VPP) was equivalent in magnitude for doll and human faces (t(18) = .17, p..85; critical p-value = .02 for three comparisons), suggesting the VPP was uniquely sensitive to faces, but did not differentiate between doll and human faces
Summary
Faces are the observable icons of unobservable minds. People read faces, and the eyes in particular, for cues to emotion, intention, and social meaning [1]. Indications of animacy can be gleaned from other cues at greater, and safer, distances, faces are uniquely suited to convey information about other minds. As such, they are among the most important objects in the visual environment—faces capture our attention, and orient us to other minds that can think, feel, and interact with our own. They are among the most important objects in the visual environment—faces capture our attention, and orient us to other minds that can think, feel, and interact with our own This preferential attention to faces is present from birth, suggesting that some aspects of face processing are innate. Children attend to faces as powerful icons of other minds [3]
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