Abstract
We believe we are now in a position to answer the question, "Are faces special?" inasmuch as this applies to the face inversion effect (better performance for upright vs inverted faces). Using a double-blind, between-subject design, in two experiments (n = 96) we applied a specific tDCS procedure targeting the Fp3 area while participants performed a matching-task with faces (Experiment 1a) or checkerboards from a familiar prototype-defined category (Experiment 1b). Anodal tDCS eliminated the checkerboard inversion effect reliably obtained in the sham group, but only reduced it for faces (although the reduction was significant). Thus, there is a component to the face inversion effect that we are not affecting with a tDCS procedure that can eliminate the checkerboard inversion effect. We suggest that the reduction reflects the loss of an expertise-based component in the face inversion effect, and the residual is due to a face-specific component of that effect.
Highlights
We can rapidly recognize a face in a few milliseconds, and remarkably, after a glimpse, efficiently extract the information necessary to categorize a person’s facial expression, gender, ethnicity, and direction of gaze
The argument between proponents of these two accounts has continued throughout the years and, if anything, increased with the advent of the cognitive neuroscience techniques that helped to inform this debate. Much of this evidence uses, as a robust behavioural index of face recognition skills, the face inversion effect[3,4,5] which we introduce shortly, coupled with investigation of brain activation in the Face Fusiform Area (FFA) via fMRI or measurement of the event-related potential (ERP) component called the N170 using EEG
We believe that we are in a position to answer the question, "Are faces special?" Our answer is yes, that there is evidence for special processing that does not apply to other stimuli that upright faces benefit from, and that this contributes to the face inversion effect
Summary
We can rapidly recognize a face in a few milliseconds, and remarkably, after a glimpse, efficiently extract the information necessary to categorize a person’s facial expression, gender, ethnicity, and direction of gaze. Follow-up paired t test analyses were conducted to compare performance on upright and inverted face stimuli (the inversion effect) in each tDCS group (sham, anodal).
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