Article

Is the N170 peak of visual event-related brain potentials car-selective?

Details

Citation

Dering B, Martin C & Thierry G (2009) Is the N170 peak of visual event-related brain potentials car-selective?. NeuroReport, 20 (10), pp. 902-906. https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0b013e328327201d

Abstract
The N170 is a peak of event-related brain potentials commonly acknowledged to be larger in amplitude for face stimuli compared with any other visual object. Recently, the face selectivity of the N170 has been challenged based on the observation of similar N170 amplitude to faces and cars presented full front. Here, we measured the N170 elicited by the same stimulus categories using a one-back memory and categorization tasks. We found that N170 mean amplitude was significantly larger for cars than faces at electrode sites considered 'optimal' for measuring N170 face selectivity in the absence of task effects. Furthermore, we found evidence for category selectivity and task dependence in the P1 range. These results support the idea that N170 face selectivity is formally questionable.

Keywords
event-related potentials; face processing; N170; P1

Journal
NeuroReport: Volume 20, Issue 10

StatusPublished
Publication date01/07/2009
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/11527
PublisherLippincott, Williams and Wilkins
ISSN0959-4965
eISSN1473-558X

People (1)

Dr Benjamin Dering

Dr Benjamin Dering

Lecturer, Psychology