The sensitivity of face specific ERP components to the nature of stimulus noise

Krisztina Nagy; Márta Zimmer; Wenrui Liu; Gyula Kovács

doi:10.1556/lp.1.2009.2.3

Jump to Content

Learning & Perception

Volume/Issue:: Volume 1: Issue 2

The sensitivity of face specific ERP components to the nature of stimulus noise

Authors:

Krisztina Nagy

Krisztina Nagy Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Sztoczek utca 2, H-1111, Budapest, Hungary

Search for other papers by Krisztina Nagy in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Márta Zimmer

Márta Zimmer Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

Search for other papers by Márta Zimmer in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Wenrui Liu

Wenrui Liu Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Search for other papers by Wenrui Liu in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

, and

Gyula Kovács

Gyula Kovács Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Search for other papers by Gyula Kovács in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

View More View Less

Pages:: 183–197

Online Publication Date:: 01 Dec 2009

Publication Date:: 01 Dec 2009

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/lp.1.2009.2.3

Keywords:: ERP; gender discrimination; coherent and incoherent noise; N170; P220

Restricted access

Abstract

The processing of any noisy stimuli requires extra means from the nervous system. Several electrophysiological studies have proved that the processing of noise starts approximately 150–200 milliseconds after stimulus onset. This is suggested by the fact that the amplitude of the face-selective N170 component has been reduced and its latency prolonged by adding Gaussian noise to a face stimulus while the earlier P100 component is not influenced by added noise. While previous studies tested the electrophysiological correlates of noisy face perception in humans, the nature of added noise has not been studied yet in relation to face processing. Our goal was to distinguish the effects of added phase-noise from that of another irrelevant, overlapping non-face object (a car) on the electrophysiological correlates of human face processing. Subjects performed a two-alternative gender discrimination task with seven levels of difficulty, equalised between the phase-noise and overlapping object conditions. We found that the first component where an amplitude reduction took place was the N170 component when adding phase-noise to the face stimuli but not in the overlapping object condition. The amplitude of the later positive P220 component, on the other hand, increased significantly in both noisy conditions. Our results suggest that the processing of phase-noise starts in the time range, reflected by the N170 component, while the interaction of a face and of another overlapping irrelevant stimulus does not happen until the P220 component.

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share Link

Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://akjournals.com/abstract/journals/1166/1/2/article-p183.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Learning & Perception

Print ISSN:: 1789-3186

Online ISSN:: 2060-9175

Learning & Perception
Language	English
Size
Year of Foundation	2009
Publication Programme	ceased
Volumes per Year
Issues per Year
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	1789-3186 (Print)
ISSN	2060-9175 (Online)