Electrophysiological correlates of processing faces of younger and older individuals

The 'own-age bias' in face processing suggests that the age of a face constitutes one important factor that influences attention to and memory for faces. The present experiment investigated electrophysiological correlates of processing faces of younger and older individuals. Younger partic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 2011-09, Vol.6 (4), p.526-535
Main Authors: Ebner, Natalie C., He, Yi, Fichtenholtz, Harlan M., McCarthy, Gregory, Johnson, Marcia K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Continental Ancestry Group
Aging - psychology
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Electroencephalography
Electrophysiological Phenomena
European Continental Ancestry Group
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Face
Female
Frontal Lobe - physiology
Humans
Male
Occipital Lobe - physiology
Original
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Recognition (Psychology)
Sex Characteristics
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:The 'own-age bias' in face processing suggests that the age of a face constitutes one important factor that influences attention to and memory for faces. The present experiment investigated electrophysiological correlates of processing faces of younger and older individuals. Younger participants were presented with pictures of unfamiliar younger and older faces in the context of a gender categorization task. A comparison of event-related potentials showed that early components are sensitive to faces of different ages: (i) larger positive potential peaking at 160 ms (P200) for older than younger faces at fronto-central electrodes; (ii) larger negative potential peaking at 252 ms (N200) for younger than older faces at fronto-central electrodes; (iii) larger negative-going deflection peaking at 320 ms (N250) for younger than older faces at occipito-temporal electrodes; and (iv) larger late positive potential peaking at 420 ms (LPP 420) for older than younger faces at parietal and other electrodes. We discuss similarities between the present study and a previously published study of faces of different races as suggesting involvement of comparable electrophysiological responses when differentiating between stimulus categories.
ISSN:1749-5016
1749-5024
DOI:10.1093/scan/nsq074