A key to understanding visual cognition is to determine "where", "when", and "how" brain responses reflect the processing of the specific visual features that modulate categorization behavior - the "what". The N170 is the earliest Event-Related Potential (ERP) that preferentially responds to faces. Here, we demonstrate that a paradigmatic shift is necessary to interpret the N170 as the product of an information processing network that dynamically codes and transfers face features across hemispheres, rather than as a local stimulus-driven event. Reverse-correlation methods coupled with information-theoretic analyses revealed that visibility of the eyes influences face detection behavior. The N170 initially reflects coding of the behaviorally relevant eye contralateral to the sensor, followed by a causal communication of the other eye from the other hemisphere. These findings demonstrate that the deceptively simple N170 ERP hides a complex network information processing mechanism involving initial coding and subsequent cross-hemispheric transfer of visual features.
CITATION STYLE
Ince, R. A. A., Jaworska, K., Gross, J., Panzeri, S., Van Rijsbergen, N. J., Rousselet, G. A., & Schyns, P. G. (2016). The Deceptively Simple N170 Reflects Network Information Processing Mechanisms Involving Visual Feature Coding and Transfer Across Hemispheres. Cerebral Cortex, 26(11), 4123–4135. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw196
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