[Brain processing component during face cognition--N170 revealed by event-related potentials].

Objective. To observe features of early component N170 during face recognition. Method. Scalp distribution, amplitude, and latency of N170 was recorded during face recognition tasks in 16 normal subjects. Result. N170 was elicited by the face stimuli in only half of the subjects and the amplitude was modulated by cognitive tasks. Conclusion. N170 reflects not only face structure encoding unit but also direct visual processing unit. Whether N170 reflects the specialty in face recognition needs further study. The latency of N170 showed left hemisphere dominance and the amplitude showed right hemisphere dominance, indicating that it is not pure right hemisphere dominance in face recognition.