Sreenivasan Kartik K, Goldstein Jonathan M, Lustig Audrey G, Rivas Luis R, Jha Amishi P
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2009 May;71(4):837-46. doi: 10.3758/APP.71.4.837.
In the present study, we investigated whether attention to faces results in sensory gain modulation. Participants were cued to attend either to faces or to scenes in superimposed face-scene images for which face discriminability was manipulated parametrically. The face-sensitive N170 event-related potential component was used as a measure of early face processing. Attention to faces modulated N170 amplitude, but only when faces were not highly discriminable. Additionally, directing attention to faces modulated later processing (~230-300 msec) for all discriminability levels. These results demonstrate that attention to faces can modulate perceptual processing of faces at multiple stages of processing, including early sensory levels. Critically, the early attentional benefit is present only when the "face signal" (i.e., the perceptual quality of the face) in the environment is suboptimal.
在本研究中,我们调查了对面部的注意是否会导致感觉增益调制。参与者被提示关注叠加的面部-场景图像中的面部或场景,其中面部可辨别性被参数化地操纵。对面部敏感的N170事件相关电位成分被用作早期面部处理的指标。对面部的注意调节了N170的幅度,但仅当面部不是高度可辨别的时候。此外,将注意力导向面部会调节所有可辨别性水平下的后期处理(约230 - 300毫秒)。这些结果表明,对面部的注意可以在处理的多个阶段,包括早期感觉水平,调节对面部的感知处理。关键的是,早期注意益处仅在环境中的“面部信号”(即面部的感知质量)次优时才会出现。