Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
Cereb Cortex. 2010 Oct;20(10):2442-52. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhp312. Epub 2010 Jan 15.
To study the response profile of the face-selective N170 component, an adaptation procedure was employed where adaptor and test stimuli were presented in rapid succession. Test stimuli came from 4 different face categories (upright, inverted, and eyeless faces and eyes-only images). The same face stimuli, as well as upright and inverted houses, served as adaptors. Strong N170 amplitude reductions indicative of adaptation were found for all types of face test stimuli preceded by face adaptors relative to house adaptors, demonstrating that at a generic level, the N170 reflects the activation of face-selective neurons by full faces and by face parts. The highly specific pattern of N170 adaptation effects for different combinations of adaptor and test stimulus categories suggests additional distinct contributions of eye-selective neurons and of face-sensitive neurons that are tuned to deviations from canonical stimulus orientations to the N170 component. Results demonstrate that the N170 is generated by multiple neural sources at both early and later stages of configural face processing and that rapid adaptation techniques provide a powerful tool to dissociate these sources.
为了研究面部选择性 N170 成分的反应特征，采用了适应程序，其中适配器和测试刺激快速连续呈现。测试刺激来自 4 个不同的面部类别（直立、倒置和无眼面孔以及仅眼睛的图像）。相同的面部刺激以及直立和倒置的房屋作为适配器。与房屋适配器相比，在前导面部适配器后面的所有类型的面部测试刺激中都发现了强烈的 N170 幅度减少，表明在一般水平上，N170 反映了全脸和脸部部位对面部选择性神经元的激活。对于不同的适配器和测试刺激类别组合的 N170 适应效应的高度特异性模式表明，眼选择性神经元和对偏离规范刺激方向敏感的面部神经元对 N170 成分有额外的独特贡献。结果表明，N170 是由在配置面部处理的早期和后期阶段的多个神经源产生的，并且快速适应技术提供了一种分离这些源的强大工具。
