Kloth Nadine, Schweinberger Stefan R
Department of Psychology, University of Jena, Germany.
J Vis. 2010 Oct 15;10(12):17. doi: 10.1167/10.12.17.
Recent research shows a strong effect of adaptation on gaze perception: Adaptation to faces with eye gaze constantly diverted in one direction subsequently impairs the perception of that gaze direction. A previous study on the neural correlates of this effect found that N170 amplitudes to test faces were strongly attenuated following adaptation. ERP modulations as a function of gaze direction adaptation, however, were found only later (250-350 ms). Here, we used a new paradigm to study the exact nature of both the gaze direction-invariant N170 attenuation effect and the direction-specific effects in later time windows. We compared the ability to classify gaze direction before and after adaptation to direct gaze (control condition) or to eye gaze diverted to the right (adaptation condition). Behavioral results clearly replicated earlier findings of an impaired perception of eye gaze directed to the adapted side. The ERP analysis confirmed an insensitivity of the N170 to gaze adaptation, suggesting that reported attenuations resulted from adaptation to generic face information irrespective of gaze direction. Occipitotemporal ERPs ∼250-350 ms showed direction-specific modulations with most positive amplitudes in response to stimuli gazing in the direction of adaptation. Finally, there was an effect in the parietal late positive component ∼400-600 ms, which we interpret as a neural correlate of adaptation-induced novelty detection.
持续适应向一个方向偏移的目光的面孔后，会损害对该目光方向的感知。此前一项关于此效应神经关联的研究发现，适应后测试面孔的N170波幅会大幅衰减。然而，作为目光方向适应函数的ERP调制仅在后来（250 - 350毫秒）才被发现。在此，我们采用一种新范式来研究目光方向不变的N170衰减效应以及后期时间窗口中方向特异性效应的确切性质。我们比较了在适应直视（对照条件）或目光转向右侧（适应条件）前后对面孔目光方向进行分类的能力。行为学结果清楚地重复了早期关于对适应侧目光感知受损的发现。ERP分析证实N170对视知觉适应不敏感，这表明所报告的衰减是由于对通用面部信息的适应，而与目光方向无关。枕颞区ERP在约250 - 350毫秒时表现出方向特异性调制，对朝适应方向注视的刺激反应时波幅最正向。最后，在顶叶晚期正成分约400 - 600毫秒时存在一种效应，我们将其解释为适应诱导的新奇性检测的神经关联。
