EARLY CORTICAL ACTIVATION INDICATES PREPARATION FOR RETRIEVAL OF MEMORY FOR FACES - AN EVENT-RELATED POTENTIAL STUDY

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the tim e course of memory processes following the presentation of faces. Foll owing a phase in which subjects were asked to memorise faces presented on a computer screen (study phase) they had to distinguish the previo usly presented faces from others new to the experiment (test phase). W e found that in a time period from 250 to 350 ms after onset of stimul us presentation ERPs show higher negativity for both repeated and nove l faces in the test phase compared to the study phase, This situation dependent effect is most pronounced in occipito-temporal regions. We c onclude that memory retrieval for faces is a sequential process, The e arly part of: this process constitutes preparation for the retrieval o f stored information, and a later part of the process comprises the di scrimination between repeated and novel faces. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien ce Ireland Ltd.