FACE-SELECTIVE PROCESSING IN HUMAN EXTRASTRIATE CORTEX AROUND 120 MS AFTER STIMULUS ONSET REVEALED BY MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY AND ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY

Quick recognition of faces is crucial to a variety of human interactio ns, and highly specialized pathways may be involved in the processing of faces. To reveal selectivity to faces in early cortical processing, whole-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography ( EEG) were used to record event-related responses to faces and degraded faces and their inverted counterparts. We observed increases in the p eak latency and amplitude of the early 120-ms component (P120) for the inverted faces. These effects were enhanced for the 170-ms component (N170). For the degraded counterparts, a significant effect of the inv ersion was observed only for the N170, which was strongly delayed. Sou rce modelling suggested that the early response originated at the post erior occipital areas whereas the later response was generated anterio r and lateral to this location. We conclude that under sufficiently go od conditions face-selective activity may be taking place during the P 120. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.