Attentional modulations of event-related brain potentials sensitive to faces

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to centrall y and peripherally presented faces and chairs under conditions where one st imulus category was attended and the other unattended. It was studied wheth er selective attention affects ERP components sensitive to the presence of faces. When compared with chairs, faces elicited larger NI amplitudes at la teral temporal electrodes and a midline positivity in the same latency rang e. The latter effect was only found for central faces. Attention to central ly presented faces was reflected in enhanced posterior N1 amplitudes. This effect may be related to an attentional modulation of processing within fac e-specific brain areas. It was not elicited by chairs or peripheral faces. Beyond 200msec post-stimulus, a category-unspecific attentional negativity was found at all recording sites for centrally and peripherally presented f ace and nonface stimuli.