Hand response differences in a self-face identification task

Evidence has indicated that the right frontal cortex is preferentially invo lved in self-face recognition. To test this further, we employed a face ide ntification task and examined hand response differences (N = 10). Pictures of famous faces were combined with pictures of the participants' faces (sel f) and their co-workers' faces (familiar). These images were presented as a 'movie' in which one face transformed into another. Under the first instru ction set, the movies began with either the participant's face or a co-work er's face. and the sequences gradually morphed into a famous face. When tol d to stop the movie when the face in the sequence became famous, a signific antly later 'frame' was identified when the movies were composed of self-fa ces and the participants responded with their left hand. When the movies st arted with the famous faces and participants had to stop the movie when it became their own or their familiar co-worker's image (Instruction set 2), a significantly earlier frame was identified in the 'Self: Left hand' condit ion. The data suggest that participants are inclined to identify images as their own when the right hemisphere is preferentially accessed. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.