Electrophysiological correlates of individual differences in face ability: a preliminary report

The aim of the current study is to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of face processing in different groups of subjects selected on the basis of their poor, low or high face ability, namely Congenital Prosopagnosics, Bad and Good face recognizers. Especially, we examined how the Event Related Potentials (ERP) components were modulated by individual differences. The study was characterized by two steps, first of all face ability was evaluated behaviorally by employing two objective tests, the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT, Duchaine and Nakayama, 2006) and the Cambridge Face Perception Test (CFPT, Duchaine et al., 2007). According to the scores obtained the experimental groups were formed by considering Congenital Prosopagnosics, Bad or Good the subjects that performed, respectively, two, one standard deviation below or above the control mean. Then, ERP were recorded during a same/different task built with the procedure of the neural rapid visual adaptation. Our preliminary results showed a possible relation between individual differences and the neural activity that underlies face processing. Particularly, the N170 component, a face-specific neural marker (Bentin et al., 1996) presented an adaptation effect according to different face ability, indicating strongly its link with individual differences.