Social contact and other-race face processing in the human brain

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence social factors upon the neural processing of faces of other races using event-related potentials. A multi-tiered approach was used to identify face-specific stages of processing, to test for effects of race-of-face upon processing at these stages and to evaluate the impact of social contact and individuating experience upon these effects. The results showed that race-of-face has significant effects upon face processing, starting from early perceptual stages of structural encoding, and that social factors may play an important role in mediating these effects.

Fig. 1

Face stimuli from left to right: White upright; White Blur; White inverted; Black upright.

Fig. 2

White Faces vs White Blurs: Segmentation maps and scalp topographies. (Note. The segmentation map numbers correspond to the scalp topography numbers.)

Fig. 3

ERP grand average waveforms of 20 of the 34 electrodes recorded. White upright faces are overlaid with White face blurs for comparison.

Fig. 4

ERP grand average waveforms of the four components: P400 (at FZ), N210 (at CPZ), N170 (at PO8), and P120 (at O2).

Fig. 5

Correlation plots demonstrate the significant relationship between (A) individuating experience and N170 mean amplitude differences between Black and White faces and (B) social contact and P400 mean amplitude differences between Black and White faces.