Skip to main content

Getting to Know You: Emerging Neural Representations during Face Familiarization.

Ambrus, G. G., Eick, C. M., Kaiser, D. and Kovács, G., 2021. Getting to Know You: Emerging Neural Representations during Face Familiarization. Journal of Neuroscience, 41 (26), 5687 -5698.

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF
Ambrus_Eick_Kaiser_Kovacs_JNeurosci2021.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

4MB

DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2466-20.2021

Abstract

The successful recognition of familiar persons is critical for social interactions. Despite extensive research on the neural representations of familiar faces, we know little about how such representations unfold as someone becomes familiar. In three EEG experiments on human participants of both sexes, we elucidated how representations of face familiarity and identity emerge from different qualities of familiarization: brief perceptual exposure (Experiment 1), extensive media familiarization (Experiment 2), and real-life personal familiarization (Experiment 3). Time-resolved representational similarity analysis revealed that familiarization quality has a profound impact on representations of face familiarity: they were strongly visible after personal familiarization, weaker after media familiarization, and absent after perceptual familiarization. Across all experiments, we found no enhancement of face identity representation, suggesting that familiarity and identity representations emerge independently during face familiarization. Our results emphasize the importance of extensive, real-life familiarization for the emergence of robust face familiarity representations, constraining models of face perception and recognition memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Despite extensive research on the neural representations of familiar faces, we know little about how such representations unfold as someone becomes familiar. To elucidate how face representations change as we get familiar with someone, we conducted three EEG experiments where we used brief perceptual exposure, extensive media familiarization, or real-life personal familiarization. Using multivariate representational similarity analysis, we demonstrate that the method of familiarization has a profound impact on face representations, and emphasize the importance of real-life familiarization. Additionally, familiarization shapes representations of face familiarity and identity differently: as we get to know someone, familiarity signals seem to appear before the formation of identity representations.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:1529-2401
Uncontrolled Keywords:EEG; familiarity; identification; multivariate pattern analysis; person recognition; Adult; Brain; Electroencephalography; Facial Recognition; Female; Humans; Male; Recognition, Psychology; Young Adult
Group:Faculty of Science & Technology
ID Code:36393
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:16 Dec 2021 13:25
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 14:31

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...
Repository Staff Only -