PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nemrodov, Dan
AU  - Niemeier, Matthias
AU  - Patel, Ashutosh
AU  - Nestor, Adrian
TI  - The Neural Dynamics of Facial Identity Processing: Insights from EEG-Based Pattern Analysis and Image Reconstruction
AID  - 10.1523/ENEURO.0358-17.2018
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - eneuro
PG  - ENEURO.0358-17.2018
VI  - 5
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/1/ENEURO.0358-17.2018.short
4100  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/1/ENEURO.0358-17.2018.full
SO  - eNeuro2018 Jan 01; 5
AB  - Uncovering the neural dynamics of facial identity processing along with its representational basis outlines a major endeavor in the study of visual processing. To this end, here, we record human electroencephalography (EEG) data associated with viewing face stimuli; then, we exploit spatiotemporal EEG information to determine the neural correlates of facial identity representations and to reconstruct the appearance of the corresponding stimuli. Our findings indicate that multiple temporal intervals support: facial identity classification, face space estimation, visual feature extraction and image reconstruction. In particular, we note that both classification and reconstruction accuracy peak in the proximity of the N170 component. Further, aggregate data from a larger interval (50–650 ms after stimulus onset) support robust reconstruction results, consistent with the availability of distinct visual information over time. Thus, theoretically, our findings shed light on the time course of face processing while, methodologically, they demonstrate the feasibility of EEG-based image reconstruction.