RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Neural Dynamics of Facial Identity Processing: Insights from EEG-Based Pattern Analysis and Image Reconstruction
JF eneuro
JO eNeuro
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP ENEURO.0358-17.2018
DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0358-17.2018
VO 5
IS 1
A1 Dan Nemrodov
A1 Matthias Niemeier
A1 Ashutosh Patel
A1 Adrian Nestor
YR 2018
UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/1/ENEURO.0358-17.2018.abstract
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.