Upright or inverted, entire or exploded: right-hemispheric superiority in face recognition withstands multiple spatial manipulations.

ABSTRACT: Background. The ability to identify faces has been interpreted as a cerebral specialization based on the evolutionary importance of these social stimuli, and a number of studies have shown that this function is mainly lateralized in the right hemisphere. The aim of this study was to assess the right-hemispheric specialization in face recognition in unfamiliar circumstances. Methods. Using a divided visual field paradigm, we investigated hemispheric asymmetries in the matching of two subsequent faces, using two types of transformation hindering identity recognition, namely upside-down rotation and spatial "explosion" (female and male faces were fractured into parts so that their mutual spatial relations were left intact), as well as their combination. Results. We confirmed the right-hemisph

SUBMITTER: Prete G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4671171 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature