Pages ii, iv, vi and viii are blank, therefore omitted. / <p>Faces are often deemed special objects because they are associated with behavioural and physiological characteristics that differ from those of other objects. These characteristics may indicate that faces are processed with separate mechanisms than other objects. On the other hand, these characteristics may be the result of our extensive experience with faces. If so, other objects should exhibit these same characteristics with sufficient exposure. This prediction has begun to be addressed both from studies of real-world experts and from studies that explicitly manipulate experience with non-face objects in the lab.</p><p>Contributing to this larger framework, here we demonstrate that : (1) large inversion effects can be obtained through training alone, therefore large face inversion effects are insufficient evidence of specialized face-processing mechanisms; (2) house-identification training substantially improves behavioural performance but has minimal impact on fMRI activity recorded in areas that preferentially respond to houses or faces, nor in retinotopically-defined early visual areas. (3) house-identification training systematically reduces the amplitude of late ERP components in the range of 200-300 ms, and (4) the relative patterns of ERP responses to faces and houses remain quite stable after houseidentification training, with faces continuing to exhibit larger, earlier Nl responses than houses.</p><p>Together, these results suggest that, although some behavioural characteristics attributed to specialized face processing can be adequately explained through experience alone, training of non-face objects does not readily reduce existing differences in the fMRI and EEG signatures of face and object processing.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/17327 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Husk, Jesse S. |
| Contributors | Bennett, Patrick J., Sekuler, Allison B., Neuroscience |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds