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Does language categorization influence face identification? The present study addressed this question by means of two experiments. First, to establish language categorization of faces, the memory confusion paradigm was used to create two language categories of faces, Spanish and English. Subsequently, participants underwent an oddball paradigm, in which faces that had been previously paired with one of the two languages (Spanish or English), were presented. We measured EEG perceptual differences (vMMN) between standard and two types of deviant faces: within-language category (faces sharing language with standards) or between-language category (faces paired with the other language). Participants were more likely to confuse faces within the language category than between categories, an index that faces were categorized by language. At the neural level, early vMMN were obtained for between-language category faces, but not for within-language category faces. At a later stage, however, larger vMMNs were obtained for those faces from the same language category. Our results showed that language is a relevant social cue that individuals used to categorize others and this categorization subsequently affects face perception. ; This work was supported by different projects from the Spanish Government (PSI2017-84539-P and RTI2018-096238-A-I00). Cristina Baus was supported by the Beatriu de Pinòs fellowship (BP00381, AGAUR) and the Ramon y Cajal research program (RYC2018-026174-I). Elisa Ruiz-Tada was supported by the Early Stage Research Grant (FI-DGR) from the Agency for Management of University and Research Funds (AGAUR) and the Catalan Government. Carles Escera was supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR2017-974) and the ICREA Acadèmia Distinguished Professorship.

AbstractHow does the remarkable human ability for face recognition arise over development? Competing theories have proposed either late maturity (beyond 10 years) or early maturity (before 5 years), but have not distinguished between perceptual and memory aspects of face recognition. Here, we demonstrate a perception–memory dissociation. We compare rate of development for (adult, human) faces versus other social stimuli (bodies), other discrete objects (cars), and other categories processed in discrete brain regions (scenes, bodies), from 5 years to adulthood. For perceptual discrimination, performance improved with age at the same rate for faces and all other categories, indicating no domain‐specific development. In contrast, face memory increased more strongly than non‐face memory, indicating domain‐specific development. The results imply that each theory is partly true: the late maturity theory holds for face memory, and the early maturity theory for face perception.

AbstractWe know that early experience plays a crucial role in the development of face processing, but we know little about how infants learn to distinguish faces from different races, especially for non‐Caucasian populations. Moreover, it is unknown whether differential processing of different race faces observed in typically studied monoracial infants extends to biracial infants as well. Thus, we investigated 3‐month‐old Caucasian, Asian and biracial (Caucasian‐Asian) infants' ability to distinguish Caucasian and Asian faces. Infants completed two within‐subject, infant‐controlled habituation sequences and test trials as an eye tracker recorded looking times and scanning patterns. Examination of individual differences revealed significant positive correlations between own‐race novelty preference and scanning frequency between eye and mouth regions of own‐race habituation stimuli for Caucasian and Asian infants, suggesting that facility in own‐race face discrimination stems from active inspection of internal facial features in these groups. Biracial infants, however, showed the opposite effect: An 'own‐race' novelty preference was associated with reduced scanning between eye and mouth regions of 'own‐race' habituation stimuli, suggesting that biracial infants use a distinct approach to processing frequently encountered faces. Future directions for investigating face processing development in biracial populations are discussed.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/a_dDXfFuEfY

AbstractThe developmental origin of human adults' right hemispheric dominance in response to face stimuli remains unclear, in particular because young infants' right hemispheric advantage in face‐selective response is no longer present in preschool children, before written language acquisition. Here we used fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to test 52 preschool children (5.5 years old) at two different levels of face discrimination: discrimination of faces against objects, measuring face‐selectivity, or discrimination between individual faces. While the contrast between faces and nonface objects elicits strictly bilateral occipital responses in children, strengthening previous observations, discrimination of individual faces in the same children reveals a strong right hemispheric lateralization over the occipitotemporal cortex. Picture‐plane inversion of the face stimuli significantly decreases the individual discrimination response, although to a much smaller extent than in older children and adults tested with the same paradigm. However, there is only a nonsignificant trend for a decrease in right hemispheric lateralization with inversion. There is no relationship between the right hemispheric lateralization in individual face discrimination and preschool levels of readings abilities. The observed difference in the right hemispheric lateralization obtained in the same population of children with two different paradigms measuring neural responses to faces indicates that the level of visual discrimination is a key factor to consider when making inferences about the development of hemispheric lateralization of face perception in the human brain.

We thank all the participating children and their parents. Special thanks go to the participating schools, Ten Bunderen (Moorslede), De Puzzel (Kleine‐Brogel), and De Schommel (Lommel). We also thank the following students for their assistance with data collection: Nele Berghmans, Stéphanie Deckmyn, Sanne Drees, Tine Herreman, Ellen Janssen, Loes Steegmans, Lotte van Esch, Alysée Van Laeken, and Leen Vercammen, and Bart Machilsen for his assistance with data preparation. This research was funded by the Methusalem program by the Flemish Government (METH 08/02) awarded to Johan Wagemans; by a grant from the Research Council of the KU Leuven (IDO/080/013) awarded to Jean Steyaert, Johan Wagemans, and Ilse Noens; and by grants from the Marguerite Marie Delacroix Support Fund (GV/B‐141) and the Fund for Scientific Research (12L6916N) awarded to Kris Evers.

We thank all the participating children and their parents. Special thanks go to the participating schools, Ten Bunderen (Moorslede), De Puzzel (Kleine‐Brogel), and De Schommel (Lommel). We also thank the following students for their assistance with data collection: Nele Berghmans, Stéphanie Deckmyn, Sanne Drees, Tine Herreman, Ellen Janssen, Loes Steegmans, Lotte van Esch, Alysée Van Laeken, and Leen Vercammen, and Bart Machilsen for his assistance with data preparation. This research was funded by the Methusalem program by the Flemish Government (METH 08/02) awarded to Johan Wagemans; by a grant from the Research Council of the KU Leuven (IDO/080/013) awarded to Jean Steyaert, Johan Wagemans, and Ilse Noens; and by grants from the Marguerite Marie Delacroix Support Fund (GV/B‐141) and the Fund for Scientific Research (12L6916N) awarded to Kris Evers.

AbstractAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with face perception atypicalities, and atypical experience with faces has been proposed as an underlying explanation. Studying the own‐race advantage (ORA) for face recognition can reveal the effect of experience on face perception in ASD, although the small number of studies in the area present mixed findings. This study probed the ORA in ASD by comparing two cultural groups simultaneously for the first time. Children with ASD in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26) were compared with age‐ and ability‐matched typically developing (TD) children in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26). Participants completed a two‐alternative forced‐choice task, whereby they had to recognize a just seen face from a foil which was manipulated in one of four ways (IC: identity change; EE: easy eyes; HE: hard eyes; HM: hard mouth). Face stimuli were Asian and Caucasian, and thus the same stimuli were own and other race depending on the cultural group. The ASD groups in the UK and Japan did not show impaired face recognition abilities, or impairments with recognizing faces depending on manipulations to the eye region, and importantly they showed an ORA. There was considerable heterogeneity in the presence of the ORA in ASD and TD and also across cultures. Children in Japan had higher accuracy than children in the UK, and TD children in Japan did not show an ORA. This cross‐cultural study challenges the view that atypical experiences with faces lead to a reduced/absent ORA in ASD.