Studies of Psychology and Behavior

Studies of Psychology and Behavior >

2022 , Vol. 20 >Issue 5: 577 - 584

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12139/j.1672-0628.2022.05.001

The Time Course of the Perception of Animacy: Evidence from ERP

  • JIN Hua ,
  • YAN Shizhen ,
  • SHAN Jinlei ,
  • LIU Ting
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  • 1. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    2. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    3. Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students’ Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387;
    4. School of Electronics and Information Engineering, TianGong University, Tianjin 300387;
    5. School of Vocational Education, Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin 300222

Received date: 2021-09-11

  Online published: 2022-09-20

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Abstract

In this study, we examined the dynamic time courses of electrophysiological activity during the processing of animacy faces by parametric design using event-related potentials (ERPs). The results showed that inanimacy faces evoked more late positive potential (LPP) amplitude than animacy faces in the central-parietal region. Furthermore, the LPP amplitudes evoked by animacy and inanimacy faces were both significantly larger than that evoked by intermediate animacy strength (60%) faces, suggesting that the electrical signal pattern of LPP changed into a U-shape with the increase in animacy strength. There were no differences between animacy and inanimacy faces in P1 and N170. These results suggest that animacy is processed at the later stage of facial processing, and LPP is an effective index of detection of animacy on face. The results support the two-stage theory of the perception of animacy on face.

Key words： face processing; perception of animacy; ERP

Cite this article

JIN Hua , YAN Shizhen , SHAN Jinlei , LIU Ting . The Time Course of the Perception of Animacy: Evidence from ERP[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2022 , 20(5) : 577 -584 . DOI: 10.12139/j.1672-0628.2022.05.001

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