Gender differences in ERPs during explicit and implicit facial attractiveness processing
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1
Inst. Higher Nervous Activity & Neurophysiology, Russia
We aimed at studying individual differences in brain electrical activity underlying the assessment of facial attractiveness in healthy adult volunteers. 128-channel EEG was recorded (Electrical Geodesics Inc. system) while our participants (36 female, 42 male) performed visual tasks. In the first (Implicit) task the stimuli were monochrome photographs of female faces, butterflies and flowers. The instruction was to press button 1 for a face and button 2 for a non-face object. In the second (Explicit) task the stimuli were faces from the first task. The instruction was to press button 1 for a face that was considered attractive by the participant and button 2 for a face that was considered less attractive. The evoked activity was averaged for conditions WB (attractive face) and WU (non-attractive face) for both tasks. The ERP components peaking around 70-80 ms and 120-130 ms were larger for the female than for male group in both Explicit and Implicit tasks: the effect was widespread on the scalp except for the parietal areas. In both tasks gender differences were seen also for the latencies longer than 200 ms. The ERP differences for WB vs. WU conditions in the Explicit task for both groups were after 300 ms widespread on the scalp except for the right anterior area. Earlier, they were seen in components at 120 ms and even at 70-80 ms. The locations of the ERP differences for WB vs. WU conditions in the Implicit task (where the implicit assessment of facial attractiveness was implied) were left frontal, central and right posterior for the latencies later than 200 ms, robust and significant for the female group. In the male group, the differences were more pronounced in the N400 component in the central region. Also, for both groups earlier differences were observed.
Keywords:
brain oscillations,
gender
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Quantitative Analysis of EEG, MEG & Brain Oscillations
Citation:
Mnatsakanian
EV
(2011). Gender differences in ERPs during explicit and implicit facial attractiveness processing.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00149
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Received:
17 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Elena V Mnatsakanian, Inst. Higher Nervous Activity & Neurophysiology, Moscow, Russia, mnazak2003@yahoo.com