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The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study

The Thatcher illusion (Thompson in Perception, 9, 483–484, 1980) is often explained as resulting from recognising a distortion of configural information when ‘Thatcherised’ faces are upright but not when inverted. However, recent behavioural studies suggest that there is an absence of perceptual con...

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Autores principales: Mestry, Natalie, Menneer, Tamaryn, Wenger, Michael J., Benikos, Nicholas, McCarthy, Rosaleen A., Donnelly, Nick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4365276/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25102929
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0705-3
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author Mestry, Natalie
Menneer, Tamaryn
Wenger, Michael J.
Benikos, Nicholas
McCarthy, Rosaleen A.
Donnelly, Nick
author_facet Mestry, Natalie
Menneer, Tamaryn
Wenger, Michael J.
Benikos, Nicholas
McCarthy, Rosaleen A.
Donnelly, Nick
author_sort Mestry, Natalie
collection PubMed
description The Thatcher illusion (Thompson in Perception, 9, 483–484, 1980) is often explained as resulting from recognising a distortion of configural information when ‘Thatcherised’ faces are upright but not when inverted. However, recent behavioural studies suggest that there is an absence of perceptual configurality in upright Thatcherised faces (Donnelly et al. in Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 74, 1475–1487, 2012) and both perceptual and decisional sources of configurality in behavioural tasks with Thatcherised stimuli (Mestry, Menneer et al. in Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 456, 2012). To examine sources linked to the behavioural experience of the illusion, we studied inversion and Thatcherisation of faces (comparing across conditions in which no features, the eyes, the mouth, or both features were Thatcherised) on a set of event-related potential (ERP) components. Effects of inversion were found at the N170, P2 and P3b. Effects of eye condition were restricted to the N170 generated in the right hemisphere. Critically, an interaction of orientation and eye Thatcherisation was found for the P3b amplitude. Results from an individual with acquired prosopagnosia who can discriminate Thatcherised from typical faces but cannot categorise them or perceive the illusion (Mestry, Donnelly et al. in Neuropsychologia, 50, 3410-3418, 2012) only differed from typical participants at the P3b component. Findings suggest the P3b links most directly to the experience of the illusion. Overall, the study showed evidence consistent with both perceptual and decisional sources and the need to consider both in relation to configurality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13423-014-0705-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-43652762015-03-26 The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study Mestry, Natalie Menneer, Tamaryn Wenger, Michael J. Benikos, Nicholas McCarthy, Rosaleen A. Donnelly, Nick Psychon Bull Rev Brief Report The Thatcher illusion (Thompson in Perception, 9, 483–484, 1980) is often explained as resulting from recognising a distortion of configural information when ‘Thatcherised’ faces are upright but not when inverted. However, recent behavioural studies suggest that there is an absence of perceptual configurality in upright Thatcherised faces (Donnelly et al. in Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 74, 1475–1487, 2012) and both perceptual and decisional sources of configurality in behavioural tasks with Thatcherised stimuli (Mestry, Menneer et al. in Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 456, 2012). To examine sources linked to the behavioural experience of the illusion, we studied inversion and Thatcherisation of faces (comparing across conditions in which no features, the eyes, the mouth, or both features were Thatcherised) on a set of event-related potential (ERP) components. Effects of inversion were found at the N170, P2 and P3b. Effects of eye condition were restricted to the N170 generated in the right hemisphere. Critically, an interaction of orientation and eye Thatcherisation was found for the P3b amplitude. Results from an individual with acquired prosopagnosia who can discriminate Thatcherised from typical faces but cannot categorise them or perceive the illusion (Mestry, Donnelly et al. in Neuropsychologia, 50, 3410-3418, 2012) only differed from typical participants at the P3b component. Findings suggest the P3b links most directly to the experience of the illusion. Overall, the study showed evidence consistent with both perceptual and decisional sources and the need to consider both in relation to configurality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13423-014-0705-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer US 2014-08-08 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4365276/ /pubmed/25102929 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0705-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2014 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Brief Report
Mestry, Natalie
Menneer, Tamaryn
Wenger, Michael J.
Benikos, Nicholas
McCarthy, Rosaleen A.
Donnelly, Nick
The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title_full The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title_fullStr The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title_short The Role of Configurality in the Thatcher Illusion: An ERP Study
title_sort role of configurality in the thatcher illusion: an erp study
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4365276/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25102929
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0705-3
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