Newly learned categories induce pre-attentive categorical perception of faces

Face perception is modulated by categorical information in faces, which is known as categorical perception (CP) of faces. However, it remains unknown whether CP of faces is humans’ inborn capability or the result of acquired categories. Here, we examined whether and when newly learned categories affect face perception. A short-term training method was employed in which participants learned new categories of face stimuli. Behaviorally, using an AB-X discrimination task, we found that the discrimination accuracy of face pairs from different learned categories was significantly higher than that of faces from the same category. Neurally, using a visual oddball task, we found that deviant stimuli whose category differed from standard stimuli evoked a larger N170. Importantly, the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), starting from 140 ms after stimuli onset, was stronger with the between-category deviants than with the within-category deviants under the unattended condition. Altogether, our study provides empirical evidence indicating that CP of faces could be induced by newly learned categories, and this effect occurs automatically during an early stage of processing.