1. Brain Activation in Response to Caricatures Blake Reitz & Alex Lehmicke University of Wisconsin-Stout • Introduction • Caricatures can be found in all forms of media. • Mauro & Kubovy found that caricatures (AKA “Super-Portraits”) were encoded quicker than real faces in same/different reaction tests. • N170 – ERP in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) related to face processing • Left brain – “Part-based processing” • Right brain – “Holistic processing” • Do caricatures map more accurately to the brain then real faces? • Do they take less effort to process? • Hypothesis • The Temporal Lobes (T5 & T6) will show stronger activation for caricatures over real faces. • The Parietal Lobe (Pz) will show quicker N170 activation for caricatures over real faces. Sample Faces • Pilot Study Results Mean EEG – Parietal, T5, T6 • Arrows denotes N170 ERP • Caricatures showed quicker Pz activation than real faces Real Faces vs. Caricatures – Parietal • Blue Arrow shows increasing Pz activation in the 400+ millisecond range. • Area tied to novelty • Greater for caricatures Scott McCloud’s scale of realism in characterized faces Real Faces vs. Caricatures – Left Temporal • Pz activation at 250 milliseconds for real faces • Pz is inverted, as it is located above the primary visual cortex • Materials & Methods • EEG were recorded using the 64-channel HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net • Each face was followed by a rest period • During the rest period, there was an on-screen questionnaire on the familiarity of the face. • Pictures were controlled for color and contrast. • Familiarity was controlled for by using pictures of well-known male celebrities. Sample Caricature and photograph used in pilot study • Conclusions • This study is currently ongoing. • The initial data supports half of our hypothesis. • -There is evidence that caricatures are processed quicker than real faces. • -There was little significant variation found in the left and right temporal lobes. • The pilot study suggests that the caricatures and real faces were not processed differently in each hemisphere of the brain, but are processed differently overall. • Our study supports Mauro and Kubovy’s hypothesis from a psychophysical perspective, future studies might find further evidence in support of the “super-portrait” hypothesis. • Participants viewed 80 faces • 20 real faces • 20 caricatures • Each face was viewed twice • Each face was seen for one second Real Faces vs. Caricatures – Right Temporal • Real faces activated slightly quicker in T5 & T6 • Caricatures showed stronger activation in T5 and T6 than real faces • Pilot Study notes: • EEG was recorded from five subjects from the three locations using Biopac. • Participants observed sixty faces (two sets of 15 real faces and 15 caricatures). Acknowledgments Thanks to Doctors Desiree Budd, Mike Donnelly, and Peizong Li Literature cited Mauro, R. & Kubovy, M. (1992) Caricature and face recognition.