Preserved fine-tuning of face perception and memory: evidence from the own-race bias in high- and low-performing older adults.

ABSTRACT: Previous research suggests specific deficits in face perception and memory in older adults, which could reflect a dedifferentiation in the context of a general broadening of cognitive architecture with advanced age. Such dedifferentiation could manifest in a less specialized face processing system. A promising tool to investigate the fine-tuning of face processing in older age is the own-race bias (ORB), a phenomenon reflecting more accurate memory for own-relative to other-race faces, which is related to an expertise-based specialization of early perceptual stages. To investigate whether poor face memory in older age is accompanied by reduced expertise-based specialization of face processing, we assessed event-related brain potential correlates of the ORB in high- vs. low-performing older

SUBMITTER: Komes J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3983485 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature