Hemispheric Differences in the Evoked Potential to Face Stimuli

Abstract

Investigation of patients with cerebral lesions and tachistoscopic studies in both normal subjects and commissurectomised patients clearly indicate that the right hemisphere has a distinctive role in the processing of faces. Given these indications of a cerebral asymmetry, the possibility that such specialization might be mirrored electrophysiologically seemed worthy of investigation. Schulman-Galambos and Galambos (1978) and Neville et al (1982), recording evoked potentials in response to coloured slides of scenes and people, have reported a late wave, P300, which seems to reflect cognitive events.