Abstract de conférence
Résumé : Face pareidolia is the illusory perception of a face in ambiguous objects or patterns [1], as reflected by face-selective electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in both adults [2] and infants [3]. However, the perceptual interpretation of these ambiguous stimuli depends on the context in which they are presented [4,5]. In particular, we recently found that, in adults [5], ambiguous face-like stimuli are interpreted as faces in a non-face context and as non-face objects in a face context. Accordingly, here, we aim to explore how visual context shapes the perception of ambiguous stimuli early in life. We measured scalp EEG activity in 4-to-6 months-old infants using a frequency-tagging approach which is particularly suited to test infants because it allows for short and efficient recordings, has an excellent signal-to-noise ratio and is immune to most artifacts [6,7]. Infants were exposed to 20-second sequences of natural images presented at a rate of 6 images per second (6 Hz), with ambiguous stimuli inserted every 5th image (at 1.2 Hz), and face or house images inserted every 4th image (at 1.5 Hz), defining a visual face or non-face context, respectively. Preliminary data (N=10 infants) reveal that the brain response to ambiguous stimuli is weaker in infants than in adults. Contrary to the adult responses, the infant response is also more face-like in the face context (with a typical temporo-parietal location of the response [3]) and shifts to a more occipital response in the non-face context. While these preliminary results still need to be consolidated, they suggest that the influence of visual context on the categorization of ambiguous stimuli changes throughout development, likely due to the effectiveness of perception at a given developmental stage. [1] Wardle et al., 2020, Nature communications [2] Rekow et al., 2022, Cognition [3] Rekow et al., 2021, PNAS [4] Rekow et al., 2022, NeuroImage [5] Bourgaux et al., in prep. [6] Kabdebon et al., 2022, NeuroImage [7] de Heering & Rossion, 2015, eLife

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