When subjects are able to recognize facial stimulus, ERPs display a tendency for an increased positivity in response to Familiar Faces (FF) and increased negativity in response to Unfamiliar Faces (UF). These changes seem to depend upon the experimental manipulation of the psychological variables (timing of face presentation in order to access either early or late subcomponents associated with face recognition).

Characteristic of the aforementioned studies:

faces presnt only two degrees of familiarity (UF vs. FF); a given face is presented for a limited number of times; previous studies used as FF famous people which the Ss only knew via the mass media. To our knowledge the faces of relatives or friends have not been used as stimuli. As an extreme case, the subject's own face is a highly familiar stimulus to each subject. ERP amplitude should reflect this effect with an enhanced positivity