Different time course between scene processing and face processing: a MEG study

USING magnetoencephalography (MEG), the neural response to scenes was recorded and compared with that to faces. The prominent: MEG signals in response to scenes appeared 200-300 ms after the stimulus presentation while those in response to faces appeared between 150 and 200 ms. Source locations of the signals were estimated in the right parahippocampal and parieto-occipital regions with a latency of 300 ms for the scene response, whereas those were estimated in the lingual or fusiform gyri bilaterally with a latency of 160 ms for the face response. These data suggest that both the temporal and parietal regions process scenes, while the occipito-temporal regions process faces, and that scene processing takes a longer time than face processing. (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.