Hemispheric differences in evoked potentials to pictures of faces in the left and right visual fields

Fifteen right-handed women evaluated the similarity of two faces presented to them either in the left or in the right visual field. The subjects' task was to decide whether the faces were the same or different and accordingly to press a button or abstain from doing so. Errors made by the subjects and the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) from points O₁ and O₂ referred to point C_z were recorded. Behavioural and electrophysiological results demonstrated the superiority of the right hemisphere in the perception of faces. The subjects made fewer errors when faces were presented in the left visual field. The number of errors also decreased when the presented faces were different from each other. Analysis of the VEPs indicates the existence of hemispheric asymmetry as early as 100 msec after the first stimulus disappeared. The asymmetry is larger in response to the second stimulus. On the basis of these results we conclude that differentiation in hemispheric functions takes place in the phase of short-term memory. The smaller number of errors made when the presented faces were different we explain by the strategy applied by the subjects.