EEG data of face recognition in case of biological compatible changes: A pilot study on healthy people

Recognizing people from their faces has a strong impact on social interaction. In this paper we present a pilot study on healthy people where brain activities during a face recognition task have been recorded using electroencephalogram (EEG). Target images (previously seen in a training phase), were presented in the recognition phase in two different conditions: identical to those of the initial phase, modified with biologically plausible changes (such as features enlargement or changed expression) and randomly presented with new faces. The raw EEG data were properly cleaned from both biological or non-physiological artifacts. Statistically significant differences in brain activations were registered between the two experimental conditions, especially in the frontal area, during the recognition process. The results of the analysis on this database of healthy people can be useful as baseline for further studies on people affected by congenital prosopagnosia or autism.