Correlato eletrofisiológico da discriminação de faces no processo de envelhecimento

Abstract

Identification and naming responses that allow for discrimination against family members of non-family members come from a long history of training. It is assumed that the longer the exposure time to a stimulus and the ability to name it, the greater the discrimination. The N250 wave is an electrophysiological correlate that has been related to familial stimuli, with greater amplitude before them in relation to unknown stimuli. The surveys have preferably used photos of famous people to investigate the N250. In addition, they did not analyze their occurrence in front of faces of people of the same family throughout the aging process, in a cross-sectional study. The objectives of the study were to compare the presence of behavioral responses of identification and naming of familiar faces and the occurrence of electrophysiological correlates in participants with ages varying between 20 and 80 years. The experiment was divided into five phases to observe possible changes in the amplitude and latency of the N250 wave as the familiar and unfamiliar stimuli became better known by the repetition process. In Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4, electrophysiological records were made. Phase 1 differed from the others by the presentation of only photographs of unknown people, Phase 4 by the emission of motor response and Phase 5, without recording time, by the identification and appointment of the persons included in the photographs. The results evidenced changes in the response corresponding to the identification of the faces according to the increase of the age and pointed out differences in negativity of the amplitude of the N250 wave in the participants of 71 to 80 years. The occurrence and increase of the N250 wave amplitude in front of familiar faces as opposed to the unknown faces confirmed the data found in previous studies on visualization of familiar stimuli.