The age of the beholder: ERP evidence of an own-age bias in face memory.

Unfamiliar faces from the viewer's own ethnic group are more accurately recognized than other-race faces. The present study examined whether similar effects occur for own-age versus other-age faces, analyzing both behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) measures. Young and elderly participants were to recognize previously studied young and old faces. Whereas young participants demonstrated enhanced recognition memory for own-age faces, no corresponding effect was observed in elderly participants. During recognition tests, enhanced N170 and decreased P2 amplitudes were observed for old faces. Of particular importance, increased N250 amplitudes at right occipito-temporal electrodes as well as enhanced centro-parietal old/new recognition memory effects (more positive ERPs to hits than correct rejections) were observed to own-age compared to other-age faces in the young but not in the elderly participants' ERPs. In young participants, the right occipito-temporal N250 suggests easier access to temporary structural representations for young as compared to old faces, whereas the centro-parietal old/new recognition effect (400-600 ms) suggests an advantage in retrieving episodic information for young faces. The early (<300 ms) neuro-cognitive correlates of the own-age bias in young participants were similar to those of an own-race bias studied previously, suggesting that similar mechanisms underlie these face memory biases. The results are discussed with respect to a perceptual learning account, in which asymmetrical perceptual experience of young and elderly people with faces from different age groups may underlie the differential pattern of own-age effects.