Age-related differences in processing face configuration: the importance of the eye region.

OBJECTIVES: Recent research suggests that older adults have difficulties with aspects of configural face processing. The present study examined whether age-related declines in sensitivity to configural face information are dependent on the face region in which configural changes occur.
METHOD: Younger and older adults completed a face-matching task that required the detection of configural manipulations to either the eye or the mouth regions of target faces.
RESULTS: Age-related declines in the ability to detect configural changes were found when the eye region of the face was modified. Importantly, no age-related differences were evident when perceiving similar changes to the mouth region. DISCUSSION: Taken together, these findings suggest that age-related differences in sensitivity to configural information are specific to the eye region of the face. The potential implications of these findings for age-related difficulties in interpreting social cues from the eyes are discussed.