Testing category-specific spatial frequency adaptation

Abstract

This study examined representational overlap between faces and scenes by means of spatial frequency adaptation. The results show that adaptation to faces and scenes in either low or high spatial frequencies affect the subsequent perception of a face hybrid or a scene hybrid (consisting of low and high spatial frequencies) in different ways: for face hybrids, the spatial frequency of the adaptor is more important, while low spatial frequency faces and high spatial frequency scenes cause more perception of low spatial frequency scenes for scene hybrids. This research provides insight for using spatial frequency adaptation to explore the overlap between face processing and other object processing, specifically processing for objects of expertise.