DISCUSSION

The results can be summarized in the following way: firstly, neither age nor gender processing had an effect on the amplitude of the occipito-temporal N170 ERP component. Secondly, ERPs between 145 and 185 msec were similarly affected at fronto-central sites in the three age or gender processing conditions compared to the No-discrimination condition. Thirdly, longer-latency effects (215-400 msec) were found on the occipito-parietal regions when the subjects had to explicitly process the faces according to their age or their gender. Finally, early differential ERP effects (around 45-90 msec) were still observed in all three discrimination conditions compared to the No-discrimination condition. These various results will be discussed separately below.