Fast face recognition: Eye blink as a reliable behavioral response

To investigate how quickly we can recognize faces, we used the onset of eye blinking as a behavioral response. The mean reaction time for the blink response was 188 ± 38 ms which was 80 ms faster than the motor response. As expected, the subjects were more correct and faster to distinguish between faces and houses than when responding to particular face emotion and identity. Our results suggested that early visual processing before 150 ms is very important in face processing. This corroborates previous reports from EEG/MEG studies and intracranial recordings on the face-related response around 100 ms after stimulus onset. Our findings indicated that blinking can be used as a fast and reliable behavioral response.

► Eye blinks can be used as fast and reliable behavioral measure.
► The blink response was 80 ms faster than the motor response.
► Subjects sometimes recognized face identity and emotion even before 170 ms.