Gradual inversion affects the processing of human body shapes

The present study aimed to investigate the course of behavioral and electrophysiological body inversion effects depending upon the degree of deviation from the upright position (0°, 360°) to the inverted position (180°). Body stimuli were presented either with heads (masked face) or without heads in a delayed matching task. For human bodies presented with and without heads, there was a quadratic relationship between the angle of rotation and the behavioral performance as well as the N170 amplitude, with maximum performance disruption at 180° deviation from the upright stimulus. The data indicate that configural body processing occurs during the structural encoding of body stimuli.