Kim Curby & Isabel Gauthier
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Abstract
Face and car expertise recruit common extrastriate regions. However they could rely on a common system
or functionally independent systems within these areas. Functional overlap should result in interference in
car experts when both abilities are engaged simultaneously. Eighteen car experts and 17 novices
performed a two-back sequential part-matching task with cars and faces interleaved. Holistic processing
for faces was measured in the context of two car conditions: a normal and a modified configuration.
Increased holistic processing for cars led to decreased holistic processing for faces. This interference was
positively correlated with an independent measure of car expertise. This suggests functional overlap of the
neural networks for face and car expertise, rather then the mere proximity of two independent
mechanisms.