doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00854 Aftereffects in face processing

The original aim of this special issue was to use aftereffects to highlight the different cognitive, perceptual, and neural represen-tations of unfamiliar and familiar faces. Face aftereffects occur due to prolonged exposure to an adaptor face that causes a test face to take on the “opposite ” characteristics (e.g., a normal face will appear compressed following adaptation to an expanded face, Webster and MacLin, 1999). The resulting papers went beyond this aim and have demonstrated the extensive poten-tial for theoretical advancement that research on aftereffects can create. Within the papers contained in this research topic is a highly informative review article. Strobach and Carbon (2013) have highlighted three dimensions that can be used as a framework to consider face aftereffects: adapting information (the type of adapting feature); temporal facets (including the duration tha