We investigated hemispheric asymmetries in face processing using a task in which
participants judged the likeness of chimeric faces to their own face and to the
face of a close friend based on their memory for those faces. When asked to
choose which of two mirror-symmetric images (one made from the left half and one
from the right half of a photograph of their face) looked more like themselves
as remembered, participants showed a significant bias for the composite
corresponding to the half face that ties in their right visual field when they
look at themselves in the mirror. They showed the opposite bias when asked to
make the same choice for images of a close friend, that is, they showed a
significant bias for the composite corresponding to the half face that lies in
their left visual field when they look at their friend. This result shows that
in the case of these highly familiar faces-self and friend-the perceptual
asymmetry is preserved in the memory representation. Assuming that people
remember their own face as a mirror-image, the data also suggest a dissociation
in face processing such that the left brain is dominant for the recognition of
self and the right brain is dominant for the recognition of others.