The visual N1 sink1 to words is strongly left-lateralized in healthy adults, with a maximum over the inferior lateral-parietal scalp locations (e.g., sites P7 and P9 of the extended 10–20 system over visual object processing regions along the occipitotemporal ventral stream; Ungerleider & Haxby, 1994; cf. Kayser et al., 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010), and this distinct left-larger-than-right N1 sink asymmetry is also seen for nose-referenced ERPs (Kayser et al., 1999; Kayser, Fong, Tenke, & Bruder, 2003). In contrast, the visual N1 sink to faces is less asymmetric with a right-parietal maximum (Kayser et al., 2010) and corresponds to the face-sensitive N170 component (e.g., Rossion & Jacques, 2008). These lateralized N1 sinks are likely associated with the structural processing of words (visual word form area; e.g., Cohen et al., 2000) or faces (fusiform face area; e.g., Halgren, Raij, Marinkovic, Jousmaki, & Hari, 2000) involving inferior occipital-temporal regions (e.g., fusiform gyrus).
