Behavioral and neural markers of social vision

Face To Face ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Research on face perception has revealed highly specialized visual mechanisms such as configural processing, and provided markers of interindividual differences -including disease risks and alterations- in visuoperceptual abilities that traffic in social cognition. Is face perception unique in degree or kind of mechanisms, and in its relevance for social cognition? Combining fMRI and behavioral methods, we address the processing of an uncharted class of socially relevant stimuli: minimal social scenes involving configurations of two bodies spatially close and face-to-face. We report category-specific activity for facing (vs. non-facing) two-body configurations in visual cortex. That activity shows face-like signatures of configural processing -i.e., stronger response and greater susceptibility to stimulus inversion for facing (vs. non-facing) dyads-, and is predicted by performance-based measures of body-dyad perception. Moreover, individual performance in body-dyad perception is reliable, stable-over-time and correlated with the individual social sensitivity, coarsely captured by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient. Further analyses clarify the relationship between single-body and body-dyad perception. We propose that facing dyads are processed with the same high specialization of the most biologically/socially relevant stimuli: faces. Like face perception, facing-dyad perception can provide a measure of basic (visual) processes that lay the foundations for understanding others, their relationships and interactions.

Unmasking Anxiety in Autism: Explicit and Implicit Threat Dissociate Amygdala-centered Functional Connectivity

10.21203/rs.2.20087/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yu-Chun Chen ◽

Chenyi Chen ◽

Chia-Chien Liu ◽

Róger Marcelo Martínez ◽

Yang-Tang Fan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Backward Masking ◽

Threat Processing ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Amygdala Reactivity

Abstract Background Anxiety is the most prevalent comorbidity in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Amygdala reactivity to explicit and implicit threat processing offers a platform to assess anxiety. The neural mechanisms underlying the link between anxiety and ASD remains elusive.Methods In this fMRI study, we recruited young adults with ASD (N = 31) and matched them with controls, then proceeded to assess their autistic and anxiety traits by the use of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), respectively; and scanned their amygdala reactivity in response to explicit and implicit (backward masking) perception of threatening faces.Results As compared to controls, the amygdala reactivity in ASD subjects was significantly reduced to explicit threat, but comparable to implicit threat. The correlations of the amygdala reactivity with the AQ and STAI-S were dissociated depending on threat processing (explicit or implicit). Furthermore, the amygdala in ASD relative to controls had a more negative functional connectivity with the superior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and hippocampus for explicit threat, whereas a more positive connectivity with the medial prefrontal cortex, temporal pole, and hippocampus for implicit threat.Conclusion In ASD, the transmission of socially relevant information along dorsal and ventral neural pathways centered on the amygdala is dissociated depending on explicit and implicit threat processing. This dissociation, ascribed to their failure to compromise pre-existing hyperarousal, might contribute to anxiety in ASD.

Dissociation of early and late face-related processes in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams syndrome

10.1101/2021.04.07.438774 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alice GOMEZ ◽

Guillaume Lio ◽

Manuela Costa ◽

Angela Sirigu ◽

Caroline Demily

Keyword(s):

Face Perception ◽

Williams Syndrome ◽

Time Course ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Evoked Response ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Facial Features ◽

Neuronal Marker ◽

The Face ◽

Socially Relevant

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) are characterized by atypical social interaction and face processing, with opposite profiles. Evoked activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) occurring at 260ms is an eyes-sensitive neuronal marker. Here, we tested whether a double dissociation between these two syndromes is also observed at the cerebral level within faces processing network. Forty-two participants divided into three groups (diagnosed with WS, ASD or without neurodevelopmental disorders) performed a face perception task during a high-density EEG recording. In each trial, a particular area of the face was flashed under the participants fovea. First, using the predefined filter STS at 260ms, we found that the cortical sensitivity of STS to facial features, observed in neurotypical participants1, extended to patients with WS as opposed to patients with ASD. Again, this activity was eyes sensitive. Next, we used spatial regressor of the face cue map and computed, at each time point (without spatial a priori), to what extent the multichannel EEG signal could decode this regressor. We showed that, in contrast to patients with ASD, WS patients and young adults, produce a late (260ms) STS evoked response that is sensitive to socially relevant facial features (such as the eye and mouth). We also showed that the early (170ms) evoked response can be predicted by socially relevant facial features in patients with ASD and controls, but not in WS patients. In patients with WS, the decoding peak occurred only in the late component (at 260 ms) of the EEG, while, for patients with ASD, it occurred preferentially in the early component (at 170 ms). The present study confirms the previous results reported by Lio et al. and extend these findings by dissociating the time course of neural processes involved in face perception in WS and ASD patients. It reveals a dissociation among these two patients groups and suggest that although both syndromes are associated with social disturbances, their impairment at the neural level may have a different origin. These results provide essential evidence for understanding what, where and when neurocomputations are performed in our brain.

Perceived closeness and autistic traits modulate interpersonal vocal communication

10.1101/133066 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Olivia Spinola ◽

T.A. Sumathi ◽

Nandini Chatterjee Singh ◽

Bhismadev Chakrabarti

Keyword(s):

Vocal Communication ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Significant Negative Correlation ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Flexible Tool ◽

Individual Traits ◽

The Individual ◽

The Uk

AbstractVocal modulation is a critical component of interpersonal communication. It not only serves as a dynamic and flexible tool for self-expression and linguistic information but also plays a key role in social behaviour. Variation in vocal modulation can be driven by individual traits of the individual interlocutors, as well as by factors relating to the dyad, such as the perceived closeness between interlocutors. Accordingly, the current study examines the role of a) individual differences in autism-related traits, and b) perceived closeness between interlocutors on vocal modulation. Since lack of appropriate vocal modulation is often associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders we also focus on autism-related individual traits. The role of these individual and dyad-level factors on vocal modulation is tested for cultural generalizability by conducting this study in three separate samples from India, Italy, and the UK. Articulatory features were extracted from recorded conversations between a total of 85 same-sex pairs of participants and correlated with their self-reported perceived closeness (CR) to the other member of the pair and with the individual Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Results indicated a significant positive correlation between interpersonal closeness and articulation area in all three samples. A significant negative correlation between AQ and articulation area was observed only in the UK sample. This study thus provides novel insights into determinants of interpersonal vocal communication and a test of their cultural generalizability.

Emotion Regulation Contagion: Stress Reappraisal Promotes Challenge Responses in Teammates

10.31234/osf.io/bvfk6 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Christopher Oveis ◽

Yumeng Gu ◽

Joseph Manuel Ocampo ◽

Emily J Hangen ◽

Jeremy Jamieson

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Collaborative Work ◽

Peripheral Resistance ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Face To Face ◽

Individual Work ◽

The Face ◽

How does emotion regulation impact teammates? We present data from a dyadic experiment(N=266) that assessed in vivo stress responses in teammates during collaborative (a face-to-face product design task) and then individual work (a product pitch to evaluators). Throughout the experiment, one manipulated teammate reappraised their stress arousal (reappraisal), suppressed their emotional displays (suppression), or received no instructions (control). Their non- manipulated teammate received no instructions. Stress reappraisal benefited both teammates, eliciting challenge-like physiological responses (higher cardiac output, lower total peripheral resistance) relative to the suppression and control conditions. These effects were observed during both face-to-face collaborative work and later individual work. A mediation model suggests that the face-to-face social contagion effects of stress reappraisal fed forward to promote non- manipulated teammates’ improved stress responses during the individual performance task. These findings indicate that non-manipulated teammates exhibited improved stress responses simply by interacting with a person who reappraised their stress as functional.

Differences between and within individuals, and subprocesses of face cognition: implications for theory, research and personnel selection

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.200233 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (9) ◽

pp. 200233

Author(s):

Matthew C. Fysh ◽

Lisa Stacchi ◽

Meike Ramon

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Face Perception ◽

Real World ◽

Personnel Selection ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Screening Tests ◽

Individual Level ◽

Performance Profiles ◽

Recent investigations of individual differences have demonstrated striking variability in performance both within the same subprocess in face cognition (e.g. face perception), but also between two different subprocesses (i.e. face perception versus face recognition ) that are assessed using different tasks (face matching versus face memory ). Such differences between and within individuals between and within laboratory tests raise practical challenges. This applies in particular to the development of screening tests for the selection of personnel in real-world settings where faces are routinely processed, such as at passport control. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the performance profiles of individuals within and across two different subprocesses of face cognition: face perception and face recognition. To this end, 146 individuals completed four different tests of face matching—one novel tool for assessing proficiency in face perception, as well as three established measures—and two benchmark tests of face memory probing face recognition. In addition to correlational analyses, we further scrutinized individual performance profiles of the highest and lowest performing observers identified per test , as well as across all tests . Overall, a number of correlations emerged between tests. However, there was limited evidence at the individual level to suggest that high proficiency in one test generalized to other tests measuring the same subprocess, as well as those that measured a different subprocess. Beyond emphasizing the need to honour inter-individual differences through careful multivariate assessment in the laboratory, our findings have real-world implications: combinations of tests that most accurately map the task(s) and processes of interest are required for personnel selection.

Visual perception grounding of social cognition in preverbal infants

10.31219/osf.io/v7y9x ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Liuba Papeo ◽

Goupi Nicolas ◽

Jean-Rémy Hochmann

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Visual Perception ◽

Social Life ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Relative Positioning ◽

Face To Face ◽

The Social ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Spatial Positioning ◽

Social Entities

Social life is inherently relational, entailing the ability to recognize and monitor not only the social entities in the visual world, but also the relations between those entities. In the first months of life, visual perception already shows to privilege -i.e., to process with the highest priority and efficiency- socially relevant entities such as faces and bodies. Here, we show that within the sixth month of life, infants also discriminate between different configurations of multiple human bodies, based on the internal visuo-spatial relations between bodies, cuing, or not, interaction. We measured the differential looking times between two images of the same body dyad, differing only for the relative spatial positioning of the two bodies. Results showed that infants discriminated between face-to-face and back-to-back body dyads (Experiment 1), and treated face-to-face dyads (but not back-to-back dyads) with the same efficiency (i.e., processing speed) of single bodies (Experiment 2). Looking times for dyads with one body facing another without reciprocation, were comparable to looking times for face-to-face dyads, and differed from looking times to back-to-back dyads, suggesting a general discrimination between presence versus absence of relation (Experiment 3). Infants' discrimination of images based on relative positioning of items was selective to body dyads, and did not generalize to body-object pairs (Experiment 4). We suggest that the infants' early sensitivity to the relative positioning of bodies in a scene is a building block of social cognition, preparing the discovery of the keel and backbone of social life: relations.

Unmasking Anxiety in Autism: Explicit and Implicit Threatening Faces Dissociate Amygdala-centered Functional Connectivity

10.21203/rs.3.rs-15528/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yu-Chun Chen ◽

Chenyi Chen ◽

Chia-Chien Liu ◽

Róger Marcelo Martínez ◽

Yang-Teng Fan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Threat Processing ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Adults With Asd ◽

Amygdala Reactivity

Abstract Background: Anxiety is the most prevalent comorbidity in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Amygdala reactivity to explicit and implicit threat processing is predictive of anxiety-related symptomatology. The neural mechanisms underlying the link between anxiety and ASD remains elusive. Methods: In this fMRI study, we recruited young adults with ASD (N = 31) and matched them with controls, then proceeded to assess their autistic and anxiety traits by the use of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), respectively; and scanned their hemodynamic responses, including amygdala, in response to explicit and implicit (backwardly masked) perception of threatening faces. Results: As compared to controls, the amygdala reactivity in ASD subjects was significantly lower to explicit threat, but comparable for implicit threat. The correlations of the amygdala reactivity with the AQ and STAI-S were dissociated depending on threat processing (explicit or implicit). Furthermore, the amygdala in ASD relative to controls had a more negative functional connectivity with the superior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and hippocampus for explicit threat, whereas a more positive connectivity with the medial prefrontal cortex, temporal pole, and hippocampus for implicit threat. Conclusion: In ASD, the transmission of socially relevant information along dorsal and ventral neural pathways centered on the amygdala is dissociated depending on explicit and implicit threat processing. This dissociation, ascribed to their failure to compromise pre-existing hyperarousal, might contribute to anxiety in ASD.

Emotion regulation in autism: Reappraisal and suppression interactions

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361318774558 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 737-749 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ru Ying Cai ◽

Amanda L Richdale ◽

Cheryl Dissanayake ◽

Julian Trollor ◽

Mirko Uljarević

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Well Being ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Strategy Use ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Psychological Well Being ◽

Patient Health ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategy ◽

Emotion regulation has been proposed to be a transdiagnostic factor in the development and maintenance of psychopathology in the general population, yet the nature of the relationships between emotion regulation strategy use and psychological well-being has not been comprehensively explored in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to assess how the individual differences in self-reported emotion regulation strategy use relate to levels of both positive and negative psychological well-being. In total, 56 individuals with ASD aged 14–24 years (Mage = 18.15; SDage = 2.30) completed Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 Generalized Anxiety Disorder Dimensional Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and Autism-Spectrum Quotient – Short. Individuals were grouped into four clusters based on their Emotion Regulation Questionnaire subscale scores. Individuals in the high suppression and low reappraisal group expressed higher depressive symptoms and lower positive well-being when compared with the low suppression and high reappraisal group. Interestingly, individuals who self-reported using both high suppression and reappraisal expressed relatively high positive well-being and low depression symptoms. We suggest that the maladaptive effect of habitual suppression usage may be buffered by the habitual use of reappraisal, and this interaction between adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use has clinical implications.

Unmasking Anxiety in Autism: Explicit and Implicit Threatening Face Stimuli Dissociate Amygdala-centered Functional Connectivity

10.1101/2020.03.24.005272 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yu-Chun Chen ◽

Chenyi Chen ◽

Róger Marcelo Martínez ◽

Yang-Tang Fan ◽

Chia-Chien Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Threat Processing ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Face Stimuli ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Amygdala Reactivity

ABSTRACTBackgroundAnxiety is the most prevalent comorbidity in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Amygdala reactivity to explicit and implicit threat processing is predictive of anxiety-related symptomatology. The neural mechanisms underlying the link between anxiety and ASD remains elusive.MethodsIn this fMRI study, we recruited young adults with ASD (N = 31) and matched them with controls, then proceeded to assess their autistic and anxiety traits by the use of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), respectively; and scanned their hemodynamic responses, including amygdala, in response to explicit and implicit (backwardly masked) perception of threatening faces.ResultsAs compared to controls, the amygdala reactivity in ASD subjects was significantly lower to explicit threat, but comparable for implicit threat. The correlations of the amygdala reactivity with the AQ and STAI-S were dissociated depending on threat processing (explicit or implicit). Furthermore, the amygdala in ASD relative to controls had a more negative functional connectivity with the superior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and hippocampus for explicit threat, whereas a more positive connectivity with the medial prefrontal cortex, temporal pole, and hippocampus for implicit threat.ConclusionIn ASD, the transmission of socially relevant information along dorsal and ventral neural pathways centered on the amygdala is dissociated depending on explicit and implicit threat processing. This dissociation, ascribed to their failure to compromise pre-existing hyperarousal, might contribute to anxiety in ASD.