scholarly journals Different Top-Down Goals Modulate Early Stage of Attention Bias: Irrelevant Task Suppresses the N170 of Automatic Attention Allocation to Threat Faces

Author(s):  
Haoran Dou ◽  
Limei Liang ◽  
Jie Ma ◽  
Jiachen Lu ◽  
Wenhai Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Recent research has evidenced that stimulus-driven attention bias for threat can be modulated by top-down goals. However, it remains unclear how different top-down goals affect the early stage of attention processing and its early neural mechanism. We collected electroencephalographic data from 28 healthy volunteers during four inconsistent levels in a modified spatial cueing task according to cue validity and task relevance. Our data revealed that reaction time(RT) to the target in the irrelevant task were much slower than that in the relevant task. In the irrelevant task, we did not find the difference between the RTs to the fearful and neutral face. In the relevant task, we found RTs of fearful face were faster than that of neutral face in valid cue condition(weak inconsistent level), whereas the RTs of fearful face were slower than that of neutral face in invalid cue condition(medium inconsistent level). The ERPs results showed that in relevant task(weak, medium inconsistent levels), fearful face in cue position of the target evoked larger N170 amplitudes than neutral face did, whereas this effect was suppressed in irrelevant task(strong, very strong inconsistent levels). Besides, fearful face in cue position of the target also evoked larger vertex positive potential (VPP) amplitudes than the neutral face did in valid cue condition( weak inconsistent level). These results suggest that irrelevant task may inhibit the early attention allocation to the fearful face. Furthermore, the top-down processing modulates the early attention bias for threatening faces.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoran Dou ◽  
Limei Liang ◽  
Jie Ma ◽  
Jiachen Lu ◽  
Wenhai Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent researches have provided evidence that stimulus-driven attentional bias for threats can be modulated by top-down goals. However, it is highlight essential to indicate whether and to what extent the top-down goals can affect the early stage of attention processing and its early neural mechanism. In this study, we collected electroencephalographic data from 28 healthy volunteers with a modified spatial cueing task. The results revealed that in the irrelevant task, there was no significant difference between the reaction time (RT) of the fearful and neutral faces. In the relevant task, we found that RT of fearful faces was faster than that of neutral faces in the valid cue condition, whereas the RT of fearful faces was slower than that of neutral faces in the invalid cue condition. The N170 component in our study showed a similar result compared with RT. Specifically, we noted that in the relevant task, fearful faces in the cue position of the target evoked a larger N170 amplitude than neutral faces, whereas this effect was suppressed in the irrelevant task. These results suggest that the irrelevant task may inhibit the early attention allocation to the fearful faces. Furthermore, the top-down goals can modulate the early attentional bias for threatening facial expressions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-256
Author(s):  
Kelsie A. Boulton ◽  
Melanie A. Porter

AbstractThere is evidence that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show an attention bias toward positive social-perceptual (happy) faces. Research has not yet considered whether this attention bias extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli to perceptually neutral stimuli that are paired with positive (trustworthy) biographical information. Fourteen participants with WS (mean age = 21 years, 1 month) learned to associate perceptually neutral faces with trustworthy (positive), neutral, or untrustworthy (negative) biographical information, before completing a dot-probe task where the same biographical faces were presented. The performance of the WS group was compared to two typically developing control groups, individually matched to the WS individuals on chronological age and mental age, respectively. No between-group bias toward untrustworthy characters was observed. The WS group displayed a selective attention bias toward trustworthy characters compared to both control groups (who did not show such a bias). Results support previous findings that indicate WS individuals show a preference for positive social-perceptual stimuli (happy faces) at the neurological, physiological, and attentional levels. The current findings extend this work to include a “top-down” positive bias. The implications of a positive bias that extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli (or “bottom-up” processes) in this syndrome are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolei Xu ◽  
Jialin Li ◽  
Zhuo Chen ◽  
Keith M. Kendrick ◽  
Benjamin Becker

AbstractThe neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) may facilitate attention to social stimuli by influencing early stage bottom-up processing although findings in relation to different emotional expressions are inconsistent and its influence on top-down cognitive processing mechanisms unclear. In the current double-blind, placebo (PLC) controlled, between subject design study we therefore recruited 71 male subjects to investigate the effects of intranasal OXT (24IU) on both bottom-up attention allocation and top-down attention inhibition using a visual antisaccade paradigm with concurrent eye movement acquisition. Our results show that OXT increased antisaccade errors for social stimuli (all types of emotional faces), but not shapes. This effect of OXT was modulated by trait behavioral inhibition and there was also evidence for reduced state anxiety after OXT treatment. Antisaccades are under volitional control and therefore this indicates that OXT treatment produced reduced top-down inhibition. However, the overall findings are consistent with OXT acting to reduce top-down control of attention as a result of increasing bottom-up early attentional processing of social, but not non-social, stimuli in situations where the two systems are in potential conflict. This effect of OXT is also modulated by individual levels of trait behavioral inhibition possibly as a result of an anxiolytic action.


Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 821-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bertamini ◽  
Alessandro Soranzo

Human observers make errors when predicting what is visible in a mirror. This is true for perception with real mirrors as well as for reasoning about mirrors shown in diagrams. We created an illustration of a room, a top-down view, with a mirror on a wall and objects (nails) on the opposite wall. The task was to select which nails were visible in the mirror from a given position (viewpoint). To study the importance of the social nature of the viewpoint, we divided the sample ( N = 108) in two groups. One group ( n = 54) were tested with a scene in which there was the image of a person. The other group ( n = 54) were tested with the same scene but with a camera replacing the person. Participants were instructed to think about what would be captured by a camera on a tripod. This manipulation tests the effect of social perspective-taking in reasoning about mirrors. As predicted, performance on the task shows an overestimation of what can be seen in a mirror and a bias to underestimate the role of the different viewpoints, that is, a tendency to treat the mirror as if it captures information independently of viewpoint. In terms of the comparison between person and camera, there were more errors for the camera, suggesting an advantage for evaluating a human viewpoint as opposed to an artificial viewpoint. We suggest that social mechanisms may be involved in perspective-taking in reasoning rather than in automatic attention allocation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
José Luis Marcos ◽  
Azahara Marcos

Abstract. The aim of this study was to determine if contingency awareness between the conditioned (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) is necessary for concurrent electrodermal and eyeblink conditioning to masked stimuli. An angry woman’s face (CS+) and a fearful face (CS−) were presented for 23 milliseconds (ms) and followed by a neutral face as a mask. A 98 dB noise burst (US) was administered 477 ms after CS+ offset to elicit both electrodermal and eyeblink responses. For the unmasking conditioning a 176 ms blank screen was inserted between the CS and the mask. Contingency awareness was assessed using trial-by-trial ratings of US-expectancy in a post-conditioning phase. The results showed acquisition of differential electrodermal and eyeblink conditioning in aware, but not in unaware participants. Acquisition of differential eyeblink conditioning required more trials than electrodermal conditioning. These results provided strong evidence of the causal role of contingency awareness on differential eyeblink and electrodermal conditioning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Wilkinson ◽  
Daniel G. D. Nixon ◽  
Jared Palmer ◽  
Courtney J. Lightfoot ◽  
Alice C. Smith

Abstract Background Those living with kidney disease (KD) report extensive symptom burden. However, research into how symptoms change across stages is limited. The aims of this study were to 1) describe symptom burden across disease trajectory, and 2) to explore whether symptom burden is unique to KD when compared to a non-KD population. Methods Participants aged > 18 years with a known diagnosis of KD (including haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD)) and with a kidney transplant) completed the Leicester Kidney Symptom Questionnaire (KSQ). A non-KD group was recruited as a comparative group. Multinominal logistic regression modelling was used to test the difference in likelihood of those with KD reporting each symptom. Results In total, 2279 participants were included in the final analysis (age 56.0 (17.8) years, 48% male). The main findings can be summarised as: 1) the number of symptoms increases as KD severity progresses; 2) those with early stage KD have a comparable number of symptoms to those without KD; 3) apart from those receiving PD, the most frequently reported symptom across every other group, including the non-KD group, was ‘feeling tired’; and 4) being female independently increased the likelihood of reporting more symptoms. Conclusions Our findings have important implications for patients with KD. We have shown that high symptom burden is prevalent across the spectrum of disease, and present novel data on symptoms experienced in those without KD. Symptoms requiring the most immediate attention given their high prevalence may include pain and fatigue. Trial registration The study was registered prospectively as ISRCTN11596292.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (sup1) ◽  
pp. 50-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Stenlid ◽  
A. J. Johansson ◽  
C. Leygraf ◽  
T. Brinck

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Jiehui Zheng ◽  
Shenwei Huang ◽  
Haoye Sun

Our study aims to contrast the neural temporal features of early stage of decision making in the context of risk and ambiguity. In monetary gambles under ambiguous or risky conditions, 12 participants were asked to make a decision to bet or not, with the event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded meantime. The proportion of choosing to bet in ambiguous condition was significantly lower than that in risky condition. An ERP component identified as P300 was found. The P300 amplitude elicited in risky condition was significantly larger than that in ambiguous condition. The lower bet rate in ambiguous condition and the smaller P300 amplitude elicited by ambiguous stimuli revealed that people showed much more aversion in the ambiguous condition than in the risky condition. The ERP results may suggest that decision making under ambiguity occupies higher working memory and recalls more past experience while decision making under risk mainly mobilizes attentional resources to calculate current information. These findings extended the current understanding of underlying mechanism for early assessment stage of decision making and explored the difference between the decision making under risk and ambiguity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling-Yu Chu ◽  
Jian-Yuan Zhou ◽  
Yi-Xuan Zhao ◽  
Yan-Ting Ou ◽  
Tian Yang ◽  
...  

Background:Esophagogastric junction tumor (EGJ) is a rare but fatal disease with a rapid rising incidence worldwide in the late 20 years, and it lacks a convenient and safe method for diagnosis. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of serum CYR61 as a biomarker for the diagnosis of EGJ tumor. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to estimate CYR61 levels in sera of 152 EGJ tumor patients and 137 normal controls. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy. The Mann–Whitney’s U test was used to compare the difference of serum levels of CYR61 between groups. And chi-square tests were employed to estimate the correlation of the positive rate of serum CYR61 between/among subgroups. Results: Serum CYR61 levels were statistically lower in EGJ tumor and early-stage EGJ tumor patients than those in normal controls (P<0.0001). The sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the curve (AUC) of this biomarker in EGJ tumor were 88.2%, 43.8% and 0.691, respectively, and those for early stage of EGJ tumor were 80.0%, 66.4% and 0.722, respectively. Analyses showed that there was no correlation between the clinical data and the levels of CYR61 (P>0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that CYR61 might be a potential biomarker to assist the diagnosis of EGJ tumor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Lussi Agustin ◽  
Moh. Yusron Solikin ◽  
Zunairoh .

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis seberapa maksimal proses kebijakan retrukturisasi Kredit UMKM dalam Pemulihan Ekonomi di Masa Pandemi Covid-19. Kondisi perekonomian global sedang mengalami goncangan hebat akibat mewabahnya Covid-19. Dampak dari pandemic ini sangat mempengaruhi segala aspek terutama pada kondisi Kesehatan dan perekonomian suatu negara, tidak terkecuali Indonesia. Secara keseluruhan, hampir semua sektor industry mengalami goncangan dan tidak terkecuali sektor UMKM. Maka dari itu dikeluarkanlah kebijakan retrukturisasi Kredit UMKM guna mendorong optimalisasi fungsi intermediasi pada perbankan dan menjaga stabilitas sistem keuangan serta mendukung pertumbuhan perekonomian. Program restrukturisasi kredit menjadi program dari OJK yang dapat diterapkan oleh perbankan kepada UMKM. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif dengan menggunakan studi empiris dari penelitian terdahulu serta peraturan-peraturan terkait dengan restrukturisasi kredit yang dikeluarkan oleh Otoritas Jasa Keuangan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa implementasi kebijakan restrukturisai kredit bagi UMKM sudah berjalan dan digunakan oleh para pelaku UMKM. Kemudian berdasarkan implementasinya kebijakan ini merupakan kebijakan top-down dimana memerlukan banyak Lembaga untuk bekerja sama dan keputusan berasal dari Peraturan pemerintah baru di teruskan ke Lembaga-lembaga lain di bawahnya hingga informasinya sampai dan bisa dirasakan oleh para UMKM.  This research aims to analyze the policy of restructuring SMEs Credit in Economic Recovery during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The global economy is experiencing severe shocks due to the outbreak of Covid-19. The impact of this pandemic greatly affects all aspects, especially on the health and economic condition of a country, not least Indonesia. Overall, almost all industry sectors are experiencing shocks and are no exception to the SMEs sector. Therefore, the policy of restructuring SMEs Credit was issued to encourage optimization of intermediation function in banking and maintain the financial system stability and support economic growth. Credit restructuring program becomes a program from OJK that can be applied by banks to SMEs. The method used in this research is a qualitative method using empirical studies from previous research as well as regulations related to credit restructuring issued by the Financial Services Authority. The results of this research show that the implementation of credit restructuring policy for SMEs is already running and used by SMEs. Then based on the difference in implementation of this policy is a top-down policy that requires many Institutions to cooperate and decisions derived from the new government regulations are forwarded to other institutions under it until the information reaches and can be felt by SMEs.


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