Eye contact modulates facial mimicry in 4-month-old infants: an EMG and fNIRS study

Mimicry, the tendency to spontaneously and unconsciously copy others’ behaviour, plays an important role in social interactions. It facilitates rapport between strangers, and is flexibly modulated by social signals, such as eye contact. However, little is known about the development of this phenomenon in infancy, and it is unknown whether mimicry is modulated by social signals from early in life. Here we addressed this question by presenting 4-month-old infants with videos of models performing facial actions (e.g. mouth opening, eyebrow raising) and hand actions (e.g. hand opening and closing, finger actions) accompanied by direct or averted gaze, while we measured their facial and hand muscle responses using electromyography to obtain an index of mimicry (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 the infants observed the same stimuli while we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate the brain regions involved in modulating mimicry by eye contact. We found that 4-month-olds only showed evidence of mimicry when they observed facial actions accompanied by direct gaze. Experiment 2 suggests that this selective facial mimicry may have been associated with activation over posterior superior temporal sulcus. These findings provide the first demonstration of modulation of mimicry by social signals in young human infants, and suggest that mimicry plays an important role in social interactions from early in life.

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Selective facial mimicry of native over foreign speakers in preverbal infants

10.31234/osf.io/rn8hb ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Carina de Klerk ◽

Chiara Bulgarelli ◽

Antonia Hamilton ◽

Victoria Southgate

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Mouth Opening ◽

First Year ◽

Group Status ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Facial Mimicry ◽

Group Members ◽

Foreign Speakers ◽

First Year Of Life ◽

Preverbal Infants

Mimicry, the spontaneous copying of others’ behaviours, plays an important role in social affiliation, with adults selectively mimicking in-group over out-group members. Despite infants’ early documented sensitivity to, and preference for, in-group members, previous work suggests that it is not until 4 years of age that spontaneous mimicry is modulated by group status. Here we demonstrate that mimicry is sensitive to cues to group membership at a much earlier age, if the cues presented are more relevant to infants. 11-month-old infants observed videos of facial actions (e.g. mouth opening, eyebrow raising) performed by models who either spoke their native language or an unfamiliar foreign language, while we measured activation of their mouth and eyebrow muscle regions using electromyography to obtain an index of mimicry. We simultaneously used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying differential mimicry responses. We found that infants showed greater facial mimicry of the native compared to the foreign speaker, and that mimicry regulation was associated with activation over the left temporal parietal cortex. These findings provide the first demonstration of the modulation of facial mimicry by linguistic group status in preverbal infants, and suggest that the tendency to mimic in-group over out-group members is present from as early as the first year of life.

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Comparison of Activation in the Prefrontal Cortex of Native Speakers of Mandarin by Ability of Japanese as a Second Language Using a Novel Speaking Task

Healthcare ◽

10.3390/healthcare9040412 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 412

Author(s):

Li Cong ◽

Hideki Miyaguchi ◽

Chinami Ishizuki

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Brain Activation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Strong Inhibition ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

High Level

Evidence shows that second language (L2) learning affects cognitive function. Here in this work, we compared brain activation in native speakers of Mandarin (L1) who speak Japanese (L2) between and within two groups (high and low L2 ability) to determine the effect of L2 ability in L1 and L2 speaking tasks, and to map brain regions involved in both tasks. The brain activation during task performance was determined using prefrontal cortex blood flow as a proxy, measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). People with low L2 ability showed much more brain activation when speaking L2 than when speaking L1. People with high L2 ability showed high-level brain activation when speaking either L2 or L1. Almost the same high-level brain activation was observed in both ability groups when speaking L2. The high level of activation in people with high L2 ability when speaking either L2 or L1 suggested strong inhibition of the non-spoken language. A wider area of brain activation in people with low compared with high L2 ability when speaking L2 is considered to be attributed to the cognitive load involved in code-switching L1 to L2 with strong inhibition of L1 and the cognitive load involved in using L2.

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Genetic variation in the oxytocin system and its link to social motivation in human infants

10.31234/osf.io/hb4qu ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kathleen Marie Krol ◽

Nauder Namaky ◽

Mikhail Monakhov ◽

Poh San Lai ◽

Richard Ebstein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Variation ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Social Motivation ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Brain Asymmetry ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Human Infants ◽

Frontal Asymmetry ◽

Frontal Brain ◽

The Individual

Introduction. Variability in the motivation to approach or withdraw from others displayed in infancy is thought to have long-term effects on human social development. Frontal brain asymmetry has been linked to motivational processes in infants and adults, with greater left frontal asymmetry reflecting motivation to approach and greater right frontal asymmetry reflecting motivation to withdraw. We examined the hypothesis that variability in infants’ social motivation is linked to genetic variation in the endogenous oxytocin system. Specifically, we measured infants’ frontal brain asymmetry and later looking preferences to smiling and frowning individuals and assayed a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the CD38 gene (rs3796863) linked to autism spectrum disorder and reduced peripheral oxytocin levels. Methods. 77 11-month-old infants’ (36 female) brain responses were measured via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while viewing four individuals display either smiles or frowns directed toward or away from them. This was followed by a person preference test using eyetracking. Results. Frontal brain asymmetry patterns evoked by direct-gaze faces significantly differed as a function of CD38 genotype. Specifically, while non-risk A-allele carriers displayed greater left lateralization to smiling faces (approach) and greater right lateralization to frowning faces (withdrawal), infants with the CC (ASD risk) genotype displayed withdrawal from smiling faces. During eyetracking, A-allele carriers showed a heightened preference for the individual who smiled, while CC infants preferred the individual who frowned.Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that, from early in human ontogeny, genetic variation in the oxytocin system is linked to variability in brain and behavioral markers of social motivation.

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A Review of Hyperscanning and Its Use in Virtual Environments

Informatics ◽

10.3390/informatics7040055 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 55

Author(s):

Amit Barde ◽

Ihshan Gumilar ◽

Ashkan F. Hayati ◽

Arindam Dey ◽

Gun Lee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽

Remote Collaboration ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Interaction Domain ◽

Dramatic Rise ◽

Research Domains

Hyperscanning is a technique which simultaneously records the neural activity of two or more people. This is done using one of several neuroimaging methods, such as electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The use of hyperscanning has seen a dramatic rise in recent years to monitor social interactions between two or more people. Similarly, there has been an increase in the use of virtual reality (VR) for collaboration, and an increase in the frequency of social interactions being carried out in virtual environments (VE). In light of this, it is important to understand how interactions function within VEs, and how they can be enhanced to improve their quality in a VE. In this paper, we present some of the work that has been undertaken in the field of social neuroscience, with a special emphasis on hyperscanning. We also cover the literature detailing the work that has been carried out in the human–computer interaction domain that addresses remote collaboration. Finally, we present a way forward where these two research domains can be combined to explore how monitoring the neural activity of a group of participants in VE could enhance collaboration among them.

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A prosocial character of head-gaze aversion in common marmosets

10.1101/2021.06.28.450151 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Silvia Spadacenta ◽

Peter W Dicke ◽

Peter Thier

Keyword(s):

Mammalian Species ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Striking Similarity ◽

Human Infants ◽

Common Marmosets ◽

Gaze Aversion ◽

Face To Face ◽

Direct Gaze ◽

Video Footage ◽

The Gaze

Gaze aversion is a behavior adopted by several mammalian and non-mammalian species in response to eye contact and usually interpreted as reaction to perceived threat. Unlike many other primates, common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are thought to have high tolerance for direct gaze, barely exhibiting gaze avoidance towards conspecifics and humans. Here we show that this does not hold for marmosets interacting with a familiar experimenter who suddenly establishes eye contact in a playful interaction (peek-a-boo game). In video footage synchronously recorded from the two agents, we found that our monkeys consistently alternated between eye contact and head-gaze aversion. The striking similarity with the gaze aversion dynamics exhibited by human infants interacting with their caregivers suggests a shared behavioral strategy to disengage temporarily from overwhelming social stimulation, in order to prepare for a new round of rewarding, affiliative face-to-face interaction. The potential of our finding for a marmoset model of autism is discussed.

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Optical Mapping of Brain Activity Underlying Directionality and Its Modulation by Expertise in Mandarin/English Interpreting

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.649578 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Yan He ◽

Yinying Hu ◽

Yaxi Yang ◽

Defeng Li ◽

Yi Hu

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Broca’S Area ◽

Broca's Area ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

The Right

Recent neuroimaging research has suggested that unequal cognitive efforts exist between interpreting from language 1 (L1) to language 2 (L2) compared with interpreting from L2 to L1. However, the neural substrates that underlie this directionality effect are not yet well understood. Whether directionality is modulated by interpreting expertise also remains unknown. In this study, we recruited two groups of Mandarin (L1)/English (L2) bilingual speakers with varying levels of interpreting expertise and asked them to perform interpreting and reading tasks. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to collect cortical brain data for participants during each task, using 68 channels that covered the prefrontal cortex and the bilateral perisylvian regions. The interpreting-related neuroimaging data was normalized by using both L1 and L2 reading tasks, to control the function of reading and vocalization respectively. Our findings revealed the directionality effect in both groups, with forward interpreting (from L1 to L2) produced more pronounced brain activity, when normalized for reading. We also found that directionality was modulated by interpreting expertise in both normalizations. For the group with relatively high expertise, the activated brain regions included the right Broca’s area and the left premotor and supplementary motor cortex; whereas for the group with relatively low expertise, the activated brain areas covered the superior temporal gyrus, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the Broca’s area, and visual area 3 in the right hemisphere. These findings indicated that interpreting expertise modulated brain activation, possibly because of more developed cognitive skills associated with executive functions in experienced interpreters.

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Neural responses to happy, fearful and angry faces of varying identities in 5- and 7-month-old infants

10.1101/2020.04.07.030395 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Laurie Bayet ◽

Katherine L. Perdue ◽

Hannah F. Behrendt ◽

John E. Richards ◽

Alissa Westerlund ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Neural Activation ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Facial Identity ◽

Fearful Faces ◽

Infancy And Early Childhood

AbstractFacial emotion processing is an important social skill that develops throughout infancy and early childhood. Here we investigate the neural underpinnings of the ability to process facial emotion across changes in facial identity in cross-sectional groups of 5- and 7-month-old infants. We simultaneously measured neural metabolic, behavioral, and autonomic responses to happy, fearful, and angry faces of different female models using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), eye-tracking, and heart rate measures. We observed significant neural activation to these facial emotions in a distributed set of frontal and temporal brain regions, and longer looking to the mouth region of angry faces compared to happy and fearful faces. No differences in looking behavior or neural activations were observed between 5- and 7-month-olds, although several exploratory, age-independent associations between neural activations and looking behavior were noted. Overall, these findings suggest more developmental stability than previously thought in responses to emotional facial expressions of varying identities between 5- and 7-months of age.

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Neural correlates of newsvendor-based decision making in the human brain: An exploratory study to link neuroeconomics with neuroimaging using fNIRS

10.1101/2020.02.08.940197 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hashini Wanniarachchi ◽

Yan Lang ◽

Xinlong Wang ◽

Sridhar Nerur ◽

Kay-Yut Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Human Subjects ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Profit Margin ◽

Risky Decision ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Cortical Regions

AbstractNeuroeconomics with neuroimaging is a novel approach involving economics and neuroscience. The newsvendor problem (NP) is a prevalent economics concept that may be used to map brain activations during NP-evoked risky decision making. In this study, we hypothesized that key brain regions responsible for NP are dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Twenty-seven human subjects participated in the study using 40 NP trials; the participants were randomly assigned to a group with a low-profit margin (LM) or high-profit margin (HM) treatment. Cerebral hemodynamic responses were recorded simultaneously during the NP experiments from all participants with a 77-channel functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. After data preprocessing, general linear model was applied to generate brain activation maps, followed by statistical t-tests. The results showed that: (a) DLPFC and OFC were significantly evoked by NP versus baseline regardless of treatment types; (b) DLPFC and OFC were activated by HM versus baseline; and (c) DLPFC was activated during LM versus baseline. Furthermore, significant deactivation in right DLPFC was shown due to LM with respect to HM. This study affirms that DLPFC and OFC are two key cortical regions when solving NP. In particular, right DLPFC was found to be more deactivated under challenging risk decision making.

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Reforming Sectarian Beliefs in Iraq: Winning the Peace

Communication Society and Media ◽

10.22158/csm.v4n1p8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. p8

Author(s):

Michael Oler ◽

Anthony Johnson ◽

Anna McCulloh ◽

Munqith Dagher ◽

Anita Day ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Public Perception ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Frontal Pole ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Imaging Device ◽

Neural Imaging ◽

The Right

Sectarian violence continues in Iraq affecting regional and world security. Neuroscience techniques are used to assess the mentalizing process and counter-arguing in response to videos designed to prevent extremist radicalization. Measurement of neural activity in brain Regions of Interest (ROI) assists identification of messages which can promote favorable behavior. Activation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC) is associated with message adoption and behavior change. Public Service Announcements (PSAs) have not been effective in reducing violence in Iraq. This study demonstrates that the four PSAs investigated in this study do not activate the MPFC. The RLPFC is a brain ROI associated with counter-arguing and message resistance. This study demonstrates that reduction in activity in the Right Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (RLPFC) is associated with decreased sectarianism. Engagement was measured and is associated with activity in the frontal pole regions.We introduce Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the neural activity of highly sectarian Iraqis in response to these anti-sectarian messages. Neural activity was measured while viewing three PSAs and a fourth unpublished video. All four videos are intended to reduce sectarianism. A novel sectarianism scale is introduced to measure sectarian beliefs before and after the messages. This sectarian scale has high internal consistency as measured by Cronbach’s alpha. Measured activation of brain ROIs are correlated with changes in the sectarian scale. Twelve Sunni and twelve Shi’a Iraqis participated in the study. Subjects were shown the four videos in randomized order, while equipped with a fNIRS neural imaging device. All four videos produced significant engagement. None of the videos reduced sectarianism nor caused brain activation of adoption. This is consistent with the widely held Iraqi public perception that the PSAs are ineffective. Only one video, which was un-published, caused reduced sectarian beliefs. This un-published fourth video was associated with decreased counter-arguing. Counter-arguing is associated with message resistance.

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Improving Emotion Regulation Through Real-Time Neurofeedback Training on the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex: Evidence From Behavioral and Brain Network Analyses

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.620342 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Linlin Yu ◽

Quanshan Long ◽

Yancheng Tang ◽

Shouhang Yin ◽

Zijun Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Real Time ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Network Analyses ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal

We investigated if emotion regulation can be improved through self-regulation training on non-emotional brain regions, as well as how to change the brain networks implicated in this process. During the training period, the participants were instructed to up-regulate their right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) activity according to real-time functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neurofeedback signals, and there was no emotional element. The results showed that the training significantly increased emotion regulation, resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within the emotion regulation network (ERN) and frontoparietal network (FPN), and rsFC between the ERN and amygdala; however, training did not influence the rsFC between the FPN and the amygdala. However, self-regulation training on rDLPFC significantly improved emotion regulation and generally increased the rsFCs within the networks; the rsFC between the ERN and amygdala was also selectively increased. The present study also described a safe approach that may improve emotion regulation through self-regulation training on non-emotional brain regions.

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