Early Right Motor Cortex Response to Happy and Fearful Facial Expressions: A TMS Motor-Evoked Potential Study

The ability to rapidly process others’ emotional signals is crucial for adaptive social interactions. However, to date it is still unclear how observing emotional facial expressions affects the reactivity of the human motor cortex. To provide insights on this issue, we employed single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate corticospinal motor excitability. Healthy participants observed happy, fearful and neutral pictures of facial expressions while receiving TMS over the left or right motor cortex at 150 and 300 ms after picture onset. In the early phase (150 ms), we observed an enhancement of corticospinal excitability for the observation of happy and fearful emotional faces compared to neutral expressions specifically in the right hemisphere. Interindividual differences in the disposition to experience aversive feelings (personal distress) in interpersonal emotional contexts predicted the early increase in corticospinal excitability for emotional faces. No differences in corticospinal excitability were observed at the later time (300 ms) or in the left M1. These findings support the notion that emotion perception primes the body for action and highlights the role of the right hemisphere in implementing a rapid and transient facilitatory response to emotional arousing stimuli, such as emotional facial expressions.

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An Exploratory TMS Study on Prefrontal Lateralization in Valence Categorization of Facial Expressions

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000363 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

pp. 282-289 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Chiara Ferrari ◽

Lucile Gamond ◽

Marcello Gallucci ◽

Tomaso Vecchi ◽

Zaira Cattaneo

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Control Site ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Left Dlpfc ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Left And Right ◽

The Right

Abstract. Converging neuroimaging and patient data suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in emotional processing. However, it is still not clear whether the DLPFC in the left and right hemisphere is differentially involved in emotion recognition depending on the emotion considered. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to shed light on the possible causal role of the left and right DLPFC in encoding valence of positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Participants were required to indicate whether a series of faces displayed a positive or negative expression, while TMS was delivered over the right DLPFC, the left DLPFC, and a control site (vertex). Interfering with activity in both the left and right DLPFC delayed valence categorization (compared to control stimulation) to a similar extent irrespective of emotion type. Overall, we failed to demonstrate any valence-related lateralization in the DLPFC by using TMS. Possible methodological limitations are discussed.

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Impaired Recognition of Emotional Faces after Stroke Involving Right Amygdala or Insula

Seminars in Speech and Language ◽

10.1055/s-0037-1608859 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (01) ◽

pp. 087-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Brittany Godin ◽

Kumiko Oishi ◽

Kenichi Oishi ◽

Cameron Davis ◽

Yessenia Gomez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Anterior Insula ◽

Human Anatomy ◽

Lesion Volume ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

The Right ◽

Right Hemisphere Stroke

AbstractDespite its basic and translational importance, the neural circuitry supporting the perception of emotional faces remains incompletely understood. Functional imaging studies and chronic lesion studies indicate distinct roles of the amygdala and insula in recognition of fear and disgust in facial expressions, whereas intracranial encephalography studies, which are not encumbered by variations in human anatomy, indicate a somewhat different role of these structures. In this article, we leveraged lesion-mapping techniques in individuals with acute right hemisphere stroke to investigate lesions associated with impaired recognition of prototypic emotional faces before significant neural reorganization can occur during recovery from stroke. Right hemisphere stroke patients were significantly less accurate than controls on a test of emotional facial recognition for both positive and negative emotions. Patients with right amygdala or anterior insula lesions had significantly lower scores than other right hemisphere stroke patients on recognition of angry and happy faces. Lesion volume within several regions, including the right amygdala and anterior insula, each independently contributed to the error rate in recognition of individual emotions. Results provide additional support for a necessary role of the right amygdala and anterior insula within a network of regions underlying recognition of facial expressions, particularly those that have biological importance or motivational relevance and have implications for clinical practice.

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Differences between motor execution and motor imagery of grasping movements in the motor cortical excitatory circuit

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5588 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5588 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Hai-Jiang Meng ◽

Yan-Ling Pi ◽

Ke Liu ◽

Na Cao ◽

Yan-Qiu Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Motor Imagery ◽

Primary Motor Cortex ◽

Cortical Excitability ◽

Short Interval ◽

Corticospinal Excitability ◽

Motor Execution ◽

Human Motor Cortex ◽

Motor Cortical ◽

The Right

Background Both motor imagery (MI) and motor execution (ME) can facilitate motor cortical excitability. Although cortical excitability is modulated by intracortical inhibitory and excitatory circuits in the human primary motor cortex, it is not clear which intracortical circuits determine the differences in corticospinal excitability between ME and MI. Methods We recruited 10 young healthy subjects aged 18−28 years (mean age: 22.1 ± 3.14 years; five women and five men) for this study. The experiment consisted of two sets of tasks involving grasp actions of the right hand: imagining and executing them. Corticospinal excitability and short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) were measured before the interventional protocol using transcranial magnetic stimulation (baseline), as well as at 0, 20, and 40 min (T0, T20, and T40) thereafter. Results Facilitation of corticospinal excitability was significantly greater after ME than after MI in the right abductor pollicis brevis (APB) at T0 and T20 (p < 0.01 for T0, and p < 0.05 for T20), but not in the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. On the other hand, no significant differences in SICI between ME and MI were found in the APB and FDI muscles. The facilitation of corticospinal excitability at T20 after MI correlated with the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ) scores for kinesthetic items (Rho = −0.646, p = 0.044) but did not correlate with the MIQ scores for visual items (Rho = −0.265, p = 0.458). Discussion The present results revealed significant differences between ME and MI on intracortical excitatory circuits of the human motor cortex, suggesting that cortical excitability differences between ME and MI may be attributed to the activation differences of the excitatory circuits in the primary motor cortex.

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Recognition of Sad and Happy Facial Expressions – Lateralization and Association with Depressive Symptoms

Društvene i humanističke studije (Online) ◽

10.51558/2490-3647.2021.6.1.331 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 331-352

Author(s):

Maida Koso-Drljević ◽

Meri Miličević

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Significant Negative Correlation ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Depression Subscale ◽

Main Effect ◽

The Face ◽

Hemisphere Dominance ◽

The Right

The aim of the study was to test two assumptions about the lateralization of the processing of emotional facial expressions: the assumption of right hemisphere dominance and the valence assumption and to egsamine the influence of gender of the presented stimulus (chimera) and depression as an emotional state of participants. The sample consisted of 83 female students, with an average age of 20 years. Participants solved the Task of Recognizing Emotional Facial Expressions on a computer and then completed the DASS-21, Depression subscale. The results of the study partially confirmed the assumption of valence for the dependent variable - the accuracy of the response. Participants were recognizing more accurately the emotion of sadness than happiness when it is presented on the left side of the face, which is consistent with the valence hypothesis, according to which the right hemisphere is responsible for recognizing negative emotions. However, when it comes to the right side of the face, participants were equally accurately recognizing the emotion of sadness and happiness, which is not consistent with the valence hypothesis. The main effect of the gender of the chimera was statistically significant for the accuracy of the response, the recognition accuracy was higher for the male chimeras compared to the female. A statistically significant negative correlation was obtained between the variable sides of the face (left and right) with the achieved result on the depression subscale for the dependent variable - reaction time. The higher the score on the depressive subscale, the slower (longer) is reaction time to the presented chimera, both on the left and on the right.

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Electrophysiological Responses to Emotional Facial Expressions Following a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci9060142 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 142 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Joanie Drapeau ◽

Nathalie Gosselin ◽

Isabelle Peretz ◽

Michelle McKerral

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Emotional Recognition ◽

The Right

The present study aimed to measure neural information processing underlying emotional recognition from facial expressions in adults having sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) as compared to healthy individuals. We thus measured early (N1, N170) and later (N2) event-related potential (ERP) components during presentation of fearful, neutral, and happy facial expressions in 10 adults with mTBI and 11 control participants. Findings indicated significant differences between groups, irrespective of emotional expression, in the early attentional stage (N1), which was altered in mTBI. The two groups showed similar perceptual integration of facial features (N170), with greater amplitude for fearful facial expressions in the right hemisphere. At a higher-level emotional discrimination stage (N2), both groups demonstrated preferential processing for fear as compared to happiness and neutrality. These findings suggest a reduced early selective attentional processing following mTBI, but no impact on the perceptual and higher-level cognitive processes stages. This study contributes to further improving our comprehension of attentional versus emotional recognition following a mild TBI.

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Motor cortex disinhibition in normal-pressure hydrocephalus

Journal of Neurosurgery ◽

10.3171/2011.9.jns11678 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 116 (2) ◽

pp. 453-459 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Andrei V. Chistyakov ◽

Hava Hafner ◽

Alon Sinai ◽

Boris Kaplan ◽

Menashe Zaaroor

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Healthy Volunteers ◽

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus ◽

Close Association ◽

Motor Evoked Potential ◽

Normal Pressure ◽

Corticospinal Excitability ◽

Conduction Time ◽

Shunt Placement ◽

Resting Motor Threshold

Object Previous studies have shown a close association between frontal lobe dysfunction and gait disturbance in idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). A possible mechanism linking these impairments could be a modulation of corticospinal excitability. The aim of this study was 2-fold: 1) to determine whether iNPH affects corticospinal excitability; and 2) to evaluate changes in corticospinal excitability following ventricular shunt placement in relation to clinical outcome. Methods Twenty-three patients with iNPH were examined using single- and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of the leg motor area before and 1 month after ventricular shunt surgery. The parameters of corticospinal excitability assessed were the resting motor threshold (rMT), motor evoked potential/M-wave area ratio, central motor conduction time, intracortical facilitation, and short intracortical inhibition (SICI). The results were compared with those obtained in 8 age-matched, healthy volunteers, 19 younger healthy volunteers, and 9 age-matched patients with peripheral neuropathy. Results Significant reduction of the SICI associated with a decrease of the rMT was observed in patients with iNPH at baseline evaluation. Ventricular shunt placement resulted in significant enhancement of the SICI and increase of the rMT in patients who markedly improved, but not in those who failed to improve. Conclusions This study demonstrates that iNPH affects corticospinal excitability, causing disinhibition of the motor cortex. Recovery of corticospinal excitability following ventricular shunt placement is correlated with clinical improvement. These findings support the view that reduced control of motor output, rather than impairment of central motor conduction, is responsible for gait disturbances in patients with iNPH.

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Systematic examination of low-intensity ultrasound parameters on human motor cortex excitability and behavior

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.54497 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Anton Fomenko ◽

Kai-Hsiang Stanley Chen ◽

Jean-François Nankoo ◽

James Saravanamuttu ◽

Yanqiu Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Short Interval ◽

Motor Evoked Potential ◽

Cortical Inhibition ◽

Transcranial Ultrasound ◽

Human Motor Cortex ◽

Low Intensity ◽

Visuomotor Task ◽

Motor Cortex Excitability ◽

And Behavior

Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound (TUS) can non-invasively modulate human neural activity. We investigated how different fundamental sonication parameters influence the effects of TUS on the motor cortex (M1) of 16 healthy subjects by probing cortico-cortical excitability and behavior. A low-intensity 500 kHz TUS transducer was coupled to a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coil. TMS was delivered 10 ms before the end of TUS to the left M1 hotspot of the first dorsal interosseous muscle. Varying acoustic parameters (pulse repetition frequency, duty cycle, and sonication duration) on motor-evoked potential amplitude were examined. Paired-pulse measures of cortical inhibition and facilitation, and performance on a visuomotor task was also assessed. TUS safely suppressed TMS-elicited motor cortical activity, with longer sonication durations and shorter duty cycles when delivered in a blocked paradigm. TUS increased GABAA-mediated short-interval intracortical inhibition and decreased reaction time on visuomotor task but not when controlled with TUS at near-somatosensory threshold intensity.

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Reduced Ventrolateral fMRI Response during Observation of Emotional Gestures Related to the Degree of Dopaminergic Impairment in Parkinson Disease

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21087 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (7) ◽

pp. 1321-1331 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Martin Lotze ◽

Matthias Reimold ◽

Ulrike Heymans ◽

Arto Laihinen ◽

Marianne Patt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson Disease ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Motor Impairment ◽

Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Average Decrease ◽

Fmri Response ◽

The Right

Recent findings point to a perceptive impairment of emotional facial expressions in patients diagnosed with Parkinson disease (PD). In these patients, administration of dopamine can modulate emotional facial recognition. We used fMRI to investigate differences in the functional activation in response to emotional and nonemotional gestures between PD patients and age-matched healthy controls (HC). In addition, we used PET to evaluate the striatal dopamine transporter availability (DAT) with [11C]d-threo-methylphenidate in the patient group. Patients showed an average decrease to 26% in DAT when compared to age-corrected healthy references. Reduction in the DAT of the left putamen correlated not only with motor impairment but also with errors in emotional gesture recognition. In comparison to HC, PD patients showed a specific decrease in activation related to emotional gesture observation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and the right superior temporal sulcus. Moreover, the less DAT present in the left putamen, the lower the activation in the left VLPFC. We conclude that a loss of dopaminergic neurotransmission in the putamen results in a reduction of ventrolateral prefrontal access involved in the recognition of emotional gestures.

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BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with abnormal interhemispheric transfer of a newly acquired motor skill

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00388.2013 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 111 (10) ◽

pp. 2094-2102 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Olivier Morin-Moncet ◽

Vincent Beaumont ◽

Louis de Beaumont ◽

Jean-Francois Lepage ◽

Hugo Théoret

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Interhemispheric Transfer ◽

Corticospinal Excitability ◽

Genetic Group ◽

Val66met Polymorphism ◽

Genotype Group ◽

Left Hand ◽

The Right

Recent data suggest that the Val66Met polymorphism of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene can alter cortical plasticity within the motor cortex of carriers, which exhibits abnormally low rates of cortical reorganization after repetitive motor tasks. To verify whether long-term retention of a motor skill is also modulated by the presence of the polymorphism, 20 participants (10 Val66Val, 10 Val66Met) were tested twice at a 1-wk interval. During each visit, excitability of the motor cortex was measured by transcranial magnetic stimulations (TMS) before and after performance of a procedural motor learning task (serial reaction time task) designed to study sequence-specific learning of the right hand and sequence-specific transfer from the right to the left hand. Behavioral results showed a motor learning effect that persisted for at least a week and task-related increases in corticospinal excitability identical for both sessions and without distinction for genetic group. Sequence-specific transfer of the motor skill from the right hand to the left hand was greater in session 2 than in session 1 only in the Val66Met genetic group. Further analysis revealed that the sequence-specific transfer occurred equally at both sessions in the Val66Val genotype group. In the Val66Met genotype group, sequence-specific transfer did not occur at session 1 but did at session 2. These data suggest a limited impact of Val66Met polymorphism on the learning and retention of a complex motor skill and its associated changes in corticospinal excitability over time, and a possible modulation of the interhemispheric transfer of procedural learning.

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Neuroplasticity Changes on Human Motor Cortex Induced by Acupuncture Therapy: A Preliminary Study

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2017/4716792 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yi Yang ◽

Ines Eisner ◽

Siqi Chen ◽

Shaosong Wang ◽

Fan Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Acupuncture Therapy ◽

Motor Cortex ◽

Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Primary Motor Cortex ◽

Motor Evoked Potential ◽

Interhemispheric Inhibition ◽

Human Motor Cortex ◽

Interhemispheric Competition ◽

Resting Motor Threshold

While neuroplasticity changes measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation have been proved to be highly correlated to motor recovery and have been tested in various forms of interventions, it has not been applied to investigate the neurophysiologic mechanism of acupuncture therapy. The aim of this study is to investigate neuroplasticity changes induced by a single session of acupuncture therapy in healthy adults, regarding the excitability change on bilateral primary motor cortex and interhemispheric inhibition. Ten subjects took a 30-minute acupuncture therapy and the same length relaxing phase in separate days. Transcranial magnetic stimulation measures, including resting motor threshold, amplitudes of motor-evoked potential, and interhemispheric inhibition, were assessed before and 10 minutes after intervention. Acupuncture treatment showed significant changes on potential amplitude from both ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres to acupuncture compared to baseline. Also, interhemispheric inhibition from the contralateral motor cortex to the opposite showed a significant decline. The results indicated that corticomotoneuronal excitability and interhemispheric competition could be modulated by acupuncture therapy on healthy subjects. The following question about whether these changes will be observed in the same way on stroke patients and whether they correlate with the therapeutic effect on movement need to be answered by following studies. This trial is registered with ISRCTN13074245.

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