Event-related potential analysis of facial emotion processing

AbstractSubjective memory complaints (SMCs) are commonly related to aging, but they are also presented by young adults. Their neurophysiological mechanisms are not thoroughly understood, although some aspects related to affective state have been mentioned. Here, we investigated whether facial emotion processing is different in young people with (n = 41) and without (n = 39) SMCs who were exposed to positive, negative, and neutral faces, by recording the event-related potential (ERP) activity. From the ERP activity, the N170 (an index of face processing) and the LPP (an index of motivated attention) components were extracted. Regarding the N170, results showed less amplitude for positive and neutral faces in the participants with SMCs than in those without SMCs. Moreover, women with SMCs displayed longer latencies for neutral faces than women without SMCs. No significant differences were found between the groups in the LPP component. Together, our findings suggest deficits in an early stage of facial emotion processing in young people with SMCs, and they emphasize the importance of further examining affective dimensions.

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Facial Emotion Processing and Language During Middle Childhood: An Event Related Potential Study

10.31234/osf.io/bacz5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Felicity J Bigelow ◽

Gillian M Clark ◽

Jarrad Lum ◽

Peter Gregory Enticott

Keyword(s):

Middle Childhood ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Physiological Indicators ◽

Facial Emotion Processing ◽

Related Potentials

Facial emotion processing (FEP) is critical to social cognitive ability. Developmentally, FEP rapidly improves in early childhood and continues to be fine-tuned throughout middle childhood and into adolescence. Previous research has suggested that language plays a role in the development of social cognitive skills, including non-verbal emotion recognition tasks. Here we investigated whether language is associated with specific neurophysiological indicators of FEP. One hundred and fourteen children (4-12 years) completed a language assessment and a FEP task including stimuli depicting anger, happiness, fear, and neutrality. EEG was used to record key event related potentials (ERPs; P100, N170, LPP at occipital and parietal sites separately) previously shown to be sensitive to faces and facial emotion. While there were no main effects of language, the P100 latency to negative expressions appeared to increase with language, while LPP amplitude increased with language for negative and neutral expressions. These findings suggest that language is linked to some early physiological indicators of FEP, but this is dependent on the facial expression. Future studies should explore the role of language in later stages of neural processing, with a focus on processes localised to ventromedial prefrontal regions.

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Facial Emotion Processing and Language During Early-to-Middle Childhood Development: An Event Related Potential Study

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101052 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 101052

Author(s):

Felicity J. Bigelow ◽

Gillian M. Clark ◽

Jarrad A.G. Lum ◽

Peter G. Enticott

Keyword(s):

Middle Childhood ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Childhood Development ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Potential Study ◽

Facial Emotion Processing

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Facial emotion processing in young people with subjective memory complaints: an ERP study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-117445/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vanesa Perez ◽

Ruth Garrido-Chaves ◽

Mario Perez-Alarcon ◽

Tiago O. Paiva ◽

Matias M. Pulopulos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Early Stage ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Affective State ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Subjective Memory Complaints ◽

Subjective Memory ◽

Memory Complaints ◽

Facial Emotion Processing

Abstract Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are commonly related to aging, but they are also presented by young adults. Their neurophysiological mechanisms are not thoroughly understood, although some aspects related to affective state have been mentioned. Here, we investigated whether facial emotion processing is different in young people with (n = 41) and without SMCs (n = 39) who were exposed to positive, negative, and neutral faces, by recording the event-related potential (ERP) activity. From the ERP activity, the N170 (an index of face processing) and the LPP (an index of motivated attention) components were extracted. Regarding N170, results showed less amplitude for positive and neutral faces in the participants with SMCs than in those without SMCs. Moreover, women with SMCs displayed longer latencies for neutral faces than women without SMCs. No significant differences were found between the groups in the LPP component. Together, our findings suggest deficits in an early stage of facial emotion processing in young people with SMCs, and they emphasize the importance of further examining affective dimensions.

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