scholarly journals A multifunctional method (ERP and fMRI) of analysis on facial expression. Three pilot studies

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galit Yovel
Keyword(s):  
Functional Mri ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
The Face ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
The Relationship

As social primates, one of the most important cognitive tasks we conduct, dozens of times a day, is to look at a face and extract the person's identity. During the last decade, the neural basis of face processing has been extensively investigated in humans with event-related potential (ERP) and functional MRI (fMRI). These two methods provide complementary information about the temporal and spatial aspects of the neural response, with ERPs allowing high temporal resolution of milliseconds but low spatial resolution of the neural generator and fMRI displaying a slow hemodynamic response but better spatial localization of the activated regions. Despite the extensive fMRI and ERP research of faces, only a few studies have assessed the relationship between the two methods and no study to date have collected simultaneous ERP and fMRI responses to face stimuli. In the current paper we will try to assess the spatial and temporal aspects of the neural response to faces by simultaneously collecting functional MRI and event-related potentials (ERP) to face stimuli. Our goals are twofold: 1) ERP and fMRI show a robust selective response to faces. In particular, two well-established face-specific phenomena, the RH superiority and the inversion effect are robustly found with both ERP and fMRI. Despite the extensive research of these effects with ERP and fMRI, it is still unknown to what extent their spatial (fMRI) and temporal (ERP) aspects are associated. In Study 1 we will employ an individual differences approach, to assess the relationship between these ERP and fMRI face-specific responses. 2) Face processing involves several stages starting from structural encoding of the face image through identity processing to storage for later retrieval. This representation undergoes several manipulations that take place at different time points and in different brain regions before the final percept is generated. By simultaneously recording ERP and fMRI we hope to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the timecourse that different brain areas participate in the generation of the face representation.

scholarly journals The effect of empathy and context on face-processing ERPs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian M Clark ◽  
Claire McNeel ◽  
Felicity J Bigelow ◽  
Peter Gregory Enticott
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Early Posterior Negativity ◽  
Empathy Quotient ◽  
The Face ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Processing Event ◽  
Harm To Others ◽  
Face Stimuli

The investigation of emotional face processing has largely used faces devoid of context, and does not account for within-perceiver differences in empathy. The importance of context in face perception has become apparent in recent years. This study examined the interaction of the contextual factors of facial expression, knowledge of a person’s character, and within-perceiver empathy levels on face processing event-related potentials (ERPs). Forty-two adult participants learned background information about six individuals’ character. Three types of character were described, in which the character was depicted as deliberately causing harm to others, accidentally causing harm to others, or undertaking neutral actions. Subsequently, EEG was recorded while participants viewed the characters’ faces displaying neutral or emotional expressions. Participants’ empathy was assessed using the Empathy Quotient survey. Results showed a significant interaction of character type and empathy on the early posterior negativity (EPN) ERP component. These results suggested that for those with either low or high empathy, more attention was paid to the face stimuli, with more distinction between the different characters. In contrast, those in the middle range of empathy tended to produce smaller EPN with less distinction between character types. Findings highlight the importance of trait empathy in accounting for how faces in context are perceived.

scholarly journals Eliciting and Recording Event Related Potentials (ERPs) in Behaviourally Unresponsive Populations: A Retrospective Commentary on Critical Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 835
Author(s):  
Alexander Rokos ◽  
Richard Mah ◽  
Rober Boshra ◽  
Amabilis Harrison ◽  
Tsee Leng Choy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Long Latency ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Relationship

A consistent limitation when designing event-related potential paradigms and interpreting results is a lack of consideration of the multivariate factors that affect their elicitation and detection in behaviorally unresponsive individuals. This paper provides a retrospective commentary on three factors that influence the presence and morphology of long-latency event-related potentials—the P3b and N400. We analyze event-related potentials derived from electroencephalographic (EEG) data collected from small groups of healthy youth and healthy elderly to illustrate the effect of paradigm strength and subject age; we analyze ERPs collected from an individual with severe traumatic brain injury to illustrate the effect of stimulus presentation speed. Based on these critical factors, we support that: (1) the strongest paradigms should be used to elicit event-related potentials in unresponsive populations; (2) interpretation of event-related potential results should account for participant age; and (3) speed of stimulus presentation should be slower in unresponsive individuals. The application of these practices when eliciting and recording event-related potentials in unresponsive individuals will help to minimize result interpretation ambiguity, increase confidence in conclusions, and advance the understanding of the relationship between long-latency event-related potentials and states of consciousness.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Childhood Emotional Abuse and Processing of Emotional Facial Expressions in Healthy Young Men: Event-Related Potential and Behavioral Evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yutong Liu ◽  
Huini Peng ◽  
Jianhui Wu ◽  
Hongxia Duan
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Childhood Emotional Abuse ◽  
The Relationship

Background: Individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment present with a deficiency in emotional processing in later life. Most studies have focused mainly on childhood physical or sexual abuse; however, childhood emotional abuse, a core issue underlying different forms of childhood maltreatment, has received relatively little attention. The current study explored whether childhood emotional abuse is related to the impaired processing of emotional facial expressions in healthy young men.Methods: The emotional facial processing was investigated in a classical gender discrimination task while the event-related potentials (ERPs) data were collected. Childhood emotional abuse was assessed by a Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) among 60 healthy young men. The relationship between the score of emotional abuse and the behavioral and the ERP index of emotional facial expression (angry, disgust, and happy) were explored.Results: Participants with a higher score of childhood emotional abuse responded faster on the behavioral level and had a smaller P2 amplitude on the neural level when processing disgust faces compared to neutral faces.Discussion: Individuals with a higher level of childhood emotional abuse may quickly identify negative faces with less cognitive resources consumed, suggesting altered processing of emotional facial expressions in young men with a higher level of childhood emotional abuse.

Neural Responses to Facial Expression and Face Identity in the Monkey Amygdala

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 1671-1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Gothard ◽  
F. P. Battaglia ◽  
C. A. Erickson ◽  
K. M. Spitler ◽  
D. G. Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Firing Rate ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Human Faces

The amygdala is purported to play an important role in face processing, yet the specificity of its activation to face stimuli and the relative contribution of identity and expression to its activation are unknown. In the current study, neural activity in the amygdala was recorded as monkeys passively viewed images of monkey faces, human faces, and objects on a computer monitor. Comparable proportions of neurons responded selectively to images from each category. Neural responses to monkey faces were further examined to determine whether face identity or facial expression drove the face-selective responses. The majority of these neurons (64%) responded both to identity and facial expression, suggesting that these parameters are processed jointly in the amygdala. Large fractions of neurons, however, showed pure identity-selective or expression-selective responses. Neurons were selective for a particular facial expression by either increasing or decreasing their firing rate compared with the firing rates elicited by the other expressions. Responses to appeasing faces were often marked by significant decreases of firing rates, whereas responses to threatening faces were strongly associated with increased firing rate. Thus global activation in the amygdala might be larger to threatening faces than to neutral or appeasing faces.

Face Classification in Schizophrenia: Evidence for a Sensitivity to Distinctiveness

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p6291 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 702-707
Author(s):  
Robert A Johnston ◽  
Eleanor Tomlinson ◽  
Chris Jones ◽  
Alan Weaden
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Face Classification ◽  
The Face ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Processing Deficits ◽  
Face Stimuli

The face-processing skills of people with schizophrenia were compared with those of a group of unimpaired individuals. Participants were asked to make speeded face-classification decisions to faces previously rated as being typical or distinctive. The schizophrenic group responded more slowly than the unimpaired group; however, both groups demonstrated the customary sensitivity to the distinctiveness of the face stimuli. Face-classification latencies made to typical faces were shorter than those made to distinctive faces. The implication of this finding with the schizophrenic group is discussed with reference to accounts of face-processing deficits attributed to these individuals.

Multi-Item Discriminability Pattern to Faces in Developmental Prosopagnosia Reveals Distinct Mechanisms of Face Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 2986-2996
Author(s):  
Xue Tian ◽  
Ruosi Wang ◽  
Yuanfang Zhao ◽  
Zonglei Zhen ◽  
Yiying Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Normal Population ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Normal Individuals ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right

Abstract Previous studies have shown that individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) show specific deficits in face processing. However, the mechanism underlying the deficits remains largely unknown. One hypothesis suggests that DP shares the same mechanism as normal population, though their faces processing is disproportionally impaired. An alternative hypothesis emphasizes a qualitatively different mechanism of DP processing faces. To test these hypotheses, we instructed DP and normal individuals to perceive faces and objects. Instead of calculating accuracy averaging across stimulus items, we used the discrimination accuracy for each item to construct a multi-item discriminability pattern. We found DP’s discriminability pattern was less similar to that of normal individuals when perceiving faces than perceiving objects, suggesting that DP has qualitatively different mechanism in representing faces. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study was conducted to reveal the neural basis and found that multi-voxel activation patterns for faces in the right fusiform face area and occipital face area of DP were deviated away from the mean activation pattern of normal individuals. Further, the face representation was more heterogeneous in DP, suggesting that deficits of DP may come from multiple sources. In short, our study provides the first direct evidence that DP processes faces qualitatively different from normal population.

Activation of Preexisting and Acquired Face Representations: The N250 Event-related Potential as an Index of Face Familiarity

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 1488-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Tanaka ◽  
Tim Curran ◽  
Albert L. Porterfield ◽  
Daniel Collins
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Face Representation ◽  
Learning Conditions ◽  
Electrophysiological Studies ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Face Stimuli

Electrophysiological studies using event-related potentials have demonstrated that face stimuli elicit a greater negative brain potential in right posterior recording sites 170 msec after stimulus onset (N170) relative to nonface stimuli. Results from repetition priming paradigms have shown that repeated exposures of familiar faces elicit a larger negative brainwave (N250r) at inferior temporal sites compared to repetitions of unfamiliar faces. However, less is known about the time course and learning conditions under which the N250 face representation is acquired. In the familiarization phase of the Joe/no Joe task, subjects studied a target “Joe” face (“Jane” for female subjects) and, during the course of the experiment, identified a series of sequentially presented faces as either Joe or not Joe. The critical stimulus conditions included the subject's own face, a same-sex Joe ( Jane) face and a same-sex “other” face. The main finding was that the subject's own face produced a focal negative deflection (N250) in posterior channels relative to nontarget faces. The task-relevant Joe target face was not differentiated from other nontarget faces in the first half of the experiment. However, in the second half, the Joe face produced an N250 response that was similar in magnitude to the own face. These findings suggest that the N250 indexes two types of face memories: a preexperimentally familiar face representation (i.e., the “own face” and a newly acquired face representation (i.e., the Joe/Jane face) that was formed during the course of the experiment.

scholarly journals Odor habituation can modulate very early olfactory event-related potential

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwangsu Kim ◽  
Jisub Bae ◽  
Youngsun Jin ◽  
Cheil Moon
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Odor Signal ◽  
Behavior Test

Abstract Odor habituation is a phenomenon that after repeated exposure to an odor, is characterized by decreased responses to it. The central nervous system is involved in odor habituation. To study odor habituation in humans, measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) has been widely used in the olfactory system and other sensory systems, because of their high temporal resolution. Most previous odor habituation studies have measured the olfactory ERPs of (200–800) ms. However, several studies have shown that the odor signal is processed in the central nervous system earlier than at 200 ms. For these reasons, we studied whether when odors were habituated, olfactory ERP within 200 ms of odors could change. To this end, we performed an odor habituation behavior test and electroencephalogram experiments. In the behavior test, under habituation conditions, odor intensity was significantly decreased. We found significant differences in the negative and positive potentials within 200 ms across the conditions, which correlated significantly with the results of the behavior test. We also observed that ERP latency depended on the conditions. Our study suggests that odor habituation can involve the olfactory ERP of odors within 200 ms in the brain.

scholarly journals Different influences of moral violation with and without physical impurity on face processing: An event-related potentials study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243929
Author(s):  
Siyu Jiang ◽  
Ming Peng ◽  
Xiaohui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Search Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Affective Priming ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
The Face ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Face Search ◽  
Affective Priming Task

It has been widely accepted that moral violations that involve impurity (such as spitting in public) induce the emotion of disgust, but there has been a debate about whether moral violations that do not involve impurity (such as swearing in public) also induce the same emotion. The answer to this question may have implication for understanding where morality comes from and how people make moral judgments. This study aimed to compared the neural mechanisms underlying two kinds of moral violation by using an affective priming task to test the effect of sentences depicting moral violation behaviors with and without physical impurity on subsequent detection of disgusted faces in a visual search task. After reading each sentence, participants completed the face search task. Behavioral and electrophysiological (event-related potential, or ERP) indices of affective priming (P2, N400, LPP) and attention allocation (N2pc) were analyzed. Results of behavioral data and ERP data showed that moral violations both with and without impurity promoted the detection of disgusted faces (RT, N2pc); moral violations without impurity impeded the detection of neutral faces (N400). No priming effect was found on P2 and LPP. The results suggest both types of moral violation influenced the processing of disgusted faces and neutral faces, but the neural activity with temporal characteristics was different.

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