Age-related changes in amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotional face processing from childhood into young adulthood.

PubMed

Wu, Minjie; Kujawa, Autumn; Lu, Lisa H; Fitzgerald, Daniel A; Klumpp, Heide; Fitzgerald, Kate D; Monk, Christopher S; Phan, K Luan

2016-05-01

The ability to process and respond to emotional facial expressions is a critical skill for healthy social and emotional development. There has been growing interest in understanding the neural circuitry underlying development of emotional processing, with previous research implicating functional connectivity between amygdala and frontal regions. However, existing work has focused on threatening emotional faces, raising questions regarding the extent to which these developmental patterns are specific to threat or to emotional face processing more broadly. In the current study, we examined age-related changes in brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity during an fMRI emotional face matching task (including angry, fearful, and happy faces) in 61 healthy subjects aged 7-25 years. We found age-related decreases in ventral medial prefrontal cortex activity in response to happy faces but not to angry or fearful faces, and an age-related change (shifting from positive to negative correlation) in amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) functional connectivity to all emotional faces. Specifically, positive correlations between amygdala and ACC/mPFC in children changed to negative correlations in adults, which may suggest early emergence of bottom-up amygdala excitatory signaling to ACC/mPFC in children and later development of top-down inhibitory control of ACC/mPFC over amygdala in adults. Age-related changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity did not vary for processing of different facial emotions, suggesting changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity may underlie development of broad emotional processing, rather than threat-specific processing. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1684-1695, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotional responses associated with self-face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Morita, Tomoyo; Kosaka, Hirotaka; Saito, Daisuke N; Ishitobi, Makoto; Munesue, Toshio; Itakura, Shoji; Omori, Masao; Okazawa, Hidehiko; Wada, Yuji; Sadato, Norihiro

2012-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show impaired emotional responses to self-face processing, but the underlying neural bases are unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated brain activity when 15 individuals with high-functioning ASD and 15 controls rated the photogenicity of self-face images and photographs of others' faces. Controls showed a strong correlation between photogenicity ratings and extent of embarrassment evoked by self-face images; this correlation was weaker among ASD individuals, indicating a decoupling between the cognitive evaluation of self-face images and emotional responses. Individuals with ASD demonstrated relatively low self-related activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which was related to specific autistic traits. There were significant group differences in the modulation of activity by embarrassment ratings in the right insular (IC) and lateral orbitofrontal cortices. Task-related activity in the right IC was lower in the ASD group. The reduced activity in the right IC for self-face images was associated with weak coupling between cognitive evaluation and emotional responses to self-face images. The PCC is responsible for self-referential processing, and the IC plays a role in emotional experience. Dysfunction in these areas could contribute to the lack of self-conscious behaviors in response to self-reflection in ASD individuals.

The structural and functional correlates of the efficiency in fearful face detection.

PubMed

Wang, Yongchao; Guo, Nana; Zhao, Li; Huang, Hui; Yao, Xiaonan; Sang, Na; Hou, Xin; Mao, Yu; Bi, Taiyong; Qiu, Jiang

2017-06-01

Human visual system is found to be much efficient in searching for a fearful face. Some individuals are more sensitive to this threat-related stimulus. However, we still know little about the neural correlates of such variability. In the current study, we exploited a visual search paradigm, and asked the subjects to search for a fearful face or a target gender. Every subject showed a shallower search function for fearful face search than face gender search, indicating a stable fearful face advantage. We then used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis and correlated this advantage to the gray matter volume (GMV) of some presumably face related cortical areas. The result revealed that only the left fusiform gyrus showed a significant positive correlation. Next, we defined the left fusiform gyrus as the seed region and calculated its resting state functional connectivity to the whole brain. Correlations were also calculated between fearful face advantage and these connectivities. In this analysis, we found positive correlations in the inferior parietal lobe and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. These results suggested that the anatomical structure of the left fusiform gyrus might determine the search efficiency of fearful face, and frontoparietal attention network involved in this process through top-down attentional modulation. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Neural networks related to dysfunctional face processing in autism spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

Nickl-Jockschat, Thomas; Rottschy, Claudia; Thommes, Johanna; Schneider, Frank; Laird, Angela R.; Fox, Peter T.; Eickhoff, Simon B.

2016-01-01

One of the most consistent neuropsychological findings in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a reduced interest in and impaired processing of human faces. We conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis on 14 functional imaging studies on neural correlates of face processing enrolling a total of 164 ASD patients. Subsequently, normative whole-brain functional connectivity maps for the identified regions of significant convergence were computed for the task-independent (resting-state) and task-dependent (co-activations) state in healthy subjects. Quantitative functional decoding was performed by reference to the BrainMap database. Finally, we examined the overlap of the delineated network with the results of a previous meta-analysis on structural abnormalities in ASD as well as with brain regions involved in human action observation/imitation. We found a single cluster in the left fusiform gyrus showing significantly reduced activation during face processing in ASD across all studies. Both task-dependent and task-independent analyses indicated significant functional connectivity of this region with the temporo-occipital and lateral occipital cortex, the inferior frontal and parietal cortices, the thalamus and the amygdala. Quantitative reverse inference then indicated an association of these regions mainly with face processing, affective processing, and language-related tasks. Moreover, we found that the cortex in the region of right area V5 displaying structural changes in ASD patients showed consistent connectivity with the region showing aberrant responses in the context of face processing. Finally, this network was also implicated in the human action observation/imitation network. In summary, our findings thus suggest a functionally and structurally disturbed network of occipital regions related primarily to face (but potentially also language) processing, which interact with inferior frontal as well as limbic regions and may be the core of aberrant face processing and reduced interest in faces in ASD. PMID:24869925

Relations of emotion-related temperamental characteristics to attentional biases and social functioning.

PubMed

Nozadi, Sara S; Spinrad, Tracy L; Johnson, Scott P; Eisenberg, Nancy

2018-06-01

The current study examined whether an important temperamental characteristic, effortful control (EC), moderates the associations between dispositional anger and sadness, attention biases, and social functioning in a group of preschool-aged children (N = 77). Preschoolers' attentional biases toward angry and sad facial expressions were assessed using eye-tracking, and we obtained teachers' reports of children's temperament and social functioning. Associations of dispositional anger and sadness with time looking at relevant negative emotional stimuli were moderated by children's EC, but relations between time looking at emotional faces and indicators of social functioning, for the most part, were direct and not moderated by EC. In particular, time looking at angry faces (and low EC) predicted high levels of aggressive behaviors, whereas longer time looking at sad faces (and high EC) predicted higher social competence. Finally, latency to detect angry faces predicted aggressive behavior under conditions of average and low levels of EC. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of differentiating between components of attention biases toward distinct negative emotions, and implications for attention training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Neurocognitive and electrophysiological evidence of altered face processing in parents of children with autism: implications for a model of abnormal development of social brain circuitry in autism.

PubMed

Dawson, Geraldine; Webb, Sara Jane; Wijsman, Ellen; Schellenberg, Gerard; Estes, Annette; Munson, Jeffrey; Faja, Susan

2005-01-01

Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown that children and adults with autism have impaired face recognition. Individuals with autism also exhibit atypical event-related brain potentials to faces, characterized by a failure to show a negative component (N170) latency advantage to face compared to nonface stimuli and a bilateral, rather than right lateralized, pattern of N170 distribution. In this report, performance by 143 parents of children with autism on standardized verbal, visual-spatial, and face recognition tasks was examined. It was found that parents of children with autism exhibited a significant decrement in face recognition ability relative to their verbal and visual spatial abilities. Event-related brain potentials to face and nonface stimuli were examined in 21 parents of children with autism and 21 control adults. Parents of children with autism showed an atypical event-related potential response to faces, which mirrored the pattern shown by children and adults with autism. These results raise the possibility that face processing might be a functional trait marker of genetic susceptibility to autism. Discussion focuses on hypotheses regarding the neurodevelopmental and genetic basis of altered face processing in autism. A general model of the normal emergence of social brain circuitry in the first year of life is proposed, followed by a discussion of how the trajectory of normal development of social brain circuitry, including cortical specialization for face processing, is altered in individuals with autism. The hypothesis that genetic-mediated dysfunction of the dopamine reward system, especially its functioning in social contexts, might account for altered face processing in individuals with autism and their relatives is discussed.

On the specificity of face cognition compared with general cognitive functioning across adult age.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, Andrea; Wilhelm, Oliver; Schmiedek, Florian; Herzmann, Grit; Sommer, Werner

2011-09-01

Face cognition is considered a specific human ability, clearly differentiable from general cognitive functioning. Its specificity is primarily supported by cognitive-experimental and neuroimaging research, but recently also from an individual differences perspective. However, no comprehensive behavioral data are available, which would allow estimating lifespan changes of the covariance structure of face-cognition abilities and general cognitive functioning as well as age-differences in face cognition after accounting for interindividual variability in general cognition. The present study aimed to fill this gap. In an age-heterogeneous (18-82 years) sample of 448 adults, we found no factorial dedifferentiation between face cognition and general cognition. Age-related differences in face memory were still salient after taking into account changes in general cognitive functioning. Face cognition thus remains a specific human ability compared with general cognition, even until old age. We discuss implications for models of cognitive aging and suggest that it is necessary to include more explicitly special social abilities in those models.

Dissociation of face-selective cortical responses by attention.

PubMed

Furey, Maura L; Tanskanen, Topi; Beauchamp, Michael S; Avikainen, Sari; Uutela, Kimmo; Hari, Riitta; Haxby, James V

2006-01-24

We studied attentional modulation of cortical processing of faces and houses with functional MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG detected an early, transient face-selective response. Directing attention to houses in "double-exposure" pictures of superimposed faces and houses strongly suppressed the characteristic, face-selective functional MRI response in the fusiform gyrus. By contrast, attention had no effect on the M170, the early, face-selective response detected with MEG. Late (>190 ms) category-related MEG responses elicited by faces and houses, however, were strongly modulated by attention. These results indicate that hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures of face-selective cortical processing complement each other. The hemodynamic signals reflect primarily late responses that can be modulated by feedback connections. By contrast, the early, face-specific M170 that was not modulated by attention likely reflects a rapid, feed-forward phase of face-selective processing.

Remembering beauty: roles of orbitofrontal and hippocampal regions in successful memory encoding of attractive faces.

PubMed

Tsukiura, Takashi; Cabeza, Roberto

2011-01-01

Behavioral data have shown that attractive faces are better remembered but the neural mechanisms of this effect are largely unknown. To investigate this issue, female participants were scanned with event-related functional MRI (fMRI) while rating the attractiveness of male faces. Memory for the faces was tested after fMRI scanning and was used to identify successful encoding activity (subsequent memory paradigm). As expected, attractive faces were remembered better than other faces. The study yielded three main fMRI findings. First, activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex increased linearly as a function of attractiveness ratings. Second, activity in the left hippocampus increased as a function of subsequent memory (subsequent misses

Remembering beauty: Roles of orbitofrontal and hippocampal regions in successful memory encoding of attractive faces

PubMed Central

Tsukiura, Takashi; Cabeza, Roberto

2010-01-01

Behavioral data have shown that attractive faces are better remembered but the neural mechanisms of this effect are largely unknown. To investigate this issue, female participants were scanned with event-related functional MRI (fMRI) while rating the attractiveness of male faces. Memory for the faces was tested after fMRI scanning and was used to identify successful encoding activity (subsequent memory paradigm). As expected, attractive faces were remembered better than other faces. The study yielded three main fMRI findings. First, activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex increased linearly as a function of attractiveness ratings. Second, activity in the left hippocampus increased as a function of subsequent memory (subsequent misses

Variation in White Matter Connectivity Predicts the Ability to Remember Faces and Discriminate Their Emotions

PubMed Central

Unger, Ashley; Alm, Kylie H.; Collins, Jessica A.; O’Leary, Jacqueline M.; Olson, Ingrid R.

2017-01-01

Objective The extended face network contains clusters of neurons that perform distinct functions on facial stimuli. Regions in the posterior ventral visual stream appear to perform basic perceptual functions on faces, while more anterior regions, such as the ventral anterior temporal lobe and amygdala, function to link mnemonic and affective information to faces. Anterior and posterior regions are interconnected by a long-range white matter tracts however it is not known if variation in connectivity of these pathways explains cognitive performance. Methods Here, we used diffusion imaging and deterministic tractography in a cohort of 28 neurologically normal adults ages 18–28 to examine microstructural properties of visual fiber pathways and their relationship to certain mnemonic and affective functions involved in face processing. We investigated how inter-individual variability in two tracts, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), related to performance on tests of facial emotion recognition and face memory. Results Results revealed that microstructure of both tracts predicted variability in behavioral performance indexed by both tasks, suggesting that the ILF and IFOF play a role in facilitating our ability to discriminate emotional expressions in faces, as well as to remember unique faces. Variation in a control tract, the uncinate fasciculus, did not predict performance on these tasks. Conclusions These results corroborate and extend the findings of previous neuropsychology studies investigating the effects of damage to the ILF and IFOF, and demonstrate that differences in face processing abilities are related to white matter microstructure, even in healthy individuals. PMID:26888615

Dissociable patterns of medial prefrontal and amygdala activity to face identity versus emotion in bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Keener, M T; Fournier, J C; Mullin, B C; Kronhaus, D; Perlman, S B; LaBarbara, E; Almeida, J C; Phillips, M L

2012-09-01

Individuals with bipolar disorder demonstrate abnormal social function. Neuroimaging studies in bipolar disorder have shown functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion processing, but have not examined face identity processing, a key component of social function. We aimed to elucidate functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion and face identity processing in bipolar disorder. Twenty-seven individuals with bipolar disorder I currently euthymic and 27 healthy controls participated in an implicit face processing, block-design paradigm. Participants labeled color flashes that were superimposed on dynamically changing background faces comprising morphs either from neutral to prototypical emotion (happy, sad, angry and fearful) or from one identity to another identity depicting a neutral face. Whole-brain and amygdala region-of-interest (ROI) activities were compared between groups. There was no significant between-group difference looking across both emerging face emotion and identity. During processing of all emerging emotions, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala activity. During facial identity and also happy face processing, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala and medial prefrontal cortical activity compared with controls. This is the first study to examine neural circuitry supporting face identity and face emotion processing in bipolar disorder. Our findings of abnormally elevated activity in amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during face identity and happy face emotion processing suggest functional abnormalities in key regions previously implicated in social processing. This may be of future importance toward examining the abnormal self-related processing, grandiosity and social dysfunction seen in bipolar disorder.

Elevated Amygdala Response to Faces following Early Deprivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tottenham, N.; Hare, T. A.; Millner, A.; Gilhooly, T.; Zevin, J. D.; Casey, B. J.

2011-01-01

A functional neuroimaging study examined the long-term neural correlates of early adverse rearing conditions in humans as they relate to socio-emotional development. Previously institutionalized (PI) children and a same-aged comparison group were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an Emotional Face Go/Nogo…

The effect of acute citalopram on face emotion processing in remitted depression: a pharmacoMRI study.

PubMed

Anderson, Ian M; Juhasz, Gabriella; Thomas, Emma; Downey, Darragh; McKie, Shane; Deakin, J F William; Elliott, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Both reduced serotonergic (5-HT) function and negative emotional biases have been associated with vulnerability to depression. In order to investigate whether these might be related we examined 5-HT modulation of affective processing in 14 remitted depressed subjects compared with 12 never depressed controls matched for age and sex. Participants underwent function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a covert face emotion task with and without intravenous citalopram (7.5mg) pretreatment. Compared with viewing neutral faces, and irrespective of group, citalopram enhanced left anterior cingulate blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response to happy faces, right posterior insula and right lateral orbitofrontal responses to sad faces, and reduced amygdala responses bilaterally to fearful faces. In controls, relative to remitted depressed subjects, citalopram increased bilateral hippocampal responses to happy faces and increased right anterior insula response to sad faces. These findings were not accounted for by changes in BOLD responses to viewing neutral faces. These results are consistent with previous findings showing 5-HT modulation of affective processing; differences found in previously depressed participants compared with controls may contribute to emotional processing biases underlying vulnerability to depressive relapse. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

The changing landscape of functional brain networks for face processing in typical development.

PubMed

Joseph, Jane E; Swearingen, Joshua E; Clark, Jonathan D; Benca, Chelsie E; Collins, Heather R; Corbly, Christine R; Gathers, Ann D; Bhatt, Ramesh S

2012-11-15

Greater expertise for faces in adults than in children may be achieved by a dynamic interplay of functional segregation and integration of brain regions throughout development. The present study examined developmental changes in face network functional connectivity in children (5-12 years) and adults (18-43 years) during face-viewing using a graph-theory approach. A face-specific developmental change involved connectivity of the right occipital face area. During childhood, this node increased in strength and within-module clustering based on positive connectivity. These changes reflect an important role of the ROFA in segregation of function during childhood. In addition, strength and diversity of connections within a module that included primary visual areas (left and right calcarine) and limbic regions (left hippocampus and right inferior orbitofrontal cortex) increased from childhood to adulthood, reflecting increased visuo-limbic integration. This integration was pronounced for faces but also emerged for natural objects. Taken together, the primary face-specific developmental changes involved segregation of a posterior visual module during childhood, possibly implicated in early stage perceptual face processing, and greater integration of visuo-limbic connections from childhood to adulthood, which may reflect processing related to development of perceptual expertise for individuation of faces and other visually homogenous categories. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differential Amygdala Response to Lower Face in Patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishitobi, Makoto; Kosaka, Hirotaka; Omori, Masao; Matsumura, Yukiko; Munesue, Toshio; Mizukami, Kimiko; Shimoyama, Tomohiro; Murata, Tetsuhito; Sadato, Norihiro; Okazawa, Hidehiko; Wada, Yuji

2011-01-01

Much functional neuroimaging evidence indicates that autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate marked brain abnormalities in face processing. Most of these findings were obtained from studies using tasks related to whole faces. However, individuals with ASD tend to rely more on individual parts of the face for identification than on the…

Guanfacine modulates the influence of emotional cues on prefrontal cortex activation for cognitive control.

PubMed

Schulz, Kurt P; Clerkin, Suzanne M; Fan, Jin; Halperin, Jeffrey M; Newcorn, Jeffrey H

2013-03-01

Functional interactions between limbic regions that process emotions and frontal networks that guide response functions provide a substrate for emotional cues to influence behavior. Stimulation of postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptors enhances the function of prefrontal regions in these networks. However, the impact of this stimulation on the emotional biasing of behavior has not been established. This study tested the effect of the postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine on the emotional biasing of response execution and inhibition in prefrontal cortex. Fifteen healthy young adults were scanned twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a face emotion go/no-go task following counterbalanced administration of single doses of oral guanfacine (1 mg) and placebo in a double-blind, cross-over design. Lower perceptual sensitivity and less response bias for sad faces resulted in fewer correct responses compared to happy and neutral faces but had no effect on correct inhibitions. Guanfacine increased the sensitivity and bias selectively for sad faces, resulting in response accuracy comparable to happy and neutral faces, and reversed the valence-dependent variation in response-related activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), resulting in enhanced activation for response execution cued by sad faces relative to happy and neutral faces, in line with other frontoparietal regions. These results provide evidence that guanfacine stimulation of postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptors moderates DLPFC activation associated with the emotional biasing of response execution processes. The findings have implications for the α₂ adrenoceptor agonist treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Functional selectivity for face processing in the temporal voice area of early deaf individuals

PubMed Central

van Ackeren, Markus J.; Rabini, Giuseppe; Zonca, Joshua; Foa, Valentina; Baruffaldi, Francesca; Rezk, Mohamed; Pavani, Francesco; Rossion, Bruno; Collignon, Olivier

2017-01-01

Brain systems supporting face and voice processing both contribute to the extraction of important information for social interaction (e.g., person identity). How does the brain reorganize when one of these channels is absent? Here, we explore this question by combining behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures (magneto-encephalography and functional imaging) in a group of early deaf humans. We show enhanced selective neural response for faces and for individual face coding in a specific region of the auditory cortex that is typically specialized for voice perception in hearing individuals. In this region, selectivity to face signals emerges early in the visual processing hierarchy, shortly after typical face-selective responses in the ventral visual pathway. Functional and effective connectivity analyses suggest reorganization in long-range connections from early visual areas to the face-selective temporal area in individuals with early and profound deafness. Altogether, these observations demonstrate that regions that typically specialize for voice processing in the hearing brain preferentially reorganize for face processing in born-deaf people. Our results support the idea that cross-modal plasticity in the case of early sensory deprivation relates to the original functional specialization of the reorganized brain regions. PMID:28652333

Metacognitive Awareness of Facial Affect in Higher-Functioning Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMahon, Camilla M.; Henderson, Heather A.; Newell, Lisa; Jaime, Mark; Mundy, Peter

2016-01-01

Higher-functioning participants with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) viewed a series of face stimuli, made decisions regarding the affect of each face, and indicated their confidence in each decision. Confidence significantly predicted accuracy across all participants, but this relation was stronger for participants with typical…

Non-verbal emotion communication training induces specific changes in brain function and structure

PubMed Central

Kreifelts, Benjamin; Jacob, Heike; Brück, Carolin; Erb, Michael; Ethofer, Thomas; Wildgruber, Dirk

2013-01-01

The perception of emotional cues from voice and face is essential for social interaction. However, this process is altered in various psychiatric conditions along with impaired social functioning. Emotion communication trainings have been demonstrated to improve social interaction in healthy individuals and to reduce emotional communication deficits in psychiatric patients. Here, we investigated the impact of a non-verbal emotion communication training (NECT) on cerebral activation and brain structure in a controlled and combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and voxel-based morphometry study. NECT-specific reductions in brain activity occurred in a distributed set of brain regions including face and voice processing regions as well as emotion processing- and motor-related regions presumably reflecting training-induced familiarization with the evaluation of face/voice stimuli. Training-induced changes in non-verbal emotion sensitivity at the behavioral level and the respective cerebral activation patterns were correlated in the face-selective cortical areas in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus for valence ratings and in the temporal pole, lateral prefrontal cortex and midbrain/thalamus for the response times. A NECT-induced increase in gray matter (GM) volume was observed in the fusiform face area. Thus, NECT induces both functional and structural plasticity in the face processing system as well as functional plasticity in the emotion perception and evaluation system. We propose that functional alterations are presumably related to changes in sensory tuning in the decoding of emotional expressions. Taken together, these findings highlight that the present experimental design may serve as a valuable tool to investigate the altered behavioral and neuronal processing of emotional cues in psychiatric disorders as well as the impact of therapeutic interventions on brain function and structure. PMID:24146641

Non-verbal emotion communication training induces specific changes in brain function and structure.

PubMed

Kreifelts, Benjamin; Jacob, Heike; Brück, Carolin; Erb, Michael; Ethofer, Thomas; Wildgruber, Dirk

2013-01-01

The perception of emotional cues from voice and face is essential for social interaction. However, this process is altered in various psychiatric conditions along with impaired social functioning. Emotion communication trainings have been demonstrated to improve social interaction in healthy individuals and to reduce emotional communication deficits in psychiatric patients. Here, we investigated the impact of a non-verbal emotion communication training (NECT) on cerebral activation and brain structure in a controlled and combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and voxel-based morphometry study. NECT-specific reductions in brain activity occurred in a distributed set of brain regions including face and voice processing regions as well as emotion processing- and motor-related regions presumably reflecting training-induced familiarization with the evaluation of face/voice stimuli. Training-induced changes in non-verbal emotion sensitivity at the behavioral level and the respective cerebral activation patterns were correlated in the face-selective cortical areas in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus for valence ratings and in the temporal pole, lateral prefrontal cortex and midbrain/thalamus for the response times. A NECT-induced increase in gray matter (GM) volume was observed in the fusiform face area. Thus, NECT induces both functional and structural plasticity in the face processing system as well as functional plasticity in the emotion perception and evaluation system. We propose that functional alterations are presumably related to changes in sensory tuning in the decoding of emotional expressions. Taken together, these findings highlight that the present experimental design may serve as a valuable tool to investigate the altered behavioral and neuronal processing of emotional cues in psychiatric disorders as well as the impact of therapeutic interventions on brain function and structure.

Brain Signals of Face Processing as Revealed by Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Olivares, Ela I.; Iglesias, Jaime; Saavedra, Cristina; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J.; Valdés-Sosa, Mitchell

2015-01-01

We analyze the functional significance of different event-related potentials (ERPs) as electrophysiological indices of face perception and face recognition, according to cognitive and neurofunctional models of face processing. Initially, the processing of faces seems to be supported by early extrastriate occipital cortices and revealed by modulations of the occipital P1. This early response is thought to reflect the detection of certain primary structural aspects indicating the presence grosso modo of a face within the visual field. The posterior-temporal N170 is more sensitive to the detection of faces as complex-structured stimuli and, therefore, to the presence of its distinctive organizational characteristics prior to within-category identification. In turn, the relatively late and probably more rostrally generated N250r and N400-like responses might respectively indicate processes of access and retrieval of face-related information, which is stored in long-term memory (LTM). New methods of analysis of electrophysiological and neuroanatomical data, namely, dynamic causal modeling, single-trial and time-frequency analyses, are highly recommended to advance in the knowledge of those brain mechanisms concerning face processing. PMID:26160999

The Effects of Face Expertise Training on the Behavioral Performance and Brain Activity of Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faja, Susan; Webb, Sara Jane; Jones, Emily; Merkle, Kristen; Kamara, Dana; Bavaro, Joshua; Aylward, Elizabeth; Dawson, Geraldine

2012-01-01

The effect of expertise training with faces was studied in adults with ASD who showed initial impairment in face recognition. Participants were randomly assigned to a computerized training program involving either faces or houses. Pre- and post-testing included standardized and experimental measures of behavior and event-related brain potentials…

Distinct spatial frequency sensitivities for processing faces and emotional expressions.

PubMed

Vuilleumier, Patrik; Armony, Jorge L; Driver, Jon; Dolan, Raymond J

2003-06-01

High and low spatial frequency information in visual images is processed by distinct neural channels. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans, we show dissociable roles of such visual channels for processing faces and emotional fearful expressions. Neural responses in fusiform cortex, and effects of repeating the same face identity upon fusiform activity, were greater with intact or high-spatial-frequency face stimuli than with low-frequency faces, regardless of emotional expression. In contrast, amygdala responses to fearful expressions were greater for intact or low-frequency faces than for high-frequency faces. An activation of pulvinar and superior colliculus by fearful expressions occurred specifically with low-frequency faces, suggesting that these subcortical pathways may provide coarse fear-related inputs to the amygdala.

Sensitive periods for the functional specialization of the neural system for human face processing.

PubMed

Röder, Brigitte; Ley, Pia; Shenoy, Bhamy H; Kekunnaya, Ramesh; Bottari, Davide

2013-10-15

The aim of the study was to identify possible sensitive phases in the development of the processing system for human faces. We tested the neural processing of faces in 11 humans who had been blind from birth and had undergone cataract surgery between 2 mo and 14 y of age. Pictures of faces and houses, scrambled versions of these pictures, and pictures of butterflies were presented while event-related potentials were recorded. Participants had to respond to the pictures of butterflies (targets) only. All participants, even those who had been blind from birth for several years, were able to categorize the pictures and to detect the targets. In healthy controls and in a group of visually impaired individuals with a history of developmental or incomplete congenital cataracts, the well-known enhancement of the N170 (negative peak around 170 ms) event-related potential to faces emerged, but a face-sensitive response was not observed in humans with a history of congenital dense cataracts. By contrast, this group showed a similar N170 response to all visual stimuli, which was indistinguishable from the N170 response to faces in the controls. The face-sensitive N170 response has been associated with the structural encoding of faces. Therefore, these data provide evidence for the hypothesis that the functional differentiation of category-specific neural representations in humans, presumably involving the elaboration of inhibitory circuits, is dependent on experience and linked to a sensitive period. Such functional specialization of neural systems seems necessary to archive high processing proficiency.

Brain activation while forming memories of fearful and neutral faces in women and men.

PubMed

Fischer, Håkan; Sandblom, Johan; Nyberg, Lars; Herlitz, Agneta; Bäckman, Lars

2007-11-01

Event-related functional MRI (fMRI) was used to assess brain activity during encoding of fearful and neutral faces in 12 women and 12 men. In a subsequent memory analysis, the authors separated successful from unsuccessful encoding of both types of faces, based on whether they were remembered or forgotten in a later recognition memory test. Overall, women and men recruited overlapping neural circuitries. Both sexes activated right-sided medial-temporal regions during successful encoding of fearful faces. Successful encoding of neutral faces was associated with left-sided lateral prefrontal and right-sided superior frontal activation in both sexes. In women, relatively greater encoding related activity for neutral faces was seen in the superior parietal and parahippocampal cortices. By contrast, men activated the left and right superior/middle frontal cortex more than women during successful encoding of the same neutral faces. These findings suggest that women and men use similar neural networks to encode facial information, with only subtle sex differences observed for neutral faces.

[Face recognition in patients with autism spectrum disorders].

PubMed

Kita, Yosuke; Inagaki, Masumi

2012-07-01

The present study aimed to review previous research conducted on face recognition in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Face recognition is a key question in the ASD research field because it can provide clues for elucidating the neural substrates responsible for the social impairment of these patients. Historically, behavioral studies have reported low performance and/or unique strategies of face recognition among ASD patients. However, the performance and strategy of ASD patients is comparable to those of the control group, depending on the experimental situation or developmental stage, suggesting that face recognition of ASD patients is not entirely impaired. Recent brain function studies, including event-related potential and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, have investigated the cognitive process of face recognition in ASD patients, and revealed impaired function in the brain's neural network comprising the fusiform gyrus and amygdala. This impaired function is potentially involved in the diminished preference for faces, and in the atypical development of face recognition, eliciting symptoms of unstable behavioral characteristics in these patients. Additionally, face recognition in ASD patients is examined from a different perspective, namely self-face recognition, and facial emotion recognition. While the former topic is intimately linked to basic social abilities such as self-other discrimination, the latter is closely associated with mentalizing. Further research on face recognition in ASD patients should investigate the connection between behavioral and neurological specifics in these patients, by considering developmental changes and the spectrum clinical condition of ASD.

What Aspects of Face Processing Are Impaired in Developmental Prosopagnosia?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Le Grand, Richard; Cooper, Philip A.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Lewis, Terri L.; Sagiv, Noam; de Gelder, Beatrice; Maurer, Daphne

2006-01-01

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a severe impairment in identifying faces that is present from early in life and that occurs despite no apparent brain damage and intact visual and intellectual function. Here, we investigated what aspects of face processing are impaired/spared in developmental prosopagnosia by examining a relatively large group…

Effects of Aging on the Neural Correlates of Successful Item and Source Memory Encoding

PubMed Central

Dennis, Nancy A.; Hayes, Scott M.; Prince, Steven E.; Madden, David J.; Huettel, Scott A.; Cabeza, Roberto

2009-01-01

To investigate the neural basis of age-related source memory (SM) deficits, young and older adults were scanned with fMRI while encoding faces, scenes, and face-scene pairs. Successful encoding activity was identified by comparing encoding activity for subsequently remembered versus forgotten items or pairs. Age deficits in successful encoding activity in hippocampal and prefrontal regions were more pronounced for SM (pairs) compared to item memory (faces and scenes). Age-related reductions were also found in regions specialized in processing faces (fusiform face area) and scenes (parahippocampal place area), but these reductions were similar for item and SM. Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain was also affected by aging; whereas connections with posterior cortices were weaker in older adults, connections with anterior cortices including prefrontal regions were stronger in older adults. Taken together, the results provide a link between SM deficits in older adults and reduced recruitment of hippocampal and prefrontal regions during encoding. The functional connectivity findings are consistent with a posterior-anterior shift with aging (PASA), previously reported in several cognitive domains and linked to functional compensation. PMID:18605869

Encoding deficit during face processing within the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Walther, Sebastian; Federspiel, Andrea; Horn, Helge; Bianchi, Piero; Wiest, Roland; Wirth, Miranka; Strik, Werner; Müller, Thomas Jörg

2009-06-30

Face processing is crucial to social interaction, but is impaired in schizophrenia patients, who experience delays in face recognition, difficulties identifying others, and misperceptions of affective content. The right fusiform face area plays an important role in the early stages of human face processing and thus may be affected in schizophrenia. The aim of the study was therefore to investigate whether face processing deficits are related to dysfunctions of the right fusiform face area in schizophrenia patients compared with controls. In a rapid, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, we investigated the encoding of new faces, as well as the recognition of newly learned, famous, and unfamiliar faces, in 13 schizophrenia patients and 21 healthy controls. We applied region of interest analysis to each individual's right fusiform face area and tested for group differences. Controls displayed higher blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activation during the memorization of faces that were later successfully recognized. In schizophrenia patients, this effect was not observed. During the recognition task, schizophrenia patients exhibited lower BOLD responses, less accuracy, and longer reaction times to famous and unfamiliar faces. Our results support the hypothesis that impaired face processing in schizophrenia is related to early-stage deficits during the encoding and recognition of faces.

Handedness is related to neural mechanisms underlying hemispheric lateralization of face processing

PubMed Central

Frässle, Stefan; Krach, Sören; Paulus, Frieder Michel; Jansen, Andreas

2016-01-01

While the right-hemispheric lateralization of the face perception network is well established, recent evidence suggests that handedness affects the cerebral lateralization of face processing at the hierarchical level of the fusiform face area (FFA). However, the neural mechanisms underlying differential hemispheric lateralization of face perception in right- and left-handers are largely unknown. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for fMRI, we aimed to unravel the putative processes that mediate handedness-related differences by investigating the effective connectivity in the bilateral core face perception network. Our results reveal an enhanced recruitment of the left FFA in left-handers compared to right-handers, as evidenced by more pronounced face-specific modulatory influences on both intra- and interhemispheric connections. As structural and physiological correlates of handedness-related differences in face processing, right- and left-handers varied with regard to their gray matter volume in the left fusiform gyrus and their pupil responses to face stimuli. Overall, these results describe how handedness is related to the lateralization of the core face perception network, and point to different neural mechanisms underlying face processing in right- and left-handers. In a wider context, this demonstrates the entanglement of structurally and functionally remote brain networks, suggesting a broader underlying process regulating brain lateralization. PMID:27250879

Handedness is related to neural mechanisms underlying hemispheric lateralization of face processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frässle, Stefan; Krach, Sören; Paulus, Frieder Michel; Jansen, Andreas

2016-06-01

While the right-hemispheric lateralization of the face perception network is well established, recent evidence suggests that handedness affects the cerebral lateralization of face processing at the hierarchical level of the fusiform face area (FFA). However, the neural mechanisms underlying differential hemispheric lateralization of face perception in right- and left-handers are largely unknown. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for fMRI, we aimed to unravel the putative processes that mediate handedness-related differences by investigating the effective connectivity in the bilateral core face perception network. Our results reveal an enhanced recruitment of the left FFA in left-handers compared to right-handers, as evidenced by more pronounced face-specific modulatory influences on both intra- and interhemispheric connections. As structural and physiological correlates of handedness-related differences in face processing, right- and left-handers varied with regard to their gray matter volume in the left fusiform gyrus and their pupil responses to face stimuli. Overall, these results describe how handedness is related to the lateralization of the core face perception network, and point to different neural mechanisms underlying face processing in right- and left-handers. In a wider context, this demonstrates the entanglement of structurally and functionally remote brain networks, suggesting a broader underlying process regulating brain lateralization.

The effect of face inversion for neurons inside and outside fMRI-defined face-selective cortical regions

PubMed Central

Van Belle, Goedele; Vanduffel, Wim; Rossion, Bruno; Vogels, Rufin

2014-01-01

It is widely believed that face processing in the primate brain occurs in a network of category-selective cortical regions. Combined functional MRI (fMRI)-single-cell recording studies in macaques have identified high concentrations of neurons that respond more to faces than objects within face-selective patches. However, cells with a preference for faces over objects are also found scattered throughout inferior temporal (IT) cortex, raising the question whether face-selective cells inside and outside of the face patches differ functionally. Here, we compare the properties of face-selective cells inside and outside of face-selective patches in the IT cortex by means of an image manipulation that reliably disrupts behavior toward face processing: inversion. We recorded IT neurons from two fMRI-defined face-patches (ML and AL) and a region outside of the face patches (herein labeled OUT) during upright and inverted face stimulation. Overall, turning faces upside down reduced the firing rate of face-selective cells. However, there were differences among the recording regions. First, the reduced neuronal response for inverted faces was independent of stimulus position, relative to fixation, in the face-selective patches (ML and AL) only. Additionally, the effect of inversion for face-selective cells in ML, but not those in AL or OUT, was impervious to whether the neurons were initially searched for using upright or inverted stimuli. Collectively, these results show that face-selective cells differ in their functional characteristics depending on their anatomicofunctional location, suggesting that upright faces are preferably coded by face-selective cells inside but not outside of the fMRI-defined face-selective regions of the posterior IT cortex. PMID:25520434

Orbitofrontal and hippocampal contributions to memory for face-name associations: the rewarding power of a smile.

PubMed

Tsukiura, Takashi; Cabeza, Roberto

2008-01-01

Memory processes can be enhanced by reward, and social signals such a smiling face can be rewarding to humans. Using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), we investigated the rewarding effect of a simple smile during the encoding and retrieval of face-name associations. During encoding, participants viewed smiling or neutral faces, each paired with a name, and during retrieval, only names were presented, and participants retrieved the associated facial expressions. Successful memory activity of face-name associations was identified by comparing remembered vs. forgotten trials during both encoding and retrieval, and the effect of a smile was identified by comparing successful memory trials for smiling vs. neutral faces. The study yielded three main findings. First, behavioral results showed that the retrieval of face-name associations was more accurate and faster for smiling than neutral faces. Second, the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus showed successful encoding and retrieval activations, which were greater for smiling than neutral faces. Third, functional connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus during successful encoding and retrieval was stronger for smiling than neutral faces. As a part of the reward system, the orbitofrontal cortex may modulate memory processes of face-name associations mediated by the hippocampus. Interestingly, the effect of a smile during retrieval was found even though only names were presented as retrieval cues, suggesting that the effect was mediated by face imagery. Taken together, the results demonstrate how rewarding social signals from a smiling face can enhance relational memory for face-name associations.

A comparison of facial color pattern and gazing behavior in canid species suggests gaze communication in gray wolves (Canis lupus).

PubMed

Ueda, Sayoko; Kumagai, Gaku; Otaki, Yusuke; Yamaguchi, Shinya; Kohshima, Shiro

2014-01-01

As facial color pattern around the eyes has been suggested to serve various adaptive functions related to the gaze signal, we compared the patterns among 25 canid species, focusing on the gaze signal, to estimate the function of facial color pattern in these species. The facial color patterns of the studied species could be categorized into the following three types based on contrast indices relating to the gaze signal: A-type (both pupil position in the eye outline and eye position in the face are clear), B-type (only the eye position is clear), and C-type (both the pupil and eye position are unclear). A-type faces with light-colored irises were observed in most studied species of the wolf-like clade and some of the red fox-like clade. A-type faces tended to be observed in species living in family groups all year-round, whereas B-type faces tended to be seen in solo/pair-living species. The duration of gazing behavior during which the facial gaze-signal is displayed to the other individual was longest in gray wolves with typical A-type faces, of intermediate length in fennec foxes with typical B-type faces, and shortest in bush dogs with typical C-type faces. These results suggest that the facial color pattern of canid species is related to their gaze communication and that canids with A-type faces, especially gray wolves, use the gaze signal in conspecific communication.

Facial anatomy.

PubMed

Marur, Tania; Tuna, Yakup; Demirci, Selman

2014-01-01

Dermatologic problems of the face affect both function and aesthetics, which are based on complex anatomical features. Treating dermatologic problems while preserving the aesthetics and functions of the face requires knowledge of normal anatomy. When performing successfully invasive procedures of the face, it is essential to understand its underlying topographic anatomy. This chapter presents the anatomy of the facial musculature and neurovascular structures in a systematic way with some clinically important aspects. We describe the attachments of the mimetic and masticatory muscles and emphasize their functions and nerve supply. We highlight clinically relevant facial topographic anatomy by explaining the course and location of the sensory and motor nerves of the face and facial vasculature with their relations. Additionally, this chapter reviews the recent nomenclature of the branching pattern of the facial artery. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deficits in Cross-Race Face Learning: Insights From Eye Movements and Pupillometry

PubMed Central

Goldinger, Stephen D.; He, Yi; Papesh, Megan H.

2010-01-01

The own-race bias (ORB) is a well-known finding wherein people are better able to recognize and discriminate own-race faces, relative to cross-race faces. In 2 experiments, participants viewed Asian and Caucasian faces, in preparation for recognition memory tests, while their eye movements and pupil diameters were continuously monitored. In Experiment 1 (with Caucasian participants), systematic differences emerged in both measures as a function of depicted race: While encoding cross-race faces, participants made fewer (and longer) fixations, they preferentially attended to different sets of features, and their pupils were more dilated, all relative to own-race faces. Also, in both measures, a pattern emerged wherein some participants reduced their apparent encoding effort to cross-race faces over trials. In Experiment 2 (with Asian participants), the authors observed the same patterns, although the ORB favored the opposite set of faces. Taken together, the results suggest that the ORB appears during initial perceptual encoding. Relative to own-race face encoding, cross-race encoding requires greater effort, which may reduce vigilance in some participants. PMID:19686008

Guanfacine Modulates the Emotional Biasing of Amygdala-Prefrontal Connectivity for Cognitive Control

PubMed Central

Schulz, Kurt P.; Clerkin, Suzanne M.; Newcorn, Jeffrey H.; Halperin, Jeffrey M.; Fan, Jin

2014-01-01

Functional interactions between amygdala and prefrontal cortex provide a cortical entry point for emotional cues to bias cognitive control. Stimulation of α2 adrenoceptors enhances the prefrontal control functions and blocks the amygdala-dependent encoding of emotional cues. However, the impact of this stimulation on amygdala-prefrontal interactions and the emotional biasing of cognitive control have not been established. We tested the effect of the α2 adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine on psychophysiological interactions of amygdala with prefrontal cortex for the emotional biasing of response execution and inhibition. Fifteen healthy adults were scanned twice with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing an emotional go/no-go task following administration of oral guanfacine (1 mg) and placebo in a double-blind, counterbalanced design. Happy, sad, and neutral faces served as trial cues. Guanfacine moderated the effect of face emotion on the task-related functional connectivity of left and right amygdala with left inferior frontal gyrus compared to placebo, by selectively reversing the functional co-activation of the two regions for response execution cued by sad faces. This shift from positively to negatively correlated activation for guanfacine was associated with selective improvements in the relatively low accuracy of responses to sad faces seen for placebo. These results demonstrate the importance of functional interactions between amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus to both bottom-up biasing of cognitive control and top-down control of emotional processing, as well as for the α2 adrenoceptor-mediated modulation of these processes. These mechanisms offer a possibile method to address the emotional reactivity that is common to several psychiatric disorders. PMID:25059532

Face recognition in age related macular degeneration: perceived disability, measured disability, and performance with a bioptic device.

PubMed

Tejeria, L; Harper, R A; Artes, P H; Dickinson, C M

2002-09-01

(1) To explore the relation between performance on tasks of familiar face recognition (FFR) and face expression difference discrimination (FED) with both perceived disability in face recognition and clinical measures of visual function in subjects with age related macular degeneration (AMD). (2) To quantify the gain in performance for face recognition tasks when subjects use a bioptic telescopic low vision device. 30 subjects with AMD (age range 66-90 years; visual acuity 0.4-1.4 logMAR) were recruited for the study. Perceived (self rated) disability in face recognition was assessed by an eight item questionnaire covering a range of issues relating to face recognition. Visual functions measured were distance visual acuity (ETDRS logMAR charts), continuous text reading acuity (MNRead charts), contrast sensitivity (Pelli-Robson chart), and colour vision (large panel D-15). In the FFR task, images of famous people had to be identified. FED was assessed by a forced choice test where subjects had to decide which one of four images showed a different facial expression. These tasks were repeated with subjects using a bioptic device. Overall perceived disability in face recognition did not correlate with performance on either task, although a specific item on difficulty recognising familiar faces did correlate with FFR (r = 0.49, p<0.05). FFR performance was most closely related to distance acuity (r = -0.69, p<0.001), while FED performance was most closely related to continuous text reading acuity (r = -0.79, p<0.001). In multiple regression, neither contrast sensitivity nor colour vision significantly increased the explained variance. When using a bioptic telescope, FFR performance improved in 86% of subjects (median gain = 49%; p<0.001), while FED performance increased in 79% of subjects (median gain = 50%; p<0.01). Distance and reading visual acuity are closely associated with measured task performance in FFR and FED. A bioptic low vision device can offer a significant improvement in performance for face recognition tasks, and may be useful in reducing the handicap associated with this disability. There is, however, little evidence for a correlation between self rated difficulty in face recognition and measured performance for either task. Further work is needed to explore the complex relation between the perception of disability and measured performance.

Face recognition in age related macular degeneration: perceived disability, measured disability, and performance with a bioptic device

PubMed Central

Tejeria, L; Harper, R A; Artes, P H; Dickinson, C M

2002-01-01

Aims: (1) To explore the relation between performance on tasks of familiar face recognition (FFR) and face expression difference discrimination (FED) with both perceived disability in face recognition and clinical measures of visual function in subjects with age related macular degeneration (AMD). (2) To quantify the gain in performance for face recognition tasks when subjects use a bioptic telescopic low vision device. Methods: 30 subjects with AMD (age range 66–90 years; visual acuity 0.4–1.4 logMAR) were recruited for the study. Perceived (self rated) disability in face recognition was assessed by an eight item questionnaire covering a range of issues relating to face recognition. Visual functions measured were distance visual acuity (ETDRS logMAR charts), continuous text reading acuity (MNRead charts), contrast sensitivity (Pelli-Robson chart), and colour vision (large panel D-15). In the FFR task, images of famous people had to be identified. FED was assessed by a forced choice test where subjects had to decide which one of four images showed a different facial expression. These tasks were repeated with subjects using a bioptic device. Results: Overall perceived disability in face recognition did not correlate with performance on either task, although a specific item on difficulty recognising familiar faces did correlate with FFR (r = 0.49, p<0.05). FFR performance was most closely related to distance acuity (r = −0.69, p<0.001), while FED performance was most closely related to continuous text reading acuity (r = −0.79, p<0.001). In multiple regression, neither contrast sensitivity nor colour vision significantly increased the explained variance. When using a bioptic telescope, FFR performance improved in 86% of subjects (median gain = 49%; p<0.001), while FED performance increased in 79% of subjects (median gain = 50%; p<0.01). Conclusion: Distance and reading visual acuity are closely associated with measured task performance in FFR and FED. A bioptic low vision device can offer a significant improvement in performance for face recognition tasks, and may be useful in reducing the handicap associated with this disability. There is, however, little evidence for a correlation between self rated difficulty in face recognition and measured performance for either task. Further work is needed to explore the complex relation between the perception of disability and measured performance. PMID:12185131

Age-related increase of image-invariance in the fusiform face area.

PubMed

Nordt, Marisa; Semmelmann, Kilian; Genç, Erhan; Weigelt, Sarah

2018-06-01

Face recognition undergoes prolonged development from childhood to adulthood, thereby raising the question which neural underpinnings are driving this development. Here, we address the development of the neural foundation of the ability to recognize a face across naturally varying images. Fourteen children (ages, 7-10) and 14 adults (ages, 20-23) watched images of either the same or different faces in a functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm. The same face was either presented in exact image repetitions or in varying images. Additionally, a subset of participants completed a behavioral task, in which they decided if the face in consecutively presented images belonged to the same person. Results revealed age-related increases in neural sensitivity to face identity in the fusiform face area. Importantly, ventral temporal face-selective regions exhibited more image-invariance - as indicated by stronger adaptation for different images of the same person - in adults compared to children. Crucially, the amount of adaptation to face identity across varying images was correlated with the ability to recognize individual faces in different images. These results suggest that the increase of image-invariance in face-selective regions might be related to the development of face recognition skills. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Seeing the world through non rose-colored glasses: anxiety and the amygdala response to blended expressions

PubMed Central

Bishop, Sonia J.; Aguirre, Geoffrey K.; Nunez-Elizalde, Anwar O.; Toker, Daniel

2015-01-01

Anxious individuals have a greater tendency to categorize faces with ambiguous emotional expressions as fearful (Richards et al., 2002). These behavioral findings might reflect anxiety-related biases in stimulus representation within the human amygdala. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) together with a continuous adaptation design to investigate the representation of faces from three expression continua (surprise-fear, sadness-fear, and surprise-sadness) within the amygdala and other brain regions implicated in face processing. Fifty-four healthy adult participants completed a face expression categorization task. Nineteen of these participants also viewed the same expressions presented using type 1 index 1 sequences while fMRI data were acquired. Behavioral analyses revealed an anxiety-related categorization bias in the surprise-fear continuum alone. Here, elevated anxiety was associated with a more rapid transition from surprise to fear responses as a function of percentage fear in the face presented, leading to increased fear categorizations for faces with a mid-way blend of surprise and fear. fMRI analyses revealed that high trait anxious participants also showed greater representational similarity, as indexed by greater adaptation of the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal, between 50/50 surprise/fear expression blends and faces from the fear end of the surprise-fear continuum in both the right amygdala and right fusiform face area (FFA). No equivalent biases were observed for the other expression continua. These findings suggest that anxiety-related biases in the processing of expressions intermediate between surprise and fear may be linked to differential representation of these stimuli in the amygdala and FFA. The absence of anxiety-related biases for the sad-fear continuum might reflect intermediate expressions from the surprise-fear continuum being most ambiguous in threat-relevance. PMID:25870551

Quantifying interindividual variability and asymmetry of face-selective regions: a probabilistic functional atlas.

PubMed

Zhen, Zonglei; Yang, Zetian; Huang, Lijie; Kong, Xiang-Zhen; Wang, Xu; Dang, Xiaobin; Huang, Yangyue; Song, Yiying; Liu, Jia

2015-06-01

Face-selective regions (FSRs) are among the most widely studied functional regions in the human brain. However, individual variability of the FSRs has not been well quantified. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to localize the FSRs and quantify their spatial and functional variabilities in 202 healthy adults. The occipital face area (OFA), posterior and anterior fusiform face areas (pFFA and aFFA), posterior continuation of the superior temporal sulcus (pcSTS), and posterior and anterior STS (pSTS and aSTS) were delineated for each individual with a semi-automated procedure. A probabilistic atlas was constructed to characterize their interindividual variability, revealing that the FSRs were highly variable in location and extent across subjects. The variability of FSRs was further quantified on both functional (i.e., face selectivity) and spatial (i.e., volume, location of peak activation, and anatomical location) features. Considerable interindividual variability and rightward asymmetry were found in all FSRs on these features. Taken together, our work presents the first effort to characterize comprehensively the variability of FSRs in a large sample of healthy subjects, and invites future work on the origin of the variability and its relation to individual differences in behavioral performance. Moreover, the probabilistic functional atlas will provide an adequate spatial reference for mapping the face network. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Metacognitive Awareness of Facial Affect in Higher-Functioning Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Henderson, Heather A.; Newell, Lisa; Jaime, Mark; Mundy, Peter

2015-01-01

Higher-functioning participants with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) viewed a series of face stimuli, made decisions regarding the affect of each face, and indicated their confidence in each decision. Confidence significantly predicted accuracy across all participants, but this relation was stronger for participants with typical development than participants with ASD. In the hierarchical linear modeling analysis, there were no differences in face processing accuracy between participants with and without ASD, but participants with ASD were more confident in their decisions. These results suggest that individuals with ASD have metacognitive impairments and are overconfident in face processing. Additionally, greater metacognitive awareness was predictive of better face processing accuracy, suggesting that metacognition may be a pivotal skill to teach in interventions. PMID:26496991

Investigating the Influence of Biological Sex on the Behavioral and Neural Basis of Face Recognition

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Abstract There is interest in understanding the influence of biological factors, like sex, on the organization of brain function. We investigated the influence of biological sex on the behavioral and neural basis of face recognition in healthy, young adults. In behavior, there were no sex differences on the male Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT)+ or the female CFMT+ (that we created) and no own-gender bias (OGB) in either group. We evaluated the functional topography of ventral stream organization by measuring the magnitude and functional neural size of 16 individually defined face-, two object-, and two place-related regions bilaterally. There were no sex differences in any of these measures of neural function in any of the regions of interest (ROIs) or in group level comparisons. These findings reveal that men and women have similar category-selective topographic organization in the ventral visual pathway. Next, in a separate task, we measured activation within the 16 face-processing ROIs specifically during recognition of target male and female faces. There were no sex differences in the magnitude of the neural responses in any face-processing region. Furthermore, there was no OGB in the neural responses of either the male or female participants. Our findings suggest that face recognition behavior, including the OGB, is not inherently sexually dimorphic. Face recognition is an essential skill for navigating human social interactions, which is reflected equally in the behavior and neural architecture of men and women. PMID:28497111

Investigating the Influence of Biological Sex on the Behavioral and Neural Basis of Face Recognition.

PubMed

Scherf, K Suzanne; Elbich, Daniel B; Motta-Mena, Natalie V

2017-01-01

There is interest in understanding the influence of biological factors, like sex, on the organization of brain function. We investigated the influence of biological sex on the behavioral and neural basis of face recognition in healthy, young adults. In behavior, there were no sex differences on the male Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT)+ or the female CFMT+ (that we created) and no own-gender bias (OGB) in either group. We evaluated the functional topography of ventral stream organization by measuring the magnitude and functional neural size of 16 individually defined face-, two object-, and two place-related regions bilaterally. There were no sex differences in any of these measures of neural function in any of the regions of interest (ROIs) or in group level comparisons. These findings reveal that men and women have similar category-selective topographic organization in the ventral visual pathway. Next, in a separate task, we measured activation within the 16 face-processing ROIs specifically during recognition of target male and female faces. There were no sex differences in the magnitude of the neural responses in any face-processing region. Furthermore, there was no OGB in the neural responses of either the male or female participants. Our findings suggest that face recognition behavior, including the OGB, is not inherently sexually dimorphic. Face recognition is an essential skill for navigating human social interactions, which is reflected equally in the behavior and neural architecture of men and women.

Exploring the functional architecture of person recognition system with event-related potentials in a within- and cross-domain self-priming of faces.

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Pisani, Michèle; Rousselle, Laurence; Crommelinck, Marc; Bruyer, Raymond

2005-01-01

In this paper, we explored the functional properties of person recognition system by investigating the onset, magnitude, and scalp distribution of within- and cross-domain self-priming effects on event-related potentials (ERPs). Recognition of degraded pictures of famous people was enhanced by a prior exposure to the same person's face (within-domain self-priming) or name (cross-domain self-priming) as compared to those preceded by neutral or unrelated primes. The ERP results showed first that the amplitude of the N170 component to famous face targets was modulated by within- and cross-domain self-priming, suggesting not only that the N170 component can be affected by top-down influences but also that this top-down effect crosses domains. Second, similar to our behavioral data, later ERPs to famous faces showed larger ERP self-priming effects in the within-domain than in the cross-domain condition. In addition, the present data dissociated between two topographically and temporally overlapping priming-sensitive ERP components: the first one, with a strongly posterior distribution arising at an early onset, was modulated more by within-domain priming irrespective whether the repeated face was familiar or not. The second component, with a relatively uniform scalp distribution, was modulated by within- and cross-domain priming of familiar faces. Moreover, there was no evidence for ERP-induced modulations for unfamiliar face targets in the cross-domain condition. Together, our findings suggest that multiple neurocognitive events that are possibly mediated by distinct brain loci contribute to face priming effects.

A Comparison of Facial Color Pattern and Gazing Behavior in Canid Species Suggests Gaze Communication in Gray Wolves (Canis lupus)

PubMed Central

Ueda, Sayoko; Kumagai, Gaku; Otaki, Yusuke; Yamaguchi, Shinya; Kohshima, Shiro

2014-01-01

As facial color pattern around the eyes has been suggested to serve various adaptive functions related to the gaze signal, we compared the patterns among 25 canid species, focusing on the gaze signal, to estimate the function of facial color pattern in these species. The facial color patterns of the studied species could be categorized into the following three types based on contrast indices relating to the gaze signal: A-type (both pupil position in the eye outline and eye position in the face are clear), B-type (only the eye position is clear), and C-type (both the pupil and eye position are unclear). A-type faces with light-colored irises were observed in most studied species of the wolf-like clade and some of the red fox-like clade. A-type faces tended to be observed in species living in family groups all year-round, whereas B-type faces tended to be seen in solo/pair-living species. The duration of gazing behavior during which the facial gaze-signal is displayed to the other individual was longest in gray wolves with typical A-type faces, of intermediate length in fennec foxes with typical B-type faces, and shortest in bush dogs with typical C-type faces. These results suggest that the facial color pattern of canid species is related to their gaze communication and that canids with A-type faces, especially gray wolves, use the gaze signal in conspecific communication. PMID:24918751

Typical and Atypical Development of Functional Connectivity in the Face Network.

PubMed

Song, Yiying; Zhu, Qi; Li, Jingguang; Wang, Xu; Liu, Jia

2015-10-28

Extensive studies have demonstrated that face recognition performance does not reach adult levels until adolescence. However, there is no consensus on whether such prolonged improvement stems from development of general cognitive factors or face-specific mechanisms. Here, we used behavioral experiments and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate these two hypotheses. With a large cohort of children (n = 379), we found that the ability of face-specific recognition in humans increased with age throughout childhood and into late adolescence in both face memory and face perception. Neurally, to circumvent the potential problem of age differences in task performance, attention, or cognitive strategies in task-state fMRI studies, we measured the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the occipital face area (OFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) in human brain and found that the OFA-FFA RSFC increased until 11-13 years of age. Moreover, the OFA-FFA RSFC was selectively impaired in adults with developmental prosopagnosia (DP). In contrast, no age-related changes or differences between DP and normal adults were observed for RSFCs in the object system. Finally, the OFA-FFA RSFC matured earlier than face selectivity in either the OFA or FFA. These results suggest the critical role of the OFA-FFA RSFC in the development of face recognition. Together, our findings support the hypothesis that prolonged development of face recognition is face specific, not domain general. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3514624-12$15.00/0.

Emotional face processing and flat affect in schizophrenia: functional and structural neural correlates.

PubMed

Lepage, M; Sergerie, K; Benoit, A; Czechowska, Y; Dickie, E; Armony, J L

2011-09-01

There is a general consensus in the literature that schizophrenia causes difficulties with facial emotion perception and discrimination. Functional brain imaging studies have observed reduced limbic activity during facial emotion perception but few studies have examined the relation to flat affect severity. A total of 26 people with schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls took part in this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Sad, happy and neutral faces were presented in a pseudo-random order and participants indicated the gender of the face presented. Manual segmentation of the amygdala was performed on a structural T1 image. Both the schizophrenia group and the healthy control group rated the emotional valence of facial expressions similarly. Both groups exhibited increased brain activity during the perception of emotional faces relative to neutral ones in multiple brain regions, including multiple prefrontal regions bilaterally, the right amygdala, right cingulate cortex and cuneus. Group comparisons, however, revealed increased activity in the healthy group in the anterior cingulate, right parahippocampal gyrus and multiple visual areas. In schizophrenia, the severity of flat affect correlated significantly with neural activity in several brain areas including the amygdala and parahippocampal region bilaterally. These results suggest that many of the brain regions involved in emotional face perception, including the amygdala, are equally recruited in both schizophrenia and controls, but flat affect can also moderate activity in some other brain regions, notably in the left amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus bilaterally. There were no significant group differences in the volume of the amygdala.

Examining age-related shared variance between face cognition, vision, and self-reported physical health: a test of the common cause hypothesis for social cognition

PubMed Central

Olderbak, Sally; Hildebrandt, Andrea; Wilhelm, Oliver

2015-01-01

The shared decline in cognitive abilities, sensory functions (e.g., vision and hearing), and physical health with increasing age is well documented with some research attributing this shared age-related decline to a single common cause (e.g., aging brain). We evaluate the extent to which the common cause hypothesis predicts associations between vision and physical health with social cognition abilities specifically face perception and face memory. Based on a sample of 443 adults (17–88 years old), we test a series of structural equation models, including Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) models, and estimate the extent to which vision and self-reported physical health are related to face perception and face memory through a common factor, before and after controlling for their fluid cognitive component and the linear effects of age. Results suggest significant shared variance amongst these constructs, with a common factor explaining some, but not all, of the shared age-related variance. Also, we found that the relations of face perception, but not face memory, with vision and physical health could be completely explained by fluid cognition. Overall, results suggest that a single common cause explains most, but not all age-related shared variance with domain specific aging mechanisms evident. PMID:26321998

Abnormal activation of the social brain during face perception in autism.

PubMed

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Joseph, Robert M; Snyder, Josh; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2007-05-01

ASD involves a fundamental impairment in processing social-communicative information from faces. Several recent studies have challenged earlier findings that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have no activation of the fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area, FFA) when viewing faces. In this study, we examined activation to faces in the broader network of face-processing modules that comprise what is known as the social brain. Using 3T functional resonance imaging, we measured BOLD signal changes in 10 ASD subjects and 7 healthy controls passively viewing nonemotional faces. We replicated our original findings of significant activation of face identity-processing areas (FFA and inferior occipital gyrus, IOG) in ASD. However, in addition, we identified hypoactivation in a more widely distributed network of brain areas involved in face processing [including the right amygdala, inferior frontal cortex (IFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and face-related somatosensory and premotor cortex]. In ASD, we found functional correlations between a subgroup of areas in the social brain that belong to the mirror neuron system (IFC, STS) and other face-processing areas. The severity of the social symptoms measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule was correlated with the right IFC cortical thickness and with functional activation in that area. When viewing faces, adults with ASD show atypical patterns of activation in regions forming the broader face-processing network and social brain, outside the core FFA and IOG regions. These patterns suggest that areas belonging to the mirror neuron system are involved in the face-processing disturbances in ASD.

Developmental Commonalities between Object and Face Recognition in Adolescence

PubMed Central

Jüttner, Martin; Wakui, Elley; Petters, Dean; Davidoff, Jules

2016-01-01

In the visual perception literature, the recognition of faces has often been contrasted with that of non-face objects, in terms of differences with regard to the role of parts, part relations and holistic processing. However, recent evidence from developmental studies has begun to blur this sharp distinction. We review evidence for a protracted development of object recognition that is reminiscent of the well-documented slow maturation observed for faces. The prolonged development manifests itself in a retarded processing of metric part relations as opposed to that of individual parts and offers surprising parallels to developmental accounts of face recognition, even though the interpretation of the data is less clear with regard to holistic processing. We conclude that such results might indicate functional commonalities between the mechanisms underlying the recognition of faces and non-face objects, which are modulated by different task requirements in the two stimulus domains. PMID:27014176

Repetition suppression of faces is modulated by emotion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishai, Alumit; Pessoa, Luiz; Bikle, Philip C.; Ungerleider, Leslie G.

2004-06-01

Single-unit recordings and functional brain imaging studies have shown reduced neural responses to repeated stimuli in the visual cortex. By using event-related functional MRI, we compared the activation evoked by repetitions of neutral and fearful faces, which were either task relevant (targets) or irrelevant (distracters). We found that within the inferior occipital gyri, lateral fusiform gyri, superior temporal sulci, amygdala, and the inferior frontal gyri/insula, targets evoked stronger responses than distracters and their repetition was associated with significantly reduced responses. Repetition suppression, as manifested by the difference in response amplitude between the first and third repetitions of a target, was stronger for fearful than neutral faces. Distracter faces, regardless of their repetition or valence, evoked negligible activation, indicating top-down attenuation of behaviorally irrelevant stimuli. Our findings demonstrate a three-way interaction between emotional valence, repetition, and task relevance and suggest that repetition suppression is influenced by high-level cognitive processes in the human brain. face perception | functional MRI

Guanfacine modulates the emotional biasing of amygdala-prefrontal connectivity for cognitive control.

PubMed

Schulz, Kurt P; Clerkin, Suzanne M; Newcorn, Jeffrey H; Halperin, Jeffrey M; Fan, Jin

2014-09-01

Functional interactions between amygdala and prefrontal cortex provide a cortical entry point for emotional cues to bias cognitive control. Stimulation of α2 adrenoceptors enhances the prefrontal control functions and blocks the amygdala-dependent encoding of emotional cues. However, the impact of this stimulation on amygdala-prefrontal interactions and the emotional biasing of cognitive control have not been established. We tested the effect of the α2 adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine on psychophysiological interactions of amygdala with prefrontal cortex for the emotional biasing of response execution and inhibition. Fifteen healthy adults were scanned twice with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing an emotional go/no-go task following administration of oral guanfacine (1mg) and placebo in a double-blind, counterbalanced design. Happy, sad, and neutral faces served as trial cues. Guanfacine moderated the effect of face emotion on the task-related functional connectivity of left and right amygdala with left inferior frontal gyrus compared to placebo, by selectively reversing the functional co-activation of the two regions for response execution cued by sad faces. This shift from positively to negatively correlated activation for guanfacine was associated with selective improvements in the relatively low accuracy of responses to sad faces seen for placebo. These results demonstrate the importance of functional interactions between amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus to both bottom-up biasing of cognitive control and top-down control of emotional processing, as well as for the α2 adrenoceptor-mediated modulation of these processes. These mechanisms offer a possibile method to address the emotional reactivity that is common to several psychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Sparsely-distributed organization of face and limb activations in human ventral temporal cortex

PubMed Central

Weiner, Kevin S.; Grill-Spector, Kalanit

2011-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has identified face- and body part-selective regions, as well as distributed activation patterns for object categories across human ventral temporal cortex (VTC), eliciting a debate regarding functional organization in VTC and neural coding of object categories. Using high-resolution fMRI, we illustrate that face- and limb-selective activations alternate in a series of largely nonoverlapping clusters in lateral VTC along the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), fusiform gyrus (FG), and occipitotemporal sulcus (OTS). Both general linear model (GLM) and multivoxel pattern (MVP) analyses show that face- and limb-selective activations minimally overlap and that this organization is consistent across experiments and days. We provide a reliable method to separate two face-selective clusters on the middle and posterior FG (mFus and pFus), and another on the IOG using their spatial relation to limb-selective activations and retinotopic areas hV4, VO-1/2, and hMT+. Furthermore, these activations show a gradient of increasing face selectivity and decreasing limb selectivity from the IOG to the mFus. Finally, MVP analyses indicate that there is differential information for faces in lateral VTC (containing weakly- and highly-selective voxels) relative to non-selective voxels in medial VTC. These findings suggest a sparsely-distributed organization where sparseness refers to the presence of several face- and limb-selective clusters in VTC, and distributed refers to the presence of different amounts of information in highly-, weakly-, and non-selective voxels. Consequently, theories of object recognition should consider the functional and spatial constraints of neural coding across a series of nonoverlapping category-selective clusters that are themselves distributed. PMID:20457261

Cortical deficits of emotional face processing in adults with ADHD: its relation to social cognition and executive function.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Agustin; Petroni, Agustin; Urquina, Hugo; Torrente, Fernando; Torralva, Teresa; Hurtado, Esteban; Guex, Raphael; Blenkmann, Alejandro; Beltrachini, Leandro; Muravchik, Carlos; Baez, Sandra; Cetkovich, Marcelo; Sigman, Mariano; Lischinsky, Alicia; Manes, Facundo

2011-01-01

Although it has been shown that adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impaired social cognition, no previous study has reported the brain correlates of face valence processing. This study looked for behavioral, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological markers of emotion processing for faces (N170) in adult ADHD compared to controls matched by age, gender, educational level, and handedness. We designed an event-related potential (ERP) study based on a dual valence task (DVT), in which faces and words were presented to test the effects of stimulus type (faces, words, or face-word stimuli) and valence (positive versus negative). Individual signatures of cognitive functioning in participants with ADHD and controls were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, including executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). Compared to controls, the adult ADHD group showed deficits in N170 emotion modulation for facial stimuli. These N170 impairments were observed in the absence of any deficit in facial structural processing, suggesting a specific ADHD impairment in early facial emotion modulation. The cortical current density mapping of N170 yielded a main neural source of N170 at posterior section of fusiform gyrus (maximum at left hemisphere for words and right hemisphere for faces and simultaneous stimuli). Neural generators of N170 (fusiform gyrus) were reduced in ADHD. In those patients, N170 emotion processing was associated with performance on an emotional inference ToM task, and N170 from simultaneous stimuli was associated with EF, especially working memory. This is the first report to reveal an adult ADHD-specific impairment in the cortical modulation of emotion for faces and an association between N170 cortical measures and ToM and EF.

Interdependent selves show face-induced facilitation of error processing: cultural neuroscience of self-threat

PubMed Central

Kitayama, Shinobu

2014-01-01

The fundamentally social nature of humans is revealed in their exquisitely high sensitivity to potentially negative evaluations held by others. At present, however, little is known about neurocortical correlates of the response to such social-evaluative threat. Here, we addressed this issue by showing that mere exposure to an image of a watching face is sufficient to automatically evoke a social-evaluative threat for those who are relatively high in interdependent self-construal. Both European American and Asian participants performed a flanker task while primed with a face (vs control) image. The relative increase of the error-related negativity (ERN) in the face (vs control) priming condition became more pronounced as a function of interdependent (vs independent) self-construal. Relative to European Americans, Asians were more interdependent and, as predicted, they showed a reliably stronger ERN in the face (vs control) priming condition. Our findings suggest that the ERN can serve as a robust empirical marker of self-threat that is closely modulated by socio-cultural variables. PMID:23160814

Neural activation to emotional faces in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Weng, Shih-Jen; Carrasco, Melisa; Swartz, Johnna R; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Kurapati, Nikhil; Liberzon, Israel; Risi, Susan; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S

2011-03-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve a core deficit in social functioning and impairments in the ability to recognize face emotions. In an emotional faces task designed to constrain group differences in attention, the present study used functional MRI to characterize activation in the amygdala, ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), and striatum, three structures involved in socio-emotional processing in adolescents with ASD. Twenty-two adolescents with ASD and 20 healthy adolescents viewed facial expressions (happy, fearful, sad and neutral) that were briefly presented (250 ms) during functional MRI acquisition. To monitor attention, subjects pressed a button to identify the gender of each face. The ASD group showed greater activation to the faces relative to the control group in the amygdala, vPFC and striatum. Follow-up analyses indicated that the ASD relative to control group showed greater activation in the amygdala, vPFC and striatum (p < .05 small volume corrected), particularly to sad faces. Moreover, in the ASD group, there was a negative correlation between developmental variables (age and pubertal status) and mean activation from the whole bilateral amygdala; younger adolescents showed greater activation than older adolescents. There were no group differences in accuracy or reaction time in the gender identification task. When group differences in attention to facial expressions were limited, adolescents with ASD showed greater activation in structures involved in socio-emotional processing. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2010 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Fusiform gyrus face selectivity relates to individual differences in facial recognition ability.

PubMed

Furl, Nicholas; Garrido, Lúcia; Dolan, Raymond J; Driver, Jon; Duchaine, Bradley

2011-07-01

Regions of the occipital and temporal lobes, including a region in the fusiform gyrus (FG), have been proposed to constitute a "core" visual representation system for faces, in part because they show face selectivity and face repetition suppression. But recent fMRI studies of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) raise questions about whether these measures relate to face processing skills. Although DPs manifest deficient face processing, most studies to date have not shown unequivocal reductions of functional responses in the proposed core regions. We scanned 15 DPs and 15 non-DP control participants with fMRI while employing factor analysis to derive behavioral components related to face identification or other processes. Repetition suppression specific to facial identities in FG or to expression in FG and STS did not show compelling relationships with face identification ability. However, we identified robust relationships between face selectivity and face identification ability in FG across our sample for several convergent measures, including voxel-wise statistical parametric mapping, peak face selectivity in individually defined "fusiform face areas" (FFAs), and anatomical extents (cluster sizes) of those FFAs. None of these measures showed associations with behavioral expression or object recognition ability. As a group, DPs had reduced face-selective responses in bilateral FFA when compared with non-DPs. Individual DPs were also more likely than non-DPs to lack expected face-selective activity in core regions. These findings associate individual differences in face processing ability with selectivity in core face processing regions. This confirms that face selectivity can provide a valid marker for neural mechanisms that contribute to face identification ability.

Face Coding Is Bilateral in the Female Brain

PubMed Central

Proverbio, Alice Mado; Riva, Federica; Martin, Eleonora; Zani, Alberto

2010-01-01

Background It is currently believed that face processing predominantly activates the right hemisphere in humans, but available literature is very inconsistent. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, ERPs were recorded in 50 right-handed women and men in response to 390 faces (of different age and sex), and 130 technological objects. Results showed no sex difference in the amplitude of N170 to objects; a much larger face-specific response over the right hemisphere in men, and a bilateral response in women; a lack of face-age coding effect over the left hemisphere in men, with no differences in N170 to faces as a function of age; a significant bilateral face-age coding effect in women. Conclusions/Significance LORETA reconstruction showed a significant left and right asymmetry in the activation of the fusiform gyrus (BA19), in women and men, respectively. The present data reveal a lesser degree of lateralization of brain functions related to face coding in women than men. In this light, they may provide an explanation of the inconsistencies in the available literature concerning the asymmetric activity of left and right occipito-temporal cortices devoted to face perception during processing of face identity, structure, familiarity or affective content. PMID:20574528

Face coding is bilateral in the female brain.

PubMed

Proverbio, Alice Mado; Riva, Federica; Martin, Eleonora; Zani, Alberto

2010-06-21

It is currently believed that face processing predominantly activates the right hemisphere in humans, but available literature is very inconsistent. In this study, ERPs were recorded in 50 right-handed women and men in response to 390 faces (of different age and sex), and 130 technological objects. Results showed no sex difference in the amplitude of N170 to objects; a much larger face-specific response over the right hemisphere in men, and a bilateral response in women; a lack of face-age coding effect over the left hemisphere in men, with no differences in N170 to faces as a function of age; a significant bilateral face-age coding effect in women. LORETA reconstruction showed a significant left and right asymmetry in the activation of the fusiform gyrus (BA19), in women and men, respectively. The present data reveal a lesser degree of lateralization of brain functions related to face coding in women than men. In this light, they may provide an explanation of the inconsistencies in the available literature concerning the asymmetric activity of left and right occipito-temporal cortices devoted to face perception during processing of face identity, structure, familiarity or affective content.

Unattended facial expressions asymmetrically bias the concurrent processing of nonemotional information.

PubMed

Maxwell, Jeffrey S; Shackman, Alexander J; Davidson, Richard J

2005-09-01

Planned and reflexive behaviors often occur in the presence of emotional stimuli and within the context of an individual's acute emotional state. Therefore, determining the manner in which emotion and attention interact is an important step toward understanding how we function in the real world. Participants in the current investigation viewed centrally displayed, task-irrelevant, face distractors (angry, neutral, happy) while performing a lateralized go/no-go continuous performance task. Lateralized go targets and no-go lures that did not spatially overlap with the faces were employed to differentially probe processing in the left (LH) and right (RH) cerebral hemispheres. There was a significant interaction between expression and hemisphere, with an overall pattern such that angry distractors were associated with relatively more RH inhibitory errors than neutral or happy distractors and happy distractors with relatively more LH inhibitory errors than angry or neutral distractors. Simple effects analyses confirmed that angry faces differentially interfered with RH relative to LH inhibition and with inhibition in the RH relative to happy faces. A significant three-way interaction further revealed that state anxiety moderated relations between emotional expression and hemisphere. Under conditions of low cognitive load, more intense anxiety was associated with relatively greater RH than LH impairment in the presence of both happy and threatening distractors. By contrast, under high load, only angry distractors produced greater RH than LH interference as a function of anxiety.

Emotional Response Inhibition in Bipolar Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Trait- and State-Related Abnormalities

PubMed Central

Hummer, Tom A.; Hulvershorn, Leslie A.; Karne, Harish S.; Gunn, Abigail D.; Wang, Yang; Anand, Amit

2018-01-01

Background Impaired response inhibition and poor impulse control are hallmarks of the manic phase of bipolar disorder but are also present during depressive and, to a lesser degree, euthymic periods. The neural mechanisms underlying these impairments are poorly understood, including how mechanisms are related to bipolar trait or state effects. Methods One-hundred four unmedicated participants with bipolar mania (BM) (n = 30), bipolar depression (BD) (n = 30), bipolar euthymia (BE) (n = 14), and healthy control subjects (n = 30) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during emotional and nonemotional go/no-go tasks. The go/no-go task requires participants to press a button for go stimuli, while inhibiting the response to no-go trials. In separate blocks, participants inhibited the response to happy faces, sad faces, or letters. Results The BE group had higher insula activity during happy face inhibition and greater activity in left inferior frontal gyrus during sad face inhibition, demonstrating bipolar trait effects. Relative to the BE group, BD and BM groups demonstrated lower insula activity during inhibition of happy faces, though the depressed sample had lower activity than manic patients. The BD and BM groups had a greater response to inhibiting sad faces in emotion processing and regulation regions, including putamen, insula, and lateral prefrontal cortex. The manic group also had higher activity in insula and putamen during neutral letter inhibition. Conclusions These results suggest distinct trait- and state-related neural abnormalities during response inhibition in bipolar disorder, with implications for future research and treatment. PMID:22871393

Individual differences in symptom severity and behavior predict neural activation during face processing in adolescents with autism

PubMed Central

Scherf, K. Suzanne; Elbich, Daniel; Minshew, Nancy; Behrmann, Marlene

2014-01-01

Despite the impressive literature describing atypical neural activation in visuoperceptual face processing regions in autism, almost nothing is known about whether these perturbations extend to more affective regions in the circuitry and whether they bear any relationship to symptom severity or atypical behavior. Using fMRI, we compared face-, object-, and house-related activation in adolescent males with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typically developing (TD) matched controls. HFA adolescents exhibited hypo-activation throughout the core visuoperceptual regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, as well as in some of the affective/motivational face-processing regions, including the posterior cingulate cortex and right anterior temporal lobe. Conclusions about the relative hyper- or hypo-activation of the amygdala depended on the nature of the contrast that was used to define the activation. Individual differences in symptom severity predicted the magnitude of face activation, particularly in the right fusiform gyrus. Also, among the HFA adolescents, face recognition performance predicted the magnitude of face activation in the right anterior temporal lobe, a region that supports face individuation in TD adults. Our findings reveal a systematic relation between the magnitude of neural dysfunction, severity of autism symptoms, and variation in face recognition behavior in adolescents with autism. In so doing, we uncover brain–behavior relations that underlie one of the most prominent social deficits in autism and help resolve discrepancies in the literature. PMID:25610767

Back-Face Strain for Monitoring Stable Crack Extension in Precracked Flexure Specimens

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salem, Jonathan A.; Ghosn, Louis J.

2010-01-01

Calibrations relating back-face strain to crack length in precracked flexure specimens were developed for different strain gage sizes. The functions were verified via experimental compliance measurements of notched and precracked ceramic beams. Good agreement between the functions and experiments occurred, and fracture toughness was calculated via several operational methods: maximum test load and optically measured precrack length; load at 2 percent crack extension and optical precrack length; maximum load and back-face strain crack length. All the methods gave vary comparable results. The initiation toughness, K(sub Ii) , was also estimated from the initial compliance and load.The results demonstrate that stability of precracked ceramics specimens tested in four-point flexure is a common occurrence, and that methods such as remotely-monitored load-point displacement are only adequate for detecting stable extension of relatively deep cracks.

"What" precedes "which": developmental neural tuning in face- and place-related cortex.

PubMed

Scherf, K Suzanne; Luna, Beatriz; Avidan, Galia; Behrmann, Marlene

2011-09-01

Although category-specific activation for faces in the ventral visual pathway appears adult-like in adolescence, recognition abilities for individual faces are still immature. We investigated how the ability to represent "individual" faces and houses develops at the neural level. Category-selective regions of interest (ROIs) for faces in the fusiform gyrus (FG) and for places in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) were identified individually in children, adolescents, and adults. Then, using an functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm, we measured category selectivity and individual-level adaptation for faces and houses in each ROI. Only adults exhibited both category selectivity and individual-level adaptation bilaterally for faces in the FG and for houses in the PPA. Adolescents showed category selectivity bilaterally for faces in the FG and houses in the PPA. Despite this profile of category selectivity, adolescents only exhibited individual-level adaptation for houses bilaterally in the PPA and for faces in the "left" FG. Children only showed category-selective responses for houses in the PPA, and they failed to exhibit category-selective responses for faces in the FG and individual-level adaptation effects anywhere in the brain. These results indicate that category-level neural tuning develops prior to individual-level neural tuning and that face-related cortex is disproportionately slower in this developmental transition than is place-related cortex.

“What” Precedes “Which”: Developmental Neural Tuning in Face- and Place-Related Cortex

PubMed Central

Luna, Beatriz; Avidan, Galia; Behrmann, Marlene

2011-01-01

Although category-specific activation for faces in the ventral visual pathway appears adult-like in adolescence, recognition abilities for individual faces are still immature. We investigated how the ability to represent “individual” faces and houses develops at the neural level. Category-selective regions of interest (ROIs) for faces in the fusiform gyrus (FG) and for places in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) were identified individually in children, adolescents, and adults. Then, using an functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm, we measured category selectivity and individual-level adaptation for faces and houses in each ROI. Only adults exhibited both category selectivity and individual-level adaptation bilaterally for faces in the FG and for houses in the PPA. Adolescents showed category selectivity bilaterally for faces in the FG and houses in the PPA. Despite this profile of category selectivity, adolescents only exhibited individual-level adaptation for houses bilaterally in the PPA and for faces in the “left” FG. Children only showed category-selective responses for houses in the PPA, and they failed to exhibit category-selective responses for faces in the FG and individual-level adaptation effects anywhere in the brain. These results indicate that category-level neural tuning develops prior to individual-level neural tuning and that face-related cortex is disproportionately slower in this developmental transition than is place-related cortex. PMID:21257673

Interference between face and non-face domains of perceptual expertise: a replication and extension

PubMed Central

Curby, Kim M.; Gauthier, Isabel

2014-01-01

As car expertise increases, so does interference between the visual processing of faces and that of cars; this suggests performance trade-offs across domains of real-world expertise. Such interference between expert domains has been previously revealed in a relatively complex design, interleaving 2-back part-judgment task with faces and cars (Gauthier et al., 2003). However, the basis of this interference is unclear. Experiment 1A replicated the finding of interference between faces and cars, as a function of car expertise. Experiments 1B and 2 investigated the mechanisms underlying this effect by (1) providing baseline measures of performance and (2) assessing the specificity of this interference effect. Our findings support the presence of expertise-dependent interference between face and non-face domains of expertise. However, surprisingly, it is in the condition where faces are processed among cars with a disrupted configuration where expertise has a greater influence on faces. This finding highlights how expertise-related processing changes also occur for transformed objects of expertise and that such changes can also drive interference across domains of expertise. PMID:25346702

'Faceness' and affectivity: evidence for genetic contributions to distinct components of electrocortical response to human faces.

PubMed

Shannon, Robert W; Patrick, Christopher J; Venables, Noah C; He, Sheng

2013-12-01

The ability to recognize a variety of different human faces is undoubtedly one of the most important and impressive functions of the human perceptual system. Neuroimaging studies have revealed multiple brain regions (including the FFA, STS, OFA) and electrophysiological studies have identified differing brain event-related potential (ERP) components (e.g., N170, P200) possibly related to distinct types of face information processing. To evaluate the heritability of ERP components associated with face processing, including N170, P200, and LPP, we examined ERP responses to fearful and neutral face stimuli in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins. Concordance levels for early brain response indices of face processing (N170, P200) were found to be stronger for MZ than DZ twins, providing evidence of a heritable basis to each. These findings support the idea that certain key neural mechanisms for face processing are genetically coded. Implications for understanding individual differences in recognition of facial identity and the emotional content of faces are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early life stress and trauma and enhanced limbic activation to emotionally valenced faces in depressed and healthy children.

PubMed

Suzuki, Hideo; Luby, Joan L; Botteron, Kelly N; Dietrich, Rachel; McAvoy, Mark P; Barch, Deanna M

2014-07-01

Previous studies have examined the relationships between structural brain characteristics and early life stress in adults. However, there is limited evidence for functional brain variation associated with early life stress in children. We hypothesized that early life stress and trauma would be associated with increased functional brain activation response to negative emotional faces in children with and without a history of depression. Psychiatric diagnosis and life events in children (starting at age 3-5 years) were assessed in a longitudinal study. A follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study acquired data (N = 115 at ages 7-12, 51% girls) on functional brain response to fearful, sad, and happy faces relative to neutral faces. We used a region-of-interest mask within cortico-limbic areas and conducted regression analyses and repeated-measures analysis of covariance. Greater activation responses to fearful, sad, and happy faces in the amygdala and its neighboring regions were found in children with greater life stress. Moreover, an association between life stress and left hippocampal and globus pallidus activity depended on children's diagnostic status. Finally, all children with greater life trauma showed greater bilateral amygdala and cingulate activity specific to sad faces but not the other emotional faces, although right amygdala activity was moderated by psychiatric status. These findings suggest that limbic hyperactivity may be a biomarker of early life stress and trauma in children and may have implications in the risk trajectory for depression and other stress-related disorders. However, this pattern varied based on emotion type and history of psychopathology. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hemodynamic and electrophysiological relationship involved in human face processing: evidence from a combined fMRI-ERP study.

PubMed

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Matsumoto, Atsushi; Haneda, Kaoruko; Okada, Tomohisa; Sadato, Norihiro

2006-03-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted in the same group of subjects and with an identical task paradigm to investigate a possible relationship between hemodynamic and electrophysiological responses within the brain. The subjects were instructed to judge whether visually presented stimuli were faces or houses and then press the corresponding button. Functional MRI identified face- and house-related regions in the lateral and medial part of the fusiform gyrus, respectively, while ERP showed significantly greater N170 negativity for face than for house stimuli in the temporo-occipital electrodes. Correlation analysis between the BOLD signal in the fusiform gyrus and ERP parameters demonstrated a close relationship between the signal and both latency and amplitude of N170 across the subjects. These correlations may indicate that the variation in cognitive demand and hemodynamic responses during the face/house discrimination task is coupled with the variation of N170 peak latency/amplitude across the subjects. Thus, integrative analysis of spatial and temporal information obtained from the two experimental modalities may help in studying neural correlates involved in a particular cognitive task.

Face perception in high-functioning autistic adults: evidence for superior processing of face parts, not for a configural face-processing deficit.

PubMed

Lahaie, A; Mottron, L; Arguin, M; Berthiaume, C; Jemel, B; Saumier, D

2006-01-01

Configural processing in autism was studied in Experiment 1 by using the face inversion effect. A normal inversion effect was observed in the participants with autism, suggesting intact configural face processing. A priming paradigm using partial or complete faces served in Experiment 2 to assess both local and configural face processing. Overall, normal priming effects were found in participants with autism, irrespective of whether the partial face primes were intuitive face parts (i.e., eyes, nose, etc.) or arbitrary segments. An exception, however, was that participants with autism showed magnified priming with single face parts relative to typically developing control participants. The present findings argue for intact configural processing in autism along with an enhanced processing for individual face parts. The face-processing peculiarities known to characterize autism are discussed on the basis of these results and past congruent results with nonsocial stimuli.

The extended functional neuroanatomy of emotional processing biases for masked faces in major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Victor, Teresa A; Furey, Maura L; Fromm, Stephen J; Bellgowan, Patrick S F; Öhman, Arne; Drevets, Wayne C

2012-01-01

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a mood-congruent processing bias in the amygdala toward face stimuli portraying sad expressions that is evident even when such stimuli are presented below the level of conscious awareness. The extended functional anatomical network that maintains this response bias has not been established, however. To identify neural network differences in the hemodynamic response to implicitly presented facial expressions between depressed and healthy control participants. Unmedicated-depressed participants with MDD (n=22) and healthy controls (HC; n=25) underwent functional MRI as they viewed face stimuli showing sad, happy or neutral face expressions, presented using a backward masking design. The blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal was measured to identify regions where the hemodynamic response to the emotionally valenced stimuli differed between groups. The MDD subjects showed greater BOLD responses than the controls to masked-sad versus masked-happy faces in the hippocampus, amygdala and anterior inferotemporal cortex. While viewing both masked-sad and masked-happy faces relative to masked-neutral faces, the depressed subjects showed greater hemodynamic responses than the controls in a network that included the medial and orbital prefrontal cortices and anterior temporal cortex. Depressed and healthy participants showed distinct hemodynamic responses to masked-sad and masked-happy faces in neural circuits known to support the processing of emotionally valenced stimuli and to integrate the sensory and visceromotor aspects of emotional behavior. Altered function within these networks in MDD may establish and maintain illness-associated differences in the salience of sensory/social stimuli, such that attention is biased toward negative and away from positive stimuli.

Amygdala response to faces parallels social behavior in Williams syndrome

PubMed Central

Snyder, Abraham Z.; Haist, Frank; Raichle, Marcus E.; Bellugi, Ursula; Stiles, Joan

2009-01-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetically determined disorder, show relatively strong face-processing abilities despite poor visuospatial skills and depressed intellectual function. Interestingly, beginning early in childhood they also show an unusually high level of interest in face-to-face social interaction. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate physiological responses in face-sensitive brain regions, including ventral occipito-temporal cortex and the amygdala, in this unique genetic disorder. Participants included 17 individuals with WS, 17 age- and gender-matched healthy adults (chronological age-matched controls, CA) and 17 typically developing 8- to 9-year-old children (developmental age controls, DA). While engaged in a face discrimination task, WS participants failed to recruit the amygdala, unlike both CA and DA controls. WS fMRI responses in ventral occipito-temporal cortex, however, were comparable to those of DA controls. Given the integral role of the amygdala in social behavior, the failure of WS participants to recruit this region during face processing may be a neural correlate of the abnormally high sociability that characterizes this disorder. PMID:19633063

Try to look on the bright side: Children and adults can (sometimes) override their tendency to prioritize negative faces.

PubMed

Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen; Kramer, Hannah J

2017-01-01

We used eye tracking to examine 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' (N = 173) visual attention to negative (anger, fear, sadness, disgust) and neutral faces when paired with happy faces in 2 experimental conditions: free-viewing ("look at the faces") and directed ("look only at the happy faces"). Regardless of instruction, all age groups more often looked first to negative versus positive faces (no age differences), suggesting that initial orienting is driven by bottom-up processes. In contrast, biases in more sustained attention-last looks and looking duration-varied by age and could be modified by top-down instruction. On the free-viewing task, all age groups exhibited a negativity bias which attenuated with age and remained stable across trials. When told to look only at happy faces (directed task), all age groups shifted to a positivity bias, with linear age-related improvements. This ability to implement the "look only at the happy faces" instruction, however, fatigued over time, with the decrement stronger for children. Controlling for age, individual differences in executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) had no relation to the free-viewing task; however, these variables explained substantial variance on the directed task, with children and adults higher in executive function showing better skill at looking last and looking longer at happy faces. Greater anxiety predicted more first looks to angry faces on the directed task. These findings advance theory and research on normative development and individual differences in the bias to prioritize negative information, including contributions of bottom-up salience and top-down control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Stepwise emergence of the face-sensitive N170 event-related potential component.

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Schuller, Anne-Marie; Cheref-Khan, Yasémine; Goffaux, Valérie; Crommelinck, Marc; Bruyer, Raymond

2003-11-14

The present study used a parametric design to characterize early event-related potentials (ERP) to face stimuli embedded in gradually decreasing random noise levels. For both N170 and the vertex positive potential (VPP) there was a linear increase in amplitude and decrease in latency with decreasing levels of noise. In contrast, the earlier visual P1 component was stable across noise levels. The P1/N170 dissociation suggests not only a functional dissociation between low and high-level visual processing of faces but also that the N170 reflects the integration of sensorial information into a unitary representation. In addition, the N170/VPP association supports the view that they reflect the same processes operating when viewing faces.

Tolerance to spatial-relational transformations in unfamiliar faces: A further challenge to a configural processing account of identity recognition.

PubMed

Lorenzino, Martina; Caminati, Martina; Caudek, Corrado

2018-05-25

One of the most important questions in face perception research is to understand what information is extracted from a face in order to recognize its identity. Recognition of facial identity has been attributed to a special sensitivity to "configural" information. However, recent studies have challenged the configural account by showing that participants are poor in discriminating variations of metric distances among facial features, especially for familiar as opposed to unfamiliar faces, whereas a configural account predicts the opposite. We aimed to extend these previous results by examining classes of unfamiliar faces with which we have different levels of expertise. We hypothesized an inverse relation between sensitivity to configural information and expertise with a given class of faces, but only for neutral expressions. By first matching perceptual discriminability, we measured tolerance to subtle configural transformations with same-race (SR) versus other-race (OR) faces, and with upright versus upside-down faces. Consistently with our predictions, we found a lower sensitivity to at-threshold configural changes for SR compared to OR faces. We also found that, for our stimuli, the face inversion effect disappeared for neutral but not for emotional faces - a result that can also be attributed to a lower sensitivity to configural transformations for faces presented in a more familiar orientation. The present findings question a purely configural account of face processing and suggest that the role of spatial-relational information in face processing varies according to the functional demands of the task and to the characteristics of the stimuli. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A face a mother could love: depression-related maternal neural responses to infant emotion faces.

PubMed

Laurent, Heidemarie K; Ablow, Jennifer C

2013-01-01

Depressed mothers show negatively biased responses to their infants' emotional bids, perhaps due to faulty processing of infant cues. This study is the first to examine depression-related differences in mothers' neural response to their own infant's emotion faces, considering both effects of perinatal depression history and current depressive symptoms. Primiparous mothers (n = 22), half of whom had a history of major depressive episodes (with one episode occurring during pregnancy and/or postpartum), were exposed to images of their own and unfamiliar infants' joy and distress faces during functional neuroimaging. Group differences (depression vs. no-depression) and continuous effects of current depressive symptoms were tested in relation to neural response to own infant emotion faces. Compared to mothers with no psychiatric diagnoses, those with depression showed blunted responses to their own infant's distress faces in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Mothers with higher levels of current symptomatology showed reduced responses to their own infant's joy faces in the orbitofrontal cortex and insula. Current symptomatology also predicted lower responses to own infant joy-distress in left-sided prefrontal and insula/striatal regions. These deficits in self-regulatory and motivational response circuits may help explain parenting difficulties in depressed mothers.

Altered neural processing of emotional faces in remitted Cushing's disease.

PubMed

Bas-Hoogendam, Janna Marie; Andela, Cornelie D; van der Werff, Steven J A; Pannekoek, J Nienke; van Steenbergen, Henk; Meijer, Onno C; van Buchem, Mark A; Rombouts, Serge A R B; van der Mast, Roos C; Biermasz, Nienke R; van der Wee, Nic J A; Pereira, Alberto M

2015-09-01

Patients with long-term remission of Cushing's disease (CD) demonstrate residual psychological complaints. At present, it is not known how previous exposure to hypercortisolism affects psychological functioning in the long-term. Earlier magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies demonstrated abnormalities of brain structure and resting-state connectivity in patients with long-term remission of CD, but no data are available on functional alterations in the brain during the performance of emotional or cognitive tasks in these patients. We performed a cross-sectional functional MRI study, investigating brain activation during emotion processing in patients with long-term remission of CD. Processing of emotional faces versus a non-emotional control condition was examined in 21 patients and 21 matched healthy controls. Analyses focused on activation and connectivity of two a priori determined regions of interest: the amygdala and the medial prefrontal-orbitofrontal cortex (mPFC-OFC). We also assessed psychological functioning, cognitive failure, and clinical disease severity. Patients showed less mPFC activation during processing of emotional faces compared to controls, whereas no differences were found in amygdala activation. An exploratory psychophysiological interaction analysis demonstrated decreased functional coupling between the ventromedial PFC and posterior cingulate cortex (a region structurally connected to the PFC) in CD-patients. The present study is the first to show alterations in brain function and task-related functional coupling in patients with long-term remission of CD relative to matched healthy controls. These alterations may, together with abnormalities in brain structure, be related to the persisting psychological morbidity in patients with CD after long-term remission. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Activity in Face-Responsive Brain Regions is Modulated by Invisible, Attended Faces: Evidence from Masked Priming

PubMed Central

Eger, Evelyn; Dolan, Raymond; Henson, Richard N.

2009-01-01

It is often assumed that neural activity in face-responsive regions of primate cortex correlates with conscious perception of faces. However, whether such activity occurs without awareness is still debated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with a novel masked face priming paradigm, we observed neural modulations that could not be attributed to perceptual awareness. More specifically, we found reduced activity in several classic face-processing regions, including the “fusiform face area,” “occipital face area,” and superior temporal sulcus, when a face was preceded by a briefly flashed image of the same face, relative to a different face, even when 2 images of the same face differed. Importantly, unlike most previous studies, which have minimized awareness by using conditions of inattention, the present results occurred when the stimuli (the primes) were attended. By contrast, when primes were perceived consciously, in a long-lag priming paradigm, we found repetition-related activity increases in additional frontal and parietal regions. These data not only demonstrate that fMRI activity in face-responsive regions can be modulated independently of perceptual awareness, but also document where such subliminal face-processing occurs (i.e., restricted to face-responsive regions of occipital and temporal cortex) and to what extent (i.e., independent of the specific image). PMID:18400791

Why Some Faces won't be Remembered: Brain Potentials Illuminate Successful Versus Unsuccessful Encoding for Same-Race and Other-Race Faces

PubMed Central

Lucas, Heather D.; Chiao, Joan Y.; Paller, Ken A.

2011-01-01

Memory is often less accurate for faces from another racial group than for faces from one's own racial group. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are a topic of active debate. Contemporary theories invoke factors such as inferior expertise with faces from other racial groups and an encoding emphasis on race-specifying information. We investigated neural mechanisms of this memory bias by recording event-related potentials while participants attempted to memorize same-race (SR) and other-race (OR) faces. Brain potentials at encoding were compared as a function of successful versus unsuccessful recognition on a subsequent-memory test. Late positive amplitudes predicted subsequent memory for SR faces and, to a lesser extent, for OR faces. By contrast, the amplitudes of earlier frontocentral N200 potentials and occipito-temporal P2 potentials were larger for later-remembered relative to later-forgotten OR faces. Furthermore, N200 and P2 amplitudes were larger for OR faces with features considered atypical of that race relative to faces that were race-stereotypical (according to a consensus from a large group of other participants). In keeping with previous reports, we infer that these earlier potentials index the processing of unique or individuating facial information, which is key to remembering a face. Individuation may tend to be uniformly high for SR faces but lower and less reliable for OR faces. Individuation may also be more readily applied for OR faces that appear less stereotypical. These electrophysiological measures thus provide novel evidence that poorer memory for OR faces stems from encoding that is inadequate because it fails to emphasize individuating information. PMID:21441983

Personal Familiarity Influences the Processing of Upright and Inverted Faces in Infants

PubMed Central

Balas, Benjamin J.; Nelson, Charles A.; Westerlund, Alissa; Vogel-Farley, Vanessa; Riggins, Tracy; Kuefner, Dana

2009-01-01

Infant face processing becomes more selective during the first year of life as a function of varying experience with distinct face categories defined by species, race, and age. Given that any individual face belongs to many such categories (e.g. A young Caucasian man's face) we asked how the neural selectivity for one aspect of facial appearance was affected by category membership along another dimension of variability. 6-month-old infants were shown upright and inverted pictures of either their own mother or a stranger while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. We found that the amplitude of the P400 (a face-sensitive ERP component) was only sensitive to the orientation of the mother's face, suggesting that “tuning” of the neural response to faces is realized jointly across multiple dimensions of face appearance. PMID:20204154

The development of attention to dynamic facial emotions

PubMed Central

Heck, Alison; Hock, Alyson; White, Hannah; Jubran, Rachel; Bhatt, Ramesh S.

2016-01-01

Appropriate processing of emotions is paramount for successful social functioning. Adults’ enhanced attention to negative emotions such as fear is thought to be a critical aspect of this adaptive functioning. Prior studies indicate that increased attention to fear relative to positive or neutral emotions begins at around 7 months of age, and it has been suggested that this negativity bias is related to self-locomotion. However, these studies mostly used static faces, potentially limiting information available to the infants. In the current study, 3.5-month-olds (n = 24) and 5-month-olds (n = 24) were exposed to dynamic faces expressing fear, happy, or neutral emotions and a distracting peripheral checkerboard. The 5-month-olds looked proportionally longer at the face compared with the checkerboard when the face was fearful than when it was happy or neutral. Conversely, the 3.5-month-olds did not differentiate their attention as a function of emotion. These results indicate that the onset of enhanced attention to fear occurs between 3.5 and 5 months of age. This finding raises questions about the developmental mechanisms that drive attentional bias given that the idea of the onset of self-locomotion being a catalyst for the development of negativity bias might no longer hold. PMID:27064842

Selective attention supports working memory maintenance by modulating perceptual processing of distractors.

PubMed

Sreenivasan, Kartik K; Jha, Amishi P

2007-01-01

Selective attention has been shown to bias sensory processing in favor of relevant stimuli and against irrelevant or distracting stimuli in perceptual tasks. Increasing evidence suggests that selective attention plays an important role during working memory maintenance, possibly by biasing sensory processing in favor of to-be-remembered items. In the current study, we investigated whether selective attention may also support working memory by biasing processing against irrelevant and potentially distracting information. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects (n = 22) performed a delayed-recognition task for faces and shoes. The delay period was filled with face or shoe distractors. Behavioral performance was impaired when distractors were congruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during working memory for faces) relative to when distractors were incongruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during shoe working memory). If attentional biasing against distractor processing is indeed functionally relevant in supporting working memory maintenance, perceptual processing of distractors is predicted to be attenuated when distractors are more behaviorally intrusive relative to when they are nonintrusive. As such, we predicted that perceptual processing of distracting faces, as measured by the face-sensitive N170 ERP component, would be reduced in the context of congruent (face) working memory relative to incongruent (shoe) working memory. The N170 elicited by distracting faces demonstrated reduced amplitude during congruent versus incongruent working memory. These results suggest that perceptual processing of distracting faces may be attenuated due to attentional biasing against sensory processing of distractors that are most behaviorally intrusive during working memory maintenance.

Segregation of face sensitive areas within the fusiform gyrus using global signal regression? A study on amygdala resting-state functional connectivity.

PubMed

Kruschwitz, Johann D; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Veer, Ilya M; Wackerhagen, Carolin; Erk, Susanne; Mohnke, Sebastian; Pöhland, Lydia; Haddad, Leila; Grimm, Oliver; Tost, Heike; Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina; Heinz, Andreas; Walter, Martin; Walter, Henrik

2015-10-01

The application of global signal regression (GSR) to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and its usefulness is a widely discussed topic. In this article, we report an observation of segregated distribution of amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) within the fusiform gyrus (FFG) as an effect of GSR in a multi-center-sample of 276 healthy subjects. Specifically, we observed that amygdala rs-FC was distributed within the FFG as distinct anterior versus posterior clusters delineated by positive versus negative rs-FC polarity when GSR was performed. To characterize this effect in more detail, post hoc analyses revealed the following: first, direct overlays of task-functional magnetic resonance imaging derived face sensitive areas and clusters of positive versus negative amygdala rs-FC showed that the positive amygdala rs-FC cluster corresponded best with the fusiform face area, whereas the occipital face area corresponded to the negative amygdala rs-FC cluster. Second, as expected from a hierarchical face perception model, these amygdala rs-FC defined clusters showed differential rs-FC with other regions of the visual stream. Third, dynamic connectivity analyses revealed that these amygdala rs-FC defined clusters also differed in their rs-FC variance across time to the amygdala. Furthermore, subsample analyses of three independent research sites confirmed reliability of the effect of GSR, as revealed by similar patterns of distinct amygdala rs-FC polarity within the FFG. In this article, we discuss the potential of GSR to segregate face sensitive areas within the FFG and furthermore discuss how our results may relate to the functional organization of the face-perception circuit. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotional face processing in pediatric bipolar disorder: evidence for functional impairments in the fusiform gyrus.

PubMed

Perlman, Susan B; Fournier, Jay C; Bebko, Genna; Bertocci, Michele A; Hinze, Amanda K; Bonar, Lisa; Almeida, Jorge R C; Versace, Amelia; Schirda, Claudiu; Travis, Michael; Gill, Mary Kay; Demeter, Christine; Diwadkar, Vaibhav A; Sunshine, Jeffrey L; Holland, Scott K; Kowatch, Robert A; Birmaher, Boris; Axelson, David; Horwitz, Sarah M; Arnold, L Eugene; Fristad, Mary A; Youngstrom, Eric A; Findling, Robert L; Phillips, Mary L

2013-12-01

Pediatric bipolar disorder involves poor social functioning, but the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Previous neuroimaging studies have found deficits in emotional face processing localized to emotional brain regions. However, few studies have examined dysfunction in other regions of the face processing circuit. This study assessed hypoactivation in key face processing regions of the brain in pediatric bipolar disorder. Youth with a bipolar spectrum diagnosis (n = 20) were matched to a nonbipolar clinical group (n = 20), with similar demographics and comorbid diagnoses, and a healthy control group (n = 20). Youth participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning which employed a task-irrelevant emotion processing design in which processing of facial emotions was not germane to task performance. Hypoactivation, isolated to the fusiform gyrus, was found when viewing animated, emerging facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fearfulness, and especially anger in pediatric bipolar participants relative to matched clinical and healthy control groups. The results of the study imply that differences exist in visual regions of the brain's face processing system and are not solely isolated to emotional brain regions such as the amygdala. Findings are discussed in relation to facial emotion recognition and fusiform gyrus deficits previously reported in the autism literature. Behavioral interventions targeting attention to facial stimuli might be explored as possible treatments for bipolar disorder in youth. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Qualitatively similar processing for own- and other-race faces: Evidence from efficiency and equivalent input noise.

PubMed

Shafai, Fakhri; Oruc, Ipek

2018-02-01

The other-race effect is the finding of diminished performance in recognition of other-race faces compared to those of own-race. It has been suggested that the other-race effect stems from specialized expert processes being tuned exclusively to own-race faces. In the present study, we measured recognition contrast thresholds for own- and other-race faces as well as houses for Caucasian observers. We have factored face recognition performance into two invariant aspects of visual function: efficiency, which is related to neural computations and processing demanded by the task, and equivalent input noise, related to signal degradation within the visual system. We hypothesized that if expert processes are available only to own-race faces, this should translate into substantially greater recognition efficiencies for own-race compared to other-race faces. Instead, we found similar recognition efficiencies for both own- and other-race faces. The other-race effect manifested as increased equivalent input noise. These results argue against qualitatively distinct perceptual processes. Instead they suggest that for Caucasian observers, similar neural computations underlie recognition of own- and other-race faces. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in interhemispheric communication during face identity encoding: evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Godard, Ornella; Leleu, Arnaud; Rebaï, Mohamed; Fiori, Nicole

2013-01-01

Sex-related hemispheric lateralization and interhemispheric transmission times (IHTTs) were examined in twenty-four participants at the level of the first visual ERP components (P1 and N170) during face identity encoding in a divided visual-field paradigm. While no lateralization-related and sex-related differences were reflected in the P1 characteristics, these two factors modulated the N170. Indeed, N170 amplitudes indicated a right hemisphere (RH) dominance in men (and a more bilateral functioning in women). N170 latencies and the derived IHTTs confirmed the RH advantage in men but showed the reverse asymmetry in women. Altogether, the results of this study suggest a clear asymmetry in men and a more divided work between the hemispheres in women, with a tendency toward a left hemisphere (LH) advantage. Thus, by extending the pattern to the right-sided face processing, our results generalize previous findings from studies using other materials and indicating longer transfers from the specialized to the non-specialized hemisphere, especially in the male brain. Because asymmetries started from the N170 component, the first electrophysiological index of high-level perceptual processing on face representations, they also suggest a functional account for hemispheric lateralization and sex-related differences rather than a structural one. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Congenital prosopagnosia: face-blind from birth.

PubMed

Behrmann, Marlene; Avidan, Galia

2005-04-01

Congenital prosopagnosia refers to the deficit in face processing that is apparent from early childhood in the absence of any underlying neurological basis and in the presence of intact sensory and intellectual function. Several such cases have been described recently and elucidating the mechanisms giving rise to this impairment should aid our understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms mediating face processing. Fundamental questions include: What is the nature and extent of the face-processing deficit in congenital prosopagnosia? Is the deficit related to a more general perceptual deficit such as the failure to process configural information? Are any neural alterations detectable using fMRI, ERP or structural analyses of the anatomy of the ventral visual cortex? We discuss these issues in relation to the existing literature and suggest directions for future research.

The Effects of Face Expertise Training on the Behavioral Performance and Brain Activity of Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Webb, Sara Jane; Jones, Emily; Merkle, Kristen; Kamara, Dana; Bavaro, Joshua; Aylward, Elizabeth; Dawson, Geraldine

2013-01-01

The effect of expertise training with faces was studied in adults with ASD who showed initial impairment in face recognition. Participants were randomly assigned to a computerized training program involving either faces or houses. Pre- and post-testing included standardized and experimental measures of behavior and event-related brain potentials (ERPs), as well as interviews after training. After training, all participants met behavioral criteria for expertise with the specific stimuli on which they received training. Scores on standardized measures improved after training for both groups, but only the face training group showed an increased face inversion effect behaviorally and electrophysiological changes to faces in the P100 component. These findings suggest that individuals with ASD can gain expertise in face processing through training. PMID:21484517

Alcoholism and dampened temporal limbic activation to emotional faces.

PubMed

Marinkovic, Ksenija; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Urban, Trinity; O'Reilly, Cara E; Howard, Julie A; Sawyer, Kayle; Harris, Gordon J

2009-11-01

Excessive chronic drinking is accompanied by a broad spectrum of emotional changes ranging from apathy and emotional flatness to deficits in comprehending emotional information, but their neural bases are poorly understood. Emotional abnormalities associated with alcoholism were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging in abstinent long-term alcoholic men in comparison to healthy demographically matched controls. Participants were presented with emotionally valenced words and photographs of faces during deep (semantic) and shallow (perceptual) encoding tasks followed by recognition. Overall, faces evoked stronger activation than words, with the expected material-specific laterality (left hemisphere for words, and right for faces) and depth of processing effects. However, whereas control participants showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional (relative to neutral) expressions, the alcoholics responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions. In the alcoholic participants, amygdala activity was inversely correlated with an increase in lateral prefrontal activity as a function of their behavioral deficits. Prefrontal modulation of emotional function as a compensation for the blunted amygdala activity during a socially relevant face appraisal task is in agreement with a distributed network engagement during emotional face processing. Deficient activation of amygdala and hippocampus may underlie impaired processing of emotional faces associated with long-term alcoholism and may be a part of the wide array of behavioral problems including disinhibition, concurring with previously documented interpersonal difficulties in this population. Furthermore, the results suggest that alcoholics may rely on prefrontal rather than temporal limbic areas in order to compensate for reduced limbic responsivity and to maintain behavioral adequacy when faced with emotionally or socially challenging situations.

The influence of variations in eating disorder-related symptoms on processing of emotional faces in a non-clinical female sample: An eye-tracking study.

PubMed

Sharpe, Emma; Wallis, Deborah J; Ridout, Nathan

2016-06-30

This study aimed to: (i) determine if the attention bias towards angry faces reported in eating disorders generalises to a non-clinical sample varying in eating disorder-related symptoms; (ii) examine if the bias occurs during initial orientation or later strategic processing; and (iii) confirm previous findings of impaired facial emotion recognition in non-clinical disordered eating. Fifty-two females viewed a series of face-pairs (happy or angry paired with neutral) whilst their attentional deployment was continuously monitored using an eye-tracker. They subsequently identified the emotion portrayed in a separate series of faces. The highest (n=18) and lowest scorers (n=17) on the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) were compared on the attention and facial emotion recognition tasks. Those with relatively high scores exhibited impaired facial emotion recognition, confirming previous findings in similar non-clinical samples. They also displayed biased attention away from emotional faces during later strategic processing, which is consistent with previously observed impairments in clinical samples. These differences were related to drive-for-thinness. Although we found no evidence of a bias towards angry faces, it is plausible that the observed impairments in emotion recognition and avoidance of emotional faces could disrupt social functioning and act as a risk factor for the development of eating disorders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Residual fMRI sensitivity for identity changes in acquired prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Fox, Christopher J; Iaria, Giuseppe; Duchaine, Bradley C; Barton, Jason J S

2013-01-01

While a network of cortical regions contribute to face processing, the lesions in acquired prosopagnosia are highly variable, and likely result in different combinations of spared and affected regions of this network. To assess the residual functional sensitivities of spared regions in prosopagnosia, we designed a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that included pairs of faces with same or different identities and same or different expressions. By measuring the release from adaptation to these facial changes we determined the residual sensitivity of face-selective regions-of-interest. We tested three patients with acquired prosopagnosia, and all three of these patients demonstrated residual sensitivity for facial identity changes in surviving fusiform and occipital face areas of either the right or left hemisphere, but not in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus. The patients also showed some residual capabilities for facial discrimination with normal performance on the Benton Facial Recognition Test, but impaired performance on more complex tasks of facial discrimination. We conclude that fMRI can demonstrate residual processing of facial identity in acquired prosopagnosia, that this adaptation can occur in the same structures that show similar processing in healthy subjects, and further, that this adaptation may be related to behavioral indices of face perception.

Residual fMRI sensitivity for identity changes in acquired prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Fox, Christopher J.; Iaria, Giuseppe; Duchaine, Bradley C.; Barton, Jason J. S.

2013-01-01

While a network of cortical regions contribute to face processing, the lesions in acquired prosopagnosia are highly variable, and likely result in different combinations of spared and affected regions of this network. To assess the residual functional sensitivities of spared regions in prosopagnosia, we designed a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that included pairs of faces with same or different identities and same or different expressions. By measuring the release from adaptation to these facial changes we determined the residual sensitivity of face-selective regions-of-interest. We tested three patients with acquired prosopagnosia, and all three of these patients demonstrated residual sensitivity for facial identity changes in surviving fusiform and occipital face areas of either the right or left hemisphere, but not in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus. The patients also showed some residual capabilities for facial discrimination with normal performance on the Benton Facial Recognition Test, but impaired performance on more complex tasks of facial discrimination. We conclude that fMRI can demonstrate residual processing of facial identity in acquired prosopagnosia, that this adaptation can occur in the same structures that show similar processing in healthy subjects, and further, that this adaptation may be related to behavioral indices of face perception. PMID:24151479

The late positive potential indexes a role for emotion during learning of trust from eye-gaze cues

PubMed Central

Manssuer, Luis R.; Roberts, Mark V.; Tipper, Steven P.

2015-01-01

Gaze direction perception triggers rapid visuospatial orienting to the location observed by others. When this is congruent with the location of a target, reaction times are faster than when incongruent. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest that the non-joint attention induced by incongruent cues are experienced as more emotionally negative and this could relate to less favorable trust judgments of the faces when gaze-cues are contingent with identity. Here, we provide further support for these findings using time-resolved event-related potentials. In addition to replicating the effects of identity-contingent gaze-cues on reaction times and trust judgments, we discovered that the emotion-related late positive potential increased across blocks to incongruent compared to congruent faces before, during and after the gaze-cue, suggesting both learning and retrieval of emotion states associated with the face. We also discovered that the face-recognition-related N250 component appeared to localize to sources in anterior temporal areas. Our findings provide unique electrophysiological evidence for the role of emotion in learning trust from gaze-cues, suggesting that the retrieval of face evaluations during interaction may take around 1000 ms and that the N250 originates from anterior temporal face patches. PMID:25731599

Differential Brain Activation to Angry Faces by Elite Warfighters: Neural Processing Evidence for Enhanced Threat Detection

PubMed Central

Paulus, Martin P.; Simmons, Alan N.; Fitzpatrick, Summer N.; Potterat, Eric G.; Van Orden, Karl F.; Bauman, James; Swain, Judith L.

2010-01-01

Background Little is known about the neural basis of elite performers and their optimal performance in extreme environments. The purpose of this study was to examine brain processing differences between elite warfighters and comparison subjects in brain structures that are important for emotion processing and interoception. Methodology/Principal Findings Navy Sea, Air, and Land Forces (SEALs) while off duty (n = 11) were compared with n = 23 healthy male volunteers while performing a simple emotion face-processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Irrespective of the target emotion, elite warfighters relative to comparison subjects showed relatively greater right-sided insula, but attenuated left-sided insula, activation. Navy SEALs showed selectively greater activation to angry target faces relative to fearful or happy target faces bilaterally in the insula. This was not accounted for by contrasting positive versus negative emotions. Finally, these individuals also showed slower response latencies to fearful and happy target faces than did comparison subjects. Conclusions/Significance These findings support the hypothesis that elite warfighters deploy greater processing resources toward potential threat-related facial expressions and reduced processing resources to non-threat-related facial expressions. Moreover, rather than expending more effort in general, elite warfighters show more focused neural and performance tuning. In other words, greater neural processing resources are directed toward threat stimuli and processing resources are conserved when facing a nonthreat stimulus situation. PMID:20418943

Reduced beta connectivity during emotional face processing in adolescents with autism.

PubMed

Leung, Rachel C; Ye, Annette X; Wong, Simeon M; Taylor, Margot J; Doesburg, Sam M

2014-01-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social cognition. The biological basis of deficits in social cognition in ASD, and their difficulty in processing emotional face information in particular, remains unclear. Atypical communication within and between brain regions has been reported in ASD. Interregional phase-locking is a neurophysiological mechanism mediating communication among brain areas and is understood to support cognitive functions. In the present study we investigated interregional magnetoencephalographic phase synchronization during the perception of emotional faces in adolescents with ASD. A total of 22 adolescents with ASD (18 males, mean age =14.2 ± 1.15 years, 22 right-handed) with mild to no cognitive delay and 17 healthy controls (14 males, mean age =14.4 ± 0.33 years, 16 right-handed) performed an implicit emotional processing task requiring perception of happy, angry and neutral faces while we recorded neuromagnetic signals. The faces were presented rapidly (80 ms duration) to the left or right of a central fixation cross and participants responded to a scrambled pattern that was presented concurrently on the opposite side of the fixation point. Task-dependent interregional phase-locking was calculated among source-resolved brain regions. Task-dependent increases in interregional beta synchronization were observed. Beta-band interregional phase-locking in adolescents with ASD was reduced, relative to controls, during the perception of angry faces in a distributed network involving the right fusiform gyrus and insula. No significant group differences were found for happy or neutral faces, or other analyzed frequency ranges. Significant reductions in task-dependent beta connectivity strength, clustering and eigenvector centrality (all P <0.001) in the right insula were found in adolescents with ASD, relative to controls. Reduced beta synchronization may reflect inadequate recruitment of task-relevant networks during emotional face processing in ASD. The right insula, specifically, was a hub of reduced functional connectivity and may play a prominent role in the inability to effectively extract emotional information from faces. These findings suggest that functional disconnection in brain networks mediating emotional processes may contribute to deficits in social cognition in this population.

Insular and hippocampal contributions to remembering people with an impression of bad personality.

PubMed

Tsukiura, Takashi; Shigemune, Yayoi; Nouchi, Rui; Kambara, Toshimune; Kawashima, Ryuta

2013-06-01

Our impressions of other people are formed mainly from the two possible factors of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness. Previous studies have shown the importance of orbitofrontal-hippocampal interactions in the better remembering of attractive faces, and psychological data have indicated that faces giving an impression of untrustworthiness are remembered more accurately than those giving an impression of trustworthiness. However, the neural mechanisms of the latter effect are largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we investigated neural activities with event-related fMRI while the female participants rated their impressions of the personalities of men in terms of trustworthiness. After the rating, memory for faces was tested to identify successful encoding activity. As expected, faces that gave bad impressions were remembered better than those that gave neutral or good impressions. In fMRI data, right insular activity reflected an increasing function of bad impressions, and bilateral hippocampal activities predicted subsequent memory success. Additionally, correlation between these insular and hippocampal regions was significant only in the encoding of faces associated with a bad impression. Better memory for faces associated with an impression of bad personality could reflect greater interaction between the avoidance-related insular region and the encoding-related hippocampal region.

Insular and hippocampal contributions to remembering people with an impression of bad personality

PubMed Central

Shigemune, Yayoi; Nouchi, Rui; Kambara, Toshimune; Kawashima, Ryuta

2013-01-01

Our impressions of other people are formed mainly from the two possible factors of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness. Previous studies have shown the importance of orbitofrontal–hippocampal interactions in the better remembering of attractive faces, and psychological data have indicated that faces giving an impression of untrustworthiness are remembered more accurately than those giving an impression of trustworthiness. However, the neural mechanisms of the latter effect are largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we investigated neural activities with event-related fMRI while the female participants rated their impressions of the personalities of men in terms of trustworthiness. After the rating, memory for faces was tested to identify successful encoding activity. As expected, faces that gave bad impressions were remembered better than those that gave neutral or good impressions. In fMRI data, right insular activity reflected an increasing function of bad impressions, and bilateral hippocampal activities predicted subsequent memory success. Additionally, correlation between these insular and hippocampal regions was significant only in the encoding of faces associated with a bad impression. Better memory for faces associated with an impression of bad personality could reflect greater interaction between the avoidance-related insular region and the encoding-related hippocampal region. PMID:22349799

Association of Irritability and Anxiety With the Neural Mechanisms of Implicit Face Emotion Processing in Youths With Psychopathology.

PubMed

Stoddard, Joel; Tseng, Wan-Ling; Kim, Pilyoung; Chen, Gang; Yi, Jennifer; Donahue, Laura; Brotman, Melissa A; Towbin, Kenneth E; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen

2017-01-01

Psychiatric comorbidity complicates clinical care and confounds efforts to elucidate the pathophysiology of commonly occurring symptoms in youths. To our knowledge, few studies have simultaneously assessed the effect of 2 continuously distributed traits on brain-behavior relationships in children with psychopathology. To determine shared and unique effects of 2 major dimensions of child psychopathology, irritability and anxiety, on neural responses to facial emotions during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cross-sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a large, well-characterized clinical sample at a research clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health. The referred sample included youths ages 8 to 17 years, 93 youths with anxiety, disruptive mood dysregulation, and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders and 22 healthy youths. The child's irritability and anxiety were rated by both parent and child on the Affective Reactivity Index and Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders, respectively. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, neural response was measured across the brain during gender labeling of varying intensities of angry, happy, or fearful face emotions. In mixed-effects analyses, the shared and unique effects of irritability and anxiety were tested on amygdala functional connectivity and activation to face emotions. The mean (SD) age of participants was 13.2 (2.6) years; of the 115 included, 64 were male. Irritability and/or anxiety influenced amygdala connectivity to the prefrontal and temporal cortex. Specifically, irritability and anxiety jointly influenced left amygdala to left medial prefrontal cortex connectivity during face emotion viewing (F4,888 = 9.20; P < .001 for mixed model term). During viewing of intensely angry faces, decreased connectivity was associated with high levels of both anxiety and irritability, whereas increased connectivity was associated with high levels of anxiety but low levels of irritability (Wald χ21 = 21.3; P < .001 for contrast). Irritability was associated with differences in neural response to face emotions in several areas (F2, 888 ≥ 13.45; all P < .001). This primarily occurred in the ventral visual areas, with a positive association to angry and happy faces relative to fearful faces. These data extend prior work conducted in youths with irritability or anxiety alone and suggest that research may miss important findings if the pathophysiology of irritability and anxiety are studied in isolation. Decreased amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex connectivity may mediate emotion dysregulation when very anxious and irritable youth process threat-related faces. Activation in the ventral visual circuitry suggests a mechanism through which signals of social approach (ie, happy and angry expressions) may capture attention in irritable youth.

Brain Responses to Dynamic Facial Expressions: A Normative Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Zinchenko, Oksana; Yaple, Zachary A; Arsalidou, Marie

2018-01-01

Identifying facial expressions is crucial for social interactions. Functional neuroimaging studies show that a set of brain areas, such as the fusiform gyrus and amygdala, become active when viewing emotional facial expressions. The majority of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating face perception typically employ static images of faces. However, studies that use dynamic facial expressions (e.g., videos) are accumulating and suggest that a dynamic presentation may be more sensitive and ecologically valid for investigating faces. By using quantitative fMRI meta-analysis the present study examined concordance of brain regions associated with viewing dynamic facial expressions. We analyzed data from 216 participants that participated in 14 studies, which reported coordinates for 28 experiments. Our analysis revealed bilateral fusiform and middle temporal gyri, left amygdala, left declive of the cerebellum and the right inferior frontal gyrus. These regions are discussed in terms of their relation to models of face processing.

Neural Processing of Facial Identity and Emotion in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Fox, Sharon E.; Wagner, Jennifer B.; Shrock, Christine L.; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A.

2013-01-01

Deficits in face processing and social impairment are core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder. The present work examined 7-month-old infants at high-risk for developing autism and typically developing controls at low-risk, using a face perception task designed to differentiate between the effects of face identity and facial emotions on neural response using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. In addition, we employed independent component analysis, as well as a novel method of condition-related component selection and classification to identify group differences in hemodynamic waveforms and response distributions associated with face and emotion processing. The results indicate similarities of waveforms, but differences in the magnitude, spatial distribution, and timing of responses between groups. These early differences in local cortical regions and the hemodynamic response may, in turn, contribute to differences in patterns of functional connectivity. PMID:23576966

Comparing Weight Loss-Maintenance Outcomes of a Worksite-Based Lifestyle Program Delivered via DVD and Face-to-Face: A Randomized Trial.

PubMed

Ing, Claire Townsend; Miyamoto, Robin E S; Fang, Rui; Antonio, Mapuana; Paloma, Diane; Braun, Kathryn L; Kaholokula, Joseph Keawe'aimoku

2018-03-01

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have high rates of overweight and obesity compared with other ethnic groups in Hawai'i. Effective weight loss and weight loss-maintenance programs are needed to address obesity and obesity-related health inequities for this group. Compare the effectiveness of a 9-month, worksite-based, weight loss-maintenance intervention delivered via DVD versus face-to-face in continued weight reduction and weight loss maintenance beyond the initial weight loss phase. We tested DVD versus face-to-face delivery of the PILI@Work Program's 9-month, weight loss-maintenance phase in Native Hawaiian-serving organizations. After completing the 3-month weight loss phase, participants ( n = 217) were randomized to receive the weight loss-maintenance phase delivered via trained peer facilitators or DVDs. Participant assessments at randomization and postintervention included weight, height, blood pressure, physical functioning, exercise frequency, and fat intake. Eighty-three face-to-face participants were retained at 12 months (74.1%) compared with 73 DVD participants (69.5%). There was no significant difference between groups in weight loss or weight loss maintenance. The number of lessons attended in Phase 1 of the intervention (β = 0.358, p = .022) and baseline systolic blood pressure (β = -0.038, p = .048) predicted percent weight loss at 12 months. Weight loss maintenance was similar across groups. This suggests that low-cost delivery methods for worksite-based interventions targeting at-risk populations can help address obesity and obesity-related disparities. Additionally, attendance during the weight loss phase and lower baseline systolic blood pressure predicted greater percent weight loss during the weight loss-maintenance phase, suggesting that early engagement and initial physical functioning improve long-term weight loss outcomes.

When a loved one feels unfamiliar: a case study on the neural basis of Capgras delusion.

PubMed

Thiel, Christiane M; Studte, Sara; Hildebrandt, Helmut; Huster, Rene; Weerda, Riklef

2014-03-01

Perception of familiar faces depends on a core system analysing visual appearance and an extended system dealing with inference of mental states and emotional responses. Damage to the core system impairs face perception as seen in prosopagnosia. In contrast, patients with Capgras delusion show intact face perception but believe that closely related persons are impostors. It has been suggested that two deficits are necessary for the delusion, an aberrant perceptual or affective experience that leads to a bizarre belief as well as an impaired ability to evaluate beliefs. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared neural activity to familiar and unfamiliar faces in a patient with Capgras delusion and an age matched control group. We provide evidence that Capgras delusion is related to dysfunctional activity in the extended face processing system. The patient, who developed the delusion for the partner after a large right prefrontal lesion sparing the ventromedial and medial orbitofrontal cortex, lacked neural activity to the partner's face in left posterior cingulate cortex and left posterior superior temporal sulcus. Further, we found impaired functional connectivity of the latter region with the left superior frontal gyrus and to a lesser extent with the right superior frontal sulcus/middle frontal gyrus. The findings of this case study suggest that the first factor in Capgras delusion may be reduced neural activity in the extended face processing system that deals with inference of mental states while the second factor may be due to a lesion in the right middle frontal gyrus. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The mere exposure effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Winograd, E; Goldstein, F C; Monarch, E S; Peluso, J P; Goldman, W P

1999-01-01

The mere exposure effect was examined in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty patients and 20 elderly controls judged the physical characteristics of faces. Implicit memory was tested later by presenting pairs of faces (old and new) and asking participants which faces they liked better. Patients and controls exhibited above chance preference for previously exposed faces. Experiment 2 evaluated whether the preserved implicit memory of patients was mediated by explicit memory. Patients and controls again judged faces but then later chose which faces they had seen before. Patients exhibited impaired recognition memory compared to controls. These findings suggest that a mere exposure effect for unfamiliar faces is present in mild to moderate AD. The results are discussed in terms of perceptual and conceptual priming and relatively spared occipital lobe functioning in early AD.

The influence of psychological resilience on the relation between automatic stimulus evaluation and attentional breadth for surprised faces.

PubMed

Grol, Maud; De Raedt, Rudi

2015-01-01

The broaden-and-build theory relates positive emotions to resilience and cognitive broadening. The theory proposes that the broadening effects underly the relation between positive emotions and resilience, suggesting that resilient people can benefit more from positive emotions at the level of cognitive functioning. Research has investigated the influence of positive emotions on attentional broadening, but the stimulus in the target of attention may also influence attentional breadth, depending on affective stimulus evaluation. Surprised faces are particularly interesting as they are valence ambiguous, therefore, we investigated the relation between affective evaluation--using an affective priming task--and attentional breadth for surprised faces, and how this relation is influenced by resilience. Results show that more positive evaluations are related to more attentional broadening at high levels of resilience, while this relation is reversed at low levels. This indicates that resilient individuals can benefit more from attending to positively evaluated stimuli at the level of attentional broadening.

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing

PubMed Central

Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T.; Alpers, Georg W.

2017-01-01

Abstract The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer—conveyed by facial expression and face direction—amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. PMID:28158672

Dynamics of processing invisible faces in the brain: automatic neural encoding of facial expression information.

PubMed

Jiang, Yi; Shannon, Robert W; Vizueta, Nathalie; Bernat, Edward M; Patrick, Christopher J; He, Sheng

2009-02-01

The fusiform face area (FFA) and the superior temporal sulcus (STS) are suggested to process facial identity and facial expression information respectively. We recently demonstrated a functional dissociation between the FFA and the STS as well as correlated sensitivity of the STS and the amygdala to facial expressions using an interocular suppression paradigm [Jiang, Y., He, S., 2006. Cortical responses to invisible faces: dissociating subsystems for facial-information processing. Curr. Biol. 16, 2023-2029.]. In the current event-related brain potential (ERP) study, we investigated the temporal dynamics of facial information processing. Observers viewed neutral, fearful, and scrambled face stimuli, either visibly or rendered invisible through interocular suppression. Relative to scrambled face stimuli, intact visible faces elicited larger positive P1 (110-130 ms) and larger negative N1 or N170 (160-180 ms) potentials at posterior occipital and bilateral occipito-temporal regions respectively, with the N170 amplitude significantly greater for fearful than neutral faces. Invisible intact faces generated a stronger signal than scrambled faces at 140-200 ms over posterior occipital areas whereas invisible fearful faces (compared to neutral and scrambled faces) elicited a significantly larger negative deflection starting at 220 ms along the STS. These results provide further evidence for cortical processing of facial information without awareness and elucidate the temporal sequence of automatic facial expression information extraction.

Effective connectivity of facial expression network by using Granger causality analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hui; Li, Xiaoting

2013-10-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an advanced non-invasive data acquisition technique to investigate the neural activity in human brain. In addition to localize the functional brain regions that is activated by specific cognitive task, fMRI can also be utilized to measure the task-related functional interactions among the active regions of interest (ROI) in the brain. Among the variety of analysis tools proposed for modeling the connectivity of brain regions, Granger causality analysis (GCA) measure the directions of information interactions by looking for the lagged effect among the brain regions. In this study, we use fMRI and Granger Causality analysis to investigate the effective connectivity of brain network induced by viewing several kinds of expressional faces. We focus on four kinds of facial expression stimuli: fearful, angry, happy and neutral faces. Five face selective regions of interest are localized and the effective connectivity within these regions is measured for the expressional faces. Our result based on 8 subjects showed that there is significant effective connectivity from STS to amygdala, from amygdala to OFA, aFFA and pFFA, from STS to aFFA and from pFFA to aFFA. This result suggested that there is an information flow from the STS to the amygdala when perusing expressional faces. This emotional expressional information flow that is conveyed by STS and amygdala, flow back to the face selective regions in occipital-temporal lobes, which constructed a emotional face processing network.

Attachment representation modulates oxytocin effects on the processing of own-child faces in fathers.

PubMed

Waller, Christiane; Wittfoth, Matthias; Fritzsche, Konstantin; Timm, Lydia; Wittfoth-Schardt, Dina; Rottler, Edit; Heinrichs, Markus; Buchheim, Anna; Kiefer, Markus; Gündel, Harald

2015-12-01

Oxytocin (OT) plays a crucial role in parental-infant bonding and attachment. Recent functional imaging studies reveal specific attachment and reward related brain regions in individuals or within the parent-child dyad. However, the time course and functional stage of modulatory effects of OT on attachment-related processing, especially in fathers, are poorly understood. To elucidate the functional and neural mechanisms underlying the role of OT in paternal-child attachment, we performed an event-related potential study in 24 healthy fathers who received intranasal OT in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject experimental design. Participants passively viewed pictures of their own child (oC), a familiar (fC) and an unfamiliar child (ufC) while event-related potentials were recorded. Familiarity of the child's face modulated a broad negativity at occipital and temporo-parietal electrodes within a time window of 300-400ms, presumably reflecting a modulation of the N250 and N300 ERP components. The oC condition elicited a more negative potential compared to the other familiarity conditions suggesting different activation of perceptual memory representations and assignment of emotional valence. Most importantly, this familiarity effect was only observed under placebo (PL) and was abolished under OT, in particular at left temporo-parietal electrodes. This OT induced attenuation of ERP responses was related to habitual attachment representations in fathers. In summary, our results demonstrate an OT-specific effect at later stages of attachment-related face processing presumably reflecting both activation of perceptual memory representations and assignment of emotional value. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Neural and cognitive correlates of social cognition: findings on neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies].

PubMed

Kobayakawa, Mutsutaka; Kawamura, Mitsuru

2011-12-01

Social cognition includes various components of information processing related to communication with other individuals. In this review, we have discussed 3 components of social cognitive function: face recognition, empathy, and decision making. Our social behavior involves recognition based on facial features and also involves empathizing with others; while making decisions, it is important to consider the social consequences of the course of action followed. Face recognition is divided into 2 routes for information processing: a route responsible for overt recognition of the face's identity and a route for emotional and orienting responses based on the face's personal affective significance. Two systems are possibly involved in empathy: a basic emotional contagion "mirroring" system and a more advanced "theory of mind" system that considers the cognitive perspective. Decision making is mediated by a widespread system that includes several cortical and subcortical components. Numerous lesion and neuroimaging studies have contributed to clarifying the neural correlates of social cognitive function, and greater information can be obtained on social cognitive function by combining these 2 approaches.

The influence of encoding strategy on episodic memory and cortical activity in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Bonner-Jackson, Aaron; Haut, Kristen; Csernansky, John G; Barch, Deanna M

2005-07-01

Recent work suggests that episodic memory deficits in schizophrenia may be related to disturbances of encoding or retrieval. Schizophrenia patients appear to benefit from instruction in episodic memory strategies. We tested the hypothesis that providing effective encoding strategies to schizophrenia patients enhances encoding-related brain activity and recognition performance. Seventeen schizophrenia patients and 26 healthy comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while performing incidental encoding tasks of words and faces. Subjects were required to make either deep (abstract/concrete) or shallow (alphabetization) judgments for words and deep (gender) judgments for faces, followed by subsequent recognition tests. Schizophrenia and comparison subjects recognized significantly more words encoded deeply than shallowly, activated regions in inferior frontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) typically associated with deep and successful encoding of words, and showed greater left frontal activation for the processing of words compared with faces. However, during deep encoding and material-specific processing (words vs. faces), participants with schizophrenia activated regions not activated by control subjects, including several in prefrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that a deficit in use of effective strategies influences episodic memory performance in schizophrenia and that abnormalities in functional brain activation persist even when such strategies are applied.

Alcoholism and Dampened Temporal Limbic Activation to Emotional Faces

PubMed Central

Marinkovic, Ksenija; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Urban, Trinity; O’Reilly, Cara E.; Howard, Julie A.; Sawyer, Kayle; Harris, Gordon J.

2013-01-01

Background Excessive chronic drinking is accompanied by a broad spectrum of emotional changes ranging from apathy and emotional flatness to deficits in comprehending emotional information, but their neural bases are poorly understood. Methods Emotional abnormalities associated with alcoholism were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging in abstinent long-term alcoholic men in comparison to healthy demographically matched controls. Participants were presented with emotionally valenced words and photographs of faces during deep (semantic) and shallow (perceptual) encoding tasks followed by recognition. Results Overall, faces evoked stronger activation than words, with the expected material-specific laterality (left hemisphere for words, and right for faces) and depth of processing effects. However, whereas control participants showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional (relative to neutral) expressions, the alcoholics responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions. In the alcoholic participants, amygdala activity was inversely correlated with an increase in lateral prefrontal activity as a function of their behavioral deficits. Prefrontal modulation of emotional function as a compensation for the blunted amygdala activity during a socially relevant face appraisal task is in agreement with a distributed network engagement during emotional face processing. Conclusions Deficient activation of amygdala and hippocampus may underlie impaired processing of emotional faces associated with long-term alcoholism and may be a part of the wide array of behavioral problems including disinhibition, concurring with previously documented interpersonal difficulties in this population. Furthermore, the results suggest that alcoholics may rely on prefrontal rather than temporal limbic areas in order to compensate for reduced limbic responsivity and to maintain behavioral adequacy when faced with emotionally or socially challenging situations. PMID:19673745

Emotional bias of cognitive control in adults with childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

PubMed Central

Schulz, Kurt P.; Bédard, Anne-Claude V.; Fan, Jin; Clerkin, Suzanne M.; Dima, Danai; Newcorn, Jeffrey H.; Halperin, Jeffrey M.

2014-01-01

Affect recognition deficits found in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the lifespan may bias the development of cognitive control processes implicated in the pathophysiology of the disorder. This study aimed to determine the mechanism through which facial expressions influence cognitive control in young adults diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. Fourteen probands with childhood ADHD and 14 comparison subjects with no history of ADHD were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a face emotion go/no-go task. Event-related analyses contrasted activation and functional connectivity for cognitive control collapsed over face valence and tested for variations in activation for response execution and inhibition as a function of face valence. Probands with childhood ADHD made fewer correct responses and inhibitions overall than comparison subjects, but demonstrated comparable effects of face emotion on response execution and inhibition. The two groups showed similar frontotemporal activation for cognitive control collapsed across face valence, but differed in the functional connectivity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with fewer interactions with the subgenual cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen in probands than in comparison subjects. Further, valence-dependent activation for response execution was seen in the amygdala, ventral striatum, subgenual cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex in comparison subjects but not in probands. The findings point to functional anomalies in limbic networks for both the valence-dependent biasing of cognitive control and the valence-independent cognitive control of face emotion processing in probands with childhood ADHD. This limbic dysfunction could impact cognitive control in emotional contexts and may contribute to the social and emotional problems associated with ADHD. PMID:24918067

Emotional bias of cognitive control in adults with childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Schulz, Kurt P; Bédard, Anne-Claude V; Fan, Jin; Clerkin, Suzanne M; Dima, Danai; Newcorn, Jeffrey H; Halperin, Jeffrey M

2014-01-01

Affect recognition deficits found in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the lifespan may bias the development of cognitive control processes implicated in the pathophysiology of the disorder. This study aimed to determine the mechanism through which facial expressions influence cognitive control in young adults diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. Fourteen probands with childhood ADHD and 14 comparison subjects with no history of ADHD were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a face emotion go/no-go task. Event-related analyses contrasted activation and functional connectivity for cognitive control collapsed over face valence and tested for variations in activation for response execution and inhibition as a function of face valence. Probands with childhood ADHD made fewer correct responses and inhibitions overall than comparison subjects, but demonstrated comparable effects of face emotion on response execution and inhibition. The two groups showed similar frontotemporal activation for cognitive control collapsed across face valence, but differed in the functional connectivity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with fewer interactions with the subgenual cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen in probands than in comparison subjects. Further, valence-dependent activation for response execution was seen in the amygdala, ventral striatum, subgenual cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex in comparison subjects but not in probands. The findings point to functional anomalies in limbic networks for both the valence-dependent biasing of cognitive control and the valence-independent cognitive control of face emotion processing in probands with childhood ADHD. This limbic dysfunction could impact cognitive control in emotional contexts and may contribute to the social and emotional problems associated with ADHD.

Altered Functional Subnetwork During Emotional Face Processing: A Potential Intermediate Phenotype for Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Cao, Hengyi; Bertolino, Alessandro; Walter, Henrik; Schneider, Michael; Schäfer, Axel; Taurisano, Paolo; Blasi, Giuseppe; Haddad, Leila; Grimm, Oliver; Otto, Kristina; Dixson, Luanna; Erk, Susanne; Mohnke, Sebastian; Heinz, Andreas; Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina; Mühleisen, Thomas W; Mattheisen, Manuel; Witt, Stephanie H; Cichon, Sven; Noethen, Markus; Rietschel, Marcella; Tost, Heike; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas

2016-06-01

Although deficits in emotional processing are prominent in schizophrenia, it has been difficult to identify neural mechanisms related to the genetic risk for this highly heritable illness. Prior studies have not found consistent regional activation or connectivity alterations in first-degree relatives compared with healthy controls, suggesting that a more comprehensive search for connectomic biomarkers is warranted. To identify a potential systems-level intermediate phenotype linked to emotion processing in schizophrenia and to examine the psychological association, task specificity, test-retest reliability, and clinical validity of the identified phenotype. The study was performed in university research hospitals from June 1, 2008, through December 31, 2013. We examined 58 unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia and 94 healthy controls with an emotional face-matching functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm. Test-retest reliability was analyzed with an independent sample of 26 healthy participants. A clinical association study was performed in 31 patients with schizophrenia and 45 healthy controls. Data analysis was performed from January 1 to September 30, 2014. Conventional amygdala activity and seeded connectivity measures, graph-based global and local network connectivity measures, Spearman rank correlation, intraclass correlation, and gray matter volumes. Among the 152 volunteers included in the relative-control sample, 58 were unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia (mean [SD] age, 33.29 [12.56]; 38 were women), and 94 were healthy controls without a first-degree relative with mental illness (mean [SD] age, 32.69 [10.09] years; 55 were women). A graph-theoretical connectivity approach identified significantly decreased connectivity in a subnetwork that primarily included the limbic cortex, visual cortex, and subcortex during emotional face processing (cluster-level P corrected for familywise error = .006) in relatives compared with controls. The connectivity of the same subnetwork was significantly decreased in patients with schizophrenia (F = 6.29, P = .01). Furthermore, we found that this subnetwork connectivity measure was negatively correlated with trait anxiety scores (P = .04), test-retest reliable (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.57), specific to emotional face processing (F = 17.97, P < .001), and independent of gray matter volumes of the identified brain areas (F = 1.84, P = .18). Replicating previous results, no significant group differences were found in face-related amygdala activation and amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex connectivity (P corrected for familywise error =.37 and .11, respectively). Our results indicate that altered connectivity in a visual-limbic subnetwork during emotional face processing may be a functional connectomic intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia. The phenotype is reliable, task specific, related to trait anxiety, and associated with manifest illness. These data encourage the further investigation of this phenotype in clinical and pharmacologic studies.

Neural markers of emotional face perception across psychotic disorders and general population.

PubMed

Sabharwal, Amri; Kotov, Roman; Szekely, Akos; Leung, Hoi-Chung; Barch, Deanna M; Mohanty, Aprajita

2017-07-01

There is considerable variation in negative and positive symptoms of psychosis, global functioning, and emotional face perception (EFP), not only in schizophrenia but also in other psychotic disorders and healthy individuals. However, EFP impairment and its association with worse symptoms and global functioning have been examined largely in the domain of schizophrenia. The present study adopted a dimensional approach to examine the association of behavioral and neural measures of EFP with symptoms of psychosis and global functioning across individuals with schizophrenia spectrum (SZ; N = 28) and other psychotic (OP; N = 29) disorders, and never-psychotic participants (NP; N = 21). Behavioral and functional MRI data were recorded as participants matched emotional expressions of faces and geometrical shapes. Lower accuracy and increased activity in early visual regions, hippocampus, and amygdala during emotion versus shape matching were associated with higher negative, but not positive, symptoms and lower global functioning, across all participants. This association remained even after controlling for group-related (SZ, OP, and NP) variance, dysphoria, and antipsychotic medication status, except in amygdala. Furthermore, negative symptoms mediated the relationship between behavioral and brain EFP measures and global functioning. This study provides some of the first evidence supporting the specific relationship of EFP measures with negative symptoms and global functioning across psychotic and never-psychotic samples, and transdiagnostically across different psychotic disorders. Present findings help bridge the gap between basic EFP-related neuroscience research and clinical research in psychosis, and highlight EFP as a potential symptom-specific marker that tracks global functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Hemispheric and facial asymmetry: faces of academe.

PubMed

Smith, W M

1998-11-01

Facial asymmetry (facedness) of selected academic faculty members was studied in relation to brain asymmetry and cognitive specialization. Comparisons of facedness were made among humanities faculty (H), faculty members of mathematics and physics (M-P), psychologists (P), and a group of randomly selected individuals (R). Facedness was defined in terms of the relative sizes (in square centimeters) of the two hemifaces. It was predicted that the four groups would show differences in facedness, namely, H, right face bias; M-P, left face bias; P, no bias; and R, no bias. The predictions were confirmed, and the results interpreted in terms of known differences in hemispheric specialization of cognitive functions as they relate to the dominant cognitive activity of each of the different groups. In view of the contralateral control of the two hemifaces (below the eyes) by the two hemispheres of the brain, the two sides of the face undergo differential muscular development, thus creating facial asymmetry. Other factors, such as gender, also may affect facial asymmetry. Suggestions for further research on facedness are discussed.

Preferential amygdala reactivity to the negative assessment of neutral faces.

PubMed

Blasi, Giuseppe; Hariri, Ahmad R; Alce, Guilna; Taurisano, Paolo; Sambataro, Fabio; Das, Saumitra; Bertolino, Alessandro; Weinberger, Daniel R; Mattay, Venkata S

2009-11-01

Prior studies suggest that the amygdala shapes complex behavioral responses to socially ambiguous cues. We explored human amygdala function during explicit behavioral decision making about discrete emotional facial expressions that can represent socially unambiguous and ambiguous cues. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 43 healthy adults were required to make complex social decisions (i.e., approach or avoid) about either relatively unambiguous (i.e., angry, fearful, happy) or ambiguous (i.e., neutral) facial expressions. Amygdala activation during this task was compared with that elicited by simple, perceptual decisions (sex discrimination) about the identical facial stimuli. Angry and fearful expressions were more frequently judged as avoidable and happy expressions most often as approachable. Neutral expressions were equally judged as avoidable and approachable. Reaction times to neutral expressions were longer than those to angry, fearful, and happy expressions during social judgment only. Imaging data on stimuli judged to be avoided revealed a significant task by emotion interaction in the amygdala. Here, only neutral facial expressions elicited greater activity during social judgment than during sex discrimination. Furthermore, during social judgment only, neutral faces judged to be avoided were associated with greater amygdala activity relative to neutral faces that were judged as approachable. Moreover, functional coupling between the amygdala and both dorsolateral prefrontal (social judgment > sex discrimination) and cingulate (sex discrimination > social judgment) cortices was differentially modulated by task during processing of neutral faces. Our results suggest that increased amygdala reactivity and differential functional coupling with prefrontal circuitries may shape complex decisions and behavioral responses to socially ambiguous cues.

Preferential Amygdala Reactivity to the Negative Assessment of Neutral Faces

PubMed Central

Blasi, Giuseppe; Hariri, Ahmad R.; Alce, Guilna; Taurisano, Paolo; Sambataro, Fabio; Das, Saumitra; Bertolino, Alessandro; Weinberger, Daniel R.; Mattay, Venkata S.

2010-01-01

Background Prior studies suggest that the amygdala shapes complex behavioral responses to socially ambiguous cues. We explored human amygdala function during explicit behavioral decision making about discrete emotional facial expressions that can represent socially unambiguous and ambiguous cues. Methods During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 43 healthy adults were required to make complex social decisions (i.e., approach or avoid) about either relatively unambiguous (i.e., angry, fearful, happy) or ambiguous (i.e., neutral) facial expressions. Amygdala activation during this task was compared with that elicited by simple, perceptual decisions (sex discrimination) about the identical facial stimuli. Results Angry and fearful expressions were more frequently judged as avoidable and happy expressions most often as approachable. Neutral expressions were equally judged as avoidable and approachable. Reaction times to neutral expressions were longer than those to angry, fearful, and happy expressions during social judgment only. Imaging data on stimuli judged to be avoided revealed a significant task by emotion interaction in the amygdala. Here, only neutral facial expressions elicited greater activity during social judgment than during sex discrimination. Furthermore, during social judgment only, neutral faces judged to be avoided were associated with greater amygdala activity relative to neutral faces that were judged as approachable. Moreover, functional coupling between the amygdala and both dorsolateral prefrontal (social judgment > sex discrimination) and cingulate (sex discrimination > social judgment) cortices was differentially modulated by task during processing of neutral faces. Conclusions Our results suggest that increased amygdala reactivity and differential functional coupling with prefrontal circuitries may shape complex decisions and behavioral responses to socially ambiguous cues. PMID:19709644

Functional integration of the posterior superior temporal sulcus correlates with facial expression recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Xu; Song, Yiying; Zhen, Zonglei; Liu, Jia

2016-05-01

Face perception is essential for daily and social activities. Neuroimaging studies have revealed a distributed face network (FN) consisting of multiple regions that exhibit preferential responses to invariant or changeable facial information. However, our understanding about how these regions work collaboratively to facilitate facial information processing is limited. Here, we focused on changeable facial information processing, and investigated how the functional integration of the FN is related to the performance of facial expression recognition. To do so, we first defined the FN as voxels that responded more strongly to faces than objects, and then used a voxel-based global brain connectivity method based on resting-state fMRI to characterize the within-network connectivity (WNC) of each voxel in the FN. By relating the WNC and performance in the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test across participants, we found that individuals with stronger WNC in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS) were better at recognizing facial expressions. Further, the resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between the rpSTS and right occipital face area (rOFA), early visual cortex (EVC), and bilateral STS were positively correlated with the ability of facial expression recognition, and the FCs of EVC-pSTS and OFA-pSTS contributed independently to facial expression recognition. In short, our study highlights the behavioral significance of intrinsic functional integration of the FN in facial expression processing, and provides evidence for the hub-like role of the rpSTS for facial expression recognition. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1930-1940, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relation of pulmonary responses induced by 6.6-h exposures to 0.08 ppm ozone and 2-h exposures to 0.30 ppm ozone via chamber and face-mask inhalation.

PubMed

Adams, William C

2003-07-01

While direct comparison of pulmonary responses to 6.6-h exposures to 0.08 to 0.12 ppm ozone O3 have demonstrated that chamber and face-mask inhalation methods yield closely similar results, no comparative study of responses to 2-h intermittent exercise (IE) exposures to higher O3 concentrations have been reported. The present study was designed to achieve three primary objectives: (1) to compare pulmonary function and symptoms effects of a 2-h IE exposure to 0.30 ppm O3 via chamber and via face mask; (2) to compare the pulmonary effects of 6.6-h chamber exposure to 0.08 ppm O3 to those observed in 2-h IE 0.30 ppm O3 exposures via chamber and via face mask; and (3) to examine filtered air (FA) recovery pulmonary and symptoms responses following chamber exposures of 6.6 h to 0.08 ppm O3 and 2 h to 0.30 ppm O3. A simple regression of postexposure percent change in FEV(1.0) for the 2-h IE, 0.30-ppm O3 chamber exposure as a function of postexposure percent change in FEV(1.0) for the 2-h IE, 0.30-ppm O3 exposure with face mask yielded an R(2) of 0.83. Further, a regression of the postexposure FEV(1.0) response to the chamber 6.6-h, 0.08-ppm O3 exposure as a function of postexposure FEV(1.0) response to the face mask 2-h IE, 0.30-ppm O3 exposure (R(2) of 0.34) was similar to the 0.40 value obtained for the two chamber exposures FEV(1.0) response comparison. Results of the 1.4-h FA recovery following the two chamber O3 exposures showed different rates of FEV(1.0) and symptoms rectification that appeared related to the total O3 dose (product of O3 concentration, ventilation rate, and duration). More data are needed to clarify short-term recovery of O3-induced pulmonary effects and how they may be related to the more abundant data available on the delayed recovery of pulmonary function seen over longer time periods, such as 24 h.

Face-elicited ERPs and affective attitude: brain electric microstate and tomography analyses.

PubMed

Pizzagalli, D; Lehmann, D; Koenig, T; Regard, M; Pascual-Marqui, R D

2000-03-01

Although behavioral studies have demonstrated that normative affective traits modulate the processing of facial and emotionally charged stimuli, direct electrophysiological evidence for this modulation is still lacking. Event-related potential (ERP) data associated with personal, traitlike approach- or withdrawal-related attitude (assessed post-recording and 14 months later) were investigated in 18 subjects during task-free (i.e. unrequested, spontaneous) emotional evaluation of faces. Temporal and spatial aspects of 27 channel ERP were analyzed with microstate analysis and low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA), a new method to compute 3 dimensional cortical current density implemented in the Talairach brain atlas. Microstate analysis showed group differences 132-196 and 196-272 ms poststimulus, with right-shifted electric gravity centers for subjects with negative affective attitude. During these (over subjects reliably identifiable) personality-modulated, face-elicited microstates, LORETA revealed activation of bilateral occipito-temporal regions, reportedly associated with facial configuration extraction processes. Negative compared to positive affective attitude showed higher activity right temporal; positive compared to negative attitude showed higher activity left temporo-parieto-occipital. These temporal and spatial aspects suggest that the subject groups differed in brain activity at early, automatic, stimulus-related face processing steps when structural face encoding (configuration extraction) occurs. In sum, the brain functional microstates associated with affect-related personality features modulate brain mechanisms during face processing already at early information processing stages.

[The roles and functions of volunteer counselors to the elderly].

PubMed

Chen, Chun-Yu

2004-06-01

In Taiwan's current counseling centers for the elderly, large numbers of volunteers are supervised by only a few social workers or nurses, so the roles and functions of these volunteers are very important. A neat summary of the services provided by the volunteers would include: (1) Direct services: telephone counseling, telephone interviewing, case handling, mail counseling, resource provision. (2) Indirect services: fundraising, supervision. (3) Administration: administrative assistance, management of institutional web sites. (4) Strategic consultancy: consultancy, provision of expertise. (5) Advocacy: service as educators and spokespersons; public relations and marketing. (6) MANAGEMENT: team leadership, plan implementation. To sum up, their functions are, by means of telephone and face-to-face contact, to provide information to the elderly about finances, medical services, housing, citizenship, the dignity of life and death, and related issues, as well as to serve as advocates for the provision of resources--such as educational courses--and to facilitate such provision. Indeed, the roles and functions of volunteer counselors become more diverse and more comprehensive by the day.

Neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in cross-species face-voice matching.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias; Missana, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D; Ghazanfar, Asif A

2012-11-01

Integrating the multisensory features of talking faces is critical to learning and extracting coherent meaning from social signals. While we know much about the development of these capacities at the behavioral level, we know very little about the underlying neural processes. One prominent behavioral milestone of these capacities is the perceptual narrowing of face-voice matching, whereby young infants match faces and voices across species, but older infants do not. In the present study, we provide neurophysiological evidence for developmental decline in cross-species face-voice matching. We measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while 4- and 8-month-old infants watched and listened to congruent and incongruent audio-visual presentations of monkey vocalizations and humans mimicking monkey vocalizations. The ERP results indicated that younger infants distinguished between the congruent and the incongruent faces and voices regardless of species, whereas in older infants, the sensitivity to multisensory congruency was limited to the human face and voice. Furthermore, with development, visual and frontal brain processes and their functional connectivity became more sensitive to the congruence of human faces and voices relative to monkey faces and voices. Our data show the neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in face-voice matching and support the notion that postnatal experience with species identity is associated with neural changes in multisensory processing (Lewkowicz & Ghazanfar, 2009). © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The faces of development: a review of early face processing over childhood.

PubMed

Taylor, M J; Batty, M; Itier, R J

2004-10-01

The understanding of the adult proficiency in recognizing and extracting information from faces is still limited despite the number of studies over the last decade. Our knowledge on the development of these capacities is even more restricted, as only a handful of such studies exist. Here we present a combined reanalysis of four ERP studies in children from 4 to 15 years of age and adults (n = 424, across the studies), which investigated face processing in implicit and explicit tasks. We restricted these analyses to what was common across studies: early ERP components and upright face processing across all four studies and the inversion effect, investigated in three of the studies. These data demonstrated that processing faces implicates very rapid neural activity, even in young children--at the P1 component--with protracted age-related change in both P1 and N170, that were sensitive to the different task demands. Inversion produced latency and amplitude effects on the P1 from the youngest group, but on N170 only starting in mid childhood. These developmental data suggest that there are functionally different sources of the P1 and N170, related to the processing of different aspects of faces.

Lateralization for Processing Facial Emotions in Gay Men, Heterosexual Men, and Heterosexual Women.

PubMed

Rahman, Qazi; Yusuf, Sifat

2015-07-01

This study tested whether male sexual orientation and gender nonconformity influenced functional cerebral lateralization for the processing of facial emotions. We also tested for the effects of sex of poser and emotion displayed on putative differences. Thirty heterosexual men, 30 heterosexual women, and 40 gay men completed measures of demographic variables, recalled childhood gender nonconformity (CGN), IQ, and the Chimeric Faces Test (CFT). The CFT depicts vertically split chimeric faces, formed with one half showing a neutral expression and the other half showing an emotional expression and performance is measured using a "laterality quotient" (LQ) score. We found that heterosexual men were significantly more right-lateralized when viewing female faces compared to heterosexual women and gay men, who did not differ significantly from each other. Heterosexual women and gay men were more left-lateralized for processing female faces. There were no significant group differences in lateralization for male faces. These results remained when controlling for age and IQ scores. There was no significant effect of CGN on LQ scores. These data suggest that gay men are feminized in some aspects of functional cerebral lateralization for facial emotion. The results were discussed in relation to the selectivity of functional lateralization and putative brain mechanisms underlying sexual attraction towards opposite-sex and same-sex targets.

Acute Alcohol Consumption and Secondary Psychopathic Traits Increase Ratings of the Attractiveness and Health of Ethnic Ingroup Faces but Not Outgroup Faces

PubMed Central

Mitchell, Ian J.; Gillespie, Steven M.; Leverton, Monica; Llewellyn, Victoria; Neale, Emily; Stevenson, Isobel

2015-01-01

Studies have consistently shown that both consumption of acute amounts of alcohol and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits are associated with an impaired ability for prepotent response inhibition. This may manifest as a reduced ability to inhibit prepotent race biased responses. Here, we tested the effects of acute alcohol consumption, and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits, on judgments of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup and outgroup faces. In the first study, we show that following acute alcohol consumption, at a dose that is sufficient to result in impaired performance on tests of executive function, Caucasian participants judged White faces to be more attractive and healthier compared to when sober. However, this effect did not extend to Black faces. A similar effect was found in a second study involving sober Caucasian participants where secondary psychopathic traits were related to an intergroup bias in the ratings of attractiveness for White versus Black faces. These results are discussed in terms of a model which postulates that poor prefrontal functioning leads to increases in ingroup liking as a result of impaired abilities for prepotent response inhibition. PMID:25745403

Acute alcohol consumption and secondary psychopathic traits increase ratings of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup faces but not outgroup faces.

PubMed

Mitchell, Ian J; Gillespie, Steven M; Leverton, Monica; Llewellyn, Victoria; Neale, Emily; Stevenson, Isobel

2015-01-01

Studies have consistently shown that both consumption of acute amounts of alcohol and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits are associated with an impaired ability for prepotent response inhibition. This may manifest as a reduced ability to inhibit prepotent race biased responses. Here, we tested the effects of acute alcohol consumption, and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits, on judgments of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup and outgroup faces. In the first study, we show that following acute alcohol consumption, at a dose that is sufficient to result in impaired performance on tests of executive function, Caucasian participants judged White faces to be more attractive and healthier compared to when sober. However, this effect did not extend to Black faces. A similar effect was found in a second study involving sober Caucasian participants where secondary psychopathic traits were related to an intergroup bias in the ratings of attractiveness for White versus Black faces. These results are discussed in terms of a model which postulates that poor prefrontal functioning leads to increases in ingroup liking as a result of impaired abilities for prepotent response inhibition.

Functional Brain Activation to Emotional and non-Emotional Faces in Healthy Children: Evidence for Developmentally Undifferentiated Amygdala Function During the School Age Period

PubMed Central

Pagliaccio, David; Luby, Joan L.; Gaffrey, Michael S.; Belden, Andrew C.; Botteron, Kelly N.; Harms, Michael P.; Barch, Deanna M.

2013-01-01

The amygdala is a key region in emotion processing. Particularly, fMRI studies have demonstrated that the amygdala is active during the viewing of emotional faces. Previous research has consistently found greater amygdala responses to fearful faces as compared to neutral faces in adults, convergent with a focus in the animal literature on the amygdala's role in fear processing. Studies have found that the amygdala also responds differentially to other facial emotion types in adults. Yet, the literature regarding when this differential amygdala responsivity develops is limited and mixed. Thus, the goal of current study was to examine amygdala responses to emotional and neutral faces in a relatively large sample of healthy school age children (N = 52). While the amygdala was active in response to emotional and neutral faces, the results do not support the hypothesis that the amygdala responds differentially to emotional faces in 7 – 12 year old children. Nonetheless, amygdala activity was correlated with the severity of subclinical depression symptoms and emotional regulation skills. Additionally, sex differences were observed in frontal, temporal, and visual regions as well as effects of pubertal development in visual regions. These findings suggest important differences in amygdala reactivity in childhood. PMID:23636982

Face Encoding and Recognition in the Human Brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haxby, James V.; Ungerleider, Leslie G.; Horwitz, Barry; Maisog, Jose Ma.; Rapoport, Stanley I.; Grady, Cheryl L.

1996-01-01

A dissociation between human neural systems that participate in the encoding and later recognition of new memories for faces was demonstrated by measuring memory task-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography. There was almost no overlap between the brain structures associated with these memory functions. A region in the right hippocampus and adjacent cortex was activated during memory encoding but not during recognition. The most striking finding in neocortex was the lateralization of prefrontal participation. Encoding activated left prefrontal cortex, whereas recognition activated right prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that the hippocampus and adjacent cortex participate in memory function primarily at the time of new memory encoding. Moreover, face recognition is not mediated simply by recapitulation of operations performed at the time of encoding but, rather, involves anatomically dissociable operations.

[Neural mechanisms of facial recognition].

PubMed

Nagai, Chiyoko

2007-01-01

We review recent researches in neural mechanisms of facial recognition in the light of three aspects: facial discrimination and identification, recognition of facial expressions, and face perception in itself. First, it has been demonstrated that the fusiform gyrus has a main role of facial discrimination and identification. However, whether the FFA (fusiform face area) is really a special area for facial processing or not is controversial; some researchers insist that the FFA is related to 'becoming an expert' for some kinds of visual objects, including faces. Neural mechanisms of prosopagnosia would be deeply concerned to this issue. Second, the amygdala seems to be very concerned to recognition of facial expressions, especially fear. The amygdala, connected with the superior temporal sulcus and the orbitofrontal cortex, appears to operate the cortical function. The amygdala and the superior temporal sulcus are related to gaze recognition, which explains why a patient with bilateral amygdala damage could not recognize only a fear expression; the information from eyes is necessary for fear recognition. Finally, even a newborn infant can recognize a face as a face, which is congruent with the innate hypothesis of facial recognition. Some researchers speculate that the neural basis of such face perception is the subcortical network, comprised of the amygdala, the superior colliculus, and the pulvinar. This network would relate to covert recognition that prosopagnosic patients have.

Mother-infant dyadic reparation and individual differences in vagal tone affect 4-month-old infants' social stress regulation.

PubMed

Provenzi, Livio; Casini, Erica; de Simone, Paola; Reni, Gianluigi; Borgatti, Renato; Montirosso, Rosario

2015-12-01

Infants' social stress regulation (i.e., reactivity and recovery) might be affected by mother-infant dyadic functioning and infants' vagal tone (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA). This study investigated the role of a specific dyadic functioning feature (i.e., dyadic reparation) and individual differences in vagal tone regulation (i.e., RSA suppression vs. non-suppression) in relation to social stress regulation in 4-month-old infants. A total of 65 mother-infant dyads participated in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Social stress reactivity and recovery were measured as negative emotionality during Still-Face and Reunion episodes, respectively. RSA was measured during Play, Still-Face, and Reunion episodes. Suppressors had higher dyadic reparation during Play and higher recovery from social stress compared with non-suppressors. Higher reparation during Play was associated with lower reactivity and higher recovery only for suppressors. Findings suggest a joint role of infants' RSA individual differences and dyadic reparation in affecting infants' social stress regulation at 4 months of age. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autism: reduced connectivity between cortical areas involved in face expression, theory of mind, and the sense of self.

PubMed

Cheng, Wei; Rolls, Edmund T; Gu, Huaguang; Zhang, Jie; Feng, Jianfeng

2015-05-01

Whole-brain voxel-based unbiased resting state functional connectivity was analysed in 418 subjects with autism and 509 matched typically developing individuals. We identified a key system in the middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus region that has reduced cortical functional connectivity (and increased with the medial thalamus), which is implicated in face expression processing involved in social behaviour. This system has reduced functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in emotion and social communication. The middle temporal gyrus system is also implicated in theory of mind processing. We also identified in autism a second key system in the precuneus/superior parietal lobule region with reduced functional connectivity, which is implicated in spatial functions including of oneself, and of the spatial environment. It is proposed that these two types of functionality, face expression-related, and of one's self and the environment, are important components of the computations involved in theory of mind, whether of oneself or of others, and that reduced connectivity within and between these regions may make a major contribution to the symptoms of autism. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.

Passive and Motivated Perception of Emotional Faces: Qualitative and Quantitative Changes in the Face Processing Network

PubMed Central

Skelly, Laurie R.; Decety, Jean

2012-01-01

Emotionally expressive faces are processed by a distributed network of interacting sub-cortical and cortical brain regions. The components of this network have been identified and described in large part by the stimulus properties to which they are sensitive, but as face processing research matures interest has broadened to also probe dynamic interactions between these regions and top-down influences such as task demand and context. While some research has tested the robustness of affective face processing by restricting available attentional resources, it is not known whether face network processing can be augmented by increased motivation to attend to affective face stimuli. Short videos of people expressing emotions were presented to healthy participants during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Motivation to attend to the videos was manipulated by providing an incentive for improved recall performance. During the motivated condition, there was greater coherence among nodes of the face processing network, more widespread correlation between signal intensity and performance, and selective signal increases in a task-relevant subset of face processing regions, including the posterior superior temporal sulcus and right amygdala. In addition, an unexpected task-related laterality effect was seen in the amygdala. These findings provide strong evidence that motivation augmentsco-activity among nodes of the face processing network and the impact of neural activity on performance. These within-subject effects highlight the necessity to consider motivation when interpreting neural function in special populations, and to further explore the effect of task demands on face processing in healthy brains. PMID:22768287

A Brain Network Processing the Age of Faces

PubMed Central

Homola, György A.; Jbabdi, Saad; Beckmann, Christian F.; Bartsch, Andreas J.

2012-01-01

Age is one of the most salient aspects in faces and of fundamental cognitive and social relevance. Although face processing has been studied extensively, brain regions responsive to age have yet to be localized. Using evocative face morphs and fMRI, we segregate two areas extending beyond the previously established face-sensitive core network, centered on the inferior temporal sulci and angular gyri bilaterally, both of which process changes of facial age. By means of probabilistic tractography, we compare their patterns of functional activation and structural connectivity. The ventral portion of Wernicke's understudied perpendicular association fasciculus is shown to interconnect the two areas, and activation within these clusters is related to the probability of fiber connectivity between them. In addition, post-hoc age-rating competence is found to be associated with high response magnitudes in the left angular gyrus. Our results provide the first evidence that facial age has a distinct representation pattern in the posterior human brain. We propose that particular face-sensitive nodes interact with additional object-unselective quantification modules to obtain individual estimates of facial age. This brain network processing the age of faces differs from the cortical areas that have previously been linked to less developmental but instantly changeable face aspects. Our probabilistic method of associating activations with connectivity patterns reveals an exemplary link that can be used to further study, assess and quantify structure-function relationships. PMID:23185334

Altered spontaneous neural activity in the occipital face area reflects behavioral deficits in developmental prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Zhao, Yuanfang; Li, Jingguang; Liu, Xiqin; Song, Yiying; Wang, Ruosi; Yang, Zetian; Liu, Jia

2016-08-01

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) exhibit severe difficulties in recognizing faces and to a lesser extent, also exhibit difficulties in recognizing non-face objects. We used fMRI to investigate whether these behavioral deficits could be accounted for by altered spontaneous neural activity. Two aspects of spontaneous neural activity were measured: the intensity of neural activity in a voxel indexed by the fractional amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), and the connectivity of a voxel to neighboring voxels indexed by regional homogeneity (ReHo). Compared with normal adults, both the fALFF and ReHo values within the right occipital face area (rOFA) were significantly reduced in DP subjects. Follow-up studies on the normal adults revealed that these two measures indicated further functional division of labor within the rOFA. The fALFF in the rOFA was positively correlated with behavioral performance in recognition of non-face objects, whereas ReHo in the rOFA was positively correlated with processing of faces. When considered together, the altered fALFF and ReHo within the same region (rOFA) may account for the comorbid deficits in both face and object recognition in DPs, whereas the functional division of labor in these two measures helps to explain the relative independency of deficits in face recognition and object recognition in DP. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Plastic reorganization of neural systems for perception of others in the congenitally blind.

PubMed

Fairhall, S L; Porter, K B; Bellucci, C; Mazzetti, M; Cipolli, C; Gobbini, M I

2017-09-01

Recent evidence suggests that the function of the core system for face perception might extend beyond visual face-perception to a broader role in person perception. To critically test the broader role of core face-system in person perception, we examined the role of the core system during the perception of others in 7 congenitally blind individuals and 15 sighted subjects by measuring their neural responses using fMRI while they listened to voices and performed identity and emotion recognition tasks. We hypothesised that in people who have had no visual experience of faces, core face-system areas may assume a role in the perception of others via voices. Results showed that emotions conveyed by voices can be decoded in homologues of the core face system only in the blind. Moreover, there was a specific enhancement of response to verbal as compared to non-verbal stimuli in bilateral fusiform face areas and the right posterior superior temporal sulcus showing that the core system also assumes some language-related functions in the blind. These results indicate that, in individuals with no history of visual experience, areas of the core system for face perception may assume a role in aspects of voice perception that are relevant to social cognition and perception of others' emotions. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Try to Look on the Bright Side: Children and Adults Can (Sometimes) Override Their Tendency to Prioritize Negative Faces

PubMed Central

Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen; Kramer, Hannah J.

2017-01-01

We used eye tracking to examine 4- to 10-year-olds’ and adults’ (N = 173) visual attention to negative (anger, fear, sadness, disgust) and neutral faces when paired with happy faces in 2 experimental conditions: free-viewing (“look at the faces”) and directed (“look only at the happy faces”). Regardless of instruction, all age groups more often looked first to negative versus positive faces (no age differences), suggesting that initial orienting is driven by bottom-up processes. In contrast, biases in more sustained attention—last looks and looking duration—varied by age and could be modified by top-down instruction. On the free-viewing task, all age groups exhibited a negativity bias which attenuated with age and remained stable across trials. When told to look only at happy faces (directed task), all age groups shifted to a positivity bias, with linear age-related improvements. This ability to implement the “look only at the happy faces” instruction, however, fatigued over time, with the decrement stronger for children. Controlling for age, individual differences in executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) had no relation to the free-viewing task; however, these variables explained substantial variance on the directed task, with children and adults higher in executive function showing better skill at looking last and looking longer at happy faces. Greater anxiety predicted more first looks to angry faces on the directed task. These findings advance theory and research on normative development and individual differences in the bias to prioritize negative information, including contributions of bottom-up salience and top-down control. PMID:28054815

The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism and the effect of baseline on amygdala response to emotional faces.

PubMed

von dem Hagen, Elisabeth A H; Passamonti, Luca; Nutland, Sarah; Sambrook, Jennifer; Calder, Andrew J

2011-03-01

Previous research has found that a common polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) is an important mediator of individual differences in brain responses associated with emotional behaviour. In particular, relative to individuals homozygous for the l-allele, carriers of the s-allele display heightened amygdala activation to emotional compared to non-emotional stimuli. However, there is some debate as to whether this difference is driven by increased activation to emotional stimuli, resting baseline differences between the groups, or decreased activation to neutral stimuli. We performed functional imaging during an implicit facial expression processing task in which participants viewed angry, sad and neutral faces. In addition to neutral faces, we included two further baseline conditions, houses and fixation. We found increased amygdala activation in s-allele carriers relative to l-homozygotes in response to angry faces compared to neutral faces, houses and fixation. When comparing neutral faces to houses or fixation, we found no significant difference in amygdala response between the two groups. In addition, there was no significant difference between the groups in response to fixation when compared with a houses baseline. Overall, these results suggest that the increased amygdala response observed in s-allele carriers to emotional faces is primarily driven by an increased response to emotional faces rather than a decreased response to neutral faces or an increased resting baseline. The results are discussed in relation to the tonic and phasic hypotheses of 5-HTTLPR-mediated modulation of amygdala activity. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing.

PubMed

Bublatzky, Florian; Pittig, Andre; Schupp, Harald T; Alpers, Georg W

2017-05-01

The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual-attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer-conveyed by facial expression and face direction-amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Age and executive ability impact the neural correlates of race perception

PubMed Central

Lee, Eunice J.; Krendl, Anne C.

2016-01-01

Decreased executive ability elicits racial bias. We clarified the neural correlates of how executive ability contributes to race perception by comparing young adults (YA) to a population with highly variable executive ability: older adults (OA). After replicating work showing higher race bias in OA vs YA and a negative association between bias and executive ability, a subsample of White YA and OA perceived Black and White faces and cars during functional magnetic resonance imaging. YA had higher executive ability than OA, and OA had higher variability in executive ability. When perceiving Black vs White faces, YA exhibited more dorsolateral prefrontal cortex recruitment—a region previously implicated in regulating prejudiced responses—than OA. Moreover, OA with relatively impaired executive ability had more amygdala activity toward Black faces vs OA with relatively intact executive ability, whereas responses to White faces did not differ. Both YA and OA with relatively intact executive ability had stronger amygdala-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity when perceiving Black vs White faces. These findings are the first to disentangle age from executive ability differences in neural recruitment when perceiving race, potentially informing past behavioral work on aging and race perception. PMID:27330185

Amygdala habituation and prefrontal functional connectivity in youth with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Swartz, Johnna R; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Carrasco, Melisa; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S

2013-01-01

Amygdala habituation, the rapid decrease in amygdala responsiveness to the repeated presentation of stimuli, is fundamental to the nervous system. Habituation is important for maintaining adaptive levels of arousal to predictable social stimuli and decreased habituation is associated with heightened anxiety. Input from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) regulates amygdala activity. Although previous research has shown abnormal amygdala function in youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), no study has examined amygdala habituation in a young sample or whether habituation is related to amygdala connectivity with the vmPFC. Data were analyzed from 32 children and adolescents with ASD and 56 typically developing controls who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a gender identification task for faces that were fearful, happy, sad, or neutral. Habituation was tested by comparing amygdala activation to faces during the first half versus the second half of the session. VmPFC-amygdala connectivity was examined through psychophysiologic interaction analysis. Youth with ASD had decreased amygdala habituation to sad and neutral faces compared with controls. Moreover, decreased amygdala habituation correlated with autism severity as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale. There was a group difference in vmPFC-amygdala connectivity while viewing sad faces, and connectivity predicted amygdala habituation to sad faces in controls. Sustained amygdala activation to faces suggests that repeated face presentations are processed differently in individuals with ASD, which could contribute to social impairments. Abnormal modulation of the amygdala by the vmPFC may play a role in decreased habituation. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional specialization and convergence in the occipito-temporal cortex supporting haptic and visual identification of human faces and body parts: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Kitada, Ryo; Johnsrude, Ingrid S; Kochiyama, Takanori; Lederman, Susan J

2009-10-01

Humans can recognize common objects by touch extremely well whenever vision is unavailable. Despite its importance to a thorough understanding of human object recognition, the neuroscientific study of this topic has been relatively neglected. To date, the few published studies have addressed the haptic recognition of nonbiological objects. We now focus on haptic recognition of the human body, a particularly salient object category for touch. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate that regions of the occipito-temporal cortex are specialized for visual perception of faces (fusiform face area, FFA) and other body parts (extrastriate body area, EBA). Are the same category-sensitive regions activated when these components of the body are recognized haptically? Here, we use fMRI to compare brain organization for haptic and visual recognition of human body parts. Sixteen subjects identified exemplars of faces, hands, feet, and nonbiological control objects using vision and haptics separately. We identified two discrete regions within the fusiform gyrus (FFA and the haptic face region) that were each sensitive to both haptically and visually presented faces; however, these two regions differed significantly in their response patterns. Similarly, two regions within the lateral occipito-temporal area (EBA and the haptic body region) were each sensitive to body parts in both modalities, although the response patterns differed. Thus, although the fusiform gyrus and the lateral occipito-temporal cortex appear to exhibit modality-independent, category-sensitive activity, our results also indicate a degree of functional specialization related to sensory modality within these structures.

Differential effects of object-based attention on evoked potentials to fearful and disgusted faces.

PubMed

Santos, Isabel M; Iglesias, Jaime; Olivares, Ela I; Young, Andrew W

2008-04-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the role of attention on the processing of facial expressions of fear and disgust. Stimuli consisted of overlapping pictures of a face and a house. Participants had to monitor repetitions of faces or houses, in separate blocks of trials, so that object-based attention was manipulated while spatial attention was kept constant. Faces varied in expression and could be either fearful or neutral (in the fear condition) or disgusted or neutral (in the disgust condition). When attending to faces, participants were required to signal repetitions of the same person, with the facial expressions being completely irrelevant to the task. Different effects of selective attention and different patterns of brain activity were observed for faces with fear and disgust expressions. Results indicated that the perception of fear from faces is gated by selective attention at early latencies, whereas a sustained positivity for fearful faces compared to neutral faces emerged around 160ms at central-parietal sites, independent of selective attention. In the case of disgust, ERP differences began only around 160ms after stimulus onset, and only after 480ms was the perception of disgust modulated by attention allocation. Results are interpreted in terms of different neural mechanisms for the perception of fear and disgust and related to the functional significance of these two emotions for the survival of the organism.

Rapid, high-frequency, and theta-coupled gamma oscillations in the inferior occipital gyrus during face processing.

PubMed

Sato, Wataru; Kochiyama, Takanori; Uono, Shota; Matsuda, Kazumi; Usui, Keiko; Inoue, Yushi; Toichi, Motomi

2014-11-01

Neuroimaging studies have found greater activation in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), or occipital face area, in response to faces relative to non-facial stimuli. However, the temporal, frequency, and functional profiles of IOG activity during face processing remain unclear. Here, this issue was investigated by recording intracranial field potentials in the IOG during the presentation of faces, mosaics, and houses in upright and inverted orientations. Time-frequency statistical parametric mapping analyses revealed greater gamma-band activation in the IOG beginning at 110 msec and covering 40-300 Hz in response to upright faces relative to upright houses and mosaics. Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling analyses revealed more evident theta-gamma couplings at 115-256 msec during the processing of upright faces as compared with that of upright houses and mosaics. Comparable gamma-band activity was observed during the processing of inverted and upright faces at about 100-200 msec, but weaker activity and different coupling with theta-band activity after 200 msec. These patterns of activity were more evident in the right than in the left IOG. These results, together with other evidence on neural communication, suggest that broadband gamma oscillations in the right IOG conduct rapid and multistage (i.e., both featural and configural) face processing in collaboration with theta oscillations transmitted from other brain regions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG.

PubMed

St John, Ashley M; Kao, Katie; Chita-Tegmark, Meia; Liederman, Jacqueline; Grieve, Philip G; Tarullo, Amanda R

2017-05-03

Despite the importance of social interactions for infant brain development, little research has assessed functional neural activation while infants socially interact. Electroencephalography (EEG) power is an advantageous technique to assess infant functional neural activation. However, many studies record infant EEG only during one baseline condition. This protocol describes a paradigm that is designed to comprehensively assess infant EEG activity in both social and nonsocial contexts as well as tease apart how different types of social inputs differentially relate to infant EEG. The within-subjects paradigm includes four controlled conditions. In the nonsocial condition, infants view objects on computer screens. The joint attention condition involves an experimenter directing the infant's attention to pictures. The joint attention condition includes three types of social input: language, face-to-face interaction, and the presence of joint attention. Differences in infant EEG between the nonsocial and joint attention conditions could be due to any of these three types of input. Therefore, two additional conditions (one with language input while the experimenter is hidden behind a screen and one with face-to-face interaction) were included to assess the driving contextual factors in patterns of infant neural activation. Representative results demonstrate that infant EEG power varied by condition, both overall and differentially by brain region, supporting the functional nature of infant EEG power. This technique is advantageous in that it includes conditions that are clearly social or nonsocial and allows for examination of how specific types of social input relate to EEG power. This paradigm can be used to assess how individual differences in age, affect, socioeconomic status, and parent-infant interaction quality relate to the development of the social brain. Based on the demonstrated functional nature of infant EEG power, future studies should consider the role of EEG recording context and design conditions that are clearly social or nonsocial.

Relating brain signal variability to knowledge representation.

PubMed

Heisz, Jennifer J; Shedden, Judith M; McIntosh, Anthony R

2012-11-15

We assessed the hypothesis that brain signal variability is a reflection of functional network reconfiguration during memory processing. In the present experiments, we use multiscale entropy to capture the variability of human electroencephalogram (EEG) while manipulating the knowledge representation associated with faces stored in memory. Across two experiments, we observed increased variability as a function of greater knowledge representation. In Experiment 1, individuals with greater familiarity for a group of famous faces displayed more brain signal variability. In Experiment 2, brain signal variability increased with learning after multiple experimental exposures to previously unfamiliar faces. The results demonstrate that variability increases with face familiarity; cognitive processes during the perception of familiar stimuli may engage a broader network of regions, which manifests as higher complexity/variability in spatial and temporal domains. In addition, effects of repetition suppression on brain signal variability were observed, and the pattern of results is consistent with a selectivity model of neural adaptation. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combined use of Doppler OCT and en face OCT functions for discrimination of an aneurysm in the lamina cribrosa from a disc hemorrhage.

PubMed

Holló, Gábor

2015-12-01

In addition to retinal nerve fiber layer thickness measurements, the recently introduced AngioVue optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers corresponding layer-by-layer Doppler OCT and en face OCT functions, for simultaneous evaluation of perfusion and structure of the optic nerve head. We investigated the clinical usefulness of combined use of Doppler and en face Fourier-domain OCT functions of the AngioVue Fourier-domain OCT for discrimination of a disc hemorrhage and a disc hemorrhage-like atypical vessel structure located deep in the lamina cribrosa. We present our findings with AngioVue OCT on a disc hemorrhage and a spatially related retinal nerve fiber layer bundle defect in a glaucomatous eye (case 1). Both alterations were detected on en face OCT images without any Doppler OCT signal. We also report on an aneurysm suggestive for a disc hemorrhage on clinical examination and disc photography in a treated ocular hypertensive eye (case 2). The aneurysm was within the lamina cribrosa tissue at the border of the cup and the neuroretinal rim. This vascular structure produced strong Doppler signals but no structurally detectable signs on the en face OCT images. Combined evaluation of corresponding Doppler OCT and en face OCT images enables ophthalmologists to easily separate true disc hemorrhages from disc hemorrhage-like deep vascular structures. This is of clinical significance in preventing unnecessary intensification of pressure-lowering treatment in glaucoma.

Borderline Intellectual Functioning: A Systematic Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peltopuro, Minna; Ahonen, Timo; Kaartinen, Jukka; Seppälä, Heikki; Närhi, Vesa

2014-01-01

The literature related to people with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) was systematically reviewed in order to summarize the present knowledge. Database searches yielded 1,726 citations, and 49 studies were included in the review. People with BIF face a variety of hardships in life, including neurocognitive, social, and mental health…

Life Space Crisis Intervention and Functional Behavioral Assessment: The Guiding Models.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGowan, Lawrence P.

2002-01-01

The Conflict Cycle employed in Life Space Crisis Intervention offers a model for conducting functional assessment with students facing disciplinary action for behavior that may be related to emotional disturbance and other disabilities. This article analyzes the Conflict Cycle, using principles from cognitive behavioral science. (Contains 13…

The Cambridge Mindreading (CAM) Face-Voice Battery: Testing complex emotion recognition in adults with and without Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Golan, Ofer; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Hill, Jacqueline

2006-02-01

Adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS) can recognise simple emotions and pass basic theory of mind tasks, but have difficulties recognising more complex emotions and mental states. This study describes a new battery of tasks, testing recognition of 20 complex emotions and mental states from faces and voices. The battery was given to males and females with AS and matched controls. Results showed the AS group performed worse than controls overall, on emotion recognition from faces and voices and on 12/20 specific emotions. Females recognised faces better than males regardless of diagnosis, and males with AS had more difficulties recognising emotions from faces than from voices. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to social functioning in AS.

Cost-Utility and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses of Face-to-Face Versus Telephone-Based Nonpharmacologic Multidisciplinary Treatments for Patients With Generalized Osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Cuperus, Nienke; van den Hout, Wilbert B; Hoogeboom, Thomas J; van den Hoogen, Frank H J; Vliet Vlieland, Thea P M; van den Ende, Cornelia H M

2016-04-01

To evaluate, from a societal perspective, the cost utility and cost effectiveness of a nonpharmacologic face-to-face treatment program compared with a telephone-based treatment program for patients with generalized osteoarthritis (GOA). An economic evaluation was carried out alongside a randomized clinical trial involving 147 patients with GOA. Program costs were estimated from time registrations. One-year medical and nonmedical costs were estimated using cost questionnaires. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were estimated using the EuroQol (EQ) classification system, EQ rating scale, and the Short Form 6D (SF-6D). Daily function was measured using the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability index (DI). Cost and QALY/effect differences were analyzed using multilevel regression analysis and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. Medical costs of the face-to-face treatment and telephone-based treatment were estimated at €387 and €252, respectively. The difference in total societal costs was nonsignificantly in favor of the face-to-face program (difference €708; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] -€5,058, €3,642). QALYs were similar for both groups according to the EQ, but were significantly in favor of the face-to-face group, according to the SF-6D (difference 0.022 [95% CI 0.000, 0.045]). Daily function was similar according to the HAQ DI. Since both societal costs and QALYs/effects were in favor of the face-to-face program, the economic assessment favored this program, regardless of society's willingness to pay. There was a 65-90% chance that the face-to-face program had better cost utility and a 60-70% chance of being cost effective. This economic evaluation from a societal perspective showed that a nonpharmacologic, face-to-face treatment program for patients with GOA was likely to be cost effective, relative to a telephone-based program. © 2016, American College of Rheumatology.

Flexible modulation of network connectivity related to cognition in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

McLaren, Donald G; Sperling, Reisa A; Atri, Alireza

2014-10-15

Functional neuroimaging tools, such as fMRI methods, may elucidate the neural correlates of clinical, behavioral, and cognitive performance. Most functional imaging studies focus on regional task-related activity or resting state connectivity rather than how changes in functional connectivity across conditions and tasks are related to cognitive and behavioral performance. To investigate the promise of characterizing context-dependent connectivity-behavior relationships, this study applies the method of generalized psychophysiological interactions (gPPI) to assess the patterns of associative-memory-related fMRI hippocampal functional connectivity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with performance on memory and other cognitively demanding neuropsychological tests and clinical measures. Twenty-four subjects with mild AD dementia (ages 54-82, nine females) participated in a face-name paired-associate encoding memory study. Generalized PPI analysis was used to estimate the connectivity between the hippocampus and the whole brain during encoding. The difference in hippocampal-whole brain connectivity between encoding novel and encoding repeated face-name pairs was used in multiple-regression analyses as an independent predictor for 10 behavioral, neuropsychological and clinical tests. The analysis revealed connectivity-behavior relationships that were distributed, dynamically overlapping, and task-specific within and across intrinsic networks; hippocampal-whole brain connectivity-behavior relationships were not isolated to single networks, but spanned multiple brain networks. Importantly, these spatially distributed performance patterns were unique for each measure. In general, out-of-network behavioral associations with encoding novel greater than repeated face-name pairs hippocampal-connectivity were observed in the default-mode network, while correlations with encoding repeated greater than novel face-name pairs hippocampal-connectivity were observed in the executive control network (p<0.05, cluster corrected). Psychophysiological interactions revealed significantly more extensive and robust associations between paired-associate encoding task-dependent hippocampal-whole brain connectivity and performance on memory and behavioral/clinical measures than previously revealed by standard activity-behavior analysis. Compared to resting state and task-activation methods, gPPI analyses may be more sensitive to reveal additional complementary information regarding subtle within- and between-network relations. The patterns of robust correlations between hippocampal-whole brain connectivity and behavioral measures identified here suggest that there are 'coordinated states' in the brain; that the dynamic range of these states is related to behavior and cognition; and that these states can be observed and quantified, even in individuals with mild AD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Affective bias in visual working memory is associated with capacity.

PubMed

Xie, Weizhen; Li, Huanhuan; Ying, Xiangyu; Zhu, Shiyou; Fu, Rong; Zou, Yingmin; Cui, Yanyan

2017-11-01

How does the affective nature of task stimuli modulate working memory (WM)? This study investigates whether WM maintains emotional information in a biased manner to meet the motivational principle of approaching positivity and avoiding negativity by retaining more approach-related positive content over avoidance-related negative content. This bias may exist regardless of individual differences in WM functionality, as indexed by WM capacity (overall bias hypothesis). Alternatively, this bias may be contingent on WM capacity (capacity-based hypothesis), in which a better WM system may be more likely to reveal an adaptive bias. In two experiments, participants performed change localisation tasks with emotional and non-emotional stimuli to estimate the number of items that they could retain for each of those stimuli. Although participants did not seem to remember one type of emotional content (e.g. happy faces) better than the other type of emotional content (e.g. sad faces), there was a significant correlation between WM capacity and affective bias. Specifically, participants with higher WM capacity for non-emotional stimuli (colours or line-drawing symbols) tended to maintain more happy faces over sad faces. These findings demonstrated the presence of a "built-in" affective bias in WM as a function of its systematic limitations, favouring the capacity-based hypothesis.

The Influence of Encoding Strategy on Episodic Memory and Cortical Activity in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Haut, Kristen; Csernansky, John G.; Barch, Deanna M.

2005-01-01

Background: Recent work suggests that episodic memory deficits in schizophrenia may be related to disturbances of encoding or retrieval. Schizophrenia patients appear to benefit from instruction in episodic memory strategies. We tested the hypothesis that providing effective encoding strategies to schizophrenia patients enhances encoding-related brain activity and recognition performance. Methods: Seventeen schizophrenia patients and 26 healthy comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while performing incidental encoding tasks of words and faces. Subjects were required to make either deep (abstract/concrete) or shallow (alphabetization) judgments for words and deep (gender) judgments for faces, followed by subsequent recognition tests. Results: Schizophrenia and comparison subjects recognized significantly more words encoded deeply than shallowly, activated regions in inferior frontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) typically associated with deep and successful encoding of words, and showed greater left frontal activation for the processing of words compared with faces. However, during deep encoding and material-specific processing (words vs. faces), participants with schizophrenia activated regions not activated by control subjects, including several in prefrontal cortex. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a deficit in use of effective strategies influences episodic memory performance in schizophrenia and that abnormalities in functional brain activation persist even when such strategies are applied. PMID:15992522

Common and disorder-specific neural responses to emotional faces in generalised anxiety, social anxiety and panic disorders

PubMed Central

Fonzo, Gregory A.; Ramsawh, Holly J.; Flagan, Taru M.; Sullivan, Sarah G.; Letamendi, Andrea; Simmons, Alan N.; Paulus, Martin P.; Stein, Murray B.

2015-01-01

Background Although evidence exists for abnormal brain function across various anxiety disorders, direct comparison of neural function across diagnoses is needed to elicit abnormalities common across disorders and those distinct to a particular diagnosis. Aims To delineate common and distinct abnormalities within generalised anxiety (GAD), panic and social anxiety disorder (SAD) during affective processing. Method Fifty-nine adults (15 with GAD, 15 with panic disorder, 14 with SAD, and 15 healthy controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a facial emotion matching task with fearful, angry and happy faces. Results Greater differential right amygdala activation to matching fearful v. happy facial expressions related to greater negative affectivity (i.e. trait anxiety) and was heightened across all anxiety disorder groups compared with controls. Collapsing across emotional face types, participants with panic disorder uniquely displayed greater posterior insula activation. Conclusions These preliminary results highlight a common neural basis for clinical anxiety in these diagnoses and also suggest the presence of disorder-specific dysfunction. PMID:25573399

Stimulus familiarity modulates functional connectivity of the perirhinal cortex and anterior hippocampus during visual discrimination of faces and objects

PubMed Central

McLelland, Victoria C.; Chan, David; Ferber, Susanne; Barense, Morgan D.

2014-01-01

Recent research suggests that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is involved in perception as well as in declarative memory. Amnesic patients with focal MTL lesions and semantic dementia patients showed perceptual deficits when discriminating faces and objects. Interestingly, these two patient groups showed different profiles of impairment for familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. For MTL amnesics, the use of familiar relative to unfamiliar stimuli improved discrimination performance. By contrast, patients with semantic dementia—a neurodegenerative condition associated with anterolateral temporal lobe damage—showed no such facilitation from familiar stimuli. Given that the two patient groups had highly overlapping patterns of damage to the perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, and temporal pole, the neuroanatomical substrates underlying their performance discrepancy were unclear. Here, we addressed this question with a multivariate reanalysis of the data presented by Barense et al. (2011), using functional connectivity to examine how stimulus familiarity affected the broader networks with which the perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, and temporal poles interact. In this study, healthy participants were scanned while they performed an odd-one-out perceptual task involving familiar and novel faces or objects. Seed-based analyses revealed that functional connectivity of the right perirhinal cortex and right anterior hippocampus was modulated by the degree of stimulus familiarity. For familiar relative to unfamiliar faces and objects, both right perirhinal cortex and right anterior hippocampus showed enhanced functional correlations with anterior/lateral temporal cortex, temporal pole, and medial/lateral parietal cortex. These findings suggest that in order to benefit from stimulus familiarity, it is necessary to engage not only the perirhinal cortex and hippocampus, but also a network of regions known to represent semantic information. PMID:24624075

Development of Neural Sensitivity to Face Identity Correlates with Perceptual Discriminability

PubMed Central

Barnett, Michael A.; Hartley, Jake; Gomez, Jesse; Stigliani, Anthony; Grill-Spector, Kalanit

2016-01-01

Face perception is subserved by a series of face-selective regions in the human ventral stream, which undergo prolonged development from childhood to adulthood. However, it is unknown how neural development of these regions relates to the development of face-perception abilities. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses of ventral occipitotemporal regions in children (ages, 5–12 years) and adults (ages, 19–34 years) when they viewed faces that parametrically varied in dissimilarity. Since similar faces generate lower responses than dissimilar faces due to fMRI adaptation, this design objectively evaluates neural sensitivity to face identity across development. Additionally, a subset of subjects participated in a behavioral experiment to assess perceptual discriminability of face identity. Our data reveal three main findings: (1) neural sensitivity to face identity increases with age in face-selective but not object-selective regions; (2) the amplitude of responses to faces increases with age in both face-selective and object-selective regions; and (3) perceptual discriminability of face identity is correlated with the neural sensitivity to face identity of face-selective regions. In contrast, perceptual discriminability is not correlated with the amplitude of response in face-selective regions or of responses of object-selective regions. These data suggest that developmental increases in neural sensitivity to face identity in face-selective regions improve perceptual discriminability of faces. Our findings significantly advance the understanding of the neural mechanisms of development of face perception and open new avenues for using fMRI adaptation to study the neural development of high-level visual and cognitive functions more broadly. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Face perception, which is critical for daily social interactions, develops from childhood to adulthood. However, it is unknown what developmental changes in the brain lead to improved performance. Using fMRI in children and adults, we find that from childhood to adulthood, neural sensitivity to changes in face identity increases in face-selective regions. Critically, subjects' perceptual discriminability among faces is linked to neural sensitivity: participants with higher neural sensitivity in face-selective regions demonstrate higher perceptual discriminability. Thus, our results suggest that developmental increases in face-selective regions' sensitivity to face identity improve perceptual discrimination of faces. These findings significantly advance understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the development of face perception and have important implications for assessing both typical and atypical development. PMID:27798143

Anatomical connections of the functionally-defined “face patches” in the macaque monkey

PubMed Central

Saleem, Kadharbatcha S.

2017-01-01

The neural circuits underlying face recognition provide a model for understanding visual object representation, social cognition, and hierarchical information processing. A fundamental piece of information lacking to date is the detailed anatomical connections of the face patches. Here, we injected retrograde tracers into four different face patches (PL, ML, AL, AM) to characterize their anatomical connectivity. We found that the patches are strongly and specifically connected to each other, and individual patches receive inputs from extrastriate cortex, the medial temporal lobe, and three subcortical structures (the pulvinar, claustrum, and amygdala). Inputs from prefrontal cortex were surprisingly weak. Patches were densely interconnected to one another in both feedforward and feedback directions, inconsistent with a serial hierarchy. These results provide the first direct anatomical evidence that the face patches constitute a highly specialized system, and suggest that subcortical regions may play a vital role in routing face-related information to subsequent processing stages. PMID:27263973

Attractiveness as a Function of Skin Tone and Facial Features: Evidence from Categorization Studies.

PubMed

Stepanova, Elena V; Strube, Michael J

2018-01-01

Participants rated the attractiveness and racial typicality of male faces varying in their facial features from Afrocentric to Eurocentric and in skin tone from dark to light in two experiments. Experiment 1 provided evidence that facial features and skin tone have an interactive effect on perceptions of attractiveness and mixed-race faces are perceived as more attractive than single-race faces. Experiment 2 further confirmed that faces with medium levels of skin tone and facial features are perceived as more attractive than faces with extreme levels of these factors. Black phenotypes (combinations of dark skin tone and Afrocentric facial features) were rated as more attractive than White phenotypes (combinations of light skin tone and Eurocentric facial features); ambiguous faces (combinations of Afrocentric and Eurocentric physiognomy) with medium levels of skin tone were rated as the most attractive in Experiment 2. Perceptions of attractiveness were relatively independent of racial categorization in both experiments.

Association of enhanced limbic response to threat with decreased cortical facial recognition memory response in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Satterthwaite, Theodore D; Wolf, Daniel H; Loughead, James; Ruparel, Kosha; Valdez, Jeffrey N; Siegel, Steven J; Kohler, Christian G; Gur, Raquel E; Gur, Ruben C

2010-04-01

Recognition memory of faces is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, as is the neural processing of threat-related signals, but how these deficits interact to produce symptoms is unclear. The authors used an affective face recognition paradigm to examine possible interactions between cognitive and affective neural systems in schizophrenia. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent response was examined by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (3 Tesla) in healthy comparison subjects (N=21) and in patients with schizophrenia (N=12) or schizoaffective disorder, depressed type (N=4), during a two-choice recognition task that used images of human faces. Each target face, previously displayed with a threatening or nonthreatening affect, was displayed with neutral affect. Responses to successful recognition and responses to the effect of previously threatening versus nonthreatening affect were evaluated, and correlations with symptom severity (total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale score) were examined. Functional connectivity analyses examined the relationship between activation in the amygdala and cortical regions involved in recognition memory. Patients performed the task more slowly than healthy comparison subjects. Comparison subjects recruited the expected cortical regions to a greater degree than patients, and patients with more severe symptoms demonstrated proportionally less recruitment. Increased symptoms were also correlated with augmented amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex response to threatening faces. Comparison subjects exhibited a negative correlation between activity in the amygdala and cortical regions involved in cognition, while patients showed weakening of this relationship. Increased symptoms were related to an enhanced threat response in limbic regions and a diminished recognition memory response in cortical regions, supporting a link between these two brain systems that are often examined in isolation. This finding suggests that abnormal processing of threat-related signals in the environment may exacerbate cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

Mapping face encoding using functional MRI in multiple sclerosis across disease phenotypes.

PubMed

Rocca, Maria A; Vacchi, Laura; Rodegher, Mariaemma; Meani, Alessandro; Martinelli, Vittorio; Possa, Francesca; Comi, Giancarlo; Falini, Andrea; Filippi, Massimo

2017-10-01

Using fMRI during a face encoding (FE) task, we investigated the behavioral and fMRI correlates of FE in patients with relapse-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) at different stages of the disease and their relation with attentive-executive performance and structural MRI measures of disease-related damage. A fMRI FE task was administered to 75 MS patients (11 clinically isolated syndromes - CIS, 40 relapsing-remitting - RRMS - and 24 secondary progressive - SPMS) and 22 healthy controls (HC). fMRI activity during the face encoding condition was correlated with behavioral, clinical, neuropsychological and structural MRI variables. All study subjects activated brain regions belonging to face perception and encoding network, and deactivated areas of the default-mode network. Compared to HC, MS patients had the concomitant presence of areas of increased and decreased activations as well as increased and decreased deactivations. Compared to HC or RRMS, CIS patients experienced an increased recruitment of posterior-visual areas. Thalami, para-hippocampal gyri and right anterior cingulum were more activated in RRMS vs CIS or SPMS patients, while an increased recruitment of frontal areas was observed in SPMS vs RRMS. Areas of abnormal activations were significantly correlated with clinical, cognitive-behavioral and structural MRI measures. Abnormalities of FE network occur in MS and vary across disease clinical phenotypes. Early in the disease, an increased recruitment of areas typically devoted to face perception and encoding occurs. In SPMS patients, abnormal functional recruitment of frontal lobe areas might contribute to the severity of clinical manifestations.

Amygdala activation in response to facial expressions in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder

PubMed Central

Britton, Jennifer C.; Stewart, S. Evelyn; Killgore, William D.S.; Rosso, Isabelle M.; Price, Lauren M.; Gold, Andrea L.; Pine, Daniel S.; Wilhelm, Sabine; Jenike, Michael A.; Rauch, Scott L.

2010-01-01

Background Exaggerated amygdala activation to threatening faces has been detected in adults and children with anxiety disorders, compared to healthy comparison subjects. However, the profile of amygdala activation in response to facial expressions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be a distinguishing feature; a prior study found that compared with healthy adults, adults with OCD exhibited less amygdala activation to emotional and neutral faces, relative to fixation (Cannistraro et al., 2004). Methods In the current event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, a pediatric OCD sample (N=12) and a healthy comparison sample (HC, N=17) performed a gender discrimination task while viewing emotional faces (happy, fear, disgust) and neutral faces. Results Compared to the HC group, the OCD group showed less amygdala/hippocampus activation in all emotion and neutral conditions relative to fixation. Conclusions Like previous reports in adult OCD, pediatric OCD may have a distinct neural profile from other anxiety disorders, with respect to amygdala activation in response to emotional stimuli that are not disorder-specific. PMID:20602430

Face Context Influences Local Part Processing: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Zhang, Hong; Sun, Yaoru; Zhao, Lun

2017-09-01

Perception of face parts on the basis of features is thought to be different from perception of whole faces, which is more based on configural information. Face context is also suggested to play an important role in face processing. To investigate how face context influences the early-stage perception of facial local parts, we used an oddball paradigm that tested perceptual stages of face processing rather than recognition. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by whole faces and face parts presented in four conditions (upright-normal, upright-thatcherised, inverted-normal and inverted-thatcherised), as well as the ERPs elicited by non-face objects (whole houses and house parts) with corresponding conditions. The results showed that face context significantly affected the N170 with increased amplitudes and earlier peak latency for upright normal faces. Removing face context delayed the P1 latency but did not affect the P1 amplitude prominently for both upright and inverted normal faces. Across all conditions, neither the N170 nor the P1 was modulated by house context. The significant changes on the N170 and P1 components revealed that face context influences local part processing at the early stage of face processing and this context effect might be specific for face perception. We further suggested that perceptions of whole faces and face parts are functionally distinguished.

Neural correlates of processing facial identity based on features versus their spacing.

PubMed

Maurer, D; O'Craven, K M; Le Grand, R; Mondloch, C J; Springer, M V; Lewis, T L; Grady, C L

2007-04-08

Adults' expertise in recognizing facial identity involves encoding subtle differences among faces in the shape of individual facial features (featural processing) and in the spacing among features (a type of configural processing called sensitivity to second-order relations). We used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms that differentiate these two types of processing. Participants made same/different judgments about pairs of faces that differed only in the shape of the eyes and mouth, with minimal differences in spacing (featural blocks), or pairs of faces that had identical features but differed in the positions of those features (spacing blocks). From a localizer scan with faces, objects, and houses, we identified regions with comparatively more activity for faces, including the fusiform face area (FFA) in the right fusiform gyrus, other extrastriate regions, and prefrontal cortices. Contrasts between the featural and spacing conditions revealed distributed patterns of activity differentiating the two conditions. A region of the right fusiform gyrus (near but not overlapping the localized FFA) showed greater activity during the spacing task, along with multiple areas of right frontal cortex, whereas left prefrontal activity increased for featural processing. These patterns of activity were not related to differences in performance between the two tasks. The results indicate that the processing of facial features is distinct from the processing of second-order relations in faces, and that these functions are mediated by separate and lateralized networks involving the right fusiform gyrus, although the FFA as defined from a localizer scan is not differentially involved.

Affective learning modulates spatial competition during low-load attentional conditions.

PubMed

Lim, Seung-Lark; Padmala, Srikanth; Pessoa, Luiz

2008-04-01

It has been hypothesized that the amygdala mediates the processing advantage of emotional items. In the present study, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how fear conditioning affected the visual processing of task-irrelevant faces. We hypothesized that faces previously paired with shock (threat faces) would more effectively vie for processing resources during conditions involving spatial competition. To investigate this question, following conditioning, participants performed a letter-detection task on an array of letters that was superimposed on task-irrelevant faces. Attentional resources were manipulated by having participants perform an easy or a difficult search task. Our findings revealed that threat fearful faces evoked stronger responses in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus relative to safe fearful faces during low-load attentional conditions, but not during high-load conditions. Consistent with the increased processing of shock-paired stimuli during the low-load condition, such stimuli exhibited increased behavioral priming and fMRI repetition effects relative to unpaired faces during a subsequent implicit-memory task. Overall, our results suggest a competition model in which affective significance signals from the amygdala may constitute a key modulatory factor determining the neural fate of visual stimuli. In addition, it appears that such competitive advantage is only evident when sufficient processing resources are available to process the affective stimulus.

Greater Pupil Size in Response to Emotional Faces as an Early Marker of Social-Communicative Difficulties in Infants at High Risk for Autism

PubMed Central

Wagner, Jennifer B.; Luyster, Rhiannon J.; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A.

2016-01-01

When scanning faces, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown reduced visual attention (e.g., less time on eyes) and atypical autonomic responses (e.g., heightened arousal). To understand how these differences might explain sub-clinical variability in social functioning, 9-month-olds, with or without a family history of ASD, viewed emotionally-expressive faces, and gaze and pupil diameter (a measure of autonomic activation) were recorded using eye-tracking. Infants at high-risk for ASD with no subsequent clinical diagnosis (HRA-) and low-risk controls (LRC) showed similar face scanning and attention to eyes and mouth. Attention was overall greater to eyes than mouth, but this varied as a function of the emotion presented. HRA- showed significantly larger pupil size than LRC. Correlations between scanning at 9 months, pupil size at 9 months, and 18-month social-communicative behavior, revealed positive associations between pupil size and attention to both face and eyes at 9 months in LRC, and a negative association between 9-month pupil size and 18-month social-communicative behavior in HRA-. The present findings point to heightened autonomic arousal in HRA-. Further, with greater arousal relating to worse social-communicative functioning at 18 months, this work points to a mechanism by which unaffected siblings might develop atypical social behavior. PMID:27616938

Greater Pupil Size in Response to Emotional Faces as an Early Marker of Social-Communicative Difficulties in Infants at High Risk for Autism.

PubMed

Wagner, Jennifer B; Luyster, Rhiannon J; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A

2016-01-01

When scanning faces, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown reduced visual attention (e.g., less time on eyes) and atypical autonomic responses (e.g., heightened arousal). To understand how these differences might explain sub-clinical variability in social functioning, 9-month-olds, with or without a family history of ASD, viewed emotionally-expressive faces, and gaze and pupil diameter (a measure of autonomic activation) were recorded using eye-tracking. Infants at high-risk for ASD with no subsequent clinical diagnosis (HRA-) and low-risk controls (LRC) showed similar face scanning and attention to eyes and mouth. Attention was overall greater to eyes than mouth, but this varied as a function of the emotion presented. HRA- showed significantly larger pupil size than LRC. Correlations between scanning at 9 months, pupil size at 9 months, and 18-month social-communicative behavior, revealed positive associations between pupil size and attention to both face and eyes at 9 months in LRC, and a negative association between 9-month pupil size and 18-month social-communicative behavior in HRA-. The present findings point to heightened autonomic arousal in HRA-. Further, with greater arousal relating to worse social-communicative functioning at 18 months, this work points to a mechanism by which unaffected siblings might develop atypical social behavior.

Different Cortical Dynamics in Face and Body Perception: An MEG study

PubMed Central

Meeren, Hanneke K. M.; de Gelder, Beatrice; Ahlfors, Seppo P.; Hämäläinen, Matti S.; Hadjikhani, Nouchine

2013-01-01

Evidence from functional neuroimaging indicates that visual perception of human faces and bodies is carried out by distributed networks of face and body-sensitive areas in the occipito-temporal cortex. However, the dynamics of activity in these areas, needed to understand their respective functional roles, are still largely unknown. We monitored brain activity with millisecond time resolution by recording magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses while participants viewed photographs of faces, bodies, and control stimuli. The cortical activity underlying the evoked responses was estimated with anatomically-constrained noise-normalised minimum-norm estimate and statistically analysed with spatiotemporal cluster analysis. Our findings point to distinct spatiotemporal organization of the neural systems for face and body perception. Face-selective cortical currents were found at early latencies (120–200 ms) in a widespread occipito-temporal network including the ventral temporal cortex (VTC). In contrast, early body-related responses were confined to the lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC). These were followed by strong sustained body-selective responses in the orbitofrontal cortex from 200–700 ms, and in the lateral temporal cortex and VTC after 500 ms latency. Our data suggest that the VTC region has a key role in the early processing of faces, but not of bodies. Instead, the LOTC, which includes the extra-striate body area (EBA), appears the dominant area for early body perception, whereas the VTC contributes to late and post-perceptual processing. PMID:24039712

Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing.

PubMed

Germine, Laura T; Garrido, Lucia; Bruce, Lori; Hooker, Christine

2011-10-01

Human beings are social organisms with an intrinsic desire to seek and participate in social interactions. Social anhedonia is a personality trait characterized by a reduced desire for social affiliation and reduced pleasure derived from interpersonal interactions. Abnormally high levels of social anhedonia prospectively predict the development of schizophrenia and contribute to poorer outcomes for schizophrenia patients. Despite the strong association between social anhedonia and schizophrenia, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in social anhedonia have not been studied and are thus poorly understood. Deficits in face emotion recognition are related to poorer social outcomes in schizophrenia, and it has been suggested that face emotion recognition deficits may be a behavioral marker for schizophrenia liability. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see whether there are differences in the brain networks underlying basic face emotion processing in a community sample of individuals low vs. high in social anhedonia. We isolated the neural mechanisms related to face emotion processing by comparing face emotion discrimination with four other baseline conditions (identity discrimination of emotional faces, identity discrimination of neutral faces, object discrimination, and pattern discrimination). Results showed a group (high/low social anhedonia) × condition (emotion discrimination/control condition) interaction in the anterior portion of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex. As predicted, high (relative to low) social anhedonia participants showed less neural activity in face emotion processing regions during emotion discrimination as compared to each control condition. The findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with abnormalities in networks responsible for basic processes associated with social cognition, and provide a starting point for understanding the neural basis of social motivation and our drive to seek social affiliation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Increased amygdala responses to sad but not fearful faces in major depression: relation to mood state and pharmacological treatment.

PubMed

Arnone, Danilo; McKie, Shane; Elliott, Rebecca; Thomas, Emma J; Downey, Darragh; Juhasz, Gabriella; Williams, Steve R; Deakin, J F William; Anderson, Ian M

2012-08-01

Increased amygdala response to negative emotions seen in functional MRI (fMRI) has been proposed as a biomarker for negative emotion processing bias underlying depressive symptoms and vulnerability to depressive relapse that are normalized by antidepressant drug treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether abnormal amygdala responses to face emotions in depression are related to specific emotions or change in response to antidepressant treatment and whether they are present as a stable trait in medication-free patients in remission. Sixty-two medication-free unipolar depressed patients (38 were currently depressed, and 24 were in remission) and 54 healthy comparison subjects underwent an indirect face-emotion processing task during fMRI. Thirty-two currently depressed patients were treated with the antidepressant citalopram for 8 weeks. Adherence to treatment was evaluated by measuring citalopram plasma concentrations. Patients with current depression had increased bilateral amygdala responses specific to sad faces relative to healthy comparison subjects and nonmedicated patients in stable remission. Treatment with citalopram abolished the abnormal amygdala responses to sad faces in currently depressed patients but did not alter responses to fearful faces. Aberrant amygdala activation in response to sad facial emotions is specific to the depressed state and is a potential biomarker for a negative affective bias during a depressive episode.

Simultaneous odour-face presentation strengthens hedonic evaluations and event-related potential responses influenced by unpleasant odour.

PubMed

Cook, Stephanie; Kokmotou, Katerina; Soto, Vicente; Wright, Hazel; Fallon, Nicholas; Thomas, Anna; Giesbrecht, Timo; Field, Matt; Stancak, Andrej

2018-04-13

Odours alter evaluations of concurrently presented visual stimuli, such as faces. Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) is known to affect evaluative priming in various sensory modalities. However, effects of SOA on odour priming of visual stimuli are not known. The present study aimed to analyse whether subjective and cortical activation changes during odour priming would vary as a function of SOA between odours and faces. Twenty-eight participants rated faces under pleasant, unpleasant, and no-odour conditions using visual analogue scales. In half of trials, faces appeared one-second after odour offset (SOA 1). In the other half of trials, faces appeared during the odour pulse (SOA 2). EEG was recorded continuously using a 128-channel system, and event-related potentials (ERPs) to face stimuli were evaluated using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Faces presented during unpleasant-odour stimulation were rated significantly less pleasant than the same faces presented one-second after offset of the unpleasant odour. Scalp-time clusters in the late-positive-potential (LPP) time-range showed an interaction between odour and SOA effects, whereby activation was stronger for faces presented simultaneously with the unpleasant odour, compared to the same faces presented after odour offset. Our results highlight stronger unpleasant odour priming with simultaneous, compared to delayed, odour-face presentation. Such effects were represented in both behavioural and neural data. A greater cortical and subjective response during simultaneous presentation of faces and unpleasant odour may have an adaptive role, allowing for a prompt and focused behavioural reaction to a concurrent stimulus if an aversive odour would signal danger, or unwanted social interaction. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Face-induced expectancies influence neural mechanisms of performance monitoring.

PubMed

Osinsky, Roman; Seeger, Jennifer; Mussel, Patrick; Hewig, Johannes

2016-04-01

In many daily situations, the consequences of our actions are predicted by cues that are often social in nature. For instance, seeing the face of an evaluator (e.g., a supervisor at work) may activate certain evaluative expectancies, depending on the history of prior encounters with that particular person. We investigated how such face-induced expectancies influence neurocognitive functions of performance monitoring. We recorded an electroencephalogram while participants completed a time-estimation task, during which they received performance feedback from a strict and a lenient evaluator. During each trial, participants first saw the evaluator's face before performing the task and, finally, receiving feedback. Therefore, faces could be used as predictive cues for the upcoming evaluation. We analyzed electrocortical signatures of performance monitoring at the stages of cue processing, task performance, and feedback reception. Our results indicate that, at the cue stage, seeing the strict evaluator's face results in an anticipatory preparation of fronto-medial monitoring mechanisms, as reflected by a sustained negative-going amplitude shift (i.e., the contingent negative variation). At the performance stage, face-induced expectancies of a strict evaluation rule led to increases of early performance monitoring signals (i.e., frontal-midline theta power). At the final stage of feedback reception, violations of outcome expectancies differentially affected the feedback-related negativity and frontal-midline theta power, pointing to a functional dissociation between these signatures. Altogether, our results indicate that evaluative expectancies induced by face-cues lead to adjustments of internal performance monitoring mechanisms at various stages of task processing.

Developmental changes in analytic and holistic processes in face perception.

PubMed

Joseph, Jane E; DiBartolo, Michelle D; Bhatt, Ramesh S

2015-01-01

Although infants demonstrate sensitivity to some kinds of perceptual information in faces, many face capacities continue to develop throughout childhood. One debate is the degree to which children perceive faces analytically versus holistically and how these processes undergo developmental change. In the present study, school-aged children and adults performed a perceptual matching task with upright and inverted face and house pairs that varied in similarity of featural or 2(nd) order configural information. Holistic processing was operationalized as the degree of serial processing when discriminating faces and houses [i.e., increased reaction time (RT), as more features or spacing relations were shared between stimuli]. Analytical processing was operationalized as the degree of parallel processing (or no change in RT as a function of greater similarity of features or spatial relations). Adults showed the most evidence for holistic processing (most strongly for 2(nd) order faces) and holistic processing was weaker for inverted faces and houses. Younger children (6-8 years), in contrast, showed analytical processing across all experimental manipulations. Older children (9-11 years) showed an intermediate pattern with a trend toward holistic processing of 2(nd) order faces like adults, but parallel processing in other experimental conditions like younger children. These findings indicate that holistic face representations emerge around 10 years of age. In adults both 2(nd) order and featural information are incorporated into holistic representations, whereas older children only incorporate 2(nd) order information. Holistic processing was not evident in younger children. Hence, the development of holistic face representations relies on 2(nd) order processing initially then incorporates featural information by adulthood.

Reduced set averaging of face identity in children and adolescents with autism.

PubMed

Rhodes, Gillian; Neumann, Markus F; Ewing, Louise; Palermo, Romina

2015-01-01

Individuals with autism have difficulty abstracting and updating average representations from their diet of faces. These averages function as perceptual norms for coding faces, and poorly calibrated norms may contribute to face recognition difficulties in autism. Another kind of average, known as an ensemble representation, can be abstracted from briefly glimpsed sets of faces. Here we show for the first time that children and adolescents with autism also have difficulty abstracting ensemble representations from sets of faces. On each trial, participants saw a study set of four identities and then indicated whether a test face was present. The test face could be a set average or a set identity, from either the study set or another set. Recognition of set averages was reduced in participants with autism, relative to age- and ability-matched typically developing participants. This difference, which actually represents more accurate responding, indicates weaker set averaging and thus weaker ensemble representations of face identity in autism. Our finding adds to the growing evidence for atypical abstraction of average face representations from experience in autism. Weak ensemble representations may have negative consequences for face processing in autism, given the importance of ensemble representations in dealing with processing capacity limitations.

Precedence of the eye region in neural processing of faces

PubMed Central

Issa, Elias; DiCarlo, James

2012-01-01

SUMMARY Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed multiple subregions in monkey inferior temporal cortex (IT) that are selective for images of faces over other objects. The earliest of these subregions, the posterior lateral face patch (PL), has not been studied previously at the neurophysiological level. Perhaps not surprisingly, we found that PL contains a high concentration of ‘face selective’ cells when tested with standard image sets comparable to those used previously to define the region at the level of fMRI. However, we here report that several different image sets and analytical approaches converge to show that nearly all face selective PL cells are driven by the presence of a single eye in the context of a face outline. Most strikingly, images containing only an eye, even when incorrectly positioned in an outline, drove neurons nearly as well as full face images, and face images lacking only this feature led to longer latency responses. Thus, bottom-up face processing is relatively local and linearly integrates features -- consistent with parts-based models -- grounding investigation of how the presence of a face is first inferred in the IT face processing hierarchy. PMID:23175821

Physical Activity Is Positively Associated with Episodic Memory in Aging.

PubMed

Hayes, Scott M; Alosco, Michael L; Hayes, Jasmeet P; Cadden, Margaret; Peterson, Kristina M; Allsup, Kelly; Forman, Daniel E; Sperling, Reisa A; Verfaellie, Mieke

2015-11-01

Aging is associated with performance reductions in executive function and episodic memory, although there is substantial individual variability in cognition among older adults. One factor that may be positively associated with cognition in aging is physical activity. To date, few studies have objectively assessed physical activity in young and older adults, and examined whether physical activity is differentially associated with cognition in aging. Young (n=29, age 18-31 years) and older adults (n=31, ages 55-82 years) completed standardized neuropsychological testing to assess executive function and episodic memory capacities. An experimental face-name relational memory task was administered to augment assessment of episodic memory. Physical activity (total step count and step rate) was objectively assessed using an accelerometer, and hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate relationships between cognition and physical activity. Older adults performed more poorly on tasks of executive function and episodic memory. Physical activity was positively associated with a composite measure of visual episodic memory and face-name memory accuracy in older adults. Physical activity associations with cognition were independent of sedentary behavior, which was negatively correlated with memory performance. Physical activity was not associated with cognitive performance in younger adults. Physical activity is positively associated with episodic memory performance in aging. The relationship appears to be strongest for face-name relational memory and visual episodic memory, likely attributable to the fact that these tasks make strong demands on the hippocampus. The results suggest that physical activity relates to cognition in older, but not younger adults.

Cortical Neural Synchronization Underlies Primary Visual Consciousness of Qualia: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Babiloni, Claudio; Marzano, Nicola; Soricelli, Andrea; Cordone, Susanna; Millán-Calenti, José Carlos; Del Percio, Claudio; Buján, Ana

2016-01-01

This article reviews three experiments on event-related potentials (ERPs) testing the hypothesis that primary visual consciousness (stimulus self-report) is related to enhanced cortical neural synchronization as a function of stimulus features. ERP peak latency and sources were compared between “seen” trials and “not seen” trials, respectively related and unrelated to the primary visual consciousness. Three salient features of visual stimuli were considered (visuospatial, emotional face expression, and written words). Results showed the typical visual ERP components in both “seen” and “not seen” trials. There was no statistical difference in the ERP peak latencies between the “seen” and “not seen” trials, suggesting a similar timing of the cortical neural synchronization regardless the primary visual consciousness. In contrast, ERP sources showed differences between “seen” and “not seen” trials. For the visuospatial stimuli, the primary consciousness was related to higher activity in dorsal occipital and parietal sources at about 400 ms post-stimulus. For the emotional face expressions, there was greater activity in parietal and frontal sources at about 180 ms post-stimulus. For the written letters, there was higher activity in occipital, parietal and temporal sources at about 230 ms post-stimulus. These results hint that primary visual consciousness is associated with an enhanced cortical neural synchronization having entirely different spatiotemporal characteristics as a function of the features of the visual stimuli and possibly, the relative qualia (i.e., visuospatial, face expression, and words). In this framework, the dorsal visual stream may be synchronized in association with the primary consciousness of visuospatial and emotional face contents. Analogously, both dorsal and ventral visual streams may be synchronized in association with the primary consciousness of linguistic contents. In this line of reasoning, the ensemble of the cortical neural networks underpinning the single visual features would constitute a sort of multi-dimensional palette of colors, shapes, regions of the visual field, movements, emotional face expressions, and words. The synchronization of one or more of these cortical neural networks, each with its peculiar timing, would produce the primary consciousness of one or more of the visual features of the scene. PMID:27445750

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a blended exercise intervention for patients with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Kloek, Corelien J J; Bossen, Daniël; Veenhof, Cindy; van Dongen, Johanna M; Dekker, Joost; de Bakker, Dinny H

2014-08-08

Exercise therapy in patients with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis is effective in reducing pain, increasing physical activity and physical functioning, but costly and a burden for the health care budget. A web-based intervention is cheap in comparison to face-to-face exercise therapy and has the advantage of supporting in home exercises because of the 24/7 accessibility. However, the lack of face-to-face contact with a professional is a disadvantage of web-based interventions and is probably one of the reasons for low adherence rates. In order to combine the best of two worlds, we have developed the intervention e-Exercise. In this blended intervention face-to-face contacts with a physical therapist are partially replaced by a web-based exercise intervention. The aim of this study is to investigate the short- (3 months) and long-term (12 months) (cost)-effectiveness of e-Exercise compared to usual care physical therapy. Our hypothesis is that e-Exercise is more effective and cost-effective in increasing physical functioning and physical activity compared to usual care. This paper presents the protocol of a prospective, single-blinded, multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial. In total, 200 patients with OA of the hip and/or knee will be randomly allocated into either e-Exercise or usual care (physical therapy). E-Exercise is a 12-week intervention, consisting of maximum five face-to-face physical therapy contacts supplemented with a web-based program. The web-based program contains assignments to gradually increase patients' physical activity, strength and stability exercises and information about OA related topics. Primary outcomes are physical activity and physical functioning. Secondary outcomes are health related quality of life, self-perceived effect, pain, tiredness and self-efficacy. All measurements will be performed at baseline, 3 and 12 months after inclusion. Retrospective cost questionnaires will be sent at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months and used for the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis. This study is the first randomized controlled trial in the (cost)-effectiveness of a blended exercise intervention for patients with osteoarthritis of the hip and/or knee. The findings will help to improve the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis. NTR4224.

Aging effects on selective attention-related electroencephalographic patterns during face encoding.

PubMed

Deiber, M-P; Rodriguez, C; Jaques, D; Missonnier, P; Emch, J; Millet, P; Gold, G; Giannakopoulos, P; Ibañez, V

2010-11-24

Previous electrophysiological studies revealed that human faces elicit an early visual event-related potential (ERP) within the occipito-temporal cortex, the N170 component. Although face perception has been proposed to rely on automatic processing, the impact of selective attention on N170 remains controversial both in young and elderly individuals. Using early visual ERP and alpha power analysis, we assessed the influence of aging on selective attention to faces during delayed-recognition tasks for face and letter stimuli, examining 36 elderly and 20 young adults with preserved cognition. Face recognition performance worsened with age. Aging induced a latency delay of the N1 component for faces and letters, as well as of the face N170 component. Contrasting with letters, ignored faces elicited larger N1 and N170 components than attended faces in both age groups. This counterintuitive attention effect on face processing persisted when scenes replaced letters. In contrast with young, elderly subjects failed to suppress irrelevant letters when attending faces. Whereas attended stimuli induced a parietal alpha band desynchronization within 300-1000 ms post-stimulus with bilateral-to-right distribution for faces and left lateralization for letters, ignored and passively viewed stimuli elicited a central alpha synchronization larger on the right hemisphere. Aging delayed the latency of this alpha synchronization for both face and letter stimuli, and reduced its amplitude for ignored letters. These results suggest that due to their social relevance, human faces may cause paradoxical attention effects on early visual ERP components, but they still undergo classical top-down control as a function of endogenous selective attention. Aging does not affect the face bottom-up alerting mechanism but reduces the top-down suppression of distracting letters, possibly impinging upon face recognition, and more generally delays the top-down suppression of task-irrelevant information. Copyright © 2010 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research.

PubMed

Little, Anthony C; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M

2011-06-12

Face preferences affect a diverse range of critical social outcomes, from mate choices and decisions about platonic relationships to hiring decisions and decisions about social exchange. Firstly, we review the facial characteristics that influence attractiveness judgements of faces (e.g. symmetry, sexually dimorphic shape cues, averageness, skin colour/texture and cues to personality) and then review several important sources of individual differences in face preferences (e.g. hormone levels and fertility, own attractiveness and personality, visual experience, familiarity and imprinting, social learning). The research relating to these issues highlights flexible, sophisticated systems that support and promote adaptive responses to faces that appear to function to maximize the benefits of both our mate choices and more general decisions about other types of social partners.

Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research

PubMed Central

Little, Anthony C.; Jones, Benedict C.; DeBruine, Lisa M.

2011-01-01

Face preferences affect a diverse range of critical social outcomes, from mate choices and decisions about platonic relationships to hiring decisions and decisions about social exchange. Firstly, we review the facial characteristics that influence attractiveness judgements of faces (e.g. symmetry, sexually dimorphic shape cues, averageness, skin colour/texture and cues to personality) and then review several important sources of individual differences in face preferences (e.g. hormone levels and fertility, own attractiveness and personality, visual experience, familiarity and imprinting, social learning). The research relating to these issues highlights flexible, sophisticated systems that support and promote adaptive responses to faces that appear to function to maximize the benefits of both our mate choices and more general decisions about other types of social partners. PMID:21536551

Abnormal GABAergic function and face processing in schizophrenia: A pharmacologic-fMRI study.

PubMed

Tso, Ivy F; Fang, Yu; Phan, K Luan; Welsh, Robert C; Taylor, Stephan F

2015-10-01

The involvement of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in schizophrenia is suggested by postmortem studies and the common use of GABA receptor-potentiating agents in treatment. In a recent study, we used a benzodiazepine challenge to demonstrate abnormal GABAergic function during processing of negative visual stimuli in schizophrenia. This study extended this investigation by mapping GABAergic mechanisms associated with face processing and social appraisal in schizophrenia using a benzodiazepine challenge. Fourteen stable, medicated schizophrenia/schizoaffective patients (SZ) and 13 healthy controls (HC) underwent functional MRI using the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) technique while they performed the Socio-emotional Preference Task (SePT) on emotional face stimuli ("Do you like this face?"). Participants received single-blinded intravenous saline and lorazepam (LRZ) in two separate sessions separated by 1-3weeks. Both SZ and HC recruited medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate during the SePT, relative to gender identification. A significant drug by group interaction was observed in the medial occipital cortex, such that SZ showed increased BOLD signal to LRZ challenge, while HC showed an expected decrease of signal; the interaction did not vary by task. The altered BOLD response to LRZ challenge in SZ was significantly correlated with increased negative affect across multiple measures. The altered response to LRZ challenge suggests that abnormal face processing and negative affect in SZ are associated with altered GABAergic function in the visual cortex, underscoring the role of impaired visual processing in socio-emotional deficits in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Age and executive ability impact the neural correlates of race perception.

PubMed

Cassidy, Brittany S; Lee, Eunice J; Krendl, Anne C

2016-11-01

Decreased executive ability elicits racial bias. We clarified the neural correlates of how executive ability contributes to race perception by comparing young adults (YA) to a population with highly variable executive ability: older adults (OA). After replicating work showing higher race bias in OA vs YA and a negative association between bias and executive ability, a subsample of White YA and OA perceived Black and White faces and cars during functional magnetic resonance imaging. YA had higher executive ability than OA, and OA had higher variability in executive ability. When perceiving Black vs White faces, YA exhibited more dorsolateral prefrontal cortex recruitment-a region previously implicated in regulating prejudiced responses-than OA. Moreover, OA with relatively impaired executive ability had more amygdala activity toward Black faces vs OA with relatively intact executive ability, whereas responses to White faces did not differ. Both YA and OA with relatively intact executive ability had stronger amygdala-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity when perceiving Black vs White faces. These findings are the first to disentangle age from executive ability differences in neural recruitment when perceiving race, potentially informing past behavioral work on aging and race perception. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Amygdala atrophy affects emotion-related activity in face-responsive regions in frontotemporal degeneration.

PubMed

De Winter, François-Laurent; Van den Stock, Jan; de Gelder, Beatrice; Peeters, Ronald; Jastorff, Jan; Sunaert, Stefan; Vanduffel, Wim; Vandenberghe, Rik; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu

2016-09-01

In the healthy brain, modulatory influences from the amygdala commonly explain enhanced activation in face-responsive areas by emotional facial expressions relative to neutral expressions. In the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) facial emotion recognition is impaired and has been associated with atrophy of the amygdala. By combining structural and functional MRI in 19 patients with bvFTD and 20 controls we investigated the neural effects of emotion in face-responsive cortex and its relationship with amygdalar gray matter (GM) volume in neurodegeneration. Voxel-based morphometry revealed decreased GM volume in anterior medio-temporal regions including amygdala in patients compared to controls. During fMRI, we presented dynamic facial expressions (fear and chewing) and their spatiotemporally scrambled versions. We found enhanced activation for fearful compared to neutral faces in ventral temporal cortex and superior temporal sulcus in controls, but not in patients. In the bvFTD group left amygdalar GM volume correlated positively with emotion-related activity in left fusiform face area (FFA). This correlation was amygdala-specific and driven by GM in superficial and basolateral (BLA) subnuclei, consistent with reported amygdalar-cortical networks. The data suggests that anterior medio-temporal atrophy in bvFTD affects emotion processing in distant posterior areas. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Right mesial temporal lobe epilepsy impairs empathy-related brain responses to dynamic fearful faces.

PubMed

Toller, Gianina; Adhimoolam, Babu; Grunwald, Thomas; Huppertz, Hans-Jürgen; Kurthen, Martin; Rankin, Katherine P; Jokeit, Hennric

2015-03-01

Unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) has been associated with reduced amygdala responsiveness to fearful faces. However, the effect of unilateral MTLE on empathy-related brain responses in extra-amygdalar regions has not been investigated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured empathy-related brain responses to dynamic fearful faces in 34 patients with unilateral MTLE (18 right sided), in an epilepsy (extra-MTLE; n = 16) and in a healthy control group (n = 30). The primary finding was that right MTLE (RMTLE) was associated with decreased activity predominantly in the right amygdala and also in bilateral periaqueductal gray (PAG) but normal activity in the right anterior insula. The results of the extra-MTLE group demonstrate that these reduced amygdala and PAG responses go beyond the attenuation caused by antiepileptic and antidepressant medication. These findings clearly indicate that RMTLE affects the function of mesial temporal and midbrain structures that mediate basic interoceptive input necessary for the emotional awareness of empathic experiences of fear. Together with the decreased empathic concern found in the RMTLE group, this study provides neurobehavioral evidence that patients with RMTLE are at increased risk for reduced empathy towards others' internal states and sheds new light on the nature of social-cognitive impairments frequently accompanying MTLE.

Executive functions: a discussion of the issues facing children with autism spectrum disorders and related disorders.

PubMed

Calhoun, James A

2006-02-01

The interest and attention devoted to executive functions has grown steadily in the last several decades. The concept and definitions of executive functions and their association with certain disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and overall cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning are important knowledge areas for those working in education, health, and mental health-related fields. It is particularly important for providers to have an understanding of the basic issues related to assessment and remediation of executive dysfunction. This article briefly addresses the background, current definitions, research, and some intervention options associated with executive functions. The intent is to present a foundation for encouraging additional research on the issues relevant to this important topic.

Cognitive Strategies and Physical Activity in Older Adults: A Discriminant Analysis

PubMed Central

Ferrand, Claude; Audiffren, Michel

2018-01-01

Background Although a number of studies have examined sociodemographic, psychosocial, and environmental determinants of the level of physical activity (PA) for older people, little attention has been paid to the predictive power of cognitive strategies for independently living older adults. However, cognitive strategies have recently been considered to be critical in the management of day-to-day living. Methods Data were collected from 243 men and women aged 55 years and older living in France using face-to-face interviews between 2011 and 2013. Results A stepwise discriminant analysis selected five predictor variables (age, perceived health status, barriers' self-efficacy, internal memory, and attentional control strategies) of the level of PA. The function showed that the rate of correct prediction was 73% for the level of PA. The calculated discriminant function based on the five predictor variables is useful for detecting individuals at high risk of lapses once engaged in regular PA. Conclusions This study highlighted the need to consider cognitive functions as a determinant of the level of PA and, more specifically, those cognitive functions related to executive functions (internal memory and attentional control), to facilitate the maintenance of regular PA. These results are discussed in relation to successful aging. PMID:29850247

Cognitive Strategies and Physical Activity in Older Adults: A Discriminant Analysis.

PubMed

André, Nathalie; Ferrand, Claude; Albinet, Cédric; Audiffren, Michel

2018-01-01

Although a number of studies have examined sociodemographic, psychosocial, and environmental determinants of the level of physical activity (PA) for older people, little attention has been paid to the predictive power of cognitive strategies for independently living older adults. However, cognitive strategies have recently been considered to be critical in the management of day-to-day living. Data were collected from 243 men and women aged 55 years and older living in France using face-to-face interviews between 2011 and 2013. A stepwise discriminant analysis selected five predictor variables (age, perceived health status, barriers' self-efficacy, internal memory, and attentional control strategies) of the level of PA. The function showed that the rate of correct prediction was 73% for the level of PA. The calculated discriminant function based on the five predictor variables is useful for detecting individuals at high risk of lapses once engaged in regular PA. This study highlighted the need to consider cognitive functions as a determinant of the level of PA and, more specifically, those cognitive functions related to executive functions (internal memory and attentional control), to facilitate the maintenance of regular PA. These results are discussed in relation to successful aging.

Recognition of facial, auditory, and bodily emotions in older adults.

PubMed

Ruffman, Ted; Halberstadt, Jamin; Murray, Janice

2009-11-01

Understanding older adults' social functioning difficulties requires insight into their recognition of emotion processing in voices and bodies, not just faces, the focus of most prior research. We examined 60 young and 61 older adults' recognition of basic emotions in facial, vocal, and bodily expressions, and when matching faces and bodies to voices, using 120 emotion items. Older adults were worse than young adults in 17 of 30 comparisons, with consistent difficulties in recognizing both positive (happy) and negative (angry and sad) vocal and bodily expressions. Nearly three quarters of older adults functioned at a level similar to the lowest one fourth of young adults, suggesting that age-related changes are common. In addition, we found that older adults' difficulty in matching emotions was not explained by difficulty on the component sources (i.e., faces or voices on their own), suggesting an additional problem of integration.

Love withdrawal predicts electrocortical responses to emotional faces with performance feedback: a follow-up and extension.

PubMed

Huffmeijer, Renske; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J; Alink, Lenneke R A; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H

2014-06-02

Parental use of love withdrawal is thought to affect children's later psychological functioning because it creates a link between children's performance and relational consequences. In addition, recent studies have begun to show that experiences of love withdrawal also relate to the neural processing of socio-emotional information relevant to a performance-relational consequence link, and can moderate effects of oxytocin on social information processing and behavior. The current study follows-up on our previous results by attempting to confirm and extend previous findings indicating that experiences of maternal love withdrawal are related to electrocortical responses to emotional faces presented with performance feedback. More maternal love withdrawal was related to enhanced early processing of facial feedback stimuli (reflected in more positive VPP amplitudes, and confirming previous findings). However, attentional engagement with and processing of the stimuli at a later stage were diminished in those reporting higher maternal love withdrawal (reflected in less positive LPP amplitudes, and diverging from previous findings). Maternal love withdrawal affects the processing of emotional faces presented with performance feedback differently in different stages of neural processing.

Electrophysiological correlates of forming memories for faces, names, and face-name associations.

PubMed

Guo, Chunyan; Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2005-02-01

The ability to put a name to a face is a vital aspect of human interaction, but many people find this extremely difficult, especially after being introduced to someone for the first time. Creating enduring associations between arbitrary stimuli in this manner is also a prime example of what patients with amnesia find most difficult. To help develop a better understanding of this type of memory, we sought to obtain measures of the neural events responsible for successfully forming a new face-name association. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) extracted from high-density scalp EEG recordings in order to compare (1) memory for faces, (2) memory for names, and (3) memory for face-name associations. Each visual face appeared simultaneously with a unique spoken name. Signals observed 200-800 ms after the onset of face-name pairs predicted subsequent memory for faces, names, or face-name associations. Difference potentials observed as a function of subsequent memory performance were not identical for these three memory tests, nor were potentials predicting associative memory equivalent to the sum of potentials predicting item memory, suggesting that different neural events at the time of encoding are relevant for these distinct aspects of remembering people.

Visual adaptation and face perception

PubMed Central

Webster, Michael A.; MacLeod, Donald I. A.

2011-01-01

The appearance of faces can be strongly affected by the characteristics of faces viewed previously. These perceptual after-effects reflect processes of sensory adaptation that are found throughout the visual system, but which have been considered only relatively recently in the context of higher level perceptual judgements. In this review, we explore the consequences of adaptation for human face perception, and the implications of adaptation for understanding the neural-coding schemes underlying the visual representation of faces. The properties of face after-effects suggest that they, in part, reflect response changes at high and possibly face-specific levels of visual processing. Yet, the form of the after-effects and the norm-based codes that they point to show many parallels with the adaptations and functional organization that are thought to underlie the encoding of perceptual attributes like colour. The nature and basis for human colour vision have been studied extensively, and we draw on ideas and principles that have been developed to account for norms and normalization in colour vision to consider potential similarities and differences in the representation and adaptation of faces. PMID:21536555

Visual adaptation and face perception.

PubMed

Webster, Michael A; MacLeod, Donald I A

2011-06-12

The appearance of faces can be strongly affected by the characteristics of faces viewed previously. These perceptual after-effects reflect processes of sensory adaptation that are found throughout the visual system, but which have been considered only relatively recently in the context of higher level perceptual judgements. In this review, we explore the consequences of adaptation for human face perception, and the implications of adaptation for understanding the neural-coding schemes underlying the visual representation of faces. The properties of face after-effects suggest that they, in part, reflect response changes at high and possibly face-specific levels of visual processing. Yet, the form of the after-effects and the norm-based codes that they point to show many parallels with the adaptations and functional organization that are thought to underlie the encoding of perceptual attributes like colour. The nature and basis for human colour vision have been studied extensively, and we draw on ideas and principles that have been developed to account for norms and normalization in colour vision to consider potential similarities and differences in the representation and adaptation of faces.

Correlation of LEND and Diviner Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McClanahan, Tim; Boynton, William; Mitrofanov, Igor; Sagdeev, Raold; Bennet, Kristen; Starr, Richard; Evans, Larry; Paige, Dave; Sanin, Anton; Litvak, Max;

Development of Neural Sensitivity to Face Identity Correlates with Perceptual Discriminability.

PubMed

Natu, Vaidehi S; Barnett, Michael A; Hartley, Jake; Gomez, Jesse; Stigliani, Anthony; Grill-Spector, Kalanit

2016-10-19

Face perception is subserved by a series of face-selective regions in the human ventral stream, which undergo prolonged development from childhood to adulthood. However, it is unknown how neural development of these regions relates to the development of face-perception abilities. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses of ventral occipitotemporal regions in children (ages, 5-12 years) and adults (ages, 19-34 years) when they viewed faces that parametrically varied in dissimilarity. Since similar faces generate lower responses than dissimilar faces due to fMRI adaptation, this design objectively evaluates neural sensitivity to face identity across development. Additionally, a subset of subjects participated in a behavioral experiment to assess perceptual discriminability of face identity. Our data reveal three main findings: (1) neural sensitivity to face identity increases with age in face-selective but not object-selective regions; (2) the amplitude of responses to faces increases with age in both face-selective and object-selective regions; and (3) perceptual discriminability of face identity is correlated with the neural sensitivity to face identity of face-selective regions. In contrast, perceptual discriminability is not correlated with the amplitude of response in face-selective regions or of responses of object-selective regions. These data suggest that developmental increases in neural sensitivity to face identity in face-selective regions improve perceptual discriminability of faces. Our findings significantly advance the understanding of the neural mechanisms of development of face perception and open new avenues for using fMRI adaptation to study the neural development of high-level visual and cognitive functions more broadly. Face perception, which is critical for daily social interactions, develops from childhood to adulthood. However, it is unknown what developmental changes in the brain lead to improved performance. Using fMRI in children and adults, we find that from childhood to adulthood, neural sensitivity to changes in face identity increases in face-selective regions. Critically, subjects' perceptual discriminability among faces is linked to neural sensitivity: participants with higher neural sensitivity in face-selective regions demonstrate higher perceptual discriminability. Thus, our results suggest that developmental increases in face-selective regions' sensitivity to face identity improve perceptual discrimination of faces. These findings significantly advance understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the development of face perception and have important implications for assessing both typical and atypical development. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/3610893-15$15.00/0.

Coupled Dictionary Learning for the Detail-Enhanced Synthesis of 3-D Facial Expressions.

PubMed

Liang, Haoran; Liang, Ronghua; Song, Mingli; He, Xiaofei

2016-04-01

The desire to reconstruct 3-D face models with expressions from 2-D face images fosters increasing interest in addressing the problem of face modeling. This task is important and challenging in the field of computer animation. Facial contours and wrinkles are essential to generate a face with a certain expression; however, these details are generally ignored or are not seriously considered in previous studies on face model reconstruction. Thus, we employ coupled radius basis function networks to derive an intermediate 3-D face model from a single 2-D face image. To optimize the 3-D face model further through landmarks, a coupled dictionary that is related to 3-D face models and their corresponding 3-D landmarks is learned from the given training set through local coordinate coding. Another coupled dictionary is then constructed to bridge the 2-D and 3-D landmarks for the transfer of vertices on the face model. As a result, the final 3-D face can be generated with the appropriate expression. In the testing phase, the 2-D input faces are converted into 3-D models that display different expressions. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach to facial expression synthesis can obtain model details more effectively than previous methods can.

Distant influences of amygdala lesion on visual cortical activation during emotional face processing.

PubMed

Vuilleumier, Patrik; Richardson, Mark P; Armony, Jorge L; Driver, Jon; Dolan, Raymond J

2004-11-01

Emotional visual stimuli evoke enhanced responses in the visual cortex. To test whether this reflects modulatory influences from the amygdala on sensory processing, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in human patients with medial temporal lobe sclerosis. Twenty-six patients with lesions in the amygdala, the hippocampus or both, plus 13 matched healthy controls, were shown pictures of fearful or neutral faces in task-releant or task-irrelevant positions on the display. All subjects showed increased fusiform cortex activation when the faces were in task-relevant positions. Both healthy individuals and those with hippocampal damage showed increased activation in the fusiform and occipital cortex when they were shown fearful faces, but this was not the case for individuals with damage to the amygdala, even though visual areas were structurally intact. The distant influence of the amygdala was also evidenced by the parametric relationship between amygdala damage and the level of emotional activation in the fusiform cortex. Our data show that combining the fMRI and lesion approaches can help reveal the source of functional modulatory influences between distant but interconnected brain regions.

Brain activation patterns elicited by the 'Faces Symbol Test' -- a pilot fMRI study.

PubMed

Grabner, Rh; Popotnig, F; Ropele, S; Neuper, C; Gorani, F; Petrovic, K; Ebner, F; Strasser-Fuchs, S; Fazekas, F; Enzinger, C

2008-04-01

The Faces Symbol Test (FST) has recently been proposed as a brief and patient-friendly screening instrument for the assessment of cognitive dysfunction in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, in contrast to well-established MS screening tests such as the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, the neural correlates of the FST have not been investigated so far. In the present study, we developed a functional MRI (fMRI) version of the FST to provide first data on brain regions and networks involved in this test. A sample of 19 healthy participants completed a version of the FST adapted for fMRI, requiring matching of faces and symbols in a multiple choice test and two further experimental conditions drawing on cognitive subcomponents (face matching and symbol matching). Imaging data showed a differential involvement of a fronto-parieto-occipital network in the three conditions. The most demanding FST condition elicited brain activation patterns related with sustained attention and executive control. These results suggest that the FST recruits brain networks critical for higher-order cognitive functions often impaired in MS patients.

Consecutive TMS-fMRI reveals remote effects of neural noise to the "occipital face area".

PubMed

Solomon-Harris, Lily M; Rafique, Sara A; Steeves, Jennifer K E

2016-11-01

The human cortical system for face perception comprises a network of connected regions including the middle fusiform gyrus ("fusiform face area" or FFA), the inferior occipital gyrus ("occipital face area" or OFA), and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). Here, we sought to investigate how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the OFA affects activity within the face processing network. We used offline repetitive TMS to temporarily introduce neural noise in the right OFA in healthy subjects. We then immediately performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal across the face network using an fMR-adaptation (fMR-A) paradigm. We hypothesized that TMS to the right OFA would induce abnormal face identity coding throughout the face processing network in regions to which it has direct or indirect connections. Indeed, BOLD signal for face identity, but not non-face (butterfly) identity, decreased in the right OFA and FFA following TMS to the right OFA compared to both sham TMS and TMS to a control site, the nearby object-related lateral occipital area (LO). Further, TMS to the right OFA decreased face-related activation in the left FFA, without any effect in the left OFA. Our findings indicate that TMS to the right OFA selectively disrupts face coding at both the stimulation site and bilateral FFA. TMS to the right OFA also decreased BOLD signal for different identity stimuli in the right pSTS. Together with mounting evidence from patient studies, we demonstrate connectivity of the OFA within the face network and that its activity modulates face processing in bilateral FFA as well as the right pSTS. Moreover, this study shows that deep regions within the face network can be remotely probed by stimulating structures closer to the cortical surface. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developmental changes in analytic and holistic processes in face perception

PubMed Central

Joseph, Jane E.; DiBartolo, Michelle D.; Bhatt, Ramesh S.

2015-01-01

Although infants demonstrate sensitivity to some kinds of perceptual information in faces, many face capacities continue to develop throughout childhood. One debate is the degree to which children perceive faces analytically versus holistically and how these processes undergo developmental change. In the present study, school-aged children and adults performed a perceptual matching task with upright and inverted face and house pairs that varied in similarity of featural or 2nd order configural information. Holistic processing was operationalized as the degree of serial processing when discriminating faces and houses [i.e., increased reaction time (RT), as more features or spacing relations were shared between stimuli]. Analytical processing was operationalized as the degree of parallel processing (or no change in RT as a function of greater similarity of features or spatial relations). Adults showed the most evidence for holistic processing (most strongly for 2nd order faces) and holistic processing was weaker for inverted faces and houses. Younger children (6–8 years), in contrast, showed analytical processing across all experimental manipulations. Older children (9–11 years) showed an intermediate pattern with a trend toward holistic processing of 2nd order faces like adults, but parallel processing in other experimental conditions like younger children. These findings indicate that holistic face representations emerge around 10 years of age. In adults both 2nd order and featural information are incorporated into holistic representations, whereas older children only incorporate 2nd order information. Holistic processing was not evident in younger children. Hence, the development of holistic face representations relies on 2nd order processing initially then incorporates featural information by adulthood. PMID:26300838

Beyond perceptual expertise: revisiting the neural substrates of expert object recognition

PubMed Central

Harel, Assaf; Kravitz, Dwight; Baker, Chris I.

2013-01-01

Real-world expertise provides a valuable opportunity to understand how experience shapes human behavior and neural function. In the visual domain, the study of expert object recognition, such as in car enthusiasts or bird watchers, has produced a large, growing, and often-controversial literature. Here, we synthesize this literature, focusing primarily on results from functional brain imaging, and propose an interactive framework that incorporates the impact of high-level factors, such as attention and conceptual knowledge, in supporting expertise. This framework contrasts with the perceptual view of object expertise that has concentrated largely on stimulus-driven processing in visual cortex. One prominent version of this perceptual account has almost exclusively focused on the relation of expertise to face processing and, in terms of the neural substrates, has centered on face-selective cortical regions such as the Fusiform Face Area (FFA). We discuss the limitations of this face-centric approach as well as the more general perceptual view, and highlight that expert related activity is: (i) found throughout visual cortex, not just FFA, with a strong relationship between neural response and behavioral expertise even in the earliest stages of visual processing, (ii) found outside visual cortex in areas such as parietal and prefrontal cortices, and (iii) modulated by the attentional engagement of the observer suggesting that it is neither automatic nor driven solely by stimulus properties. These findings strongly support a framework in which object expertise emerges from extensive interactions within and between the visual system and other cognitive systems, resulting in widespread, distributed patterns of expertise-related activity across the entire cortex. PMID:24409134

Memory for fearful faces across development: specialization of amygdala nuclei and medial temporal lobe structures.

PubMed

Pinabiaux, Charlotte; Hertz-Pannier, Lucie; Chiron, Catherine; Rodrigo, Sébastian; Jambaqué, Isabelle; Noulhiane, Marion

2013-01-01

Enhanced memory for emotional faces is a significant component of adaptive social interactions, but little is known on its neural developmental correlates. We explored the role of amygdaloid complex (AC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) in emotional memory recognition across development, by comparing fMRI activations of successful memory encoding of fearful and neutral faces in children (n = 12; 8-12 years) and adolescents (n = 12; 13-17 years). Memory for fearful faces was enhanced compared with neutral ones in adolescents, as opposed to children. In adolescents, activations associated with successful encoding of fearful faces were centered on baso-lateral AC nuclei, hippocampus, enthorhinal and parahippocampal cortices. In children, successful encoding of fearful faces relied on activations of centro-mesial AC nuclei, which was not accompanied by functional activation of MTL memory structures. Successful encoding of neutral faces depended on activations in anterior MTL region (hippocampal head and body) in adolescents, but more posterior ones (hippocampal tail and parahippocampal cortex) in children. In conclusion, two distinct functional specializations emerge from childhood to adolescence and result in the enhancement of memory for these particular stimuli: the specialization of baso-lateral AC nuclei, which is associated with the expertise in processing emotional facial expression, and which is intimately related to the specialization of MTL memory network. How the interplay between specialization of AC nuclei and of MTL memory structures is fundamental for the edification of social interactions remains to be elucidated.

Memory for fearful faces across development: specialization of amygdala nuclei and medial temporal lobe structures

PubMed Central

Pinabiaux, Charlotte; Hertz-Pannier, Lucie; Chiron, Catherine; Rodrigo, Sébastian; Jambaqué, Isabelle; Noulhiane, Marion

2013-01-01

Enhanced memory for emotional faces is a significant component of adaptive social interactions, but little is known on its neural developmental correlates. We explored the role of amygdaloid complex (AC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) in emotional memory recognition across development, by comparing fMRI activations of successful memory encoding of fearful and neutral faces in children (n = 12; 8–12 years) and adolescents (n = 12; 13–17 years). Memory for fearful faces was enhanced compared with neutral ones in adolescents, as opposed to children. In adolescents, activations associated with successful encoding of fearful faces were centered on baso-lateral AC nuclei, hippocampus, enthorhinal and parahippocampal cortices. In children, successful encoding of fearful faces relied on activations of centro-mesial AC nuclei, which was not accompanied by functional activation of MTL memory structures. Successful encoding of neutral faces depended on activations in anterior MTL region (hippocampal head and body) in adolescents, but more posterior ones (hippocampal tail and parahippocampal cortex) in children. In conclusion, two distinct functional specializations emerge from childhood to adolescence and result in the enhancement of memory for these particular stimuli: the specialization of baso-lateral AC nuclei, which is associated with the expertise in processing emotional facial expression, and which is intimately related to the specialization of MTL memory network. How the interplay between specialization of AC nuclei and of MTL memory structures is fundamental for the edification of social interactions remains to be elucidated. PMID:24399958

Early development of letter specialization in left fusiform is associated with better word reading and smaller fusiform face area.

PubMed

Centanni, Tracy M; Norton, Elizabeth S; Park, Anne; Beach, Sara D; Halverson, Kelly; Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Gaab, Nadine; Gabrieli, John DE

2018-03-05

A functional region of left fusiform gyrus termed "the visual word form area" (VWFA) develops during reading acquisition to respond more strongly to printed words than to other visual stimuli. Here, we examined responses to letters among 5- and 6-year-old early kindergarten children (N = 48) with little or no school-based reading instruction who varied in their reading ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to individual letters, false fonts, and faces in left and right fusiform gyri. We then evaluated whether signal change and size (spatial extent) of letter-sensitive cortex (greater activation for letters versus faces) and letter-specific cortex (greater activation for letters versus false fonts) in these regions related to (a) standardized measures of word-reading ability and (b) signal change and size of face-sensitive cortex (fusiform face area or FFA; greater activation for faces versus letters). Greater letter specificity, but not letter sensitivity, in left fusiform gyrus correlated positively with word reading scores. Across children, in the left fusiform gyrus, greater size of letter-sensitive cortex correlated with lesser size of FFA. These findings are the first to suggest that in beginning readers, development of letter responsivity in left fusiform cortex is associated with both better reading ability and also a reduction of the size of left FFA that may result in right-hemisphere dominance for face perception. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Memory for friends or foes: the social context of past encounters with faces modulates their subsequent neural traces in the brain.

PubMed

Vrticka, Pascal; Andersson, Frédéric; Sander, David; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2009-01-01

Every day we encounter new people, interact with them, and form person impressions based on quick and automatic inferences from minimal contextual information. Previous studies have identified an extensive network of brain areas involved in familiar face recognition, but there is little evidence to date concerning the neural bases of negative vs. positive person impressions. In the present study, participants were repeatedly exposed to 16 unfamiliar face identities within a pseudo-interactive game context to generate a perception of either "friends" or "foes". Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was then performed during an old/new memory task to assess any difference in brain responses to these now familiar face identities, relative to unfamiliar faces. Importantly, whereas facial expressions were always emotional (either smiling or angry) during the encoding phase, they were always neutral during the memory task. Our results reveal that several brain regions involved in familiar face recognition, including fusiform cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala, plus additional areas involved in motivational control such as caudate and anterior cingulate cortex, were differentially modulated as a function of a previous encounter, and generally more activated when faces were perceived as "foes" rather than "friends". These findings underscore that a key dimension of social judgments, based on past impressions of who may be supportive or hostile, may lead to long-lasting effects on memory for faces and thus influence affective reactions to people during a subsequent encounter even in a different (neutral) context.

Altered medial prefrontal activity during dynamic face processing in schizophrenia spectrum patients.

PubMed

Mothersill, Omar; Morris, Derek W; Kelly, Sinead; Rose, Emma Jane; Bokde, Arun; Reilly, Richard; Gill, Michael; Corvin, Aiden P; Donohoe, Gary

2014-08-01

Processing the emotional content of faces is recognised as a key deficit of schizophrenia, associated with poorer functional outcomes and possibly contributing to the severity of clinical symptoms such as paranoia. At the neural level, fMRI studies have reported altered limbic activity in response to facial stimuli. However, previous studies may be limited by the use of cognitively demanding tasks and static facial stimuli. To address these issues, the current study used a face processing task involving both passive face viewing and dynamic social stimuli. Such a task may (1) lack the potentially confounding effects of high cognitive demands and (2) show higher ecological validity. Functional MRI was used to examine neural activity in 25 patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 21 age- and gender-matched healthy controls while they participated in a face processing task, which involved viewing videos of angry and neutral facial expressions, and a non-biological baseline condition. While viewing faces, patients showed significantly weaker deactivation of the medial prefrontal cortex, including the anterior cingulate, and decreased activation in the left cerebellum, compared to controls. Patients also showed weaker medial prefrontal deactivation while viewing the angry faces relative to baseline. Given that the anterior cingulate plays a role in processing negative emotion, weaker deactivation of this region in patients while viewing faces may contribute to an increased perception of social threat. Future studies examining the neurobiology of social cognition in schizophrenia using fMRI may help establish targets for treatment interventions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Face and Word Recognition Can Be Selectively Affected by Brain Injury or Developmental Disorders.

PubMed

Robotham, Ro J; Starrfelt, Randi

2017-01-01

Face and word recognition have traditionally been thought to rely on highly specialised and relatively independent cognitive processes. Some of the strongest evidence for this has come from patients with seemingly category-specific visual perceptual deficits such as pure prosopagnosia, a selective face recognition deficit, and pure alexia, a selective word recognition deficit. Together, the patterns of impaired reading with preserved face recognition and impaired face recognition with preserved reading constitute a double dissociation. The existence of these selective deficits has been questioned over the past decade. It has been suggested that studies describing patients with these pure deficits have failed to measure the supposedly preserved functions using sensitive enough measures, and that if tested using sensitive measurements, all patients with deficits in one visual category would also have deficits in the other. The implications of this would be immense, with most textbooks in cognitive neuropsychology requiring drastic revisions. In order to evaluate the evidence for dissociations, we review studies that specifically investigate whether face or word recognition can be selectively affected by acquired brain injury or developmental disorders. We only include studies published since 2004, as comprehensive reviews of earlier studies are available. Most of the studies assess the supposedly preserved functions using sensitive measurements. We found convincing evidence that reading can be preserved in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia and also evidence (though weaker) that face recognition can be preserved in acquired or developmental dyslexia, suggesting that face and word recognition are at least in part supported by independent processes.

Brain noise is task dependent and region specific.

PubMed

Misić, Bratislav; Mills, Travis; Taylor, Margot J; McIntosh, Anthony R

2010-11-01

The emerging organization of anatomical and functional connections during human brain development is thought to facilitate global integration of information. Recent empirical and computational studies have shown that this enhanced capacity for information processing enables a diversified dynamic repertoire that manifests in neural activity as irregularity and noise. However, transient functional networks unfold over multiple time, scales and the embedding of a particular region depends not only on development, but also on the manner in which sensory and cognitive systems are engaged. Here we show that noise is a facet of neural activity that is also sensitive to the task context and is highly region specific. Children (6-16 yr) and adults (20-41 yr) performed a one-back face recognition task with inverted and upright faces. Neuromagnetic activity was estimated at several hundred sources in the brain by applying a beamforming technique to the magnetoencephalogram (MEG). During development, neural activity became more variable across the whole brain, with most robust increases in medial parietal regions, such as the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex. For young children and adults, activity evoked by upright faces was more variable and noisy compared with inverted faces, and this effect was reliable only in the right fusiform gyrus. These results are consistent with the notion that upright faces engender a variety of integrative neural computations, such as the relations among facial features and their holistic constitution. This study shows that transient changes in functional integration modulated by task demand are evident in the variability of regional neural activity.

Preparing for a face transplant: development of a comprehensive nursing educational program.

PubMed

Sweeney, Nicole; Calame-Mars, Grace; Dojlidko, Dorothy; Frank-Bader, Margaret; Keller, Ronald; Waterman, Jasmin

2015-12-01

To date, more than 30 face transplants have been performed worldwide. This innovative procedure has restored the functional and aesthetic aspects of the face in patients with cancer, congenital, and trauma-related deformities where the results of traditional reconstructive surgery have been deficient. The importance of nursing involvement in the care of these patients is undeniable; however, little has been published about how to properly prepare a nursing department to undertake such an important role. Although the care of patients undergoing face transplants has many similarities to the care of patients undergoing traditional head and neck flap procedures, patients undergoing face transplant provide unique challenges, including immunosuppression, allograft rejection, communication impairment, and psychosocial needs. Staff at New York University's Langone Medical Center have devised a specific plan of action to properly inform, educate, and prepare the nursing staff for this exciting endeavor.

Emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder: behavioral and neural responses to three socio-emotional tasks

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is thought to involve deficits in emotion regulation, and more specifically, deficits in cognitive reappraisal. However, evidence for such deficits is mixed. Methods Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal, we examined reappraisal-related behavioral and neural responses in 27 participants with generalized SAD and 27 healthy controls (HC) during three socio-emotional tasks: (1) looming harsh faces (Faces); (2) videotaped actors delivering social criticism (Criticism); and (3) written autobiographical negative self-beliefs (Beliefs). Results Behaviorally, compared to HC, participants with SAD had lesser reappraisal-related reduction in negative emotion in the Beliefs task. Neurally, compared to HC, participants with SAD had lesser BOLD responses in reappraisal-related brain regions when reappraising faces, in visual and attention related regions when reappraising criticism, and in the left superior temporal gyrus when reappraising beliefs. Examination of the temporal dynamics of BOLD responses revealed late reappraisal-related increased responses in HC, compared to SAD. In addition, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), which showed reappraisal-related increased activity in both groups, had similar temporal dynamics in SAD and HC during the Faces and Criticism tasks, but greater late response increases in HC, compared to SAD, during the Beliefs task. Reappraisal-related greater late DMPFC responses were associated with greater percent reduction in negative emotion ratings in SAD patients. Conclusions These results suggest a dysfunction of cognitive reappraisal in SAD patients, with overall reduced late brain responses in prefrontal regions, particularly when reappraising faces. Decreased late activity in the DMPFC might be associated with deficient reappraisal and greater negative reactivity. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00380731 PMID:24517388

The N400 as an index of racial stereotype accessibility.

PubMed

Hehman, Eric; Volpert, Hannah I; Simons, Robert F

2014-04-01

The current research examined the viability of the N400, an event-related potential (ERP) related to the detection of semantic incongruity, as an index of both stereotype accessibility and interracial prejudice. Participants' EEG was recorded while they completed a sequential priming task, in which negative or positive, stereotypically black (African American) or white (Caucasian American) traits followed the presentation of either a black or white face acting as a prime. ERP examination focused on the N400, but additionally examined N100 and P200 reactivity. Replicating and extending previous N400 stereotype research, results indicated that the N400 can indeed function as an index of stereotype accessibility in an interracial domain, as greater N400 reactivity was elicited by trials in which the face prime was incongruent with the target trait than when primes and traits matched. Furthermore, N400 activity was moderated by participants' self-reported explicit bias. More explicitly biased participants demonstrated greater N400 reactivity to stereotypically white traits following black faces than black traits following black faces. P200 activity was additionally associated with participants' implicit biases, as more implicitly biased participants similarly demonstrated greater P200 reactivity to stereotypically white traits following black faces than black traits following black faces.

Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: Implications for Family Leisure Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radina, M. Elise

2009-01-01

An estimated 20% of breast cancer survivors face the chronic condition of breast cancer-related lymphedema. This study explored the ways in which women with this condition experienced changes in their participation in family leisure as one indicator of family functioning. Participants (N = 27) were interviewed regarding lifestyles before and after…

Emotional face expression modulates occipital-frontal effective connectivity during memory formation in a bottom-up fashion.

PubMed

Xiu, Daiming; Geiger, Maximilian J; Klaver, Peter

2015-01-01

This study investigated the role of bottom-up and top-down neural mechanisms in the processing of emotional face expression during memory formation. Functional brain imaging data was acquired during incidental learning of positive ("happy"), neutral and negative ("angry" or "fearful") faces. Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) was applied on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to characterize effective connectivity within a brain network involving face perception (inferior occipital gyrus and fusiform gyrus) and successful memory formation related areas (hippocampus, superior parietal lobule, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex). The bottom-up models assumed processing of emotional face expression along feed forward pathways to the orbitofrontal cortex. The top-down models assumed that the orbitofrontal cortex processed emotional valence and mediated connections to the hippocampus. A subsequent recognition memory test showed an effect of negative emotion on the response bias, but not on memory performance. Our DCM findings showed that the bottom-up model family of effective connectivity best explained the data across all subjects and specified that emotion affected most bottom-up connections to the orbitofrontal cortex, especially from the occipital visual cortex and superior parietal lobule. Of those pathways to the orbitofrontal cortex the connection from the inferior occipital gyrus correlated with memory performance independently of valence. We suggest that bottom-up neural mechanisms support effects of emotional face expression and memory formation in a parallel and partially overlapping fashion.

Correlations between impairment, psychological distress, disability, and quality of life in peripheral facial palsy.

PubMed

Díaz-Aristizabal, U; Valdés-Vilches, M; Fernández-Ferreras, T R; Calero-Muñoz, E; Bienzobas-Allué, E; Moracén-Naranjo, T

2017-05-23

This paper analyses the correlations between scores on scales assessing impairment, psychological distress, disability, and quality of life in patients with peripheral facial palsy (PFP). We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study including 30 patients in whom PFP had not resolved completely. We used tools for assessing impairment (Sunnybrook Facial Grading System [FGS]), psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS]), disability (Facial Disability Index [FDI]), and quality of life (Facial Clinimetric Evaluation [FaCE] scale). We found no correlations between FGS and HADS scores, or between FGS and FDI social function scores. However, we did find a correlation between FGS and FDI physical function scores (r=0.54; P<.01), FDI total score (r=0.4; P<.05), FaCE total scores (ρ=0.66; P<.01), and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.5; P<.01). We also observed a correlation between HADS Anxiety scores and FDI physical function (r=-0.47; P<.01), FDI social function (r=-0.47; P<.01), FDI total (r=-0.55; P<.01), FaCE total (ρ=-0.49; P<.01), and FaCE social scores (ρ=-0.46; P<.05). Significant correlations were also found between HADS Depression scores and FDI physical function (r=-0.61; P<.01), FDI social function (r=-0.53; P<.01), FDI total (r=-0.66; P<.01), FaCE total (ρ=-0.67; P<.01), and FaCE social scores (ρ=-0.68; P<.01), between FDI physical function scores and FaCE total scores (ρ=0.87; P<.01) and FaCE social function (ρ=0.74; P<.01), between FDI social function and FaCE total (ρ=0.66; P<.01) and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.72; P<.01), and between FDI total scores and FaCE total (ρ = 0,87; P<.01) and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.84; P<.01). In our sample, patients with more severe impairment displayed greater physical and global disability and poorer quality of life without significantly higher levels of social disability and psychological distress. Patients with more disability experienced greater psychological distress and had a poorer quality of life. Lastly, patients with more psychological distress also had a poorer quality of life. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Visual information processing of faces in body dysmorphic disorder.

PubMed

Feusner, Jamie D; Townsend, Jennifer; Bystritsky, Alexander; Bookheimer, Susan

2007-12-01

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a severe psychiatric condition in which individuals are preoccupied with perceived appearance defects. Clinical observation suggests that patients with BDD focus on details of their appearance at the expense of configural elements. This study examines abnormalities in visual information processing in BDD that may underlie clinical symptoms. To determine whether patients with BDD have abnormal patterns of brain activation when visually processing others' faces with high, low, or normal spatial frequency information. Case-control study. University hospital. Twelve right-handed, medication-free subjects with BDD and 13 control subjects matched by age, sex, and educational achievement. Intervention Functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing matching tasks of face stimuli. Stimuli were neutral-expression photographs of others' faces that were unaltered, altered to include only high spatial frequency visual information, or altered to include only low spatial frequency visual information. Blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging signal changes in the BDD and control groups during tasks with each stimulus type. Subjects with BDD showed greater left hemisphere activity relative to controls, particularly in lateral prefrontal cortex and lateral temporal lobe regions for all face tasks (and dorsal anterior cingulate activity for the low spatial frequency task). Controls recruited left-sided prefrontal and dorsal anterior cingulate activity only for the high spatial frequency task. Subjects with BDD demonstrate fundamental differences from controls in visually processing others' faces. The predominance of left-sided activity for low spatial frequency and normal faces suggests detail encoding and analysis rather than holistic processing, a pattern evident in controls only for high spatial frequency faces. These abnormalities may be associated with apparent perceptual distortions in patients with BDD. The fact that these findings occurred while subjects viewed others' faces suggests differences in visual processing beyond distortions of their own appearance.

Evaluating the independence of sex and expression in judgments of faces.

PubMed

Le Gal, Patricia M; Bruce, Vicki

2002-02-01

Face recognition models suggest independent processing for functionally different types of information, such as identity, expression, sex, and facial speech. Interference between sex and expression information was tested using both a rating study and Garner's selective attention paradigm using speeded sex and expression decisions. When participants were asked to assess the masculinity of male and female angry and surprised faces, they found surprised faces to be more feminine than angry ones (Experiment 1). However, in a speeded-classification situation in the laboratory in which the sex decision was either "easy" relative to the expression decision (Experiment 2) or of more equivalent difficulty (Experiment 3), it was possible for participants to attend selectively to either dimension without interference from the other. Qualified support is offered for independent processing routes.

Reduced adaptability, but no fundamental disruption, of norm-based face-coding mechanisms in cognitively able children and adolescents with autism.

PubMed

Rhodes, Gillian; Ewing, Louise; Jeffery, Linda; Avard, Eleni; Taylor, Libby

2014-09-01

Faces are adaptively coded relative to visual norms that are updated by experience. This coding is compromised in autism and the broader autism phenotype, suggesting that atypical adaptive coding of faces may be an endophenotype for autism. Here we investigate the nature of this atypicality, asking whether adaptive face-coding mechanisms are fundamentally altered, or simply less responsive to experience, in autism. We measured adaptive coding, using face identity aftereffects, in cognitively able children and adolescents with autism and neurotypical age- and ability-matched participants. We asked whether these aftereffects increase with adaptor identity strength as in neurotypical populations, or whether they show a different pattern indicating a more fundamental alteration in face-coding mechanisms. As expected, face identity aftereffects were reduced in the autism group, but they nevertheless increased with adaptor strength, like those of our neurotypical participants, consistent with norm-based coding of face identity. Moreover, their aftereffects correlated positively with face recognition ability, consistent with an intact functional role for adaptive coding in face recognition ability. We conclude that adaptive norm-based face-coding mechanisms are basically intact in autism, but are less readily calibrated by experience. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sociosexuality in women and preference for facial masculinization and somatotype in men.

PubMed

Provost, Meghan P; Kormos, Christine; Kosakoski, Graham; Quinsey, Vernon L

2006-06-01

Sociosexual orientation reflects individual differences in openness to short-term sexual relationships. We predicted that women with less restricted sociosexuality would be differentially attracted to highly masculinized male faces and bodies. In 2 studies, we investigated preference for male masculinization as a function of female sociosexuality. In Study 1, 40 female university students rated the attractiveness of pictures of male faces and somatotypes differing in masculinization level. All women preferred the faces with average levels of masculinity and the mesomorph somatotype; however, women with less restricted sociosexuality found the faces of men more attractive in general and showed relatively greater preference for masculinized bodies than did women with more restricted sociosexuality. In Study 2, 56 women met with 2 equally attractive male confederates, 1 highly masculinized and 1 less masculinized, in a "speed dating" scenario. After each date, women indicated their interest in each man for short-term and long-term relationships via questionnaire. In this more naturalistic context, sociosexuality was related to an increased interest for the more highly masculinized man in the context of short-term dating. Female sociosexuality appears to be related to preferences for higher levels of male masculinization.

Threat facilitates subsequent executive control during anxious mood.

PubMed

Birk, Jeffrey L; Dennis, Tracy A; Shin, Lisa M; Urry, Heather L

2011-12-01

Dual competition framework (DCF) posits that low-level threat may facilitate behavioral performance by influencing executive control functions. Anxiety is thought to strengthen this effect by enhancing threat's affective significance. To test these ideas directly, we examined the effects of low-level threat and experimentally induced anxiety on one executive control function, the efficiency of response inhibition. In Study 1, briefly presented stimuli that were mildly threatening (i.e., fearful faces) relative to nonthreatening (i.e., neutral faces) led to facilitated executive control efficiency during experimentally induced anxiety. No such effect was observed during an equally arousing, experimentally induced happy mood state. In Study 2, we assessed the effects of low-level threat, experimentally induced anxiety, and individual differences in trait anxiety on executive control efficiency. Consistent with Study 1, fearful relative to neutral faces led to facilitated executive control efficiency during experimentally induced anxiety. No such effect was observed during an experimentally induced neutral mood state. Moreover, individual differences in trait anxiety did not moderate the effects of threat and anxiety on executive control efficiency. The findings are partially consistent with the predictions of DCF in that low-level threat improved executive control, at least during a state of anxiety. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

The Placebo Response in Pediatric Abdominal Pain-Related Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Hoekman, Daniël R; Zeevenhooven, Judith; van Etten-Jamaludin, Faridi S; Douwes Dekker, Iuke; Benninga, Marc A; Tabbers, Merit M; Vlieger, Arine M

2017-03-01

To investigate the magnitude and determinants of the placebo response in studies with pediatric abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL were searched for systematic reviews and randomized placebo-controlled trials concerning children 4-18 years of age with an abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorder. The primary outcome was the pooled proportion of subjects assigned to placebo with improvement as defined by the authors. The effect of trial characteristics on the magnitude of the placebo response was investigated using univariate meta-regression analysis. Twenty-one trials were identified. The pooled proportion of subjects with improvement was 41% (95% CI, 34%-49%; 17 studies) and with no pain was 17% (95% CI, 8%-32%; 7 studies). The pooled standardized mean difference on the Faces Pain Scales compared with baseline was -0.73 (95% CI, -1.04 to -0.42; 8 studies). There was significant heterogeneity across studies with respect to both outcomes. Lower dosing frequency (P = .04), positive study (P = .03), longer duration of treatment (P < .001), and higher placebo dropout (P < .001) were associated with higher report of no pain. Response on Faces Pain Scales was greater in studies conducted in the Middle East (P = .002), in studies that did not report the randomization schedule (P = .02), and in studies with a higher percentage of females (P = .04). Approximately 41% of children with abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders improve on placebo. Several trial characteristics are correlated significantly with the proportion of patients with no pain on placebo and with the magnitude of the placebo response on Faces Pain Scales. These data could be valuable for the design of future studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture, gaze and the neural processing of fear expressions

PubMed Central

Franklin, Robert G.; Rule, Nicholas O.; Freeman, Jonathan B.; Kveraga, Kestutis; Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Yoshikawa, Sakiko; Ambady, Nalini

2010-01-01

The direction of others’ eye gaze has important influences on how we perceive their emotional expressions. Here, we examined differences in neural activation to direct- versus averted-gaze fear faces as a function of culture of the participant (Japanese versus US Caucasian), culture of the stimulus face (Japanese versus US Caucasian), and the relation between the two. We employed a previously validated paradigm to examine differences in neural activation in response to rapidly presented direct- versus averted-fear expressions, finding clear evidence for a culturally determined role of gaze in the processing of fear. Greater neural responsivity was apparent to averted- versus direct-gaze fear in several regions related to face and emotion processing, including bilateral amygdalae, when posed on same-culture faces, whereas greater response to direct- versus averted-gaze fear was apparent in these same regions when posed on other-culture faces. We also found preliminary evidence for intercultural variation including differential responses across participants to Japanese versus US Caucasian stimuli, and to a lesser degree differences in how Japanese and US Caucasian participants responded to these stimuli. These findings reveal a meaningful role of culture in the processing of eye gaze and emotion, and highlight their interactive influences in neural processing. PMID:20019073

Common neural systems associated with the recognition of famous faces and names: An event-related fMRI study

PubMed Central

Nielson, Kristy A.; Seidenberg, Michael; Woodard, John L.; Durgerian, Sally; Zhang, Qi; Gross, William L.; Gander, Amelia; Guidotti, Leslie M.; Antuono, Piero; Rao, Stephen M.

2010-01-01

Person recognition can be accomplished through several modalities (face, name, voice). Lesion, neurophysiology and neuroimaging studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine the similarities and differences in the neural networks associated with person identity via different modality inputs. The current study used event-related functional-MRI in 17 healthy participants to directly compare activation in response to randomly presented famous and non-famous names and faces (25 stimuli in each of the four categories). Findings indicated distinct areas of activation that differed for faces and names in regions typically associated with pre-semantic perceptual processes. In contrast, overlapping brain regions were activated in areas associated with the retrieval of biographical knowledge and associated social affective features. Specifically, activation for famous faces was primarily right lateralized and famous names were left lateralized. However, for both stimuli, similar areas of bilateral activity were observed in the early phases of perceptual processing. Activation for fame, irrespective of stimulus modality, activated an extensive left hemisphere network, with bilateral activity observed in the hippocampi, posterior cingulate, and middle temporal gyri. Findings are discussed within the framework of recent proposals concerning the neural network of person identification. PMID:20167415

Appearance is a function of the face.

PubMed

Borah, Gregory L; Rankin, Marlene K

2010-03-01

Increasingly, third-party insurers deny coverage to patients with posttraumatic and congenital facial deformities because these are not seen as "functional." Recent facial transplants have demonstrated that severely deformed patients are willing to undergo potentially life-threatening surgery in search of a normal physiognomy. Scant quantitative research exists that objectively documents appearance as a primary "function" of the face. This study was designed to establish a population-based definition of the functions of the human face, rank importance of the face among various anatomical areas, and determine the risk value the average person places on a normal appearance. Voluntary adult subjects (n = 210) in three states aged 18 to 75 years were recruited using a quota sampling technique. Subjects completed study questionnaires of demography and bias using the Gamble Chance of Death Questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The face ranked as the most important anatomical area for functional reconstruction. Appearance was the fifth most important function of the face, after breathing, sight, speech, and eating. Normal facial appearance was rated as very important for one to be a functioning member of American society (p = 0.01) by 49 percent. One in seven subjects (13 percent) would accept a 30 to 45 percent risk of death to obtain a "normal" face. Normal appearance is a primary function of the face, based on a large, culturally diverse population sample across the lifespan. Normal appearance ranks above smell and expression as a function. Restoration of facial appearance is ranked the most important anatomical area for repair. Normal facial appearance is very important for one to be a functional member of American society.

Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions.

PubMed

Van Den Boomen, Carlijn; Fahrenfort, Johannes J; Snijders, Tineke M; Kemner, Chantal

2015-01-01

Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process.

Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions

PubMed Central

Van Den Boomen, Carlijn; Fahrenfort, Johannes J.; Snijders, Tineke M.; Kemner, Chantal

2015-01-01

Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process. PMID:26074838

Orientation Encoding and Viewpoint Invariance in Face Recognition: Inferring Neural Properties from Large-Scale Signals.

PubMed

Ramírez, Fernando M

2018-05-01

Viewpoint-invariant face recognition is thought to be subserved by a distributed network of occipitotemporal face-selective areas that, except for the human anterior temporal lobe, have been shown to also contain face-orientation information. This review begins by highlighting the importance of bilateral symmetry for viewpoint-invariant recognition and face-orientation perception. Then, monkey electrophysiological evidence is surveyed describing key tuning properties of face-selective neurons-including neurons bimodally tuned to mirror-symmetric face-views-followed by studies combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate pattern analyses to probe the representation of face-orientation and identity information in humans. Altogether, neuroimaging studies suggest that face-identity is gradually disentangled from face-orientation information along the ventral visual processing stream. The evidence seems to diverge, however, regarding the prevalent form of tuning of neural populations in human face-selective areas. In this context, caveats possibly leading to erroneous inferences regarding mirror-symmetric coding are exposed, including the need to distinguish angular from Euclidean distances when interpreting multivariate pattern analyses. On this basis, this review argues that evidence from the fusiform face area is best explained by a view-sensitive code reflecting head angular disparity, consistent with a role of this area in face-orientation perception. Finally, the importance is stressed of explicit models relating neural properties to large-scale signals.

Physical Activity Is Positively Associated with Episodic Memory in Aging

PubMed Central

Hayes, Scott M.; Alosco, Michael L.; Hayes, Jasmeet P.; Cadden, Margaret; Peterson, Kristina M.; Allsup, Kelly; Forman, Daniel E.; Sperling, Reisa A.; Verfaellie, Mieke

2016-01-01

Aging is associated with performance reductions in executive function and episodic memory, although there is substantial individual variability in cognition among older adults. One factor that may be positively associated with cognition in aging is physical activity. To date, few studies have objectively assessed physical activity in young and older adults, and examined whether physical activity is differentially associated with cognition in aging. Young (n = 29, age 18–31 years) and older adults (n = 31, ages 55–82 years) completed standardized neuropsychological testing to assess executive function and episodic memory capacities. An experimental face-name relational memory task was administered to augment assessment of episodic memory. Physical activity (total step count and step rate) was objectively assessed using an accelerometer, and hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate relationships between cognition and physical activity. Older adults performed more poorly on tasks of executive function and episodic memory. Physical activity was positively associated with a composite measure of visual episodic memory and face-name memory accuracy in older adults. Physical activity associations with cognition were independent of sedentary behavior, which was negatively correlated with memory performance. Physical activity was not associated with cognitive performance in younger adults. Physical activity is positively associated with episodic memory performance in aging. The relationship appears to be strongest for face-name relational memory and visual episodic memory, likely attributable to the fact that these tasks make strong demands on the hippocampus. The results suggest that physical activity relates to cognition in older, but not younger adults. PMID:26581790

Angular shear plate

DOEpatents

Ruda, Mitchell C [Tucson, AZ; Greynolds, Alan W [Tucson, AZ; Stuhlinger, Tilman W [Tucson, AZ

2009-07-14

One or more disc-shaped angular shear plates each include a region thereon having a thickness that varies with a nonlinear function. For the case of two such shear plates, they are positioned in a facing relationship and rotated relative to each other. Light passing through the variable thickness regions in the angular plates is refracted. By properly timing the relative rotation of the plates and by the use of an appropriate polynomial function for the thickness of the shear plate, light passing therethrough can be focused at variable positions.

The Functional Neuroanatomy of Human Face Perception.

PubMed

Grill-Spector, Kalanit; Weiner, Kevin S; Kay, Kendrick; Gomez, Jesse

2017-09-15

Face perception is critical for normal social functioning and is mediated by a network of regions in the ventral visual stream. In this review, we describe recent neuroimaging findings regarding the macro- and microscopic anatomical features of the ventral face network, the characteristics of white matter connections, and basic computations performed by population receptive fields within face-selective regions composing this network. We emphasize the importance of the neural tissue properties and white matter connections of each region, as these anatomical properties may be tightly linked to the functional characteristics of the ventral face network. We end by considering how empirical investigations of the neural architecture of the face network may inform the development of computational models and shed light on how computations in the face network enable efficient face perception.

ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OF FOVEAL SPARING IN GEOGRAPHIC ATROPHY SECONDARY TO AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.

PubMed

Querques, Giuseppe; Kamami-Levy, Cynthia; Georges, Anouk; Pedinielli, Alexandre; Capuano, Vittorio; Blanco-Garavito, Rocio; Poulon, Fanny; Souied, Eric H

2016-02-01

To describe adaptive optics (AO) imaging of foveal sparing in geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration. Flood-illumination AO infrared (IR) fundus images were obtained in four consecutive patients with GA using an AO retinal camera (rtx1; Imagine Eyes). Adaptive optics IR images were overlaid with confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope near-IR autofluorescence images to allow direct correlation of en face AO features with areas of foveal sparing. Adaptive optics appearance of GA and foveal sparing, preservation of functional photoreceptors, and cone densities in areas of foveal sparing were investigated. In 5 eyes of 4 patients (all female; mean age 74.2 ± 11.9 years), a total of 5 images, sized 4° × 4°, of foveal sparing visualized on confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope near-IR autofluorescence were investigated by AO imaging. En face AO images revealed GA as regions of inhomogeneous hyperreflectivity with irregularly dispersed hyporeflective clumps. By direct comparison with adjacent regions of GA, foveal sparing appeared as well-demarcated areas of reduced reflectivity with less hyporeflective clumps (mean 14.2 vs. 3.2; P = 0.03). Of note, in these areas, en face AO IR images revealed cone photoreceptors as hyperreflective dots over the background reflectivity (mean cone density 3,271 ± 1,109 cones per square millimeter). Microperimetry demonstrated residual function in areas of foveal sparing detected by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope near-IR autofluorescence. Adaptive optics allows the appreciation of differences in reflectivity between regions of GA and foveal sparing. Preservation of functional cone photoreceptors was demonstrated on en face AO IR images in areas of foveal sparing detected by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope near-IR autofluorescence.

Effects of Age, Task Performance, and Structural Brain Development on Face Processing

PubMed Central

Cohen Kadosh, Kathrin; Johnson, Mark H; Dick, Frederic; Cohen Kadosh, Roi; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

2013-01-01

In this combined structural and functional MRI developmental study, we tested 48 participants aged 7–37 years on 3 simple face-processing tasks (identity, expression, and gaze task), which were designed to yield very similar performance levels across the entire age range. The same participants then carried out 3 more difficult out-of-scanner tasks, which provided in-depth measures of changes in performance. For our analysis we adopted a novel, systematic approach that allowed us to differentiate age- from performance-related changes in the BOLD response in the 3 tasks, and compared these effects to concomitant changes in brain structure. The processing of all face aspects activated the core face-network across the age range, as well as additional and partially separable regions. Small task-specific activations in posterior regions were found to increase with age and were distinct from more widespread activations that varied as a function of individual task performance (but not of age). Our results demonstrate that activity during face-processing changes with age, and these effects are still observed when controlling for changes associated with differences in task performance. Moreover, we found that changes in white and gray matter volume were associated with changes in activation with age and performance in the out-of-scanner tasks. PMID:22661406

Effective Connectivity from Early Visual Cortex to Posterior Occipitotemporal Face Areas Supports Face Selectivity and Predicts Developmental Prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Garrido, Lucia; Driver, Jon; Dolan, Raymond J.; Duchaine, Bradley C.; Furl, Nicholas

2016-01-01

Face processing is mediated by interactions between functional areas in the occipital and temporal lobe, and the fusiform face area (FFA) and anterior temporal lobe play key roles in the recognition of facial identity. Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP), a lifelong face recognition impairment, have been shown to have structural and functional neuronal alterations in these areas. The present study investigated how face selectivity is generated in participants with normal face processing, and how functional abnormalities associated with DP, arise as a function of network connectivity. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and dynamic causal modeling, we examined effective connectivity in normal participants by assessing network models that include early visual cortex (EVC) and face-selective areas and then investigated the integrity of this connectivity in participants with DP. Results showed that a feedforward architecture from EVC to the occipital face area, EVC to FFA, and EVC to posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) best explained how face selectivity arises in both controls and participants with DP. In this architecture, the DP group showed reduced connection strengths on feedforward connections carrying face information from EVC to FFA and EVC to pSTS. These altered network dynamics in DP contribute to the diminished face selectivity in the posterior occipitotemporal areas affected in DP. These findings suggest a novel view on the relevance of feedforward projection from EVC to posterior occipitotemporal face areas in generating cortical face selectivity and differences in face recognition ability. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Areas of the human brain showing enhanced activation to faces compared to other objects or places have been extensively studied. However, the factors leading to this face selectively have remained mostly unknown. We show that effective connectivity from early visual cortex to posterior occipitotemporal face areas gives rise to face selectivity. Furthermore, people with developmental prosopagnosia, a lifelong face recognition impairment, have reduced face selectivity in the posterior occipitotemporal face areas and left anterior temporal lobe. We show that this reduced face selectivity can be predicted by effective connectivity from early visual cortex to posterior occipitotemporal face areas. This study presents the first network-based account of how face selectivity arises in the human brain. PMID:27030766

Acute pharmacologically induced shifts in serotonin availability abolish emotion-selective responses to negative face emotions in distinct brain networks.

PubMed

Grady, Cheryl L; Siebner, Hartwig R; Hornboll, Bettina; Macoveanu, Julian; Paulson, Olaf B; Knudsen, Gitte M

2013-05-01

Pharmacological manipulation of serotonin availability can alter the processing of facial expressions of emotion. Using a within-subject design, we measured the effect of serotonin on the brain's response to aversive face emotions with functional MRI while 20 participants judged the gender of neutral, fearful and angry faces. In three separate and counterbalanced sessions, participants received citalopram (CIT) to raise serotonin levels, underwent acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) to lower serotonin, or were studied without pharmacological challenge (Control). An analysis designed to identify distributed brain responses identified two brain networks with modulations of activity related to face emotion and serotonin level. The first network included the left amygdala, bilateral striatum, and fusiform gyri. During the Control session this network responded only to fearful faces; increasing serotonin decreased this response to fear, whereas reducing serotonin enhanced the response of this network to angry faces. The second network involved bilateral amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and these regions also showed increased activity to fear during the Control session. Both drug challenges enhanced the neural response of this set of regions to angry faces, relative to Control, and CIT also enhanced activity for neutral faces. The net effect of these changes in both networks was to abolish the selective response to fearful expressions. These results suggest that a normal level of serotonin is critical for maintaining a differentiated brain response to threatening face emotions. Lower serotonin leads to a broadening of a normally fear-specific response to anger, and higher levels reduce the differentiated brain response to aversive face emotions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Face Patch Resting State Networks Link Face Processing to Social Cognition

PubMed Central

Schwiedrzik, Caspar M.; Zarco, Wilbert; Everling, Stefan; Freiwald, Winrich A.

2015-01-01

Faces transmit a wealth of social information. How this information is exchanged between face-processing centers and brain areas supporting social cognition remains largely unclear. Here we identify these routes using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys. We find that face areas functionally connect to specific regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices, as well as subcortical structures supporting emotive, mnemonic, and cognitive functions. This establishes the existence of an extended face-recognition system in the macaque. Furthermore, the face patch resting state networks and the default mode network in monkeys show a pattern of overlap akin to that between the social brain and the default mode network in humans: this overlap specifically includes the posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial parietal, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas supporting high-level social cognition in humans. Together, these results reveal the embedding of face areas into larger brain networks and suggest that the resting state networks of the face patch system offer a new, easily accessible venue into the functional organization of the social brain and into the evolution of possibly uniquely human social skills. PMID:26348613

Functional connectivity decreases in autism in emotion, self, and face circuits identified by Knowledge-based Enrichment Analysis.

PubMed

Cheng, Wei; Rolls, Edmund T; Zhang, Jie; Sheng, Wenbo; Ma, Liang; Wan, Lin; Luo, Qiang; Feng, Jianfeng

2017-03-01

A powerful new method is described called Knowledge based functional connectivity Enrichment Analysis (KEA) for interpreting resting state functional connectivity, using circuits that are functionally identified using search terms with the Neurosynth database. The method derives its power by focusing on neural circuits, sets of brain regions that share a common biological function, instead of trying to interpret single functional connectivity links. This provides a novel way of investigating how task- or function-related networks have resting state functional connectivity differences in different psychiatric states, provides a new way to bridge the gap between task and resting-state functional networks, and potentially helps to identify brain networks that might be treated. The method was applied to interpreting functional connectivity differences in autism. Functional connectivity decreases at the network circuit level in 394 patients with autism compared with 473 controls were found in networks involving the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus cortex, and the precuneus, in networks that are implicated in the sense of self, face processing, and theory of mind. The decreases were correlated with symptom severity. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning throughout adulthood.

PubMed

Turano, Maria Teresa; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2017-11-01

The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning has been widely explored. However, how aging modulates this association regarding both objective performance and subjective-perception is still neglected. Participants, aged between 18 and 81 years, performed a face memory test and completed subjective face recognition and socioemotional questionnaires. General and social anxiety, and neuroticism traits account for the individual variation in face recognition abilities during adulthood. Aging modulates these relationships because as they age, individuals that present a higher level of these traits also show low-level face recognition ability. Intriguingly, the association between depression and face recognition abilities is evident with increasing age. Overall, the present results emphasize the importance of embedding face metacognition measurement into the context of these studies and suggest that aging is an important factor to be considered, which seems to contribute to the relationship between socioemotional and face-cognitive functioning.

Hard to “tune in”: neural mechanisms of live face-to-face interaction with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

Tanabe, Hiroki C.; Kosaka, Hirotaka; Saito, Daisuke N.; Koike, Takahiko; Hayashi, Masamichi J.; Izuma, Keise; Komeda, Hidetsugu; Ishitobi, Makoto; Omori, Masao; Munesue, Toshio; Okazawa, Hidehiko; Wada, Yuji; Sadato, Norihiro

2012-01-01

Persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to have difficulty in eye contact (EC). This may make it difficult for their partners during face to face communication with them. To elucidate the neural substrates of live inter-subject interaction of ASD patients and normal subjects, we conducted hyper-scanning functional MRI with 21 subjects with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) paired with typically-developed (normal) subjects, and with 19 pairs of normal subjects as a control. Baseline EC was maintained while subjects performed real-time joint-attention task. The task-related effects were modeled out, and inter-individual correlation analysis was performed on the residual time-course data. ASD–Normal pairs were less accurate at detecting gaze direction than Normal–Normal pairs. Performance was impaired both in ASD subjects and in their normal partners. The left occipital pole (OP) activation by gaze processing was reduced in ASD subjects, suggesting that deterioration of eye-cue detection in ASD is related to impairment of early visual processing of gaze. On the other hand, their normal partners showed greater activity in the bilateral occipital cortex and the right prefrontal area, indicating a compensatory workload. Inter-brain coherence in the right IFG that was observed in the Normal-Normal pairs (Saito et al., 2010) during EC diminished in ASD–Normal pairs. Intra-brain functional connectivity between the right IFG and right superior temporal sulcus (STS) in normal subjects paired with ASD subjects was reduced compared with in Normal–Normal pairs. This functional connectivity was positively correlated with performance of the normal partners on the eye-cue detection. Considering the integrative role of the right STS in gaze processing, inter-subject synchronization during EC may be a prerequisite for eye cue detection by the normal partner. PMID:23060772

Hormonal contraceptives suppress oxytocin-induced brain reward responses to the partner's face.

PubMed

Scheele, Dirk; Plota, Jessica; Stoffel-Wagner, Birgit; Maier, Wolfgang; Hurlemann, René

2016-05-01

The hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) has been identified as a key modulator of pair-bonding in men, but its effects in women are still elusive. Moreover, there is substantial evidence that hormonal contraception (HC) influences partner preferences and sexual satisfaction, which constitute core domains of OXT function. We thus hypothesized that OXT effects on partner-related behavioral and neural responses could be significantly altered in women using HC. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study involving 40 pair-bonded women, 21 of whom were using HC, we investigated whether a 24-IU nasal dose of OXT would modulate brain reward responses evoked by the romantic partner's face relative to the faces of familiar and unfamiliar people. Treatment with OXT increased the perceived attractiveness of the partner relative to other men, which was paralleled by elevated responses in reward-associated regions, including the nucleus accumbens. These effects of OXT were absent in women using HC. Our results confirm and extend previous findings in men that OXT interacts with the brain reward system to reinforce partner value representations, indicating a common OXT-dependent mechanism underlying partner attraction in both sexes. This mechanism may be disturbed in women using HC, suggesting that gonadal steroids could alter partner-specific OXT effects. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Perception of Dynamic and Static Facial Expressions of Happiness and Disgust Investigated by ERPs and fMRI Constrained Source Analysis

PubMed Central

Trautmann-Lengsfeld, Sina Alexa; Domínguez-Borràs, Judith; Escera, Carles; Herrmann, Manfred; Fehr, Thorsten

2013-01-01

A recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study by our group demonstrated that dynamic emotional faces are more accurately recognized and evoked more widespread patterns of hemodynamic brain responses than static emotional faces. Based on this experimental design, the present study aimed at investigating the spatio-temporal processing of static and dynamic emotional facial expressions in 19 healthy women by means of multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potentials (ERP) and fMRI-constrained regional source analyses. ERP analysis showed an increased amplitude of the LPP (late posterior positivity) over centro-parietal regions for static facial expressions of disgust compared to neutral faces. In addition, the LPP was more widespread and temporally prolonged for dynamic compared to static faces of disgust and happiness. fMRI constrained source analysis on static emotional face stimuli indicated the spatio-temporal modulation of predominantly posterior regional brain activation related to the visual processing stream for both emotional valences when compared to the neutral condition in the fusiform gyrus. The spatio-temporal processing of dynamic stimuli yielded enhanced source activity for emotional compared to neutral conditions in temporal (e.g., fusiform gyrus), and frontal regions (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex, medial and inferior frontal cortex) in early and again in later time windows. The present data support the view that dynamic facial displays trigger more information reflected in complex neural networks, in particular because of their changing features potentially triggering sustained activation related to a continuing evaluation of those faces. A combined fMRI and EEG approach thus provides an advanced insight to the spatio-temporal characteristics of emotional face processing, by also revealing additional neural generators, not identifiable by the only use of an fMRI approach. PMID:23818974

Age Differences in the Differentiation of Trait Impressions From Faces

PubMed Central

Ng, Stacey Y.; Zebrowitz, Leslie A.; Franklin, Robert G.

2016-01-01

Objectives. We investigated whether evidence that older adults (OA) show less differentiation of visual stimuli than younger adults (YA) extends to trait impressions from faces and effects of face age. We also examined whether age differences in mood, vision, or cognition-mediated differentiation differences. Finally, we investigated whether age differences in trait differentiation mediated differences in impression positivity. Method. We used a differentiation index adapted from previous work on stereotyping to assess OA and YA likelihood of assigning different faces to different levels on trait scales. We computed scores for ratings of older and younger faces’ competence, health, hostility, and untrustworthiness. Results. OA showed less differentiated trait ratings than YA. Measures of mood, vision, and cognition did not mediate these rater age differences. Hostility was differentiated more for younger than older faces, while health was differentiated more for older faces, but only by OA. Age differences in differentiation mediated age differences in impression positivity. Discussion. Less differentiation of trait impressions from faces in OA is consistent with previous evidence for less differentiation in face and emotion recognition. Results indicated that that age-related dedifferentiation does not reflect narrow changes in visual function. They also provide a novel explanation for OA positivity effects. PMID:25194140

How is this child feeling? Preschool-aged children’s ability to recognize emotion in faces and body poses

PubMed Central

Parker, Alison E.; Mathis, Erin T.; Kupersmidt, Janis B.

2016-01-01

The study examined children’s recognition of emotion from faces and body poses, as well as gender differences in these recognition abilities. Preschool-aged children (N = 55) and their parents and teachers participated in the study. Preschool-aged children completed a web-based measure of emotion recognition skills, which included five tasks (three with faces and two with bodies). Parents and teachers reported on children’s aggressive behaviors and social skills. Children’s emotion accuracy on two of the three facial tasks and one of the body tasks was related to teacher reports of social skills. Some of these relations were moderated by child gender. In particular, the relationships between emotion recognition accuracy and reports of children’s behavior were stronger for boys than girls. Identifying preschool-aged children’s strengths and weaknesses in identification of emotion from faces and body poses may be helpful in guiding interventions with children who have problems with social and behavioral functioning that may be due, in part, to emotional knowledge deficits. Further developmental implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:27057129

Neural Trade-Offs between Recognizing and Categorizing Own- and Other-Race Faces

PubMed Central

Liu, Jiangang; Wang, Zhe; Feng, Lu; Li, Jun; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2015-01-01

Behavioral research has suggested a trade-off relationship between individual recognition and race categorization of own- and other-race faces, which is an important behavioral marker of face processing expertise. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this trade-off. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology, we concurrently asked participants to recognize and categorize own- and other-race faces to examine the neural correlates of this trade-off relationship. We found that for other-race faces, the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA) responded more to recognition than categorization, whereas for own-race faces, the responses were equal for the 2 tasks. The right superior temporal sulcus (STS) responses were the opposite to those of the FFA and OFA. Further, recognition enhanced the functional connectivity from the right FFA to the right STS, whereas categorization enhanced the functional connectivity from the right OFA to the right STS. The modulatory effects of these 2 couplings were negatively correlated. Our findings suggested that within the core face processing network, although recognizing and categorizing own- and other-race faces activated the same neural substrates, there existed neural trade-offs whereby their activations and functional connectivities were modulated by face race type and task demand due to one's differential processing expertise with own- and other-race faces. PMID:24591523

Greater sensitivity of the cortical face processing system to perceptually-equated face detection

PubMed Central

Maher, S.; Ekstrom, T.; Tong, Y.; Nickerson, L.D.; Frederick, B.; Chen, Y.

2015-01-01

Face detection, the perceptual capacity to identify a visual stimulus as a face before probing deeper into specific attributes (such as its identity or emotion), is essential for social functioning. Despite the importance of this functional capacity, face detection and its underlying brain mechanisms are not well understood. This study evaluated the roles that the cortical face processing system, which is identified largely through studying other aspects of face perception, play in face detection. Specifically, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the activations of the fusifom face area (FFA), occipital face area (OFA) and superior temporal sulcus (STS) when face detection was isolated from other aspects of face perception and when face detection was perceptually-equated across individual human participants (n=20). During face detection, FFA and OFA were significantly activated, even for stimuli presented at perceptual-threshold levels, whereas STS was not. During tree detection, however, FFA and OFA were responsive only for highly salient (i.e., high contrast) stimuli. Moreover, activation of FFA during face detection predicted a significant portion of the perceptual performance levels that were determined psychophysically for each participant. This pattern of result indicates that FFA and OFA have a greater sensitivity to face detection signals and selectively support the initial process of face vs. non-face object perception. PMID:26592952

Sex-related differences in behavioral and amygdalar responses to compound facial threat cues.

PubMed

Im, Hee Yeon; Adams, Reginald B; Cushing, Cody A; Boshyan, Jasmine; Ward, Noreen; Kveraga, Kestutis

2018-03-08

During face perception, we integrate facial expression and eye gaze to take advantage of their shared signals. For example, fear with averted gaze provides a congruent avoidance cue, signaling both threat presence and its location, whereas fear with direct gaze sends an incongruent cue, leaving threat location ambiguous. It has been proposed that the processing of different combinations of threat cues is mediated by dual processing routes: reflexive processing via magnocellular (M) pathway and reflective processing via parvocellular (P) pathway. Because growing evidence has identified a variety of sex differences in emotional perception, here we also investigated how M and P processing of fear and eye gaze might be modulated by observer's sex, focusing on the amygdala, a structure important to threat perception and affective appraisal. We adjusted luminance and color of face stimuli to selectively engage M or P processing and asked observers to identify emotion of the face. Female observers showed more accurate behavioral responses to faces with averted gaze and greater left amygdala reactivity both to fearful and neutral faces. Conversely, males showed greater right amygdala activation only for M-biased averted-gaze fear faces. In addition to functional reactivity differences, females had proportionately greater bilateral amygdala volumes, which positively correlated with behavioral accuracy for M-biased fear. Conversely, in males only the right amygdala volume was positively correlated with accuracy for M-biased fear faces. Our findings suggest that M and P processing of facial threat cues is modulated by functional and structural differences in the amygdalae associated with observer's sex. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

High-resolution imaging of expertise reveals reliable object selectivity in the fusiform face area related to perceptual performance

PubMed Central

McGugin, Rankin Williams; Gatenby, J. Christopher; Gore, John C.; Gauthier, Isabel

2012-01-01

The fusiform face area (FFA) is a region of human cortex that responds selectively to faces, but whether it supports a more general function relevant for perceptual expertise is debated. Although both faces and objects of expertise engage many brain areas, the FFA remains the focus of the strongest modular claims and the clearest predictions about expertise. Functional MRI studies at standard-resolution (SR-fMRI) have found responses in the FFA for nonface objects of expertise, but high-resolution fMRI (HR-fMRI) in the FFA [Grill-Spector K, et al. (2006) Nat Neurosci 9:1177–1185] and neurophysiology in face patches in the monkey brain [Tsao DY, et al. (2006) Science 311:670–674] reveal no reliable selectivity for objects. It is thus possible that FFA responses to objects with SR-fMRI are a result of spatial blurring of responses from nonface-selective areas, potentially driven by attention to objects of expertise. Using HR-fMRI in two experiments, we provide evidence of reliable responses to cars in the FFA that correlate with behavioral car expertise. Effects of expertise in the FFA for nonface objects cannot be attributed to spatial blurring beyond the scale at which modular claims have been made, and within the lateral fusiform gyrus, they are restricted to a small area (200 mm2 on the right and 50 mm2 on the left) centered on the peak of face selectivity. Experience with a category may be sufficient to explain the spatially clustered face selectivity observed in this region. PMID:23027970

Neural activation in the "reward circuit" shows a nonlinear response to facial attractiveness.

PubMed

Liang, Xiaoyun; Zebrowitz, Leslie A; Zhang, Yi

2010-01-01

Positive behavioral responses to attractive faces have led neuroscientists to investigate underlying neural mechanisms in a "reward circuit" that includes brain regions innervated by dopamine pathways. Using male faces ranging from attractive to extremely unattractive, disfigured ones, this study is the first to demonstrate heightened responses to both rewarding and aversive faces in numerous areas of this putative reward circuit. Parametric analyses employing orthogonal linear and nonlinear regressors revealed positive nonlinear effects in anterior cingulate cortex, lateral orbital frontal cortex (LOFC), striatum (nucleus accumbens, caudate, putamen), and ventral tegmental area, in addition to replicating previously documented linear effects in medial orbital frontal cortex (MOFC) and LOFC and nonlinear effects in amygdala and MOFC. The widespread nonlinear responses are consistent with single cell recordings in animals showing responses to both rewarding and aversive stimuli, and with some human fMRI investigations of non-face stimuli. They indicate that the reward circuit does not process face valence with any simple dissociation of function across structures. Perceiver gender modulated some responses to our male faces: Women showed stronger linear effects, and men showed stronger nonlinear effects, which may have functional implications. Our discovery of nonlinear responses to attractiveness throughout the reward circuit echoes the history of amygdala research: Early work indicated a linear response to threatening stimuli, including faces; later work also revealed a nonlinear response with heightened activation to affectively salient stimuli regardless of valence. The challenge remains to determine how such dual coding influences feelings, such as pleasure and pain, and guides goal-related behavioral responses, such as approach and avoidance.

High-resolution imaging of expertise reveals reliable object selectivity in the fusiform face area related to perceptual performance.

PubMed

McGugin, Rankin Williams; Gatenby, J Christopher; Gore, John C; Gauthier, Isabel

2012-10-16

The fusiform face area (FFA) is a region of human cortex that responds selectively to faces, but whether it supports a more general function relevant for perceptual expertise is debated. Although both faces and objects of expertise engage many brain areas, the FFA remains the focus of the strongest modular claims and the clearest predictions about expertise. Functional MRI studies at standard-resolution (SR-fMRI) have found responses in the FFA for nonface objects of expertise, but high-resolution fMRI (HR-fMRI) in the FFA [Grill-Spector K, et al. (2006) Nat Neurosci 9:1177-1185] and neurophysiology in face patches in the monkey brain [Tsao DY, et al. (2006) Science 311:670-674] reveal no reliable selectivity for objects. It is thus possible that FFA responses to objects with SR-fMRI are a result of spatial blurring of responses from nonface-selective areas, potentially driven by attention to objects of expertise. Using HR-fMRI in two experiments, we provide evidence of reliable responses to cars in the FFA that correlate with behavioral car expertise. Effects of expertise in the FFA for nonface objects cannot be attributed to spatial blurring beyond the scale at which modular claims have been made, and within the lateral fusiform gyrus, they are restricted to a small area (200 mm(2) on the right and 50 mm(2) on the left) centered on the peak of face selectivity. Experience with a category may be sufficient to explain the spatially clustered face selectivity observed in this region.

White matter fiber compromise contributes differentially to attention and emotion processing impairment in alcoholism, HIV-infection, and their comorbidity.

PubMed

Schulte, T; Müller-Oehring, E M; Sullivan, E V; Pfefferbaum, A

2012-10-01

Alcoholism (ALC) and HIV-1 infection (HIV) each affects emotional and attentional processes and integrity of brain white matter fibers likely contributing to functional compromise. The highly prevalent ALC+HIV comorbidity may exacerbate compromise. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and an emotional Stroop Match-to-Sample task in 19 ALC, 16 HIV, 15 ALC+HIV, and 15 control participants to investigate whether disruption of fiber system integrity accounts for compromised attentional and emotional processing. The task required matching a cue color to that of an emotional word with faces appearing between the color cue and the Stroop word in half of the trials. Nonmatched cue-word color pairs assessed selective attention, and face-word pairs assessed emotion. Relative to controls, DTI-based fiber tracking revealed lower inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ilf) integrity in HIV and ALC+HIV and lower uncinate fasciculus (uf) integrity in all three patient groups. Controls exhibited Stroop effects to positive face-word emotion, and greater interference was related to greater callosal, cingulum and ilf integrity. By contrast, HIV showed greater interference from negative Stroop words during color-nonmatch trials, correlating with greater uf compromise. For face trials, ALC and ALC+HIV showed greater Stroop-word interference, correlating with lower cingulate and callosal integrity. Thus, in HIV, conflict resolution was diminished when challenging conditions usurped resources needed to manage interference from negative emotion and to disengage attention from wrongly cued colors (nonmatch). In ALC and ALC+HIV, poorer callosal integrity was related to enhanced emotional interference suggesting curtailed interhemispheric exchange needed between preferentially right-hemispheric emotion and left-hemispheric Stroop-word functions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Eye coding mechanisms in early human face event-related potentials.

PubMed

Rousselet, Guillaume A; Ince, Robin A A; van Rijsbergen, Nicola J; Schyns, Philippe G

2014-11-10

In humans, the N170 event-related potential (ERP) is an integrated measure of cortical activity that varies in amplitude and latency across trials. Researchers often conjecture that N170 variations reflect cortical mechanisms of stimulus coding for recognition. Here, to settle the conjecture and understand cortical information processing mechanisms, we unraveled the coding function of N170 latency and amplitude variations in possibly the simplest socially important natural visual task: face detection. On each experimental trial, 16 observers saw face and noise pictures sparsely sampled with small Gaussian apertures. Reverse-correlation methods coupled with information theory revealed that the presence of the eye specifically covaries with behavioral and neural measurements: the left eye strongly modulates reaction times and lateral electrodes represent mainly the presence of the contralateral eye during the rising part of the N170, with maximum sensitivity before the N170 peak. Furthermore, single-trial N170 latencies code more about the presence of the contralateral eye than N170 amplitudes and early latencies are associated with faster reaction times. The absence of these effects in control images that did not contain a face refutes alternative accounts based on retinal biases or allocation of attention to the eye location on the face. We conclude that the rising part of the N170, roughly 120-170 ms post-stimulus, is a critical time-window in human face processing mechanisms, reflecting predominantly, in a face detection task, the encoding of a single feature: the contralateral eye. © 2014 ARVO.

Neural Basis of Self and Other Representation in Autism: An fMRI Study of Self-Face Recognition

PubMed Central

Uddin, Lucina Q.; Davies, Mari S.; Scott, Ashley A.; Zaidel, Eran; Bookheimer, Susan Y.; Iacoboni, Marco; Dapretto, Mirella

2008-01-01

Background Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by decreased interest and engagement in social interactions and by enhanced self-focus. While previous theoretical approaches to understanding autism have emphasized social impairments and altered interpersonal interactions, there is a recent shift towards understanding the nature of the representation of the self in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Still, the neural mechanisms subserving self-representations in ASD are relatively unexplored. Methodology/Principal Findings We used event-related fMRI to investigate brain responsiveness to images of the subjects' own face and to faces of others. Children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children viewed randomly presented digital morphs between their own face and a gender-matched other face, and made “self/other” judgments. Both groups of children activated a right premotor/prefrontal system when identifying images containing a greater percentage of the self face. However, while TD children showed activation of this system during both self- and other-processing, children with ASD only recruited this system while viewing images containing mostly their own face. Conclusions/Significance This functional dissociation between the representation of self versus others points to a potential neural substrate for the characteristic self-focus and decreased social understanding exhibited by these individuals, and suggests that individuals with ASD lack the shared neural representations for self and others that TD children and adults possess and may use to understand others. PMID:18958161

Multiple mechanisms of consciousness: the neural correlates of emotional awareness.

PubMed

Amting, Jayna M; Greening, Steven G; Mitchell, Derek G V

2010-07-28

Emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, are thought to gain rapid and privileged access to processing resources in the brain. Despite this access, we are conscious of only a fraction of the myriad of emotion-related cues we face everyday. It remains unclear, therefore, what the relationship is between activity in neural regions associated with emotional representation and the phenomenological experience of emotional awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and binocular rivalry to delineate the neural correlates of awareness of conflicting emotional expressions in humans. Behaviorally, fearful faces were significantly more likely to be perceived than disgusted or neutral faces. Functionally, increased activity was observed in regions associated with facial expression processing, including the amygdala and fusiform gyrus during emotional awareness. In contrast, awareness of neutral faces and suppression of fearful faces were associated with increased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal cortices. The amygdala showed increased functional connectivity with ventral visual system regions during fear awareness and increased connectivity with perigenual prefrontal cortex (pgPFC; Brodmann's area 32/10) when fear was suppressed. Despite being prioritized for awareness, emotional items were associated with reduced activity in areas considered critical for consciousness. Contributions to consciousness from bottom-up and top-down neural regions may be additive, such that increased activity in specialized regions within the extended ventral visual system may reduce demands on a frontoparietal system important for awareness. The possibility is raised that interactions between pgPFC and the amygdala, previously implicated in extinction, may also influence whether or not an emotional stimulus is accessible to consciousness.

Functional asymmetry between the left and right human fusiform gyrus explored through electrical brain stimulation.

PubMed

Rangarajan, Vinitha; Parvizi, Josef

2016-03-01

The ventral temporal cortex (VTC) contains several areas with selective responses to words, numbers, faces, and objects as demonstrated by numerous human and primate imaging and electrophysiological studies. Our recent work using electrocorticography (ECoG) confirmed the presence of face-selective neuronal populations in the human fusiform gyrus (FG) in patients implanted with intracranial electrodes in either the left or right hemisphere. Electrical brain stimulation (EBS) disrupted the conscious perception of faces only when it was delivered in the right, but not left, FG. In contrast to our previous findings, here we report both negative and positive EBS effects in right and left FG, respectively. The presence of right hemisphere language dominance in the first, and strong left-handedness and poor language processing performance in the second case, provide indirect clues about the functional architecture of the human VTC in relation to hemispheric asymmetries in language processing and handedness. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediates visual attention during facial emotion recognition.

PubMed

Wolf, Richard C; Philippi, Carissa L; Motzkin, Julian C; Baskaya, Mustafa K; Koenigs, Michael

2014-06-01

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is known to play a crucial role in regulating human social and emotional behaviour, yet the precise mechanisms by which it subserves this broad function remain unclear. Whereas previous neuropsychological studies have largely focused on the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in higher-order deliberative processes related to valuation and decision-making, here we test whether ventromedial prefrontal cortex may also be critical for more basic aspects of orienting attention to socially and emotionally meaningful stimuli. Using eye tracking during a test of facial emotion recognition in a sample of lesion patients, we show that bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage impairs visual attention to the eye regions of faces, particularly for fearful faces. This finding demonstrates a heretofore unrecognized function of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex-the basic attentional process of controlling eye movements to faces expressing emotion. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Synchrony between sensory and cognitive networks is associated with subclinical variation in autistic traits

PubMed Central

Young, Jacob S.; Smith, David V.; Coutlee, Christopher G.; Huettel, Scott A.

2015-01-01

Individuals with autistic spectrum disorders exhibit distinct personality traits linked to attentional, social, and affective functions, and those traits are expressed with varying levels of severity in the neurotypical and subclinical population. Variation in autistic traits has been linked to reduced functional and structural connectivity (i.e., underconnectivity, or reduced synchrony) with neural networks modulated by attentional, social, and affective functions. Yet, it remains unclear whether reduced synchrony between these neural networks contributes to autistic traits. To investigate this issue, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record brain activation while neurotypical participants who varied in their subclinical scores on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) viewed alternating blocks of social and nonsocial stimuli (i.e., images of faces and of landscape scenes). We used independent component analysis (ICA) combined with a spatiotemporal regression to quantify synchrony between neural networks. Our results indicated that decreased synchrony between the executive control network (ECN) and a face-scene network (FSN) predicted higher scores on the AQ. This relationship was not explained by individual differences in head motion, preferences for faces, or personality variables related to social cognition. Our findings build on clinical reports by demonstrating that reduced synchrony between distinct neural networks contributes to a range of subclinical autistic traits. PMID:25852527

The effects of early institutionalization on emotional face processing: evidence for sparing via an experience-dependent mechanism.

PubMed

Young, Audrey; Luyster, Rhiannon J; Fox, Nathan A; Zeanah, Charles H; Nelson, Charles A

2017-09-01

Early psychosocial deprivation has profound adverse effects on children's brain and behavioural development, including abnormalities in physical growth, intellectual function, social cognition, and emotional development. Nevertheless, the domain of emotional face processing has appeared in previous research to be relatively spared; here, we test for possible sleeper effects emerging in early adolescence. This study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the neural correlates of facial emotion processing in 12-year-old children who took part in a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an intervention for early institutionalization. Results revealed no significant group differences in two face and emotion-sensitive ERP components (P1 and N170), nor any association with age at placement or per cent of lifetime spent in an institution. These results converged with previous evidence from this population supporting relative sparing of facial emotion processing. We hypothesize that this sparing is due to an experience-dependent mechanism in which the amount of exposure to faces and facial expressions of emotion children received was sufficient to meet the low threshold required for cortical specialization of structures critical to emotion processing. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Early psychosocial deprivation leads to profoundly detrimental effects on children's brain and behavioural development. With respect to children's emotional face processing abilities, few adverse effects of institutionalized rearing have previously been reported. Recent studies suggest that 'sleeper effects' may emerge many years later, especially in the domain of face processing. What does this study add? Examining a cumulative 12 years of data, we found only minimal group differences and no evidence of a sleeper effect in this particular domain. These findings identify emotional face processing as a unique ability in which relative sparing can be found. We propose an experience-dependent mechanism in which the amount of social interaction children received met the low threshold required for cortical specialization. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Automatic Processing of Emotional Faces in High-Functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorders: An Affective Priming Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamio, Yoko; Wolf, Julie; Fein, Deborah

2006-01-01

This study examined automatic processing of emotional faces in individuals with high-functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorders (HFPDD) using an affective priming paradigm. Sixteen participants (HFPDD and matched controls) were presented with happy faces, fearful faces or objects in both subliminal and supraliminal exposure conditions, followed…

A Comparison of Web-Based and Face-to-Face Functional Measurement Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Acker, Frederik; Theuns, Peter

2010-01-01

Information Integration Theory (IIT) is concerned with how people combine information into an overall judgment. A method is hereby presented to perform Functional Measurement (FM) experiments, the methodological counterpart of IIT, on the Web. In a comparison of Web-based FM experiments, face-to-face experiments, and computer-based experiments in…

The neural representation of emotionally neutral faces and places in patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia.

PubMed

Petrowski, Katja; Wintermann, Gloria; Smolka, Michael N; Huebner, Thomas; Donix, Markus

2014-01-01

Panic disorder with agoraphobia (PD-A) has been associated with abnormal neural activity for threat-related stimuli (faces, places). Recent findings suggest a disturbed neural processing of emotionally neutral stimuli at a more general level. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated the neural processing of emotionally neutral faces and places in PD-A. Fifteen patients with PD-A and fifteen healthy subjects participated in the study. When they perceived neutral faces and places, the patients with PD-A showed significantly less brain activity in the fusiform gyrus, the inferior occipital gyrus, the calcarine gyrus, the cerebellum, and the cuneus compared with the healthy controls. However, the patients with PD-A showed significantly more brain activity in the precuneus compared with controls subjects. It was not possible to distinguish the agoraphobia-associated effects from possible contributions due to general anxiety induced by fMRI. For future investigations, an additional clinical control group with patients suffering from panic disorder without agoraphobia would be of interest. In addition, the psychopathology concerning the agoraphobic symptoms needs to be investigated in more detail. The findings suggest altered neural processing of emotionally neutral faces and places in patients with PD-A. Reduced neural activity in different brain regions may indicate difficulties in recognizing the emotional content in face and place stimuli due to anxiety-related hyper-arousal. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Expertise Effects in Face-Selective Areas are Robust to Clutter and Diverted Attention, but not to Competition

PubMed Central

McGugin, Rankin Williams; Van Gulick, Ana E.; Tamber-Rosenau, Benjamin J.; Ross, David A.; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

Expertise effects for nonface objects in face-selective brain areas may reflect stable aspects of neuronal selectivity that determine how observers perceive objects. However, bottom-up (e.g., clutter from irrelevant objects) and top-down manipulations (e.g., attentional selection) can influence activity, affecting the link between category selectivity and individual performance. We test the prediction that individual differences expressed as neural expertise effects for cars in face-selective areas are sufficiently stable to survive clutter and manipulations of attention. Additionally, behavioral work and work using event related potentials suggest that expertise effects may not survive competition; we investigate this using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects varying in expertise with cars made 1-back decisions about cars, faces, and objects in displays containing one or 2 objects, with only one category attended. Univariate analyses suggest car expertise effects are robust to clutter, dampened by reducing attention to cars, but nonetheless more robust to manipulations of attention than competition. While univariate expertise effects are severely abolished by competition between cars and faces, multivariate analyses reveal new information related to car expertise. These results demonstrate that signals in face-selective areas predict expertise effects for nonface objects in a variety of conditions, although individual differences may be expressed in different dependent measures depending on task and instructions. PMID:24682187

Values in First-Episode Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Agid, Ofer; Mcdonald, Krysta; Fervaha, Gagan; Littrell, Romie; Thoma, Jessica; Zipursky, Robert B; Foussias, George; Remington, Gary

2015-11-01

Functional impairment continues to represent a major challenge in schizophrenia. Surprisingly, patients with schizophrenia report a level of happiness comparable with control subjects, even in the face of the prominent functional deficits, a finding at odds with evidence indicating a positive relation between happiness and level of functioning. In attempting to reconcile these findings, we chose to examine the issue of values, defined as affectively infused criteria or motivational goals used to select and justify actions, people, and the self, as values are related to both happiness and functioning. Fifty-six first-episode patients in remission and 56 healthy control subjects completed happiness and values measures. Statistical analyses included correlations, analysis of variance, structural equation modelling, and smallest space analysis. Results indicated that patients with schizophrenia placed significantly greater priority on the value dimensions of Tradition (P = 0.02) and Power (P = 0.03), and significantly less priority on Self-direction (P = 0.007) and Stimulation, (P = 0.008). Essentially, people with schizophrenia place more emphasis on the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide in conjunction with a decreased interest in change, which is at odds with the expectations of early adulthood. This value difference could be related to functional deficits. To this point, we have assumed that people hold to the same values that guided them before the illness' onset, but this may not be the case. Our study indicates that values differ in people with schizophrenia, compared with control subjects, even early in the illness and in the face of symptomatic remission.

Efficacy of identifying neural components in the face and emotion processing system in schizophrenia using a dynamic functional localizer.

PubMed

Arnold, Aiden E G F; Iaria, Giuseppe; Goghari, Vina M

2016-02-28

Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in face perception and emotion recognition. Despite consistent behavioural results, the neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive abilities have been difficult to isolate, in part due to differences in neuroimaging methods used between studies for identifying regions in the face processing system. Given this problem, we aimed to validate a recently developed fMRI-based dynamic functional localizer task for use in studies of psychiatric populations and specifically schizophrenia. Previously, this functional localizer successfully identified each of the core face processing regions (i.e. fusiform face area, occipital face area, superior temporal sulcus), and regions within an extended system (e.g. amygdala) in healthy individuals. In this study, we tested the functional localizer success rate in 27 schizophrenia patients and in 24 community controls. Overall, the core face processing regions were localized equally between both the schizophrenia and control group. Additionally, the amygdala, a candidate brain region from the extended system, was identified in nearly half the participants from both groups. These results indicate the effectiveness of a dynamic functional localizer at identifying regions of interest associated with face perception and emotion recognition in schizophrenia. The use of dynamic functional localizers may help standardize the investigation of the facial and emotion processing system in this and other clinical populations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

People-selectivity, audiovisual integration and heteromodality in the superior temporal sulcus.

PubMed

Watson, Rebecca; Latinus, Marianne; Charest, Ian; Crabbe, Frances; Belin, Pascal

2014-01-01

The functional role of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) has been implicated in a number of studies, including those investigating face perception, voice perception, and face-voice integration. However, the nature of the STS preference for these 'social stimuli' remains unclear, as does the location within the STS for specific types of information processing. The aim of this study was to directly examine properties of the STS in terms of selective response to social stimuli. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan participants whilst they were presented with auditory, visual, or audiovisual stimuli of people or objects, with the intention of localising areas preferring both faces and voices (i.e., 'people-selective' regions) and audiovisual regions designed to specifically integrate person-related information. Results highlighted a 'people-selective, heteromodal' region in the trunk of the right STS which was activated by both faces and voices, and a restricted portion of the right posterior STS (pSTS) with an integrative preference for information from people, as compared to objects. These results point towards the dedicated role of the STS as a 'social-information processing' centre. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of 5-HTTLPR transporter genotype on amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex connectivity in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Velasquez, Francisco; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Mattson, Whitney I; Martin, Donna M; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S

2017-04-01

Social deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are linked to amygdala functioning and functional connection between the amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sACC) is involved in the modulation of amygdala activity. Impairments in behavioral symptoms and amygdala activation and connectivity with the sACC seem to vary by serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) variant genotype in diverse populations. The current preliminary investigation examines whether amygdala-sACC connectivity differs by 5-HTTLPR genotype and relates to social functioning in ASD. A sample of 108 children and adolescents (44 ASD) completed an fMRI face-processing task. Youth with ASD and low expressing 5-HTTLPR genotypes showed significantly greater connectivity than youth with ASD and higher expressing genotypes as well as typically developing (TD) individuals with both low and higher expressing genotypes, in the comparison of happy vs. baseline faces and happy vs. neutral faces. Moreover, individuals with ASD and higher expressing genotypes exhibit a negative relationship between amygdala-sACC connectivity and social dysfunction. Altered amygdala-sACC coupling based on 5-HTTLPR genotype may help explain some of the heterogeneity in neural and social function observed in ASD. This is the first ASD study to combine genetic polymorphism analyses and functional connectivity in the context of a social task. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Characterization of a conformationally sensitive murine monoclonal antibody directed to the metal ion-dependent adhesion site face of integrin CD11b.

PubMed

Li, Rui; Haruta, Ikuko; Rieu, Philippe; Sugimori, Takashi; Xiong, Jian-Ping; Arnaout, M Amin

2002-02-01

Integrin binding to physiologic ligands requires divalent cations and an inside-out-driven switch of the integrin to a high-affinity state. Divalent cations at the metal ion-dependent adhesion site (MIDAS) face of the alpha subunit-derived A domain provide a direct bridge between ligands and the integrin, and it has been proposed that activation dependency is caused by reorientation of the surrounding residues relative to the metal ion, forming an optimal binding interface. To gain more insight into the functional significance of the protein movements on the MIDAS face, we raised and characterized a murine mAb 107 directed against the MIDAS face of the A domain from integrin CD11b. We find that mAb 107 behaves as a ligand mimic. It binds in a divalent-cation-dependent manner to solvent-exposed residues on the MIDAS face of CD11b, blocks interaction of 11bA or the holoreceptor with ligands, and inhibits spreading and phagocytosis by human neutrophils. However, in contrast to physiologic ligands, mAb 107 preferentially binds to the inactive low-affinity form of the integrin, suggesting that its antagonistic effects are exerted in part by stabilizing the receptor in the low-affinity state. These data support a functional relevance of the protein movements on the MIDAS face and suggest that stabilizing the A domain in the low-affinity state may have therapeutic benefit.

What's behind a face: person context coding in fusiform face area as revealed by multivoxel pattern analysis.

PubMed

van den Hurk, J; Gentile, F; Jansma, B M

2011-12-01

The identification of a face comprises processing of both visual features and conceptual knowledge. Studies showing that the fusiform face area (FFA) is sensitive to face identity generally neglect this dissociation. The present study is the first that isolates conceptual face processing by using words presented in a person context instead of faces. The design consisted of 2 different conditions. In one condition, participants were presented with blocks of words related to each other at the categorical level (e.g., brands of cars, European cities). The second condition consisted of blocks of words linked to the personality features of a specific face. Both conditions were created from the same 8 × 8 word matrix, thereby controlling for visual input across conditions. Univariate statistical contrasts did not yield any significant differences between the 2 conditions in FFA. However, a machine learning classification algorithm was able to successfully learn the functional relationship between the 2 contexts and their underlying response patterns in FFA, suggesting that these activation patterns can code for different semantic contexts. These results suggest that the level of processing in FFA goes beyond facial features. This has strong implications for the debate about the role of FFA in face identification.

Social and emotional relevance in face processing: happy faces of future interaction partners enhance the late positive potential

PubMed Central

Bublatzky, Florian; Gerdes, Antje B. M.; White, Andrew J.; Riemer, Martin; Alpers, Georg W.

2014-01-01

Human face perception is modulated by both emotional valence and social relevance, but their interaction has rarely been examined. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) to happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions with different degrees of social relevance were recorded. To implement a social anticipation task, relevance was manipulated by presenting faces of two specific actors as future interaction partners (socially relevant), whereas two other face actors remained non-relevant. In a further control task all stimuli were presented without specific relevance instructions (passive viewing). Face stimuli of four actors (2 women, from the KDEF) were randomly presented for 1s to 26 participants (16 female). Results showed an augmented N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and late positive potential (LPP) for emotional in contrast to neutral facial expressions. Of particular interest, face processing varied as a function of experimental tasks. Whereas task effects were observed for P1 and EPN regardless of instructed relevance, LPP amplitudes were modulated by emotional facial expression and relevance manipulation. The LPP was specifically enhanced for happy facial expressions of the anticipated future interaction partners. This underscores that social relevance can impact face processing already at an early stage of visual processing. These findings are discussed within the framework of motivated attention and face processing theories. PMID:25076881

Forming a negative impression of another person correlates with activation in medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala.

PubMed

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Harada, Tokiko; Sadato, Norihiro

2011-09-01

Neural correlates involved in the formation of negative impression from face were investigated using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a partial conditioning paradigm. Eighteen normal volunteers underwent imaging while they viewed the faces of two unfamiliar individuals: one individual's face was partially accompanied by negative emotion but the other's was not. After the volunteers learned the relationship between the faces and the emotion, they formed a more negative impression of the person's face when the emotion was presented. Subtraction analysis of the individuals' neutral faces revealed activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus, but this activity did not correlate with the change of impression from face. On the other hand, the response in the left amygdala negatively correlated with the change of impression from face in the first run. Time modulation analysis revealed that activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex associated with negative emotion was the largest in the initial part of the acquisition. These results suggest that a negative impression from face may be formed by orchestrated activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala, and that the activity has a prominent role in the initial acquisition of negative emotion.

Training-induced recovery of low-level vision followed by mid-level perceptual improvements in developmental object and face agnosia

PubMed Central

Lev, Maria; Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon; Gotthilf-Nezri, Dana; Yehezkel, Oren; Brooks, Joseph L; Perry, Anat; Bentin, Shlomo; Bonneh, Yoram; Polat, Uri

2015-01-01

Long-term deprivation of normal visual inputs can cause perceptual impairments at various levels of visual function, from basic visual acuity deficits, through mid-level deficits such as contour integration and motion coherence, to high-level face and object agnosia. Yet it is unclear whether training during adulthood, at a post-developmental stage of the adult visual system, can overcome such developmental impairments. Here, we visually trained LG, a developmental object and face agnosic individual. Prior to training, at the age of 20, LG's basic and mid-level visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding effects, and contour integration were underdeveloped relative to normal adult vision, corresponding to or poorer than those of 5–6 year olds (Gilaie-Dotan, Perry, Bonneh, Malach & Bentin, 2009). Intensive visual training, based on lateral interactions, was applied for a period of 9 months. LG's directly trained but also untrained visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding, binocular stereopsis and also mid-level contour integration improved significantly and reached near-age-level performance, with long-term (over 4 years) persistence. Moreover, mid-level functions that were tested post-training were found to be normal in LG. Some possible subtle improvement was observed in LG's higher-order visual functions such as object recognition and part integration, while LG's face perception skills have not improved thus far. These results suggest that corrective training at a post-developmental stage, even in the adult visual system, can prove effective, and its enduring effects are the basis for a revival of a developmental cascade that can lead to reduced perceptual impairments. PMID:24698161

Training-induced recovery of low-level vision followed by mid-level perceptual improvements in developmental object and face agnosia.

PubMed

Lev, Maria; Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon; Gotthilf-Nezri, Dana; Yehezkel, Oren; Brooks, Joseph L; Perry, Anat; Bentin, Shlomo; Bonneh, Yoram; Polat, Uri

2015-01-01

Long-term deprivation of normal visual inputs can cause perceptual impairments at various levels of visual function, from basic visual acuity deficits, through mid-level deficits such as contour integration and motion coherence, to high-level face and object agnosia. Yet it is unclear whether training during adulthood, at a post-developmental stage of the adult visual system, can overcome such developmental impairments. Here, we visually trained LG, a developmental object and face agnosic individual. Prior to training, at the age of 20, LG's basic and mid-level visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding effects, and contour integration were underdeveloped relative to normal adult vision, corresponding to or poorer than those of 5-6 year olds (Gilaie-Dotan, Perry, Bonneh, Malach & Bentin, 2009). Intensive visual training, based on lateral interactions, was applied for a period of 9 months. LG's directly trained but also untrained visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding, binocular stereopsis and also mid-level contour integration improved significantly and reached near-age-level performance, with long-term (over 4 years) persistence. Moreover, mid-level functions that were tested post-training were found to be normal in LG. Some possible subtle improvement was observed in LG's higher-order visual functions such as object recognition and part integration, while LG's face perception skills have not improved thus far. These results suggest that corrective training at a post-developmental stage, even in the adult visual system, can prove effective, and its enduring effects are the basis for a revival of a developmental cascade that can lead to reduced perceptual impairments. © 2014 The Authors. Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Memory reactivation during rest supports upcoming learning of related content.

PubMed

Schlichting, Margaret L; Preston, Alison R

2014-11-04

Although a number of studies have highlighted the importance of offline processes for memory, how these mechanisms influence future learning remains unknown. Participants with established memories for a set of initial face-object associations were scanned during passive rest and during encoding of new related and unrelated pairs of objects. Spontaneous reactivation of established memories and enhanced hippocampal-neocortical functional connectivity during rest was related to better subsequent learning, specifically of related content. Moreover, the degree of functional coupling during rest was predictive of neural engagement during the new learning experience itself. These results suggest that through rest-phase reactivation and hippocampal-neocortical interactions, existing memories may come to facilitate encoding during subsequent related episodes.

The Greek family system when a child has diabetes mellitus type 1.

PubMed

Tsamparli, A; Kounenou, K

2004-12-01

To depict the characteristic ways that families who have a child suffering from diabetes and face difficulties with metabolic control function. In addition, to reveal the ways that this functioning is related to metabolic control problems. Qualitative methods were used, including an in-depth interview and observation of 30 Greek families having one child suffering from diabetes mellitus type 1 and facing difficulties with metabolic control. An average of 10 meetings were conducted with each family, including separate meetings with each individual family member, the parental couple and the family as a whole. Methods were based on thematic categories provided by the model of the "psychosomatic family". The presence of the disease and the requirements of the treatment regimen seemed to be associated with certain family characteristics: enmeshed relationships, ambiguous roles and rules, break down of hierarchy, coalition between mother and patient, absence of father's involvement and "infantilization" of the suffering child. Also in such families, healthy siblings are assigned parental roles and, finally, the families present signs of social exclusion. The study provides important findings concerning the psychological characteristics of the families under study. The present ways of functioning are associated with the difficulties families face when coping with the treatment regimen.

The other face of the other-race effect: An fMRI investigation of the other-race face categorization advantage

PubMed Central

Feng, Lu; Liu, Jiangang; Wang, Zhe; Li, Jun; Li, Ling; Ge, Liezhong; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2011-01-01

The present study was the first to use the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology to investigate the neural correlates of race categorization of own- and other-race faces. We found that Chinese participants categorized the race of Caucasian faces more accurately and faster than that of Chinese faces, replicating the robust effect of the other-race categorization advantage. Regions of interest (ROI) analyses revealed greater neural activations when participants were categorizing own-race faces than other-race faces in the bilateral ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOT) such as the fusiform face areas (FFA) and the occipital face areas (OFA). Within the left FFA, there was also a significant negative correlation between the behavioral difference of own- and other-race face categorization accuracy and the activation difference between categorizing own- and other-race faces. Whole brain analyses showed that categorizing own-race faces induced greater activations in the right medial frontal cortex (MFC) and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than categorizing other-race faces. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses revealed that the frontal cortical regions interacted more strongly with the posterior VOT during the categorization of own-race faces than that of other-race faces. Overall, our findings suggest that relative to the categorization of other-race faces, more cortical resources are engaged during the categorization of own-race faces with which we have a higher level of processing expertise. This increased involvement of cortical neural sources perhaps serves to provide more in-depth processing of own-race faces (such as individuation), which in turn paradoxically results in the behavioral other-race categorization advantage. PMID:21971308

Gender differences in brain networks supporting empathy.

PubMed

Schulte-Rüther, Martin; Markowitsch, Hans J; Shah, N Jon; Fink, Gereon R; Piefke, Martina

2008-08-01

Females frequently score higher on standard tests of empathy, social sensitivity, and emotion recognition than do males. It remains to be clarified, however, whether these gender differences are associated with gender specific neural mechanisms of emotional social cognition. We investigated gender differences in an emotion attribution task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects either focused on their own emotional response to emotion expressing faces (SELF-task) or evaluated the emotional state expressed by the faces (OTHER-task). Behaviorally, females rated SELF-related emotions significantly stronger than males. Across the sexes, SELF- and OTHER-related processing of facial expressions activated a network of medial and lateral prefrontal, temporal, and parietal brain regions involved in emotional perspective taking. During SELF-related processing, females recruited the right inferior frontal cortex and superior temporal sulcus stronger than males. In contrast, there was increased neural activity in the left temporoparietal junction in males (relative to females). When performing the OTHER-task, females showed increased activation of the right inferior frontal cortex while there were no differential activations in males. The data suggest that females recruit areas containing mirror neurons to a higher degree than males during both SELF- and OTHER-related processing in empathic face-to-face interactions. This may underlie facilitated emotional "contagion" in females. Together with the observation that males differentially rely on the left temporoparietal junction (an area mediating the distinction between the SELF and OTHERS) the data suggest that females and males rely on different strategies when assessing their own emotions in response to other people.

Functional organization of the face-sensitive areas in human occipital-temporal cortex.

PubMed

Shao, Hanyu; Weng, Xuchu; He, Sheng

2017-08-15

Human occipital-temporal cortex features several areas sensitive to faces, presumably forming the biological substrate for face perception. To date, there are piecemeal insights regarding the functional organization of these regions. They have come, however, from studies that are far from homogeneous with regard to the regions involved, the experimental design, and the data analysis approach. In order to provide an overall view of the functional organization of the face-sensitive areas, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive study that taps into the pivotal functional properties of all the face-sensitive areas, within the context of the same experimental design, and uses multiple data analysis approaches. In this study, we identified the most robustly activated face-sensitive areas in bilateral occipital-temporal cortices (i.e., AFP, aFFA, pFFA, OFA, pcSTS, pSTS) and systemically compared their regionally averaged activation and multivoxel activation patterns to 96 images from 16 object categories, including faces and non-faces. This condition-rich and single-image analysis approach critically samples the functional properties of a brain region, allowing us to test how two basic functional properties, namely face-category selectivity and face-exemplar sensitivity are distributed among these regions. Moreover, by examining the correlational structure of neural responses to the 96 images, we characterize their interactions in the greater face-processing network. We found that (1) r-pFFA showed the highest face-category selectivity, followed by l-pFFA, bilateral aFFA and OFA, and then bilateral pcSTS. In contrast, bilateral AFP and pSTS showed low face-category selectivity; (2) l-aFFA, l-pcSTS and bilateral AFP showed evidence of face-exemplar sensitivity; (3) r-OFA showed high overall response similarities with bilateral LOC and r-pFFA, suggesting it might be a transitional stage between general and face-selective information processing; (4) r-aFFA showed high face-selective response similarity with r-pFFA and r-OFA, indicating it was specifically involved in processing face information. Results also reveal two properties of these face sensitive regions across the two hemispheres: (1) the averaged left intra-hemispheric response similarity for the images was lower than the averaged right intra-hemispheric and the inter-hemispheric response similarity, implying convergence of face processing towards the right hemisphere, and (2) the response similarities between homologous regions in the two hemispheres decreased as information processing proceeded from the early, more posterior, processing stage (OFA), indicating an increasing degree of hemispheric specialization and right hemisphere bias for face information processing. This study contributes to an emerging picture of how faces are processed within the occipital and temporal cortex. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Men appear more lateralized when noticing emotion in male faces.

PubMed

Rahman, Qazi; Anchassi, Tarek

2012-02-01

Empirical tests of the "right hemisphere dominance" versus "valence" theories of emotion processing are confounded by known sex differences in lateralization. Moreover, information about the sex of the person posing an emotion might be processed differently by men and women because of an adaptive male bias to notice expressions of threat and vigilance in other male faces. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sex of poser and emotion displayed influenced lateralization in men and women by analyzing "laterality quotient" scores on a test which depicts vertically split chimeric faces, formed with one half showing a neutral expression and the other half showing an emotional expression. We found that men (N = 50) were significantly more lateralized for emotions indicative of vigilance and threat (happy, sad, angry, and surprised) in male faces relative to female faces and compared to women (N = 44). These data indicate that sex differences in functional cerebral lateralization for facial emotion may be specific to the emotion presented and the sex of face presenting it. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Brain systems for assessing the affective value of faces

PubMed Central

Said, Christopher P.; Haxby, James V.; Todorov, Alexander

2011-01-01

Cognitive neuroscience research on facial expression recognition and face evaluation has proliferated over the past 15 years. Nevertheless, large questions remain unanswered. In this overview, we discuss the current understanding in the field, and describe what is known and what remains unknown. In §2, we describe three types of behavioural evidence that the perception of traits in neutral faces is related to the perception of facial expressions, and may rely on the same mechanisms. In §3, we discuss cortical systems for the perception of facial expressions, and argue for a partial segregation of function in the superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform gyrus. In §4, we describe the current understanding of how the brain responds to emotionally neutral faces. To resolve some of the inconsistencies in the literature, we perform a large group analysis across three different studies, and argue that one parsimonious explanation of prior findings is that faces are coded in terms of their typicality. In §5, we discuss how these two lines of research—perception of emotional expressions and face evaluation—could be integrated into a common, cognitive neuroscience framework. PMID:21536552

Re-introducing environmental change drivers in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research

PubMed Central

De Laender, Frederik; Rohr, Jason R.; Ashauer, Roman; Baird, Donald J.; Berger, Uta; Eisenhauer, Nico; Grimm, Volker; Hommen, Udo; Maltby, Lorraine; Meliàn, Carlos J.; Pomati, Francesco; Roessink, Ivo; Radchuk, Viktoriia; Van den Brink, Paul J.

2016-01-01

For the past 20 years, research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B-EF) has only implicitly considered the underlying role of environmental change. We illustrate that explicitly re-introducing environmental change drivers in B-EF research is needed to predict the functioning of ecosystems facing changes in biodiversity. Next, we show how this reintroduction improves experimental control over community composition and structure, which helps to obtain mechanistic insight about how multiple aspects of biodiversity relate to function, and how biodiversity and function relate in food-webs. We also highlight challenges for the proposed re-introduction, and suggest analyses and experiments to better understand how random biodiversity changes, as studied by classic approaches in B-EF research, contribute to the shifts in function that follow environmental change. PMID:27742415

Unconscious processing of facial affect in children and adolescents.

PubMed

Killgore, William D S; Yurgelun-Todd, Deborah A

2007-01-01

In a previous study, with adults, we demonstrated that the amygdala and anterior cingulate gyrus are differentially responsive to happy and sad faces presented subliminally. Because the ability to perceive subtle facial signals communicating sadness is an important aspect of prosocial development, and is critical for empathic behavior, we examined this phenomenon from a developmental perspective using a backward masking paradigm. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 10 healthy adolescent children were presented with a series of happy and sad facial expressions, each lasting 20 ms and masked immediately by a neutral face to prevent conscious awareness of the affective expression. Relative to fixation baseline, masked sad faces activated the right amygdala, whereas masked happy faces failed to activate any of the regions of interest. Direct comparison between masked happy and sad faces revealed valence specific differences in the anterior cingulate gyrus. When the data were compared statistically to our previous sample of adults, the adolescent group showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala relative to the adults during the masked sad condition. Groups also differed in several non-hypothesized regions. Development of unconscious perception from adolescence into adulthood appears to be accompanied by reduced activity within limbic affect processing systems, and perhaps increased involvement of other cortical and cerebellar systems.

I Like People Who Drink Like Me: Perceived Appeal as a Function of Drinking Status

PubMed Central

Young, Chelsie M.; DiBello, Angelo M.; Steers, Mai-Ly N.; Quist, Michelle C.; Foster, Dawn W.; Bryan, Jennifer L.; Neighbors, Clayton

2015-01-01

Introduction Individuals rate opposite sex faces as more attractive after consuming or being primed with alcohol. However, other traits such as intelligence and likeability have not been examined and might vary as a function of information about one's drinking habits. We expected social drinkers to be rated more positively than heavy drinkers, abstainers, or recovering alcoholics. We further hypothesized that faces with similar drinking habits to participants would be rated as more appealing. Methods Five hundred ninety-four undergraduates viewed 25 opposite sex faces randomly paired with drinking information, and rated each face on perceived appeal. Results Hierarchical linear models revealed that social drinkers were rated as most appealing, as expected. Unexpectedly, recovering alcoholics were rated as the next most appealing, followed by abstainers, then heavy drinkers. The interaction between drinker type and participants’ own drinking predicting ratings indicated that the heavier the participant drinks, the more favorably they rated heavy drinkers compared to other types of drinkers. Thus, as expected, ratings varied as a function of participants’ own drinking; however, ratings did not vary as a function of participants’ alcohol-related problems. Conclusions Findings support hypotheses in that social drinkers were generally perceived as appealing compared to other drinker types, and ratings tended to be influenced by participants’ own drinking. Individuals’ prototypes and norms regarding drinking may influence how they perceive others when others’ drinking habits are known. This might be especially important to consider with heavy drinkers who may seek out others who drink similarly, which could reinforce problematic drinking. PMID:26477014

I like people who drink like me: Perceived appeal as a function of drinking status.

PubMed

Young, Chelsie M; DiBello, Angelo M; Steers, Mai-Ly N; Quist, Michelle C; Foster, Dawn W; Bryan, Jennifer L; Neighbors, Clayton

2016-02-01

Individuals rate opposite sex faces as more attractive after consuming or being primed with alcohol. However, other traits such as intelligence and likeability have not been examined and might vary as a function of information about one's drinking habits. We expected social drinkers to be rated more positively than heavy drinkers, abstainers, or recovering alcoholics. We further hypothesized that faces with similar drinking habits to participants would be rated as more appealing. Five hundred ninety-four undergraduates viewed 25 opposite sex faces randomly paired with drinking information, and rated each face on perceived appeal. Hierarchical linear models revealed that social drinkers were rated as most appealing, as expected. Unexpectedly, recovering alcoholics were rated as the next most appealing, followed by abstainers, then heavy drinkers. The interaction between drinker type and participants' own drinking predicting ratings indicated that the heavier the participant drinks, the more favorably they rated heavy drinkers compared to other types of drinkers. Thus, as expected, ratings varied as a function of participants' own drinking; however, ratings did not vary as a function of participants' alcohol-related problems. Findings support hypotheses in that social drinkers were generally perceived as appealing compared to other drinker types, and ratings tended to be influenced by participants' own drinking. Individuals' prototypes and norms regarding drinking may influence how they perceive others when others' drinking habits are known. This might be especially important to consider with heavy drinkers who may seek out others who drink similarly, which could reinforce problematic drinking. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Neural activity to intense positive versus negative stimuli can help differentiate bipolar disorder from unipolar major depressive disorder in depressed adolescents: a pilot fMRI study.

PubMed

Diler, Rasim Somer; de Almeida, Jorge Renner Cardoso; Ladouceur, Cecile; Birmaher, Boris; Axelson, David; Phillips, Mary

2013-12-30

Failure to distinguish bipolar depression (BDd) from the unipolar depression of major depressive disorder (UDd) in adolescents has significant clinical consequences. We aimed to identify differential patterns of functional neural activity in BDd versus UDd and employed two (fearful and happy) facial expression/ gender labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to study emotion processing in 10 BDd (8 females, mean age=15.1 ± 1.1) compared to age- and gender-matched 10 UDd and 10 healthy control (HC) adolescents who were age- and gender-matched to the BDd group. BDd adolescents, relative to UDd, showed significantly lower activity to both intense happy (e.g., insula and temporal cortex) and intense fearful faces (e.g., frontal precentral cortex). Although the neural regions recruited in each group were not the same, both BDd and UDd adolescents, relative to HC, showed significantly lower neural activity to intense happy and mild happy faces, but elevated neural activity to mild fearful faces. Our results indicated that patterns of neural activity to intense positive and negative emotional stimuli can help differentiate BDd from UDd in adolescents. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A single administration of cortisol acutely reduces preconscious attention for fear in anxious young men.

PubMed

Putman, Peter; Hermans, Erno J; Koppeschaar, Hans; van Schijndel, Alexandra; van Honk, Jack

2007-08-01

Chronically elevated HPA activity has often been associated with fear and anxiety, but there is evidence that single administrations of glucocorticoids may acutely reduce fear. Moreover, peri-traumatic cortisol elevation may protect against development of post-traumatic stress disorder. Hypervigilant processing of threat information plays a role in anxiety disorders and although relations with HPA functioning have been established, causality of these relations remains unclear. Presently, self-reported anxiety and response time patterns on a masked emotional Stroop task with fearful faces were measured in 20 healthy young men after double-blind, placebo-controlled oral administration of 40 mg cortisol. The masked fearful Stroop task measures vocal colornaming response latencies for pictures of neutral and fearful faces presented below the threshold for conscious perception. Results showed increased response times on trials for fearful compared to neutral faces after placebo, but this emotional Stroop effect was acutely abolished by cortisol administration. This effect was most pronounced in subjects with heightened anxiety levels. This is the first evidence showing that exogenous cortisol acutely reduces anxiety-driven selective attention to threat. These results extend earlier findings of acute fear reduction after glucocorticoid administration. This suggests interactions of HPA functioning and vigilant attention in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Possible neuroendocrine mechanisms of action are discussed.

Influence of social support on cognitive function in the elderly.

PubMed

Yeh, Shu-Chuan Jennifer; Liu, Yea-Ying

2003-05-30

Social support is important in daily activities of the elderly. This study tests the hypothesis that there is an association between social support and cognitive function among the elderly in a community setting. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in a cross-sectional stratified random sample of 4,993 elderly (> or =65 years) city residents. Using multiple regression analysis, we investigated the influence of social support on cognitive function. 12% were over 80 years old. 53.28% were men. 67.14% were married. Higher Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) scores (higher score means better cognitive function) were associated with strong social support, as measured by marital status and perceived positive support from friends. Lower cognitive function was associated with older and with female respondents. Only instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) were statistically and negatively related to SPMSQ. Lower functional status was associated with lower cognitive function. Elders with grade school educations had lower SPMSQ scores than did elders with high school educations. In Taiwan, higher cognitive function in community-living elderly was associated with increased social support. Life-style management should provide social activities for the elderly to promote a better quality of life.

Characteristics of random inlet pressure fluctuations during flights of F-111A airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Costakis, W. G.

1977-01-01

Compressor face dynamic total pressures from four F-111 flights were analyzed. Statistics of the nonstationary data were investigated by analyzing the data in a quasi-stationary manner. Changes in the character of the dynamic signal are investigated as functions of flight conditions, time in flight, and location at the compressor face. The results, which are presented in the form of rms values, histograms, and power spectrum plots, show that the shape of the power spectra remains relatively flat while the histograms have an approximate normal distribution.

The challenge of localizing the anterior temporal face area: a possible solution.

PubMed

Axelrod, Vadim; Yovel, Galit

2013-11-01

Humans recognize faces exceptionally well. However, the neural correlates of face recognition are still elusive. Accumulated evidence in recent years suggests that the anterior temporal lobe (ATL), in particular face-selective region in the ATL, is a probable locus of face recognition. Unfortunately, functional MRI (fMRI) studies encounter severe signal drop-out in the ventral ATL, where that ATL face area resides. Consequently, all previous studies localized this region in no more than half of the subjects and its volume was relatively small. Thus, a systematic exploration of the properties of the ATL face area is scarce. In the current high-resolution fMRI study we used coronal slice orientation, which permitted us to localize the ATL face area in all the subjects. Furthermore, the volume of the area was much larger than was reported in previous studies. Direct within subjects comparison with data collected with the commonly used axial slice orientation confirmed that the advantage of the coronal slice orientation in revealing a reliable and larger face-selective area in the ATL. Finally, by displaying the face-selective activations resultant from coronal and axial scanning together, we demonstrate an organization principle of a chain of face-selective regions along the posterior-anterior axis in the ventral temporal lobe that is highly reproducible across all subjects. By using the procedure proposed here, a significant progress can be made in studying the neural correlates of face recognition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Role for the Motor System in Binding Abstract Emotional Meaning

PubMed Central

Carota, Francesca; Hauk, Olaf; Mohr, Bettina; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2012-01-01

Sensorimotor areas activate to action- and object-related words, but their role in abstract meaning processing is still debated. Abstract emotion words denoting body internal states are a critical test case because they lack referential links to objects. If actions expressing emotion are crucial for learning correspondences between word forms and emotions, emotion word–evoked activity should emerge in motor brain systems controlling the face and arms, which typically express emotions. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 18 native speakers and used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activation evoked by abstract emotion words to that by face- and arm-related action words. In addition to limbic regions, emotion words indeed sparked precentral cortex, including body-part–specific areas activated somatotopically by face words or arm words. Control items, including hash mark strings and animal words, failed to activate precentral areas. We conclude that, similar to their role in action word processing, activation of frontocentral motor systems in the dorsal stream reflects the semantic binding of sign and meaning of abstract words denoting emotions and possibly other body internal states. PMID:21914634

Image preprocessing study on KPCA-based face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xuan; Li, Dehua

2015-12-01

Face recognition as an important biometric identification method, with its friendly, natural, convenient advantages, has obtained more and more attention. This paper intends to research a face recognition system including face detection, feature extraction and face recognition, mainly through researching on related theory and the key technology of various preprocessing methods in face detection process, using KPCA method, focuses on the different recognition results in different preprocessing methods. In this paper, we choose YCbCr color space for skin segmentation and choose integral projection for face location. We use erosion and dilation of the opening and closing operation and illumination compensation method to preprocess face images, and then use the face recognition method based on kernel principal component analysis method for analysis and research, and the experiments were carried out using the typical face database. The algorithms experiment on MATLAB platform. Experimental results show that integration of the kernel method based on PCA algorithm under certain conditions make the extracted features represent the original image information better for using nonlinear feature extraction method, which can obtain higher recognition rate. In the image preprocessing stage, we found that images under various operations may appear different results, so as to obtain different recognition rate in recognition stage. At the same time, in the process of the kernel principal component analysis, the value of the power of the polynomial function can affect the recognition result.

Face it: collecting mental health and disaster related data using Facebook vs. personal interview: the case of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

PubMed

Ben-Ezra, Menachem; Palgi, Yuval; Aviel, Or; Dubiner, Yonit; Evelyn Baruch; Soffer, Yechiel; Shrira, Amit

2013-06-30

Collecting mental health data during disaster is a difficult task. The aim of this study was to compare reported sensitive information regarding the disaster and general questions on physical or psychological functioning between social network (Facebook) interview and face-to-face interview after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Data were collected from a battery of self-reported questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered to 133 face-to-face participants and to 40 Facebook interviewees, during March-April 2011. The face-to-face interview group showed a significantly higher level of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and elevated risk for clinical level of PTSD and reported more worries about another disaster, lower life satisfaction, less perceived social support and lower self-rated health than the Facebook group. Our data may suggest that the reliability of internet surveys is jeopardized during extreme conditions such as large-scale disasters as it tends to underestimate the reactions to such events. This indicates the discrepancy from data collected in situ to data collected using social networks. The implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alexithymia and the labeling of facial emotions: response slowing and increased motor and somatosensory processing

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Alexithymia is a personality trait that is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings. Previous studies have shown that alexithymia is related to problems in recognizing others’ emotional facial expressions when these are presented with temporal constraints. These problems can be less severe when the expressions are visible for a relatively long time. Because the neural correlates of these recognition deficits are still relatively unexplored, we investigated the labeling of facial emotions and brain responses to facial emotions as a function of alexithymia. Results Forty-eight healthy participants had to label the emotional expression (angry, fearful, happy, or neutral) of faces presented for 1 or 3 seconds in a forced-choice format while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The participants’ level of alexithymia was assessed using self-report and interview. In light of the previous findings, we focused our analysis on the alexithymia component of difficulties in describing feelings. Difficulties describing feelings, as assessed by the interview, were associated with increased reaction times for negative (i.e., angry and fearful) faces, but not with labeling accuracy. Moreover, individuals with higher alexithymia showed increased brain activation in the somatosensory cortex and supplementary motor area (SMA) in response to angry and fearful faces. These cortical areas are known to be involved in the simulation of the bodily (motor and somatosensory) components of facial emotions. Conclusion The present data indicate that alexithymic individuals may use information related to bodily actions rather than affective states to understand the facial expressions of other persons. PMID:24629094

Attention Bias to Emotional Faces Varies by IQ and Anxiety in Williams Syndrome.

PubMed

McGrath, Lauren M; Oates, Joyce M; Dai, Yael G; Dodd, Helen F; Waxler, Jessica; Clements, Caitlin C; Weill, Sydney; Hoffnagle, Alison; Anderson, Erin; MacRae, Rebecca; Mullett, Jennifer; McDougle, Christopher J; Pober, Barbara R; Smoller, Jordan W

2016-06-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) often experience significant anxiety. A promising approach to anxiety intervention has emerged from cognitive studies of attention bias to threat. To investigate the utility of this intervention in WS, this study examined attention bias to happy and angry faces in individuals with WS (N = 46). Results showed a significant difference in attention bias patterns as a function of IQ and anxiety. Individuals with higher IQ or higher anxiety showed a significant bias toward angry, but not happy faces, whereas individuals with lower IQ or lower anxiety showed the opposite pattern. These results suggest that attention bias interventions to modify a threat bias may be most effectively targeted to anxious individuals with WS with relatively high IQ.

Rates and impact of trauma and current stressors among Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad.

PubMed

Rasmussen, Andrew; Nguyen, Leanh; Wilkinson, John; Vundla, Sikhumbuzo; Raghavan, Sumithra; Miller, Kenneth E; Keller, Allen S

2010-04-01

Darfur refugees face hardships associated with chronic displacement, including lack of basic needs and safety concerns. Psychiatric research on refugees has focused on trauma, but daily stressors may contribute more to variance in distress. This article reports rates of past trauma and current stressors among Darfur refugees and gauges the contribution of each to psychological distress and functional impairment. A representative sample of 848 Darfuris in 2 refugee camps were interviewed about traumatic events, stressors faced in the camps, psychological distress, and functional impairment. Basic needs and safety concerns were more strongly correlated with measures of distress (rs = .19-.31) than were war-related traumatic events (rs = .09-.20). Hierarchical regression supported models in which effects of trauma on distress were mediated by current stressors. Although war-related traumatic events are the initial causes of refugees' hardship, findings suggest that the day-to-day challenges and concerns in camps mediate psychological distress associated with these events.

Rates and Impact of Trauma and Current Stressors Among Darfuri Refugees in Eastern Chad

PubMed Central

Rasmussen, Andrew; Nguyen, Leanh; Wilkinson, John; Vundla, Sikhumbuzo; Raghavan, Sumithra; Miller, Kenneth E.; Keller, Allen S.

2010-01-01

Darfur refugees face hardships associated with chronic displacement, including lack of basic needs and safety concerns. Psychiatric research on refugees has focused on trauma, but daily stressors may contribute more to variance in distress. In this article we report rates of past trauma and current stressors among Darfur refugees and gauge the contribution of each to psychological distress and functional impairment. A representative sample of 848 Darfuris in two refugee camps were interviewed about traumatic events, stressors faced in the camps, psychological distress and functional impairment. Basic needs and safety concerns were more strongly correlated with measures of distress (r's = .19–.31) than were war-related traumatic events (r's = .09–.20). Hierarchical regression supported models in which effects of trauma on distress were mediated by current stressors. Although war-related traumatic events are the initial causes of refugees' hardship, findings suggest that the day-to-day challenges and concerns in camps mediate psychological distress associated with these events. PMID:20553516

A Cartesian reflex assessment of face processing.

PubMed

Polewan, Robert J; Vigorito, Christopher M; Nason, Christopher D; Block, Richard A; Moore, John W

2006-03-01

Commands to blink were embedded within pictures of faces and simple geometric shapes or forms. The faces and shapes were conditioned stimuli (CSs), and the required responses were conditioned responses, or more properly, Cartesian reflexes (CRs). As in classical conditioning protocols, response times (RTs) were measured from CS onset. RTs provided a measure of the processing cost (PC) of attending to a CS. A PC is the extra time required to respond relative to RTs to unconditioned stimulus (US) commands presented alone. They reflect the interplay between attentional processing of the informational content of a CS and its signaling function with respect to the US command. This resulted in longer RTs to embedded commands. Differences between PCs of faces and geometric shapes represent a starting place for a new mental chronometry based on the traditional idea that differences in RT reflect differences in information processing.

Autistic traits modulate frontostriatal connectivity during processing of rewarding faces

PubMed Central

Neufeld, Janina; Johnstone, Tom; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev

2014-01-01

Deficits in facial mimicry have been widely reported in autism. Some studies have suggested that these deficits are restricted to spontaneous mimicry and do not extend to volitional mimicry. We bridge these apparently inconsistent observations by testing the impact of reward value on neural indices of mimicry and how autistic traits modulate this impact. Neutral faces were conditioned with high and low reward. Subsequently, functional connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was measured while neurotypical adults (n = 30) watched happy expressions made by these conditioned faces. We found greater VS–IFG connectivity in response to high reward vs low reward happy faces. This difference was negatively proportional to autistic traits, suggesting that reduced spontaneous mimicry of social stimuli seen in autism, may be related to a failure in the modulation of the mirror system by the reward system rather than a circumscribed deficit in the mirror system. PMID:24493838

Neuroanatomical substrates involved in unrelated false facial recognition.

PubMed

Ronzon-Gonzalez, Eliane; Hernandez-Castillo, Carlos R; Pasaye, Erick H; Vaca-Palomares, Israel; Fernandez-Ruiz, Juan

2017-11-22

Identifying faces is a process central for social interaction and a relevant factor in eyewitness theory. False recognition is a critical mistake during an eyewitness's identification scenario because it can lead to a wrongful conviction. Previous studies have described neural areas related to false facial recognition using the standard Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, triggering related false recognition. Nonetheless, misidentification of faces without trying to elicit false memories (unrelated false recognition) in a police lineup could involve different cognitive processes, and distinct neural areas. To delve into the neural circuitry of unrelated false recognition, we evaluated the memory and response confidence of participants while watching faces photographs in an fMRI task. Functional activations of unrelated false recognition were identified by contrasting the activation on this condition vs. the activations related to recognition (hits) and correct rejections. The results identified the right precentral and cingulate gyri as areas with distinctive activations during false recognition events suggesting a conflict resulting in a dysfunction during memory retrieval. High confidence suggested that about 50% of misidentifications may be related to an unconscious process. These findings add to our understanding of the construction of facial memories and its biological basis, and the fallibility of the eyewitness testimony.

Reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy.

PubMed

Mier, Daniela; Haddad, Leila; Diers, Kersten; Dressing, Harald; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Kirsch, Peter

2014-08-01

Psychopathy is characterized by severe deficits in emotion processing and empathy. These emotional deficits might not only affect the feeling of own emotions, but also the understanding of others' emotional and mental states. The present study aims on identifying the neurobiological correlates of social-cognitive related alterations in psychopathy. We applied a social-cognitive paradigm for the investigation of face processing, emotion recognition, and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) to 11 imprisoned psychopaths and 18 healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure task-related brain activation. While showing no overall behavioural deficit, psychopathy was associated with altered brain activation. Psychopaths had reduced fusiform activation related to face processing. Related to affective ToM, psychopaths had hypoactivation in amygdala, inferior prefrontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, areas associated with embodied simulation of emotions and intentions. Furthermore, psychopaths lacked connectivity between superior temporal sulcus and amygdala during affective ToM. These results replicate findings of alterations in basal face processing in psychopathy. In addition, they provide evidence for reduced embodied simulation in psychopathy in concert with a lack of communication between motor areas and amygdala which might provide the neural substrate of reduced feeling with others during social cognition.

The biasing of figure-ground assignment by shading cues for objects and faces in prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Hefter, Rebecca; Jerskey, Beth A; Barton, Jason J S

2008-01-01

Prosopagnosia is defined by impaired recognition of the identity of specific faces. Whether the perception of faces at the categorical level (recognizing that a face is a face) is also impaired to a lesser degree is unclear. We examined whether prosopagnosia is associated with impaired detection of facial contours in a bistable display, by testing a series of five prosopagnosic patients on a variation of Rubin's vase illusion, in which shading was introduced to bias perception towards either the face or the vase. We also included a control bistable display in which a disc or an aperture were the two possible percepts. With the control disc/aperture test, prosopagnosic patients did not generate a normal sigmoid function, but a U-shaped function, indicating that they perceived the shading but had difficulty in using the shading to make the appropriate figure-ground assignment. While controls still generated a sigmoid function for the vase/face test, prosopagnosic patients showed a severe impairment in using shading to make consistent perceptual assignments. We conclude that prosopagnosic patients have difficulty in using shading to segment figures from background correctly, particularly with complex stimuli like faces. This suggests that a subtler defect in face categorization accompanies their severe defect in face identification, consistent with predictions of computational models and recent data from functional imaging.

Amygdala hyperactivation to angry faces in intermittent explosive disorder.

PubMed

McCloskey, Michael S; Phan, K Luan; Angstadt, Mike; Fettich, Karla C; Keedy, Sarah; Coccaro, Emil F

2016-08-01

Individuals with intermittent explosive disorder (IED) were previously found to exhibit amygdala hyperactivation and relatively reduced orbital medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) activation to angry faces while performing an implicit emotion information processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This study examines the neural substrates associated with explicit encoding of facial emotions among individuals with IED. Twenty unmedicated IED subjects and twenty healthy, matched comparison subjects (HC) underwent fMRI while viewing blocks of angry, happy, and neutral faces and identifying the emotional valence of each face (positive, negative or neutral). We compared amygdala and OMPFC reactivity to faces between IED and HC subjects. We also examined the relationship between amygdala/OMPFC activation and aggression severity. Compared to controls, the IED group exhibited greater amygdala response to angry (vs. neutral) facial expressions. In contrast, IED and control groups did not differ in OMPFC activation to angry faces. Across subjects amygdala activation to angry faces was correlated with number of prior aggressive acts. These findings extend previous evidence of amygdala dysfunction in response to the identification of an ecologically-valid social threat signal (processing angry faces) among individuals with IED, further substantiating a link between amygdala hyperactivity to social signals of direct threat and aggression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A randomized trial of face-to-face counselling versus telephone counselling versus bibliotherapy for occupational stress.

PubMed

Kilfedder, Catherine; Power, Kevin; Karatzias, Thanos; McCafferty, Aileen; Niven, Karen; Chouliara, Zoë; Galloway, Lisa; Sharp, Stephen

2010-09-01

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness and acceptability of three interventions for occupational stress. A total of 90 National Health Service employees were randomized to face-to-face counselling or telephone counselling or bibliotherapy. Outcomes were assessed at post-intervention and 4-month follow-up. Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were used to evaluate intervention outcomes. An intention-to-treat analyses was performed. Repeated measures analysis revealed significant time effects on all measures with the exception of CORE Risk. No significant group effects were detected on all outcome measures. No time by group significant interaction effects were detected on any of the outcome measures with the exception of CORE Functioning and GHQ total. With regard to acceptability of interventions, participants expressed a preference for face-to-face counselling over the other two modalities. Overall, it was concluded that the three intervention groups are equally effective. Given that bibliotherapy is the least costly of the three, results from the present study might be considered in relation to a stepped care approach to occupational stress management with bibliotherapy as the first line of intervention, followed by telephone and face-to-face counselling as required.

Affective attitudes to face images associated with intracerebral EEG source location before face viewing.

PubMed

Pizzagalli, D; Koenig, T; Regard, M; Lehmann, D

1999-01-01

We investigated whether different, personality-related affective attitudes are associated with different brain electric field (EEG) sources before any emotional challenge (stimulus exposure). A 27-channel EEG was recorded in 15 subjects during eyes-closed resting. After recording, subjects rated 32 images of human faces for affective appeal. The subjects in the first (i.e., most negative) and fourth (i.e., most positive) quartile of general affective attitude were further analyzed. The EEG data (mean=25+/-4. 8 s/subject) were subjected to frequency-domain model dipole source analysis (FFT-Dipole-Approximation), resulting in 3-dimensional intracerebral source locations and strengths for the delta-theta, alpha, and beta EEG frequency band, and for the full range (1.5-30 Hz) band. Subjects with negative attitude (compared to those with positive attitude) showed the following source locations: more inferior for all frequency bands, more anterior for the delta-theta band, more posterior and more right for the alpha, beta and 1.5-30 Hz bands. One year later, the subjects were asked to rate the face images again. The rating scores for the same face images were highly correlated for all subjects, and original and retest affective mean attitude was highly correlated across subjects. The present results show that subjects with different affective attitudes to face images had different active, cerebral, neural populations in a task-free condition prior to viewing the images. We conclude that the brain functional state which implements affective attitude towards face images as a personality feature exists without elicitors, as a continuously present, dynamic feature of brain functioning. Copyright 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

Happier People Show Greater Neural Connectivity during Negative Self-Referential Processing.

PubMed

Kim, Eun Joo; Kyeong, Sunghyon; Cho, Sang Woo; Chun, Ji-Won; Park, Hae-Jeong; Kim, Jihye; Kim, Joohan; Dolan, Raymond J; Kim, Jae-Jin

2016-01-01

Life satisfaction is an essential component of subjective well-being and provides a fundamental resource for optimal everyday functioning. The goal of the present study was to examine how life satisfaction influences self-referential processing of emotionally valenced stimuli. Nineteen individuals with high life satisfaction (HLS) and 21 individuals with low life satisfaction (LLS) were scanned using functional MRI while performing a face-word relevance rating task, which consisted of 3 types of face stimuli (self, public other, and unfamiliar other) and 3 types of word stimuli (positive, negative, and neutral). We found a significant group x word valence interaction effect, most strikingly in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. In the positive word condition dorsal medial prefrontal cortex activity was significantly higher in the LLS group, whereas in the negative word condition it was significantly higher in the HLS group. The two groups showed distinct functional connectivity of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex with emotional processing-related regions. The findings suggest that, in response to emotional stimuli, individuals with HLS may successfully recruit emotion regulation-related regions in contrast to individuals with LLS. The difference in functional connectivity during self-referential processing may lead to an influence of life satisfaction on responses to emotion-eliciting stimuli.

Prefrontal cortical and striatal activity to happy and fear faces in bipolar disorder is associated with comorbid substance abuse and eating disorder.

PubMed

Hassel, Stefanie; Almeida, Jorge R; Frank, Ellen; Versace, Amelia; Nau, Sharon A; Klein, Crystal R; Kupfer, David J; Phillips, Mary L

2009-11-01

The spectrum approach was used to examine contributions of comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder to abnormal prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to happy and fear faces previously demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD). Fourteen remitted BD-type I and sixteen healthy individuals viewed neutral, mild and intense happy and fear faces in two event-related fMRI experiments. All individuals completed Substance-Use and Eating-Disorder Spectrum measures. Region-of-Interest analyses for bilateral prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions were performed. BD individuals scored significantly higher on these spectrum measures than healthy individuals (p<0.05), and were distinguished by activity in prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions. BD relative to healthy individuals showed reduced dorsal prefrontal-cortical activity to all faces. Only BD individuals showed greater subcortical-striatal activity to happy and neutral faces. In BD individuals, negative correlations were shown between substance use severity and right PFC activity to intense happy faces (p<0.04), and between substance use severity and right caudate nucleus activity to neutral faces (p<0.03). Positive correlations were shown between eating disorder and right ventral putamen activity to intense happy (p<0.02) and neutral faces (p<0.03). Exploratory analyses revealed few significant relationships between illness variables and medication upon neural activity in BD individuals. Small sample size of predominantly medicated BD individuals. This study is the first to report relationships between comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder and prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to facial expressions in BD. Our findings suggest that these comorbid features may contribute to observed patterns of functional abnormalities in neural systems underlying mood regulation in BD.

The role of relational binding in item memory: evidence from face recognition in a case of developmental amnesia.

PubMed

Olsen, Rosanna K; Lee, Yunjo; Kube, Jana; Rosenbaum, R Shayna; Grady, Cheryl L; Moscovitch, Morris; Ryan, Jennifer D

2015-04-01

Current theories state that the hippocampus is responsible for the formation of memory representations regarding relations, whereas extrahippocampal cortical regions support representations for single items. However, findings of impaired item memory in hippocampal amnesics suggest a more nuanced role for the hippocampus in item memory. The hippocampus may be necessary when the item elements need to be bound within and across episodes to form a lasting representation that can be used flexibly. The current investigation was designed to test this hypothesis in face recognition. H.C., an individual who developed with a compromised hippocampal system, and control participants incidentally studied individual faces that either varied in presentation viewpoint across study repetitions or remained in a fixed viewpoint across the study repetitions. Eye movements were recorded during encoding and participants then completed a surprise recognition memory test. H.C. demonstrated altered face viewing during encoding. Although the overall number of fixations made by H.C. was not significantly different from that of controls, the distribution of her viewing was primarily directed to the eye region. Critically, H.C. was significantly impaired in her ability to subsequently recognize faces studied from variable viewpoints, but demonstrated spared performance in recognizing faces she encoded from a fixed viewpoint, implicating a relationship between eye movement behavior in the service of a hippocampal binding function. These findings suggest that a compromised hippocampal system disrupts the ability to bind item features within and across study repetitions, ultimately disrupting recognition when it requires access to flexible relational representations. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/355342-09$15.00/0.

Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition between First Episode Psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls.

PubMed

Catalan, Ana; Gonzalez de Artaza, Maider; Bustamante, Sonia; Orgaz, Pablo; Osa, Luis; Angosto, Virxinia; Valverde, Cristina; Bilbao, Amaia; Madrazo, Arantza; van Os, Jim; Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel

2016-01-01

Facial emotion recognition (FER) is essential to guide social functioning and behaviour for interpersonal communication. FER may be altered in severe mental illness such as in psychosis and in borderline personality disorder patients. However, it is unclear if these FER alterations are specifically related to psychosis. Awareness of FER alterations may be useful in clinical settings to improve treatment strategies. The aim of our study was to examine FER in patients with severe mental disorder and their relation with psychotic symptomatology. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected. Alterations on emotion recognition were assessed in 3 groups: patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) (n = 64), borderline personality patients (BPD) (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 137), using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Structured Interview for Schizotypy Revised and Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences scales were used to assess positive psychotic symptoms. WAIS III subtests were used to assess IQ. Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed a significant difference between groups on the FER of neutral faces score between FEP, BPD patients and controls and between FEP patients and controls in angry face recognition. No significant differences were found between groups in the fear or happy conditions. There was a significant difference between groups in the attribution of negative emotion to happy faces. BPD and FEP groups had a much higher tendency to recognize happy faces as negatives. There was no association with the different symptom domains in either group. FEP and BPD patients have problems in recognizing neutral faces more frequently than controls. Moreover, patients tend to over-report negative emotions in recognition of happy faces. Although no relation between psychotic symptoms and FER alterations was found, these deficits could contribute to a patient's misinterpretations in daily life.

Global Genetic Variations Predict Brain Response to Faces

PubMed Central

Dickie, Erin W.; Tahmasebi, Amir; French, Leon; Kovacevic, Natasa; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barker, Gareth J.; Bokde, Arun; Büchel, Christian; Conrod, Patricia; Flor, Herta; Garavan, Hugh; Gallinat, Juergen; Gowland, Penny; Heinz, Andreas; Ittermann, Bernd; Lawrence, Claire; Mann, Karl; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Nees, Frauke; Nichols, Thomas; Lathrop, Mark; Loth, Eva; Pausova, Zdenka; Rietschel, Marcela; Smolka, Michal N.; Ströhle, Andreas; Toro, Roberto; Schumann, Gunter; Paus, Tomáš

2014-01-01

Face expressions are a rich source of social signals. Here we estimated the proportion of phenotypic variance in the brain response to facial expressions explained by common genetic variance captured by ∼500,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Using genomic-relationship-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML), we related this global genetic variance to that in the brain response to facial expressions, as assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a community-based sample of adolescents (n = 1,620). Brain response to facial expressions was measured in 25 regions constituting a face network, as defined previously. In 9 out of these 25 regions, common genetic variance explained a significant proportion of phenotypic variance (40–50%) in their response to ambiguous facial expressions; this was not the case for angry facial expressions. Across the network, the strength of the genotype-phenotype relationship varied as a function of the inter-individual variability in the number of functional connections possessed by a given region (R2 = 0.38, p<0.001). Furthermore, this variability showed an inverted U relationship with both the number of observed connections (R2 = 0.48, p<0.001) and the magnitude of brain response (R2 = 0.32, p<0.001). Thus, a significant proportion of the brain response to facial expressions is predicted by common genetic variance in a subset of regions constituting the face network. These regions show the highest inter-individual variability in the number of connections with other network nodes, suggesting that the genetic model captures variations across the adolescent brains in co-opting these regions into the face network. PMID:25122193

Emotion and personal space: Neural correlates of approach-avoidance tendencies to different facial expressions as a function of coldhearted psychopathic traits.

PubMed

Vieira, Joana B; Tavares, Tamara P; Marsh, Abigail A; Mitchell, Derek G V

2017-03-01

In social interactions, humans are expected to regulate interpersonal distance in response to the emotion displayed by others. Yet, the neural mechanisms implicated in approach-avoidance tendencies to distinct emotional expressions have not been fully described. Here, we investigated the neural systems implicated in regulating the distance to different emotions, and how they vary as a function of empathy. Twenty-three healthy participants assessed for psychopathic traits underwent fMRI scanning while they viewed approaching and withdrawing angry, fearful, happy, sad and neutral faces. Participants were also asked to set the distance to those faces on a computer screen, and to adjust the physical distance from the experimenter outside the scanner. Participants kept the greatest distances from angry faces, and shortest from happy expressions. This was accompanied by increased activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, inferior frontal gyrus, and temporoparietal junction for angry and happy expressions relative to the other emotions. Irrespective of emotion, longer distances were kept from approaching faces, which was associated with increased activation in the amygdala and insula, as well as parietal and prefrontal regions. Amygdala activation was positively correlated with greater preferred distances to angry, fearful and sad expressions. Moreover, participants scoring higher on coldhearted psychopathic traits (lower empathy) showed reduced amygdala activation to sad expressions. These findings elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying social approach-avoidance, and how they are related to variations in empathy. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1492-1506, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Long-Term Memory for Odors: Influences of Familiarity and Identification Across 64 Days

PubMed Central

Jönsson, Fredrik U.; Willander, Johan; Sikström, Sverker; Larsson, Maria

2015-01-01

Few studies have investigated long-term odor recognition memory, although some early observations suggested that the forgetting rate of olfactory representations is slower than for other sensory modalities. This study investigated recognition memory across 64 days for high and low familiar odors and faces. Memory was assessed in 83 young participants at 4 occasions; immediate, 4, 16, and 64 days after encoding. The results indicated significant forgetting for odors and faces across the 64 days. The forgetting functions for the 2 modalities were not fundamentally different. Moreover, high familiar odors and faces were better remembered than low familiar ones, indicating an important role of semantic knowledge on recognition proficiency for both modalities. Although odor recognition was significantly better than chance at the 64 days testing, memory for the low familiar odors was relatively poor. Also, the results indicated that odor identification consistency across sessions, irrespective of accuracy, was positively related to successful recognition. PMID:25740304

Dissecting the role of amygdala reactivity in antisocial behavior in a sample of young, low-income, urban men

PubMed Central

Hyde, Luke W.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Murray, Laura; Gard, Arianna; Hariri, Ahmad R.; Forbes, Erika E.

2015-01-01

Neuroimaging has suggested that amygdala reactivity to emotional facial expressions is associated with antisocial behavior (AB), particularly among those high on callous-unemotional (CU) traits. To investigate this association and potential moderators of this relationship, including task/stimuli effects, subregional anatomy of the amygdala, and participant race, we used fMRI in a sample of 167 racially diverse, 20 year-old men from low-income families. We found that AB, but not CU traits, was negatively related to amygdala reactivity to fearful faces. This result was specific to fearful faces and strongest in the centro-medial subregion of the amygdala. Arrest record was positively related to basolateral amygdala reactivity to fearful and angry faces. Results were strongest among those identified as African American and not present in those identified as European American. Our findings suggest substantial complexity in the relationship between amygdala function and AB reflecting moderating effects of task stimulus, subregional anatomy, and race. PMID:27429865

The heart and potassium: a banana republic.

PubMed

Khan, Ehsan; Spiers, Christine; Khan, Maria

2013-03-01

The importance of potassium in maintaining stable cardiac function is a clinically understood phenomenon. Physiologically the importance of potassium in cardiac function is described by the large number of different kinds of potassium ions channels found in the heart compared to channels and membrane transport mechanisms for other ions such as sodium and calcium. Potassium is important in physiological homeostatic control of cardiac function, but is also of relevance to the diseased state, as potassium-related effects may stabilize or destabilize cardiac function. This article aims to provide a detailed understanding of potassium-mediated cardiac function. This will help the clinical practitioner evaluate how modulation of potassium ion channels by disease and pharmacological manipulation affect the cardiac patient, thus aiding in decision making when faced with clinical problems related to potassium.

Investigation of the Phenomenological and Psychopathological Features of Trichotillomania in an Italian Sample

PubMed Central

Bottesi, Gioia; Cerea, Silvia; Razzetti, Enrico; Sica, Claudio; Frost, Randy O.; Ghisi, Marta

2016-01-01

Trichotillomania (TTM) is still a scarcely known and often inadequately treated disorder in Italian clinical settings, despite growing evidence about its severe and disabling consequences. The current study investigated the phenomenology of TTM in Italian individuals; in addition, we sought to examine patterns of self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and OCD-related symptoms in individuals with TTM compared to healthy participants. The current study represents the first attempt to investigate the phenomenological and psychopathological features of TTM in Italian hair pullers. One hundred and twenty-two individuals with TTM were enrolled: 24 were assessed face-to-face (face-to-face group) and 98 were recruited online (online group). An additional group of 22 face-to-face assessed healthy controls (HC group) was included in the study. The overall female to male ratio was 14:1, which is slightly higher favoring female than findings reported in literature. Main results revealed that a higher percentage of individuals in the online group reported pulling from the pubic region than did face-to-face participants; furthermore, the former engaged in examining the bulb and running the hair across the lips and reported pulling while lying in bed at higher frequencies than the latter. Interestingly, the online TTM group showed greater functional and psychological impairment, as well as more severe psychopathological characteristics (self-esteem, physiological and social anxiety, perfectionism, overestimation of threat, and control of thoughts), than the face-to-face one. Differences between the two TTM groups may be explained by the anonymity nature of the online group, which may have led to successful recruitment of more serious TTM cases, or fostered more open answers to questions. Overall, results revealed that many of the phenomenological features of Italian TTM participants matched those found in U.S. clinical settings, even though some notable differences were observed; therefore, cross-cultural invariance might represent a characteristic of OCD-related disorders. PMID:26941700

Opposing Amygdala and Ventral Striatum Connectivity During Emotion Identification

PubMed Central

Satterthwaite, Theodore D.; Wolf, Daniel H.; Pinkham, Amy E.; Ruparel, Kosha; Elliott, Mark A.; Valdez, Jeffrey N.; Overton, Eve; Seubert, Janina; Gur, Raquel E.; Gur, Ruben C.; Loughead, James

2011-01-01

Lesion and electrophysiological studies in animals provide evidence of opposing functions for subcortical nuclei such as the amygdala and ventral striatum, but the implications of these findings for emotion identification in humans remain poorly described. Here we report a high-resolution fMRI study in a sample of 39 healthy subjects who performed a well-characterized emotion identification task. As expected, the amygdala responded to THREAT (angry or fearful) faces more than NON-THREAT (sad or happy) faces. A functional connectivity analysis of the time series from an anatomically defined amygdala seed revealed a strong anti-correlation between the amygdala and the ventral striatum /ventral pallidum, consistent with an opposing role for these regions in during emotion identification. A second functional connectivity analysis (psychophysiological interaction) investigating relative connectivity on THREAT vs. NON-THREAT trials demonstrated that the amygdala had increased connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex during THREAT trials, whereas the ventral striatum demonstrated increased connectivity with the posterior hippocampus on NON-THREAT trials. These results indicate that activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum may be inversely related, and that both regions may provide opposing affective bias signals during emotion identification. PMID:21600684

Functional neuroimaging of Social and Nonsocial Cognitive Control in Autism

PubMed Central

Sabatino, Antoinette; Rittenberg, Alison; Sasson, Noah J.; Turner-Brown, Lauren; Bodfish, James W.; Dichter, Gabriel S.

2013-01-01

This study investigated cognitive control of social and nonsocial information in autism using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and a neurotypical control group completed an oddball target detection task where target stimuli were either faces or nonsocial objects previously shown to be related to circumscribed interests in autism. The ASD group demonstrated relatively increased activation to social targets in right insular cortex and in left superior frontal gyrus and relatively decreased activation to nonsocial targets related to circumscribed interests in multiple frontostriatal brain regions. Findings suggest that frontostriatal recruitment during cognitive control in ASD is contingent on stimulus type, with increased activation for social stimuli and decreased activation for nonsocial stimuli related to circumscribed interests. PMID:23636715

Identification and Classification of Facial Familiarity in Directed Lying: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Sun, Delin; Chan, Chetwyn C. H.; Lee, Tatia M. C.

2012-01-01

Recognizing familiar faces is essential to social functioning, but little is known about how people identify human faces and classify them in terms of familiarity. Face identification involves discriminating familiar faces from unfamiliar faces, whereas face classification involves making an intentional decision to classify faces as “familiar” or “unfamiliar.” This study used a directed-lying task to explore the differentiation between identification and classification processes involved in the recognition of familiar faces. To explore this issue, the participants in this study were shown familiar and unfamiliar faces. They responded to these faces (i.e., as familiar or unfamiliar) in accordance with the instructions they were given (i.e., to lie or to tell the truth) while their EEG activity was recorded. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited significantly less negative-going N400f in the middle and right parietal and temporal regions than unfamiliar faces. Regardless of their actual familiarity, the faces that the participants classified as “familiar” elicited more negative-going N400f in the central and right temporal regions than those classified as “unfamiliar.” The P600 was related primarily with the facial identification process. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited more positive-going P600f in the middle parietal and middle occipital regions. The results suggest that N400f and P600f play different roles in the processes involved in facial recognition. The N400f appears to be associated with both the identification (judgment of familiarity) and classification of faces, while it is likely that the P600f is only associated with the identification process (recollection of facial information). Future studies should use different experimental paradigms to validate the generalizability of the results of this study. PMID:22363597

Expertise Effects in Face-Selective Areas are Robust to Clutter and Diverted Attention, but not to Competition.

PubMed

McGugin, Rankin Williams; Van Gulick, Ana E; Tamber-Rosenau, Benjamin J; Ross, David A; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-09-01

Expertise effects for nonface objects in face-selective brain areas may reflect stable aspects of neuronal selectivity that determine how observers perceive objects. However, bottom-up (e.g., clutter from irrelevant objects) and top-down manipulations (e.g., attentional selection) can influence activity, affecting the link between category selectivity and individual performance. We test the prediction that individual differences expressed as neural expertise effects for cars in face-selective areas are sufficiently stable to survive clutter and manipulations of attention. Additionally, behavioral work and work using event related potentials suggest that expertise effects may not survive competition; we investigate this using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects varying in expertise with cars made 1-back decisions about cars, faces, and objects in displays containing one or 2 objects, with only one category attended. Univariate analyses suggest car expertise effects are robust to clutter, dampened by reducing attention to cars, but nonetheless more robust to manipulations of attention than competition. While univariate expertise effects are severely abolished by competition between cars and faces, multivariate analyses reveal new information related to car expertise. These results demonstrate that signals in face-selective areas predict expertise effects for nonface objects in a variety of conditions, although individual differences may be expressed in different dependent measures depending on task and instructions. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Dissociating maternal responses to sad and happy facial expressions of their own child: An fMRI study.

PubMed

Kluczniok, Dorothea; Hindi Attar, Catherine; Stein, Jenny; Poppinga, Sina; Fydrich, Thomas; Jaite, Charlotte; Kappel, Viola; Brunner, Romuald; Herpertz, Sabine C; Boedeker, Katja; Bermpohl, Felix

2017-01-01

Maternal sensitive behavior depends on recognizing one's own child's affective states. The present study investigated distinct and overlapping neural responses of mothers to sad and happy facial expressions of their own child (in comparison to facial expressions of an unfamiliar child). We used functional MRI to measure dissociable and overlapping activation patterns in 27 healthy mothers in response to happy, neutral and sad facial expressions of their own school-aged child and a gender- and age-matched unfamiliar child. To investigate differential activation to sad compared to happy faces of one's own child, we used interaction contrasts. During the scan, mothers had to indicate the affect of the presented face. After scanning, they were asked to rate the perceived emotional arousal and valence levels for each face using a 7-point Likert-scale (adapted SAM version). While viewing their own child's sad faces, mothers showed activation in the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex whereas happy facial expressions of the own child elicited activation in the hippocampus. Conjoint activation in response to one's own child happy and sad expressions was found in the insula and the superior temporal gyrus. Maternal brain activations differed depending on the child's affective state. Sad faces of the own child activated areas commonly associated with a threat detection network, whereas happy faces activated reward related brain areas. Overlapping activation was found in empathy related networks. These distinct neural activation patterns might facilitate sensitive maternal behavior.

Cross-modal reorganization in cochlear implant users: Auditory cortex contributes to visual face processing.

PubMed

Stropahl, Maren; Plotz, Karsten; Schönfeld, Rüdiger; Lenarz, Thomas; Sandmann, Pascale; Yovel, Galit; De Vos, Maarten; Debener, Stefan

2015-11-01

There is converging evidence that the auditory cortex takes over visual functions during a period of auditory deprivation. A residual pattern of cross-modal take-over may prevent the auditory cortex to adapt to restored sensory input as delivered by a cochlear implant (CI) and limit speech intelligibility with a CI. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether visual face processing in CI users activates auditory cortex and whether this has adaptive or maladaptive consequences. High-density electroencephalogram data were recorded from CI users (n=21) and age-matched normal hearing controls (n=21) performing a face versus house discrimination task. Lip reading and face recognition abilities were measured as well as speech intelligibility. Evaluation of event-related potential (ERP) topographies revealed significant group differences over occipito-temporal scalp regions. Distributed source analysis identified significantly higher activation in the right auditory cortex for CI users compared to NH controls, confirming visual take-over. Lip reading skills were significantly enhanced in the CI group and appeared to be particularly better after a longer duration of deafness, while face recognition was not significantly different between groups. However, auditory cortex activation in CI users was positively related to face recognition abilities. Our results confirm a cross-modal reorganization for ecologically valid visual stimuli in CI users. Furthermore, they suggest that residual takeover, which can persist even after adaptation to a CI is not necessarily maladaptive. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multi-pose facial correction based on Gaussian process with combined kernel function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Shuyan; Ji, Ruirui; Zhang, Fan

2018-04-01

In order to improve the recognition rate of various postures, this paper proposes a method of facial correction based on Gaussian Process which build a nonlinear regression model between the front and the side face with combined kernel function. The face images with horizontal angle from -45° to +45° can be properly corrected to front faces. Finally, Support Vector Machine is employed for face recognition. Experiments on CAS PEAL R1 face database show that Gaussian process can weaken the influence of pose changes and improve the accuracy of face recognition to certain extent.

Neural evidence for the subliminal processing of facial trustworthiness in infancy.

PubMed

Jessen, Sarah; Grossmann, Tobias

2017-04-22

Face evaluation is thought to play a vital role in human social interactions. One prominent aspect is the evaluation of facial signs of trustworthiness, which has been shown to occur reliably, rapidly, and without conscious awareness in adults. Recent developmental work indicates that the sensitivity to facial trustworthiness has early ontogenetic origins as it can already be observed in infancy. However, it is unclear whether infants' sensitivity to facial signs of trustworthiness relies upon conscious processing of a face or, similar to adults, occurs also in response to subliminal faces. To investigate this question, we conducted an event-related brain potential (ERP) study, in which we presented 7-month-old infants with faces varying in trustworthiness. Facial stimuli were presented subliminally (below infants' face visibility threshold) for only 50ms and then masked by presenting a scrambled face image. Our data revealed that infants' ERP responses to subliminally presented faces differed as a function of trustworthiness. Specifically, untrustworthy faces elicited an enhanced negative slow wave (800-1000ms) at frontal and central electrodes. The current findings critically extend prior work by showing that, similar to adults, infants' neural detection of facial signs of trustworthiness occurs also in response to subliminal face. This supports the view that detecting facial trustworthiness is an early developing and automatic process in humans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-invasive brain stimulation targeting the right fusiform gyrus selectively increases working memory for faces.

PubMed

Brunyé, Tad T; Moran, Joseph M; Holmes, Amanda; Mahoney, Caroline R; Taylor, Holly A

2017-04-01

The human extrastriate cortex contains a region critically involved in face detection and memory, the right fusiform gyrus. The present study evaluated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting this anatomical region would selectively influence memory for faces versus non-face objects (houses). Anodal tDCS targeted the right fusiform gyrus (Brodmann's Area 37), with the anode at electrode site PO10, and cathode at FP2. Two stimulation conditions were compared in a repeated-measures design: 0.5mA versus 1.5mA intensity; a separate control group received no stimulation. Participants completed a working memory task for face and house stimuli, varying in memory load from 1 to 4 items. Individual differences measures assessed trait-based differences in facial recognition skills. Results showed 1.5mA intensity stimulation (versus 0.5mA and control) increased performance at high memory loads, but only with faces. Lower overall working memory capacity predicted a positive impact of tDCS. Results provide support for the notion of functional specialization of the right fusiform regions for maintaining face (but not non-face object) stimuli in working memory, and further suggest that low intensity electrical stimulation of this region may enhance demanding face working memory performance particularly in those with relatively poor baseline working memory skills. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Autistic Traits and Brain Activation during Face-to-Face Conversations in Typically Developed Adults

PubMed Central

Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

2011-01-01

Background Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. Methodology We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Principal Findings Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Conclusions Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically developed participants with higher levels of autistic traits. PMID:21637754

Autistic traits and brain activation during face-to-face conversations in typically developed adults.

PubMed

Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

2011-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically developed participants with higher levels of autistic traits.

Distributed Neural Activity Patterns during Human-to-Human Competition

PubMed Central

Piva, Matthew; Zhang, Xian; Noah, J. Adam; Chang, Steve W. C.; Hirsch, Joy

2017-01-01

Interpersonal interaction is the essence of human social behavior. However, conventional neuroimaging techniques have tended to focus on social cognition in single individuals rather than on dyads or groups. As a result, relatively little is understood about the neural events that underlie face-to-face interaction. We resolved some of the technical obstacles inherent in studying interaction using a novel imaging modality and aimed to identify neural mechanisms engaged both within and across brains in an ecologically valid instance of interpersonal competition. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was utilized to simultaneously measure hemodynamic signals representing neural activity in pairs of subjects playing poker against each other (human–human condition) or against computer opponents (human–computer condition). Previous fMRI findings concerning single subjects confirm that neural areas recruited during social cognition paradigms are individually sensitive to human–human and human–computer conditions. However, it is not known whether face-to-face interactions between opponents can extend these findings. We hypothesize distributed effects due to live processing and specific variations in across-brain coherence not observable in single-subject paradigms. Angular gyrus (AG), a component of the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) previously found to be sensitive to socially relevant cues, was selected as a seed to measure within-brain functional connectivity. Increased connectivity was confirmed between AG and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as well as a complex including the left subcentral area (SCA) and somatosensory cortex (SS) during interaction with a human opponent. These distributed findings were supported by contrast measures that indicated increased activity at the left dlPFC and frontopolar area that partially overlapped with the region showing increased functional connectivity with AG. Across-brain analyses of neural coherence between the players revealed synchrony between dlPFC and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and SS in addition to synchrony between AG and the fusiform gyrus (FG) and SMG. These findings present the first evidence of a frontal-parietal neural complex including the TPJ, dlPFC, SCA, SS, and FG that is more active during human-to-human social cognition both within brains (functional connectivity) and across brains (across-brain coherence), supporting a model of functional integration of socially and strategically relevant information during live face-to-face competitive behaviors. PMID:29218005

Reintroducing Environmental Change Drivers in Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Research.

PubMed

De Laender, Frederik; Rohr, Jason R; Ashauer, Roman; Baird, Donald J; Berger, Uta; Eisenhauer, Nico; Grimm, Volker; Hommen, Udo; Maltby, Lorraine; Meliàn, Carlos J; Pomati, Francesco; Roessink, Ivo; Radchuk, Viktoriia; Van den Brink, Paul J

2016-12-01

For the past 20 years, research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B-EF) has only implicitly considered the underlying role of environmental change. We illustrate that explicitly reintroducing environmental change drivers in B-EF research is needed to predict the functioning of ecosystems facing changes in biodiversity. Next we show how this reintroduction improves experimental control over community composition and structure, which helps to provide mechanistic insight on how multiple aspects of biodiversity relate to function and how biodiversity and function relate in food webs. We also highlight challenges for the proposed reintroduction and suggest analyses and experiments to better understand how random biodiversity changes, as studied by classic approaches in B-EF research, contribute to the shifts in function that follow environmental change. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Treatment goals in FACE philosophy].

PubMed

Martin, Domingo; Maté, Amaia; Zabalegui, Paula; Valenzuela, Jaime

2017-03-01

The FACE philosophy is characterized by clearly defined treatment goals: facial esthetics, dental esthetics, periodontal health, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The purpose is to establish ideal occlusion with good facial esthetics and an orthopedic stable joint position. The authors present all the concepts of FACE philosophy and illustrate them through one case report. Taking into account all the FACE philosophy concepts increases diagnostic ability and improves the quality and stability of treatment outcomes. The goal of this philosophy is to harmonize the facial profile, tooth alignment, periodontium, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The evaluation and treatment approach to vertical problems are unique to the philosophy. © EDP Sciences, SFODF, 2017.

Neural correlates of own- and other-race face recognition in children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

PubMed Central

Ding, Xiao Pan; Fu, Genyue; Lee, Kang

2013-01-01

The present study used the functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) methodology to investigate the neural correlates of elementary school children’s own- and other-race face processing. An old-new paradigm was used to assess children’s recognition ability of own- and other-race faces. FNIRS data revealed that other-race faces elicited significantly greater [oxy-Hb] changes than own-race faces in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9) and the left cuneus (BA18). With increased age, the [oxy-Hb] activity differences between own- and other-race faces, or the neural other-race effect (NORE), underwent significant changes in these two cortical areas: at younger ages, the neural response to the other-race faces was modestly greater than that to the own-race faces, but with increased age, the neural response to the own-race faces became increasingly greater than that to the other-race faces. Moreover, these areas had strong regional functional connectivity with a swath of the cortical regions in terms of the neural other-race effect that also changed with increased age. We also found significant and positive correlations between the behavioral other-race effect (reaction time) and the neural other-race effect in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9). These results taken together suggest that children, like adults, devote different amounts of neural resources to processing own- and other-race faces, but the size and direction of the neural other-race effect and associated functional regional connectivity change with increased age. PMID:23891903

Neural correlates of own- and other-race face recognition in children: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

PubMed

Ding, Xiao Pan; Fu, Genyue; Lee, Kang

2014-01-15

The present study used the functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) methodology to investigate the neural correlates of elementary school children's own- and other-race face processing. An old-new paradigm was used to assess children's recognition ability of own- and other-race faces. FNIRS data revealed that other-race faces elicited significantly greater [oxy-Hb] changes than own-race faces in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9) and the left cuneus (BA18). With increased age, the [oxy-Hb] activity differences between own- and other-race faces, or the neural other-race effect (NORE), underwent significant changes in these two cortical areas: at younger ages, the neural response to the other-race faces was modestly greater than that to the own-race faces, but with increased age, the neural response to the own-race faces became increasingly greater than that to the other-race faces. Moreover, these areas had strong regional functional connectivity with a swath of the cortical regions in terms of the neural other-race effect that also changed with increased age. We also found significant and positive correlations between the behavioral other-race effect (reaction time) and the neural other-race effect in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9). These results taken together suggest that children, like adults, devote different amounts of neural resources to processing own- and other-race faces, but the size and direction of the neural other-race effect and associated functional regional connectivity change with increased age. © 2013.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation.

PubMed

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing.

Brain Activity Related to the Judgment of Face-Likeness: Correlation between EEG and Face-Like Evaluation

PubMed Central

Nihei, Yuji; Minami, Tetsuto; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2018-01-01

Faces represent important information for social communication, because social information, such as face-color, expression, and gender, is obtained from faces. Therefore, individuals' tend to find faces unconsciously, even in objects. Why is face-likeness perceived in non-face objects? Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies showed that the P1 component (early visual processing), the N170 component (face detection), and the N250 component (personal detection) reflect the neural processing of faces. Inverted faces were reported to enhance the amplitude and delay the latency of P1 and N170. To investigate face-likeness processing in the brain, we explored the face-related components of the ERP through a face-like evaluation task using natural faces, cars, insects, and Arcimboldo paintings presented upright or inverted. We found a significant correlation between the inversion effect index and face-like scores in P1 in both hemispheres and in N170 in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that judgment of face-likeness occurs in a relatively early stage of face processing. PMID:29503612

Functional MRI of facial emotion processing in left temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Szaflarski, Jerzy P; Allendorfer, Jane B; Heyse, Heidi; Mendoza, Lucy; Szaflarski, Basia A; Cohen, Nancy

2014-03-01

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) may negatively affect the ability to recognize emotions. This study aimed to determine the cortical correlates of facial emotion processing (happy, sad, fearful, and neutral) in patients with well-characterized left TLE (LTLE) and to examine the effect of seizure control on emotion processing. We enrolled 34 consecutive patients with LTLE and 30 matched healthy control (HC) subjects. Participants underwent functional MRI (fMRI) with an event-related facial emotion recognition task. The seizures of seventeen patients were controlled (no seizure in at least 3months; LTLE-sz), and 17 continued to experience frequent seizures (LTLE+sz). Mood was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). There were no differences in demographic characteristics and measures of mood between HC subjects and patients with LTLE. In patients with LTLE, fMRI showed decreased blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal in the hippocampus/parahippocampus and cerebellum in processing of happy faces and increased BOLD signal in occipital regions in response to fearful faces. Comparison of groups with LTLE+sz and LTLE-sz showed worse BDI and POMS scores in LTLE+sz (all p<0.05) except for POMS tension/anxiety (p=0.067). Functional MRI revealed increased BOLD signal in patients with LTLE+sz in the left precuneus and left parahippocampus for "fearful" faces and in the left periarcheocortex for "neutral" faces. There was a correlation between the fMRI and Total Mood Disturbance in the left precuneus in LTLE-sz (p=0.019) and in LTLE+sz (p=0.018). Overall, LTLE appears to have a relatively minor effect on the cortical underpinnings of facial emotion processing, while the effect of seizure state (controlled vs. not controlled) is more pronounced, indicating a significant relationship between seizure control and emotion processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Face-memory and emotion: associations with major depression in children and adolescents.

PubMed

Pine, Daniel S; Lissek, Shmuel; Klein, Rachel G; Mannuzza, Salvatore; Moulton, John L; Guardino, Mary; Woldehawariat, Girma

2004-10-01

Studies in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) document abnormalities in both memory and face-emotion processing. The current study used a novel face-memory task to test the hypothesis that adolescent MDD is associated with a deficit in memory for face-emotions. The study also examines the relationship between parental MDD and memory performance in offspring. Subjects were 152 offspring (ages 9-19) of adults with either MDD, anxiety disorders, both MDD and anxiety, or no disorder. Parents and offspring were assessed for mental disorders. Collection of face-memory data was blind to offspring and parent diagnosis. A computerized task was developed that required rating of facial photographs depicting 'happy,"fearful,' or 'angry' emotions followed by a memory recall test. Recall accuracy was examined as a function of face-emotion type. Age and gender independently predicted memory, with better recall in older and female subjects. Controlling for age and gender, offspring with a history of MDD (n = 19) demonstrated significant deficits in memory selectively for fearful faces, but not happy or angry faces. Parental MDD was not associated with face-memory accuracy. This study found an association between MDD in childhood or adolescence and perturbed encoding of fearful faces. MDD in young individuals may predispose to subtle anomalies in a neural circuit encompassing the amygdala, a brain region implicated in the processing of fearful facial expressions. These findings suggest that brain imaging studies using similar face-emotion paradigms should test whether deficits in processing of fearful faces relate to amygdala dysfunction in children and adolescents with MDD.

Science Language Accommodation in Elementary School Read-Alouds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glass, Rory; Oliveira, Alandeom W.

2014-01-01

This study examines the pedagogical functions of accommodation (i.e. provision of simplified science speech) in science read-aloud sessions facilitated by five elementary teachers. We conceive of read-alouds as communicative events wherein teachers, faced with the task of orally delivering a science text of relatively high linguistic complexity,…

Facing towards or Turning away from Destructive Narcissism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Denis; Skogstad, Helga

2006-01-01

This paper presents a detailed theoretical discussion of destructive narcissism in relation to Freud and Rosenfeld and later theorists. In destructive narcissism, the destructiveness is itself idealised and overrides "the vital functions which serve the purpose of self-preservation" (Freud, S., 1914, "On narcissism" S.E. 14: 87)--a feature which…

Probability, Problem Solving, and "The Price is Right."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Eric

1992-01-01

This article discusses the analysis of a decision-making process faced by contestants on the television game show "The Price is Right". The included analyses of the original and related problems concern pattern searching, inductive reasoning, quadratic functions, and graphing. Computer simulation programs in BASIC and tables of…

Infants and adults have similar regional functional brain organization for the perception of emotions.

PubMed

Rotem-Kohavi, N; Oberlander, T F; Virji-Babul, N

2017-05-22

An infant's ability to perceive emotional facial expressions is critical for developing social skills. Infants are tuned to faces from early in life, however the functional organization of the brain that supports the processing of emotional faces in infants is still not well understood. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) brain responses in 8-10 month old infants and adults and applied graph theory analysis on the functional connections to compare the network organization at the global and the regional levels underlying the perception of negative and positive dynamic facial expressions (happiness and sadness). We first show that processing of dynamic emotional faces occurs across multiple brain regions in both infants and adults. Across all brain regions, at the global level, network density was higher in the infant group in comparison with adults suggesting that the overall brain organization in relation to emotion perception is still immature in infancy. In contrast, at the regional levels, the functional characteristics of the frontal and parietal nodes were similar between infants and adults, suggesting that functional regional specialization for emotion perception is already established at this age. In addition, in both groups the occipital, parietal and temporal nodes appear to have the strongest influence on information flow within the network. These results suggest that while the global organization for the emotion perception of sad and happy emotions is still under development, the basic functional network organization at the regional level is already in place early in infancy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Brain response to masked and unmasked facial emotions as a function of implicit and explicit personality self-concept of extraversion.

PubMed

Suslow, Thomas; Kugel, Harald; Lindner, Christian; Dannlowski, Udo; Egloff, Boris

2017-01-06

Extraversion-introversion is a personality dimension referring to individual differences in social behavior. In the past, neurobiological research on extraversion was almost entirely based upon questionnaires which inform about the explicit self-concept. Today, indirect measures are available that tap into the implicit self-concept of extraversion which is assumed to result from automatic processing functions. In our study, brain activation while viewing facial expression of affiliation relevant (i.e., happiness, and disgust) and irrelevant (i.e., fear) emotions was examined as a function of the implicit and explicit self-concept of extraversion and processing mode (automatic vs. controlled). 40 healthy volunteers watched blocks of masked and unmasked emotional faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Implicit Association Test and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory were applied as implicit and explicit measures of extraversion which were uncorrelated in our sample. Implicit extraversion was found to be positively associated with neural response to masked happy faces in the thalamus and temporo-parietal regions and to masked disgust faces in cerebellar areas. Moreover, it was positively correlated with brain response to unmasked disgust faces in the amygdala and cortical areas. Explicit extraversion was not related to brain response to facial emotions when controlling trait anxiety. The implicit compared to the explicit self-concept of extraversion seems to be more strongly associated with brain activation not only during automatic but also during controlled processing of affiliation relevant facial emotions. Enhanced neural response to facial disgust could reflect high sensitivity to signals of interpersonal rejection in extraverts (i.e., individuals with affiliative tendencies). Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regional Brain Responses Are Biased Toward Infant Facial Expressions Compared to Adult Facial Expressions in Nulliparous Women.

PubMed

Li, Bingbing; Cheng, Gang; Zhang, Dajun; Wei, Dongtao; Qiao, Lei; Wang, Xiangpeng; Che, Xianwei

2016-01-01

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that neutral infant faces compared to neutral adult faces elicit greater activity in brain areas associated with face processing, attention, empathic response, reward, and movement. However, whether infant facial expressions evoke larger brain responses than adult facial expressions remains unclear. Here, we performed event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in nulliparous women while they were presented with images of matched unfamiliar infant and adult facial expressions (happy, neutral, and uncomfortable/sad) in a pseudo-randomized order. We found that the bilateral fusiform and right lingual gyrus were overall more activated during the presentation of infant facial expressions compared to adult facial expressions. Uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces evoked greater activation in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex-thalamus, and precuneus. Neutral infant faces activated larger brain responses in the left fusiform gyrus compared to neutral adult faces. Happy infant faces compared to happy adult faces elicited larger responses in areas of the brain associated with emotion and reward processing using a more liberal threshold of p < 0.005 uncorrected. Furthermore, the level of the test subjects' Interest-In-Infants was positively associated with the intensity of right fusiform gyrus response to infant faces and uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces. In addition, the Perspective Taking subscale score on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-Chinese was significantly correlated with precuneus activity during uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces. Our findings suggest that regional brain areas may bias cognitive and emotional responses to infant facial expressions compared to adult facial expressions among nulliparous women, and this bias may be modulated by individual differences in Interest-In-Infants and perspective taking ability.

Regional Brain Responses Are Biased Toward Infant Facial Expressions Compared to Adult Facial Expressions in Nulliparous Women

PubMed Central

Zhang, Dajun; Wei, Dongtao; Qiao, Lei; Wang, Xiangpeng; Che, Xianwei

2016-01-01

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that neutral infant faces compared to neutral adult faces elicit greater activity in brain areas associated with face processing, attention, empathic response, reward, and movement. However, whether infant facial expressions evoke larger brain responses than adult facial expressions remains unclear. Here, we performed event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in nulliparous women while they were presented with images of matched unfamiliar infant and adult facial expressions (happy, neutral, and uncomfortable/sad) in a pseudo-randomized order. We found that the bilateral fusiform and right lingual gyrus were overall more activated during the presentation of infant facial expressions compared to adult facial expressions. Uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces evoked greater activation in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex-thalamus, and precuneus. Neutral infant faces activated larger brain responses in the left fusiform gyrus compared to neutral adult faces. Happy infant faces compared to happy adult faces elicited larger responses in areas of the brain associated with emotion and reward processing using a more liberal threshold of p < 0.005 uncorrected. Furthermore, the level of the test subjects’ Interest-In-Infants was positively associated with the intensity of right fusiform gyrus response to infant faces and uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces. In addition, the Perspective Taking subscale score on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-Chinese was significantly correlated with precuneus activity during uncomfortable infant faces compared to sad adult faces. Our findings suggest that regional brain areas may bias cognitive and emotional responses to infant facial expressions compared to adult facial expressions among nulliparous women, and this bias may be modulated by individual differences in Interest-In-Infants and perspective taking ability. PMID:27977692

Visual scanning behavior is related to recognition performance for own- and other-age faces

PubMed Central

Proietti, Valentina; Macchi Cassia, Viola; dell’Amore, Francesca; Conte, Stefania; Bricolo, Emanuela

2015-01-01

It is well-established that our recognition ability is enhanced for faces belonging to familiar categories, such as own-race faces and own-age faces. Recent evidence suggests that, for race, the recognition bias is also accompanied by different visual scanning strategies for own- compared to other-race faces. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these differences in visual scanning patterns extend also to the comparison between own and other-age faces and contribute to the own-age recognition advantage. Participants (young adults with limited experience with infants) were tested in an old/new recognition memory task where they encoded and subsequently recognized a series of adult and infant faces while their eye movements were recorded. Consistent with findings on the other-race bias, we found evidence of an own-age bias in recognition which was accompanied by differential scanning patterns, and consequently differential encoding strategies, for own-compared to other-age faces. Gaze patterns for own-age faces involved a more dynamic sampling of the internal features and longer viewing time on the eye region compared to the other regions of the face. This latter strategy was extensively employed during learning (vs. recognition) and was positively correlated to discriminability. These results suggest that deeply encoding the eye region is functional for recognition and that the own-age bias is evident not only in differential recognition performance, but also in the employment of different sampling strategies found to be effective for accurate recognition. PMID:26579056

The Functional Architecture for Face-processing Expertise: FMRI Evidence of the Developmental Trajectory of the Core and the Extended Face Systems

PubMed Central

Haist, Frank; Adamo, Maha; Han, Jarnet; Lee, Kang; Stiles, Joan

2013-01-01

Expertise in processing faces is a cornerstone of human social interaction. However, the developmental course of many key brain regions supporting face preferential processing in the human brain remains undefined. Here, we present findings from an FMRI study using a simple viewing paradigm of faces and objects in a continuous age sample covering the age range from 6 years through adulthood. These findings are the first to use such a sample paired with whole-brain FMRI analyses to investigate development within the core and extended face networks across the developmental spectrum from middle childhood to adulthood. We found evidence, albeit modest, for a developmental trend in the volume of the right fusiform face area (rFFA) but no developmental change in the intensity of activation. From a spatial perspective, the middle portion of the right fusiform gyrus most commonly found in adult studies of face processing was increasingly likely to be included in the FFA as age increased to adulthood. Outside of the FFA, the most striking finding was that children hyperactivated nearly every aspect of the extended face system relative to adults, including the amygdala, anterior temporal pole, insula, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and parietal cortex. Overall, the findings suggest that development is best characterized by increasing modulation of face-sensitive regions throughout the brain to engage only those systems necessary for task requirements. PMID:23948645

A Demonstration of the Subversion Threat: Facing a Critical Responsibility in the Defense of Cyberspace

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-03-01

dependence upon the proper functioning of the system is crucial. Perhaps the closest relative to subversion is the Trojan Horse attack in which the...additional malicious function. There are three primary factors that distinguish this from subversion. First, the Trojan Horse requires a legitimate...user to run it while the artifice in subversion does not. Second, the Trojan Horse program exploits the level of privilege associated with the

Parallel computational and experimental studies of the morphological modification of calcium carbonate by cobalt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braybrook, A. L.; Heywood, B. R.; Jackson, R. A.; Pitt, K.

2002-08-01

Crystal growth can be controlled by the incorporation of dopant ions into the lattice and yet the question of how such substituents affect the morphology has not been addressed. This paper describes the forms of calcite (CaCO 3) which arise when the growth assay is doped with cobalt. Distinct and specific morphological changes are observed; the calcite crystals adopt a morphology which is dominated by the {01.1} family of faces. These experimental studies paralleled the development of computational methods for the analysis of crystal habit as a function of dopant concentration. In this case, the predicted defect morphology also argued for the dominance of the (01.1) face in the growth form. The appearance of this face was related to the preferential segregation of the dopant ions to the crystal surface. This study confirms the evolution of a robust computational model for the analysis of calcite growth forms under a range of environmental conditions and presages the use of such tools for the predictive development of crystal morphologies in those applications where chemico-physical functionality is linked closely to a specific crystallographic form.

Amygdala Damage Affects Event-Related Potentials for Fearful Faces at Specific Time Windows

PubMed Central

Rotshtein, Pia; Richardson, Mark P; Winston, Joel S; Kiebel, Stefan J; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Eimer, Martin; Driver, Jon; Dolan, Raymond J

2010-01-01

The amygdala is known to influence processing of threat-related stimuli in distant brain regions, including visual cortex. The time-course of these distant influences is unknown, although this information is important for resolving debates over likely pathways mediating an apparent rapidity in emotional processing. To address this, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to seen fearful face expressions, in preoperative patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy who had varying degrees of amygdala pathology, plus healthy volunteers. We found that amygdala damage diminished ERPs for fearful versus neutral faces within the P1 time-range, ∼100–150 ms, and for a later component at ∼500–600 ms. Individual severity of amygdala damage determined the magnitude of both these effects, consistent with a causal amygdala role. By contrast, amygdala damage did not affect explicit perception of fearful expressions nor a distinct emotional ERP effect at 150–250 ms. These results demonstrate two distinct time-points at which the amygdala influences fear processing. The data also demonstrate that while not all aspects of expression processing are disrupted by amygdala damage, there is a crucial impact on an early P1 component. These findings are consistent with the existence of multiple processing stages or routes for fearful faces that vary in their dependence on amygdala function. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID:20017134

Attention bias to emotional faces varies by IQ and anxiety in Williams syndrome

PubMed Central

McGrath, Lauren M.; Oates, Joyce M.; Dai, Yael G.; Dodd, Helen F.; Waxler, Jessica; Clements, Caitlin C.; Weill, Sydney; Hoffnagle, Alison; Anderson, Erin; MacRae, Rebecca; Mullett, Jennifer; McDougle, Christopher J.; Pober, Barbara R.; Smoller, Jordan W.

2016-01-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) often experience significant anxiety. A promising approach to anxiety intervention has emerged from cognitive studies of attention bias to threat. To investigate the utility of this intervention in WS, this study examined attention bias to happy and angry faces in individuals with WS (N=46). Results showed a significant difference in attention bias patterns as a function of IQ and anxiety. Individuals with higher IQ or higher anxiety showed a significant bias toward angry, but not happy faces, whereas individuals with lower IQ or lower anxiety showed the opposite pattern. These results suggest that attention bias interventions to modify a threat bias may be most effectively targeted to anxious individuals with WS with relatively high IQ. PMID:26886469

Functionally defined white matter reveals segregated pathways in human ventral temporal cortex associated with category-specific processing

PubMed Central

Gomez, Jesse; Pestilli, Franco; Witthoft, Nathan; Golarai, Golijeh; Liberman, Alina; Poltoratski, Sonia; Yoon, Jennifer; Grill-Spector, Kalanit

2014-01-01

Summary It is unknown if the white matter properties associated with specific visual networks selectively affect category-specific processing. In a novel protocol we combined measurements of white matter structure, functional selectivity, and behavior in the same subjects. We find two parallel white matter pathways along the ventral temporal lobe connecting to either face-selective or place-selective regions. Diffusion properties of portions of these tracts adjacent to face- and place-selective regions of ventral temporal cortex correlate with behavioral performance for face or place processing, respectively. Strikingly, adults with developmental prosopagnosia (face blindness) express an atypical structure-behavior relationship near face-selective cortex, suggesting that white matter atypicalities in this region may have behavioral consequences. These data suggest that examining the interplay between cortical function, anatomical connectivity, and visual behavior is integral to understanding functional networks and their role in producing visual abilities and deficits. PMID:25569351

Attention Alters Neural Responses to Evocative Faces in Behaviorally Inhibited Adolescents

PubMed Central

Pérez-Edgar, Koraly; Roberson-Nay, Roxann; Hardin, Michael G.; Poeth, Kaitlin; Guyer, Amanda E.; Nelson, Eric E.; McClure, Erin B.; Henderson, Heather A.; Fox, Nathan A.; Pine, Daniel S.; Ernst, Monique

2007-01-01

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a risk factor for anxiety disorders. While the two constructs bear behavioral similarities, previous work has not extended these parallels to the neural level. This study examined amygdala reactivity during a task previously used with clinically anxious adolescents. Adolescents were selected for enduring patterns of BI or non-inhibition (BN). We examined amygdala response to evocative emotion faces in BI (N=10, mean 12.8 years) and BN (N=17, mean 12.5 years) adolescents while systematically manipulating attention. Analyses focused on amygdala response during subjective ratings of internal fear (constrained attention) and passive viewing (unconstrained attention) during the presentation of emotion faces (Happy, Angry, Fearful, and Neutral). BI adolescents, relative to BN adolescents, showed exaggerated amygdala response during subjective fear ratings and deactivation during passive viewing, across all emotion faces. In addition, the BI group showed an abnormally high amygdala response to a task condition marked by novelty and uncertainty (i.e., rating fear state to a Happy face). Perturbations in amygdala function are evident in adolescents temperamentally at risk for anxiety. Attention state alters the underlying pattern of neural processing, potentially mediating the observed behavioral patterns across development. BI adolescents also show a heightened sensitivity to novelty and uncertainty, which has been linked to anxiety. These patterns of reactivity may help sustain early temperamental biases over time and contribute to the observed relation between BI and anxiety. PMID:17376704

System approach to automation and robotization of drivage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinov’ev, VV; Mayorov, AE; Starodubov, AN; Nikolaev, PI

2018-03-01

The authors consider the system approach to finding ways of no-man drilling and blasting in the face area by means of automation and robotization of operations with a view to reducing injuries in mines. The analysis is carried out in terms of the drilling and blasting technology applied in Makarevskoe Coal Field, Kuznetsk Coal Basin. Within the system-functional approach and using INDEFO procedure, the processes of drilling and blasthole charging are decomposed into related elementary operations. The automation and robotization methods to avoid the presence of miners in the face are found for each operation.

Faciotopy—A face-feature map with face-like topology in the human occipital face area

PubMed Central

Henriksson, Linda; Mur, Marieke; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2015-01-01

The occipital face area (OFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) are brain regions thought to be specialized for face perception. However, their intrinsic functional organization and status as cortical areas with well-defined boundaries remains unclear. Here we test these regions for “faciotopy”, a particular hypothesis about their intrinsic functional organisation. A faciotopic area would contain a face-feature map on the cortical surface, where cortical patches represent face features and neighbouring patches represent features that are physically neighbouring in a face. The faciotopy hypothesis is motivated by the idea that face regions might develop from a retinotopic protomap and acquire their selectivity for face features through natural visual experience. Faces have a prototypical configuration of features, are usually perceived in a canonical upright orientation, and are frequently fixated in particular locations. To test the faciotopy hypothesis, we presented images of isolated face features at fixation to subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The responses in V1 were best explained by low-level image properties of the stimuli. OFA, and to a lesser degree FFA, showed evidence for faciotopic organization. When a single patch of cortex was estimated for each face feature, the cortical distances between the feature patches reflected the physical distance between the features in a face. Faciotopy would be the first example, to our knowledge, of a cortical map reflecting the topology, not of a part of the organism itself (its retina in retinotopy, its body in somatotopy), but of an external object of particular perceptual significance. PMID:26235800

Faciotopy-A face-feature map with face-like topology in the human occipital face area.

PubMed

Henriksson, Linda; Mur, Marieke; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2015-11-01

The occipital face area (OFA) and fusiform face area (FFA) are brain regions thought to be specialized for face perception. However, their intrinsic functional organization and status as cortical areas with well-defined boundaries remains unclear. Here we test these regions for "faciotopy", a particular hypothesis about their intrinsic functional organisation. A faciotopic area would contain a face-feature map on the cortical surface, where cortical patches represent face features and neighbouring patches represent features that are physically neighbouring in a face. The faciotopy hypothesis is motivated by the idea that face regions might develop from a retinotopic protomap and acquire their selectivity for face features through natural visual experience. Faces have a prototypical configuration of features, are usually perceived in a canonical upright orientation, and are frequently fixated in particular locations. To test the faciotopy hypothesis, we presented images of isolated face features at fixation to subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The responses in V1 were best explained by low-level image properties of the stimuli. OFA, and to a lesser degree FFA, showed evidence for faciotopic organization. When a single patch of cortex was estimated for each face feature, the cortical distances between the feature patches reflected the physical distance between the features in a face. Faciotopy would be the first example, to our knowledge, of a cortical map reflecting the topology, not of a part of the organism itself (its retina in retinotopy, its body in somatotopy), but of an external object of particular perceptual significance. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Decoding facial expressions based on face-selective and motion-sensitive areas.

PubMed

Liang, Yin; Liu, Baolin; Xu, Junhai; Zhang, Gaoyan; Li, Xianglin; Wang, Peiyuan; Wang, Bin

2017-06-01

Humans can easily recognize others' facial expressions. Among the brain substrates that enable this ability, considerable attention has been paid to face-selective areas; in contrast, whether motion-sensitive areas, which clearly exhibit sensitivity to facial movements, are involved in facial expression recognition remained unclear. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study used multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to explore facial expression decoding in both face-selective and motion-sensitive areas. In a block design experiment, participants viewed facial expressions of six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) in images, videos, and eyes-obscured videos. Due to the use of multiple stimulus types, the impacts of facial motion and eye-related information on facial expression decoding were also examined. It was found that motion-sensitive areas showed significant responses to emotional expressions and that dynamic expressions could be successfully decoded in both face-selective and motion-sensitive areas. Compared with static stimuli, dynamic expressions elicited consistently higher neural responses and decoding performance in all regions. A significant decrease in both activation and decoding accuracy due to the absence of eye-related information was also observed. Overall, the findings showed that emotional expressions are represented in motion-sensitive areas in addition to conventional face-selective areas, suggesting that motion-sensitive regions may also effectively contribute to facial expression recognition. The results also suggested that facial motion and eye-related information played important roles by carrying considerable expression information that could facilitate facial expression recognition. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3113-3125, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Association of enhanced limbic response to threat with decreased cortical facial recognition memory response in schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Satterthwaite, Theodore D.; Wolf, Daniel H.; Loughead, James; Ruparel, Kosha; Valdez, Jeffrey N.; Siegel, Steven J.; Kohler, Christian G.; Gur, Raquel E.; Gur, Ruben C.

2014-01-01

Objective Recognition memory of faces is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, as is the neural processing of threat-related signals, but how these deficits interact to produce symptoms is unclear. Here we used an affective face recognition paradigm to examine possible interactions between cognitive and affective neural systems in schizophrenia. Methods fMRI (3T) BOLD response was examined in 21 controls and 16 patients during a two-choice recognition task using images of human faces. Each target face had previously been displayed with a threatening or non-threatening affect, but here were displayed with neutral affect. Responses to successful recognition and for the effect of previously threatening vs. non-threatening affect were evaluated, and correlations with total BPRS examined. Functional connectivity analyses examined the relationship between activation in the amygdala and cortical regions involved in recognition memory. Results Patients performed the task more slowly than controls. Controls recruited the expected cortical regions to a greater degree than patients, and patients with more severe symptoms demonstrated proportionally less recruitment. Increased symptoms were also correlated with augmented amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex response to threatening faces. Controls exhibited a negative correlation between activity in the amygdala and cortical regions involved in cognition, while patients showed a weakening of that relationship. Conclusions Increased symptoms were related to an enhanced threat response in limbic regions and a diminished recognition memory response in cortical regions, supporting a link between two brain systems often examined in isolation. This finding suggests that abnormal processing of threat-related signals in the environment may exacerbate cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. PMID:20194482

Forming First Impressions of Others in Schizophrenia: Impairments In Fast Processing and In Use of Spatial Frequency Information

PubMed Central

Vakhrusheva, J; Zemon, V; Bar, M; Weiskopf, NG; Tremeau, F; Petkova, E; Su, Z; Abeles, I; Butler, PD

2014-01-01

Individuals form first impressions of others all the time, which affects their social functioning. Typical adults form threat impressions in faces with neutral expressions quickly, requiring less than 40 ms. These impressions appear to be mediated by low spatial frequency (LSF) content in the images. Little is known, however, about mechanisms of first impression formation in schizophrenia. The current study investigated how quickly individuals with schizophrenia can form consistent impressions of threat compared with controls and explored the mechanisms involved. Patients and controls were presented intact, LSF- or high spatial frequency (HSF)-filtered faces with durations that varied from 39 – 1703 ms and were asked to rate how threatening each face was on a scale from 1 to 5. In order to assess the speed of impression formation for intact faces, correlations were calculated for ratings made at each duration compared to a reference duration of 1703 ms for each group. Controls demonstrated a significant relation for intact faces presented for 39 ms, whereas patients required 390 ms to demonstrate a significant relation with the reference duration. For controls, LSFs primarily contributed to the formation of consistent threat impressions at 39 ms, whereas patients showed a trend for utilizing both LSF and HSF information to form consistent threat impressions at 390 ms. Results indicate that individuals with schizophrenia require a greater integration time to form a stable “first impression” of threat, which may be related to the need to utilize compensatory mechanisms such as HSF, as well as LSF, information. PMID:25458862

Forming first impressions of others in schizophrenia: impairments in fast processing and in use of spatial frequency information.

PubMed

Vakhrusheva, J; Zemon, V; Bar, M; Weiskopf, N G; Tremeau, F; Petkova, E; Su, Z; Abeles, I Y; Butler, P D

2014-12-01

Individuals form first impressions of others all the time, which affects their social functioning. Typical adults form threat impressions in faces with neutral expressions quickly, requiring less than 40 ms. These impressions appear to be mediated by low spatial frequency (LSF) content in the images. Little is known, however, about mechanisms of first impression formation in schizophrenia. The current study investigated how quickly individuals with schizophrenia can form consistent impressions of threat compared with controls and explored the mechanisms involved. Patients and controls were presented intact, LSF- or high spatial frequency (HSF)-filtered faces with durations that varied from 39 to 1703 ms and were asked to rate how threatening each face was on a scale from 1 to 5. In order to assess the speed of impression formation for intact faces, correlations were calculated for ratings made at each duration compared to a reference duration of 1703 ms for each group. Controls demonstrated a significant relation for intact faces presented for 39 ms, whereas patients required 390 ms to demonstrate a significant relation with the reference duration. For controls, LSFs primarily contributed to the formation of consistent threat impressions at 39 ms, whereas patients showed a trend for utilizing both LSF and HSF information to form consistent threat impressions at 390 ms. Results indicate that individuals with schizophrenia require a greater integration time to form a stable "first impression" of threat, which may be related to the need to utilize compensatory mechanisms such as HSF, as well as LSF, information. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Child gender influences paternal behavior, language, and brain function

PubMed Central

Mascaro, Jennifer S.; Rentscher, Kelly E.; Hackett, Patrick D.; Mehl, Matthias R.; Rilling, James K.

2017-01-01

Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged, however, is obscured by methodological challenges inherent to the study of parental caregiving, and no studies to date have examined the possibility that gender differences in observed real-world paternal behavior are related to differential paternal brain responses to male and female children. Here we compare fathers of daughters and fathers of sons in terms of naturalistically observed everyday caregiving behavior and neural responses to child picture stimuli. Compared to fathers of sons, fathers of daughters were more attentively engaged with their daughters, sang more to their daughters, used more analytical language and language related to sadness and the body with their daughters, and had a stronger neural response to their daughter’s happy facial expressions in areas of the brain important for reward and emotion regulation (medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]). In contrast, fathers of sons engaged in more rough and tumble play (RTP), used more achievement language with their sons, and had a stronger neural response to their son’s neutral facial expressions in the medial OFC (mOFC). Whereas the mOFC response to happy faces was negatively related to RTP, the mOFC response to neutral faces was positively related to RTP, specifically for fathers of boys. These results indicate that real world paternal behavior and brain function differ as a function of child gender. PMID:28541079

Child gender influences paternal behavior, language, and brain function.

PubMed

Mascaro, Jennifer S; Rentscher, Kelly E; Hackett, Patrick D; Mehl, Matthias R; Rilling, James K

2017-06-01

Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged, however, is obscured by methodological challenges inherent to the study of parental caregiving, and no studies to date have examined the possibility that gender differences in observed real-world paternal behavior are related to differential paternal brain responses to male and female children. Here we compare fathers of daughters and fathers of sons in terms of naturalistically observed everyday caregiving behavior and neural responses to child picture stimuli. Compared with fathers of sons, fathers of daughters were more attentively engaged with their daughters, sang more to their daughters, used more analytical language and language related to sadness and the body with their daughters, and had a stronger neural response to their daughter's happy facial expressions in areas of the brain important for reward and emotion regulation (medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]). In contrast, fathers of sons engaged in more rough and tumble play (RTP), used more achievement language with their sons, and had a stronger neural response to their son's neutral facial expressions in the medial OFC (mOFC). Whereas the mOFC response to happy faces was negatively related to RTP, the mOFC response to neutral faces was positively related to RTP, specifically for fathers of boys. These results indicate that real-world paternal behavior and brain function differ as a function of child gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Components of executive functioning in metamemory.

PubMed

Mäntylä, Timo; Rönnlund, Michael; Kliegel, Matthias

2010-10-01

This study examined metamemory in relation to three basic executive functions (set shifting, working memory updating, and response inhibition) measured as latent variables. Young adults (Experiment 1) and middle-aged adults (Experiment 2) completed a set of executive functioning tasks and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). In Experiment 1, source recall and face recognition tasks were included as indicators of objective memory performance. In both experiments, analyses of the executive functioning data yielded a two-factor solution, with the updating and inhibition tasks constituting a common factor and the shifting tasks a separate factor. Self-reported memory problems showed low predictive validity, but subjective and objective memory performance were related to different components of executive functioning. In both experiments, set shifting, but not updating and inhibition, was related to PRMQ, whereas source recall showed the opposite pattern of correlations in Experiment 1. These findings suggest that metamemorial judgments reflect selective effects of executive functioning and that individual differences in mental flexibility contribute to self-beliefs of efficacy.

The Kuleshov Effect: the influence of contextual framing on emotional attributions

PubMed Central

Mobbs, Dean; Weiskopf, Nikolaus; Lau, Hakwan C.; Featherstone, Eric; Dolan, Ray J.; Frith, Chris D.

2006-01-01

Filmmakers have long recognized the importance of editing techniques to guide the audiences' perceptions and enhance the impact of a scene. We demonstrate behaviorally that pairing identical faces with either neutral or emotionally salient contextual movies, an editing technique referred to as the ‘Kuleshov Effect’, results in both altered attributions of facial expression and mental-state. Using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), we show that faces paired with emotional movies enhance BOLD responses in the bilateral temporal pole, anterior cingulate cortices, amygdala and bilateral superior temporal sulcus relative to identical faces juxtaposed with neutral movies. An interaction was observed in the right amygdala when subtle happy and fear faces were juxtaposed with positive and negative movies, respectively. An interaction between happy faces and negative context was also observed in bilateral amygdala suggesting that the amygdala may act to prime or tag affective value to faces. A parametric modulation of BOLD signal by attribution ratings indicated a dissociation between ventrolateral and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex for negative and positive contextually evoked attributions, respectively. These prefrontal regions may act to guide appropriate choices across altering contexts. Together, these findings offer a neurobiological basis for contextual framing effects on social attributions. PMID:17339967

The Kuleshov Effect: the influence of contextual framing on emotional attributions.

PubMed

Mobbs, Dean; Weiskopf, Nikolaus; Lau, Hakwan C; Featherstone, Eric; Dolan, Ray J; Frith, Chris D

2006-09-01

Filmmakers have long recognized the importance of editing techniques to guide the audiences' perceptions and enhance the impact of a scene. We demonstrate behaviorally that pairing identical faces with either neutral or emotionally salient contextual movies, an editing technique referred to as the 'Kuleshov Effect', results in both altered attributions of facial expression and mental-state. Using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), we show that faces paired with emotional movies enhance BOLD responses in the bilateral temporal pole, anterior cingulate cortices, amygdala and bilateral superior temporal sulcus relative to identical faces juxtaposed with neutral movies. An interaction was observed in the right amygdala when subtle happy and fear faces were juxtaposed with positive and negative movies, respectively. An interaction between happy faces and negative context was also observed in bilateral amygdala suggesting that the amygdala may act to prime or tag affective value to faces. A parametric modulation of BOLD signal by attribution ratings indicated a dissociation between ventrolateral and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex for negative and positive contextually evoked attributions, respectively. These prefrontal regions may act to guide appropriate choices across altering contexts. Together, these findings offer a neurobiological basis for contextual framing effects on social attributions.

Dispositional fear, negative affectivity, and neuroimaging response to visually suppressed emotional faces.

PubMed

Vizueta, Nathalie; Patrick, Christopher J; Jiang, Yi; Thomas, Kathleen M; He, Sheng

2012-01-02

"Invisible" stimulus paradigms provide a method for investigating basic affective processing in clinical and non-clinical populations. Neuroimaging studies utilizing continuous flash suppression (CFS) have shown increased amygdala response to invisible fearful versus neutral faces. The current study used CFS in conjunction with functional MRI to test for differences in brain reactivity to visible and invisible emotional faces in relation to two distinct trait dimensions relevant to psychopathology: negative affectivity (NA) and fearfulness. Subjects consisted of college students (N=31) assessed for fear/fearlessness along with dispositional NA. The main brain regions of interest included the fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and amygdala. Higher NA, but not trait fear, was associated with enhanced response to fearful versus neutral faces in STS and right amygdala (but not FFA), within the invisible condition specifically. The finding that NA rather than fearfulness predicted degree of amygdala reactivity to suppressed faces implicates the input subdivision of the amygdala in the observed effects. Given the central role of NA in anxiety and mood disorders, the current data also support use of the CFS methodology for investigating the neurobiology of these disorders. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamic adjustments in prefrontal, hippocampal, and inferior temporal interactions with increasing visual working memory load.

PubMed

Rissman, Jesse; Gazzaley, Adam; D'Esposito, Mark

2008-07-01

The maintenance of visual stimuli across a delay interval in working memory tasks is thought to involve reverberant neural communication between the prefrontal cortex and posterior visual association areas. Recent studies suggest that the hippocampus might also contribute to this retention process, presumably via reciprocal interactions with visual regions. To characterize the nature of these interactions, we performed functional connectivity analysis on an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging data set in which participants performed a delayed face recognition task. As the number of faces that participants were required to remember was parametrically increased, the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) showed a linearly decreasing degree of functional connectivity with the fusiform face area (FFA) during the delay period. In contrast, the hippocampus linearly increased its delay period connectivity with both the FFA and the IFG as the mnemonic load increased. Moreover, the degree to which participants' FFA showed a load-dependent increase in its connectivity with the hippocampus predicted the degree to which its connectivity with the IFG decreased with load. Thus, these neural circuits may dynamically trade off to accommodate the particular mnemonic demands of the task, with IFG-FFA interactions mediating maintenance at lower loads and hippocampal interactions supporting retention at higher loads.

A case of persistent visual hallucinations of faces following LSD abuse: a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study.

PubMed

Iaria, Giuseppe; Fox, Christopher J; Scheel, Michael; Stowe, Robert M; Barton, Jason J S

2010-04-01

In this study, we report the case of a patient experiencing hallucinations of faces that could be reliably precipitated by looking at trees. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we found that face hallucinations were associated with increased and decreased neural activity in a number of cortical regions. Within the same fusiform face area, however, we found significant decreased and increased neural activity according to whether the patient was experiencing hallucinations or veridical perception of faces, respectively. These findings may indicate key differences in how hallucinatory and veridical perceptions lead to the same phenomenological experience of seeing faces.

Effects of Gender and Personality on First Impression

PubMed Central

Marzocchi, Michele; Vicari, Alba

2015-01-01

The present study explores whether and to what extent individual differences (i.e., gender and personality traits of perceiver) predict inferences of trustworthiness from emotionally neutral unfamiliar faces and the related confidence in judgment. Four hundred and ten undergraduate students participated in the study. Personality was assessed using the Big Five model (i.e., Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness to experience) and measures of trait anxiety and aggression. The results suggest that trustworthiness judgments are affected by the gender of the perceiver, although this effect depends on the valence of the face. Women tend to judge trustworthy-looking faces as significantly more trustworthy than men do, and this is particularly pronounced for judgments of female faces. There were no gender differences for judgments of untrustworthy-looking or neutral faces. Gender also seems to affect the confidence in judgment. Specifically, women were generally less confident than men in judging trustworthiness of unfamiliar faces. Personality also affected judgment. Both low agreeable individuals and high trait aggressive individuals tend to perceive unfamiliar faces as less trustworthy. The present findings suggest that both gender and personality traits are relevant for understanding how people evaluate the trustworthiness of others. Whom we decide to trust is a function not only of their facial features but also of gender and individual differences in personality traits. PMID:26331610

Effects of Gender and Personality on First Impression.

PubMed

Mattarozzi, Katia; Todorov, Alexander; Marzocchi, Michele; Vicari, Alba; Russo, Paolo Maria

2015-01-01

The present study explores whether and to what extent individual differences (i.e., gender and personality traits of perceiver) predict inferences of trustworthiness from emotionally neutral unfamiliar faces and the related confidence in judgment. Four hundred and ten undergraduate students participated in the study. Personality was assessed using the Big Five model (i.e., Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness to experience) and measures of trait anxiety and aggression. The results suggest that trustworthiness judgments are affected by the gender of the perceiver, although this effect depends on the valence of the face. Women tend to judge trustworthy-looking faces as significantly more trustworthy than men do, and this is particularly pronounced for judgments of female faces. There were no gender differences for judgments of untrustworthy-looking or neutral faces. Gender also seems to affect the confidence in judgment. Specifically, women were generally less confident than men in judging trustworthiness of unfamiliar faces. Personality also affected judgment. Both low agreeable individuals and high trait aggressive individuals tend to perceive unfamiliar faces as less trustworthy. The present findings suggest that both gender and personality traits are relevant for understanding how people evaluate the trustworthiness of others. Whom we decide to trust is a function not only of their facial features but also of gender and individual differences in personality traits.

Selectivity for the human body in the fusiform gyrus.

PubMed

Peelen, Marius V; Downing, Paul E

2005-01-01

Functional neuroimaging studies have revealed human brain regions, notably in the fusiform gyrus, that respond selectively to images of faces as opposed to other kinds of objects. Here we use fMRI to show that the mid-fusiform gyrus responds with nearly the same level of selectivity to images of human bodies without faces, relative to tools and scenes. In a group-average analysis (n = 22), the fusiform activations identified by contrasting faces versus tools and bodies versus tools are very similar. Analyses of within-subjects regions of interest, however, show that the peaks of the two activations occupy close but distinct locations. In a second experiment, we find that the body-selective fusiform region, but not the face-selective region, responds more to stick figure depictions of bodies than to scrambled controls. This result further distinguishes the two foci and confirms that the body-selective response generalizes to abstract image formats. These results challenge accounts of the mid-fusiform gyrus that focus solely on faces and suggest that this region contains multiple distinct category-selective neural representations.

Practice Characteristics of Graduates of East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine: Factors Related to Career Choices in Primary Care

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Click, Ivy A.

2013-01-01

The nation is facing a physician shortage, specifically in relation to primary care and in rural underserved areas. The most basic function of a medical school is to educate physicians to care for the national population. The purpose of this study was to examine the physician practicing characteristics of the graduates of East Tennessee State…

Second-order relational face processing is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

PubMed

Matheson, H E; Bilsbury, T G; McMullen, P A

2012-03-01

A large body of research suggests that faces are processed by a specialized mechanism within the human visual system. This specialized mechanism is made up of subprocesses (Maurer, LeGrand, & Mondloch, 2002). One subprocess, called second- order relational processing, analyzes the metric distances between face parts. Importantly, it is well established that other-race faces and contrast-reversed faces are associated with impaired performance on numerous face processing tasks. Here, we investigated the specificity of second-order relational processing by testing how this process is applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast. Participants completed a feature displacement discrimination task, directly measuring the sensitivity to second-order relations between face parts. Across three experiments we show that, despite absolute differences in sensitivity in some conditions, inversion impaired performance in all conditions. The presence of robust inversion effects for all faces suggests that second-order relational processing can be applied to faces of different race and photographic contrast.

Mechanisms of hemispheric lateralization: Asymmetric interhemispheric recruitment in the face perception network.

PubMed

Frässle, Stefan; Paulus, Frieder Michel; Krach, Sören; Schweinberger, Stefan Robert; Stephan, Klaas Enno; Jansen, Andreas

2016-01-01

Perceiving human faces constitutes a fundamental ability of the human mind, integrating a wealth of information essential for social interactions in everyday life. Neuroimaging studies have unveiled a distributed neural network consisting of multiple brain regions in both hemispheres. Whereas the individual regions in the face perception network and the right-hemispheric dominance for face processing have been subject to intensive research, the functional integration among these regions and hemispheres has received considerably less attention. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for fMRI, we analyzed the effective connectivity between the core regions in the face perception network of healthy humans to unveil the mechanisms underlying both intra- and interhemispheric integration. Our results suggest that the right-hemispheric lateralization of the network is due to an asymmetric face-specific interhemispheric recruitment at an early processing stage - that is, at the level of the occipital face area (OFA) but not the fusiform face area (FFA). As a structural correlate, we found that OFA gray matter volume was correlated with this asymmetric interhemispheric recruitment. Furthermore, exploratory analyses revealed that interhemispheric connection asymmetries were correlated with the strength of pupil constriction in response to faces, a measure with potential sensitivity to holistic (as opposed to feature-based) processing of faces. Overall, our findings thus provide a mechanistic description for lateralized processes in the core face perception network, point to a decisive role of interhemispheric integration at an early stage of face processing among bilateral OFA, and tentatively indicate a relation to individual variability in processing strategies for faces. These findings provide a promising avenue for systematic investigations of the potential role of interhemispheric integration in future studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural correlates of cognitive aging during the perception of facial age: the role of relatively distant and local texture information

PubMed Central

Komes, Jessica; Schweinberger, Stefan R.; Wiese, Holger

2015-01-01

Previous event-related potential (ERP) research revealed that older relative to younger adults show reduced inversion effects in the N170 (with more negative amplitudes for inverted than upright faces), suggestive of impairments in face perception. However, as these studies used young to middle-aged faces only, this finding may reflect preferential processing of own- relative to other-age faces rather than age-related decline. We conducted an ERP study in which young and older participants categorized young and old upright or inverted faces by age. Stimuli were presented either unfiltered or low-pass filtered at 30, 20, or 10 cycles per image (CPI). Response times revealed larger inversion effects, with slower responses for inverted faces, for young faces in young participants. Older participants did not show a corresponding effect. ERPs yielded a trend toward reduced N170 inversion effects in older relative to younger adults independent of face age. Moreover, larger inversion effects for young relative to old faces were detected, and filtering resulted in smaller N170 amplitudes. The reduced N170 inversion effect in older adults may reflect age-related changes in neural correlates of face perception. A smaller N170 inversion effect for old faces may indicate that facial changes with age hamper early face perception stages. PMID:26441790

Face Configuration Accuracy and Processing Speed among Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faja, Susan; Webb, Sara Jane; Merkle, Kristen; Aylward, Elizabeth; Dawson, Geraldine

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the accuracy and speed of face processing employed by high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Two behavioral experiments measured sensitivity to distances between features and face recognition when performance depended on holistic versus featural information. Results suggest adults with ASD…

Neural Activation to Emotional Faces in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weng, Shih-Jen; Carrasco, Melisa; Swartz, Johnna R.; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Kurapati, Nikhil; Liberzon, Israel; Risi, Susan; Lord, Catherine; Monk, Christopher S.

2011-01-01

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve a core deficit in social functioning and impairments in the ability to recognize face emotions. In an emotional faces task designed to constrain group differences in attention, the present study used functional MRI to characterize activation in the amygdala, ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), and…

Neural dynamics associated with semantic and episodic memory for faces: evidence from multiple frequency bands.

PubMed

Zion-Golumbic, Elana; Kutas, Marta; Bentin, Shlomo

2010-02-01

Prior semantic knowledge facilitates episodic recognition memory for faces. To examine the neural manifestation of the interplay between semantic and episodic memory, we investigated neuroelectric dynamics during the creation (study) and the retrieval (test) of episodic memories for famous and nonfamous faces. Episodic memory effects were evident in several EEG frequency bands: theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (9-13 Hz), and gamma (40-100 Hz). Activity in these bands was differentially modulated by preexisting semantic knowledge and by episodic memory, implicating their different functional roles in memory. More specifically, theta activity and alpha suppression were larger for old compared to new faces at test regardless of fame, but were both larger for famous faces during study. This pattern of selective semantic effects suggests that the theta and alpha responses, which are primarily associated with episodic memory, reflect utilization of semantic information only when it is beneficial for task performance. In contrast, gamma activity decreased between the first (study) and second (test) presentation of a face, but overall was larger for famous than nonfamous faces. Hence, the gamma rhythm seems to be primarily related to activation of preexisting neural representations that may contribute to the formation of new episodic traces. Taken together, these data provide new insights into the complex interaction between semantic and episodic memory for faces and the neural dynamics associated with mnemonic processes.

Impairment in face processing in autism spectrum disorder: a developmental perspective.

PubMed

Greimel, Ellen; Schulte-Rüther, Martin; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Remschmidt, Helmut; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Konrad, Kerstin

2014-09-01

Findings on face identity and facial emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are inconclusive. Moreover, little is known about the developmental trajectory of face processing skills in ASD. Taking a developmental perspective, the aim of this study was to extend previous findings on face processing skills in a sample of adolescents and adults with ASD. N = 38 adolescents and adults (13-49 years) with high-functioning ASD and n = 37 typically developing (TD) control subjects matched for age and IQ participated in the study. Moreover, n = 18 TD children between the ages of 8 and 12 were included to address the question whether face processing skills in ASD follow a delayed developmental pattern. Face processing skills were assessed using computerized tasks of face identity recognition (FR) and identification of facial emotions (IFE). ASD subjects showed impaired performance on several parameters of the FR and IFE task compared to TD control adolescents and adults. Whereas TD adolescents and adults outperformed TD children in both tasks, performance in ASD adolescents and adults was similar to the group of TD children. Within the groups of ASD and control adolescents and adults, no age-related changes in performance were found. Our findings corroborate and extend previous studies showing that ASD is characterised by broad impairments in the ability to process faces. These impairments seem to reflect a developmentally delayed pattern that remains stable throughout adolescence and adulthood.

Emotional and autonomic consequences of spinal cord injury explored using functional brain imaging

PubMed Central

Nicotra, Alessia; Critchley, Hugo D.; Mathias, Christopher J.; Dolan, Raymond J.

2009-01-01

In health, emotions are integrated with autonomic bodily responses. Emotional stimuli elicit changes in somatic (including autonomic) bodily states, which feedback to influence the expression of emotional feelings. In patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), this integration of emotion and bodily arousal is partially disrupted, impairing both efferent generation of sympathetic responses and afferent sensory feedback of visceral state via the spinal cord. A number of theoretical accounts of emotion predict emotional deficits in SCI patients, particularly at the level of emotional feelings, yet evidence for such a deficit is equivocal. We used functional MRI (fMRI) and a basic emotional learning paradigm to investigate the expression of emotion-related brain activity consequent upon SC I. We scanned seven SCI patients and seven healthy controls during an aversive fear conditioning task. Subjects viewed randomized presentations of four angry faces. One of the faces (CS + arm) was associated with delivery of electrical shock to the upper arm on 50% of trials. This shock was painful to all subjects. A face of the same gender acted as a ‘safe’ control stimulus (CS − arm). In both control subjects and SCI patients, painful cutaneous stimulation of the arm evoked enhanced activity within components of a central pain matrix, including dorsal anterior cingulate, right insula and medial temporal lobe. However, SCI patients differed from controls in conditioning-related brain activity. SCI patients showed a relative enhancement of activity within dorsal anterior cingulate, periaqueductal grey matter (PAG) and superior temporal gyrus. Conversely, SCI patients showed relative attenuation of activity in subgenual cingulate, ventromedial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices to threat of painful arm stimulation (CS + arm > CS − arm). Our findings provide evidence for differences in emotion-related brain activity in SCI patients. We suggest that the observed functional abnormalities including enhanced anterior cingulate and PAG reflect central sensitization of the pain matrix, while decreased subgenual cingulate activity may represent a substrate underlying affective vulnerability in SCI patients consequent upon perturbation of autonomic control and afferent visceral representation. Together these observations may account for motivational and affective sequelae of SCI in some individuals. PMID:16330503

The role of the cannabinoid receptor in adolescents' processing of facial expressions.

PubMed

Ewald, Anais; Becker, Susanne; Heinrich, Angela; Banaschewski, Tobias; Poustka, Luise; Bokde, Arun; Büchel, Christian; Bromberg, Uli; Cattrell, Anna; Conrod, Patricia; Desrivières, Sylvane; Frouin, Vincent; Papadopoulos-Orfanos, Dimitri; Gallinat, Jürgen; Garavan, Hugh; Heinz, Andreas; Walter, Henrik; Ittermann, Bernd; Gowland, Penny; Paus, Tomáš; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Paillère Martinot, Marie-Laure; Smolka, Michael N; Vetter, Nora; Whelan, Rob; Schumann, Gunter; Flor, Herta; Nees, Frauke

2016-01-01

The processing of emotional faces is an important prerequisite for adequate social interactions in daily life, and might thus specifically be altered in adolescence, a period marked by significant changes in social emotional processing. Previous research has shown that the cannabinoid receptor CB1R is associated with longer gaze duration and increased brain responses in the striatum to happy faces in adults, yet, for adolescents, it is not clear whether an association between CBR1 and face processing exists. In the present study we investigated genetic effects of the two CB1R polymorphisms, rs1049353 and rs806377, on the processing of emotional faces in healthy adolescents. They participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging during a Faces Task, watching blocks of video clips with angry and neutral facial expressions, and completed a Morphed Faces Task in the laboratory where they looked at different facial expressions that switched from anger to fear or sadness or from happiness to fear or sadness, and labelled them according to these four emotional expressions. A-allele versus GG-carriers in rs1049353 displayed earlier recognition of facial expressions changing from anger to sadness or fear, but not for expressions changing from happiness to sadness or fear, and higher brain responses to angry, but not neutral, faces in the amygdala and insula. For rs806377 no significant effects emerged. This suggests that rs1049353 is involved in the processing of negative facial expressions with relation to anger in adolescence. These findings add to our understanding of social emotion-related mechanisms in this life period. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A dynamic system analysis of dyadic flexibility and stability across the Face-to-Face Still-Face procedure: application of the State Space Grid.

PubMed

Provenzi, Livio; Borgatti, Renato; Menozzi, Giorgia; Montirosso, Rosario

2015-02-01

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm allows to study the mother-infant dyad as a dynamic system coping with social stress perturbations. The State Space Grid (SSG) method is thought to depict both flexibility and stability of the dyad across perturbations, but previous SSG evidence for the FFSF is limited. The main aims were: (1) to investigate mother-infant dyadic flexibility and stability across the FFSF using the SSG; (2) to evaluate the influence of dyadic functioning during Play on infant Still-Face response and of infant stress response in affecting dyadic functioning during Reunion. Forty 4-month-old infants and their mothers were micro-analytically coded during a FFSF and eight SSG dyadic states were obtained. Dyadic flexibility and attractor states were assessed during Play and Reunion. Infants' stress response was coded as negative engagement during the Still-Face episode. Two dyadic states, "maternal hetero-regulation" and "affective mismatch", showed significant changes in the number of visits from Play to Reunion. During Play "maternal positive support to infant play" emerged as attractor state, whereas during Reunion a second attractor emerged, namely "affective mismatch". Dyadic affective mismatch during Play correlated with infants' negative engagement during Still-Face, whereas infants' response to Still-Face resulted in minor social matching during Reunion. Findings provide new insights into the flexible, yet stable, functioning of the mother-infant dyad as a dynamic system. Evidence of a reciprocal influence between dyadic functioning and infant social stress response are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impressions of dominance are made relative to others in the visual environment.

PubMed

Re, Daniel E; Lefevre, Carmen E; DeBruine, Lisa M; Jones, Benedict C; Perrett, David I

2014-03-27

Face judgments of dominance play an important role in human social interaction. Perceived facial dominance is thought to indicate physical formidability, as well as resource acquisition and holding potential. Dominance cues in the face affect perceptions of attractiveness, emotional state, and physical strength. Most experimental paradigms test perceptions of facial dominance in individual faces, or they use manipulated versions of the same face in a forced-choice task but in the absence of other faces. Here, we extend this work by assessing whether dominance ratings are absolute or are judged relative to other faces. We presented participants with faces to be rated for dominance (target faces), while also presenting a second face (non-target faces) that was not to be rated. We found that both the masculinity and sex of the non-target face affected dominance ratings of the target face. Masculinized non-target faces decreased the perceived dominance of a target face relative to a feminized non-target face, and displaying a male non-target face decreased perceived dominance of a target face more so than a female non-target face. Perceived dominance of male target faces was affected more by masculinization of male non-target faces than female non-target faces. These results indicate that dominance perceptions can be altered by surrounding faces, demonstrating that facial dominance is judged at least partly relative to other faces.

Neuroelectrical Correlates of Trustworthiness and Dominance Judgments Related to the Observation of Political Candidates

PubMed Central

Vecchiato, Giovanni; Toppi, Jlenia; Maglione, Anton Giulio; Olejarczyk, Elzbieta; Astolfi, Laura; Mattia, Donatella; Colosimo, Alfredo; Babiloni, Fabio

2014-01-01

The present research investigates the neurophysiological activity elicited by fast observations of faces of real candidates during simulated political elections. We used simultaneous recording of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals as well as galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate (HR) as measurements of central and autonomic nervous systems. Twenty healthy subjects were asked to give judgments on dominance, trustworthiness, and a preference of vote related to the politicians' faces. We used high-resolution EEG techniques to map statistical differences of power spectral density (PSD) cortical activity onto a realistic head model as well as partial directed coherence (PDC) and graph theory metrics to estimate the functional connectivity networks and investigate the role of cortical regions of interest (ROIs). Behavioral results revealed that judgment of dominance trait is the most predictive of the outcome of the simulated elections. Statistical comparisons related to PSD and PDC values highlighted an asymmetry in the activation of frontal cortical areas associated with the valence of the judged trait as well as to the probability to cast the vote. Overall, our results highlight the existence of cortical EEG features which are correlated with the prediction of vote and with the judgment of trustworthy and dominant faces. PMID:25214884

Noninvasive studies of human visual cortex using neuromagnetic techniques

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aine, C.J.; George, J.S.; Supek, S.

1990-01-01

The major goals of noninvasive studies of the human visual cortex are: to increase knowledge of the functional organization of cortical visual pathways; and to develop noninvasive clinical tests for the assessment of cortical function. Noninvasive techniques suitable for studies of the structure and function of human visual cortex include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), scalp recorded event-related potentials (ERPs), and event-related magnetic fields (ERFs). The primary challenge faced by noninvasive functional measures is to optimize the spatial and temporal resolution of the measurement and analytic techniques in order to effectively characterizemore » the spatial and temporal variations in patterns of neuronal activity. In this paper we review the use of neuromagnetic techniques for this purpose. 8 refs., 3 figs.« less

Family environment influences emotion recognition following paediatric traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Schmidt, Adam T; Orsten, Kimberley D; Hanten, Gerri R; Li, Xiaoqi; Levin, Harvey S

2010-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between family functioning and performance on two tasks of emotion recognition (emotional prosody and face emotion recognition) and a cognitive control procedure (the Flanker task) following paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) or orthopaedic injury (OI). A total of 142 children (75 TBI, 67 OI) were assessed on three occasions: baseline, 3 months and 1 year post-injury on the two emotion recognition tasks and the Flanker task. Caregivers also completed the Life Stressors and Resources Scale (LISRES) on each occasion. Growth curve analysis was used to analyse the data. Results indicated that family functioning influenced performance on the emotional prosody and Flanker tasks but not on the face emotion recognition task. Findings on both the emotional prosody and Flanker tasks were generally similar across groups. However, financial resources emerged as significantly related to emotional prosody performance in the TBI group only (p = 0.0123). Findings suggest family functioning variables--especially financial resources--can influence performance on an emotional processing task following TBI in children.

Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces-One element of social cognition.

PubMed

Wilhelm, Oliver; Herzmann, Grit; Kunina, Olga; Danthiir, Vanessa; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2010-09-01

Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cognition. In 2 large individual differences experiments (N = 151 and N = 209), a broad variety of face-cognition tasks were tested and the component abilities of face cognition-face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition-were identified and then replicated. Experiment 2 also showed that the 3 face-cognition abilities are clearly distinct from immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. These results converge with functional and neuroanatomical models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face memory. The results also underline the importance of distinguishing between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Together our results provide a first step toward establishing face-processing abilities as an independent ability reflecting elements of social intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Normative beliefs about aggression and cyber aggression among young adults: a longitudinal investigation.

PubMed

Wright, Michelle F; Li, Yan

2013-01-01

This longitudinal study examined normative beliefs about aggression (e.g., face-to-face, cyber) in relation to the engagement in cyber aggression 6 months later among 126 (69 women) young adults. Participants completed electronically administered measures assessing their normative beliefs, face-to-face and cyber aggression at Time 1, and cyber aggression 6 months later (Time 2). We found that men reported more cyber relational and verbal aggression when compared to women. After controlling for each other, Time 1 face-to-face relational aggression was positively related to Time 2 cyber relational aggression, whereas Time 1 face-to-face verbal aggression was positively related to Time 2 cyber verbal aggression. Normative beliefs regarding cyber aggression was positively related to both forms of cyber aggression 6 months later, after controlling for normative beliefs about face-to-face aggression. Furthermore, a significant two-way interaction between Time 1 cyber relational aggression and normative beliefs about cyber relational aggression was found. Follow-up analysis showed that Time 1 cyber relational aggression was more strongly related to Time 2 cyber relational aggression when young adults held higher normative beliefs about cyber relational aggression. A similar two-way interaction was found for cyber verbal aggression such that the association between Time 1 and Time 2 cyber verbal aggression was stronger at higher levels of normative beliefs about cyber verbal aggression. Results are discussed in terms of the social cognitive and behavioral mechanisms associated with the engagement of cyber aggression. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Heterogeneity of amygdala response in major depressive disorder: the impact of lifetime subthreshold mania.

PubMed

Fournier, J C; Keener, M T; Mullin, B C; Hafeman, D M; Labarbara, E J; Stiffler, R S; Almeida, J; Kronhaus, D M; Frank, E; Phillips, M L

2013-02-01

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) present with highly heterogeneous symptom profiles. We aimed to examine whether individual differences in amygdala activity to emotionally salient stimuli were related to heterogeneity in lifetime levels of depressive and subthreshold manic symptoms among adults with MDD. We compared age- and gender-matched adults with MDD (n = 26) with healthy controls (HC, n = 28). While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants performed an implicit emotional faces task: they labeled a color flash superimposed upon initially neutral faces that dynamically morphed into one of four emotions (angry, fearful, sad, happy). Region of interest analyses examined group differences in amygdala activity. For conditions in which adults with MDD displayed abnormal amygdala activity versus HC, within-group analyses examined amygdala activity as a function of scores on a continuous measure of lifetime depression-related and mania-related pathology. Adults with MDD showed significantly greater right-sided amygdala activity to angry and happy conditions than HC (p < 0.05, corrected). Multiple regression analyses revealed that greater right-amygdala activity to the happy condition in adults with MDD was associated with higher levels of subthreshold manic symptoms experienced across the lifespan (p = 0.002). Among depressed adults with MDD, lifetime features of subthreshold mania were associated with abnormally elevated amygdala activity to emerging happy faces. These findings are a first step toward identifying biomarkers that reflect individual differences in neural mechanisms in MDD, and challenge conventional mood disorder diagnostic boundaries by suggesting that some adults with MDD are characterized by pathophysiological processes that overlap with bipolar disorder.

The neural correlates of affect reading: an fMRI study on faces and gestures.

PubMed

Prochnow, D; Höing, B; Kleiser, R; Lindenberg, R; Wittsack, H-J; Schäfer, R; Franz, M; Seitz, R J

2013-01-15

As complex social beings, people communicate, in addition to spoken language, also via nonverbal behavior. In social face-to-face situations, people readily read the affect and intentions of others in their face expressions and gestures recognizing their meaning. Importantly, the addressee further has to discriminate the meanings of the seen communicative motor acts in order to be able to react upon them appropriately. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study 15 healthy non-alexithymic right-handers observed video-clips that showed the dynamic evolution of emotional face expressions and gestures evolving from a neutral to a fully developed expression. We aimed at disentangling the cerebral circuits related to the observation of the incomplete and the subsequent discrimination of the evolved bodily expressions of emotion which are typical for everyday social situations. We show that the inferior temporal gyrus and the inferior and dorsal medial frontal cortex in both cerebral hemispheres were activated early in recognizing faces and gestures, while their subsequent discrimination involved the right dorsolateral frontal cortex. Interregional correlations showed that the involved regions constituted a widespread circuit allowing for a formal analysis of the seen expressions, their empathic processing and the subjective interpretation of their contextual meanings. Right-left comparisons revealed a greater activation of the right dorsal medial frontal cortex and the inferior temporal gyrus which supports the notion of a right hemispheric dominance for processing affective body expressions. These novel data provide a neurobiological basis for the intuitive understanding of other people which is relevant for socially appropriate decisions and intact social functioning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pain, physical functioning, and overeating in obese rheumatoid arthritis patients: do thoughts about pain and eating matter?

PubMed

Somers, Tamara J; Wren, Anava A; Blumenthal, James A; Caldwell, David; Huffman, Kim M; Keefe, Francis J

2014-08-01

Obese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have higher levels of pain, disability, and disease activity than do nonobese patients with RA. Patients' health-related thoughts about arthritis and weight may be important to consider in obese patients with RA who face the dual challenge of managing RA and weight. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships of pain catastrophizing, self-efficacy (ie, confidence) for arthritis management and self-efficacy for weight management to important outcomes in obese patients with RA. We expected that after controlling for demographic and medical variables, higher levels of pain catastrophizing and lower levels of confidence would account for significant and unique variance in pain, physical functioning, and overeating. Participants had a diagnosis of RA and a body mass index of 28 kg/m or greater and completed self-report questionnaires assessing pain, physical functioning, overeating, pain catastrophizing, self-efficacy for arthritis management, self-efficacy for weight management, and a 6-minute walk test. Pain catastrophizing, self-efficacy for arthritis, and self-efficacy for weight management were significantly and uniquely related to RA-related outcomes. Pain catastrophizing was a significant independent predictor of pain severity (β = 0.38); self-efficacy for arthritis was a significant independent predictor of self-report physical functioning (β = -0.37) and the 6-minute walk performance (β = 0.44), and self-efficacy for weight management was a significant independent predictor of overeating (β = -0.58). Pain catastrophizing, self-efficacy for arthritis, and self-efficacy for weight management each contributed uniquely to relate to key outcomes in obese patients with RA. Clinicians should consider assessment of thought processes when assessing and intervening with patients who face dual health challenges; unique intervention approaches may be needed for addressing the challenges of arthritis and weight.

Early Math Achievement and Functional Connectivity in the Fronto-Parietal Network

PubMed Central

Emerson, Robert W.; Cantlon, Jessica F.

2011-01-01

In this study we test the hypothesis that the functional connectivity of the frontal and parietal regions that children recruit during a basic numerical task (matching Arabic numerals to arrays of dots) is predictive of their math test scores (TEMA-3; Ginsburg 2003). Specifically, we tested 4- to 11-year-old children on a matching task during fMRI to localize a fronto-parietal network that responds more strongly during numerical matching than matching faces, words, or shapes. We then tested the functional connectivity between those regions during an independent task: natural viewing of an educational video that included math topics. Using this novel natural viewing method, we found that the connectivity between frontal and parietal regions during task-independent free-viewing of educational material is correlated with children's basic number matching ability, as well as their scores on the standardized test of mathematical ability (the TEMA). The correlation between children's mathematics scores and fronto-parietal connectivity is math-specific in the sense that it is independent of children's verbal IQ scores. Moreover, a control network, selective for faces, showed no correlation with mathematics performance. Finally, brain regions that correlate with subjects’ overall response times in the matching task do not account for our number- and math-related effects. We suggest that the functional intersection of number-related frontal and parietal regions is math-specific. PMID:22682903

Functional Alterations of Postcentral Gyrus Modulated by Angry Facial Expressions during Intraoral Tactile Stimuli in Patients with Burning Mouth Syndrome: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

PubMed Central

Yoshino, Atsuo; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Doi, Mitsuru; Okada, Go; Takamura, Masahiro; Ichikawa, Naho; Yamawaki, Shigeto

2017-01-01

Previous findings suggest that negative emotions could influence abnormal sensory perception in burning mouth syndrome (BMS). However, few studies have investigated the underlying neural mechanisms associated with BMS. We examined activation of brain regions in response to intraoral tactile stimuli when modulated by angry facial expressions. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on a group of 27 BMS patients and 21 age-matched healthy controls. Tactile stimuli were presented during different emotional contexts, which were induced via the continuous presentation of angry or neutral pictures of human faces. BMS patients exhibited higher tactile ratings and greater activation in the postcentral gyrus during the presentation of tactile stimuli involving angry faces relative to controls. Significant positive correlations between changes in brain activation elicited by angry facial images in the postcentral gyrus and changes in tactile rating scores by angry facial images were found for both groups. For BMS patients, there was a significant positive correlation between changes in tactile-related activation of the postcentral gyrus elicited by angry facial expressions and pain intensity in daily life. Findings suggest that neural responses in the postcentral gyrus are more strongly affected by angry facial expressions in BMS patients, which may reflect one possible mechanism underlying impaired somatosensory system function in this disorder. PMID:29163243

Stepped care versus face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy for panic disorder and social anxiety disorder: Predictors and moderators of outcome.

PubMed

Haug, Thomas; Nordgreen, Tine; Öst, Lars-Göran; Kvale, Gerd; Tangen, Tone; Andersson, Gerhard; Carlbring, Per; Heiervang, Einar R; Havik, Odd E

2015-08-01

To investigate predictors and moderators of treatment outcome by comparing immediate face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy (FtF-CBT) to a Stepped Care treatment model comprising three steps: Psychoeducation, Internet-delivered CBT, and FtF-CBT for panic disorder (PD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD). Patients (N = 173) were recruited from nine public mental health out-patient clinics and randomized to immediate FtF-CBT or Stepped Care treatment. Characteristics related to social functioning, impairment from the anxiety disorder, and comorbidity was investigated as predictors and moderators by treatment format and diagnosis in multiple regression analyses. Lower social functioning, higher impairment from the anxiety disorder, and a comorbid cluster C personality disorder were associated with significantly less improvement, particularly among patients with PD. Furthermore, having a comorbid anxiety disorder was associated with a better treatment outcome among patients with PD but not patients with SAD. Patients with a comorbid depression had similar outcomes from the different treatments, but patients without comorbid depression had better outcomes from immediate FtF-CBT compared to guided self-help. In general, the same patient characteristics appear to be associated with the treatment outcome for CBT provided in low- and high-intensity formats when treated in public mental health care clinics. The findings suggest that patients with lower social functioning and higher impairment from their anxiety disorder benefit less from these treatments and may require more adapted and extensive treatment. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: Identifier: NCT00619138. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissociable neural effects of stimulus valence and preceding context during the inhibition of responses to emotional faces.

PubMed

Schulz, Kurt P; Clerkin, Suzanne M; Halperin, Jeffrey M; Newcorn, Jeffrey H; Tang, Cheuk Y; Fan, Jin

2009-09-01

Socially appropriate behavior requires the concurrent inhibition of actions that are inappropriate in the context. This self-regulatory function requires an interaction of inhibitory and emotional processes that recruits brain regions beyond those engaged by either processes alone. In this study, we isolated brain activity associated with response inhibition and emotional processing in 24 healthy adults using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a go/no-go task that independently manipulated the context preceding no-go trials (ie, number of go trials) and the valence (ie, happy, sad, and neutral) of the face stimuli used as trial cues. Parallel quadratic trends were seen in correct inhibitions on no-go trials preceded by increasing numbers of go trials and associated activation for correct no-go trials in inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis, temporoparietal junction, superior parietal lobule, and temporal sensory association cortices. Conversely, the comparison of happy versus neutral faces and sad versus neutral faces revealed valence-dependent activation in the amygdala, anterior insula cortex, and posterior midcingulate cortex. Further, an interaction between inhibition and emotion was seen in valence-dependent variations in the quadratic trend in no-go activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and left posterior insula cortex. These results suggest that the inhibition of response to emotional cues involves the interaction of partly dissociable limbic and frontoparietal networks that encode emotional cues and use these cues to exert inhibitory control over the motor, attention, and sensory functions needed to perform the task, respectively. 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Face-name association task reveals memory networks in patients with left and right hippocampal sclerosis.

PubMed

Klamer, Silke; Milian, Monika; Erb, Michael; Rona, Sabine; Lerche, Holger; Ethofer, Thomas

2017-01-01

We aimed to identify reorganization processes of episodic memory networks in patients with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) due to hippocampal sclerosis as well as their relations to neuropsychological memory performance. We investigated 28 healthy subjects, 12 patients with left TLE (LTLE) and 9 patients with right TLE (RTLE) with hippocampal sclerosis by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a face-name association task, which combines verbal and non-verbal memory functions. Regions-of-interest (ROIs) were defined based on the group results of the healthy subjects. In each ROI, fMRI activations were compared across groups and correlated with verbal and non-verbal memory scores. The face-name association task yielded activations in bilateral hippocampus (HC), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral angular gyrus (AG), bilateral medial prefrontal cortex and right anterior temporal lobe (ATL). LTLE patients demonstrated significantly less activation in the left HC and left SFG, whereas RTLE patients showed significantly less activation in the HC bilaterally, the left SFG and right AG. Verbal memory scores correlated with activations in the left and right HC, left SFG and right ATL and non-verbal memory scores with fMRI activations in the left and right HC and left SFG. The face-name association task can be employed to examine functional alterations of hippocampal activation during encoding of both verbal and non-verbal material in one fMRI paradigm. Further, the left SFG seems to be a convergence region for encoding of verbal and non-verbal material.

Dissociating maternal responses to sad and happy facial expressions of their own child: An fMRI study

PubMed Central

Hindi Attar, Catherine; Stein, Jenny; Poppinga, Sina; Fydrich, Thomas; Jaite, Charlotte; Kappel, Viola; Brunner, Romuald; Herpertz, Sabine C.; Boedeker, Katja; Bermpohl, Felix

2017-01-01

Background Maternal sensitive behavior depends on recognizing one’s own child’s affective states. The present study investigated distinct and overlapping neural responses of mothers to sad and happy facial expressions of their own child (in comparison to facial expressions of an unfamiliar child). Methods We used functional MRI to measure dissociable and overlapping activation patterns in 27 healthy mothers in response to happy, neutral and sad facial expressions of their own school-aged child and a gender- and age-matched unfamiliar child. To investigate differential activation to sad compared to happy faces of one’s own child, we used interaction contrasts. During the scan, mothers had to indicate the affect of the presented face. After scanning, they were asked to rate the perceived emotional arousal and valence levels for each face using a 7-point Likert-scale (adapted SAM version). Results While viewing their own child’s sad faces, mothers showed activation in the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex whereas happy facial expressions of the own child elicited activation in the hippocampus. Conjoint activation in response to one’s own child happy and sad expressions was found in the insula and the superior temporal gyrus. Conclusions Maternal brain activations differed depending on the child’s affective state. Sad faces of the own child activated areas commonly associated with a threat detection network, whereas happy faces activated reward related brain areas. Overlapping activation was found in empathy related networks. These distinct neural activation patterns might facilitate sensitive maternal behavior. PMID:28806742

Mapping higher-order relations between brain structure and function with embedded vector representations of connectomes.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Gideon; Váša, František; Griffa, Alessandra; Hagmann, Patric; Amico, Enrico; Goñi, Joaquín; Avidan, Galia; Sporns, Olaf

2018-06-05

Connectomics generates comprehensive maps of brain networks, represented as nodes and their pairwise connections. The functional roles of nodes are defined by their direct and indirect connectivity with the rest of the network. However, the network context is not directly accessible at the level of individual nodes. Similar problems in language processing have been addressed with algorithms such as word2vec that create embeddings of words and their relations in a meaningful low-dimensional vector space. Here we apply this approach to create embedded vector representations of brain networks or connectome embeddings (CE). CE can characterize correspondence relations among brain regions, and can be used to infer links that are lacking from the original structural diffusion imaging, e.g., inter-hemispheric homotopic connections. Moreover, we construct predictive deep models of functional and structural connectivity, and simulate network-wide lesion effects using the face processing system as our application domain. We suggest that CE offers a novel approach to revealing relations between connectome structure and function.

rTMS to the right inferior parietal lobule disrupts self–other discrimination

PubMed Central

Uddin, Lucina Q.; Molnar-Szakacs, Istvan; Zaidel, Eran; Iacoboni, Marco

2006-01-01

Self–other discrimination is fundamental to social interaction, however, little is known about the neural systems underlying this ability. In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we demonstrated that a right fronto-parietal network is activated during viewing of self-faces as compared with the faces of familiar others. Here we used image-guided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to create a ‘virtual lesion’ over the parietal component of this network to test whether this region is necessary for discriminating self-faces from other familiar faces. The current results indeed show that 1 Hz rTMS to the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) selectively disrupts performance on a self–other discrimination task. Applying 1 Hz rTMS to the left IPL had no effect. It appears that activity in the right IPL is essential to the task, thus providing for the first time evidence for a causal relation between a human brain area and this high-level cognitive capacity. PMID:17387382

Dead space variability of face masks for valved holding chambers.

PubMed

Amirav, Israel; Newhouse, Michael T

2008-03-01

Valved holding chambers with masks are commonly used to deliver inhaled medications to young children with asthma. Optimal mask properties such as their dead space volume have received little attention. The smaller the mask the more likely it is that a greater proportion of the dose in the VHC will be inhaled with each breath, thus speeding VHC emptying and improving overall aerosol delivery efficiency and dose. Masks may have different DSV and thus different performance. To compare both physical dead space and functional dead space of different face masks under various applied pressures. The DSV of three commonly used face masks of VHCs was measured by water displacement both under various pressures (to simulate real-life application, dynamic DSV) and under no pressure (static DSV). There was a great variability of both static and dynamic dead space among various face mask for VHCs, which is probably related to their flexibility. Different masks have different DSV characteristics. This variability should be taken into account when comparing the clinical efficacy of various VHCs.

Us versus them: Political attitudes and party affiliation influence neural response to faces of presidential candidates.

PubMed

Kaplan, Jonas T; Freedman, Joshua; Iacoboni, Marco

2007-01-07

We investigated how political party affiliation and political attitudes modulate neural activity while viewing faces of presidential candidates. Ten registered Democrats and 10 registered Republicans were scanned in an event-related functional MRI paradigm while viewing pictures of the faces of George Bush, John Kerry, and Ralph Nader during the 2004 United States presidential campaign. We found that compared with viewing one's own candidate, viewing the candidate from the opposing political party produced signal changes in cognitive control circuitry in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate, as well as in emotional regions such as the insula and anterior temporal poles. BOLD signal in these regions correlated with subjects' self-reported ratings of how they felt emotionally about the candidates. These data suggest that brain activity when viewing a politician's face is affected by the political allegiance of the viewer and that people regulate their emotional reactions to opposing candidates by activating cognitive control networks.

Brain regions sensitive to the face inversion effect: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in humans.

PubMed

Leube, Dirk T; Yoon, Hyo Woon; Rapp, Alexander; Erb, Michael; Grodd, Wolfgang; Bartels, Mathias; Kircher, Tilo T J

2003-05-22

Perception of upright faces relies on configural processing. Therefore recognition of inverted, compared to upright faces is impaired. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment we investigated the neural correlate of a face inversion task. Thirteen healthy subjects were presented with a equal number of upright and inverted faces alternating with a low level baseline with an upright and inverted picture of an abstract symbol. Brain activation was calculated for upright minus inverted faces. For this differential contrast, we found a signal change in the right superior temporal sulcus and right insula. Configural properties are processed in a network comprising right superior temporal and insular cortex.

IQ, Fetal Testosterone and Individual Variability in Children's Functional Lateralization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercure, Evelyne; Ashwin, Emma; Dick, Frederic; Halit, Hanife; Auyeung, Bonnie; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Johnson, Mark H.

2009-01-01

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed that faces and words show a robust difference in the lateralization of their N170. The present study investigated the development of this differential lateralization in school-age boys. We assessed the potential role of fetal testosterone (FT) level as a factor biasing the prenatal…

A quantitative study of factors influencing quality of life in rural Mexican women diagnosed with HIV.

PubMed

Holtz, Carol; Sowell, Richard; VanBrackle, Lewis; Velasquez, Gabriela; Hernandez-Alonso, Virginia

2014-01-01

This quantitative study explored the level of Quality of Life (QoL) in indigenous Mexican women and identified psychosocial factors that significantly influenced their QoL, using face-to-face interviews with 101 women accessing care in an HIV clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico. Variables included demographic characteristics, levels of depression, coping style, family functioning, HIV-related beliefs, and QoL. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze participant characteristics, and women's scores on data collection instruments. Pearson's R correlational statistics were used to determine the level of significance between study variables. Multiple regression analysis examined all variables that were significantly related to QoL. Pearson's correlational analysis of relationships between Spirituality, Educating Self about HIV, Family Functioning, Emotional Support, Physical Care, and Staying Positive demonstrated positive correlation to QoL. Stigma, depression, and avoidance coping were significantly and negatively associated with QoL. The final regression model indicated that depression and avoidance coping were the best predictor variables for QoL. Copyright © 2014 Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Altered Automatic Face Processing in Individuals with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Visual Evoked Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fujita, Takako; Kamio, Yoko; Yamasaki, Takao; Yasumoto, Sawa; Hirose, Shinichi; Tobimatsu, Shozo

2013-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have different automatic responses to faces than typically developing (TD) individuals. We recorded visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in 10 individuals with high-functioning ASD (HFASD) and 10 TD individuals. Visual stimuli consisted of upright and inverted faces (fearful and neutral) and objects…

42 CFR 441.535 - Assessment of functional need.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Assessment of functional need. 441.535 Section 441...) § 441.535 Assessment of functional need. States must conduct a face-to-face assessment of the individual..., if applicable, service budget. (c) The assessment of functional need must be conducted at least every...

42 CFR 441.535 - Assessment of functional need.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Assessment of functional need. 441.535 Section 441...) § 441.535 Assessment of functional need. States must conduct a face-to-face assessment of the individual..., if applicable, service budget. (c) The assessment of functional need must be conducted at least every...

42 CFR 441.535 - Assessment of functional need.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Assessment of functional need. 441.535 Section 441...) § 441.535 Assessment of functional need. States must conduct a face-to-face assessment of the individual..., if applicable, service budget. (c) The assessment of functional need must be conducted at least every...

Intergroup contact and team functioning among nursing students: the mediation role of intergroup anxiety.

PubMed

Marletta, Giuseppe; Sarli, Leopoldo; Caricati, Luca; Mancini, Tiziana

2017-07-18

The improvement of team effectivity is one of the main concerns for healthcare organizations. Moreover, healthcare organizations must cope with increasing multicultural composition of both workforce and patients. The intergroup contact theory suggests that frequent and positive face-to-face contact among professionals or students with different cultural heritage can help to reach both increasing team effectiveness and adequate care in a multicultural setting. The aim was then to verify whether intergroup contact during practical training would decrease intergroup anxiety and then increase team functioning. A cross-sectional design was used in which a questionnaire was delivered to 83 nursing students. According to the intergroup contact theory, frequent and positive contact with non-native professionals decreased the intergroup anxiety which, in turn, increased prejudice and, more importantly, decreased team functioning. Moreover, intergroup anxiety showed a complete mediation effect on the relations between intergroup contact during practical training and both negative attitude toward immigrants and team functioning. Intergroup contact with non-native professionals or students during practical training is able to indirectly decrease prejudice and improve team functioning by lowering the anxiety that is aroused by encounter with non-native individuals.

Two different mirror neuron networks: The sensorimotor (hand) and limbic (face) pathways.

PubMed

Ferrari, P F; Gerbella, M; Coudé, G; Rozzi, S

2017-09-01

The vast majority of functional studies investigating mirror neurons (MNs) explored their properties in relation to hand actions, and very few investigated how MNs respond to mouth actions or communicative gestures. Since hand and mouth MNs were recorded in two partially overlapping sectors of the ventral precentral cortex of the macaque monkey, there is a general assumption that they share a same neuroanatomical network, with the parietal cortex as a main source of visual information. In the current review, we challenge this perspective and describe the connectivity pattern of mouth MN sector. The mouth MNs F5/opercular region is connected with premotor, parietal areas mostly related to the somatosensory and motor representation of the face/mouth, and with area PrCO, involved in processing gustatory and somatosensory intraoral input. Unlike hand MNs, mouth MNs do not receive their visual input from parietal regions. Such information related to face/communicative behaviors could come from the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Further strong connections derive from limbic structures involved in encoding emotional facial expressions and motivational/reward processing. These brain structures include the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior and mid-dorsal insula, orbitofrontal cortex and the basolateral amygdala. The mirror mechanism is therefore composed and supported by at least two different anatomical pathways: one is concerned with sensorimotor transformation in relation to reaching and hand grasping within the traditional parietal-premotor circuits; the second one is linked to the mouth/face motor control and is connected with limbic structures, involved in communication/emotions and reward processing. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Physical functions, health-related outcomes, nutritional status, and blood markers in community-dwelling cancer survivors aged 75 years and older.

PubMed

Ihira, Hikaru; Mizumoto, Atsushi; Makino, Keitarou; Yasuda, Keisuke; Yoko, Yoko; Saitoh, Shigeyuki; Ohnishi, Hirofumi; Furuna, Taketo

2014-01-01

A cancer survivor is defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the rest of their life. The purpose of this study was to examine whether physical functions, health-related outcomes, nutritional status and blood markers in community-dwelling cancer survivors aged 75 years and older are different from those who do not have cancer Two hundred seventy-five participants were asked by physicians, nurses, and physical therapists, questions regarding cancer history in a face-to-face interview. Data were collected for demographic information, physical functions, such as handgrip strength, knee extension power, abdominal muscle strength, static standing balance, walking speed and the timed-up-and-go test, health-related outcomes, nutritional status, and blood markers. The measured parameters of survivor diagnosed with cancer were compared with those without a history of cancer. Thirty-seven older adults were previously diagnosed with cancer. Female cancer survivors had lower knee extension power (p<0.05), abdominal muscle strength (p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.05), timed-up-and-go test score (p<0.05), and time to spend on walking per day (p<0.05) than older women without a history of cancer. In men, none of the measured parameters were significantly different between cancer survivors and older men with no history of cancer. The present study shows that partial physical function of women cancer survivors aged 75 years and older differs from that in women with no history of cancer.

Psychosocial aspects of infertility and its treatment.

PubMed

Malina, Alicja; Błaszkiewicz, Anna; Owczarz, Urszula

2016-01-01

Nowadays, more and more couples face impediments associated with conception. Infertility is related with experiencing psychological problems by both partners. One of the infertility treatment procedures is in vitro fertilization. Using this method has significant influence on patients and their family's psychology. This essay reviews literature about IVF treatment and discusses the significance of infertility to a couple, children development and psychosocial functioning, their relation with parents and public opinion about in vitro fertilization.

Illumination normalization of face image based on illuminant direction estimation and improved Retinex.

PubMed

Yi, Jizheng; Mao, Xia; Chen, Lijiang; Xue, Yuli; Rovetta, Alberto; Caleanu, Catalin-Daniel

2015-01-01

Illumination normalization of face image for face recognition and facial expression recognition is one of the most frequent and difficult problems in image processing. In order to obtain a face image with normal illumination, our method firstly divides the input face image into sixteen local regions and calculates the edge level percentage in each of them. Secondly, three local regions, which meet the requirements of lower complexity and larger average gray value, are selected to calculate the final illuminant direction according to the error function between the measured intensity and the calculated intensity, and the constraint function for an infinite light source model. After knowing the final illuminant direction of the input face image, the Retinex algorithm is improved from two aspects: (1) we optimize the surround function; (2) we intercept the values in both ends of histogram of face image, determine the range of gray levels, and stretch the range of gray levels into the dynamic range of display device. Finally, we achieve illumination normalization and get the final face image. Unlike previous illumination normalization approaches, the method proposed in this paper does not require any training step or any knowledge of 3D face and reflective surface model. The experimental results using extended Yale face database B and CMU-PIE show that our method achieves better normalization effect comparing with the existing techniques.

Neural Markers in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Familial Risk for Bipolar Disorder.

PubMed

Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Brotman, Melissa A; Adleman, Nancy E; Kim, Pilyoung; Wambach, Caroline G; Reynolds, Richard C; Chen, Gang; Towbin, Kenneth; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen

2017-01-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) is highly heritable. Neuroimaging studies comparing unaffected youth at high familial risk for BD (i.e., those with a first-degree relative with the disorder; termed "high-risk" [HR]) to "low-risk" (LR) youth (i.e., those without a first-degree relative with BD) and to patients with BD may help identify potential brain-based markers associated with risk (i.e., regions where HR+BD≠LR), resilience (HR≠BD+LR), or illness (BD≠HR+LR). During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 99 youths (i.e., adolescents and young adults) aged 9.8 to 24.8 years (36 BD, 22 HR, 41 LR) performed a task probing face emotion labeling, previously shown to be impaired behaviorally in youth with BD and HR youth. We found three patterns of results. Candidate risk endophenotypes (i.e., where BD and HR shared deficits) included dysfunction in higher-order face processing regions (e.g., middle temporal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Candidate resilience markers and disorder sequelae (where HR and BD, respectively, show unique alterations relative to the other two groups) included different patterns of neural responses across other regions mediating face processing (e.g., fusiform), executive function (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus), and social cognition (e.g., default network, superior temporal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction). If replicated in longitudinal studies and with additional populations, neural patterns suggesting risk endophenotypes could be used to identify individuals at risk for BD who may benefit from prevention measures. Moreover, information about risk and resilience markers could be used to develop novel treatments that recruit neural markers of resilience and attenuate neural patterns associated with risk. Clinical trial registration information-Studies of Brain Function and Course of Illness in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Child and Adolescent Bipolar Disorder Brain Imaging and Treatment Study; http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00025935 and NCT00006177. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion Within the Macaque Face-Processing System

PubMed Central

Fisher, Clark; Freiwald, Winrich A.

2014-01-01

SUMMARY Facial motion transmits rich and ethologically vital information [1, 2], but how the brain interprets this complex signal is poorly understood. Facial form is analyzed by anatomically distinct face patches in the macaque brain [3, 4], and facial motion activates these patches and surrounding areas [5, 6]. Yet it is not known whether facial motion is processed by its own distinct and specialized neural machinery, and if so, what that machinery’s organization might be. To address these questions, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the brain activity of macaque monkeys while they viewed low- and high-level motion and form stimuli. We found that, beyond classical motion areas and the known face patch system, moving faces recruited a heretofore-unrecognized face patch. Although all face patches displayed distinctive selectivity for face motion over object motion, only two face patches preferred naturally moving faces, while three others preferred randomized, rapidly varying sequences of facial form. This functional divide was anatomically specific, segregating dorsal from ventral face patches, thereby revealing a new organizational principle of the macaque face-processing system. PMID:25578903

The Epidemiology of Chronic Major Depressive Disorder and Dysthymic Disorder: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

PubMed Central

Blanco, Carlos; Okuda, Mayumi; Markowitz, John C.; Liu, Shang-Min; Grant, Bridget F.; Hasin, Deborah S.

2011-01-01

Objective To examine the prevalence of chronic major depressive disorder (CMDD) and dysthymic disorder (DD), their sociodemographic correlates, patterns of 12-month and lifetime psychiatric comorbidity, lifetime risk factors, psychosocial functioning, and mental health service utilization. Method Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (n = 43,093). Results The 12-month and lifetime prevalence were greater for CMDD (1.5% and 3.1%) than for DD (0.5% and 0.9%). Individuals with CMDD and DD shared most sociodemographic correlates and lifetime risk factors for MDD. Individuals with CMDD and DD had almost identically high rates of Axis I and Axis II comorbid disorders. However, individuals with CMDD received higher rates of all treatment modalities than individuals with DD. Conclusion Individuals with CMDD and DD share many sociodemographic correlates, comorbidity patterns, risk factors, and course. Individuals with chronic depressive disorders, especially those with DD, continue to face substantial unmet treatment needs. PMID:21190638

The epidemiology of chronic major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

PubMed

Blanco, Carlos; Okuda, Mayumi; Markowitz, John C; Liu, Shang-Min; Grant, Bridget F; Hasin, Deborah S

2010-12-01

To examine the prevalence of chronic major depressive disorder (CMDD) and dysthymic disorder, their sociodemographic correlates, patterns of 12-month and lifetime psychiatric comorbidity, lifetime risk factors, psychosocial functioning, and mental health service utilization. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (n = 43,093). The 12-month and lifetime prevalences were greater for CMDD (1.5% and 3.1%, respectively) than for dysthymic disorder (0.5% and 0.9%, respectively). Individuals with CMDD and dysthymic disorder shared most sociodemographic correlates and lifetime risk factors for major depressive disorder. Individuals with CMDD and dysthymic disorder had almost identically high rates of Axis I and Axis II comorbid disorders. However, individuals with CMDD received higher rates of all treatment modalities than individuals with dysthymic disorder. Individuals with CMDD and dysthymic disorder share many sociodemographic correlates, comorbidity patterns, risk factors, and course. Individuals with chronic depressive disorders, especially those with dysthymic disorder, continue to face substantial unmet treatment needs. © Copyright 2010 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Effects of color information on face processing using event-related potentials and gamma oscillations.

PubMed

Minami, T; Goto, K; Kitazaki, M; Nakauchi, S

2011-03-10

In humans, face configuration, contour and color may affect face perception, which is important for social interactions. This study aimed to determine the effect of color information on face perception by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) during the presentation of natural- and bluish-colored faces. Our results demonstrated that the amplitude of the N170 event-related potential, which correlates strongly with face processing, was higher in response to a bluish-colored face than to a natural-colored face. However, gamma-band activity was insensitive to the deviation from a natural face color. These results indicated that color information affects the N170 associated with a face detection mechanism, which suggests that face color is important for face detection. Copyright © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Encoding and immediate retrieval tasks in patients with epilepsy: A functional MRI study of verbal and visual memory.

PubMed

Saddiki, Najat; Hennion, Sophie; Viard, Romain; Ramdane, Nassima; Lopes, Renaud; Baroncini, Marc; Szurhaj, William; Reyns, Nicolas; Pruvo, Jean Pierre; Delmaire, Christine

2018-05-01

Medial lobe temporal structures and more specifically the hippocampus play a decisive role in episodic memory. Most of the memory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies evaluate the encoding phase; the retrieval phase being performed outside the MRI. We aimed to determine the ability to reveal greater hippocampal fMRI activations during retrieval phase. Thirty-five epileptic patients underwent a two-step memory fMRI. During encoding phase, subjects were requested to identify the feminine or masculine gender of faces and words presented, in order to encourage stimulus encoding. One hour after, during retrieval phase, subjects had to recognize the word and face. We used an event-related design to identify hippocampal activations. There was no significant difference between patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy, patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy and patients with extratemporal lobe epilepsy on verbal and visual learning task. For words, patients demonstrated significantly more bilateral hippocampal activation for retrieval task than encoding task and when the tasks were associated than during encoding alone. Significant difference was seen between face-encoding alone and face retrieval alone. This study demonstrates the essential contribution of the retrieval task during a fMRI memory task but the number of patients with hippocampal activations was greater when the two tasks were taken into account. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Social incentives improve deliberative but not procedural learning in older adults.

PubMed

Gorlick, Marissa A; Maddox, W Todd

2015-01-01

Age-related deficits are seen across tasks where learning depends on asocial feedback processing, however plasticity has been observed in some of the same tasks in social contexts suggesting a novel way to attenuate deficits. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this plasticity is due to a deliberative motivational shift toward achieving well-being with age (positivity effect) that reverses when executive processes are limited (negativity effect). The present study examined the interaction of feedback valence (positive, negative) and social salience (emotional face feedback - happy; angry, asocial point feedback - gain; loss) on learning in a deliberative task that challenges executive processes and a procedural task that does not. We predict that angry face feedback will improve learning in a deliberative task when executive function is challenged. We tested two competing hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of deliberative emotional biases on automatic feedback processing: (1) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are interactive we expect happy face feedback to improve learning and angry face feedback to impair learning in older adults because cognitive control is available. (2) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are not interactive we predict that emotional face feedback will not improve procedural learning regardless of valence. Results demonstrate that older adults show persistent deficits relative to younger adults during procedural category learning suggesting that deliberative emotional biases do not interact with automatic feedback processing. Interestingly, a subgroup of older adults identified as potentially using deliberative strategies tended to learn as well as younger adults with angry relative to happy feedback, matching the pattern observed in the deliberative task. Results suggest that deliberative emotional biases can improve deliberative learning, but have no effect on procedural learning.

Long-term neuroplasticity of the face primary motor cortex and adjacent somatosensory cortex induced by tooth loss can be reversed following dental implant replacement in rats.

PubMed

Avivi-Arber, Limor; Lee, Jye-Chang; Sood, Mandeep; Lakschevitz, Flavia; Fung, Michelle; Barashi-Gozal, Maayan; Glogauer, Michael; Sessle, Barry J

2015-11-01

Tooth loss is common, and exploring the neuroplastic capacity of the face primary motor cortex (face-M1) and adjacent primary somatosensory cortex (face-S1) is crucial for understanding how subjects adapt to tooth loss and their prosthetic replacement. The aim was to test if functional reorganization of jaw and tongue motor representations in the rat face-M1 and face-S1 occurs following tooth extraction, and if subsequent dental implant placement can reverse this neuroplasticity. Rats (n = 22) had the right maxillary molar teeth extracted under local and general anesthesia. One month later, seven rats had dental implant placement into healed extraction sites. Naive rats (n = 8) received no surgical treatment. Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) and recording of evoked jaw and tongue electromyographic responses were used to define jaw and tongue motor representations at 1 month (n = 8) or 2 months (n = 7) postextraction, 1 month postimplant placement, and at 1-2 months in naive rats. There were no significant differences across study groups in the onset latencies of the ICMS-evoked responses (P > 0.05), but in comparison with naive rats, tooth extraction caused a significant (P < 0.05) and sustained (1-2 months) decreased number of ICMS-defined jaw and tongue sites within face-M1 and -S1, and increased thresholds of ICMS-evoked responses in these sites. Furthermore, dental implant placement reversed the extraction-induced changes in face-S1, and in face-M1 the number of jaw sites even increased as compared to naive rats. These novel findings suggest that face-M1 and adjacent face-S1 may play a role in adaptive mechanisms related to tooth loss and their replacement with dental implants. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotion Recognition in Faces and the Use of Visual Context in Young People with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Barry; Clarke, Natalie; Jordan, Jo; Young, Andrew W.; Clarke, Paula; Miles, Jeremy; Nation, Kate; Clarke, Leesa; Williams, Christine

2008-01-01

We compared young people with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with age, sex and IQ matched controls on emotion recognition of faces and pictorial context. Each participant completed two tests of emotion recognition. The first used Ekman series faces. The second used facial expressions in visual context. A control task involved…

Face Memory and Object Recognition in Children with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome and in Their Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuusikko-Gauffin, Sanna; Jansson-Verkasalo, Eira; Carter, Alice; Pollock-Wurman, Rachel; Jussila, Katja; Mattila, Marja-Leena; Rahko, Jukka; Ebeling, Hanna; Pauls, David; Moilanen, Irma

2011-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have reported to have impairments in face, recognition and face memory, but intact object recognition and object memory. Potential abnormalities, in these fields at the family level of high-functioning children with ASD remains understudied despite, the ever-mounting evidence that ASDs are genetic and…

Challenges Facing 3-D Audio Display Design for Multimedia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Begault, Durand R.; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

The challenges facing successful multimedia presentation depend largely on the expectations of the designer and end user for a given application. Perceptual limitations in distance, elevation and azimuth sound source simulation differ significantly between headphone and cross-talk cancellation loudspeaker listening and therefore must be considered. Simulation of an environmental context is desirable but the quality depends on processing resources and lack of interaction with the host acoustical environment. While techniques such as data reduction of head-related transfer functions have been used widely to improve simulation fidelity, another approach involves determining thresholds for environmental acoustic events. Psychoacoustic studies relevant to this approach are reviewed in consideration of multimedia applications

Faces in-between: evaluations reflect the interplay of facial features and task-dependent fluency.

PubMed

Winkielman, Piotr; Olszanowski, Michal; Gola, Mateusz

2015-04-01

Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and trustworthy when they have more smiling features and also more female features. However, the influence of facial features on evaluations should be qualified by the affective consequences of fluency (cognitive ease) with which such features are processed. Further, fluency (along with its affective consequences) should depend on whether the current task highlights conflict between specific features. Four experiments are presented. In 3 experiments, participants saw faces varying in expressions ranging from pure anger, through mixed expression, to pure happiness. Perceivers first categorized faces either on a control dimension, or an emotional dimension (angry/happy). Thus, the emotional categorization task made "pure" expressions fluent and "mixed" expressions disfluent. Next, participants made social evaluations. Results show that after emotional categorization, but not control categorization, targets with mixed expressions are relatively devalued. Further, this effect is mediated by categorization disfluency. Additional data from facial electromyography reveal that on a basic physiological level, affective devaluation of mixed expressions is driven by their objective ambiguity. The fourth experiment shows that the relative devaluation of mixed faces that vary in gender ambiguity requires a gender categorization task. Overall, these studies highlight that the impact of facial features on evaluation is qualified by their fluency, and that the fluency of features is a function of the current task. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on emotional reactions to ambiguity. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Recognition of face and non-face stimuli in autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Arkush, Leo; Smith-Collins, Adam P R; Fiorentini, Chiara; Skuse, David H

2013-12-01

The ability to remember faces is critical for the development of social competence. From childhood to adulthood, we acquire a high level of expertise in the recognition of facial images, and neural processes become dedicated to sustaining competence. Many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor face recognition memory; changes in hairstyle or other non-facial features in an otherwise familiar person affect their recollection skills. The observation implies that they may not use the configuration of the inner face to achieve memory competence, but bolster performance in other ways. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of a group of high-functioning unmedicated adolescents with ASD and a matched control group on a "surprise" face recognition memory task. We compared their memory for unfamiliar faces with their memory for images of houses. To evaluate the role that is played by peripheral cues in assisting recognition memory, we cropped both sets of pictures, retaining only the most salient central features. ASD adolescents had poorer recognition memory for faces than typical controls, but their recognition memory for houses was unimpaired. Cropping images of faces did not disproportionately influence their recall accuracy, relative to controls. House recognition skills (cropped and uncropped) were similar in both groups. In the ASD group only, performance on both sets of task was closely correlated, implying that memory for faces and other complex pictorial stimuli is achieved by domain-general (non-dedicated) cognitive mechanisms. Adolescents with ASD apparently do not use domain-specialized processing of inner facial cues to support face recognition memory. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Parametric modulation of neural activity during face emotion processing in unaffected youth at familial risk for bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Brotman, Melissa A; Deveney, Christen M; Thomas, Laura A; Hinton, Kendra E; Yi, Jennifer Y; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen

2014-11-01

Both patients with pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and unaffected youth at familial risk (AR) for the illness show impairments in face emotion labeling. Few studies, however, have examined brain regions engaged in AR youth when processing emotional faces. Moreover, studies have yet to explore neural responsiveness to subtle changes in face emotion in AR youth. Sixty-four unrelated youth, including 20 patients with BD, 15 unaffected AR youth, and 29 healthy comparisons (HC), completed functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neutral faces were morphed with angry or happy faces in 25% intervals. In specific phases of the task, youth alternatively made explicit (hostility) or implicit (nose width) ratings of the faces. The slope of blood oxygenated level-dependent activity was calculated across neutral to angry and neutral to happy face stimuli. Behaviorally, both subjects with BD (p ≤ 0.001) and AR youth (p ≤ 0.05) rated faces as less hostile relative to HC. Consistent with this, in response to increasing anger on the face, patients with BD and AR youth showed decreased modulation in the amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; BA 46) compared to HC (all p ≤ 0.05). Amygdala dysfunction was present across both implicit and explicit rating conditions, but IFG modulation deficits were specific to the explicit condition. With increasing happiness, AR youth showed aberrant modulation in the IFG, which was also sensitive to task demands (all p ≤ 0.05). Decreased amygdala and IFG modulation in patients with BD and AR youth may be pathophysiological risk markers for BD, and may underlie the social cognition and face emotion labeling deficits observed in BD and AR youth. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Prefrontal Reactivity to Social Signals of Threat as a Predictor of Treatment Response in Anxious Youth

PubMed Central

Kujawa, Autumn; Swain, James E; Hanna, Gregory L; Koschmann, Elizabeth; Simpson, David; Connolly, Sucheta; Fitzgerald, Kate D; Monk, Christopher S; Phan, K Luan

2016-01-01

Neuroimaging has shown promise as a tool to predict likelihood of treatment response in adult anxiety disorders, with potential implications for clinical decision-making. Despite the relatively high prevalence and emergence of anxiety disorders in youth, very little work has evaluated neural predictors of response to treatment. The goal of the current study was to examine brain function during emotional face processing as a predictor of response to treatment in children and adolescents (age 7–19 years; N=41) with generalized, social, and/or separation anxiety disorder. Prior to beginning treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline or cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), participants completed an emotional faces matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Whole brain responses to threatening (ie, angry and fearful) and happy faces were examined as predictors of change in anxiety severity following treatment. Greater activation in inferior and superior frontal gyri, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, as well as precentral/postcentral gyri during processing of threatening faces predicted greater response to CBT and SSRI treatment. For processing of happy faces, activation in postcentral gyrus was a significant predictor of treatment response. Post-hoc analyses indicated that effects were not significantly moderated by type of treatment. Findings suggest that greater activation in prefrontal regions involved in appraising and regulating responses to social signals of threat predict better response to SSRI and CBT treatment in anxious youth and that neuroimaging may be a useful tool for predicting how youth will respond to treatment. PMID:26708107

Cross-Hemispheric Collaboration and Segregation Associated with Task Difficulty as Revealed by Structural and Functional Connectivity

PubMed Central

Cabeza, Roberto

2015-01-01

Although it is known that brain regions in one hemisphere may interact very closely with their corresponding contralateral regions (collaboration) or operate relatively independent of them (segregation), the specific brain regions (where) and conditions (how) associated with collaboration or segregation are largely unknown. We investigated these issues using a split field-matching task in which participants matched the meaning of words or the visual features of faces presented to the same (unilateral) or to different (bilateral) visual fields. Matching difficulty was manipulated by varying the semantic similarity of words or the visual similarity of faces. We assessed the white matter using the fractional anisotropy (FA) measure provided by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and cross-hemispheric communication in terms of fMRI-based connectivity between homotopic pairs of cortical regions. For both perceptual and semantic matching, bilateral trials became faster than unilateral trials as difficulty increased (bilateral processing advantage, BPA). The study yielded three novel findings. First, whereas FA in anterior corpus callosum (genu) correlated with word-matching BPA, FA in posterior corpus callosum (splenium-occipital) correlated with face-matching BPA. Second, as matching difficulty intensified, cross-hemispheric functional connectivity (CFC) increased in domain-general frontopolar cortex (for both word and face matching) but decreased in domain-specific ventral temporal lobe regions (temporal pole for word matching and fusiform gyrus for face matching). Last, a mediation analysis linking DTI and fMRI data showed that CFC mediated the effect of callosal FA on BPA. These findings clarify the mechanisms by which the hemispheres interact to perform complex cognitive tasks. PMID:26019335

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy diminishes functional connectivity during emotion perception.

PubMed

Steiger, Bettina K; Muller, Angela M; Spirig, Esther; Toller, Gianina; Jokeit, Hennric

2017-08-01

Unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) has been associated with impaired recognition of emotional facial expressions. Correspondingly, imaging studies showed decreased activity of the amygdala and cortical face processing regions in response to emotional faces. However, functional connectivity among regions involved in emotion perception has not been studied so far. To address this, we examined intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) modulated by the perception of dynamic fearful faces among the amygdala and limbic, frontal, temporal and brainstem regions. Regions of interest were identified in an activation analysis by presenting a block-design with dynamic fearful faces and dynamic landscapes to 15 healthy individuals. This led to 10 predominately right-hemispheric regions. Functional connectivity between these regions during the perception of fearful faces was examined in drug-refractory patients with left- (n=16) or right-sided (n=17) MTLE, epilepsy patients with extratemporal seizure onset (n=15) and a second group of 15 healthy controls. Healthy controls showed a widespread functional network modulated by the perception of fearful faces that encompassed bilateral amygdalae, limbic, cortical, subcortical and brainstem regions. In patients with left MTLE, a downsized network of frontal and temporal regions centered on the right amygdala was present. Patients with right MTLE showed almost no significant functional connectivity. A maintained network in the epilepsy control group indicates that findings in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy could not be explained by clinical factors such as seizures and antiepileptic medication. Functional networks underlying facial emotion perception are considerably changed in left and right MTLE. Alterations are present for both hemispheres in either MTLE group, but are more pronounced in right MTLE. Disruption of the functional network architecture possibly contributes to deficits in facial emotion recognition frequently reported in MTLE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Age-Related Effects of the Apolipoprotein E Gene on Brain Function.

PubMed

Matura, Silke; Prvulovic, David; Hartmann, Daniel; Scheibe, Monika; Sepanski, Beate; Butz, Marius; Oertel-Knöchel, Viola; Knöchel, Christian; Karakaya, Tarik; Fußer, Fabian; Hattingen, Elke; Pantel, Johannes

2016-03-16

The apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ɛ4 allele is a well-established genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Some evidence suggests a negative role of the ApoE ɛ4 allele for cognitive performance in late life, while beneficial effects on cognition have been shown in young age. We investigated age-related effects of the ApoE gene on brain function by assessing cognitive performance, as well as functional activation patterns during retrieval of Face-Name pairs in a group of young (n = 50; age 26.4±4.6 years, 25 ɛ4 carriers) and old (n = 40; age 66.1±7.0 years, 20 ɛ4 carriers) participants. A cross-sectional factorial design was used to examine the effects of age, ApoE genotype, and their interaction on both cognitive performance and the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) brain response during retrieval of Face-Name pairs. While there were no genotype-related differences in cognitive performance, we found a significant interaction of age and ApoE genotype on task-related activation bilaterally in anterior cingulate gyrus and superior frontal gyrus, as well as left and right insula. Old age was associated with increased activity in ɛ4 carriers. The increased BOLD response in old ɛ4 carriers during retrieval could indicate a neurocognitive disadvantage associated with the ɛ4 allele with increasing age. Furthermore, recruitment of neuronal resources resulted in enhanced memory performance in young ɛ4 carriers, pointing to a better neurofunctional capacity associated with the ApoE4 genotype in young age.

The influence of oxytocin administration on responses to infant faces and potential moderation by OXTR genotype.

PubMed

Marsh, Abigail A; Yu, Henry H; Pine, Daniel S; Gorodetsky, Elena K; Goldman, David; Blair, R J R

2012-12-01

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is associated with increases in social affiliative behaviors, particularly toward infants. However, no previous study has investigated healthy adults' responses to infant faces following oxytocin administration. In addition, given that preliminary evidence suggests that a single-nucleotide polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene, rs53576, may influence behaviors associated with parental sensitivity, we assessed whether such responses vary according to OXTR rs53576 genotype. The present study assessed the effects of intranasally administered oxytocin and OXTR genotype on human adults' preferences for infant faces. A double-blind, between-groups design was used, with 57 genotyped volunteers randomly assigned to receive intranasally administered oxytocin or placebo. Fifty minutes following the administration of oxytocin or placebo, participants viewed infants' and adults' faces showing neutral expressions and assessed how appealing they found each face. Infants' faces were more strongly preferred following oxytocin inhalation relative to placebo. When participants were separated according to genotype, this effect was only observed for participants homozygous for the rs53576G allele. Parallel effects were not seen for adults' faces. The present results are consistent with the hypothesis that acute oxytocin administration increases sensitivity to reward-relevant features of infants and/or reduces sensitivity to their aversive properties. The results are also consistent with suggestions of more efficient oxytocinergic function in rs53576G homozygotes.

Assessing facial attractiveness: individual decisions and evolutionary constraints

PubMed Central

Kocsor, Ferenc; Feldmann, Adam; Bereczkei, Tamas; Kállai, János

2013-01-01

Background Several studies showed that facial attractiveness, as a highly salient social cue, influences behavioral responses. It has also been found that attractive faces evoke distinctive neural activation compared to unattractive or neutral faces. Objectives Our aim was to design a face recognition task where individual preferences for facial cues are controlled for, and to create conditions that are more similar to natural circumstances in terms of decision making. Design In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, subjects were shown attractive and unattractive faces, categorized on the basis of their own individual ratings. Results Statistical analysis of all subjects showed elevated brain activation for attractive opposite-sex faces in contrast to less attractive ones in regions that previously have been reported to show enhanced activation with increasing attractiveness level (e.g. the medial and superior occipital gyri, fusiform gyrus, precentral gyrus, and anterior cingular cortex). Besides these, females showed additional brain activation in areas thought to be involved in basic emotions and desires (insula), detection of facial emotions (superior temporal gyrus), and memory retrieval (hippocampus). Conclusions From these data, we speculate that because of the risks involving mate choice faced by women during evolutionary times, selection might have preferred the development of an elaborated neural system in females to assess the attractiveness and social value of male faces. PMID:24693356

Making Behavior Change Interventions Available to Young African American Women: Development and Feasibility of an eHealth Lifestyle Program.

PubMed

Staffileno, Beth A; Tangney, Christy C; Fogg, Louis; Darmoc, Rebecca

2015-01-01

Less is known about young African American (AA) women, largely because the young are hard to reach. Traditional approaches to behavior changes interventions impose several challenges, especially for AA women at risk for developing hypertension. This feasibility study describes the process of transforming a face-to-face lifestyle change intervention into a Web-based platform (eHealth) accessible by iPads, iPhones, smartphones, and personal computers. Four sequential phases were conducted using elements of formative evaluation and quantitative analysis. A convenience sample of AA women, aged 18 to 45 years, with self-reported prehypertension and regular access to the Internet were eligible to participate. Eleven women involved in phase 1 expressed that they (1) currently use the Internet to retrieve health-related information, (2) prefer to use the Internet rather than face-to-face contact for nonserious conditions, (3) need convenience and easily accessible health-related interventions, and (4) are amenable to the idea of an eHealth lifestyle modification program. During phase 2, learning modules derived from printed manuals were adapted and compressed for a Web audience. The modules were designed to present evidence-based content but allowed for tailoring and individualization according to the needs of the target population. During phase 3, 8 women provided formative information concerning appeal and usability of the eHealth program in relation to delivery, visual quality, interactivity, and engagement. Phase 4 involved 8 women beta testing the 12-week program, with a 63% completion rate. Most of the women agreed that the program and screens opened with ease, the functions on the screens did what they were supposed to do, and the discussion board was easy to access. Program completion was greater for physical activity compared with dietary content. This study outlines a step-by-step process for transforming face-to-face content into a Web-based platform, which, importantly, can serve as a template for promoting other health behaviors.

Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition between First Episode Psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls

PubMed Central

Gonzalez de Artaza, Maider; Bustamante, Sonia; Orgaz, Pablo; Osa, Luis; Angosto, Virxinia; Valverde, Cristina; Bilbao, Amaia; Madrazo, Arantza; van Os, Jim; Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel

2016-01-01

Background Facial emotion recognition (FER) is essential to guide social functioning and behaviour for interpersonal communication. FER may be altered in severe mental illness such as in psychosis and in borderline personality disorder patients. However, it is unclear if these FER alterations are specifically related to psychosis. Awareness of FER alterations may be useful in clinical settings to improve treatment strategies. The aim of our study was to examine FER in patients with severe mental disorder and their relation with psychotic symptomatology. Materials and Methods Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected. Alterations on emotion recognition were assessed in 3 groups: patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) (n = 64), borderline personality patients (BPD) (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 137), using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Structured Interview for Schizotypy Revised and Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences scales were used to assess positive psychotic symptoms. WAIS III subtests were used to assess IQ. Results Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed a significant difference between groups on the FER of neutral faces score between FEP, BPD patients and controls and between FEP patients and controls in angry face recognition. No significant differences were found between groups in the fear or happy conditions. There was a significant difference between groups in the attribution of negative emotion to happy faces. BPD and FEP groups had a much higher tendency to recognize happy faces as negatives. There was no association with the different symptom domains in either group. Conclusions FEP and BPD patients have problems in recognizing neutral faces more frequently than controls. Moreover, patients tend to over-report negative emotions in recognition of happy faces. Although no relation between psychotic symptoms and FER alterations was found, these deficits could contribute to a patient’s misinterpretations in daily life. PMID:27467692

Aging disrupts the neural transformations that link facial identity across views.

PubMed

Habak, Claudine; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R

2008-01-01

Healthy human aging can have adverse effects on cortical function and on the brain's ability to integrate visual information to form complex representations. Facial identification is crucial to successful social discourse, and yet, it remains unclear whether the neuronal mechanisms underlying face perception per se, and the speed with which they process information, change with age. We present face images whose discrimination relies strictly on the shape and geometry of a face at various stimulus durations. Interestingly, we demonstrate that facial identity matching is maintained with age when faces are shown in the same view (e.g., front-front or side-side), regardless of exposure duration, but degrades when faces are shown in different views (e.g., front and turned 20 degrees to the side) and does not improve at longer durations. Our results indicate that perceptual processing speed for complex representations and the mechanisms underlying same-view facial identity discrimination are maintained with age. In contrast, information is degraded in the neural transformations that represent facial identity across views. We suggest that the accumulation of useful information over time to refine a representation within a population of neurons saturates earlier in the aging visual system than it does in the younger system and contributes to the age-related deterioration of face discrimination across views.

Amygdala reactivity to fearful faces correlates positively with impulsive aggression.

PubMed

da Cunha-Bang, Sofi; Fisher, Patrick M; Hjordt, Liv V; Holst, Klaus; Knudsen, Gitte M

2018-01-07

Facial expressions robustly activate the amygdala, a brain structure playing a critical role in aggression. Whereas previous studies suggest that amygdala reactivity is related to various measures of impulsive aggression, we here estimate a composite measure of impulsive aggression and evaluate whether it is associated with amygdala reactivity to angry and fearful faces. We estimated amygdala reactivity with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 47 men with varying degree of aggressive traits (19 incarcerated violent offenders and 28 healthy controls). We modeled a composite "impulsive aggression" trait construct (LV agg ) using a linear structural equation model, with a single latent variable capturing the shared correlation between five self-report measures of trait aggression, anger and impulsivity. We tested for associations between amygdala reactivity and the LV agg , adjusting for age and group. The LV agg was significantly positively associated with amygdala reactivity to fearful (p = 0.001), but not angry faces (p = 0.9). We found no group difference in amygdala reactivity to fearful or angry faces. The findings suggest that that amygdala reactivity to fearful faces is represented by a composite index of impulsive aggression and provide evidence that impulsive aggression is associated with amygdala reactivity in response to submissive cues, i.e., fearful faces.

Facial identity and facial expression are initially integrated at visual perceptual stages of face processing.

PubMed

Fisher, Katie; Towler, John; Eimer, Martin

2016-01-08

It is frequently assumed that facial identity and facial expression are analysed in functionally and anatomically distinct streams within the core visual face processing system. To investigate whether expression and identity interact during the visual processing of faces, we employed a sequential matching procedure where participants compared either the identity or the expression of two successively presented faces, and ignored the other irrelevant dimension. Repetitions versus changes of facial identity and expression were varied independently across trials, and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during task performance. Irrelevant facial identity and irrelevant expression both interfered with performance in the expression and identity matching tasks. These symmetrical interference effects show that neither identity nor expression can be selectively ignored during face matching, and suggest that they are not processed independently. N250r components to identity repetitions that reflect identity matching mechanisms in face-selective visual cortex were delayed and attenuated when there was an expression change, demonstrating that facial expression interferes with visual identity matching. These findings provide new evidence for interactions between facial identity and expression within the core visual processing system, and question the hypothesis that these two attributes are processed independently. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Test-retest reliability of fMRI-based graph theoretical properties during working memory, emotion processing, and resting state.

PubMed

Cao, Hengyi; Plichta, Michael M; Schäfer, Axel; Haddad, Leila; Grimm, Oliver; Schneider, Michael; Esslinger, Christine; Kirsch, Peter; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Tost, Heike

2014-01-01

The investigation of the brain connectome with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and graph theory analyses has recently gained much popularity, but little is known about the robustness of these properties, in particular those derived from active fMRI tasks. Here, we studied the test-retest reliability of brain graphs calculated from 26 healthy participants with three established fMRI experiments (n-back working memory, emotional face-matching, resting state) and two parcellation schemes for node definition (AAL atlas, functional atlas proposed by Power et al.). We compared the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) of five different data processing strategies and demonstrated a superior reliability of task-regression methods with condition-specific regressors. The between-task comparison revealed significantly higher ICCs for resting state relative to the active tasks, and a superiority of the n-back task relative to the face-matching task for global and local network properties. While the mean ICCs were typically lower for the active tasks, overall fair to good reliabilities were detected for global and local connectivity properties, and for the n-back task with both atlases, smallworldness. For all three tasks and atlases, low mean ICCs were seen for the local network properties. However, node-specific good reliabilities were detected for node degree in regions known to be critical for the challenged functions (resting-state: default-mode network nodes, n-back: fronto-parietal nodes, face-matching: limbic nodes). Between-atlas comparison demonstrated significantly higher reliabilities for the functional parcellations for global and local network properties. Our findings can inform the choice of processing strategies, brain atlases and outcome properties for fMRI studies using active tasks, graph theory methods, and within-subject designs, in particular future pharmaco-fMRI studies. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Two-step superresolution approach for surveillance face image through radial basis function-partial least squares regression and locality-induced sparse representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Junjun; Hu, Ruimin; Han, Zhen; Wang, Zhongyuan; Chen, Jun

2013-10-01

Face superresolution (SR), or face hallucination, refers to the technique of generating a high-resolution (HR) face image from a low-resolution (LR) one with the help of a set of training examples. It aims at transcending the limitations of electronic imaging systems. Applications of face SR include video surveillance, in which the individual of interest is often far from cameras. A two-step method is proposed to infer a high-quality and HR face image from a low-quality and LR observation. First, we establish the nonlinear relationship between LR face images and HR ones, according to radial basis function and partial least squares (RBF-PLS) regression, to transform the LR face into the global face space. Then, a locality-induced sparse representation (LiSR) approach is presented to enhance the local facial details once all the global faces for each LR training face are constructed. A comparison of some state-of-the-art SR methods shows the superiority of the proposed two-step approach, RBF-PLS global face regression followed by LiSR-based local patch reconstruction. Experiments also demonstrate the effectiveness under both simulation conditions and some real conditions.

Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorders during Face Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleinhans, Natalia M.; Richards, Todd; Sterling, Lindsey; Stegbauer, Keith C.; Mahurin, Roderick; Johnson, L. Clark; Greenson, Jessica; Dawson, Geraldine; Aylward, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

Abnormalities in the interactions between functionally linked brain regions have been suggested to be associated with the clinical impairments observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated functional connectivity within the limbic system during face identification; a primary component of social cognition, in 19 high-functioning…

Face-selective regions differ in their ability to classify facial expressions

PubMed Central

Zhang, Hui; Japee, Shruti; Nolan, Rachel; Chu, Carlton; Liu, Ning; Ungerleider, Leslie G

2016-01-01

Recognition of facial expressions is crucial for effective social interactions. Yet, the extent to which the various face-selective regions in the human brain classify different facial expressions remains unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and support vector machine pattern classification analysis to determine how well face-selective brain regions are able to decode different categories of facial expression. Subjects participated in a slow event-related fMRI experiment in which they were shown 32 face pictures, portraying four different expressions: neutral, fearful, angry, and happy and belonging to eight different identities. Our results showed that only the amygdala and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) were able to accurately discriminate between these expressions, albeit in different ways: The amygdala discriminated fearful faces from non-fearful faces, whereas STS discriminated neutral from emotional (fearful, angry and happy) faces. In contrast to these findings on the classification of emotional expression, only the fusiform face area (FFA) and anterior inferior temporal cortex (aIT) could discriminate among the various facial identities. Further, the amygdala and STS were better than FFA and aIT at classifying expression, while FFA and aIT were better than the amygdala and STS at classifying identity. Taken together, our findings indicate that the decoding of facial emotion and facial identity occurs in different neural substrates: the amygdala and STS for the former and FFA and aIT for the latter. PMID:26826513

Face-selective regions differ in their ability to classify facial expressions.

PubMed

Zhang, Hui; Japee, Shruti; Nolan, Rachel; Chu, Carlton; Liu, Ning; Ungerleider, Leslie G

2016-04-15

Recognition of facial expressions is crucial for effective social interactions. Yet, the extent to which the various face-selective regions in the human brain classify different facial expressions remains unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and support vector machine pattern classification analysis to determine how well face-selective brain regions are able to decode different categories of facial expression. Subjects participated in a slow event-related fMRI experiment in which they were shown 32 face pictures, portraying four different expressions: neutral, fearful, angry, and happy and belonging to eight different identities. Our results showed that only the amygdala and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) were able to accurately discriminate between these expressions, albeit in different ways: the amygdala discriminated fearful faces from non-fearful faces, whereas STS discriminated neutral from emotional (fearful, angry and happy) faces. In contrast to these findings on the classification of emotional expression, only the fusiform face area (FFA) and anterior inferior temporal cortex (aIT) could discriminate among the various facial identities. Further, the amygdala and STS were better than FFA and aIT at classifying expression, while FFA and aIT were better than the amygdala and STS at classifying identity. Taken together, our findings indicate that the decoding of facial emotion and facial identity occurs in different neural substrates: the amygdala and STS for the former and FFA and aIT for the latter. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Measures of skin conductance and heart rate in alcoholic men and women during memory performance

PubMed Central

Poey, Alan; Ruiz, Susan Mosher; Marinkovic, Ksenija; Oscar-Berman, Marlene

2015-01-01

We examined abnormalities in physiological responses to emotional stimuli associated with long-term chronic alcoholism. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and heart rate (HR) responses were measured in 32 abstinent alcoholic (ALC) and 30 healthy nonalcoholic (NC) men and women undergoing an emotional memory task in an MRI scanner. The task required participants to remember the identity of two emotionally-valenced faces presented at the onset of each trial during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. After viewing the faces, participants saw a distractor image (an alcoholic beverage, nonalcoholic beverage, or scrambled image) followed by a single probe face. The task was to decide whether the probe face matched one of the two encoded faces. Skin conductance measurements (before and after the encoded faces, distractor, and probe) were obtained from electrodes on the index and middle fingers on the left hand. HR measurements (beats per minute before and after the encoded faces, distractor, and probe) were obtained by a pulse oximeter placed on the little finger on the left hand. We expected that, relative to NC participants, the ALC participants would show reduced SCR and HR responses to the face stimuli, and that we would identify greater reactivity to the alcoholic beverage stimuli than to the distractor stimuli unrelated to alcohol. While the beverage type did not differentiate the groups, the ALC group did have reduced skin conductance and HR responses to elements of the task, as compared to the NC group. PMID:26020002

Automatic emotion processing as a function of trait emotional awareness: an fMRI study

PubMed Central

Lichev, Vladimir; Sacher, Julia; Ihme, Klas; Rosenberg, Nicole; Quirin, Markus; Lepsien, Jöran; Pampel, André; Rufer, Michael; Grabe, Hans-Jörgen; Kugel, Harald; Kersting, Anette; Villringer, Arno; Lane, Richard D.

2015-01-01

It is unclear whether reflective awareness of emotions is related to extent and intensity of implicit affective reactions. This study is the first to investigate automatic brain reactivity to emotional stimuli as a function of trait emotional awareness. To assess emotional awareness the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) was administered. During scanning, masked happy, angry, fearful and neutral facial expressions were presented to 46 healthy subjects, who had to rate the fit between artificial and emotional words. The rating procedure allowed assessment of shifts in implicit affectivity due to emotion faces. Trait emotional awareness was associated with increased activation in the primary somatosensory cortex, inferior parietal lobule, anterior cingulate gyrus, middle frontal and cerebellar areas, thalamus, putamen and amygdala in response to masked happy faces. LEAS correlated positively with shifts in implicit affect caused by masked happy faces. According to our findings, people with high emotional awareness show stronger affective reactivity and more activation in brain areas involved in emotion processing and simulation during the perception of masked happy facial expression than people with low emotional awareness. High emotional awareness appears to be characterized by an enhanced positive affective resonance to others at an automatic processing level. PMID:25140051

People-selectivity, audiovisual integration and heteromodality in the superior temporal sulcus

PubMed Central

Watson, Rebecca; Latinus, Marianne; Charest, Ian; Crabbe, Frances; Belin, Pascal

2014-01-01

The functional role of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) has been implicated in a number of studies, including those investigating face perception, voice perception, and face–voice integration. However, the nature of the STS preference for these ‘social stimuli’ remains unclear, as does the location within the STS for specific types of information processing. The aim of this study was to directly examine properties of the STS in terms of selective response to social stimuli. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan participants whilst they were presented with auditory, visual, or audiovisual stimuli of people or objects, with the intention of localising areas preferring both faces and voices (i.e., ‘people-selective’ regions) and audiovisual regions designed to specifically integrate person-related information. Results highlighted a ‘people-selective, heteromodal’ region in the trunk of the right STS which was activated by both faces and voices, and a restricted portion of the right posterior STS (pSTS) with an integrative preference for information from people, as compared to objects. These results point towards the dedicated role of the STS as a ‘social-information processing’ centre. PMID:23988132

Affective resonance in response to others' emotional faces varies with affective ratings and psychopathic traits in amygdala and anterior insula.

PubMed

Seara-Cardoso, Ana; Sebastian, Catherine L; Viding, Essi; Roiser, Jonathan P

2016-01-01

Despite extensive research on the neural basis of empathic responses for pain and disgust, there is limited data about the brain regions that underpin affective response to other people's emotional facial expressions. Here, we addressed this question using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural responses to emotional faces, combined with online ratings of subjective state. When instructed to rate their own affective response to others' faces, participants recruited anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, and amygdala, regions consistently implicated in studies investigating empathy for disgust and pain, as well as emotional saliency. Importantly, responses in anterior insula and amygdala were modulated by trial-by-trial variations in subjective affective responses to the emotional facial stimuli. Furthermore, overall task-elicited activations in these regions were negatively associated with psychopathic personality traits, which are characterized by low affective empathy. Our findings suggest that anterior insula and amygdala play important roles in the generation of affective internal states in response to others' emotional cues and that attenuated function in these regions may underlie reduced empathy in individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits.

Measuring Contours of Coal-Seam Cuts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Angle transducers measure angle between track sections as longwall shearer proceeds along coal face. Distance transducer functions in conjunction with angle transducers to obtain relative angles at known positions. When cut is complete, accumulated data are stored on cassette tape, and track profile is computed and displayed. Micro-processor-based instrument integrates small changes in angle and distance.

Hemodynamic and Electrophysiological Relationship Involved in Human Face Processing: Evidence from a Combined fMRI-ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Matsumoto, Atsushi; Haneda, Kaoruko; Okada, Tomohisa; Sadato, Norihiro

2006-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted in the same group of subjects and with an identical task paradigm to investigate a possible relationship between hemodynamic and electrophysiological responses within the brain. The subjects were instructed to judge whether visually presented…

Evaluation Survivor: How to Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast as an Internal Government Evaluator

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kniker, Ted

2011-01-01

This chapter describes the author's experience and insights as the chief of evaluation for public diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, and as a consultant assisting federal agencies in a multitude of evaluation activities relating what helps and hinders internal evaluation functions. The article discusses the challenges faced by the internal…

Atypical Modulations of N170 Component during Emotional Processing and Their Links to Social Behaviors in Ex-combatants.

PubMed

Trujillo, Sandra P; Valencia, Stella; Trujillo, Natalia; Ugarriza, Juan E; Rodríguez, Mónica V; Rendón, Jorge; Pineda, David A; López, José D; Ibañez, Agustín; Parra, Mario A

2017-01-01

Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias toward anger observed in control participants whereby the latter group was more likely to misclassify neutral faces as angry. However, ex-combatants showed an atypical word valence processing. That is, words with different emotions yielded no differences in N170 modulations. SCB variables were successfully predicted by neurocognitive variables. Our results suggest that in ex-combatants the links between EP and SCB functions are reorganized. This may reflect neurocognitive modulations associated to chronic exposure to war experiences.

Atypical Modulations of N170 Component during Emotional Processing and Their Links to Social Behaviors in Ex-combatants

PubMed Central

Trujillo, Sandra P.; Valencia, Stella; Trujillo, Natalia; Ugarriza, Juan E.; Rodríguez, Mónica V.; Rendón, Jorge; Pineda, David A.; López, José D.; Ibañez, Agustín; Parra, Mario A.

2017-01-01

Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias toward anger observed in control participants whereby the latter group was more likely to misclassify neutral faces as angry. However, ex-combatants showed an atypical word valence processing. That is, words with different emotions yielded no differences in N170 modulations. SCB variables were successfully predicted by neurocognitive variables. Our results suggest that in ex-combatants the links between EP and SCB functions are reorganized. This may reflect neurocognitive modulations associated to chronic exposure to war experiences. PMID:28588462

Preferential coding of eye/hand motor actions in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex.

PubMed

Tosoni, Annalisa; Guidotti, Roberto; Del Gratta, Cosimo; Committeri, Giorgia; Sestieri, Carlo

2016-12-01

The human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (OTC) contains areas specialized for particular perceptual/semantic categories, such as faces (fusiform face area, FFA) and places (parahippocampal place area, PPA). This organization has been interpreted as reflecting the visual structure of the world, i.e. perceptual similarity and/or eccentricity biases. However, recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown not only that regions of the OTC are modulated by non-visual, action-related object properties but also by motor planning and execution, although the functional role and specificity of this motor-related activity are still unclear. Here, through a reanalysis of previously published data, we tested whether the selectivity for perceptual/semantic categories in the OTC corresponds to a preference for particular motor actions. The results demonstrate for the first time that face- and place-selective regions of the OTC exhibit preferential BOLD response to the execution of hand pointing and saccadic eye movements, respectively. Moreover, multivariate analyses provide novel evidence for the consistency across neural representations of stimulus category and movement effector in OTC. According to a 'spatial hypothesis', this pattern of results originates from the match between the region eccentricity bias and the typical action space of the motor effectors. Alternatively, the double dissociation may be caused by the different effect produced by hand vs. eye movements on regions coding for body representation. Overall, the present findings offer novel insights on the coupling between visual and motor cortical representations. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Faces of matrix models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morozov, A.

2012-08-01

Partition functions of eigenvalue matrix models possess a number of very different descriptions: as matrix integrals, as solutions to linear and nonlinear equations, as τ-functions of integrable hierarchies and as special-geometry prepotentials, as result of the action of W-operators and of various recursions on elementary input data, as gluing of certain elementary building blocks. All this explains the central role of such matrix models in modern mathematical physics: they provide the basic "special functions" to express the answers and relations between them, and they serve as a dream model of what one should try to achieve in any other field.

Understanding emotional transitions: the interpersonal consequences of changing emotions in negotiations.

PubMed

Filipowicz, Allan; Barsade, Sigal; Melwani, Shimul

2011-09-01

Research on the interpersonal functions of emotions has focused primarily on steady-state emotion rather than on emotional transitions, the movement between emotion states. The authors examined the influence of emotional transitions on social interactions and found that emotional transitions led to consistently different outcomes than their corresponding steady-state emotions. Across 2 computer-mediated negotiations and a face-to-face negotiation, participants negotiating with partners who displayed a "becoming angry" (happy to angry) emotional transition accepted worse negotiation outcomes yet formed better relational impressions of their partners than participants negotiating with partners who displayed steady-state anger. This relationship was mediated through 2 mechanisms: attributional and emotional contagion processes. The "becoming happy" (angry to happy) emotional transition as compared with steady-state happiness was not significantly related to differences in negotiation outcomes but was significantly related to differences in relational impressions, where perceivers of the "becoming happy" emotional transition gave their partners lower relational impression ratings than perceivers of steady-state happiness. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Variations in the serotonin-transporter gene are associated with attention bias patterns to positive and negative emotion faces.

PubMed

Pérez-Edgar, Koraly; Bar-Haim, Yair; McDermott, Jennifer Martin; Gorodetsky, Elena; Hodgkinson, Colin A; Goldman, David; Ernst, Monique; Pine, Daniel S; Fox, Nathan A

2010-03-01

Both attention biases to threat and a serotonin-transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) have been linked to heightened neural activation to threat and the emergence of anxiety. The short allele of 5-HTTLPR may act via its effect on neurotransmitter availability, while attention biases shape broad patterns of cognitive processing. We examined individual differences in attention bias to emotion faces as a function of 5-HTTLPR genotype. Adolescents (N=117) were classified for presumed SLC6A4 expression based on 5-HTTLPR-low (SS, SL(G), or L(G)L(G)), intermediate (SL(A) or L(A)L(G)), or high (L(A)L(A)). Participants completed the dot-probe task, measuring attention biases toward or away from angry and happy faces. Biases for angry faces increased with the genotype-predicted neurotransmission levels (low>intermediate>high). The reverse pattern was evident for happy faces. The data indicate a linear relation between 5-HTTLPR allelic status and attention biases to emotion, demonstrating a genetic mechanism for biased attention using ecologically valid stimuli that target socioemotional adaptation. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Older and younger adults' first impressions from faces: similar in agreement but different in positivity.

PubMed

Zebrowitz, Leslie A; Franklin, Robert G; Hillman, Suzanne; Boc, Henry

2013-03-01

People readily form first impressions from faces, with consensual judgments that have significant social consequences. Similar impressions are shown by children, young adults (YA), and people from diverse cultures. However, this is the first study to systematically investigate older adults' (OA) impressions. OA and YA showed similar levels of within-age agreement in their impressions of competence, health, hostility, and trustworthiness. Both groups also showed stronger within- than between-age agreement. Consistent with other evidence for age-related increases in positivity, OA showed more positive impressions of the health, hostility, and trustworthiness of faces. These effects tended to be strongest for the most negatively valenced faces, suggesting that they derive from OA lesser processing of negative cues rather than greater processing of positive cues. An own-age bias in impressions was limited to greater OA positivity in impressions of the hostility of older faces, but not younger ones. Although OA and YA differed in vision and executive function, only OA slower processing speed contributed to age differences in impression positivity. Positivity effects in OA have not been previously linked to processing speed, and research investigating possible explanations for this effect would be worthwhile.

Older and Younger Adults’ First Impressions From Faces: Similar in Agreement but Different in Positivity

PubMed Central

Zebrowitz, Leslie A.; Franklin, Robert G.; Hillman, Suzanne; Boc, Henry

2014-01-01

People readily form first impressions from faces, with consensual judgments that have significant social consequences. Similar impressions are shown by children, young adults (YA), and people from diverse cultures. However, this is the first study to systematically investigate older adults’ (OA) impressions. OA and YA showed similar levels of within-age agreement in their impressions of competence, health, hostility, and trustworthiness. Both groups also showed stronger within- than between age agreement. Consistent with other evidence for age-related increases in positivity, OA showed more positive impressions of the health, hostility, and trustworthiness of faces. These effects tended to be strongest for the most negatively valenced faces, suggesting that they derive from OA lesser processing of negative cues rather than greater processing of positive cues. An own-age bias in impressions was limited to greater OA positivity in impressions of the hostility of older faces, but not younger ones. Although OA and YA differed in vision and executive function, only OA slower processing speed contributed to age differences in impression positivity. Positivity effects in OA have not been previously linked to processing speed, and research investigating possible explanations for this effect would be worthwhile. PMID:23276216

Facial color processing in the face-selective regions: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Nakajima, Kae; Minami, Tetsuto; Tanabe, Hiroki C; Sadato, Norihiro; Nakauchi, Shigeki

2014-09-01

Facial color is important information for social communication as it provides important clues to recognize a person's emotion and health condition. Our previous EEG study suggested that N170 at the left occipito-temporal site is related to facial color processing (Nakajima et al., [2012]: Neuropsychologia 50:2499-2505). However, because of the low spatial resolution of EEG experiment, the brain region is involved in facial color processing remains controversial. In the present study, we examined the neural substrates of facial color processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We measured brain activity from 25 subjects during the presentation of natural- and bluish-colored face and their scrambled images. The bilateral fusiform face (FFA) area and occipital face area (OFA) were localized by the contrast of natural-colored faces versus natural-colored scrambled images. Moreover, region of interest (ROI) analysis showed that the left FFA was sensitive to facial color, whereas the right FFA and the right and left OFA were insensitive to facial color. In combination with our previous EEG results, these data suggest that the left FFA may play an important role in facial color processing. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Functional connectivity between face-movement and speech-intelligibility areas during auditory-only speech perception.

PubMed

Schall, Sonja; von Kriegstein, Katharina

2014-01-01

It has been proposed that internal simulation of the talking face of visually-known speakers facilitates auditory speech recognition. One prediction of this view is that brain areas involved in auditory-only speech comprehension interact with visual face-movement sensitive areas, even under auditory-only listening conditions. Here, we test this hypothesis using connectivity analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Participants (17 normal participants, 17 developmental prosopagnosics) first learned six speakers via brief voice-face or voice-occupation training (<2 min/speaker). This was followed by an auditory-only speech recognition task and a control task (voice recognition) involving the learned speakers' voices in the MRI scanner. As hypothesized, we found that, during speech recognition, familiarity with the speaker's face increased the functional connectivity between the face-movement sensitive posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and an anterior STS region that supports auditory speech intelligibility. There was no difference between normal participants and prosopagnosics. This was expected because previous findings have shown that both groups use the face-movement sensitive STS to optimize auditory-only speech comprehension. Overall, the present findings indicate that learned visual information is integrated into the analysis of auditory-only speech and that this integration results from the interaction of task-relevant face-movement and auditory speech-sensitive areas.

Computer-mediated communication preferences predict biobehavioral measures of social-emotional functioning.

PubMed

Babkirk, Sarah; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A

2016-12-01

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a form of social interaction has become increasingly prevalent, yet few studies examine individual differences that may shed light on implications of CMC for adjustment. The current study examined neurocognitive individual differences associated with preferences to use technology in relation to social-emotional outcomes. In Study 1 (N = 91), a self-report measure, the Social Media Communication Questionnaire (SMCQ), was evaluated as an assessment of preferences for communicating positive and negative emotions on a scale ranging from purely via CMC to purely face-to-face. In Study 2, SMCQ preferences were examined in relation to event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with early emotional attention capture and reactivity (the frontal N1) and later sustained emotional processing and regulation (the late positive potential (LPP)). Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while 22 participants passively viewed emotional and neutral pictures and completed an emotion regulation task with instructions to increase, decrease, or maintain their emotional responses. A greater preference for CMC was associated with reduced size of and satisfaction with social support, greater early (N1) attention capture by emotional stimuli, and reduced LPP amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli in the increase emotion regulatory task. These findings are discussed in the context of possible emotion- and social-regulatory functions of CMC.

Consumption of meat in relation to physical functioning in the Seniors-ENRICA cohort.

PubMed

Struijk, Ellen A; Banegas, José R; Rodríguez-Artalejo, Fernando; Lopez-Garcia, Esther

2018-04-05

Meat is an important source of high-quality protein and vitamin B but also has a relatively high content of saturated and trans fatty acids. Although protein and vitamin B intake seems to protect people from functional limitations, little is known about the effect of habitual meat consumption on physical function. The objective of this study was to examine the prospective association between the intake of meat (processed meat, red meat, and poultry) and physical function impairment in older adults. Data were collected for 2982 participants in the Seniors-ENRICA cohort, who were aged ≥60 years and free of physical function impairment. In 2008-2010, their habitual diet was assessed through a validated computer-assisted face-to-face diet history. Study participants were followed up through 2015 to assess self-reported incident impairment in agility, mobility, and performance-based lower-extremity function. Over a median follow-up of 5.2 years, we identified 625 participants with impaired agility, 455 with impaired mobility, and 446 with impaired lower-extremity function. After adjustment for potential confounders, processed meat intake was associated with a higher risk of impaired agility (hazard ratio [HR] for highest vs. lowest tertile: 1.33; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.64; p trend = 0.01) and of impaired lower-extremity function (HR for highest vs. lowest tertile: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02-1.68; p trend = 0.04). No significant associations were found for red meat and poultry. Replacing one serving per day of processed meat with one serving per day of red meat, poultry, or with other important protein sources (fish, legumes, dairy, and nuts) was associated with lower risk of impaired agility and lower-extremity function. A higher consumption of processed meat was associated with a higher risk of impairment in agility and lower-extremity function. Replacing processed meat by other protein sources may slow the decline in physical functioning in older adults.

Neural abnormalities in early-onset and adolescence-onset conduct disorder.

PubMed

Passamonti, Luca; Fairchild, Graeme; Goodyer, Ian M; Hurford, Georgina; Hagan, Cindy C; Rowe, James B; Calder, Andrew J

2010-07-01

Conduct disorder (CD) is characterized by severe antisocial behavior that emerges in childhood (early-onset CD [EO-CD]) or adolescence (adolescence-onset CD [AO-CD]). Early-onset CD is proposed to have a neurodevelopmental basis, whereas AO-CD is thought to emerge owing to social mimicry of deviant peers. However, this developmental taxonomic theory is debated after reports of neuropsychological impairments in both CD subtypes. A critical, although unaddressed, issue is whether these subtypes present similar or distinct neurophysiological profiles. Hence, we investigated neurophysiological responses to emotional and neutral faces in regions associated with antisocial behavior (ie, the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex) in individuals with EO-CD and AO-CD and in healthy control subjects. To investigate whether EO-CD and AO-CD subjects show neurophysiological abnormalities. Case-control study. Government research institute, university department. Seventy-five male adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 21 years, including 27 with EO-CD, 25 with AO-CD, and 23 healthy controls. Main Outcome Measure Neural activations measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants viewed angry, sad, and neutral faces. Comparing angry vs neutral faces, participants with both CD subtypes displayed reduced responses in regions associated with antisocial behavior compared with controls; differences between the CD subtypes were not significant. Comparing each expression with fixation baseline revealed an abnormal (increased) amygdala response to neutral but not angry faces in both groups of CD relative to controls. For sad vs neutral faces, reduced amygdala activation was observed in EO-CD relative to AO-CD and control participants. Comparing each expression with fixation revealed hypoactive amygdala responses to sadness in individuals with EO-CD relative to AO-CD participants and controls. These findings were not accounted for by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Neurophysiological abnormalities are observed in both CD subtypes, contrary to the developmental taxonomic theory of CD. Additional amygdala hypofunction in relation to sad expressions might indicate why EO-CD is more severe and persistent than AO-CD.

Amygdala lesions disrupt modulation of functional MRI activity evoked by facial expression in the monkey inferior temporal cortex

PubMed Central

Hadj-Bouziane, Fadila; Liu, Ning; Bell, Andrew H.; Gothard, Katalin M.; Luh, Wen-Ming; Tootell, Roger B. H.; Murray, Elisabeth A.; Ungerleider, Leslie G.

2012-01-01

We previously showed that facial expressions modulate functional MRI activity in the face-processing regions of the macaque monkey’s amygdala and inferior temporal (IT) cortex. Specifically, we showed that faces expressing emotion yield greater activation than neutral faces; we term this difference the “valence effect.” We hypothesized that amygdala lesions would disrupt the valence effect by eliminating the modulatory feedback from the amygdala to the IT cortex. We compared the valence effects within the IT cortex in monkeys with excitotoxic amygdala lesions (n = 3) with those in intact control animals (n = 3) using contrast agent-based functional MRI at 3 T. Images of four distinct monkey facial expressions—neutral, aggressive (open mouth threat), fearful (fear grin), and appeasing (lip smack)—were presented to the subjects in a blocked design. Our results showed that in monkeys with amygdala lesions the valence effects were strongly disrupted within the IT cortex, whereas face responsivity (neutral faces > scrambled faces) and face selectivity (neutral faces > non-face objects) were unaffected. Furthermore, sparing of the anterior amygdala led to intact valence effects in the anterior IT cortex (which included the anterior face-selective regions), whereas sparing of the posterior amygdala led to intact valence effects in the posterior IT cortex (which included the posterior face-selective regions). Overall, our data demonstrate that the feedback projections from the amygdala to the IT cortex mediate the valence effect found there. Moreover, these modulatory effects are consistent with an anterior-to-posterior gradient of projections, as suggested by classical tracer studies. PMID:23184972

Relations between scanning and recognition of own- and other-race faces in 6- and 9-month-old infants.

PubMed

Liu, Shaoying; Quinn, Paul C; Xiao, Naiqi G; Wu, Zhijun; Liu, Guangxi; Lee, Kang

2018-06-01

Infants typically see more own-race faces than other-race faces. Existing evidence shows that this difference in face race experience has profound consequences for face processing: as early as 6 months of age, infants scan own- and other-race faces differently and display superior recognition for own- relative to other-race faces. However, it is unclear whether scanning of own-race faces is related to the own-race recognition advantage in infants. To bridge this gap in the literature, the current study used eye tracking to investigate the relation between own-race face scanning and recognition in 6- and 9-month-old Asian infants (N = 82). The infants were familiarized with dynamic own- and other-race faces, and then their face recognition was tested with static face images. Both age groups recognized own- but not other-race faces. Also, regardless of race, the more infants scanned the eyes of the novel versus familiar faces at test, the better their face-recognition performance. In addition, both 6- and 9-month-olds fixated significantly longer on the nose of own-race faces, and greater fixation on the nose during test trials correlated positively with individual novelty preference scores in the own- but not other-race condition. The results suggest that some aspects of the relation between recognition and scanning are independent of differential experience with face race, whereas other aspects are affected by such experience. More broadly, the findings imply that scanning and recognition may become linked during infancy at least in part through the influence of perceptual experience. © 2018 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Can increased nitrogen uptake at elevated CO2 be explained by an hypothesis of optimal root function?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McMurtrie, R. E.; Norby, R. J.; Näsholm, T.; Iversen, C.; Dewar, R. C.; Medlyn, B. E.

2011-12-01

Forest free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments have shown that annual nitrogen (N) uptake increases when trees are grown at elevated CO2 (eCO2) and that increased N uptake is critical for a sustained growth response to eCO2. Processes contributing to increased N uptake at eCO2 may include: accelerated decomposition of soil organic matter due to enhanced root carbon (C) exudation (so-called rhizosphere priming); increased C allocation to fine roots and increased root production at depth, both of which enhance N acquisition; differences in soil N availability with depth; changes in the abundance of N in chemical forms with differing mobility in soil; and reduced N concentrations, reduced maintenance respiration rates, and increased longevities of deeper roots. These processes have been synthesised in a model of annual N uptake in relation to the spatial distribution of roots. We hypothesise that fine roots are distributed spatially in order to maximise annual N uptake. The optimisation hypothesis leads to equations for the optimal vertical distribution of root biomass in relation to the distribution of available soil N and for maximum annual N uptake. We show how maximum N uptake and rooting depth are related to total root mass, and compare the optimal solution with an empirical function that has been fitted to root-distribution data from all terrestrial biomes. Finally, the model is used to explore the consequences of rhizosphere priming at eCO2 as observed at the Duke forest FACE experiment (Drake et al. 2011, Ecology Letters 14: 349-357) and of increasing N limitation over time as observed at the Oak Ridge FACE experiment (Norby et al. 2010, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 107: 19368-19373).

Facial Contrast Is a Cross-Cultural Cue for Perceiving Age

PubMed Central

Porcheron, Aurélie; Mauger, Emmanuelle; Soppelsa, Frédérique; Liu, Yuli; Ge, Liezhong; Pascalis, Olivier; Russell, Richard; Morizot, Frédérique

2017-01-01

Age is a fundamental social dimension and a youthful appearance is of importance for many individuals, perhaps because it is a relevant predictor of aspects of health, facial attractiveness and general well-being. We recently showed that facial contrast—the color and luminance difference between facial features and the surrounding skin—is age-related and a cue to age perception of Caucasian women. Specifically, aspects of facial contrast decrease with age in Caucasian women, and Caucasian female faces with higher contrast look younger (Porcheron et al., 2013). Here we investigated faces of other ethnic groups and raters of other cultures to see whether facial contrast is a cross-cultural youth-related attribute. Using large sets of full face color photographs of Chinese, Latin American and black South African women aged 20–80, we measured the luminance and color contrast between the facial features (the eyes, the lips, and the brows) and the surrounding skin. Most aspects of facial contrast that were previously found to decrease with age in Caucasian women were also found to decrease with age in the other ethnic groups. Though the overall pattern of changes with age was common to all women, there were also some differences between the groups. In a separate study, individual faces of the 4 ethnic groups were perceived younger by French and Chinese participants when the aspects of facial contrast that vary with age in the majority of faces were artificially increased, but older when they were artificially decreased. Altogether these findings indicate that facial contrast is a cross-cultural cue to youthfulness. Because cosmetics were shown to enhance facial contrast, this work provides some support for the notion that a universal function of cosmetics is to make female faces look younger. PMID:28790941

Facial Contrast Is a Cross-Cultural Cue for Perceiving Age.

PubMed

Porcheron, Aurélie; Mauger, Emmanuelle; Soppelsa, Frédérique; Liu, Yuli; Ge, Liezhong; Pascalis, Olivier; Russell, Richard; Morizot, Frédérique

2017-01-01

Age is a fundamental social dimension and a youthful appearance is of importance for many individuals, perhaps because it is a relevant predictor of aspects of health, facial attractiveness and general well-being. We recently showed that facial contrast-the color and luminance difference between facial features and the surrounding skin-is age-related and a cue to age perception of Caucasian women. Specifically, aspects of facial contrast decrease with age in Caucasian women, and Caucasian female faces with higher contrast look younger (Porcheron et al., 2013). Here we investigated faces of other ethnic groups and raters of other cultures to see whether facial contrast is a cross-cultural youth-related attribute. Using large sets of full face color photographs of Chinese, Latin American and black South African women aged 20-80, we measured the luminance and color contrast between the facial features (the eyes, the lips, and the brows) and the surrounding skin. Most aspects of facial contrast that were previously found to decrease with age in Caucasian women were also found to decrease with age in the other ethnic groups. Though the overall pattern of changes with age was common to all women, there were also some differences between the groups. In a separate study, individual faces of the 4 ethnic groups were perceived younger by French and Chinese participants when the aspects of facial contrast that vary with age in the majority of faces were artificially increased, but older when they were artificially decreased. Altogether these findings indicate that facial contrast is a cross-cultural cue to youthfulness. Because cosmetics were shown to enhance facial contrast, this work provides some support for the notion that a universal function of cosmetics is to make female faces look younger.

Friends with Faces: How Social Networks Can Enhance Face Recognition and Vice Versa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mavridis, Nikolaos; Kazmi, Wajahat; Toulis, Panos

The "friendship" relation, a social relation among individuals, is one of the primary relations modeled in some of the world's largest online social networking sites, such as "FaceBook." On the other hand, the "co-occurrence" relation, as a relation among faces appearing in pictures, is one that is easily detectable using modern face detection techniques. These two relations, though appearing in different realms (social vs. visual sensory), have a strong correlation: faces that co-occur in photos often belong to individuals who are friends. Using real-world data gathered from "Facebook," which were gathered as part of the "FaceBots" project, the world's first physical face-recognizing and conversing robot that can utilize and publish information on "Facebook" was established. We present here methods as well as results for utilizing this correlation in both directions. Both algorithms for utilizing knowledge of the social context for faster and better face recognition are given, as well as algorithms for estimating the friendship network of a number of individuals given photos containing their faces. The results are quite encouraging. In the primary example, doubling of the recognition accuracy as well as a sixfold improvement in speed is demonstrated. Various improvements, interesting statistics, as well as an empirical investigation leading to predictions of scalability to much bigger data sets are discussed.

Storm in a coffee cup: caffeine modifies brain activation to social signals of threat

PubMed Central

Lawrence, Andrew D.; Diukova, Ana; Wise, Richard G.; Rogers, Peter J.

2012-01-01

Caffeine, an adenosine A1 and A2A receptor antagonist, is the most popular psychostimulant drug in the world, but it is also anxiogenic. The neural correlates of caffeine-induced anxiety are currently unknown. This study investigated the effects of caffeine on brain regions implicated in social threat processing and anxiety. Participants were 14 healthy male non/infrequent caffeine consumers. In a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design, they underwent blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotional face processing task 1 h after receiving caffeine (250 mg) or placebo in two fMRI sessions (counterbalanced, 1-week washout). They rated anxiety and mental alertness, and their blood pressure was measured, before and 2 h after treatment. Results showed that caffeine induced threat-related (angry/fearful faces > happy faces) midbrain-periaqueductal gray activation and abolished threat-related medial prefrontal cortex wall activation. Effects of caffeine on extent of threat-related amygdala activation correlated negatively with level of dietary caffeine intake. In concurrence with these changes in threat-related brain activation, caffeine increased self-rated anxiety and diastolic blood pressure. Caffeine did not affect primary visual cortex activation. These results are the first to demonstrate potential neural correlates of the anxiogenic effect of caffeine, and they implicate the amygdala as a key site for caffeine tolerance. PMID:21972425

Anomalous prefrontal-limbic activation and connectivity in youth at high-risk for bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Chang, Kiki; Garrett, Amy; Kelley, Ryan; Howe, Meghan; Sanders, Erica Marie; Acquaye, Tenah; Bararpour, Layla; Li, Sherrie; Singh, Manpreet; Jo, Booil; Hallmayer, Joachim; Reiss, Allan

2017-11-01

Abnormal prefrontal-limbic brain activation in response to facial expressions has been reported in pediatric bipolar disorder (BD). However, it is less clear whether these abnormalities exist prior to onset of mania, thus representing a biomarker predicting development of BD. We examined brain activation in 50 youth at high risk for BD (HR-BD), compared with 29 age- and gender-matched healthy control (HC) subjects. HR-BD was defined as having a parent with BD, as well as current mood or attentiondeficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, or a history of at least one depressive episode. FMRI data were collected during an implicit emotion perception task using facial expression stimuli. Activation to fearful faces versus calm faces was compared between HR-BD and HC groups, including analyses of functional connectivity, and comparison of allele subgroups of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) gene. While viewing fearful versus calm faces, HR-BD youth had significantly greater activation than HC youth in the right amygdala, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), superior frontal cortex, cerebellum, and lingual gyrus. HR-BD youth, relative to HC youth, had greater functional connectivity between the right amygdala and the VLPFC as well as visual cortical regions Within the HR-BD group, youth with the s-allele had a trend for greater activation in the right amygdala and subgenual cingulate cortex CONCLUSIONS: Similar to youth with BD, youth at high risk for BD have greater activation than healthy controls in the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to fearful faces, as well greater functional connectivity between these regions. HR-BD youth with the s-allele of the 5-HTTLPR gene may be at greatest risk for developing BD. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Testing protects against proactive interference in face-name learning.

PubMed

Weinstein, Yana; McDermott, Kathleen B; Szpunar, Karl K

2011-06-01

Learning face-name pairings at a social function becomes increasingly more difficult the more individuals one meets. This phenomenon is attributable to proactive interference--the negative influence of prior learning on subsequent learning. Recent evidence suggests that taking a memory test can alleviate proactive interference in verbal list learning paradigms. We apply this technique to face-name pair learning. Participants studied four lists of 12 face-name pairings and either attempted to name the 12 faces just studied after every list or did not. Recall attempts after every list improved learning of the fourth list by over 100%. Moreover, no reduction in learning of face-name pairings occurred from list 1 to list 4 for participants who attempted to name studied faces between lists. These results suggest that testing oneself on the names of a group of new acquaintances before moving on to the next group is an effective mnemonic technique for social functions.

Physical Therapy for Neurological Conditions in Geriatric Populations.

PubMed

Carmeli, Eli

2017-01-01

With more of the world's population surviving longer, individuals often face age-related neurology disorders and decline of function that can affect lifestyle and well-being. Despite neurophysiological changes affecting the brain function and structure, the aged brain, in some degree, can learn and relearn due to neuroplasticity. Recent advances in rehabilitation techniques have produced better functional outcomes in age-related neurological conditions. Physical therapy (PT) of the elderly individual focuses in particular on sensory-motor impairments, postural control coordination, and prevention of sarcopenia. Geriatric PT has a significant influence on quality of life, independent living, and life expectancy. However, in many developed and developing countries, the profession of PT is underfunded and understaffed. This article provides a brief overview on (a) age-related disease of central nervous system and (b) the principles, approaches, and doctrines of motor skill learning and point out the most common treatment models that PTs use for neurological patients.

Sensory Function and Chronic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis

PubMed Central

Scherder, Rogier J.; Kant, Neeltje; Wolf, Evelien T.; Pijnenburg, Bas C. M.

2018-01-01

Objective To examine whether hypoesthesia and chronic pain are related in patients with MS. Methods Sixty-seven MS patients with pain and 80 persons without MS were included. Sensory functioning was tested by bedside neurological examination. Touch, joint position (dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway), temperature sense, and pain (spinothalamic tract) were tested. Pain intensity was measured by the Colored Analogue Scale (CAS Intensity) and the Faces Pain Scale (FPS); pain affect was also measured by CAS Affect and Number of Words Chosen-Affective (NWC-A). Mood was assessed with the SCL-90 anxiety and depression subscales and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results A significant negative relationship was found between pain intensity and the function of the dorsal column-medial lemniscal pathway, but not with the spinothalamic tract. Conclusion In addition to the already known relation between hyperesthesia and pain, hypoesthesia for touch and joint position also seems to be related to chronic pain in MS patients. PMID:29849839

Physical Therapy for Neurological Conditions in Geriatric Populations

PubMed Central

Carmeli, Eli

2017-01-01

With more of the world’s population surviving longer, individuals often face age-related neurology disorders and decline of function that can affect lifestyle and well-being. Despite neurophysiological changes affecting the brain function and structure, the aged brain, in some degree, can learn and relearn due to neuroplasticity. Recent advances in rehabilitation techniques have produced better functional outcomes in age-related neurological conditions. Physical therapy (PT) of the elderly individual focuses in particular on sensory–motor impairments, postural control coordination, and prevention of sarcopenia. Geriatric PT has a significant influence on quality of life, independent living, and life expectancy. However, in many developed and developing countries, the profession of PT is underfunded and understaffed. This article provides a brief overview on (a) age-related disease of central nervous system and (b) the principles, approaches, and doctrines of motor skill learning and point out the most common treatment models that PTs use for neurological patients. PMID:29270402

Distinct facial processing in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders

PubMed Central

Chen, Yue; Cataldo, Andrea; Norton, Daniel J; Ongur, Dost

2011-01-01

Although schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders have both similar and differing clinical features, it is not well understood whether similar or differing pathophysiological processes mediate patients’ cognitive functions. Using psychophysical methods, this study compared the performances of schizophrenia (SZ) patients, patients with schizoaffective disorder (SA), and a healthy control group in two face-related cognitive tasks: emotion discrimination, which tested perception of facial affect, and identity discrimination, which tested perception of non-affective facial features. Compared to healthy controls, SZ patients, but not SA patients, exhibited deficient performance in both fear and happiness discrimination, as well as identity discrimination. SZ patients, but not SA patients, also showed impaired performance in a theory-of-mind task for which emotional expressions are identified based upon the eye regions of face images. This pattern of results suggests distinct processing of face information in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. PMID:21868199

Flashing characters with famous faces improves ERP-based brain-computer interface performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaufmann, T.; Schulz, S. M.; Grünzinger, C.; Kübler, A.

2011-10-01

Currently, the event-related potential (ERP)-based spelling device, often referred to as P300-Speller, is the most commonly used brain-computer interface (BCI) for enhancing communication of patients with impaired speech or motor function. Among numerous improvements, a most central feature has received little attention, namely optimizing the stimulus used for eliciting ERPs. Therefore we compared P300-Speller performance with the standard stimulus (flashing characters) against performance with stimuli known for eliciting particularly strong ERPs due to their psychological salience, i.e. flashing familiar faces transparently superimposed on characters. Our results not only indicate remarkably increased ERPs in response to familiar faces but also improved P300-Speller performance due to a significant reduction of stimulus sequences needed for correct character classification. These findings demonstrate a promising new approach for improving the speed and thus fluency of BCI-enhanced communication with the widely used P300-Speller.

Cortical Thickness in Fusiform Face Area Predicts Face and Object Recognition Performance

PubMed Central

McGugin, Rankin W.; Van Gulick, Ana E.; Gauthier, Isabel

2016-01-01

The fusiform face area (FFA) is defined by its selectivity for faces. Several studies have shown that the response of FFA to non-face objects can predict behavioral performance for these objects. However, one possible account is that experts pay more attention to objects in their domain of expertise, driving signals up. Here we show an effect of expertise with non-face objects in FFA that cannot be explained by differential attention to objects of expertise. We explore the relationship between cortical thickness of FFA and face and object recognition using the Cambridge Face Memory Test and Vanderbilt Expertise Test, respectively. We measured cortical thickness in functionally-defined regions in a group of men who evidenced functional expertise effects for cars in FFA. Performance with faces and objects together accounted for approximately 40% of the variance in cortical thickness of several FFA patches. While subjects with a thicker FFA cortex performed better with vehicles, those with a thinner FFA cortex performed better with faces and living objects. The results point to a domain-general role of FFA in object perception and reveal an interesting double dissociation that does not contrast faces and objects, but rather living and non-living objects. PMID:26439272

Representational Similarity of Body Parts in Human Occipitotemporal Cortex.

PubMed

Bracci, Stefania; Caramazza, Alfonso; Peelen, Marius V

2015-09-23

Regions in human lateral and ventral occipitotemporal cortices (OTC) respond selectively to pictures of the human body and its parts. What are the organizational principles underlying body part responses in these regions? Here we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) of fMRI data to test multiple possible organizational principles: shape similarity, physical proximity, cortical homunculus proximity, and semantic similarity. Participants viewed pictures of whole persons, chairs, and eight body parts (hands, arms, legs, feet, chests, waists, upper faces, and lower faces). The similarity of multivoxel activity patterns for all body part pairs was established in whole person-selective OTC regions. The resulting neural similarity matrices were then compared with similarity matrices capturing the hypothesized organizational principles. Results showed that the semantic similarity model best captured the neural similarity of body parts in lateral and ventral OTC, which followed an organization in three clusters: (1) body parts used as action effectors (hands, feet, arms, and legs), (2) noneffector body parts (chests and waists), and (3) face parts (upper and lower faces). Whole-brain RSA revealed, in addition to OTC, regions in parietal and frontal cortex in which neural similarity was related to semantic similarity. In contrast, neural similarity in occipital cortex was best predicted by shape similarity models. We suggest that the semantic organization of body parts in high-level visual cortex relates to the different functions associated with the three body part clusters, reflecting the unique processing and connectivity demands associated with the different types of information (e.g., action, social) different body parts (e.g., limbs, faces) convey. Significance statement: While the organization of body part representations in motor and somatosensory cortices has been well characterized, the principles underlying body part representations in visual cortex have not yet been explored. In the present fMRI study we used multivoxel pattern analysis and representational similarity analysis to characterize the organization of body maps in human occipitotemporal cortex (OTC). Results indicate that visual and shape dimensions do not fully account for the organization of body part representations in OTC. Instead, the representational structure of body maps in OTC appears strongly related to functional-semantic properties of body parts. We suggest that this organization reflects the unique processing and connectivity demands associated with the different types of information different body parts convey. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3512977-09$15.00/0.

Dissociating neural markers of stimulus memorability and subjective recognition during episodic retrieval.

PubMed

Bainbridge, Wilma A; Rissman, Jesse

2018-06-06

While much of memory research takes an observer-centric focus looking at participant performance, recent work has pinpointed important item-centric effects on memory, or how intrinsically memorable a given stimulus is. However, little is known about the neural correlates of memorability during memory retrieval, or how such correlates relate to subjective memory behavior. Here, stimuli and blood-oxygen-level dependent data from a prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study were reanalyzed using a memorability-based framework. In that study, sixteen participants studied 200 novel face images and were scanned while making recognition memory judgments on those faces, interspersed with 200 unstudied faces. In the current investigation, memorability scores for those stimuli were obtained through an online crowd-sourced (N = 740) continuous recognition test that measured each image's corrected recognition rate. Representational similarity analyses were conducted across the brain to identify regions wherein neural pattern similarity tracked item-specific effects (stimulus memorability) versus observer-specific effects (individual memory performance). We find two non-overlapping sets of regions, with memorability-related information predominantly represented within ventral and medial temporal regions and memory retrieval outcome-related information within fronto-parietal regions. These memorability-based effects persist regardless of image history, implying that coding of stimulus memorability may be a continuous and automatic perceptual process.

Brain Responses Differ to Faces of Mothers and Fathers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arsalidou, Marie; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.; Bayless, Sarah J.; Taylor, Margot J.

2010-01-01

We encounter many faces each day but relatively few are personally familiar. Once faces are familiar, they evoke semantic and social information known about the person. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate differential brain activity to familiar and non-familiar faces; however, brain responses related to personally familiar faces have been more rarely…

Health-related quality of life across the anxiety disorders

PubMed Central

Comer, Jonathan S.; Blanco, Carlos; Hasin, Deborah S.; Liu, Shang-Min; Grant, Bridget F.; Turner, J. Blake; Olfson, Mark

2009-01-01

Objective Although clinical studies have documented that specific anxiety disorders are associated with impaired psychosocial functioning, little is known regarding their comparative effects on health-related quality of life within a general population. The current analysis compares health-related quality of life in a U.S. community-dwelling sample of adults with DSM-IV social anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorders (GAD), panic disorder (PD), and specific phobia (SP). Method Face-to-face survey of a U.S. nationally representative sample of over 43,000 adults aged 18 years and older residing in households and group quarters. Prevalence of DSM-IV anxiety disorders and relative associations with health-related quality of life indicators were examined. Results Roughly 9.8% of respondents met diagnostic criteria for at least one 12-month DSM-IV anxiety disorder which, relative to the non-anxiety-disordered general population, were each associated with lower personal income, increased rates of 12-month physical conditions, and greater numbers of Axis I and Axis II DSM-IV psychiatric conditions. After adjusting for socio-demographic and clinical correlates including other anxiety disorders, GAD was associated with significant decrements in the SF-12 Mental Component Summary score. In similar models, GAD and to a lesser extent PD were significantly associated with impairment in social functioning, role emotional, and mental health SF subscales. Conclusion GAD, followed by PD, appears to exact significant and independent tolls on health-related quality of life. Results underscore the importance of prompt and accurate clinical identification and improving access to effective interventions for these disorders. PMID:20816036

Women On-Line: Cultural and Relational Aspects of Women's Communication in On-line Discussion Groups.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferris, Sharmila Pixy

1996-01-01

Women's online communication often mirrors that of face-to-face communication, linguistically and relationally. Women-only online communities, however, provide an opportunity to develop a distinct relational and cultural style. Discusses gender differences in face-to-face language use, and in mixed gender online discussion groups. Describes…

Preserved search asymmetry in the detection of fearful faces among neutral faces in individuals with Williams syndrome revealed by measurement of both manual responses and eye tracking.

PubMed

Hirai, Masahiro; Muramatsu, Yukako; Mizuno, Seiji; Kurahashi, Naoko; Kurahashi, Hirokazu; Nakamura, Miho

2017-01-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit an atypical social phenotype termed hypersociability. One theory accounting for hypersociability presumes an atypical function of the amygdala, which processes fear-related information. However, evidence is lacking regarding the detection mechanisms of fearful faces for individuals with WS. Here, we introduce a visual search paradigm to elucidate the mechanisms for detecting fearful faces by evaluating the search asymmetry; the reaction time when both the target and distractors were swapped was asymmetrical. Eye movements reflect subtle atypical attentional properties, whereas, manual responses are unable to capture atypical attentional profiles toward faces in individuals with WS. Therefore, we measured both eye movements and manual responses of individuals with WS and typically developed children and adults in visual searching for a fearful face among neutral faces or a neutral face among fearful faces. Two task measures, namely reaction time and performance accuracy, were analyzed for each stimulus as well as gaze behavior and the initial fixation onset latency. Overall, reaction times in the WS group and the mentally age-matched control group were significantly longer than those in the chronologically age-matched group. We observed a search asymmetry effect in all groups: when a neutral target facial expression was presented among fearful faces, the reaction times were significantly prolonged in comparison with when a fearful target facial expression was displayed among neutral distractor faces. Furthermore, the first fixation onset latency of eye movement toward a target facial expression showed a similar tendency for manual responses. Although overall responses in detecting fearful faces for individuals with WS are slower than those for control groups, search asymmetry was observed. Therefore, cognitive mechanisms underlying the detection of fearful faces seem to be typical in individuals with WS. This finding is discussed with reference to the amygdala account explaining hypersociability in individuals with WS.

The Influences of Face Inversion and Facial Expression on Sensitivity to Eye Contact in High-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vida, Mark D.; Maurer, Daphne; Calder, Andrew J.; Rhodes, Gillian; Walsh, Jennifer A.; Pachai, Matthew V.; Rutherford, M. D.

2013-01-01

We examined the influences of face inversion and facial expression on sensitivity to eye contact in high-functioning adults with and without an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants judged the direction of gaze of angry, fearful, and neutral faces. In the typical group only, the range of directions of gaze leading to the perception of eye…