The real-time link between person perception and action: Brain potential evidence for dynamic continuity

Understanding how the human visual system recognizes objects is one of the key challenges in neuroscience. Inspired by a large body of physiological evidence, a general class of recognition models has emerged, which is based on a hierarchical organization of visual processing, with succeeding stages being sensitive to image features of increasing complexity. However, these models appear to be incompatible with some well-known psychophysical results. Prominent among these are experiments investigating recognition impairments caused by vertical inversion of images, especially those of faces. It has been reported that faces that differ 'featurally' are much easier to distinguish when inverted than those that differ 'configurally'; a finding that is difficult to reconcile with the physiological models. Here, we show that after controlling for subjects' expectations, there is no difference between 'featurally' and 'configurally' transformed faces in terms of inversion effect. This result reinforces the plausibility of simple hierarchical models of object representation and recognition in the cortex.

Social perception and knowledge impairments in severe alcohol use disorder: Group and individual-level findings

Not so secret agents: Event-related potentials to semantic roles in visual event comprehension

Four electric field modeling methods of Dosing Prefrontal Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Introducing APEX MT dosimetry

Knowledge about the core neural mechanisms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a pathophysiologically heterogeneous psychiatric disorder starting in childhood, is still limited. Progress may be achieved by combining different methods and levels of investigation. In the present study, we investigated neural mechanisms of motor control in 19 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (aged 9-14 years) and 21 age-matched typically developing children by relating neural markers of attention and response control (using event-related potentials) and measures of motor excitability/inhibition (evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation). Thus, an interplay of processes at a subsecond scale could be studied. Using a monetary incentives-based cued Go/No-Go task, parameters that are well-known to be reduced in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder were analysed: event-related potential components P3 (following cue stimuli; in Go and No-Go trials) and contingent negative variation as well as the transcranial magnetic stimulation-based short-interval intracortical inhibition measured at different latencies in Go and No-Go trials. For patient and control groups, different associations were obtained between performance, event-related potential and transcranial magnetic stimulation measures. In children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the P3 amplitude in Go trials was not correlated with reaction time measures but with short-interval intracortical inhibition at rest (r=0.56, P=0.01). In No-Go trials, P3 and short-interval intracortical inhibition after inhibiting the response (at 500 ms post-stimulus) were correlated in these children only (r=0.62; P=0.008). A classification rate of 90% was achieved when using short-interval intracortical inhibition (measured shortly before the occurrence of a Go or No-Go stimulus) and the amplitude of the P3 in cue trials as input features in a linear discriminant analysis. Findings indicate deviant neural implementation of motor control in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder reflecting compensatory cognitive mechanisms as a result of a basal motor cortical inhibitory deficit (reduced activation of inhibitory intracortical interneurons). Both deviant inhibitory and attentional processes, which are not related to each other, seem to be characteristic for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder at the neural level in motor control tasks. The underlying neural mechanisms, which are probably not restricted to the motor cortex and the posterior attention network, may play a key role in the pathophysiology of this child psychiatric disorder. The high classification rate can further be interpreted as a step towards the development of neural markers. In summary, the bimodal neurophysiological concept may contribute to developing an integrative framework for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Neural processing of facial expressions of emotion in first onset psychosis

Chapter 8 - Social Vision: At the Intersection of Vision and Person Perception

Microstates represent brief periods of quasi-stable electroencephalography (EEG) scalp topography, offering insights into dynamic fluctuations in event-related potential (ERP) topographies. Despite this, there is a lack of a comprehensive systematic overview of microstate findings concerning cognitive face processing. This review aims to summarize ERP findings on face processing using microstate analyses and assess their effectiveness in characterizing face-related neural representations. A literature search was conducted for microstate ERP studies involving healthy individuals and psychiatric populations, utilizing PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PsychInfo, and Scopus databases. Twenty-two studies were identified, primarily focusing on healthy individuals (n = 16), with a smaller subset examining psychiatric populations (n = 6). The evidence reviewed in this study suggests that various microstates are consistently associated with distinct ERP stages involved in face processing, encompassing the processing of basic visual facial features to more complex functions such as analytical processing, facial recognition, and semantic representations. Furthermore, these studies shed light on atypical attentional neural mechanisms in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), facial recognition deficits among emotional dysregulation disorders, and encoding and semantic dysfunctions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In conclusion, this review underscores the practical utility of ERP microstate analyses in investigating face processing. Methodologies have evolved towards greater automation and data-driven approaches over time. Future research should aim to forecast clinical outcomes and conduct validation studies to directly demonstrate the efficacy of such analyses in inverse space.

Impulsivity has been proposed as an important risk factor in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI). Yet, research outcomes on the relationship of impulsivity to NSSI have been mixed. The present study clarifies this relationship using event-related potentials (ERPs), along with self-reports and behavioral measures. Study 1 aimed to detect the prediction of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity to NSSI. 820 local common high school students and 72 counterparts with problematic behaviors were surveyed, and then the relation among NSSI, difficulties of emotion regulation (DER) and impulsivity were investigated by self-report measurements. Regression analysis results indicated that both DER and impulsivity could well predict NSSI, and contribution of impulsivity was much bigger than that of DER. In Study 2, a Go/Nogo paradigm was adopted to test the impulsivity of the injurers using behavioural measures and Nogo-N2 of ERPs. Participants were 12 confirmed self-injurious adolescents and 12 typical school middle students chosen from Study 1. The group differences (injurers vs controls) in behavior (response time and false alarm) and ERPs index (N2 amplitude and latency in successful Nogo trials) were analyzed in detail. Results disclosed that the NSSI group’s probability of false alarm was higher than the control group’s probability of false alarm in both Go and Nogo trials. In ERPs experiment, the NSSI group’s N2 amplitudes were significantly higher than the controls in correct Nogo trials, and NSSI group’s N2 latencies were clearly more delayed than the controls’ in correct Nogo trial. Results from Nogo-N2 amplitudes and latencies combining with the topographic maps showed that impulse processes occurred in prefrontal cortex mainly. According to the results from self-reports, behavioural measures and Nogo-N2 of ERPs, it can be concluded that self-injurious adolescents possessed stronger impulsivity; and they needed much more neural energy to fulfill an impulse inhibition; moreover, they were insensitive to Nogo stimuli. The present study is the first to examin Nogo-N2 in NSSI, and provides further evidence for impaired response inhibition in NSSI.

Face perception in adults depends on skilled processing of interattribute distances ('configural' processing), which is disrupted for faces presented in inverted orientation (face inversion effect or FIE). Children are not proficient in configural processing, and this might relate to an underlying immaturity to use facial information in low spatial frequency (SF) ranges, which capture the coarse information needed for configural processing. We hypothesized that during adolescence a shift from use of high to low SF information takes place. Therefore, we studied the influence of SF content on neural face processing in groups of children (9-10years), adolescents (14-15years) and young adults (21-29years) by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) to upright and inverted faces which varied in SF content. Results revealed that children show a neural FIE in early processing stages (i.e. P1; generated in early visual areas), suggesting a superficial, global facial analysis. In contrast, ERPs of adults revealed an FIE at later processing stages (i.e. N170; generated in face-selective, higher visual areas). Interestingly, adolescents showed FIEs in both processing stages, suggesting a hybrid developmental stage. Furthermore, adolescents and adults showed FIEs for stimuli containing low SF information, whereas such effects were driven by both low and high SF information in children. These results indicate that face processing has a protracted maturational course into adolescence, and is dependent on changes in SF processing. During adolescence, sensitivity to configural cues is developed, which aids the fast and holistic processing that is so special for faces.

High-Speed AFM Reveals the Dynamics of Single Biomolecules at the Nanometer Scale

Face perception in women with Turner syndrome and its underlying factors

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

BackgroundHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risky behaviours including multiple sexual partnership (MSP) and non-condom use (nCU) are known to be drivers of the spread of HIV; cognitive factors including perceived susceptibility of HIV, self-efficacy and attitudes play a significant role in influencing risky sexual behaviours.ObjectivesWe sought to investigate personal beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and actions that are associated with MSP and nCU in South Africa.MethodsWe analysed nationally representative data from the 2012 National HIV Communication Survey (NCS) that included about 10 000 participants aged 16–55 years. Five constructs were created to measure psychosocial and cognitive determinants. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for internal consistency reliability was calculated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with MSP and nCU.ResultsOf the 6061 sexually active respondents, 13% (95% CI: 11.47–13.12) reported MSP and 52.7% (n = 3158 of 6039) (95% CI: 51.0–53.55) nCU at last sex. Factors associated with MSP included perceived benefits, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.16 (95% CI: 1.80–2.58), perceived susceptibility to HIV, aOR = 2.22 (95% CI: 1.83–2.69) and engaging in intergenerational sex, aOR = 2.14 (95% CI: 1.78–2.56). Predictors of nCU were perceived benefits, aOR = 1.25 (95% CI: 1.09–1.43); perceived susceptibility to HIV, aOR = 1.6 (95% CI: 1.39–1.83); and personal beliefs, aOR = 1.35 (95% CI: 1.13–1.62).ConclusionCognitive and behavioural factors were found to be predictors of risky sexual behaviours for HIV. This highlights the importance of considering personal perception and reasoning when attempting to understand and influence an individual’s sexual behaviour. This could be done through enhancing awareness of HIV risk in the general population and by influencing cognitive behaviour change through community mobilisation, advocacy and creating activities to improve self-esteem.

Recent proposals have suggested the potential for neural biomarkers to improve clinical trial processes in neurodevelopmental conditions; however, few efforts have identified whether chronological age-based adjustments will be necessary (as used in standardized behavioral assessments). Event-related potentials (ERPs) demonstrate early differences in the processing of faces vs. objects in the visual processing system by 4 years of age and age-based improvement (decreases in latency) through adolescence. Additionally, face processing has been proposed to be related to social skills as well as autistic social-communication traits. While previous reports suggest delayed latency in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), extensive individual and age based heterogeneity exists. In this report, we utilize a sample of 252 children with ASD and 118 children with typical development (TD), to assess the N170 and P100 ERP component latencies (N170L and P100L, respectively), to upright faces, the face specificity effect (difference between face and object processing), and the inversion effect (difference between face upright and inverted processing) in relation to age. First, linear mixed models (LMMs) were fitted with fixed effect of age at testing and random effect of participant, using all available data points to characterize general age-based development in the TD and ASD groups. Second, LMM models using only the TD group were used to calculate age-based residuals in both groups. The purpose of residualization was to assess how much variation in ASD participants could be accounted for by chronological age-related changes. Our data demonstrate that the N170L and P100L responses to upright faces appeared to follow a roughly linear relationship with age. In the ASD group, the distribution of the age-adjusted residual values suggest that ASD participants were more likely to demonstrate slower latencies than would be expected for a TD child of the same age, similar to what has been identified using unadjusted values. Lastly, using age-adjusted values for stratification, we found that children who demonstrated slowed age-adjusted N170L had lower verbal and non-verbal IQ and worse face memory. These data suggest that age must be considered in assessing the N170L and P100L response to upright faces as well, and these adjusted values may be used to stratify children within the autism spectrum.