1
|
Berchio C, Kumar S, Destro MF. Microstate Analyses to Study face Processing in Healthy Individuals and Psychiatric Disorders: A Review of ERP Findings. Brain Topogr 2024; 38:1. [PMID: 39358648 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-024-01083-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2024] [Accepted: 07/24/2024] [Indexed: 10/04/2024]
Abstract
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.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Berchio
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Group of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Translational Biomedicine and Neuroscience, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 11, Bari, 70121, Italy.
| | - Samika Kumar
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
2
|
Schiller B, Sperl MFJ, Kleinert T, Nash K, Gianotti LRR. EEG Microstates in Social and Affective Neuroscience. Brain Topogr 2024; 37:479-495. [PMID: 37523005 PMCID: PMC11199304 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-023-00987-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
Social interactions require both the rapid processing of multifaceted socio-affective signals (e.g., eye gaze, facial expressions, gestures) and their integration with evaluations, social knowledge, and expectations. Researchers interested in understanding complex social cognition and behavior face a "black box" problem: What are the underlying mental processes rapidly occurring between perception and action and why are there such vast individual differences? In this review, we promote electroencephalography (EEG) microstates as a powerful tool for both examining socio-affective states (e.g., processing whether someone is in need in a given situation) and identifying the sources of heterogeneity in socio-affective traits (e.g., general willingness to help others). EEG microstates are identified by analyzing scalp field maps (i.e., the distribution of the electrical field on the scalp) over time. This data-driven, reference-independent approach allows for identifying, timing, sequencing, and quantifying the activation of large-scale brain networks relevant to our socio-affective mind. In light of these benefits, EEG microstates should become an indispensable part of the methodological toolkit of laboratories working in the field of social and affective neuroscience.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bastian Schiller
- Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
- Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Matthias F J Sperl
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Universities of Marburg and Giessen (Research Campus Central Hessen), Marburg, Germany
| | - Tobias Kleinert
- Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Department of Ergonomics, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany
| | - Kyle Nash
- Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
| | - Lorena R R Gianotti
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Li Y, Wang J, Liang J, Zhu C, Zhang Z, Luo W. The impact of degraded vision on emotional perception of audiovisual stimuli: An event-related potential study. Neuropsychologia 2024; 194:108785. [PMID: 38159799 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2023] [Revised: 12/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
Emotion recognition will be challenged for individuals when visual signals are degraded in real-life scenarios. Recently, researchers have conducted many studies on the distinct neural activity between clear and degraded audiovisual stimuli. These findings addressed the "how" question, but the precise stage of the distinct activity that occurred remains unknown. Therefore, it is crucial to use event-related potential (ERP) to explore the "when" question, just the time course of the neural activity of degraded audiovisual stimuli. In the present research, we established two conditions: clear auditory + degraded visual (AcVd) and clear auditory + clear visual (AcVc) multisensory conditions. We enlisted 31 participants to evaluate the emotional valence of audiovisual stimuli. The resulting data were analyzed using ERP in time domains and Microstate analysis. Current results suggest that degraded vision impairs the early-stage processing of audiovisual stimuli, with the superior parietal lobule (SPL) regulating audiovisual processing in a top-down fashion. Additionally, our findings indicate that negative and positive stimuli elicit greater EPN compared to neutral stimuli, pointing towards a subjective motivation-related attentional regulation. To sum up, in the early stage of emotional audiovisual processing, the degraded visual signal affected the perception of the physical attributes of audiovisual stimuli and had a further influence on emotion extraction processing, leading to the different regulation of top-down attention resources in the later stage.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuchen Li
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China; Institute of Psychology, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, 216053, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Jing Wang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Junyu Liang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China; School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Chuanlin Zhu
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
| | - Zhao Zhang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China; Institute of Psychology, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, 216053, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, 116029, China.
| | - Wenbo Luo
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, 116029, China.
| |
Collapse
|