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Gao T, Liu X, Geng W, Yan C, Wu M, Yang L. The effect of reward expectation on working memory of emotional faces under different levels of cognitive load: an ERP study. Exp Brain Res 2024; 242:769-780. [PMID: 38310175 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06776-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study examined the impact of reward expectations on working memory of emotional faces under different levels of cognitive load in a task combining the N-back paradigm and the reward expectation paradigm. The experiment involved presenting high- or low-reward cues followed by an N-back task for emotional faces with different loads. The accuracy results showed that under a high task load, both reward and emotion effects were significantly observed. However, these effects disappeared under a low task load. Analysis of the ERP data revealed that the early P2 and VPP components exhibited greater responses to fearful faces than to neutral faces. In the later stages, the P3 and LPP components showed greater reactions to high rewards than to low rewards. Additionally, the P2 component was found to be modulated by task load in relation to rewards, the EPN component demonstrated task load modulation with respect to emotions, and the N170 component showed an interaction effect between rewards and emotions. These findings imply that load regulates the reward effect and the emotional superiority effect in the process of working memory for emotional faces. In the cognitive processing of working memory, motivation and emotion jointly influence processing. Emotional factors have a greater impact in the early stage of processing, while motivation factors have a greater impact in the late stage of processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tian Gao
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China
| | - Xintong Liu
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China
| | - Wenting Geng
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China
| | - Chunping Yan
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China.
| | - Meng Wu
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China
| | - Lei Yang
- School of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, 453003, Henan, China
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Saito A, Sato W, Yoshikawa S. Sex differences in the rapid detection of neutral faces associated with emotional value. Biol Sex Differ 2023; 14:84. [PMID: 37964327 PMCID: PMC10644416 DOI: 10.1186/s13293-023-00567-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Rapid detection of faces with emotional meaning is essential for understanding the emotions of others, possibly promoting successful interpersonal relationships. Although few studies have examined sex differences in the ability to detect emotional faces, it remains unclear whether faces with emotional meaning capture the attention of females and males differently, because emotional faces have visual saliency that modulates visual attention. To overcome this issue, we tested the rapid detection of the neutral faces associated with and without learned emotional value, which are all regarded as free from visual saliency. We examined sex differences in the rapid detection of the neutral female and male faces associated with emotional value. METHODS First, young adult female and male participants completed an associative learning task in which neutral faces were associated with either monetary rewards, monetary punishments, or no monetary outcomes, such that the neutral faces acquired positive, negative, and no emotional value, respectively. Then, they engaged in a visual search task in which previously learned neutral faces were presented as discrepant faces among newly presented neutral distractor faces. During the visual search task, the participants were required to rapidly identify discrepant faces. RESULTS Female and male participants exhibited comparable learning abilities. The visual search results demonstrated that female participants achieved rapid detection of neutral faces associated with emotional value irrespective of the sex of the faces presented, whereas male participants showed this ability only for male faces. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrated that sex differences in the ability to rapidly detect neutral faces with emotional value were modulated by the sex of those faces. The results suggest greater sensitivity to faces with emotional significance in females, which might enrich interpersonal communication, regardless of sex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akie Saito
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0288, Japan.
| | - Wataru Sato
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0288, Japan
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
| | - Sakiko Yoshikawa
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
- Faculty of the Art and Design, Kyoto University of The Arts, 2-116 Uryuuzan, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
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Guo Y, Huang X, Li Z, Li W, Shi B, Cui Y, Zhu C, Zhang L, Wang A, Wang K, Yu F. Aberrant reward dynamics in depression with anticipatory anhedonia. Clin Neurophysiol 2023; 154:34-42. [PMID: 37541075 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2023.05.014] [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: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Previous studies have shown that anticipatory anhedonia is linked to abnormal reward processing. The present study aimed to explore the underlying neural mechanism of the influence of anticipatory anhedonia symptoms on reward processing. METHODS Electrophysiological activities in the anticipatory and consummatory phase were recorded during the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task in 24 depressed high anticipatory anhedonia (HAA) patients, 25 depressed low anticipatory anhedonia (LAA) patients, and 29 healthy controls (HC). RESULTS We suggested a significant condition × group interaction effect on feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes during the consummatory phase, a smaller FRN in reward cue trails compared with neutral cue trail was revealed in the HC and LAA group, but such reward-related effect was not found in the HAA group. In addition, we found significant correlations between FRN, fb-P3 and cue-N1, cue-N2 in the HC group, besides, significant correlations between FRN, fb-P3 and cue-P2 was also revealed in the HC and LAA group. However, no significant correlation was found in HAA patients. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the link between the anticipatory and consummatory phase was interrupted in depressed HAA patients, which may be driven by the aberrant consummatory reward processing. SIGNIFICANCE The current study is the first one to demonstrate the influence of anticipatory anhedonia symptom on the association between anticipatory and consummatory phase of reward process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaru Guo
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Xinyu Huang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Ziying Li
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Wenjun Li
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Bing Shi
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Yanan Cui
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Chunyan Zhu
- Research Center for Translational Medicine, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Lei Zhang
- Research Center for Translational Medicine, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Anzhen Wang
- Psychiatry Department of Hefei Fourth People's Hospital, Hefei, China
| | - Kai Wang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Fengqiong Yu
- Research Center for Translational Medicine, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.
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Gibbons H, Schmuck J, Schnuerch R. Of ugly gains and happy losses: An event-related potential study of interactions of the intrinsic and acquired valence of emotional pictures. Biol Psychol 2023; 182:108627. [PMID: 37423510 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108627] [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: 03/03/2023] [Revised: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/11/2023]
Abstract
During the last decades, event-related potential research on the processing of intrinsic and acquired valence has made great progress, but the two dimensions rarely varied simultaneously. Only that way, however, can we investigate whether the acquisition of extrinsic valence varies with intrinsic valence and whether intrinsic and acquired valence share the same brain mechanisms. Forty-five participants performed associative learning of gains and losses, using pictures varying on intrinsic valence (positive, negative) and outcome (90 % gain, 50 %/50 %, 90 % loss). 64-channel EEG was recorded. During acquisition, one picture from each valence/outcome combination was repeatedly presented, followed by abstract outcome information (+10 ct, -10 ct) at the predefined probability. In the test phase, participants pressed buttons to earn the real gains and avoid the real losses associated with the pictures. Here, effects of outcome and/or its congruence with intrinsic valence were observed for RT, error rate, frontal theta power, posterior P2, P300, and LPP. Moreover, outcome systematically affected post-test valence and arousal ratings. During acquisition, a contingency effect (90 % > 50 %) on amplitude of a frontal negative slow wave accompanied the progress of learning, independently of outcome, valence, and congruence. The relative absence of outcome effects during acquisition suggests "cold" semantic rather than genuinely affective processing of gains and losses. However, with real gains and losses in the test phase, "hot" affective processing took place, and outcome and its congruence with intrinsic valence influenced behavior and neural processing. Finally, the data suggest both shared and distinct brain mechanisms of intrinsic and acquired valence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henning Gibbons
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, D-53111 Bonn, Germany.
| | - Jonas Schmuck
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, D-53111 Bonn, Germany
| | - Robert Schnuerch
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, D-53111 Bonn, Germany
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Chen NX, Wei P. Reward History Modulates the Processing of Task-Irrelevant Emotional Faces in a Demanding Task. Brain Sci 2023; 13:874. [PMID: 37371354 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13060874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to examine how reward-associated emotional facial distractors could capture attentional resources in a demanding visual task using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the learning phase, a high- or low-reward probability was paired with angry, happy, or neutral faces. Then, in the test phase, participants performed a face-irrelevant task with no reward at stake, in which they needed to discriminate the length of two lines presented in the center of the screen while faces that were taken from the learning phase were used as distractors presented in the periphery. The behavioral results revealed no effect of distractor emotional valence since the emotional information was task-irrelevant. The ERP results in the test phase revealed a significant main effect of distractor emotional valence for the parieto-occipital P200 (170-230 ms); the mean amplitudes in both the angry- and happy-face conditions were more positive than the neutral-face condition. Moreover, we found that the high-reward association enhanced both the N170 (140-180 ms) and EPN (260-330 ms) relative to the low-reward association condition. Finally, the N2pc (270-320 ms) also exhibited enhanced neural activity in the high-reward condition compared to the low-reward condition. The absence of emotional effects indicated that task-irrelevant emotional facial stimuli did not impact behavioral or neural responses in this highly demanding task. However, reward-associated information was processed when attention was directed elsewhere, suggesting that the processing of reward-associated information worked more in an automatic way, irrespective of the top-down task demand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning-Xuan Chen
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
| | - Ping Wei
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
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Ding Q, Zhu J, Yan C. Encoding tasks moderated the reward effect on brain activity during memory retrieval. Sci Rep 2022; 12:8246. [PMID: 35581311 PMCID: PMC9114383 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-12344-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have explored the effects of retrieval reward and depth of processing in encoding on recognition, but it remains unclear whether and how reward and depth of processing during encoding influence recognition. We investigated the effect and neural mechanisms of encoding reward and processing depth on recognition using event-related potentials (ERPs) in this study. In the study phase, participants were asked to perform two encoding tasks: congruity-judgment (deep processing) and size-judgment (shallow processing) in reward and no-reward conditions. The test phases included object (item) and background (source) tests. The results of item retrieval showed that the accuracy of rewarded items was higher than that of unrewarded items only in the congruity-judgment task, and the reward effect (the average amplitudes in the reward condition were significantly more positive than those in the no-reward condition) in the 300–500 and 500–700 ms were greater in the congruity-judgment task than in the size-judgment task. The results of source retrieval showed that the accuracy of rewarded items was higher than that of unrewarded items, that the difference in the size-judgment task was significantly larger, and that the reward effect in the 300–500 and 500–700 ms were greater in the size-judgment task than in the congruity-judgment task. In conclusion, the encoding task moderated the reward effect in item and source memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianqian Ding
- College of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
| | - Jinfu Zhu
- College of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
| | - Chunping Yan
- College of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
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Yan C, Ding Q, Wu M, Zhu J. The Effects of Reward on Associative Memory Depend on Unitization Depths. Front Psychol 2022; 13:839144. [PMID: 35237216 PMCID: PMC8882644 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.839144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have found that reward effect is stronger for more difficult to retrieve items, but whether this effect holds true for the associative memory remains unclear too. We investigated the effects and neural mechanisms of the different unitization depths and reward sets on encoding associative memory using event-related potentials (ERPs), which were recorded through a Neuroscan system with a 64-channel electrode cap according to the international 10–20 system, and five electrodes (Fz, FCz, Cz, CPz, and Pz) were selected for analysis. Thirty healthy college students took part in this study. During encoding, participants were carried out two encoding tasks, a congruity-judgment task with high unitization and a color-judgment task with low unitization, with half of the items rewarded. The test phase was conducted immediately after the encoding phase. The results for false alarm rates and Prs (i.e., hit rates for old pairs minus false alarm rates for new pairs) in relational retrieval revealed that the reward differences in the color-judgment task were greater than those in the congruity-judgment task. The ERP results further showed significant reward effects (i.e., the reward significantly improved the average amplitudes compared to no reward) at P300 (300–500 ms) and LPP (500–800 ms) in the color-judgment task both for intact and rearranged items, and the reward effects at LPP (electrodes Fz, FCz, Cz, CPz, and Pz) were distributed more widely than the reward effects at P300 (electrodes Fz and FCz) in the color-judgment task. These results suggest that reward provided a greater boost when retrieving associative memory of low unitized items.
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Abstract
Swift detection of faces with emotional meaning underlies fruitful social relationships. Although previous studies using a visual search paradigm have demonstrated rapid detection of emotional facial expressions, whether it is attributable to emotional/motivational significance remains to be clarified. We examined this issue by excluding the influence of visual factors on the rapid detection of faces with emotional meaning. First, participants were engaged in an associative learning task wherein neutral faces were associated with either monetary rewards, monetary punishments, or zero outcome in order for the neutral faces to acquire positive, negative, and no emotional value, respectively. Then, during the visual search task, the participants detected a target-neutral face associated with high reward or punishment from among newly presented neutral faces. In Experiment 1, neutral faces associated with high reward and punishment values were more rapidly detected than those without monetary outcomes. In Experiment 2, highly rewarded and highly punished neutral faces were more rapidly detected than neutral faces associated with low monetary reward/punishment. Analyses of ratings confirmed that the learned neutral faces acquired emotional value, and the reaction times were negatively related to arousal ratings. These results suggest that the emotional/motivational significance promotes the rapid detection of emotional faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akie Saito
- Psychological Process Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Wataru Sato
- Psychological Process Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan.,Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Sakiko Yoshikawa
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.,Faculty of Art and Design, Kyoto University of The Arts, Kyoto, Japan
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The interactive effects of reward expectation and emotional interference on cognitive conflict control: An ERP study. Physiol Behav 2021; 234:113369. [PMID: 33636632 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2020] [Revised: 01/24/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The effects of reward expectation and task-irrelevant emotional content on performance and event-related potential (ERP) recordings in a cognitive conflict control task were investigated using the face-word Stroop paradigm. A precue indicating additional monetary rewards for fast and accurate responses during the upcoming trial (incentive condition; relative to a cue indicating no additional reward, i.e., nonincentive condition) was followed by the presentation of target Chinese words (male vs. female) superimposed on background emotional faces (happy vs. fearful). The face's gender was congruent or incongruent with the target Chinese words. ERP results revealed that incentive cues elicited larger P1, P3, and CNV responses compared to nonincentive cues. There was a significant three-way interaction of reward expectation, emotional content, and congruency during the target processing stage such that emotionality and congruency interacted to affect the N170 and N2 component responses during the nonincentive condition but not during the incentive condition. These results indicate that reward-induced motivation reduces the interference effect of task-irrelevant emotional information, leading to better conflict resolution.
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Zhou X, Du B, Wei Z, He W. Attention Capture of Non-target Emotional Faces: An Evidence From Reward Learning. Front Psychol 2020; 10:3004. [PMID: 32082205 PMCID: PMC7006031 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore whether reward learning would affect the processing of targets when an emotional stimulus was task irrelevant. In the current study, using a visual search paradigm to establish an association between emotional faces and reward, an emotional face appeared as a task-irrelevant distractor during the test after reward learning, and participants were asked to judge the orientation of a line on the face. In experiment 1, no significant difference was found between the high reward-fear distractor condition and the no reward-neutral condition, but the response times of the high reward-fear condition were significantly longer than those of the low reward-happy condition. In experiment 2, there was no significant difference in participants' performance between high reward-happy and no reward-neutral responses. In addition, response times of the low reward-fear condition wear significantly longer than those of the high reward-happy and no reward-neutral conditions. The results show that reward learning affects attention bias of task-irrelevant emotional faces even when reward is absent. Moreover, the high reward selection history is more effective in weakening the emotional advantage of the processing advantage than the low reward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xing Zhou
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
| | - Bixuan Du
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
| | - Zhiqing Wei
- School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Weiqi He
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
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