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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Patterson A, Baker CI. Beyond faces: the contribution of the amygdala to visual processing in the macaque brain. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae245. [PMID: 38864574 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae245] [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: 02/07/2024] [Revised: 05/03/2024] [Accepted: 05/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
The amygdala is present in a diverse range of vertebrate species, such as lizards, rodents, and primates; however, its structure and connectivity differs across species. The increased connections to visual sensory areas in primate species suggests that understanding the visual selectivity of the amygdala in detail is critical to revealing the principles underlying its function in primate cognition. Therefore, we designed a high-resolution, contrast-agent enhanced, event-related fMRI experiment, and scanned 3 adult rhesus macaques, while they viewed 96 naturalistic stimuli. Half of these stimuli were social (defined by the presence of a conspecific), the other half were nonsocial. We also nested manipulations of emotional valence (positive, neutral, and negative) and visual category (faces, nonfaces, animate, and inanimate) within the stimulus set. The results reveal widespread effects of emotional valence, with the amygdala responding more on average to inanimate objects and animals than faces, bodies, or social agents in this experimental context. These findings suggest that the amygdala makes a contribution to primate vision that goes beyond an auxiliary role in face or social perception. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and experimental design when probing the function of the amygdala and other visually responsive brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
- School of Psychology, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
| | - Amanda Patterson
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
| | - Chris I Baker
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
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2
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Fan S, Dal Monte O, Nair AR, Fagan NA, Chang SWC. Closed-loop microstimulations of the orbitofrontal cortex during real-life gaze interaction enhance dynamic social attention. Neuron 2024:S0896-6273(24)00330-1. [PMID: 38823391 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.05.004] [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: 01/01/2024] [Revised: 04/11/2024] [Accepted: 05/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Neurons from multiple prefrontal areas encode several key variables of social gaze interaction. To explore the causal roles of the primate prefrontal cortex in real-life gaze interaction, we applied weak closed-loop microstimulations that were precisely triggered by specific social gaze events. Microstimulations of the orbitofrontal cortex, but not the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex or the anterior cingulate cortex, enhanced momentary dynamic social attention in the spatial dimension by decreasing the distance of fixations relative to a partner's eyes and in the temporal dimension by reducing the inter-looking interval and the latency to reciprocate the other's directed gaze. By contrast, on a longer timescale, microstimulations of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex modulated inter-individual gaze dynamics relative to one's own gaze positions. These findings demonstrate that multiple regions in the primate prefrontal cortex may serve as functionally accessible nodes in controlling different aspects of dynamic social attention and suggest their potential for a therapeutic brain interface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siqi Fan
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; The Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Olga Dal Monte
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Torino, Italy
| | - Amrita R Nair
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Nicholas A Fagan
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Steve W C Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
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3
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Saurels BW, Peluso N, Taubert J. A behavioral advantage for the face pareidolia illusion in peripheral vision. Sci Rep 2024; 14:10040. [PMID: 38693189 PMCID: PMC11063176 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60892-z] [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: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Investigation of visual illusions helps us understand how we process visual information. For example, face pareidolia, the misperception of illusory faces in objects, could be used to understand how we process real faces. However, it remains unclear whether this illusion emerges from errors in face detection or from slower, cognitive processes. Here, our logic is straightforward; if examples of face pareidolia activate the mechanisms that rapidly detect faces in visual environments, then participants will look at objects more quickly when the objects also contain illusory faces. To test this hypothesis, we sampled continuous eye movements during a fast saccadic choice task-participants were required to select either faces or food items. During this task, pairs of stimuli were positioned close to the initial fixation point or further away, in the periphery. As expected, the participants were faster to look at face targets than food targets. Importantly, we also discovered an advantage for food items with illusory faces but, this advantage was limited to the peripheral condition. These findings are among the first to demonstrate that the face pareidolia illusion persists in the periphery and, thus, it is likely to be a consequence of erroneous face detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blake W Saurels
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Natalie Peluso
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jessica Taubert
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
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4
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Giarrocco F, Costa VD, Basile BM, Pujara MS, Murray EA, Averbeck BB. Motor System-Dependent Effects of Amygdala and Ventral Striatum Lesions on Explore-Exploit Behaviors. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1206232023. [PMID: 38296647 PMCID: PMC10860650 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1206-23.2023] [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: 06/28/2023] [Revised: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Deciding whether to forego immediate rewards or explore new opportunities is a key component of flexible behavior and is critical for the survival of the species. Although previous studies have shown that different cortical and subcortical areas, including the amygdala and ventral striatum (VS), are implicated in representing the immediate (exploitative) and future (explorative) value of choices, the effect of the motor system used to make choices has not been examined. Here, we tested male rhesus macaques with amygdala or VS lesions on two versions of a three-arm bandit task where choices were registered with either a saccade or an arm movement. In both tasks we presented the monkeys with explore-exploit tradeoffs by periodically replacing familiar options with novel options that had unknown reward probabilities. We found that monkeys explored more with saccades but showed better learning with arm movements. VS lesions caused the monkeys to be more explorative with arm movements and less explorative with saccades, although this may have been due to an overall decrease in performance. VS lesions affected the monkeys' ability to learn novel stimulus-reward associations in both tasks, while after amygdala lesions this effect was stronger when choices were made with saccades. Further, on average, VS and amygdala lesions reduced the monkeys' ability to choose better options only when choices were made with a saccade. These results show that learning reward value associations to manage explore-exploit behaviors is motor system dependent and they further define the contributions of amygdala and VS to reinforcement learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Franco Giarrocco
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
| | - Vincent D Costa
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
- Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Beaverton 97006, OR
| | - Benjamin M Basile
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
- Department of Psychology, Dickinson College, Carlisle 17013, PA
| | - Maia S Pujara
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
| | - Elisabeth A Murray
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
| | - Bruno B Averbeck
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 20892-4415, MD
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5
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Fan S, Dal Monte O, Nair AR, Fagan NA, Chang SWC. Closed-loop microstimulations of the orbitofrontal cortex during real-life gaze interaction enhance dynamic social attention. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.18.572176. [PMID: 38187638 PMCID: PMC10769221 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.18.572176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
The prefrontal cortex is extensively involved in social exchange. During dyadic gaze interaction, multiple prefrontal areas exhibit neuronal encoding of social gaze events and context-specific mutual eye contact, supported by a widespread neural mechanism of social gaze monitoring. To explore causal manipulation of real-life gaze interaction, we applied weak closed-loop microstimulations that were precisely triggered by specific social gaze events to three prefrontal areas in monkeys. Microstimulations of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), but not dorsomedial prefrontal or anterior cingulate cortex, enhanced momentary dynamic social attention in the spatial dimension by decreasing distance of one's gaze fixations relative to partner monkey's eyes. In the temporal dimension, microstimulations of OFC reduced the inter-looking interval for attending to another agent and the latency to reciprocate other's directed gaze. These findings demonstrate that primate OFC serves as a functionally accessible node in controlling dynamic social attention and suggest its potential for a therapeutic brain interface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siqi Fan
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Olga Dal Monte
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Torino, Italy
| | - Amrita R. Nair
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | | | - Steve W. C. Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
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6
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Grabenhorst F, Ponce-Alvarez A, Battaglia-Mayer A, Deco G, Schultz W. A view-based decision mechanism for rewards in the primate amygdala. Neuron 2023; 111:3871-3884.e14. [PMID: 37725980 PMCID: PMC10914681 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.08.024] [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: 08/15/2022] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Primates make decisions visually by shifting their view from one object to the next, comparing values between objects, and choosing the best reward, even before acting. Here, we show that when monkeys make value-guided choices, amygdala neurons encode their decisions in an abstract, purely internal representation defined by the monkey's current view but not by specific object or reward properties. Across amygdala subdivisions, recorded activity patterns evolved gradually from an object-specific value code to a transient, object-independent code in which currently viewed and last-viewed objects competed to reflect the emerging view-based choice. Using neural-network modeling, we identified a sequence of computations by which amygdala neurons implemented view-based decision making and eventually recovered the chosen object's identity when the monkeys acted on their choice. These findings reveal a neural mechanism in the amygdala that derives object choices from abstract, view-based computations, suggesting an efficient solution for decision problems with many objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabian Grabenhorst
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK; Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK.
| | - Adrián Ponce-Alvarez
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Technology and Information, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Ramón Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Matemàtiques, EPSEB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Gustavo Deco
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Technology and Information, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Ramón Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Universitat Barcelona, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Schultz
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK
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7
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Taubert J, Wally S, Dixson BJ. Preliminary evidence of an increased susceptibility to face pareidolia in postpartum women. Biol Lett 2023; 19:20230126. [PMID: 37700700 PMCID: PMC10498352 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0126] [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: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
As primates, we are hypersensitive to faces and face-like patterns in the visual environment, hence we often perceive illusory faces in otherwise inanimate objects, such as burnt pieces of toast and the surface of the moon. Although this phenomenon, known as face pareidolia, is a common experience, it is unknown whether our susceptibility to face pareidolia is static across our lifespan or what factors would cause it to change. Given the evidence that behaviour towards face stimuli is modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), we reasoned that participants in stages of life associated with high levels of endogenous OT might be more susceptible to face pareidolia than participants in other stages of life. We tested this hypothesis by assessing pareidolia susceptibility in two groups of women; pregnant women (low endogenous OT) and postpartum women (high endogenous OT). We found evidence that postpartum women report seeing face pareidolia more easily than women who are currently pregnant. These data, collected online, suggest that our sensitivity to face-like patterns is not fixed and may change throughout adulthood, providing a crucial proof of concept that requires further research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, McElwain Building, St Lucia, 4072 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Samantha Wally
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, McElwain Building, St Lucia, 4072 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Barnaby J. Dixson
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, McElwain Building, St Lucia, 4072 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Psychology and Social Sciences, The University of Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Australia
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8
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Wardle SG, Ewing L, Malcolm GL, Paranjape S, Baker CI. Children perceive illusory faces in objects as male more often than female. Cognition 2023; 235:105398. [PMID: 36791506 PMCID: PMC10085858 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105398] [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: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/15/2023]
Abstract
Face pareidolia is the experience of seeing illusory faces in inanimate objects. While children experience face pareidolia, it is unknown whether they perceive gender in illusory faces, as their face evaluation system is still developing in the first decade of life. In a sample of 412 children and adults from 4 to 80 years of age we found that like adults, children perceived many illusory faces in objects to have a gender and had a strong bias to see them as male rather than female, regardless of their own gender identification. These results provide evidence that the male bias for face pareidolia emerges early in life, even before the ability to discriminate gender from facial cues alone is fully developed. Further, the existence of a male bias in children suggests that any social context that elicits the cognitive bias to see faces as male has remained relatively consistent across generations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Louise Ewing
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, UK
| | | | - Sanika Paranjape
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Chris I Baker
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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9
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Chong I, Ramezanpour H, Thier P. Causal Manipulation of Gaze-Following in the Macaque Temporal Cortex. Prog Neurobiol 2023; 226:102466. [PMID: 37211234 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Gaze-following, the ability to shift one's own attention to places or objects others are looking at, is essential for social interactions. Single unit recordings from the monkey cortex and neuroimaging work on the human and monkey brain suggest that a distinct region in the temporal cortex, the gaze-following patch (GFP), underpins this ability. Since previous studies of the GFP have relied on correlational techniques, it remains unclear whether gaze-following related activity in the GFP indicates a causal role rather than being just a reverberation of behaviorally relevant information produced elsewhere. To answer this question, we applied focal electrical and pharmacological perturbation to the GFP. Both approaches, when applied to the GFP, disrupted gaze-following if the monkeys had been instructed to follow gaze, along with the ability to suppress it if vetoed by the context. Hence the GFP is necessary for gaze-following as well as its cognitive control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian Chong
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Hamidreza Ramezanpour
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Peter Thier
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
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10
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Breu MS, Ramezanpour H, Dicke PW, Thier P. A frontoparietal network for volitional control of gaze following. Eur J Neurosci 2023; 57:1723-1735. [PMID: 36967647 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15975] [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: 06/24/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
Gaze following is a major element of non-verbal communication and important for successful social interactions. Human gaze following is a fast and almost reflex-like behaviour, yet it can be volitionally controlled and suppressed to some extent if inappropriate or unnecessary, given the social context. In order to identify the neural basis of the cognitive control of gaze following, we carried out an event-related fMRI experiment, in which human subjects' eye movements were tracked while they were exposed to gaze cues in two distinct contexts: A baseline gaze following condition in which subjects were instructed to use gaze cues to shift their attention to a gazed-at spatial target and a control condition in which the subjects were required to ignore the gaze cue and instead to shift their attention to a distinct spatial target to be selected based on a colour mapping rule, requiring the suppression of gaze following. We could identify a suppression-related blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response in a frontoparietal network comprising dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the anterior insula, precuneus, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). These findings suggest that overexcitation of frontoparietal circuits in turn suppressing the gaze following patch might be a potential cause of gaze following deficits in clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M S Breu
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - H Ramezanpour
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P W Dicke
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P Thier
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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11
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Hadjikhani N, Åsberg Johnels J. Overwhelmed by the man in the moon? Pareidolic objects provoke increased amygdala activation in autism. Cortex 2023; 164:144-151. [PMID: 37209610 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
An interesting feature of the primate face detection system results in the perception of illusory faces in objects, or pareidolia. These illusory faces do not per se contain social information, such as eye-gaze or specific identities, yet they activate the cortical brain face-processing network, possibly via the subcortical route, including the amygdala. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), aversion to eye-contact is commonly reported, and so are alterations in face processing more generally, yet the underlying reasons are not clear. Here we show that in autistic participants (N=37), but not in non-autistic controls (N=34), pareidolic objects increase amygdala activation bilaterally (right amygdala peak: X = 26, Y = -6, Z = -16; left amygdala peak X = -24, Y = -6, Z = -20). In addition, illusory faces engage the face-processing cortical network significantly more in ASD than in controls. An early imbalance in the excitatory and inhibitory systems in autism, affecting typical brain maturation, may be at the basis of an overresponsive reaction to face configuration and to eye contact. Our data add to the evidence of an oversensitive subcortical face processing system in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nouchine Hadjikhani
- Neurolimbic Research, Harvard/MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, USA; Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | - Jakob Åsberg Johnels
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Section of Speech and Language Pathology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
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12
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Kaskan PM, Nicholas MA, Dean AM, Murray EA. Attention to Stimuli of Learned versus Innate Biological Value Relies on Separate Neural Systems. J Neurosci 2022; 42:9242-9252. [PMID: 36319119 PMCID: PMC9761678 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0925-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 09/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The neural bases of attention, a set of neural processes that promote behavioral selection, is a subject of intense investigation. In humans, rewarded cues influence attention, even when those cues are irrelevant to the current task. Because the amygdala plays a role in reward processing, and the activity of amygdala neurons has been linked to spatial attention, we reasoned that the amygdala may be essential for attending to rewarded images. To test this possibility, we used an attentional capture task, which provides a quantitative measure of attentional bias. Specifically, we compared reaction times (RTs) of adult male rhesus monkeys with bilateral amygdala lesions and unoperated controls as they made a saccade away from a high- or low-value rewarded image to a peripheral target. We predicted that: (1) RTs will be longer for high- compared with low-value images, revealing attentional capture by rewarded stimuli; and (2) relative to controls, monkeys with amygdala lesions would exhibit shorter RT for high-value images. For comparison, we assessed the same groups of monkeys for attentional capture by images of predators and conspecifics, categories thought to have innate biological value. In performing the attentional capture task, all monkeys were slowed more by high-value relative to low-value rewarded images. Contrary to our prediction, amygdala lesions failed to disrupt this effect. When presented with images of predators and conspecifics, however, monkeys with amygdala lesions showed significantly diminished attentional capture relative to controls. Thus, separate neural pathways are responsible for allocating attention to stimuli with learned versus innate value.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Valuable objects attract attention. The amygdala is known to contribute to reward processing and the encoding of object reward value. We therefore examined whether the amygdala is necessary for allocating attention to rewarded objects. For comparison, we assessed the amygdala's contribution to attending to objects with innate biological value: predators and conspecifics. We found that the macaque amygdala is necessary for directing attention to images with innate biological value, but not for directing attention to recently learned reward-predictive images. These findings indicate that the amygdala makes selective contributions to attending to valuable objects. The data are relevant to mental health disorders, such as social anxiety disorders and small animal phobias, that arise from biased attention to select categories of objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M Kaskan
- Leo M. Davidoff Department of Neurological Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461
| | - Mark A Nicholas
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Aaron M Dean
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Elisabeth A Murray
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
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13
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Brugger P. Blots and brains. A note on the centenary of Hermann Rorschach's death. Cortex 2022; 157:256-265. [PMID: 36347087 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
This historical note is a commemorial of Rorschach, the person, and Rorschach the test. Hermann Rorschach died 100 years ago, not quite a year after the publication of his book containing the 10 inkblots. These have reached an iconic status, but the "Rorschach Test" as used in psychiatry, legal organizations and aptitude assessments is not quite what Hermann Rorschach designed it for in the first line. A first section of this article introduces Hermann Rorschach as a man with very broad interests and an inclination to ask cognitive science questions that are still challenging today. A second section provides a critical summary of the fate of the ten inkblots after Rorschach's death - how they conquered the whole world in a time with a pronouced "psychometric attitude", and also how they failed in some attempts to measure personality traits in special populations. A final section focuses on recent research on one particular aspect of a testee's associations to the inkblots: "movement responses", i.e. the perception of implied motion. Here, neural and behavioral correlates have been demonstrated by modern neuroimaging techniques. One study, which set out to validate both the Rorschach as a personality test and the view that the two cerebral hemispheres correspond to divergent "personalities" is also summarized. The viewpoint concludes by suggesting that future work with inkblots should consider Rorschach's original intention to use inkblots to uncover basic laws of perception. Modern applications of computer-generated pseudorandom stimuli (random dot arrays or stochastic noise) would have been embraced by Hermann Rorschach as he appreciated the impact of visual noise for the study of vision and visual cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Brugger
- Rehab Center Valens, Valens, Switzerland; University Hospital of Psychiatry PUK, Zurich, Switzerland.
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14
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Tardiff CT, Patterson A, Yu D, Baker CI. Clutter Substantially Reduces Selectivity for Peripheral Faces in the Macaque Brain. J Neurosci 2022; 42:6739-6750. [PMID: 35868861 PMCID: PMC9436017 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0232-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 04/29/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
According to a prominent view in neuroscience, visual stimuli are coded by discrete cortical networks that respond preferentially to specific categories, such as faces or objects. However, it remains unclear how these category-selective networks respond when viewing conditions are cluttered, i.e., when there is more than one stimulus in the visual field. Here, we asked three questions: (1) Does clutter reduce the response and selectivity for faces as a function of retinal location? (2) Is the preferential response to faces uniform across the visual field? And (3) Does the ventral visual pathway encode information about the location of cluttered faces? We used fMRI to measure the response of the face-selective network in awake, fixating macaques (two female, five male). Across a series of four experiments, we manipulated the presence and absence of clutter, as well as the location of the faces relative to the fovea. We found that clutter reduces the response to peripheral faces. When presented in isolation, without clutter, the selectivity for faces is fairly uniform across the visual field, but, when clutter is present, there is a marked decrease in the selectivity for peripheral faces. We also found no evidence of a contralateral visual field bias when faces were presented in clutter. Nonetheless, multivariate analyses revealed that the location of cluttered faces could be decoded from the multivoxel response of the face-selective network. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that clutter blunts the selectivity of the face-selective network to peripheral faces, although information about their retinal location is retained.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Numerous studies that have measured brain activity in macaques have found visual regions that respond preferentially to faces. Although these regions are thought to be essential for social behavior, their responses have typically been measured while faces were presented in isolation, a situation atypical of the real world. How do these regions respond when faces are presented with other stimuli? We report that, when clutter is present, the preferential response to foveated faces is spared but preferential response to peripheral faces is reduced. Our results indicate that the presence of clutter changes the response of the face-selective network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
| | - Clarissa T Tardiff
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
| | - Amanda Patterson
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
| | - David Yu
- Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
| | - Chris I Baker
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
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15
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Kim JW, Brückner KE, Badenius C, Hamel W, Schaper M, Le Van Quyen M, El-Allawy-Zielke EK, Stodieck SRG, Hebel JM, Lanz M. Face-induced gamma oscillations and event-related potentials in patients with epilepsy: an intracranial EEG study. BMC Neurosci 2022; 23:36. [PMID: 35698042 PMCID: PMC9195313 DOI: 10.1186/s12868-022-00715-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Background To examine the pathological effect of a mesial temporal seizure onset zone (SOZ) on local and inter-regional response to faces in the amygdala and other structures of the temporal lobe. Methods Intracranial EEG data was obtained from the amygdala, hippocampus, fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus of nine patients with drug-refractory epilepsy during visual stimulation with faces and mosaics. We analyzed event-related potentials (ERP), gamma frequency power, phase-amplitude coupling and phase-slope-index and compared the results between patients with versus without a mesial temporal SOZ. Results In the amygdala and fusiform gyrus, faces triggered higher ERP amplitudes compared to mosaics in both patient groups and higher gamma power in patients without a mesial temporal SOZ. In the hippocampus, famous faces triggered higher gamma power for both groups combined but did not affect ERPs in either group. The differentiated ERP response to famous faces in the parahippocampal gyrus was more pronounced in patients without a mesial temporal SOZ. Phase-amplitude coupling and phase-slope-index results yielded bidirectional modulation between amygdala and fusiform gyrus, and predominately unidirectional modulation between parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus. Conclusions A mesial temporal SOZ was associated with an impaired response to faces in the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus in our patients. Compared to this, the response to faces in the hippocampus was impaired in patients with, as well as without, a mesial temporal SOZ. Our results support existing evidence for face processing deficits in patients with a mesial temporal SOZ and suggest the pathological effect of a mesial temporal SOZ on the amygdala to play a pivotal role in this matter in particular.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji-Won Kim
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. .,Epilepsy Center Hamburg, Protestant Hospital Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Katja E Brückner
- Epilepsy Center Hamburg, Protestant Hospital Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Celina Badenius
- Epilepsy Center Hamburg, Protestant Hospital Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Hamel
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Miriam Schaper
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Michel Le Van Quyen
- Laboratoire d'Imagerie Biomédicale (LIB), Inserm U1146 / Sorbonne Université UMCR2 / UMR7371 CNRS, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Jonas M Hebel
- Department of Neurology, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Lanz
- Epilepsy Center Hamburg, Protestant Hospital Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany
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16
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Tardiff CT, Koele EA, Kumar S, Messinger A, Ungerleider LG. The cortical and subcortical correlates of face pareidolia in the macaque brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:965-976. [PMID: 35445247 PMCID: PMC9629476 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Face detection is a foundational social skill for primates. This vital function is thought to be supported by specialized neural mechanisms; however, although several face-selective regions have been identified in both humans and nonhuman primates, there is no consensus about which region(s) are involved in face detection. Here, we used naturally occurring errors of face detection (i.e. objects with illusory facial features referred to as examples of 'face pareidolia') to identify regions of the macaque brain implicated in face detection. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging to test awake rhesus macaques, we discovered that a subset of face-selective patches in the inferior temporal cortex, on the lower lateral edge of the superior temporal sulcus, and the amygdala respond more to objects with illusory facial features than matched non-face objects. Multivariate analyses of the data revealed differences in the representation of illusory faces across the functionally defined regions of interest. These differences suggest that the cortical and subcortical face-selective regions contribute uniquely to the detection of facial features. We conclude that face detection is supported by a multiplexed system in the primate brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Correspondence should be addressed to Jessica Taubert, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Building 24A, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. E-mail:
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Clarissa T Tardiff
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elissa A Koele
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Susheel Kumar
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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17
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Charbonneau JA, Amaral DG, Bliss-Moreau E. Social housing status impacts rhesus monkeys' affective responding in classic threat processing tasks. Sci Rep 2022; 12:4140. [PMID: 35264698 PMCID: PMC8907189 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08077-4] [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: 10/03/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals’ social contexts are broadly recognized to impact both their psychology and neurobiology. These effects are observed in people and in nonhuman animals who are the subjects for comparative and translational science. The social contexts in which monkeys are reared have long been recognized to have significant impacts on affective processing. Yet, the social contexts in which monkeys live as adults are often ignored and could have important consequences for interpreting findings, particularly those related to biopsychiatry and behavioral neuroscience studies. The extant nonhuman primate neuropsychological literature has historically tested individually-housed monkeys, creating a critical need to understand how social context might impact the outcomes of such experiments. We evaluated affective responding in adult rhesus monkeys living in four different social contexts using two classic threat processing tasks—a test of responsivity to objects and a test of responsivity to an unfamiliar human. These tasks have been commonly used in behavioral neuroscience for decades. Relative to monkeys with full access to a social partner, individually-housed monkeys had blunted reactivity to threat and monkeys who had limited contact with their partner were more reactive to some threatening stimuli. These results indicate that monkeys’ social housing contexts impact affective reactivity and point to the potential need to reconsider inferences drawn from prior studies in which the impacts of social context have not been considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joey A Charbonneau
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California Davis, Davis, USA.,California National Primate Research Center, University of California Davis, Davis, USA
| | - David G Amaral
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California Davis, Davis, USA.,The MIND Institute, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, USA
| | - Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California Davis, Davis, USA. .,Department of Psychology, University of California Davis, Davis, USA.
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18
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Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:2117413119. [PMID: 35074880 PMCID: PMC8812520 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117413119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Face pareidolia is the phenomenon of perceiving illusory faces in inanimate objects. Here we show that illusory faces engage social perception beyond the detection of a face: they have a perceived age, gender, and emotional expression. Additionally, we report a striking bias in gender perception, with many more illusory faces perceived as male than female. As illusory faces do not have a biological sex, this bias is significant in revealing an asymmetry in our face evaluation system given minimal information. Our result demonstrates that the visual features that are sufficient for face detection are not generally sufficient for the perception of female. Instead, the perception of a nonhuman face as female requires additional features beyond that required for face detection. Despite our fluency in reading human faces, sometimes we mistakenly perceive illusory faces in objects, a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. Although illusory faces share some neural mechanisms with real faces, it is unknown to what degree pareidolia engages higher-level social perception beyond the detection of a face. In a series of large-scale behavioral experiments (ntotal = 3,815 adults), we found that illusory faces in inanimate objects are readily perceived to have a specific emotional expression, age, and gender. Most strikingly, we observed a strong bias to perceive illusory faces as male rather than female. This male bias could not be explained by preexisting semantic or visual gender associations with the objects, or by visual features in the images. Rather, this robust bias in the perception of gender for illusory faces reveals a cognitive bias arising from a broadly tuned face evaluation system in which minimally viable face percepts are more likely to be perceived as male.
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19
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de Gelder B, Huis in ‘t Veldt E, Zhan M, Van den Stock J. Acquired Prosopagnosia with Structurally Intact and Functional Fusiform Face Area and with Face Identity-Specific Configuration Processing Deficits. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4671-4683. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Revised: 12/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Prosopagnosia or loss of face perception and recognition is still poorly understood and rare single cases of acquired prosopagnosia can provide a unique window on the behavioural and brain basis of normal face perception. The present study of a new case of acquired prosopagnosia with bilateral occipito-temporal lesions but a structurally intact FFA and OFA investigated whether the lesion overlapped with the face network and whether the structurally intact FFA showed a face selective response. We also investigated the behavioral correlates of the neural findings and assessed configural processing in the context of facial and non-facial identity recognition, expression recognition and memory, also focusing on the face-selectivity of each specific deficit. The findings reveal a face-selective response in the FFA, despite lesions in the face perception network. At the behavioural level, the results showed impaired configural processing for facial identity, but not for other stimulus categories and not for facial expression recognition. These findings challenge a critical role of the FFA for face identity processing and support a domain-specific account of configural processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice de Gelder
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht 6229 EV, The Netherlands
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Elizabeth Huis in ‘t Veldt
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht 6229 EV, The Netherlands
- Departement of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Minye Zhan
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht 6229 EV, The Netherlands
| | - Jan Van den Stock
- Department of Neurosciences, Neuropsychiatry, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Geriatric Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Center, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
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20
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Rekow D, Baudouin JY, Brochard R, Rossion B, Leleu A. Rapid neural categorization of facelike objects predicts the perceptual awareness of a face (face pareidolia). Cognition 2022; 222:105016. [PMID: 35030358 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Revised: 12/31/2021] [Accepted: 01/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The human brain rapidly and automatically categorizes faces vs. other visual objects. However, whether face-selective neural activity predicts the subjective experience of a face - perceptual awareness - is debated. To clarify this issue, here we use face pareidolia, i.e., the illusory perception of a face, as a proxy to relate the neural categorization of a variety of facelike objects to conscious face perception. In Experiment 1, scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) is recorded while pictures of human faces or facelike objects - in different stimulation sequences - are interleaved every second (i.e., at 1 Hz) in a rapid 6-Hz train of natural images of nonface objects. Participants do not perform any explicit face categorization task during stimulation, and report whether they perceived illusory faces post-stimulation. A robust categorization response to facelike objects is identified at 1 Hz and harmonics in the EEG frequency spectrum with a facelike occipito-temporal topography. Across all individuals, the facelike categorization response is of about 20% of the response to human faces, but more strongly right-lateralized. Critically, its amplitude is much larger in participants who report having perceived illusory faces. In Experiment 2, facelike or matched nonface objects from the same categories appear at 1 Hz in sequences of nonface objects presented at variable stimulation rates (60 Hz to 12 Hz) and participants explicitly report after each sequence whether they perceived illusory faces. The facelike categorization response already emerges at the shortest stimulus duration (i.e., 17 ms at 60 Hz) and predicts the behavioral report of conscious perception. Strikingly, neural facelike-selectivity emerges exclusively when participants report illusory faces. Collectively, these experiments characterize a neural signature of face pareidolia in the context of rapid categorization, supporting the view that face-selective brain activity reliably predicts the subjective experience of a face from a single glance at a variety of stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diane Rekow
- Laboratoire Éthologie Développementale et Psychologie Cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, F-21000 Dijon, France.
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Laboratoire Développement, Individu, Processus, Handicap, Éducation (DIPHE), Département Psychologie du Développement, de l'Éducation et des Vulnérabilités (PsyDÉV), Institut de psychologie, Université de Lyon (Lumière Lyon 2), 69676 Bron, cedex, France
| | - Renaud Brochard
- Laboratoire Éthologie Développementale et Psychologie Cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, F-21000 Dijon, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Arnaud Leleu
- Laboratoire Éthologie Développementale et Psychologie Cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, F-21000 Dijon, France.
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21
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Murray EA, Fellows LK. Prefrontal cortex interactions with the amygdala in primates. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:163-179. [PMID: 34446829 PMCID: PMC8616954 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01128-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
This review addresses functional interactions between the primate prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala, with emphasis on their contributions to behavior and cognition. The interplay between these two telencephalic structures contributes to adaptive behavior and to the evolutionary success of all primate species. In our species, dysfunction in this circuitry creates vulnerabilities to psychopathologies. Here, we describe amygdala-PFC contributions to behaviors that have direct relevance to Darwinian fitness: learned approach and avoidance, foraging, predator defense, and social signaling, which have in common the need for flexibility and sensitivity to specific and rapidly changing contexts. Examples include the prediction of positive outcomes, such as food availability, food desirability, and various social rewards, or of negative outcomes, such as threats of harm from predators or conspecifics. To promote fitness optimally, these stimulus-outcome associations need to be rapidly updated when an associative contingency changes or when the value of a predicted outcome changes. We review evidence from nonhuman primates implicating the PFC, the amygdala, and their functional interactions in these processes, with links to experimental work and clinical findings in humans where possible.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lesley K Fellows
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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22
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Dugré JR, Potvin S. The origins of evil: From lesions to the functional architecture of the antisocial brain. Front Psychiatry 2022; 13:969206. [PMID: 36386969 PMCID: PMC9640636 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.969206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past decades, a growing body of evidence has suggested that some individuals may exhibit antisocial behaviors following brain lesions. Recently, some authors have shown that lesions underpinning antisocial behaviors may disrupt a particular brain network during resting-state. However, it remains unknown whether these brain lesions may alter specific mental processes during tasks. Therefore, we conducted meta-analytic co-activation analyses on lesion masks of 17 individuals who acquired antisocial behaviors following their brain lesions. Each lesion mask was used as a seed of interest to examine their aberrant co-activation network using a database of 143 whole-brain neuroimaging studies on antisocial behaviors (n = 5,913 subjects). We aimed to map the lesion brain network that shows deficient activity in antisocial population against a null distribution derived from 655 control lesions. We further characterized the lesion-based meta-analytic network using term-based decoding (Neurosynth) as well as receptor/transporter density maps (JuSpace). We found that the lesion meta-analytic network included the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventro- and dorso-medial prefrontal cortex, fusiform face area, and supplementary motor area (SMA), which correlated mainly with emotional face processing and serotoninergic system (5-HT1A and 5-HTT). We also investigated the heterogeneity in co-activation networks through data-driven methods and found that lesions could be grouped in four main networks, encompassing emotional face processing, general emotion processing, and reward processing. Our study shows that the heterogeneous brain lesions underpinning antisocial behaviors may disrupt specific mental processes, which further increases the risk for distinct antisocial symptoms. It also highlights the importance and complexity of studying brain lesions in relationship with antisocial behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jules R Dugré
- Research Center of the Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Stéphane Potvin
- Research Center of the Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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23
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Kragel JE, Voss JL. Looking for the neural basis of memory. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:53-65. [PMID: 34836769 PMCID: PMC8678329 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Memory neuroscientists often measure neural activity during task trials designed to recruit specific memory processes. Behavior is championed as crucial for deciphering brain-memory linkages but is impoverished in typical experiments that rely on summary judgments. We criticize this approach as being blind to the multiple cognitive, neural, and behavioral processes that occur rapidly within a trial to support memory. Instead, time-resolved behaviors such as eye movements occur at the speed of cognition and neural activity. We highlight successes using eye-movement tracking with in vivo electrophysiology to link rapid hippocampal oscillations to encoding and retrieval processes that interact over hundreds of milliseconds. This approach will improve research on the neural basis of memory because it pinpoints discrete moments of brain-behavior-cognition correspondence.
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Affiliation(s)
- James E Kragel
- Department of Neurology, The University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
| | - Joel L Voss
- Department of Neurology, The University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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24
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Caruana N, Seymour K. Objects that induce face pareidolia are prioritized by the visual system. Br J Psychol 2021; 113:496-507. [PMID: 34923634 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The human visual system has evolved specialized neural mechanisms to rapidly detect faces. Its broad tuning for facial features is thought to underlie the illusory perception of faces in inanimate objects, a phenomenon called face pareidolia. Recent studies on face pareidolia suggest that the mechanisms underlying face processing, at least at the early stages of visual encoding, may treat objects that resemble faces as real faces; prioritizing their detection. In our study, we used breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) to examine whether the human visual system prioritizes the detection of objects that induce face pareidolia over stimuli matched for object content. Similar to previous b-CFS results using real face stimuli, we found that participants detected the objects with pareidolia faces faster than object-matched control stimuli. Given that face pareidolia has been more frequently reported amongst individuals prone to hallucinations, we also explored whether this rapid prioritization is intact in individuals with schizophrenia, and found evidence suggesting that it was. Our findings suggest that face pareidolia engages a broadly tuned mechanism that facilitates rapid face detection. This may involve the proposed fast subcortical pathway that operates outside of visual awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan Caruana
- Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kiley Seymour
- School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
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25
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One object, two networks? Assessing the relationship between the face and body-selective regions in the primate visual system. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 227:1423-1438. [PMID: 34792643 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02420-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Faces and bodies are often treated as distinct categories that are processed separately by face- and body-selective brain regions in the primate visual system. These regions occupy distinct regions of visual cortex and are often thought to constitute independent functional networks. Yet faces and bodies are part of the same object and their presence inevitably covary in naturalistic settings. Here, we re-evaluate both the evidence supporting the independent processing of faces and bodies and the organizational principles that have been invoked to explain this distinction. We outline four hypotheses ranging from completely separate networks to a single network supporting the perception of whole people or animals. The current evidence, especially in humans, is compatible with all of these hypotheses, making it presently unclear how the representation of faces and bodies is organized in the cortex.
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26
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Báez-Mendoza R, Vázquez Y, Mastrobattista EP, Williams ZM. Neuronal Circuits for Social Decision-Making and Their Clinical Implications. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:720294. [PMID: 34658766 PMCID: PMC8517320 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.720294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social living facilitates individual access to rewards, cognitive resources, and objects that would not be otherwise accessible. There are, however, some drawbacks to social living, particularly when competing for scarce resources. Furthermore, variability in our ability to make social decisions can be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. The neuronal mechanisms underlying social decision-making are beginning to be understood. The momentum to study this phenomenon has been partially carried over by the study of economic decision-making. Yet, because of the similarities between these different types of decision-making, it is unclear what is a social decision. Here, we propose a definition of social decision-making as choices taken in a context where one or more conspecifics are involved in the decision or the consequences of it. Social decisions can be conceptualized as complex economic decisions since they are based on the subjective preferences between different goods. During social decisions, individuals choose based on their internal value estimate of the different alternatives. These are complex decisions given that conspecifics beliefs or actions could modify the subject's internal valuations at every choice. Here, we first review recent developments in our collective understanding of the neuronal mechanisms and circuits of social decision-making in primates. We then review literature characterizing populations with neuropsychiatric disorders showing deficits in social decision-making and the underlying neuronal circuitries associated with these deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raymundo Báez-Mendoza
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Yuriria Vázquez
- Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Emma P. Mastrobattista
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Ziv M. Williams
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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Alais D, Xu Y, Wardle SG, Taubert J. A shared mechanism for facial expression in human faces and face pareidolia. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210966. [PMID: 34229489 PMCID: PMC8261219 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial expressions are vital for social communication, yet the underlying mechanisms are still being discovered. Illusory faces perceived in objects (face pareidolia) are errors of face detection that share some neural mechanisms with human face processing. However, it is unknown whether expression in illusory faces engages the same mechanisms as human faces. Here, using a serial dependence paradigm, we investigated whether illusory and human faces share a common expression mechanism. First, we found that images of face pareidolia are reliably rated for expression, within and between observers, despite varying greatly in visual features. Second, they exhibit positive serial dependence for perceived facial expression, meaning an illusory face (happy or angry) is perceived as more similar in expression to the preceding one, just as seen for human faces. This suggests illusory and human faces engage similar mechanisms of temporal continuity. Third, we found robust cross-domain serial dependence of perceived expression between illusory and human faces when they were interleaved, with serial effects larger when illusory faces preceded human faces than the reverse. Together, the results support a shared mechanism for facial expression between human faces and illusory faces and suggest that expression processing is not tightly bound to human facial features.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Alais
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Yiben Xu
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jessica Taubert
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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28
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Testard C, Tremblay S, Platt M. From the field to the lab and back: neuroethology of primate social behavior. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2021; 68:76-83. [PMID: 33567386 PMCID: PMC8243779 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Social mammals with more numerous and stronger social relationships live longer, healthier lives. Despite the established importance of social relationships, our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms by which they are pursued, formed, and maintained in primates remains largely confined to highly controlled laboratory settings which do not allow natural, dynamic social interactions to unfold. In this review, we argue that the neurobiological study of primate social behavior would benefit from adopting a neuroethological approach, that is, a perspective grounded in natural, species-typical behavior, with careful selection of animal models according to the scientific question at hand. We highlight macaques and marmosets as key animal models for human social behavior and summarize recent findings in the social domain for both species. We then review pioneering studies of dynamic social behaviors in small animals, which can inspire studies in larger primates where the technological landscape is now ripe for an ethological overhaul.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Testard
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Sébastien Tremblay
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Michael Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Psychology Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Marketing Department, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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29
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Basile BM, Joiner JA, Dal Monte O, Fagan NA, Karaskiewicz CL, Lucas DR, Chang SWC, Murray EA. Autonomic arousal tracks outcome salience not valence in monkeys making social decisions. Behav Neurosci 2021; 135:443-452. [PMID: 34264694 PMCID: PMC8489567 DOI: 10.1037/bne0000424] [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] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The evolutionary and neural underpinnings of human prosociality are still being identified. A growing body of evidence suggests that some species find the sight of another individual receiving a reward reinforcing, called vicarious reinforcement, and that this capacity is supported by a network of brain areas including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala. At the same time, analyses of autonomic arousal have been increasingly used to contextualize and guide neural research, especially for studies of reward processing. Here, we characterized the autonomic pupil response of eight monkeys across two laboratories in two different versions of a vicarious reinforcement paradigm. Monkeys were cued as to whether an upcoming reward would be delivered to them, another monkey, or nobody and could accept or decline the offer. As expected, all monkeys in both laboratories showed a marked preference for juice to the self, together with a reliable prosocial preference for juice to a social partner compared to juice to nobody. However, contrary to our expectations, we found that pupils were widest in anticipation of juice to the self, moderately sized in anticipation of juice to nobody, and narrowest in anticipation of juice to a social partner. This effect was seen across both laboratories and regardless of specific task parameters. The seemingly paradoxical pupil effect can be explained by a model in which pupil size tracks outcome salience, prosocial tendencies track outcome valence, and the relation between salience and valence is U-shaped. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin M. Basile
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Jessica A. Joiner
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Olga Dal Monte
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Torino, Italy
| | - Nicholas A. Fagan
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Chloe L. Karaskiewicz
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Daniel R. Lucas
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Steve W. C. Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
| | - Elisabeth A. Murray
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
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30
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Kim IH, Kim N, Kim S, Toda K, Catavero CM, Courtland JL, Yin HH, Soderling SH. Dysregulation of the Synaptic Cytoskeleton in the PFC Drives Neural Circuit Pathology, Leading to Social Dysfunction. Cell Rep 2021; 32:107965. [PMID: 32726629 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107965] [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: 02/18/2020] [Revised: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 07/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Psychiatric disorders are highly heritable pathologies of altered neural circuit functioning. How genetic mutations lead to specific neural circuit abnormalities underlying behavioral disruptions, however, remains unclear. Using circuit-selective transgenic tools and a mouse model of maladaptive social behavior (ArpC3 mutant), we identify a neural circuit mechanism driving dysfunctional social behavior. We demonstrate that circuit-selective knockout (ctKO) of the ArpC3 gene within prefrontal cortical neurons that project to the basolateral amygdala elevates the excitability of the circuit neurons, leading to disruption of socially evoked neural activity and resulting in abnormal social behavior. Optogenetic activation of this circuit in wild-type mice recapitulates the social dysfunction observed in ArpC3 mutant mice. Finally, the maladaptive sociability of ctKO mice is rescued by optogenetically silencing neurons within this circuit. These results highlight a mechanism of how a gene-to-neural circuit interaction drives altered social behavior, a common phenotype of several psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Il Hwan Kim
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Namsoo Kim
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Sunwhi Kim
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Koji Toda
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Jamie L Courtland
- Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Henry H Yin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Scott H Soderling
- Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA.
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31
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Almasi RC, Behrmann M. Subcortical regions of the human visual system do not process faces holistically. Brain Cogn 2021; 151:105726. [PMID: 33933856 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Face perception is considered to be evolutionarily adaptive and conserved across species. While subcortical visual brain areas are implicated in face perception based on existing evidence from phylogenetic and ontogenetic studies, whether these subcortical structures contribute to more complex visual computations such as the holistic processing (HP) of faces in humans is unknown. To address this issue, we used a well-established marker of HP, the composite face effect (CFE), with a group of adult human observers, and presented two sequential faces in a trial monocularly or interocularly using a Wheatstone stereoscope. HP refers to the finding that two identical top (or bottom) halves of a face are judged to be different when their task-irrelevant bottom (or top) halves belong to different faces. Because humans process faces holistically, they are unable to ignore the information from the irrelevant half of the composite face, and this is true to an even greater extent when the two halves of the faces are aligned compared with when they are misaligned ('Alignment effect'). The results revealed the HP effect and also uncovered the Alignment effect, a key marker of the CFE. The findings also indicated a monocular advantage, replicating the known subcortical contribution to face perception. There was, however, no statistically significant difference in the CFE when the images were presented in the monocular versus interocular conditions. These findings indicate that HP is not necessarily mediated by the subcortical visual pathway, and suggest that further investigation of cortical, rather than subcortical, structures might advance our understanding of HP and its role in face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebeka C Almasi
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
| | - Marlene Behrmann
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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32
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Abstract
Face detection is a priority of both the human and primate visual system. However, occasionally we misperceive faces in inanimate objects -- "face pareidolia". A key feature of these 'false positives' is that face perception occurs in the absence of visual features typical of real faces. Human faces are known to be located faster than objects in visual search. Here we used a visual search paradigm to test whether illusory faces share this advantage. Search times were faster for illusory faces than for matched objects amongst both matched (Experiment 1) and diverse (Experiment 2) distractors, however search times for real human faces were faster and more efficient than objects with or without an illusory face. Importantly, this result indicates that illusory faces are processed quickly enough by the human brain to confer a visual search advantage, suggesting the engagement of a broadly-tuned mechanism that facilitates rapid face detection in cluttered environments.
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33
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Liu N, Zhang H, Zhang X, Yang J, Weng X, Chen L. In Memory of Leslie G. Ungerleider. Neurosci Bull 2021; 37:592-595. [PMID: 33675525 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-021-00648-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Ning Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
| | - Hui Zhang
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, School of Medicine and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Xilin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Jiongjiong Yang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Xuchu Weng
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China
- Institute for Brain Research and Rehabilitation, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Lin Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
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34
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Nam HH, Jost JT, Meager MR, Van Bavel JJ. Toward a neuropsychology of political orientation: exploring ideology in patients with frontal and midbrain lesions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200137. [PMID: 33611994 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
How do people form their political beliefs? In an effort to address this question, we adopt a neuropsychological approach. In a natural experiment, we explored links between neuroanatomy and ideological preferences in two samples of brain lesion patients in New York City. Specifically, we compared the political orientations of patients with frontal lobe lesions, patients with amygdala lesions and healthy control subjects. Lesion type classification analyses revealed that people with frontal lesions held more conservative (or less liberal) beliefs than those with anterior temporal lobe lesions or no lesions. Additional analyses predicting ideology by extent of damage provided convergent evidence that greater damage in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-but not the amygdala-was associated with greater conservatism. These findings were robust to model specifications that adjusted for demographic, mood, and affect-related variables. Although measures of executive function failed to mediate the relationship between frontal lesions and ideology, our findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex may play a role in promoting the development of liberal ideology. Our approach suggests useful directions for future work to address the issue of whether biological developments precede political attitudes or vice versa-or both. This article is part of the theme issue 'The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms'.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Hannah Nam
- Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - John T Jost
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Politics and the Center for Data Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael R Meager
- Private Practice, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Neurology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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35
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Do you see the “face”? Individual differences in face pareidolia. JOURNAL OF PACIFIC RIM PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1017/prp.2019.27] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
People tend to see faces from non-face objects or meaningless patterns. Such illusory face perception is called face pareidolia. Previous studies have revealed an interesting fact that there are huge individual differences in face pareidolia experience among the population. Here, we review previous findings on individual differences in face pareidolia experience from four categories: sex differences, developmental factors, personality traits and neurodevelopmental factors. We further discuss underlying cognitive or neural mechanisms to explain why some perceive the objects as faces while others do not. The individual differences in face pareidolia could not only offer scientific insights on how the brain works to process face information, but also suggest potential clinical applications.
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36
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Putnam PT, Chang SWC. Social processing by the primate medial frontal cortex. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF NEUROBIOLOGY 2021; 158:213-248. [PMID: 33785146 DOI: 10.1016/bs.irn.2020.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The primate medial frontal cortex is comprised of several brain regions that are consistently implicated in regulating complex social behaviors. The medial frontal cortex is also critically involved in many non-social behaviors, such as those involved in reward, affective, and decision-making processes, broadly implicating the fundamental role of the medial frontal cortex in internally guided cognition. An essential question therefore is what unique contributions, if any, does the medial frontal cortex make to social behaviors? In this chapter, we outline several neural algorithms necessary for mediating adaptive social interactions and discuss selected evidence from behavioral neurophysiology experiments supporting the role of the medial frontal cortex in implementing these algorithms. By doing so, we primarily focus on research in nonhuman primates and examine several key attributes of the medial frontal cortex. Specifically, we review neuronal substrates in the medial frontal cortex uniquely suitable for enabling social monitoring, observational and vicarious learning, as well as predicting the behaviors of social partners. Moreover, by utilizing the three levels of organization in information processing systems proposed by Marr (1982) and recently adapted by Lockwood, Apps, and Chang (2020) for social information processing, we survey selected social functions of the medial frontal cortex through the lens of socially relevant algorithms and implementations. Overall, this chapter provides a broad overview of the behavioral neurophysiology literature endorsing the importance of socially relevant neural algorithms implemented by the primate medial frontal cortex for regulating social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip T Putnam
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States.
| | - Steve W C Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
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37
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Hesse JK, Tsao DY. The macaque face patch system: a turtle’s underbelly for the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 2020; 21:695-716. [DOI: 10.1038/s41583-020-00393-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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38
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Cropper SJ, McCauley A, Gwinn OS, Bartlett M, Nicholls MER. Flowers in the Attic: Lateralization of the detection of meaning in visual noise. J Vis 2020; 20:11. [PMID: 33027510 PMCID: PMC7545083 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.10.11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2019] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain is a slave to sense; we see and hear things that are not there and engage in ongoing correction of these illusory experiences, commonly termed pareidolia. The current study investigates whether the predisposition to see meaning in noise is lateralized to one hemisphere or the other and how this predisposition to visual false-alarms is related to personality. Stimuli consisted of images of faces or flowers embedded in pink (1/f) noise generated through a novel process and presented in a divided-field paradigm. Right-handed undergraduates participated in a forced-choice signal-detection task where they determined whether a face or flower signal was present in a single-interval trial. Experiment 1 involved an equal ratio of signal-to-noise trials; experiment 2 provided more potential for illusionary perception with 25% signal and 75% noise trials. There was no asymmetry in the ability to discriminate signal from noise trials (measured using d') for either faces and flowers, although the response criterion (c) suggested a stronger predisposition to visual false alarms in the right visual field, and this was negatively correlated to the unusual experiences dimension of schizotypy. Counter to expectations, changing the signal-image to noise-image proportion in Experiment 2 did not change the number of false alarms for either faces and flowers, although a stronger bias was seen to the right visual field; sensitivity remained the same in both hemifields but there was a moderate positive correlation between cognitive disorganization and the bias (c) for "flower" judgements. Overall, these results were consistent with a rapid evidence-accumulation process of the kind described by a diffusion decision model mediating the task lateralized to the left-hemisphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon J Cropper
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Ashlan McCauley
- School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
| | - O Scott Gwinn
- School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Megan Bartlett
- School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
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39
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Parallel Processing of Facial Expression and Head Orientation in the Macaque Brain. J Neurosci 2020; 40:8119-8131. [PMID: 32928886 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0524-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Revised: 08/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
When we move the features of our face, or turn our head, we communicate changes in our internal state to the people around us. How this information is encoded and used by an observer's brain is poorly understood. We investigated this issue using a functional MRI adaptation paradigm in awake male macaques. Among face-selective patches of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), we found a double dissociation of areas processing facial expression and those processing head orientation. The face-selective patches in the STS fundus were most sensitive to facial expression, as was the amygdala, whereas those on the lower, lateral edge of the sulcus were most sensitive to head orientation. The results of this study reveal a new dimension of functional organization, with face-selective patches segregating within the STS. The findings thus force a rethinking of the role of the face-processing system in representing subject-directed actions and supporting social cognition.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT When we are interacting with another person, we make inferences about their emotional state based on visual signals. For example, when a person's facial expression changes, we are given information about their feelings. While primates are thought to have specialized cortical mechanisms for analyzing the identity of faces, less is known about how these mechanisms unpack transient signals, like expression, that can change from one moment to the next. Here, using an fMRI adaptation paradigm, we demonstrate that while the identity of a face is held constant, there are separate mechanisms in the macaque brain for processing transient changes in the face's expression and orientation. These findings shed new light on the function of the face-processing system during social exchanges.
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40
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What does a "face cell" want?'. Prog Neurobiol 2020; 195:101880. [PMID: 32918972 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2019] [Revised: 05/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In the 1970s Charlie Gross was among the first to identify neurons that respond selectively to faces, in the macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex. This seminal finding has been followed by numerous studies quantifying the visual features that trigger a response from face cells in order to answer the question; what do face cells want? However, the connection between face-selective activity in IT cortex and visual perception remains only partially understood. Here we present fMRI results in the macaque showing that some face patches respond to illusory facial features in objects. We argue that to fully understand the functional role of face cells, we need to develop approaches that test the extent to which their response explains what we see.
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41
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Wardle SG, Taubert J, Teichmann L, Baker CI. Rapid and dynamic processing of face pareidolia in the human brain. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4518. [PMID: 32908146 PMCID: PMC7481186 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18325-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The human brain is specialized for face processing, yet we sometimes perceive illusory faces in objects. It is unknown whether these natural errors of face detection originate from a rapid process based on visual features or from a slower, cognitive re-interpretation. Here we use a multifaceted approach to understand both the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of illusory face representation in the brain by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography neuroimaging data with model-based analysis. We find that the representation of illusory faces is confined to occipital-temporal face-selective visual cortex. The temporal dynamics reveal a striking evolution in how illusory faces are represented relative to human faces and matched objects. Illusory faces are initially represented more similarly to real faces than matched objects are, but within ~250 ms, the representation transforms, and they become equivalent to ordinary objects. This is consistent with the initial recruitment of a broadly-tuned face detection mechanism which privileges sensitivity over selectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan G Wardle
- Section on Learning and Plasticity, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Jessica Taubert
- Section on Neurocircuitry, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Lina Teichmann
- Section on Learning and Plasticity, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.,Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Chris I Baker
- Section on Learning and Plasticity, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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42
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Palmer CJ, Clifford CWG. Face Pareidolia Recruits Mechanisms for Detecting Human Social Attention. Psychol Sci 2020; 31:1001-1012. [DOI: 10.1177/0956797620924814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Face pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing facelike structures in everyday objects. Here, we tested the hypothesis that face pareidolia, rather than being limited to a cognitive or mnemonic association, reflects the activation of visual mechanisms that typically process human faces. We focused on sensory cues to social attention, which engage cell populations in temporal cortex that are susceptible to habituation effects. Repeated exposure to “pareidolia faces” that appear to have a specific direction of attention causes a systematic bias in the perception of where human faces are looking, indicating that overlapping sensory mechanisms are recruited when we view human faces and when we experience face pareidolia. These cross-adaptation effects are significantly reduced when pareidolia is abolished by removing facelike features from the objects. These results indicate that face pareidolia is essentially a perceptual phenomenon, occurring when sensory input is processed by visual mechanisms that have evolved to extract specific social content from human faces.
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Aquino TG, Minxha J, Dunne S, Ross IB, Mamelak AN, Rutishauser U, O'Doherty JP. Value-Related Neuronal Responses in the Human Amygdala during Observational Learning. J Neurosci 2020; 40:4761-4772. [PMID: 32376780 PMCID: PMC7294800 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2897-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The amygdala plays an important role in many aspects of social cognition and reward learning. Here, we aimed to determine whether human amygdala neurons are involved in the computations necessary to implement learning through observation. We performed single-neuron recordings from the amygdalae of human neurosurgical patients (male and female) while they learned about the value of stimuli through observing the outcomes experienced by another agent interacting with those stimuli. We used a detailed computational modeling approach to describe patients' behavior in the task. We found a significant proportion of amygdala neurons whose activity correlated with both expected rewards for oneself and others, and in tracking outcome values received by oneself or other agents. Additionally, a population decoding analysis suggests the presence of information for both observed and experiential outcomes in the amygdala. Encoding and decoding analyses suggested observational value coding in amygdala neurons occurred in a different subset of neurons than experiential value coding. Collectively, these findings support a key role for the human amygdala in the computations underlying the capacity for learning through observation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Single-neuron studies of the human brain provide a unique window into the computational mechanisms of cognition. In this study, epilepsy patients implanted intracranially with hybrid depth electrodes performed an observational learning (OL) task. We measured single-neuron activity in the amygdala and found a representation for observational rewards as well as observational expected reward values. Additionally, distinct subsets of amygdala neurons represented self-experienced and observational values. This study provides a rare glimpse into the role of human amygdala neurons in social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas G Aquino
- Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - Juri Minxha
- Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - Simon Dunne
- Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - Ian B Ross
- Department of Neurosurgery, Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena, CA 91105
| | - Adam N Mamelak
- Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Pasadena, CA 90048
| | - Ueli Rutishauser
- Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
- Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Pasadena, CA 90048
| | - John P O'Doherty
- Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
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Basile BM, Schafroth JL, Karaskiewicz CL, Chang SWC, Murray EA. The anterior cingulate cortex is necessary for forming prosocial preferences from vicarious reinforcement in monkeys. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000677. [PMID: 32530910 PMCID: PMC7292358 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A key feature of most social relationships is that we like seeing good things happen to others. Research has implicated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in attaching value to social outcomes. For example, single neurons in macaque ACC selectively code reward delivery to the self, a partner, both monkeys, or neither monkey. Here, we assessed whether the ACC's contribution to social cognition is causal by testing rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) on a vicarious reinforcement task before and after they sustained ACC lesions. Prior to surgery, actors learned that 3 different visual cues mapped onto 3 distinct reward outcomes: to self ("Self"), to the other monkey ("Other"), or to neither monkey ("Neither"). On each trial, actors saw a cue that predicted one of the 3 juice offers and could accept the offer by making a saccade to a peripheral target or reject the offer by breaking fixation. Preoperatively, all 6 actors displayed prosocial preferences, indicated by their greater tendency to give reward to Other relative to Neither. Half then received selective, bilateral, excitotoxic lesions of the ACC, and the other half served as unoperated controls. After surgery, all monkeys retained the social preferences they had demonstrated with the preoperatively learned cues, but this preference was reduced in the monkeys with ACC lesions. Critically, none of the monkeys in the ACC lesion group acquired social preferences with a new set of cues introduced after surgery. These data indicate that the primate ACC is necessary for acquisition of prosocial preferences from vicarious reinforcement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin M. Basile
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Jamie L. Schafroth
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Chloe L. Karaskiewicz
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Steve W. C. Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
| | - Elisabeth A. Murray
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
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Primate Amygdalo-Nigral Pathway for Boosting Oculomotor Action in Motivating Situations. iScience 2020; 23:101194. [PMID: 32516719 PMCID: PMC7281789 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2020] [Revised: 04/12/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
A primary function of the primate amygdala is to modulate behavior based on emotional cues. To study the underlying neural mechanism, we first inactivated the amygdala locally and temporarily by injecting a GABA agonist. Then, saccadic eye movements and gaze were suppressed only on the contralateral side. Next, we performed optogenetic activation after injecting a viral vector into the amygdala. Optical stimulation in the amygdala excited amygdala neurons, whereas optical stimulation of axon terminals in the substantia nigra pars reticulata inhibited nigra neurons. Optical stimulation in either structure facilitated saccades to the contralateral side. These data suggest that the amygdala controls saccades and gaze through the basal ganglia output to the superior colliculus. Importantly, this amygdala-derived circuit mediates emotional context information, whereas the internal basal ganglia circuit mediates object value information. This finding demonstrates a basic mechanism whereby basal ganglia output can be modulated by other areas conveying distinct information.
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Rolf R, Sokolov AN, Rattay TW, Fallgatter AJ, Pavlova MA. Face pareidolia in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2020; 218:138-145. [PMID: 32057538 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.01.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2019] [Revised: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Faces convey valuable daily life social signals. As in most psychiatric conditions, non-verbal social cognition or its components including face processing may be aberrant in schizophrenia (SZ). Social participation of individuals with SZ is vital for their quality of life, and remediation of social abilities in this population is of high relevance both for society and clinical care. METHOD Tuning to faces in non-face images such as shadows, grilled toasts, or ink blots is called face pareidolia. Humans possess high sensitivity to facial signals: even fetuses and infants are well tuned to coarse face cues. Here we assessed face tuning in individuals with SZ and person-by-person matched controls by using a new experimental tool, a set of food-plate images bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style. The key benefit of these images is that single components do not trigger face processing. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The outcome indicates that individuals with SZ exhibit aberrant face tuning in face-like non-face images (χ2(1) = 17.44, p = 0.0001) that can hamper adaptive interaction with peers and social participation hindering, in turn, clinical remediation. Face response rate in SZ patients was related to the scores on the event arrangement task tapping social cognition (Pearson product-moment correlation, r = 0.602, p = 0.01) and on picture completion task assessing visual perceptual organization (Spearman's rho = 0.614, p = 0.009). Therefore, poor performance on the face tuning task is unlikely to be accounted for by deviant general cognitive abilities, but rather by impairments in perceptual integration and social cognition. Comparison of these findings with data in autism and other neuropsychiatric conditions provides novel insights on the origins of face tuning in SZ and triggers brain imaging research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Rolf
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander N Sokolov
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tim W Rattay
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, and Center for Neurology, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas J Fallgatter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Marina A Pavlova
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
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Intranasal oxytocin selectively modulates the behavior of rhesus monkeys in an expression matching task. Sci Rep 2019; 9:15187. [PMID: 31645593 PMCID: PMC6811679 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51422-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Although the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is thought to regulate prosocial behavior in mammals, there is considerable debate as to how intranasal OT influences primate behavior. The aim of this study was to determine whether intranasal OT has a general anxiolytic effect on the performance of rhesus monkeys tasked with matching face stimuli, or a more selective effect on their behavior towards aversive facial expressions. To this end, we developed an innovative delayed match-to-sample task where the exact same trials could be used to assess either a monkey’s ability to match facial expressions or facial identities. If OT has a general affect on behavior, then performance in both tasks should be altered by the administration of OT. We tested four male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in both the expression and identity task after the intranasal administration of either OT or saline in a within-subjects design. We found that OT inhalation selectively reduced a selection bias against negatively valenced expressions. Based on the same visual input, performance in the identity task was also unaffected by OT. This dissociation provides evidence that intranasal OT affects primate behavior under very particular circumstances, rather than acting as a general anxiolytic, in a highly translatable nonhuman model, the rhesus monkey.
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Vaidya AR, Pujara MS, Petrides M, Murray EA, Fellows LK. Lesion Studies in Contemporary Neuroscience. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:653-671. [PMID: 31279672 PMCID: PMC6712987 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2019] [Revised: 05/22/2019] [Accepted: 05/23/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Studies of humans with focal brain damage and non-human animals with experimentally induced brain lesions have provided pivotal insights into the neural basis of behavior. As the repertoire of neural manipulation and recording techniques expands, the utility of studying permanent brain lesions bears re-examination. Studies on the effects of permanent lesions provide vital data about brain function that are distinct from those of reversible manipulations. Focusing on work carried out in humans and nonhuman primates, we address the inferential strengths and limitations of lesion studies, recent methodological developments, the integration of this approach with other methods, and the clinical and ecological relevance of this research. We argue that lesion studies are essential to the rigorous assessment of neuroscience theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avinash R Vaidya
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Carney Institute for Brain Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
| | - Maia S Pujara
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Michael Petrides
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Elisabeth A Murray
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Lesley K Fellows
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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Op de Beeck HP, Pillet I, Ritchie JB. Factors Determining Where Category-Selective Areas Emerge in Visual Cortex. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:784-797. [PMID: 31327671 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Revised: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
A hallmark of functional localization in the human brain is the presence of areas in visual cortex specialized for representing particular categories such as faces and words. Why do these areas appear where they do during development? Recent findings highlight several general factors to consider when answering this question. Experience-driven category selectivity arises in regions that have: (i) pre-existing selectivity for properties of the stimulus, (ii) are appropriately placed in the computational hierarchy of the visual system, and (iii) exhibit domain-specific patterns of connectivity to nonvisual regions. In other words, cortical location of category selectivity is constrained by what category will be represented, how it will be represented, and why the representation will be used.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans P Op de Beeck
- Department of Brain and Cognition and Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium. @kuleuven.be
| | - Ineke Pillet
- Department of Brain and Cognition and Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - J Brendan Ritchie
- Department of Brain and Cognition and Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
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Hur J, Stockbridge MD, Fox AS, Shackman AJ. Dispositional negativity, cognition, and anxiety disorders: An integrative translational neuroscience framework. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2019; 247:375-436. [PMID: 31196442 PMCID: PMC6578598 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the underlying mechanisms have only recently begun to come into focus. Here, we review new insights into the nature and biological bases of dispositional negativity, a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and a prominent risk factor for the development of pediatric and adult anxiety disorders. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurobiological, and mechanistic evidence suggest that dispositional negativity increases the likelihood of psychopathology via specific neurocognitive mechanisms, including attentional biases to threat and deficits in executive control. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative translational framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juyoen Hur
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
| | | | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, United States; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
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