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Sun Y, Men W, Kennerknecht I, Fang W, Zheng HF, Zhang W, Rao Y. Human genetics of face recognition: discovery of MCTP2 mutations in humans with face blindness (congenital prosopagnosia). Genetics 2024; 227:iyae047. [PMID: 38547502 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyae047] [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: 12/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Face recognition is important for both visual and social cognition. While prosopagnosia or face blindness has been known for seven decades and face-specific neurons for half a century, the molecular genetic mechanism is not clear. Here we report results after 17 years of research with classic genetics and modern genomics. From a large family with 18 congenital prosopagnosia (CP) members with obvious difficulties in face recognition in daily life, we uncovered a fully cosegregating private mutation in the MCTP2 gene which encodes a calcium binding transmembrane protein expressed in the brain. After screening through cohorts of 6589, we found more CPs and their families, allowing detection of more CP associated mutations in MCTP2. Face recognition differences were detected between 14 carriers with the frameshift mutation S80fs in MCTP2 and 19 noncarrying volunteers. Six families including one with 10 members showed the S80fs-CP correlation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging found association of impaired recognition of individual faces by MCTP2 mutant CPs with reduced repetition suppression to repeated facial identities in the right fusiform face area. Our results have revealed genetic predisposition of MCTP2 mutations in CP, 76 years after the initial report of prosopagnosia and 47 years after the report of the first CP. This is the first time a gene required for a higher form of visual social cognition was found in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun Sun
- Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Institute of Molecular Physiology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518107, China
| | - Weiwei Men
- Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Beijing Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Ingo Kennerknecht
- Institute of Human Genetics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster 48149, Germany
| | - Wan Fang
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Hou-Feng Zheng
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
| | - Wenxia Zhang
- Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yi Rao
- Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Institute of Molecular Physiology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518107, China
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2
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Gomez A, Lio G, Costa M, Sirigu A, Demily C. Dissociation of early and late face-related processes in autism spectrum disorder and Williams syndrome. Orphanet J Rare Dis 2022; 17:244. [PMID: 35733166 PMCID: PMC9215067 DOI: 10.1186/s13023-022-02395-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental conditions associated with atypical but opposite face-to-face interactions patterns: WS patients overly stare at others, ASD individuals escape eye contact. Whether these behaviors result from dissociable visual processes within the occipito-temporal pathways is unknown. Using high-density electroencephalography, multivariate signal processing algorithms and a protocol designed to identify and extract evoked activities sensitive to facial cues, we investigated how WS (N = 14), ASD (N = 14) and neurotypical subjects (N = 14) decode the information content of a face stimulus. Results We found two neural components in neurotypical participants, both strongest when the eye region was projected onto the subject's fovea, simulating a direct eye contact situation, and weakest over more distant regions, reaching a minimum when the focused region was outside the stimulus face. The first component peaks at 170 ms, an early signal known to be implicated in low-level face features. The second is identified later, 260 ms post-stimulus onset and is implicated in decoding salient face social cues. Remarkably, both components were found distinctly impaired and preserved in WS and ASD. In WS, we could weakly decode the 170 ms signal based on our regressor relative to facial features, probably due to their relatively poor ability to process faces’ morphology, while the late 260 ms component was highly significant. The reverse pattern was observed in ASD participants who showed neurotypical like early 170 ms evoked activity but impaired late evoked 260 ms signal. Conclusions Our study reveals a dissociation between WS and ASD patients and points at different neural origins for their social impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Gomez
- Institut Des Sciences, Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, 67 boulevard Pinel, 69500, Bron, France. .,Claude Bernard University Lyon, Lyon, France. .,Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Inserm U1028, CNRS UMR5292, UCBL1, UJM, Lyon, France.
| | - Guillaume Lio
- Institut Des Sciences, Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, 67 boulevard Pinel, 69500, Bron, France.,Claude Bernard University Lyon, Lyon, France.,Reference Center for Rare Diseases With Psychiatric Phenotype Génopsy, Le Vinatier Hospital, Bron, France.,iMIND Excellence Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Lyon, France
| | - Manuela Costa
- Institut Des Sciences, Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, 67 boulevard Pinel, 69500, Bron, France.,Laboratory for Clinical Neuroscience, Center for Biomedical Technology, University Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Angela Sirigu
- Institut Des Sciences, Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, 67 boulevard Pinel, 69500, Bron, France.,Claude Bernard University Lyon, Lyon, France.,Reference Center for Rare Diseases With Psychiatric Phenotype Génopsy, Le Vinatier Hospital, Bron, France
| | - Caroline Demily
- Institut Des Sciences, Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, 67 boulevard Pinel, 69500, Bron, France. .,Claude Bernard University Lyon, Lyon, France. .,Reference Center for Rare Diseases With Psychiatric Phenotype Génopsy, Le Vinatier Hospital, Bron, France. .,iMIND Excellence Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Lyon, France.
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Abstract
Face perception is a socially important but complex process with many stages and many facets. There is substantial evidence from many sources that it involves a large extent of the temporal lobe, from the ventral occipitotemporal cortex and superior temporal sulci to anterior temporal regions. While early human neuroimaging work suggested a core face network consisting of the occipital face area, fusiform face area, and posterior superior temporal sulcus, studies in both humans and monkeys show a system of face patches stretching from posterior to anterior in both the superior temporal sulcus and inferotemporal cortex. Sophisticated techniques such as fMRI adaptation have shown that these face-activated regions show responses that have many of the attributes of human face processing. Lesions of some of these regions in humans lead to variants of prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize the identity of a face. Lesion, imaging, and electrophysiologic data all suggest that there is a segregation between identity and expression processing, though some suggest this may be better characterized as a distinction between static and dynamic facial information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason J S Barton
- Division of Neuro-ophthalmology, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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Handwerker DA, Ianni G, Gutierrez B, Roopchansingh V, Gonzalez-Castillo J, Chen G, Bandettini PA, Ungerleider LG, Pitcher D. Theta-burst TMS to the posterior superior temporal sulcus decreases resting-state fMRI connectivity across the face processing network. Netw Neurosci 2020; 4:746-760. [PMID: 32885124 PMCID: PMC7462428 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans process faces by using a network of face-selective regions distributed across the brain. Neuropsychological patient studies demonstrate that focal damage to nodes in this network can impair face recognition, but such patients are rare. We approximated the effects of damage to the face network in neurologically normal human participants by using theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS). Multi-echo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting-state data were collected pre- and post-TBS delivery over the face-selective right superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS), or a control site in the right motor cortex. Results showed that TBS delivered over the rpSTS reduced resting-state connectivity across the extended face processing network. This connectivity reduction was observed not only between the rpSTS and other face-selective areas, but also between nonstimulated face-selective areas across the ventral, medial, and lateral brain surfaces (e.g., between the right amygdala and bilateral fusiform face areas and occipital face areas). TBS delivered over the motor cortex did not produce significant changes in resting-state connectivity across the face processing network. These results demonstrate that, even without task-induced fMRI signal changes, disrupting a single node in a brain network can decrease the functional connectivity between nodes in that network that have not been directly stimulated. Human behavior is dependent on brain networks that perform different cognitive functions. We combined theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS) with resting-state fMRI to study the face processing network. Disruption of the face-selective right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS) reduced fMRI connectivity across the face network. This impairment in connectivity was observed not only between the rpSTS and other face-selective areas, but also between nonstimulated face-selective areas on the ventral and medial brain surfaces (e.g., between the right amygdala and bilateral fusiform face areas and occipital face areas). Thus, combined TBS/fMRI can be used to approximate and measure the effects of focal brain damage on brain networks, and suggests such an approach may be useful for mapping intrinsic network organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel A Handwerker
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Geena Ianni
- Section on Neurocircuitry, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Benjamin Gutierrez
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Vinai Roopchansingh
- Functional MRI Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Javier Gonzalez-Castillo
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Gang Chen
- Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Peter A Bandettini
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Leslie G Ungerleider
- Section on Neurocircuitry, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - David Pitcher
- Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York, UK
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Increased Accuracy of Emotion Recognition in Individuals with Autism-Like Traits after Five Days of Magnetic Stimulations. Neural Plast 2020; 2020:9857987. [PMID: 32714385 PMCID: PMC7355343 DOI: 10.1155/2020/9857987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Revised: 05/13/2020] [Accepted: 06/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals with autism-like traits (ALT) belong to a subclinical group with similar social deficits as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Their main social deficits include atypical eye contact and difficulty in understanding facial expressions, both of which are associated with an abnormality of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). It is still undetermined whether it is possible to improve the social function of ALT individuals through noninvasive neural modulation. To this end, we randomly assigned ALT individuals into the real (n = 16) and sham (n = 16) stimulation groups. All subjects received five consecutive days of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) on the rpSTS. Eye tracking data and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired on the first and sixth days. The real group showed significant improvement in emotion recognition accuracy after iTBS, but the change was not significantly larger than that in the sham group. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the rpSTS and the left cerebellum significantly decreased in the real group than the sham group after iTBS. At baseline, rsFC in the left cerebellum was negatively correlated with emotion recognition accuracy. Our findings indicated that iTBS of the rpSTS could improve emotion perception of ALT individuals by modulating associated neural networks. This stimulation protocol could be a vital therapeutic strategy for the treatment of ASD.
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Beynel L, Appelbaum LG, Luber B, Crowell CA, Hilbig SA, Lim W, Nguyen D, Chrapliwy NA, Davis SW, Cabeza R, Lisanby SH, Deng ZD. Effects of online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cognitive processing: A meta-analysis and recommendations for future studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 107:47-58. [PMID: 31473301 PMCID: PMC7654714 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2019] [Revised: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), applied while subjects are performing a task, is widely used to disrupt brain regions underlying cognition. However, online rTMS has also induced "paradoxical enhancement". Given the rapid proliferation of this approach, it is crucial to develop a better understanding of how online stimulation influences cognition, and the optimal parameters to achieve desired effects. To accomplish this goal, a quantitative meta-analysis was performed with random-effects models fitted to reaction time (RT) and accuracy data. The final dataset included 126 studies published between 1998 and 2016, with 244 total effects for reaction times, and 202 for accuracy. Meta-analytically, rTMS at 10 Hz and 20 Hz disrupted accuracy for attention, executive, language, memory, motor, and perception domains, while no effects were found with 1 Hz or 5 Hz. Stimulation applied at and 10 and 20 Hz slowed down RTs in attention and perception tasks. No performance enhancement was found. Meta-regression analysis showed that fMRI-guided targeting and short inter-trial intervals are associated with increased disruptive effects with rTMS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lysianne Beynel
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Lawrence G Appelbaum
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Bruce Luber
- Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Courtney A Crowell
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Susan A Hilbig
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Wesley Lim
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Duy Nguyen
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Nicolas A Chrapliwy
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Simon W Davis
- Department of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Sarah H Lisanby
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States; Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Zhi-De Deng
- Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States; Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
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7
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Schwarz L, Kreifelts B, Wildgruber D, Erb M, Scheffler K, Ethofer T. Properties of face localizer activations and their application in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) fingerprinting. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0214997. [PMID: 31013276 PMCID: PMC6478291 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2018] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Functional localizers are particularly prevalent in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies concerning face processing. In this study, we extend the knowledge on face localizers regarding four important aspects: First, activation differences in occipital and fusiform face areas (OFA/FFA) and amygdala are characterized by increased activation while precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex show decreased deactivation to faces versus control stimuli. The face-selective posterior superior temporal sulcus is a hybrid area exhibiting increased activation within its inferior and decreased deactivation within its superior part. Second, the employed control stimuli can impact on whether a region is classified in group analyses as face-selective or not. We specifically investigated this for recently described cytoarchitectonic subregions of the fusiform cortex (FG-2/FG-4). Averaged activity across voxels in FG-4 was stronger for faces than objects, houses, or landscapes. In FG-2, averaged activity was only significantly stronger in comparison with landscapes, but small peaks within this area were detected for comparison versus objects and houses. Third, reproducibility of individual peak activations is excellent for right FFA and quite good for right OFA, whereas within all other areas it was too low to provide valid information on time-invariant individual peaks. Finally, the fine-grained spatial activation patterns in right OFA and FFA are both time-invariant within each individual and sufficiently different between individuals to enable identification of individual participants with near-perfect precision (fMRI fingerprinting).
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena Schwarz
- University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
- Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Benjamin Kreifelts
- University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Dirk Wildgruber
- University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Michael Erb
- Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Klaus Scheffler
- Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
- Magnetic Resonance Centre, Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Thomas Ethofer
- University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
- Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
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Sliwinska MW, Pitcher D. TMS demonstrates that both right and left superior temporal sulci are important for facial expression recognition. Neuroimage 2018; 183:394-400. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.08.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
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9
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Müller-Bardorff M, Bruchmann M, Mothes-Lasch M, Zwitserlood P, Schlossmacher I, Hofmann D, Miltner W, Straube T. Early brain responses to affective faces: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study. Neuroimage 2018; 178:660-667. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2018] [Revised: 05/23/2018] [Accepted: 05/31/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022] Open
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10
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Influence of task instructions and stimuli on the neural network of face processing: An ALE meta-analysis. Cortex 2018; 103:240-255. [PMID: 29665467 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2017] [Revised: 12/27/2017] [Accepted: 03/09/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Many neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural correlates of face processing. However, the location of face-preferential regions differs considerably between studies, possibly due to the use of different stimuli or tasks. By using Activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses, we aimed to a) delineate regions consistently involved in face processing and b) to assess the influence of stimuli and task on convergence of activation patterns. In total, we included 77 neuroimaging experiments in healthy subjects comparing face processing to a control condition. Results revealed a core face-processing network encompassing bilateral fusiform gyrus (FFG), inferior occipital (IOG) gyrus, superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus (STS/MTG), amygdala, inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and gyrus (IFG), left anterior insula as well as pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). Furthermore, separate meta-analyses showed, that while significant convergence across all task and stimuli conditions was found in bilateral amygdala, right IOG, right mid-FFG, and right IFG, convergence in IFJ, STS/MTG, right posterior FFG, left FFG and pre-SMA differed between conditions. Thus, our results point to an occipito-frontal-amygdalae system that is involved regardless of stimulus and attention, whereas the remaining regions of the face-processing network are influenced by the task-dependent focus on specific facial characteristics as well as the type of stimuli processed.
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Abstract
In order to test whether expression and gender can be attended to simultaneously without a cost in accuracy four experiments were carried out using a dual gender-expression task with male and female faces showing different emotional expressions that were backward masked by emotionally neutral faces. In the dual-facial condition the participants had to report both the gender and the expression of the targets. In two control conditions the participant reported either the gender or the expression of the face and indicated whether a surrounding frame was continuous or discontinuous. In Experiments 1-3, with angry and happy targets, asymmetric interference was observed. Gender discrimination, but no expression discrimination, was impaired in the dual-facial condition compared to the corresponding control. This effect was obtained with a between-subjects design in Experiment 1, with a within-subjects design in Experiment 2, and with androgynous face masks in Experiment 3. In Experiments 4a and 4b different target combinations were tested. No decrement of performance in the dual-facial task was observed for either gender or expression discrimination with fearful-disgusted (Experiment 4a) or fearful-happy faces (Experiment 4b). We conclude that the ability to attend simultaneously to gender and expression cues without a decrement in performance depends on the specific combination of expressions to be differentiated between. Happy and angry expressions are usually directed at the perceiver and command preferential attention. Under conditions of restricted viewing such as those of the present study, discrimination of these expressions is prioritized leading to impaired discrimination of other facial properties such as gender.
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Binelli C, Muñiz A, Subira S, Navines R, Blanco-Hinojo L, Perez-Garcia D, Crippa J, Farré M, Pérez-Jurado L, Pujol J, Martin-Santos R. Facial emotion processing in patients with social anxiety disorder and Williams-Beuren syndrome: an fMRI study. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2016; 41:182-91. [PMID: 26624523 PMCID: PMC4853209 DOI: 10.1503/jpn.140384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) are 2 conditions with major differences in terms of genetics, development and cognitive profiles. Both conditions are associated with compromised abilities in overlapping areas, including social approach, processing of social emotional cues and gaze behaviour, and to some extent they are associated with opposite behaviours in these domains. We examined common and distinct patterns of brain activation during a facial emotion processing paradigm in patients with SAD and WBS. METHODS We examined patients with SAD and WBS and healthy controls matched by age and laterality using functional MRI during the processing of happy, fearful and angry faces. RESULTS We included 20 patients with SAD and 20 with WBS as well as 20 matched controls in our study. Patients with SAD and WBS did not differ in the pattern of limbic activation. We observed differences in early visual areas of the face processing network in patients with WBS and differences in the cortical prefrontal regions involved in the top-down regulation of anxiety and in the fusiform gyrus for patients with SAD. Compared with those in the SAD and control groups, participants in the WBS group did not activate the right lateral inferior occipital cortex. In addition, compared with controls, patients with WBS hypoactivated the posterior primary visual cortex and showed significantly less deactivation in the right temporal operculum. Participants in the SAD group showed decreased prefrontal activation compared with those in the WBS and control groups. In addition, compared with controls, participants with SAD showed decreased fusiform activation. Participants with SAD and WBS also differed in the pattern of activation in the superior temporal gyrus, a region that has been linked to gaze processing. LIMITATIONS The results observed in the WBS group are limited by the IQ of the WBS sample; however, the specificity of findings suggests that the pattern of brain activation observed for WBS is more likely to reflect a neurobiological substrate rather than intellectual impairment per se. CONCLUSION Patients with SAD and WBS showed common and specific patterns of brain activation. Our results highlight the role of cortical regions during facial emotion processing in individuals with SAD and WBS.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Rocio Martin-Santos
- Correspondence to: R. Martin-Santos, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clínic, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdicas August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Villarroel, 170, 08036-Barcelona, Spain;
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Saitovitch A, Popa T, Lemaitre H, Rechtman E, Lamy JC, Grévent D, Calmon R, Meunier S, Brunelle F, Samson Y, Boddaert N, Zilbovicius M. Tuning Eye-Gaze Perception by Transitory STS Inhibition. Cereb Cortex 2016; 26:2823-31. [PMID: 26946130 PMCID: PMC4869819 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Processing eye-gaze information is a key step to human social interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that superior temporal sulcus (STS) is highly implicated in eye-gaze perception. In autism, a lack of preference for the eyes, as well as anatomo-functional abnormalities within the STS, has been described. To date, there are no experimental data in humans showing whether it is possible to interfere with eye-gaze processing by modulating STS neural activity. Here, we measured eye-gaze perception before and after inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the posterior STS (pSTS) in young healthy volunteers. Eye-gaze processing, namely overt orienting toward the eyes, was measured using eye tracking during passive visualization of social movies. Inhibition of the right pSTS led participants to look less to the eyes of characters during visualization of social movies. Such effect was specific for the eyes and was not observed after inhibition of the left pSTS nor after placebo TMS. These results indicate for the first time that interfering with the right pSTS neural activity transitorily disrupts the behavior of orienting toward the eyes and thus indirectly gaze perception, a fundamental process for human social cognition. These results could open up new perspectives in therapeutic interventions in autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Saitovitch
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Traian Popa
- Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Centre de Neuro-imagerie de Recherche, CENIR, Paris, France
| | - Hervé Lemaitre
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris-Sud, Paris, France
| | - Elza Rechtman
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Charles Lamy
- Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Centre de Neuro-imagerie de Recherche, CENIR, Paris, France
| | - David Grévent
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Raphael Calmon
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Sabine Meunier
- Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Centre de Neuro-imagerie de Recherche, CENIR, Paris, France
| | - Francis Brunelle
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Yves Samson
- Stroke Center, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, AP-HP, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
| | - Nathalie Boddaert
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
| | - Monica Zilbovicius
- INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France
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14
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Corcoran CM, Keilp JG, Kayser J, Klim C, Butler PD, Bruder GE, Gur RC, Javitt DC. Emotion recognition deficits as predictors of transition in individuals at clinical high risk for schizophrenia: a neurodevelopmental perspective. Psychol Med 2015; 45:2959-2973. [PMID: 26040537 PMCID: PMC5080982 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291715000902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is characterized by profound and disabling deficits in the ability to recognize emotion in facial expression and tone of voice. Although these deficits are well documented in established schizophrenia using recently validated tasks, their predictive utility in at-risk populations has not been formally evaluated. METHOD The Penn Emotion Recognition and Discrimination tasks, and recently developed measures of auditory emotion recognition, were administered to 49 clinical high-risk subjects prospectively followed for 2 years for schizophrenia outcome, and 31 healthy controls, and a developmental cohort of 43 individuals aged 7-26 years. Deficit in emotion recognition in at-risk subjects was compared with deficit in established schizophrenia, and with normal neurocognitive growth curves from childhood to early adulthood. RESULTS Deficits in emotion recognition significantly distinguished at-risk patients who transitioned to schizophrenia. By contrast, more general neurocognitive measures, such as attention vigilance or processing speed, were non-predictive. The best classification model for schizophrenia onset included both face emotion processing and negative symptoms, with accuracy of 96%, and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.99. In a parallel developmental study, emotion recognition abilities were found to reach maturity prior to traditional age of risk for schizophrenia, suggesting they may serve as objective markers of early developmental insult. CONCLUSIONS Profound deficits in emotion recognition exist in at-risk patients prior to schizophrenia onset. They may serve as an index of early developmental insult, and represent an effective target for early identification and remediation. Future studies investigating emotion recognition deficits at both mechanistic and predictive levels are strongly encouraged.
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Affiliation(s)
- C. M. Corcoran
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - J. G. Keilp
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - J. Kayser
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - C. Klim
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - P. D. Butler
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - G. E. Bruder
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - R. C. Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - D. C. Javitt
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
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15
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Non-invasive Human Brain Stimulation in Cognitive Neuroscience: A Primer. Neuron 2015; 87:932-45. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.07.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 172] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2014] [Revised: 06/07/2015] [Accepted: 07/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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16
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Jonas J, Rossion B, Brissart H, Frismand S, Jacques C, Hossu G, Colnat-Coulbois S, Vespignani H, Vignal JP, Maillard L. Beyond the core face-processing network: Intracerebral stimulation of a face-selective area in the right anterior fusiform gyrus elicits transient prosopagnosia. Cortex 2015; 72:140-155. [PMID: 26143305 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2014] [Revised: 05/02/2015] [Accepted: 05/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
According to neuropsychological evidence, a distributed network of regions of the ventral visual pathway - from the lateral occipital cortex to the temporal pole - supports face recognition. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have generally confined ventral face-selective areas to the posterior section of the occipito-temporal cortex, i.e., the inferior occipital gyrus occipital face area (OFA) and the posterior and middle fusiform gyrus fusiform face area (FFA). There is recent evidence that intracranial electrical stimulation of these areas in the right hemisphere elicits face matching and recognition impairments (i.e., prosopagnosia) as well as perceptual face distortions. Here we report a case of transient inability to recognize faces following electrical stimulation of the right anterior fusiform gyrus, in a region located anteriorly to the FFA. There was no perceptual face distortion reported during stimulation. Although no fMRI face-selective responses were found in this region due to a severe signal drop-out as in previous studies, intracerebral face-selective event-related potentials and gamma range electrophysiological responses were found at the critical site of stimulation. These results point to a causal role in face recognition of the right anterior fusiform gyrus and more generally of face-selective areas located beyond the "core" face-processing network in the right ventral temporal cortex. It also illustrates the diagnostic value of intracerebral electrophysiological recordings and stimulation in understanding the neural basis of face recognition and visual recognition in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacques Jonas
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France; UMR 7039, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France; Université de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
| | | | - Hélène Brissart
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France
| | - Solène Frismand
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France
| | | | - Gabriela Hossu
- CIC-IT, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France
| | | | - Hervé Vespignani
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France; UMR 7039, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
| | - Jean-Pierre Vignal
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France; UMR 7039, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
| | - Louis Maillard
- Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France; UMR 7039, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
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17
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Cattaneo Z, Lega C, Ferrari C, Vecchi T, Cela-Conde CJ, Silvanto J, Nadal M. The role of the lateral occipital cortex in aesthetic appreciation of representational and abstract paintings: a TMS study. Brain Cogn 2015; 95:44-53. [PMID: 25682351 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2015.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2014] [Revised: 12/31/2014] [Accepted: 01/15/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies of aesthetic appreciation have shown that activity in the lateral occipital area (LO)-a key node in the object recognition pathway-is modulated by the extent to which visual artworks are liked or found beautiful. However, the available evidence is only correlational. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the putative causal role of LO in the aesthetic appreciation of paintings. In our first experiment, we found that interfering with LO activity during aesthetic appreciation selectively reduced evaluation of representational paintings, leaving appreciation of abstract paintings unaffected. A second experiment demonstrated that, although the perceived clearness of the images overall positively correlated with liking, the detrimental effect of LO TMS on aesthetic appreciation does not owe to TMS reducing perceived clearness. Taken together, our findings suggest that object-recognition mechanisms mediated by LO play a causal role in aesthetic appreciation of representational art.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zaira Cattaneo
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy; Brain Connectivity Center, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, Italy.
| | - Carlotta Lega
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
| | - Chiara Ferrari
- Brain Connectivity Center, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, Italy; Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Tomaso Vecchi
- Brain Connectivity Center, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, Italy; Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | | | - Juha Silvanto
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, UK
| | - Marcos Nadal
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Austria
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18
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Yang LZ, Zhang W, Shi B, Yang Z, Wei Z, Gu F, Zhang J, Cui G, Liu Y, Zhou Y, Zhang X, Rao H. Electrical stimulation over bilateral occipito-temporal regions reduces N170 in the right hemisphere and the composite face effect. PLoS One 2014; 9:e115772. [PMID: 25531112 PMCID: PMC4274090 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2013] [Accepted: 11/27/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can modulate cortical excitability. Although the clinical value of tDCS has been advocated, the potential of tDCS in cognitive rehabilitation of face processing deficits is less understood. Face processing has been associated with the occipito-temporal cortex (OT). The present study investigated whether face processing in healthy adults can be modulated by applying tDCS over the OT. Experiment 1 investigated whether tDCS can affect N170, a face-sensitive ERP component, with a face orientation judgment task. The N170 in the right hemisphere was reduced in active stimulation conditions compared with the sham stimulation condition for both upright faces and inverted faces. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that tDCS can modulate the composite face effect, a type of holistic processing that reflects the obligatory attention to all parts of a face. The composite face effect was reduced in active stimulation conditions compared with the sham stimulation condition. Additionally, the current polarity did not modulate the effect of tDCS in the two experiments. The present study demonstrates that N170 can be causally manipulated by stimulating the OT with weak currents. Furthermore, our study provides evidence that obligatory attention to all parts of a face can be affected by the commonly used tDCS parameter setting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li-Zhuang Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
- * E-mail: (LZY); (XZ)
| | - Wei Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Bin Shi
- Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Zhiyu Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Zhengde Wei
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Feng Gu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Jing Zhang
- The First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Guanbao Cui
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Ying Liu
- Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Yifeng Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Xiaochu Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Center of Medical Physics and Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, CAS, Hefei, Anhui, China
- School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
- * E-mail: (LZY); (XZ)
| | - Hengyi Rao
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology and Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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19
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The role of superior temporal sulcus in the control of irrelevant emotional face processing: A transcranial direct current stimulation study. Neuropsychologia 2014; 64:124-33. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2014] [Revised: 08/26/2014] [Accepted: 09/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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20
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Facial expression recognition takes longer in the posterior superior temporal sulcus than in the occipital face area. J Neurosci 2014; 34:9173-7. [PMID: 24990937 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5038-13.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies have identified a face-selective region in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS) that responds more strongly during facial expression recognition tasks than during facial identity recognition tasks, but precisely when the rpSTS begins to causally contribute to expression recognition is unclear. The present study addressed this issue using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In Experiment 1, repetitive TMS delivered over the rpSTS of human participants, at a frequency of 10 Hz for 500 ms, selectively impaired a facial expression task but had no effect on a matched facial identity task. In Experiment 2, participants performed the expression task only while double-pulse TMS (dTMS) was delivered over the rpSTS or over the right occipital face area (rOFA), a face-selective region in lateral occipital cortex, at different latencies up to 210 ms after stimulus onset. Task performance was selectively impaired when dTMS was delivered over the rpSTS at 60-100 ms and 100-140 ms. dTMS delivered over the rOFA impaired task performance at 60-100 ms only. These results demonstrate that the rpSTS causally contributes to expression recognition and that it does so over a longer time-scale than the rOFA. This difference in the length of the TMS induced impairment between the rpSTS and the rOFA suggests that the neural computations that contribute to facial expression recognition in each region are functionally distinct.
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21
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Reinl M, Bartels A. Face processing regions are sensitive to distinct aspects of temporal sequence in facial dynamics. Neuroimage 2014; 102 Pt 2:407-15. [PMID: 25132020 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.08.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2014] [Revised: 07/25/2014] [Accepted: 08/04/2014] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial movement conveys important information for social interactions, yet its neural processing is poorly understood. Computational models propose that shape- and temporal sequence sensitive mechanisms interact in processing dynamic faces. While face processing regions are known to respond to facial movement, their sensitivity to particular temporal sequences has barely been studied. Here we used fMRI to examine the sensitivity of human face-processing regions to two aspects of directionality in facial movement trajectories. We presented genuine movie recordings of increasing and decreasing fear expressions, each of which were played in natural or reversed frame order. This two-by-two factorial design matched low-level visual properties, static content and motion energy within each factor, emotion-direction (increasing or decreasing emotion) and timeline (natural versus artificial). The results showed sensitivity for emotion-direction in FFA, which was timeline-dependent as it only occurred within the natural frame order, and sensitivity to timeline in the STS, which was emotion-direction-dependent as it only occurred for decreased fear. The occipital face area (OFA) was sensitive to the factor timeline. These findings reveal interacting temporal sequence sensitive mechanisms that are responsive to both ecological meaning and to prototypical unfolding of facial dynamics. These mechanisms are temporally directional, provide socially relevant information regarding emotional state or naturalness of behavior, and agree with predictions from modeling and predictive coding theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maren Reinl
- Vision and Cognition Lab, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Andreas Bartels
- Vision and Cognition Lab, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen 72076, Germany.
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22
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Gaetano J, van der Zwan R, Blair D, Brooks A. Hands as sex cues: sensitivity measures, male bias measures, and implications for sex perception mechanisms. PLoS One 2014; 9:e91032. [PMID: 24603615 PMCID: PMC3946328 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2013] [Accepted: 02/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex perceptions, or more particularly, sex discriminations and sex categorisations, are high-value social behaviours. They mediate almost all inter-personal interactions. The two experiments reported here had the aim of exploring some of the basic characteristics of the processes giving rise to sex perceptions. Experiment 1 confirmed that human hands can be used as a cue to an individual's sex even when colour and texture cues are removed and presentations are brief. Experiment 1 also showed that when hands are sexually ambiguous observers tend to classify them as male more often than female. Experiment 2 showed that "male bias" arises not from sensitivity differences but from differences in response biases. Observers are conservative in their judgements of targets as female but liberal in their judgements of targets as male. These data, combined with earlier reports, suggest the existence of a sex-perception space that is cue-invariant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Gaetano
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Rick van der Zwan
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Duncan Blair
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Anna Brooks
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
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23
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Kaiser D, Walther C, Schweinberger SR, Kovács G. Dissociating the neural bases of repetition-priming and adaptation in the human brain for faces. J Neurophysiol 2013; 110:2727-38. [DOI: 10.1152/jn.00277.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The repetition of a given stimulus leads to the attenuation of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal compared with unrepeated stimuli, a phenomenon called fMRI adaptation or repetition suppression (RS). Previous studies have related RS of the fMRI signal behaviorally both to improved performance for the repeated stimulus (priming) and to shifts of perception away from the first stimulus (adaptation-related aftereffects). Here we used identical task (sex discrimination), trial structure [ stimulus 1 (S1): 3,000 ms, interstimulus interval: 600 ms, stimulus 2 (S2): 300 ms], and S2 stimuli (androgynous faces) to test how RS of the face-specific areas of the occipito-temporal cortex relates to priming and aftereffects. By varying S1, we could induce priming (significantly faster reaction times when S1 and S2 were identical compared with different images) as well as sex-specific aftereffect [an increased ratio of male responses if S1 was a female face compared with ambiguous faces or to Fourier-randomized noise (FOU) images]. Presenting any face as S1 led to significant RS of the blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the fusiform and occipital face areas as well as in the lateral occipital cortex of both hemispheres compared with FOU, reflecting stimulus category-specific encoding. Additionally, while sex-specific adaptation effects were only observed in occipital face areas, primed trials led to a signal reduction in both face-selective regions. Altogether, these results suggest the differential neural mechanisms of adaptation and repetition priming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Kaiser
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Christian Walther
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
| | - Stefan R. Schweinberger
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
| | - Gyula Kovács
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
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24
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Said CP, Haxby JV, Todorov A. Brain systems for assessing the affective value of faces. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:1660-70. [PMID: 21536552 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive neuroscience research on facial expression recognition and face evaluation has proliferated over the past 15 years. Nevertheless, large questions remain unanswered. In this overview, we discuss the current understanding in the field, and describe what is known and what remains unknown. In §2, we describe three types of behavioural evidence that the perception of traits in neutral faces is related to the perception of facial expressions, and may rely on the same mechanisms. In §3, we discuss cortical systems for the perception of facial expressions, and argue for a partial segregation of function in the superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform gyrus. In §4, we describe the current understanding of how the brain responds to emotionally neutral faces. To resolve some of the inconsistencies in the literature, we perform a large group analysis across three different studies, and argue that one parsimonious explanation of prior findings is that faces are coded in terms of their typicality. In §5, we discuss how these two lines of research--perception of emotional expressions and face evaluation--could be integrated into a common, cognitive neuroscience framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher P Said
- Computational Neuroimaging Laboratory, Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
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25
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Atkinson AP, Adolphs R. The neuropsychology of face perception: beyond simple dissociations and functional selectivity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 366:1726-38. [PMID: 21536556 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Face processing relies on a distributed, patchy network of cortical regions in the temporal and frontal lobes that respond disproportionately to face stimuli, other cortical regions that are not even primarily visual (such as somatosensory cortex), and subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Higher-level face perception abilities, such as judging identity, emotion and trustworthiness, appear to rely on an intact face-processing network that includes the occipital face area (OFA), whereas lower-level face categorization abilities, such as discriminating faces from objects, can be achieved without OFA, perhaps via the direct connections to the fusiform face area (FFA) from several extrastriate cortical areas. Some lesion, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings argue against a strict feed-forward hierarchical model of face perception, in which the OFA is the principal and common source of input for other visual and non-visual cortical regions involved in face perception, including the FFA, face-selective superior temporal sulcus and somatosensory cortex. Instead, these findings point to a more interactive model in which higher-level face perception abilities depend on the interplay between several functionally and anatomically distinct neural regions. Furthermore, the nature of these interactions may depend on the particular demands of the task. We review the lesion and TMS literature on this topic and highlight the dynamic and distributed nature of face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony P Atkinson
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
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