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Del Bianco T, Lai MC, Mason L, Johnson MH, Charman T, Loth E, Banaschewski T, Buitelaar J, Murphy DGM, Jones EJH. Sex differences in social brain neural responses in autism: temporal profiles of configural face-processing within data-driven time windows. Sci Rep 2024; 14:14038. [PMID: 38890406 PMCID: PMC11189412 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64387-9] [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: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Face-processing timing differences may underlie visual social attention differences between autistic and non-autistic people, and males and females. This study investigates the timing of the effects of neurotype and sex on face-processing, and their dependence on age. We analysed EEG data during upright and inverted photographs of faces from 492 participants from the Longitudinal European Autism Project (141 neurotypical males, 76 neurotypical females, 202 autistic males, 73 autistic females; age 6-30 years). We detected timings of sex/diagnosis effects on event-related potential amplitudes at the posterior-temporal channel P8 with Bootstrapped Cluster-based Permutation Analysis and conducted Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) to investigate the timecourse and dependence on age of neural signals. The periods of influence of neurotype and sex overlapped but differed in onset (respectively, 260 and 310 ms post-stimulus), with sex effects lasting longer. GCA revealed a smaller and later amplitude peak in autistic female children compared to non-autistic female children; this difference decreased in adolescence and was not significant in adulthood. No age-dependent neurotype difference was significant in males. These findings indicate that sex and neurotype influence longer latency face processing and implicates cognitive rather than perceptual processing. Sex may have more overarching effects than neurotype on configural face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa Del Bianco
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Henry Wellcome Building, Birkbeck University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK.
- School of Social Sciences and Professions, London Metropolitan University, London, UK.
| | - Meng-Chuan Lai
- Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health and Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Luke Mason
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Henry Wellcome Building, Birkbeck University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Mark H Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Tony Charman
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Eva Loth
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | | | - Jan Buitelaar
- Donders Center of Medical Neurosciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Declan G M Murphy
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Emily J H Jones
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Henry Wellcome Building, Birkbeck University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK
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2
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Mares I, Smith FW, Goddard EJ, Keighery L, Pappasava M, Ewing L, Smith ML. Effects of expectation on face perception and its association with expertise. Sci Rep 2024; 14:9402. [PMID: 38658575 PMCID: PMC11043383 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59284-0] [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: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decisions are derived from the combination of priors and sensorial input. While priors are broadly understood to reflect experience/expertise developed over one's lifetime, the role of perceptual expertise at the individual level has seldom been directly explored. Here, we manipulate probabilistic information associated with a high and low expertise category (faces and cars respectively), while assessing individual level of expertise with each category. 67 participants learned the probabilistic association between a color cue and each target category (face/car) in a behavioural categorization task. Neural activity (EEG) was then recorded in a similar paradigm in the same participants featuring the previously learned contingencies without the explicit task. Behaviourally, perception of the higher expertise category (faces) was modulated by expectation. Specifically, we observed facilitatory and interference effects when targets were correctly or incorrectly expected, which were also associated with independently measured individual levels of face expertise. Multivariate pattern analysis of the EEG signal revealed clear effects of expectation from 100 ms post stimulus, with significant decoding of the neural response to expected vs. not stimuli, when viewing identical images. Latency of peak decoding when participants saw faces was directly associated with individual level facilitation effects in the behavioural task. The current results not only provide time sensitive evidence of expectation effects on early perception but highlight the role of higher-level expertise on forming priors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inês Mares
- School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK.
- William James Center for Research, Ispa - Instituto Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal.
| | - Fraser W Smith
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - E J Goddard
- School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK
| | - Lianne Keighery
- School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Michael Pappasava
- School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK
- Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Louise Ewing
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Marie L Smith
- School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK
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3
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Chen Y, Stephani T, Bagdasarian MT, Hilsmann A, Eisert P, Villringer A, Bosse S, Gaebler M, Nikulin VV. Realness of face images can be decoded from non-linear modulation of EEG responses. Sci Rep 2024; 14:5683. [PMID: 38454099 PMCID: PMC10920746 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56130-1] [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: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Artificially created human faces play an increasingly important role in our digital world. However, the so-called uncanny valley effect may cause people to perceive highly, yet not perfectly human-like faces as eerie, bringing challenges to the interaction with virtual agents. At the same time, the neurocognitive underpinnings of the uncanny valley effect remain elusive. Here, we utilized an electroencephalography (EEG) dataset of steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) in which participants were presented with human face images of different stylization levels ranging from simplistic cartoons to actual photographs. Assessing neuronal responses both in frequency and time domain, we found a non-linear relationship between SSVEP amplitudes and stylization level, that is, the most stylized cartoon images and the real photographs evoked stronger responses than images with medium stylization. Moreover, realness of even highly similar stylization levels could be decoded from the EEG data with task-related component analysis (TRCA). Importantly, we also account for confounding factors, such as the size of the stimulus face's eyes, which previously have not been adequately addressed. Together, this study provides a basis for future research and neuronal benchmarking of real-time detection of face realness regarding three aspects: SSVEP-based neural markers, efficient classification methods, and low-level stimulus confounders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yonghao Chen
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Tilman Stephani
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Anna Hilsmann
- Department of Vision and Imaging Technologies, Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin, Germany
- Visual Computing Group, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Peter Eisert
- Department of Vision and Imaging Technologies, Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin, Germany
- Visual Computing Group, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Arno Villringer
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Sebastian Bosse
- Department of Vision and Imaging Technologies, Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Gaebler
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Vadim V Nikulin
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
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Lowe BG, Robinson JE, Yamamoto N, Hogendoorn H, Johnston P. Same but different: The latency of a shared expectation signal interacts with stimulus attributes. Cortex 2023; 168:143-156. [PMID: 37716110 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.08.004] [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: 03/29/2023] [Revised: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/18/2023]
Abstract
Predictive coding theories assert that perceptual inference is a hierarchical process of belief updating, wherein the onset of unexpected sensory data causes so-called prediction error responses that calibrate erroneous inferences. Given the functionally specialised organisation of visual cortex, it is assumed that prediction error propagation interacts with the specific visual attribute violating an expectation. We sought to test this within the temporal domain by applying time-resolved decoding methods to electroencephalography (EEG) data evoked by contextual trajectory violations of either brightness, size, or orientation within a bound stimulus. We found that following ∼170 ms post stimulus onset, responses to both size violations and orientation violations were decodable from physically identical control trials in which no attributes were violated. These two violation types were then directly compared, with attribute-specific signalling being decoded from 265 ms. Temporal generalisation suggested that this dissociation was driven by latency shifts in shared expectation signalling between the two conditions. Using a novel temporal bias method, we then found that this shared signalling occurred earlier for size violations than orientation violations. To our knowledge, we are among the first to decode expectation violations in humans using EEG and have demonstrated a temporal dissociation in attribute-specific expectancy violations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin G Lowe
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Perception in Action Research Centre & School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, Australia.
| | - Jonathan E Robinson
- Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Naohide Yamamoto
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Centre for Vision and Eye Research, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia
| | - Hinze Hogendoorn
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Melbourne School of Psychological Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Patrick Johnston
- School of Exercise Science and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia
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5
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Event-Related Potentials Index Prediction Error Signalling During Perceptual Processing of Emotional Facial Expressions. Brain Topogr 2023; 36:419-432. [PMID: 36917320 PMCID: PMC10164013 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-023-00951-2] [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: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/15/2023]
Abstract
Humans use socially relevant stimuli to guide perceptual processing of the surrounding environment, with emotional stimuli receiving preferential attention due to their social importance. Predictive coding theory asserts this cognitive process occurs efficiently by combining predictions about what is to be perceived with incoming sensory information, generating prediction errors that are then used to update future predictions. Recent evidence has identified differing neural activity that demonstrates how spatial and feature-based attention may interact with prediction, yet how emotion-guided attention may influence this relationship remains unknown. In the present study, participants viewed a display of two faces in which attention, prediction, and emotion were manipulated, and responded to a face expressing a specific emotion (anger or happiness). The N170 was found to be enhanced by unpredictable as opposed to predictable stimuli, indicating that it indexes general prediction error signalling processes. The N300 amplitudes were also enhanced by unpredictable stimuli, but they were also affected by the attentional status of angry but not happy faces, suggesting that there are differences in prediction error processes indexed by the N170 and N300. Overall, the findings suggest that the N170 and N300 both index violations of expectation for spatial manipulations of stimuli in accordance with prediction error responding processes.
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Mares I, Ewing L, Papasavva M, Ducrocq E, Smith FW, Smith ML. Face recognition ability is manifest in early dynamic decoding of face-orientation selectivity-Evidence from multi-variate pattern analysis of the neural response. Cortex 2023; 159:299-312. [PMID: 36669447 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.11.004] [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: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Although humans are considered to be face experts, there is a well-established reliable variation in the degree to which neurotypical individuals are able to learn and recognise faces. While many behavioural studies have characterised these differences, studies that seek to relate the neuronal response to standardised behavioural measures of ability remain relatively scarce, particularly so for the time-resolved approaches and the early response to face stimuli. In the present study we make use of a relatively recent methodological advance, multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA), to decode the time course of the neural response to faces compared to other object categories (inverted faces, objects). Importantly, for the first time, we directly relate metrics of this decoding assessed at the individual level to gold-standard measures of behavioural face processing ability assessed in an independent task. Thirty-nine participants completed the behavioural Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), then viewed images of faces and houses (presented upright and inverted) while their neural activity was measured via electroencephalography. Significant decoding of both face orientation and face category were observed in all individual participants. Decoding of face orientation, a marker of more advanced face processing, was earlier and stronger in participants with higher levels of face expertise, while decoding of face category information was earlier but not stronger for individuals with greater face expertise. Taken together these results provide a marker of significant differences in the early neuronal response to faces from around 100 ms post stimulus as a function of behavioural expertise with faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inês Mares
- School of Psychological Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK; William James Center for Research, Ispa - Instituto Universitário, Portugal.
| | - Louise Ewing
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Michael Papasavva
- School of Psychological Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
| | - Emmanuel Ducrocq
- School of Psychological Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
| | - Fraser W Smith
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Marie L Smith
- School of Psychological Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK; Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
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7
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Baker KS, Yamamoto N, Pegna AJ, Johnston P. Violated Expectations for Spatial and Feature Attributes of Visual Trajectories Modulate Event-Related Potential Amplitudes across the Visual Processing Hierarchy. Biol Psychol 2022; 174:108422. [PMID: 36038082 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108422] [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: 02/22/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
During visual perception the brain must combine its predictions about what is to be perceived with incoming relevant information. The present study investigated how this process interacts with attention by using event-related potentials that index these cognitive mechanisms. Specifically, this study focused on examining how the amplitudes of the N170, N2pc, and N300 would be modulated by violations of expectations for spatial and featural attributes of visual stimuli. Participants viewed a series of shape stimuli in which a salient shape moved across a set of circular locations so that the trajectory of the shape implied the final position and shape of the stimulus. The final salient stimuli occurred in one of four possible outcomes: predictable position and shape, predictable position but unpredictable shape, unpredictable position but predictable shape, and unpredictable position and shape. The N170 was enhanced by unpredictable positions and shapes, whereas the N300 was enlarged only by unpredictable positions. The N2pc was not modulated by violations of expectation for shapes or positions. Additionally, it was observed post-hoc that the P1pc amplitude was increased by unpredictable shapes. These findings revealed that incorrect prediction increases neural activity. Furthermore, they suggest that prediction and attention interact differently in different stages of visual perception, depending on the type of attention being engaged: The N170 indexes initial prediction error signalling irrespective of the type of information (spatial or featural) in which error occurs, followed by the N300 as a marker of prediction updating involving reorientation of spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen S Baker
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Naohide Yamamoto
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Alan J Pegna
- Laboratory of Cognitive and Experimental Neuropsychology, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Patrick Johnston
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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Tipura E, Zanesco J, Clément F, Renaud O, Pegna AJ. Am I really seeing what's around me? An ERP study on social anxiety under speech induction, uncertainty and social feedback. Biol Psychol 2022; 169:108285. [PMID: 35122890 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108285] [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: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive models of social anxiety propose that socially anxious individuals engage in excessive self-focusing attention when entering a social situation. In the present study, speech anxiety was induced to socially anxious and control participants. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants performed a perceptual judgment task using distinct or ambiguous stimuli, before and after social feedback. Disputed feedback led to more revisions and decreased levels of confidence, especially among socially anxious individuals. Prior feedback, greater occipital P1 amplitudes in both groups for ambiguous probes indicated heightened sensory facilitation to ambiguous information, and greater anterior N1 amplitudes for ambiguous stimuli in highly anxious participants suggested anticipation of negative feedback in this group. Post-feedback, P1, N1 and LPP amplitudes were reduced overall among socially anxious individuals indicating a reduction in sensory facilitation of visual information. These results suggest excessive self-focusing among socially anxious individuals, possibly linked to anticipation of an anxiety-provoking social situation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eda Tipura
- Methodology and Data Analysis, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Laboratory of Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Julie Zanesco
- Centre for Cognitive Sciences, University of Neuchatel, CH-2000 Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Fabrice Clément
- Centre for Cognitive Sciences, University of Neuchatel, CH-2000 Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Olivier Renaud
- Methodology and Data Analysis, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Alan J Pegna
- Cognitive and Experimental Neuropsychology Lab, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD-4072, Australia
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9
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Attention and prediction modulations in expected and unexpected visuospatial trajectories. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0242753. [PMID: 34624029 PMCID: PMC8500414 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are constantly exposed to a rich tapestry of visual information in a potentially changing environment. To cope with the computational burden this engenders, our perceptual system must use prior context to simultaneously prioritise stimuli of importance and suppress irrelevant surroundings. This study investigated the influence of prediction and attention in visual perception by investigating event-related potentials (ERPs) often associated with these processes, N170 and N2pc for prediction and attention, respectively. A contextual trajectory paradigm was used which violated visual predictions and neglected to predetermine areas of spatial interest, to account for the potentially unpredictable nature of a real-life visual scene. Participants (N = 36) viewed a visual display of cued and non-cued shapes rotating in a five-step predictable trajectory, with the fifth and final position of either the cued or non-cued shape occurring in a predictable or unpredictable spatial location. To investigate the predictive coding theory of attention we used factors of attention and prediction, whereby attention was manipulated as either cued or non-cued conditions, and prediction manipulated in either predictable or unpredictable conditions. Results showed both enhanced N170 and N2pc amplitudes to unpredictable compared to predictable stimuli. Stimulus cueing status also increased N170 amplitude, but this did not interact with stimulus predictability. The N2pc amplitude was not affected by stimulus cueing status. In accordance with previous research these results suggest the N170 is in part a visual prediction error response with respect to higher-level visual processes, and furthermore the N2pc may index attention reorientation. The results demonstrate prior context influences the sensitivity of the N170 and N2pc electrophysiological responses. These findings add further support to the role of N170 as a prediction error signal and suggest that the N2pc may reflect attentional reorientation in response to unpredicted stimulus locations.
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