Functional Role of the N400 and P600 in Language-Related ERP Studies with Respect to Semantic Anomalies: An Overview

High-density ear-EEG for understanding ear-centered EEG

Background. Mobile ear-EEG provides the opportunity to record EEG unobtrusively in everyday life. However, in real-life, the EEG data quickly becomes difficult to interpret, as the neural signal is contaminated by other, non-neural signal contributions. Due to the small number of electrodes in ear-EEG devices, the interpretation of the EEG becomes even more difficult. For meaningful and reliable ear-EEG, it is crucial that the brain signals we wish to record in real life are well-understood and that we make optimal use of the available electrodes. Their placement should be guided by prior knowledge about the characteristics of the signal of interest.Objective.We want to understand the signal we record with ear-EEG and make recommendations on how to optimally place a limited number of electrodes.Approach.We built a high-density ear-EEG with 31 channels spaced densely around one ear. We used it to record four auditory event-related potentials (ERPs): the mismatch negativity, the P300, the N100 and the N400. With this data, we gain an understanding of how different stages of auditory processing are reflected in ear-EEG. We investigate the electrode configurations that carry the most information and use a mass univariate ERP analysis to identify the optimal channel configuration. We additionally use a multivariate approach to investigate the added value of multi-channel recordings.Main results.We find significant condition differences for all ERPs. The different ERPs vary considerably in their spatial extent and different electrode positions are necessary to optimally capture each component. In the multivariate analysis, we find that the investigation of the ERPs benefits strongly from multi-channel ear-EEG.Significance.Our work emphasizes the importance of a strong theoretical and practical background when building and using ear-EEG. We provide recommendations on finding the optimal electrode positions. These results will guide future research employing ear-EEG in real-life scenarios.

Renting vs. Owning: Public Stereotypes of Housing Consumption Decision From the Perspective of Confucian Culture: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

The ideas of face consciousness, group conformity, extended family concept, and crisis consciousness in Confucian culture have a subtle and far-reaching impact on housing consumption decision among the Chinese public, forming a housing consumption model of "preferring to own a house rather than rent one." The poor interaction between the housing rental market and the sales market caused by the shortage of rental demand and irrational purchasing behaviors has led to soaring house prices and imbalance between supply and demand that prevail in major cities in China. To gain a deeper understanding of public cognitive attitude toward decisions on owning and renting a house, this study divided the subjects into high and low impact groups based on the overall Confucian culture and four subdimensions. It attempts to take a cognitive neuroscience approach for assessing public stereotypes of housing consumption decision with different types based on the analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). The results are as follows. First, overall, there is an obvious implicit stereotype of renting a house and explicit stereotype of owning a house among the public. Second, ERPs data show that descriptions of renting a house with positive adjectives could evoke more significant N400 responses. In other words, in the heuristic system, the public perceive that renting a house is restrictive, stressful, unhappy, and crisis. Data from subjective reports show that, after processing information in the analytic system, the public tend to think that owning a house is self-contained, restful, warm, and comfortable. Third, a more negative stereotype of renting a house exists in the high Confucian culture influence group (HIC) Group than in the low Confucian culture influence group (LIC) Group, and is more inclined to own a home. Fourth, under the Confucian culture sub-dimension, there are differences in housing consumption stereotypes between high and low groups in terms of extended family concept, group conformity, and crisis consciousness. Fifth, the moderating effect analysis found that perceived usefulness, trust in the rental market, and policy perception can be important factors in guiding public housing consumption stereotypes.