scholarly journals Event-Related Potential to Conscious and Nonconscious Emotional Face Perception in Females with Autistic-Like Traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 2306
Author(s):  
Vilfredo De Pascalis ◽  
Giuliana Cirillo ◽  
Arianna Vecchio ◽  
Joseph Ciorciari
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Occipital Region ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Face

This study explored the electrocortical correlates of conscious and nonconscious perceptions of emotionally laden faces in neurotypical adult women with varying levels of autistic-like traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient—AQ). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the viewing of backward-masked images for happy, neutral, and sad faces presented either below (16 ms—subliminal) or above the level of visual conscious awareness (167 ms—supraliminal). Sad compared to happy faces elicited larger frontal-central N1, N2, and occipital P3 waves. We observed larger N1 amplitudes to sad faces than to happy and neutral faces in High-AQ (but not Low-AQ) scorers. Additionally, High-AQ scorers had a relatively larger P3 at the occipital region to sad faces. Regardless of the AQ score, subliminal perceived emotional faces elicited shorter N1, N2, and P3 latencies than supraliminal faces. Happy and sad faces had shorter N170 latency in the supraliminal than subliminal condition. High-AQ participants had a longer N1 latency over the occipital region than Low-AQ ones. In Low-AQ individuals (but not in High-AQ ones), emotional recognition with female faces produced a longer N170 latency than with male faces. N4 latency was shorter to female faces than male faces. These findings are discussed in view of their clinical implications and extension to autism.

scholarly journals Event-Related Potential to Conscious and Nonconscious Emotional Face Perception in Females with Autistic-Like Traits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilfredo De Pascalis ◽  
Giuliana Cirillo ◽  
Arianna Vecchio ◽  
Joseph Ciorciari
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Occipital Region ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Face

This study explored the electrocortical correlates of conscious and nonconscious perceptions of emotionally laden faces in neurotypical adult women with varying levels of autistic-like traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient - AQ). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the viewing of backward-masked images for happy, neutral, and sad faces presented either below (16 ms - subliminal) or above the level of visual conscious awareness (167 ms - supraliminal). Sad compared to happy faces elicited larger frontal-central N1, N2, and occipital P3 waves. We observed larger N1 amplitudes to sad faces than to happy and neutral faces in High-AQ (but not Low-AQ) scorers. Additionally, High-AQ scorers had a relatively larger P3 at the occipital region to sad faces. Regardless of the AQ score, subliminal perceived emotional faces elicited shorter N1, N2, and P3 latencies than supraliminal faces. Happy and sad faces had shorter N170 latency in the supraliminal than subliminal condition. High-AQ participants had a longer N1 latency over the occipital region than Low-AQ ones. In Low-AQ individuals (but not in High-AQ ones), emotional recognition with female faces produced a longer N170 latency than with male faces. N4 latency was shorter to female faces than male faces. These findings are discussed in view of their clinical implications and extension to autism.

scholarly journals Neuropsychology of facial expressions. The role of consciousness in processing emotional faces

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Balconi
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Unconscious Processing ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Facial Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Face

Neuropsychological studies have underlined the significant presence of distinct brain correlates deputed to analyze facial expression of emotion. It was observed that some cerebral circuits were considered as specific for emotional face comprehension as a function of conscious vs. unconscious processing of emotional information. Moreover, the emotional content of faces (i.e. positive vs. negative; more or less arousing) may have an effect in activating specific cortical networks. Between the others, recent studies have explained the contribution of hemispheres in comprehending face, as a function of type of emotions (mainly related to the distinction positive vs. negative) and of specific tasks (comprehending vs. producing facial expressions). Specifically, ERPs (event-related potentials) analysis overview is proposed in order to comprehend how face may be processed by an observer and how he can make face a meaningful construct even in absence of awareness. Finally, brain oscillations is considered in order to explain the synchronization of neural populations in response to emotional faces when a conscious vs. unconscious processing is activated.

scholarly journals Altered neuronal habituation to hearing others’ pain in adults with autistic traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Meng ◽  
Zuoshan Li ◽  
Lin Shen
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Passive Listening ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Listening Task

Abstract This study tested the hypothesis that autistic traits influence the neuronal habituation that underlies the processing of others’ pain. Based on their autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), two groups of participants were classified according to their autistic traits: High-AQ and Low-AQ groups. Their event-related potentials in response to trains of three identical audio recordings, exhibiting either painful or neutral feelings of others, were compared during three experimental tasks. (1) In a Pain Judgment Task, participants were instructed to focus on pain-related cues in the presented audio recordings. (2) In a Gender Judgment Task, participants were instructed to focus on non-pain-related cues in the presented audio recordings. (3) In a Passive Listening Task, participants were instructed to passively listen. In the High-AQ group, an altered empathic pattern of habituation, indexed by frontal-central P2 responses of the second repeated painful audio recordings, was found during the Passive Listening Task. Nevertheless, both High-AQ and Low-AQ groups exhibited similar patterns of habituation to hearing others’ voices, both neutral and painful, in the Pain Judgment and Gender Judgment Tasks. These results suggest altered empathic neuronal habituation in the passive processing of others’ vocal pain by individuals with autistic traits.

scholarly journals Autistic Traits Affect P300 Response to Unexpected Events, regardless of Mental State Inferences

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mitsuhiko Ishikawa ◽  
Shoji Itakura ◽  
Hiroki C. Tanabe
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Waveform Analysis ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Related Potentials

Limited use of contextual information has been suggested as a way of understanding cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it has also been argued that individuals with ASD may have difficulties inferring others’ mental states. Here, we examined how individuals with different levels of autistic traits respond to contextual deviations by measuring event-related potentials that reflect context usage. The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to quantify autistic-like traits in 28 university students, and 19 participants were defined as Low or High AQ groups. To additionally examine inferences about mental state, two belief conditions (with or without false belief) were included. Participants read short stories in which the final sentence included either an expected or an unexpected word and rated the word’s degree of deviation from expectation. P300 waveform analysis revealed that unexpected words were associated with larger P300 waveforms for the Low AQ group, but smaller P300 responses in the High AQ group. Additionally, AQ social skill subscores were positively correlated with evaluation times in the Unexpected condition, whether a character’s belief was false or not. This suggests that autistic traits can affect responses to unexpected events, possibly because of decreased availability of context information.

scholarly journals Altered processing of social emotions in individuals with autistic traits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Yang ◽  
Hengheng Tao ◽  
Hongxing Ge ◽  
Zuoshan Li ◽  
Yuanyan Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Social Emotions ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Abstract BackgroundSocial impairment is a defining phenotypic feature of autism. The present study investigated whether individuals with autistic traits exhibit altered perceptions of social emotions. MethodsTwo groups of participants (High-AQ and Low-AQ) were recruited based on their scores on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Their behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERP) elicited by social and nonsocial stimuli with positive, negative, and neutral emotional valence were compared in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to view social-emotional and nonsocial-emotional pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to listen to social-emotional and nonsocial-emotional audio recordings. ResultsMore negative emotional reactions and smaller amplitudes of late ERP components (the late positive potential in Experiment 1 and the late negative component in Experiment 2) were found in the High-AQ group than in the Low-AQ group in response to the social-negative stimuli. In addition, amplitudes of these late ERP components in both experiments elicited in response to social-negative stimuli were correlated with the AQ scores of the High-AQ group. LimitationsAlthough the influence of autistic traits on reactions to social or nonsocial emotional stimuli was assessed in an experimental setting, whether and how these reactions are related to real-world behavior requires further investigation. In addition, filler trials should be used to evaluate whether participants focused sufficiently on the emotional stimuli. ConclusionThese results suggest that individuals with autistic traits have altered emotional processing of social-negative emotions.

scholarly journals Word Processing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 3441-3455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal Sandbank ◽  
Paul Yoder ◽  
Alexandra P. Key
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

Purpose This investigation was conducted to determine whether young children with autism spectrum disorders exhibited a canonical neural response to word stimuli and whether putative event-related potential (ERP) measures of word processing were correlated with a concurrent measure of receptive language. Additional exploratory analyses were used to examine whether the magnitude of the association between ERP measures of word processing and receptive language varied as a function of the number of word stimuli the participants reportedly understood. Method Auditory ERPs were recorded in response to spoken words and nonwords presented with equal probability in 34 children aged 2–5 years with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder who were in the early stages of language acquisition. Average amplitudes and amplitude differences between word and nonword stimuli within 200–500 ms were examined at left temporal (T3) and parietal (P3) electrode clusters. Receptive vocabulary size and the number of experimental stimuli understood were concurrently measured using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Results Across the entire participant group, word–nonword amplitude differences were diminished. The average word–nonword amplitude difference at T3 was related to receptive vocabulary only if 5 or more word stimuli were understood. Conclusions If ERPs are to ever have clinical utility, their construct validity must be established by investigations that confirm their associations with predictably related constructs. These results contribute to accruing evidence, suggesting that a valid measure of auditory word processing can be derived from the left temporal response to words and nonwords. In addition, this measure can be useful even for participants who do not reportedly understand all of the words presented as experimental stimuli, though it will be important for researchers to track familiarity with word stimuli in future investigations. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5614840

scholarly journals Repetitive transcanial magnetic stimulation (RTMS) modulates event-related potential (ERP) indices of attention in autism

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Casanova ◽  
Joshua Baruth ◽  
Ayman El-Baz ◽  
Allan Tasman ◽  
Lonnie Sears ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Related Potentials

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have previously been shown to have significantly augmented and prolonged event-related potentials (ERP) to irrelevant visual stimuli compared to controls at both early and later stages (e.g., N200, P300) of visual processing and evidence of an overall lack of stimulus discrimination. Abnormally large and indiscriminative cortical responses to sensory stimuli may reflect cortical inhibitory deficits and a disruption in the excitation/inhibition ratio. Low-frequency (≤ 1HZ) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to increase inhibition of stimulated cortex by the activation of inhibitory circuits. It was our prediction that after 12 sessions of low-frequency rTMS applied bilaterally to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices in individuals with ASD there would be a significant improvement in ERP indices of selective attention evoked at later (i.e., 200–600 ms) stages of attentional processing as well as an improvement in motor response error rate. We assessed 25 participants with ASD in a task of selective attention using illusory figures before and after 12 sessions of rTMS in a controlled design where a waiting-list group of 20 children with ASD performed the same task twice. We found a significant improvement in both N200 and P300 components as a result of rTMS as well as a significant reduction in response errors. We also found significant reductions in both repetitive behavior and irritability according to clinical behavioral questionnaires as a result of rTMS. We propose that rTMS has the potential to become an important therapeutic tool in ASD research and treatment.

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