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Aging is often linked to a decline in associative memory. Prior research has shown that older adults have difficulty retrieving specific associative memory but can retrieve gist associative memory when deliberately differentiating test pairs with different levels of specificity during associative recognition. In this study, we utilized the context reinstatement paradigm to examine whether older adults could retrieve specific memory in situations where associations do not necessarily need to be voluntarily retrieved. Thirty-five older adults were directed to intentionally link objects with unique background scenes during encoding. Subsequently, test objects were presented against either the reinstated or similar background scenes during a recognition memory task, where participants were required to identify whether the objects were old or new regardless of their background contexts. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded to uncover the electrophysiological correlates of specific associative episodic memory. Behavioral results revealed higher memory sensitivity for object recognition when the background scenes were reinstated than when those were similar in older adults. ERP results indicated that older adults exhibited a more prominent fronto-centrally distributed positivity during object recognition in the reinstated than in similar contexts. Our results suggest that older adults may preserve their ability to retrieve specific memory for associations through an involuntary, spontaneous recollection process, which holds important theoretical implications for age-related associative memory deficits. • Specific associative episodic memory in older adults was examined. • Older adults exhibited better memory in the reinstated than in similar contexts. • Older adults displayed a fronto-central positivity in the reinstated contexts. • Older adults preserve their ability to retrieve specific memory for associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not clear whether the brain can detect changes in native and non-native speech sounds in both unattended and attended conditions, but this information would be important to understand the nature of potential native language advantage in speech perception. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) for changes in duration and in Chinese lexical tone in a repeated vowel /a/ in native speakers of Finnish and Chinese in passive and active listening conditions. ERP amplitudes reflecting deviance detection (mismatch negativity; MMN and N2b) and attentional shifts towards changes in speech sounds (P3a and P3b) were investigated. In the passive listening condition, duration changes elicited increased amplitude in the MMN latency window for both standard and deviant sounds in the Finnish speakers compared to the Chinese speakers, but no group differences were observed for P3a. In passive listening to lexical tones, P3a was increased in amplitude for both standard and deviant stimuli in Chinese speakers compared to Finnish speakers, but the groups did not differ in MMN. In active listening, both tone and duration changes elicited N2b and P3b, but the groups differed only in pattern of results for the deviant type. The results thus suggest an overall increased sensitivity to native speech sounds, especially in passive listening, while the mechanisms of change detection and attentional shifting seem to work well for both native and non-native speech sounds in the attentive mode. • Native Chinese and Finnish speakers were compared in speech perception ERPs. • Change detection was investigated in passive and active listening conditions. • ERPs were increased in native vs. non-native group in passive listening. • Passive listening showed a general sensitivity to native speech sounds. • Attentive change detection was effective for foreign speech sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of our understanding of how the brain processes dynamic faces comes from research that compares static photographs to dynamic morphs, which exhibit simplified, computer-generated motion. By comparing static, video recorded, and dynamic morphed expressions, we aim to identify the neural correlates of naturalistic facial dynamism, using time-domain and time-frequency analysis. Dynamic morphs were made from the neutral and peak frames of video recorded transitions of happy and fearful expressions, which retained expression change and removed asynchronous and non-linear features of naturalistic facial motion. We found that dynamic morphs elicited increased N400 amplitudes and lower LPP amplitudes compared to other stimulus types. Video recordings elicited higher LPP amplitudes and greater frontal delta activity compared to other stimuli. Thematic analysis of participant interviews using a large language model revealed that participants found it difficult to assess the genuineness of morphed expressions, and easier to analyse the genuineness of happy compared to fearful expressions. Our findings suggest that animating real faces with artificial motion may violate expectations (N400) and reduce the social salience (LPP) of dynamic morphs. Results also suggest that delta oscillations in the frontal region may be involved with the perception of naturalistic facial motion in happy and fearful expressions. Overall, our findings highlight the sensitivity of neural mechanisms required for face perception to subtle changes in facial motion characteristics, which has important implications for neuroimaging research using faces with simplified motion., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This study investigated the influence of the symbol type and numerical distance of numbers on the amplitudes and peak latencies of event-related potentials (ERPs). Our aim was to (1) determine the point in time of magnitude information access in visual number processing; and (2) identify at what stage the advantage of Arabic digits over Chinese verbal numbers occur. ERPs were recorded from 64 scalp sites while subjects (n=26) performed a classification task. Results showed that larger ERP amplitudes were elicited by numbers with distance-close condition in comparison to distance-far condition in the VPP component over centro-frontal sites. Furthermore, the VPP latency varied as a function of the symbol type, but the N170 did not. Such results demonstrate that magnitude information access takes place as early as 150 ms after onset of visual number stimuli and the advantage of Arabic digits over verbal numbers should be localized to the VPP component. We establish the VPP component as a critical ERP component to report in studies of numerical cognition and our results call into question the N170/VPP association hypothesis and the serial-stage model of visual number comparison processing.

Occupational gender stereotypes are widely held misconceptions that individuals use to classify occupations according to gender. Alleviating occupational gender stereotypes would be beneficial for individuals to choose occupations more freely, without the influence of gender-based expectations. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown effectiveness in alleviating stereotypical beliefs. The present study aims to explore the positive effects of tDCS targeting the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on occupational gender stereotypes and uses event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural correlates of tDCS in modulating occupational gender stereotypes. Participants (N = 60) were recruited and randomly assigned to either the anodal tDCS group (n = 30) or the sham tDCS group (n = 30). All participants were asked to complete the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in the pre- and post-stimulation, while EEG data were recorded simultaneously. The behavioral results showed a decreased D value and reaction time (RT) after the tDCS in the anodal group. However, no significant difference in ERPs were observed after tDCS between the two groups. This study contributes to our understanding of occupational gender stereotypes and provides further evidence supporting the use of tDCS. The findings highlight the importance of considering the mPFC in research on occupational gender stereotypes and pave the way for future investigations utilizing brain stimulation techniques to address stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relations among behavioral, psychological, and electrophysiological correlates of Linguistic Empathy were examined in two experiments using lateralized stimuli. Linguistic Empathy is defined as a linguistic manifestation of the point of view the speaker assumes toward the content of the utterance, and of the speaker's attitude toward/identification with the referents therein. Linguistic choices made by the speaker among multiple logically and referentially synonymous lexical and grammatical options reveal the speaker's perspectives. In experiment 1, acceptability ratings were measured for Context-Target sentence pairs that did or did not violate two Empathy Hierarchies (Person Empathy Hierarchy and Topic Empathy Hierarchy); the Empathy Quotient (EQ) test of Psychological Empathy was also administered. Ratings were lower for sentence pairs that violated both hierarchies than for those violating neither and were intermediate for sentences violating only one hierarchy. Linguistic Empathy (LE) was operationalized as the difference in ratings between sentences violating both vs. neither empathy hierarchy; this measure correlated positively with EQ. Experiment 2 replicated those results with new participants and measured reaction time and EEG during ratings. While there were no effects of hemisphere or visual field on the linguistic variables, the amplitude of a positive event-related potential deflection at 380 ms provided a partial electrophysiological correlate for LE. Its difference measure correlated with behavioral LE but not with EQ. Though preliminary, these experiments show that Linguistic Empathy may share information processing computations with Psychological Empathy and have an electrophysiological correlate. • Preliminary measure of Linguistic Empathy correlated with Psychological Empathy. • Linguistic Empathy shares information processing with Psychological Empathy. • Linguistic Empathy has a partial electrophysiological correlate. • Logically synonymous phrases that differ pragmatically are not fully synonymous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the event-related potentials elicited by single-digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems. With a delayed verification paradigm, 18 Chinese undergraduates were first asked to solve the arithmetic problems that were presented visually for 200 ms and, after 1.5 s, to judge whether a presented solution was correct or not. Results showed that, compared to addition and subtraction, multiplication elicited a greater N300 at the left frontal electrodes peaking around 320 ms (in the interval between 275 and 334 ms after the onset of the arithmetic problem). To control for the confounding effects of task difficulty and solution size, comparisons were further made between "large" addition problems (with sums between 11 and 17) and "small" multiplication problems (with products between 6 and 24). Similar results were obtained (i.e., a significant difference between addition and multiplication in the N300 component between 296 and 444 ms). Source analyses demonstrated that a single dipole in the left anterior brain areas could have contributed to the topographies of the difference waveforms ("multiplication-addition", "multiplication-subtraction", and "'small' multiplication-'large' addition"). These results are interpreted in terms of the greater reliance on phonological processing for the retrieval of multiplication facts than for the retrieval of addition and subtraction facts.

Learning is most effective when new information can be related to a preexisting knowledge structure or schema. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the temporal dynamics of the processes by which activated schemata support the encoding of schema-congruent information. Participants learned category exemplar words that were either semantically congruent or incongruent with a preceding category cue phrase. Congruent words were composed of expected (high typicality, HT) and unexpected (low typicality, LT) category exemplars. On the next day, recognition memory for the exemplars and the category cues they were presented with was tested. Semantically related lures were used in order to ascertain that memory judgements were based on episodic memory for specific category exemplars. Generally, congruent (HT and LT) exemplars were remembered better than incongruent exemplars. ERPs recorded during the encoding of the exemplar words were compared for subsequently remembered and forgotten items. Subsequent memory effects (SME) emerged in the N400 time window at frontal electrodes and did not differ between congruent and incongruent exemplars. In the same epoch, an SME with a parietal distribution was specific for congruent exemplars, suggesting that activated schemata strengthened memory for congruent exemplars by supporting the encoding of item-specific details. Subsequently remembered LT exemplars were associated with a late frontal positivity that is assumed to reflect expectancy mismatch-related processing such as the contextual integration of an unexpected word by the suppression of strongly expected words. A correlation analysis revealed that the greater the involvement of the processes reflected by the frontal positivity, the lower the level of false positive memory responses in the test phase one day later. These results suggest that the contextual integration of schema-congruent but unexpected events involves a weakening of the representations of semantically related, but unstudied items in memory and by this benefits subsequent memory. • Subjects learned words that were congruent or incongruent with a semantic category. • Early frontal subsequent memory effects (SME) occurred irrespective of congruency. • Congruent words were associated with superior memory and a parietal SME. • Congruent low typicality words elicited a late frontal positivity. • The frontal positivity was correlated with the false alarm rate to related lures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current models of spoken word recognition have been predominantly based on studies of Indo-European languages. As a result, less is known about the recognition processes involved in the perception of tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin Chinese), and the role of lexical tone in speech perception. One view is that words in tonal languages are processed phonologically through individual segments, while another view is that they are processed lexically as a whole. Moreover, a recent study claimed to be the first to discover an early phonological processing stage in Mandarin (Huang et al., 2014). There seems to be a lack of investigations concerning tonal languages, as no clear conclusions have been reached about the nature of tonal processes, or a model of spoken word recognition that best incorporates lexical tone. The current study addressed these issues by presenting 18 native Mandarin speakers with aural sentences with medial target words. These either matched or mismatched the preceding visually presented sentences with medial target words (e.g, 家 /jia1/home). Violation conditions involved target words that differed in the following ways: tone violation , where only the tone was different (e.g., 价 /jia4/"price"), onset violation , where only the onset was different (e.g., 虾 /xia1/"shrimp"), and syllable violation , where both the tone and the onset were different (e.g., 糖 /tang2/"candy"). We did not find evidence for an early phonological processing stage in Mandarin. Instead, our findings indicate that Mandarin syllables are processed incrementally through phonological segments and that tone is strongly associated with lexical access. These results are discussed with respect to modifications for existing models in spoken word recognition to incorporate the processes involved with tonal language recognition. • In Mandarin Chinese, words are processed through individual segments. • No evidence of an early phonological stage in Mandarin. • Results support an integrated bottom/up and top/down model for tonal languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We compared event-related potentials during sentence reading, using impression formation equations of a model of affective coherence, to investigate the role of affective content processing during meaning making. The model of Affect Control Theory (ACT; Heise, 1979, 2007) predicts and quantifies the degree to which social interactions deflect from prevailing social norms and values – based on the affective meanings of involved concepts. We tested whether this model can predict the amplitude of brain waves traditionally associated with semantic processing. To this end, we visually presented sentences describing basic subject-verb-object social interactions and measured event-related potentials for final words of sentences from three different conditions of affective deflection (low, medium, high) as computed by a variant of the ACT model (Schröder, 2011). Sentence stimuli were closely controlled across conditions for alternate semantic dimensions such as contextual constraints, cloze probabilities, co-occurrences of subject-object and verb-object relations. Personality characteristics (schizotypy, Big Five) were assessed to account for individual differences, assumed to influence emotion-language interactions in information processing. Affective deflection provoked increased negativity of ERP waves during the P2/N2 and N400 components. Our data suggest that affective incoherence is perceived as conflicting information interfering with early semantic processing and that increased respective processing demands – in particular in the case of medium violations of social norms – linger on until the N400 time window classically associated with the integration of concepts into embedding context. We conclude from these results that affective meanings influence basic stages of meaning making. Highlights • Implicit processing of affective consistency during sentence processing. • Affect Control Theory used for mathematical prediction of sentence reading ERPs. • Affective consistency of sentences influences P200 and N400. • Affective meanings are basic constituents of meaning making. • Affective inconsistency of phrases is discovered already after about 200 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to reduced responses of stimulus-selective sensory neurons, an effect known as repetition suppression or stimulus-specific adaptation. Several influential models have been proposed to explain repetition suppression within hierarchically-organised sensory systems, with each specifying different mechanisms underlying repetition effects. We manipulated temporal expectations within a face repetition experiment to test a critical prediction of the predictive coding model of repetition suppression: that repetition effects will be larger following stimuli that appear at expected times compared to stimuli that appear at unexpected times. We recorded event-related potentials from 18 participants and mapped the spatiotemporal progression of repetition effects using mass univariate analyses. We then assessed whether the magnitudes of observed face image repetition effects were influenced by temporal expectations. In each trial participants saw an adapter face, followed by a 500 ms or 1000 ms interstimulus interval (ISI), and then a test face, which was the same or a different face identity to the adapter. Participants' expectations for whether the test face would appear after a 500 ms ISI were cued by the sex of the adapter face. Our analyses revealed multiple repetition effects with distinct scalp topographies, extending until at least 800 ms from stimulus onset. An early (158–203 ms) repetition effect was larger for stimuli following surprising, rather than expected, 500 ms ISI durations, contrary to the model predictions of the predictive coding model of repetition suppression. During this time window temporal expectation effects were larger for alternating, compared to repeated, test stimuli. Statistically significant temporal expectation by stimulus repetition interactions were not found for later (230–609 ms) time windows. Our results provide further evidence that repetition suppression can reduce neural effects of expectation and surprise, indicating that there are multiple interactive mechanisms supporting sensory predictions within the visual hierarchy. Highlights • Multiple face image repetition effects identified from 162 to 800 ms post stimulus onset. • Temporal expectations influenced magnitudes of repetition effects between 158 and 203 ms. • Larger repetition effects were found for stimuli with surprising onset times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The current study examined the role of color and spatial frequency on the early acquisition of perceptual expertise after one week of laboratory training with bird stimuli. Participants learned to categorize finches (or warblers) at the subordinate species level (e.g., purple finch) and categorize warblers (or finches) at the more general family level. Training images were presented in their natural colors across 6 sessions. Participants completed a subordinate level species matching task prior to training, one day after training and one week after training while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Bird images were presented in either their natural congruent color, incongruent color, grayscale, low spatial frequency (LSF < 8 cycles per image) or high spatial frequency (HSF > 8 cycles per image). Replicating previous training studies, performance benefited more from subordinate- than basic-level training. Before training, any color helped performance, but color congruence effects (congruent > incongruent) only emerged after subordinate-level training. Spatial frequency manipulations did not interact with training. The N170 ERP component was sensitive to spatial frequency manipulations, but not color. N170 spatial frequency effects did not interact with training, and training effects generalized to all manipulations except the LSF images. Like performance, color congruence effects on the N250 were only observed after subordinate level training. These results are consistent with previous reports suggesting that effects of perceptual expertise training on performance are more clearly indexed by N250 than N170 effects. Taken together, our behavioral and ERP results show that color plays an important role in both low- and high- level visual processing, supporting surface-plus-edge–based theories for object processing and recognition. Highlights • Training modified the influence of color on object categorization. • Training did not modify the influence of spatial frequency on object categorization. • Effects of perceptual expertise were best indexed by the N250 ERP component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that older adults with high Cognitive Reserve (HCR) exhibit better executive functioning than their low CR (LCR) counterparts. However, the neural processes linked to those differences are unclear. This study investigates (1) the neural processes underlying executive functions in older adults with HCR compared to older adults with LCR and (2) how executive control differences between HCR and LCR groups are modulated by increased task difficulty. We recruited 74 participants (37 in each group) with diverse CR levels, as determined by a standardised CR questionnaire. Participants performed two executive control tasks with lower and higher difficulty levels (i.e., Simon and spatial Stroop tasks, respectively) while recording the electroencephalogram. The accuracy on both tasks requiring inhibition of irrelevant information was better in the HCR than the LCR group. Also, in the task with higher difficulty level (i.e., the spatial Stroop task), event-related potential (ERP) latencies associated with inhibition (i.e., frontal N200) and updating of working memory (i.e., P300) were earlier in HCR than LCR. Moreover, the HCR, but not the LCR group, showed larger P300 amplitude in parietal than frontal regions and in the left than right hemisphere, suggesting a posterior to anterior shift of activity and loss of inter-hemispheric asymmetries in LCR participants. These results suggest that high CR counteracts neural activity changes related to ageing. Thus, high levels of CR may be related to maintenance of neural activity patterns typically observed in young adults rather than to deployment of neural compensatory mechanisms. • Older adults with high cognitive reserve (CR) showed enhanced inhibitory skills. • Increased task difficulty led to higher neural activity differences linked to CR. • High CR was associated with faster latencies of the event-related brain potentials. • Inter-hemispheric dedifferentiation was observed in low but not in high CR seniors. • High CR counteracts posterior to anterior shift of activity in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The amplitude of mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited following an unexpected sound reflects a pattern-violation signal that will increase with estimated precision. Precision is inversely related to environmental variance, and should be higher the longer that current regularities have been stable. However, MMN amplitude can be impacted by initial learning such that the relative probability of sounds when first encountered distorts the precision estimates later associated with those sounds. The present study tested the hypothesis that MMN to a pattern violation would be differentially sensitive to both local and global patterning within a sequence, depending on whether the sound was common or rare at sequence onset. Sound sequences consisted of two levels of nested regularity: (1) two tones alternated probabilities as the local standard (p =.875) and deviant (p =.125), and (2) these alternations occurred regularly across four blocks of 2.4 min (stable components) or twelve blocks of 0.8 min (unstable components). Sequences were delivered first in an unstable-stable ("increasing-stability") and next a stable-unstable ("decreasing-stability") structure, both inducing a violation to the regular block length at the transition between components. MMN to the tone initially heard as a common repeating standard when later heard as a deviant was not affected by stability of either local (tone probabilities) or global (block length) patterns, reaching equivalent amplitude in all components. In contrast, MMN amplitude to the tone initially heard as deviant was significantly impacted by both local and global pattern stability. MMN amplitude was larger in stable than unstable blocks only if they were heard first (decreasing-stability sequence), and was significantly smaller in both stable and unstable block types after a violation of regular block length. Results are interpreted as local MMN amplitude being "weighted down" by decreased precision in the global structure, but only for the first deviant encountered. Highlights • Initial experience has a lasting impact on future processing of sounds. • MMN amplitude reflects current sound probability, modulated by global patterns. • MMN amplitude is sensitive to each level of nested hierarchical patterns in sound. • The auditory system is profoundly sensitive to regularity over multiple timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Advance preview of a subset of distractor objects improves the efficiency of visual search performance, but the causes and mechanisms of such preview benefits remain unclear. Here, we employed event-related potential (ERP) markers of the selective processing of preview displays and full search displays in lateralised preview search tasks where only one side of the search displays was task-relevant. Preview displays elicited a sustained positivity contralateral to the relevant side (P D component), indicative of the active suppression of distractor objects on this side. Lateralised ERP components to full search displays revealed qualitative differences between attentional selection processes on preview as compared to no-preview trials. When search displays were preceded by preview displays, attention was directly allocated to target objects, while distractors remained unattended. When all search display objects were presented simultaneously (no-preview), attention was directed non-selectively to objects on the task-relevant side, even when no target was present. These results suggest that behavioural preview effects in visual search can be accounted for by the inhibition of previewed distractors, and the subsequent rapid attentional selection of target objects on preview trials. Highlights • Previewing irrelevant distractors improves subsequent visual search. • We assessed mechanisms of preview search with event-related potentials. • Previewed items elicited a lateralized positivity, linked to distractor suppression. • Preview facilitated the rapid allocation of attention to subsequent targets. • Findings support an inhibition model of preview benefits in visual search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With large inter-individual variability, older adults show a decline in cognitive performance in dual-task situations. Differences in attentional processes, working memory, response selection, and general speed of information processing have been discussed as potential sources of this decline and its between-subject variability. In comparison to young subjects (n = 36, mean age: 25 years), we analyzed the performance of a large group of healthy elderly subjects (n = 138, mean age: 70 years) in a conflicting dual-task situation (PRP paradigm). Based on their dual-task costs (DTCs), the older participants were clustered in three groups of high, medium, and low performing elderly. DTCs differed between groups and increased linearly from young subjects to low performing elderly. The groups did not differ with respect to ERP-components related to task preparation (CNV) and recall of stimulus-response mappings (P2). Peak latencies of the frontocentral P2 and N2 were shorter in young as compared to older adults but did not differ between elderly performance groups. However, differences in N2 amplitude between short and long SOA were correlated with the corresponding DTCs, suggesting more efficient S-R implementation in subjects with lower DTCs. Based on our results, between-subject differences in dual-task interference can be explained in terms of individual differences in selection of an appropriate response in dual-task situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In social situations facial expressions are often strategically employed. Despite the many research on motor control of limb movements, little is known about the control over facial expressions. Using a response-priming task, we investigated motor control over three facial expressions, smiles, disgust and emotionally neutral jaw drops. Prime stimuli consisted of videos of a facial expression to be prepared or – as a neutral prime – an abstract symbol superimposed to a scrambled face. In valid trials an equal symbol (=) indicated to produce the primed expression. In invalid trials, an unequal symbol (‡) prompted participants to produce an alternative, unprimed expression. We examined the impact of emotion in preparing and revoking a prepared expression, and possible facilitation for dynamic facial expressions relative to symbolic primes. Participants' facial responses were scored using automated analyses of facial expressions with computer software. The underlying neurocognitive processes were tracked with event-related-potentials. Reprogramming costs, in the form of longer reaction times (RTs) in trials where participants had prepared an invalidly primed expression and had to quickly switch to the correct one, were more pronounced for smiles and jaw drops than for disgust, possibly indicating the need for being fast when showing disgust. Data from the P3 component related the behavioral effect to a more efficient updating of the correct response in brain systems responsible for motor control. Priming participants with dynamic facial expressions as examples for imitation, improved performance accuracy as compared to the symbolic abstract stimuli, but it not did affect RTs. Priming with dynamic videos also resulted in larger validity effects of the P3 component when disgust was the target response, indicating that the perceptual system might trigger automatic emotional responses, at least for negative affect. Highlights • Emotional valence impacts the motor control of facial muscles. • Expressions associated with negative affect show superior volitional control. • Superior control was associated with a more efficient update of the motor plan. • Reprogramming expressions of disgust demands great resources in brain motor systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional rearing is associated with deficits in executive functions, such as inhibitory control, and may contribute to later externalizing behavior problems. In the current study, we explored the impact of institutional rearing on attention in the context of inhibiting a planned action. As part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), children were randomized to either remain in the institutions in which they lived (Care as Usual Group) or be placed into foster family homes (Foster Care Group). We also recruited age and gender matched never-institutionalized (NIG) children from the Bucharest community. We examined differences in behavioral and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) during a go-no-go task when children were 12 years old. Results revealed that the ever-institutionalized group (CAUG and FCG combined) showed slower reaction times, worse performance accuracy, larger P2 activation, and smaller (less negative) N2 activation than the NIG group. Results of a moderation analysis revealed that children who spent more time in institutions and had small N2s showed more externalizing symptoms. These results have implications for the design of treatment approaches for previously institutionalized children with externalizing behavior problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed abnormal neurophysiological patterns underlying selective attention in patients with Major Depression (MD). Only few included both patients in acute and remitted state to address the question whether these abnormalities are state- or trait- dependent and none focused on adolescent MD. Thus, the aim of our study was to address this question in an adolescent sample. Methods 22 adolescents with acute MD, 20 adolescents with remitted MD (rMD) and 32 healthy controls (HC) performed a standard two-tone auditory oddball task while ERPs (N100, P200, N200, P300) were collected. Results Adolescents with rMD showed a reduced N200 amplitude to target tones across frontal, central and parietal recording sites. Adolescents with MD exhibited a reduced N200 amplitude to targets in the frontal region compared to HC. No differences emerged between rMD and the MD group. Conclusions The reduced N200 amplitude in adolescents with rMD and MD presumably reflects difficulties in stimulus classification and response selection. Our results indicate that this neurophysiological characteristic is a trait marker of adolescent depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a matter of debate, whether and how improved auditory discrimination abilities enable speeded speech comprehension in congenitally blind adults. Previous research has concentrated on semantic and syntactic aspects of processing. Here we investigated phonologically mediated spoken word access processes by means of word onset priming. Blind adults and age- and gender-matched sighted adults listened to spoken word onsets (primes) followed by complete words (targets). Phonological overlap between primes and targets varied. Blind participants made faster lexical decision responses than sighted participants, yet their speeded responses were not restricted to phonologically overlapping trials. Furthermore, timing of Event Related Potential (ERP) results did not differ between blind and sighted participants. Together these results suggest that blind and sighted listeners are equally fast in implicit phonological encoding and lexical matching mechanisms. It appears that blind adults’ speeded speech processing emerges when phonological analysis makes promising word candidates available for further processing. As one possible interpretation, we speculate that lexical selection processes in blind adults do not need to wait for information from the visual domain, while auditory-visual integration mechanisms are mandatorily implemented in speech recognition routines of sighted adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers are utilizing event-related potentials (ERPs) to better understand brain-behavior relationships across development. The present study demonstrates how structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques can be used to refine descriptions of brain-behavior relationships in a sample of neurotypical children. We developed an exploratory latent variable model in which trait measures of maturation and attention are related to neural processing and task behaviors obtained during a cued Go/No-Go task. Model findings are compared to results of traditional analysis techniques such as bivariate correlations. The data suggest that more sophisticated statistical approaches are beneficial to accurately interpreting the nature of brain-behavior relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptual prominence of linguistic units such as words has been earlier connected to the concepts of predictability and attentional orientation. One hypothesis is that low-probability prosodic or lexical content is perceived as prominent due to the surprisal and high information value associated with the stimulus. However, the existing behavioral studies have used stimulus manipulations that follow or violate typical linguistic patterns present in the listeners’ native language, i.e., assuming that the listeners have already established a model for acceptable prosodic patterns in the language. In the present study, we investigated whether prosodic expectations and the resulting subjective impression of prominence is affected by brief statistical adaptation to suprasegmental acoustic features in speech, also in the case where the prosodic patterns do not necessarily follow language-typical marking for prominence. We first exposed listeners to five minutes of speech with uneven distributions of falling and rising fundamental frequency (F0) trajectories on sentence-final words, and then tested their judgments of prominence on a set of new utterances. The results show that the probability of the F0 trajectory affects the perception of prominence, a less frequent F0 trajectory making a word more prominent independently of the absolute direction of F0 change. In the second part of the study, we conducted EEG-measurements on a set of new subjects listening to similar utterances with predominantly rising or falling F0 on sentence-final words. Analysis of the resulting event-related potentials (ERP) reveals a significant difference in N200 and N400 ERP-component amplitudes between standard and deviant prosody, again independently of the F0 direction and the underlying lexical content. Since N400 has earlier been associated with semantic processing of stimuli, this suggests that listeners implicitly track probabilities at the suprasegmental level and that predictability of a prosodic pattern during a word has an impact to the semantic processing of the word. Overall, the study suggests that prosodic markers for prominence are at least partially driven by the statistical structure of recently perceived speech, and therefore prominence perception could be based on statistical learning mechanisms similar to those observed in early word learning, but in this case operating at the level of suprasegmental acoustic features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder impairing learning to read. Brain responses of infants at genetic risk for dyslexia are abnormal already at birth, and associations from infant speech perception to preschool cognitive skills and reading in early school years have been documented, but there are no studies showing predicting power until adolescence. Here we show that in at-risk infants, brain activation to pseudowords at left hemisphere predicts 44% of reading speed at 14 years, and even improves the prediction after taking into account neurocognitive preschool measures of letter naming, phonology, and verbal short-term memory. The association between infant brain responses and reading speed is mediated by preschool rapid automatized naming ability. Therefore, we suggest that rapid naming and reading speed could share a similar cognitive process of automatized access to lexicon via phonological representations, and brain activation to speech sounds in infancy probably acts as an index of deficient development of the same process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans possess a strong tendency towards social affiliation and interpersonal interaction. Yet, we know far less about how rewards in one's social environment affect functioning as we do with other types of rewards, presumably due to the inherent complexity of measuring social phenomena in laboratory settings. Here, we adapted a social reward paradigm (social incentive delay [SID]) for use in event-related potential (ERP) research, enabling a direct comparison of social and monetary reward processing. We found that social and monetary rewards elicit comparable ERP latencies and scalp topographies across several processing stages (reward cue, outcome anticipation, and outcome evaluation), highlighting the possibility of a common neural network. We also found evidence of latent reward sensitivity, as analogous monetary and social ERPs were correlated and associations were uniquely driven by reward signals. The SID is a promising and viable paradigm that is capable of disentangling multiple stages of social reward processing. The capacity to measure social processes will be critical as we broaden efforts to incorporate multiple contexts in reward sensitivity, which will enable us to gain important new insights into human functioning and dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing evidence that prolonged episodes of effortful listening can lead to mental fatigue, little work has been done to examine the patterns of brain activation associated with listening over time. In order to gain a better understanding of the nature of listening-related mental fatigue, this study characterized the effects of sustained auditory processing on brain activation in 19 adults with normal hearing. A 50-min, auditory choice paradigm served as the fatiguing task. Mental fatigue was quantified using subjective (self-report) and behavioral (response time and accuracy) measures, as well as event-related potential (ERP) measures indexing motivation (error-related negativity; ERN) and general arousal (N1). Additional electrical neuroimaging analyses were carried out on ERP datasets. Subjective and behavioral results confirmed that participants became fatigued during the auditory task (data from the first 25 min compared with the second 25 min). ERPs revealed changes in neural activity consistent with decreased arousal (reduced N1 amplitude). Topographical analyses indicated decreased brain activation, without a change in underlying neural network configuration. Regions of decreased brain activation, as estimated via electrical neuroimaging, suggested a decrease in attention to task stimulus-response characteristics (reduced activation in regions associated with the dorsal attention network). The decrease in mean N1 amplitude revealed a significant, positive correlation with subjective report of reduced motivation. These findings support existing cognitive and neurophysiological models that suggest mental fatigue builds over time on task, and affects motivation to influence task performance. Furthermore, this study shows sustained auditory processing can elicit mental fatigue, and that dorsal parietal activity might provide a useful method of measuring its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children begin to establish lexical–semantic representations during their first year of life, resulting in a rapid growth of vocabulary around 18–24 months of age. The neural mechanisms underlying this initial ability to map words onto conceptual representations remain relatively unknown. In the present study, the electrophysiological underpinnings of these mechanisms are explored during the critical phase of lexical acquisition using a picture-word matching paradigm. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by words (either congruous or incongruous with the previous picture context) and pseudo-words are investigated in 20-month-old toddlers (N = 20) and compared to those elicited in a sample of adults (N = 20), reflecting the final and efficient system, and a sample of toddlers at familial risk for language and learning impairment (LLI, N = 15). The results suggest that the architecture underlying spoken word representation and processing is constant throughout development, even if some differences between children and adults emerged. Interestingly, children seem to be faster than adults in processing incongruent words, probably because relying on a different and more superficial strategy. This early strategy does not seem to be present in children at risk for LLI. In addition, both groups of children do not show different and specific electrophysiological underpinnings in response to real but incongruent words and unknown words, suggesting that during the critical phase of lexical acquisition any potential word is processed in a similar way. Overall, children at risk for LLI turned out to be sensitive to verbal incongruity of the lexical-semantic context, although some differences from typically developing children emerged, reflecting slower processing and less automatic responses. Taken together, the findings of this study pave the way to further research to investigate these effects in clinical and at-risk populations with the general purpose of disentangling the underlying mechanisms of lexical acquisition, and potentially predicting later language (dis)abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilinguals have the unique ability to produce utterances that switch between languages. Most language switching research has focused on isolated, unrelated items, which emphasizes separation of the languages. Fewer studies examined the cognitive and neural mechanisms of switching languages in natural discourse. The present study examined the effect of codeswitching direction on the comprehension of intra-sentential codeswitching in Spanish-English bilinguals, using self-paced reading behavioral measurements (Experiment 1) and electroencephalography (EEG) measurements (Experiment 2), analyzed via both event-related potentials (ERPs) and time-frequency analysis (TFR). Reading times showed a significant switching cost for codeswitched sentences in both codeswitching directions, though switching costs were somewhat higher into the dominant language than into the weaker language. ERPs showed that codeswitched as compared to non-switched words elicited a late positivity, but only when switching from the dominant into the weaker language, not in the reverse direction. TFRs showed complementary and converging results: switches into the weaker language resulted in a power decrease in lower beta band while switches into the dominant language resulted in a power increase in theta band. These multi-method findings provide novel insights into neurocognitive resources engaged in the comprehension of intra-sentential codeswitches related to sentence-level restructuring processes to activate and access the weaker language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral findings suggest an inverted U-shaped pattern of prospective memory development across the lifespan. A key mechanism underlying this development is the ability to detect cues. We examined the influence of cue detection on prospective memory, combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures, in three age groups: adolescents (12–14 years), young (19–28 years), and old adults (66–77 years). Cue detection was manipulated by varying the distinctiveness (i.e., how easy it was to detect the cue based on color) of the prospective memory cue in a semantic judgment ongoing task. Behavioral results supported the pattern of an inverted U-shape with a pronounced prospective memory decrease in old adults. Adolescents and young adults showed a prospective memory specific modulation (larger amplitudes for the cues compared to other trials) already for the N1 component. No such specific modulation was evident in old adults for the early N1 component but only at the later P3b component. Adolescents showed differential modulations of the amplitude also for irrelevant information at the P3b, suggesting less efficient processing. In terms of conceptual implications, present findings underline the importance of cue detection for prospective remembering and reveal different developmental trajectories for cue detection. Our findings suggest that cue detection is not a unitary process but consists of multiple stages corresponding to several ERP components that differentially contribute to prospective memory performance across the lifespan. In adolescents resource allocation for detecting cues seemed successful initially but less efficient at later stages; whereas we found the opposite pattern for old adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive inflexibility is a hallmark of executive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD). This deficit consistently manifests itself in a PD-related increase in the number of perseverative errors committed on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). However, the neural processes underlying perseverative WCST performance in PD are still largely unknown. The present study is the first to investigate the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of cognitive inflexibility on the WCST in PD patients. Thirty-two PD patients and 35 matched control participants completed a computerized version of the WCST while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Behavioral results revealed the expected increase in perseverative errors in patients with PD. ERP analysis focused on two established indicators of executive processes: the fronto-central P3a as an index of attentional orienting and the sustained parietal positivity (SPP) as an index of set-shifting processes. In comparison to controls, P3a amplitudes were significantly attenuated in PD patients. Regression analysis further revealed that P3a and SPP amplitudes interactively contributed to the prediction of perseverative errors in PD patients: The number of perseverative errors was only increased when both ERP amplitudes were attenuated. Notably, the two ERP markers of executive processes accounted for more than 40% of the variance in perseverative errors in PD patients. We conclude that cognitive inflexibility in PD occurs when the neural bases of multiple executive processes are affected by the pathophysiology of PD. The combined measurement of P3a and SPP might yield an electrophysiological marker of cognitive inflexibility in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental rotations of body-related stimuli are known to engage the motor system and activate body schema. Sensorimotor deficits following spinal cord injury (SCI) alter the representation of the body with a negative impact on the performance during motor-related tasks, such as mental rotation of body parts. Here we investigated the relationship between event-related potentials in SCI participants and the difficulty in mentally rotating a body-part. Participants with SCI and healthy control subjects performed a laterality judgment task, in which left or right images of hands, feet or animals (as a control stimulus) were presented in two different orientation angles (75° and 150°), and participants reported the laterality of the stimulus. We found that reaction times of participants with SCI were slower for the rotation of body-related stimuli compared to non-body-related stimuli and healthy controls. At the brain level, we found that relative to healthy controls SCI participants show: 1) reduced amplitudes of the posterior P100 and anterior N100 and larger amplitudes of the anterior P200 for overall stimuli; 2) an absence of the modulation of the rotation related negativity by stimulus type and rotation angles. Our results show that body representation changes after SCI affecting both components of early stimulus processing and late components that process high-order cognitive aspects of body-representation and task complexity. • Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) have impaired body representation. • SCI individuals show impaired ability to mentally rotate body-related stimuli. • SCI individuals show reduced P100 and N100 amplitudes, and larger P200 amplitudes. • The modulation of the RRN by stimulus type and rotation angle is unchanged after SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that snake pictures elicit greater early posterior negativity (EPN) compared to other animal pictures. The EPN reflects early selective visual processing of emotionally significant stimuli. Evidence for the role that high and low spatial frequencies play in the early detection of snakes is still inconsistent. The current study aims to clarify this by studying the effect of high and low spatial frequencies on the elevated EPN for snakes separately. Using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, participants viewed images of snakes, spiders and birds in three different conditions of filtered spatial frequencies: high spatial frequency, low spatial frequency, and full spatial frequency (the original image). P1 and mean EPN activity in a time window of 225–300 ms after stimulus onset were measured at the occipital cluster (O1, O2, Oz). The results show smaller P1 amplitudes and shorter P1 latencies in response to full-spectrum snake pictures compared to full-spectrum spider and bird pictures, and an increased EPN in response to snake pictures compared to spider and bird pictures in all three filtering conditions. The EPN in response to full-spectrum snake pictures was larger than the EPN in response to filtered snake images. No difference in EPN was found between the snake pictures in the high and low spatial frequency conditions. The results suggest that the roles of high and low spatial frequencies in early automatic attention to snakes are equally important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As reading development progresses, the visual processing of word forms becomes increasingly left-lateralized. This is visible, among other ways, as increased left-lateralization of the N170 ERP component. A primary explanation of this effect, the phonological mapping hypothesis, proposes that the left-lateralization of visual word form processing that accompanies reading development is the result of calling upon left hemisphere auditory language regions to perform the linking of orthography with phonology (phonological mapping). A key, but untested, prediction of the phonological mapping hypothesis is thus that individuals with greater phonological awareness should exhibit more left lateralized visual processing of word forms than individuals with poorer phonological awareness. We set out to test this hypothesis here. We accomplished this by collecting ERPs while children grades 5–6 viewed words, objects, and word/object ambiguous items (e.g., “SMILE” shaped like a smile - hereafter referred to as wobjects ). Results revealed that, consistent with the phonological mapping hypothesis, individual phonological awareness (but not other measures of reading development) predicted left-lateralization of the N170 component elicited in response to words (but not item types that were not word-like). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined whether Event-Related Potential (ERP) components and their neural generators are common to perceptual and conceptual prospective memory (PM) tasks or specific to the form of PM cue involved. We used Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to study the contributions of brain source activities to scalp ERPs across the different phases of two event-based PM-tasks: (1) holding intentions during a delay (monitoring) (2) detecting the correct context to perform the delayed intention (cue detection) and (3) carrying out the action (realisation of delayed intentions). Results showed that monitoring for both perceptual and conceptual PM-tasks was characterised by an enhanced early occipital negativity (N200). In addition the conceptual PM-task showed a long-lasting effect of monitoring significant around 700 ms. Perceptual PM-task cues elicited an N300 enhancement associated with cue detection, whereas a midline N400-like response was evoked by conceptual PM-task cues. The Prospective Positivity associated with realisation of delayed intentions was observed in both conceptual and perceptual tasks. A common frontal-midline brain source contributed to the Prospective Positivity in both tasks and a strong contribution from parieto-frontal brain sources was observed only for the perceptually cued PM-task. These findings support the idea that: (1) The enhanced N200 can be understood as a neural correlate of a ‘retrieval mode’ for perceptual and conceptual PM-tasks, and additional strategic monitoring is implemented according the nature of the PM task; (2) ERPs associated with cue detection are specific to the nature of the PM cues; (3) Prospective Positivity reflects a general PM process, but the specific brain sources contributing to it depend upon the nature of the PM task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of auditory and visual information is important to both language and music. In the linguistic domain, audiovisual integration alters event-related potentials (ERPs) at early stages of processing (the mismatch negativity (MMN)) as well as later stages (P300(Andres et al., 2011)). However, the role of experience in audiovisual integration is unclear, as reading experience is generally confounded with developmental stage. Here we tested whether audiovisual integration of music appears similar to reading, and how musical experience altered integration. We compared brain responses in musicians and non-musicians on an auditory pitch-interval oddball task that evoked the MMN and P300, while manipulating whether visual pitch-interval information was congruent or incongruent with the auditory information. We predicted that the MMN and P300 would be largest when both auditory and visual stimuli deviated, because audiovisual integration would increase the neural response when the deviants were congruent. The results indicated that scalp topography differed between musicians and non-musicians for both the MMN and P300 response to deviants. Interestingly, musicians’ musical training modulated integration of congruent deviants at both early and late stages of processing. We propose that early in the processing stream, visual information may guide interpretation of auditory information, leading to a larger MMN when auditory and visual information mismatch. At later attentional stages, integration of the auditory and visual stimuli leads to a larger P300 amplitude. Thus, experience with musical visual notation shapes the way the brain integrates abstract sound-symbol pairings, suggesting that musicians can indeed inform us about the role of experience in audiovisual integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current MMN study investigates whether brain lateralization during automatic discrimination of sound stimuli moving at different velocities is consistent with one of the three models of asymmetry: the right-hemispheric dominance model, the contralateral dominance model, or the neglect model. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for three patterns of sound motion produced by linear or abrupt changes of interaural time differences. The slow motion (450 deg/s) was used as standard, and the fast motion (620 deg/s) and the abrupt sound shift served as deviants in the oddball blocks. All stimuli had the same onset/offset spatial positions. We compared the effects of the recording side (left, right) and of the direction of sound displacement (ipsi- or contralateral with reference to the side of recording) on the ERPs and mismatch negativity (MMN). Our results indicated different patterns of asymmetry for the ERPs and MMN responses. The ERPs showed a velocity-independent right-hemispheric dominance that emerged at the descending limb of N1 wave (at around 120–160 ms) and could be related to overall context of the preattentive spatial perception. The MMNs elicited in the left hemisphere (at around 230–270 ms) exhibited a contralateral dominance, whereas the right-hemispheric MMNs were insensitive to the direction of sound displacement. These differences in contralaterality between MMN responses produced by the left and the right hemisphere favour the neglect model of the preattentive motion processing indexed by MMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is well-established that monitoring the environment for the occurrence of relevant events represents a key executive function, it is still unclear whether such a function is mediated by domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms. We investigated this issue by combining event-related potentials (ERPs) with a behavioral paradigm in which monitoring processes (non-monitoring vs. monitoring) and cognitive domains (spatial vs. verbal) were orthogonally manipulated in the same group of participants. They had to categorize 3-dimensional visually presented words on the basis of either spatial or verbal rules. In monitoring blocks, they additionally had to check whether the word displayed a specific spatial configuration or whether it contained a certain consonant. The behavioral results showed slower responses for both spatial and verbal monitoring trials compared to non-monitoring trials. The ERP results revealed that monitoring did not interact with domain, thus suggesting the involvement of common underlying mechanisms. Specifically, monitoring acted on low-level perceptual processes (as expressed by an enhanced visual N1 wave and a sustained posterior negativity for monitoring trials) and on higher-level cognitive processes (involving larger positive modulations by monitoring trials over frontal and parietal scalp regions). The source reconstruction analysis of the ERP data confirmed that monitoring was associated with increased activity in visual areas and in right prefrontal and parietal regions (i.e., superior and inferior frontal gyri and posterior parietal cortex), which previous studies have linked to spatial and temporal monitoring. Our findings extend this research by supporting the domain-general nature of monitoring in the spatial and verbal domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging-related decline in episodic memory, particularly in associative memory, is attributed to an impaired recollection of the specific details of a study episode. Fortunately, familiarity is relatively preserved in older adults. Previous studies have indicated that unitization is a specialized form of learning that increases the contribution of familiarity to associative retrieval. Here we examined whether older adults’ associative memory could be improved when employing an encoding strategy that encouraged unitization. Young and older adults encoded items and background colors either in a unitized condition (i.e., by imagining the color as an internal feature of the item) or in a non-unitized condition (i.e., by imagining the color as a contextual feature of the item). The participants then performed a source recognition test. The effects of unitization on the neural correlates of familiarity were measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). The age differences in source memory performance were lower in the unitized condition than in the non-unitized condition. The older adults only demonstrated neural correlates of familiarity-based source recognition in the unitized condition. These findings suggest that a unitized encoding strategy could improve source memory performance in older adults by enhancing the involvement of familiarity in source recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested whether the attribution of humanness by means of a minimal humanity cue is sufficient for the occurrence of empathic neural reactions towards non-human entities that are painfully stimulated. Vegetables have been used as a control condition to explore empathy towards humans’ pain before. In the context of the present study, they were given a minimal humanity cue (i.e., a human name) or not (i.e., an adjective). Human associations with these different types of vegetables were measured and where either represented: pricked by a needle (painful condition) or touched by a Q-tip (touch condition) while recording electroencephalographic activity from a sample of 18 healthy students. Event-related potentials (ERP) indicated that those participants classified as high humanizers, showed an increased neural reaction when vegetables with a name were painfully rather than neutrally stimulated compared to vegetables without a name. These reactions occurred both in an early (P2: 130–180 ms) and a later (P3: 360–540 ms) ERP time-window. Moreover, this differential reaction on the P3 significantly correlated with participants’ explicit empathic tendencies. Overall, these findings suggest that empathy can be triggered for non-human entities as long as they are seen as minimally human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous event-related potential studies have demonstrated the online generation of inferences during reading for comprehension tasks. The present study contrasted the brainwave patterns of activity to the fulfilment or violation of various types of inferences (causal, emotional, locative). Relative to inference congruent sentence endings, a typical centro-parietal N400 was elicited for the violation of causal and locative inferences. This N400 effect was initially absent for emotional inferences, most likely due to their lower cloze probability. Between 500 and 750 ms, a larger frontal positivity (pN400FP) was elicited by inference incongruent sentence endings in the causal condition. In emotional sentences, both inference congruent and incongruent endings exerted this frontally distributed late positivity. For the violation of locative inferences, the larger positivity was only marginally significant over left posterior scalp locations. Thus, not all inference eliciting sentences evoked a similar pattern of ERP responses. We interpret and discuss our results in line with recent views on what the N400, the P600 and the pN400FP brainwave potentials index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a high degree of variability in speech intelligibility outcomes across cochlear-implant (CI) users. To better understand how auditory cognition affects speech intelligibility with the CI, we performed an electroencephalography study in which we examined the relationship between central auditory processing, cognitive abilities, and speech intelligibility. Postlingually deafened CI users (N=13) and matched normal-hearing (NH) listeners (N=13) performed an oddball task with words presented in different background conditions (quiet, stationary noise, modulated noise). Participants had to categorize words as living (targets) or non-living entities (standards). We also assessed participants' working memory (WM) capacity and verbal abilities. For the oddball task, we found lower hit rates and prolonged response times in CI users when compared with NH listeners. Noise-related prolongation of the N1 amplitude was found for all participants. Further, we observed group-specific modulation effects of event-related potentials (ERPs) as a function of background noise. While NH listeners showed stronger noise-related modulation of the N1 latency, CI users revealed enhanced modulation effects of the N2/N4 latency. In general, higher-order processing (N2/N4, P3) was prolonged in CI users in all background conditions when compared with NH listeners. Longer N2/N4 latency in CI users suggests that these individuals have difficulties to map acoustic-phonetic features to lexical representations. These difficulties seem to be increased for speech-in-noise conditions when compared with speech in quiet background. Correlation analyses showed that shorter ERP latencies were related to enhanced speech intelligibility (N1, N2/N4), better lexical fluency (N1), and lower ratings of listening effort (N2/N4) in CI users. In sum, our findings suggest that CI users and NH listeners differ with regards to both the sensory and the higher-order processing of speech in quiet as well as in noisy background conditions. Our results also revealed that verbal abilities are related to speech processing and speech intelligibility in CI users, confirming the view that auditory cognition plays an important role for CI outcome. We conclude that differences in auditory-cognitive processing contribute to the variability in speech performance outcomes observed in CI users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ADHD status affects both bottom-up sensory processing and top-down attentional selection, impairing professional and social functioning. The objective of the study was to investigate the functional mechanisms of attention deficits in adult ADHD by examining the electrophysiological activities associated with bottom-up attentional cueing (temporal and spatial orienting of attention) and top-down control (conflict resolution). Continuous EEG was recorded in 21 adult ADHD patients (40.05±9.5 years) and 20 healthy adults (25.5±4 years) during performance of the Attention Network Test (ANT). We examined the cue and target-related P1, N1 and P3 components as well as the contingent negative variation (CNV) developing between cue and target. Oscillatory responses were analyzed in the alpha (8–13 Hz) and beta (14–19 Hz) frequency bands. ADHD patients performed similarly to controls but showed reduced P3 amplitude, larger early CNV decrementing over time, reduced preparatory activation in both alpha and beta bands, as well as flattened target-related posterior alpha and beta responses. As compared to controls, the inverted CNV pattern suggested peculiar preparatory processing in ADHD patients. The singular pattern of target-related beta response indicated increased inhibitory processes in the case of easier task resolution and more generally, the lack of association between conflict resolution speed and beta activity supported alternative executive processing in ADHD patients. Overall, the reduced activation of the functional networks devoted to bottom-up and top-down attention suggests that adult ADHD patients engage reduced cortical resources in this composite task, compatible with the cortical hypoarousal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recognition of faces across incidences is a complex function of the human brain and a crucial ability for communication and daily interactions. This first study on ERP correlates of emotional face learning in social anxiety disorder (SAD) investigates whether the known attentional bias for threatening faces leads to a corresponding memory bias. Therefore, 21 patients with SAD and 21 healthy controls (HCs) learned faces with emotional facial expressions (neutral, happy, and angry) and were later asked to recognize these out of novel identities all presented with a neutral facial expression. EEG was recorded throughout. Behaviorally, the faces' emotional expression modulated later recognition in terms of accuracy, response times, signal detection parameters and ratings of valence, but with better performance for happy than angry faces in HC as well as in SAD. In the learning phase, attention- and memory-associated event-related potentials (ERPs) P100, N170, P200, N250/EPN, and LPP indicated enhanced processing of angry faces, which was restricted to patients with SAD in N250/EPN and LPP. In the test phase, familiarity effects emerged in N250, FN400 and LPP. While N250 was affected by learned-angry faces, FN400 and LPP reflected image learning of neutral faces, which was restricted to SAD in LPP. We replicated the attentional bias to threatening faces, which was not restricted to early ERP components, but was prolonged to later stages of conscious processing, especially in SAD. In contrast to what had been expected, sustained hypervigilance to the emotional content seems to have impaired the processing of the facial identity, resulting in a happy face advantage at the behavioral level. This could be explained by prominent models assuming separate processing of facial emotion and identity. Hypervigilance in SAD might be a disadvantage in those studies focusing on other aspects of face processing than emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The predictive coding model of perception proposes that neuronal responses reflect prediction errors. Repeated as well as predicted stimuli trigger suppressed neuronal responses because they are associated with reduced prediction errors. However, many predictable events in our environment are not isolated but sequential, yet there is little empirical evidence documenting how suppressed neuronal responses reflecting reduced prediction errors change in the course of a predictable sequence of events. Here we conceived an auditory electroencephalography (EEG) experiment where prediction persists over series of four tones to allow for the delineation of the dynamics of the suppressed neuronal responses. It is possible that neuronal responses might decrease for the initial predictable stimuli and stay at the same level across the rest of the sequence, suggesting that they reflect the predictability of the stimuli in terms of mere probability. Alternatively, neuronal responses might decrease for the initial predictable stimuli and gradually recover across the rest of the sequence, suggesting that factors other than mere probability have to be considered in order to account for the way prediction is implemented in the brain. We found that initial presentation of the predictable stimuli was associated with suppression of the auditory N1. Further presentation of the predictable stimuli was associated with a rebound of the component’s amplitude. Moreover, such pattern was independent of attention. The findings suggest that auditory N1 suppression reflecting reduced prediction errors is a transient phenomenon that can be modulated by multiple factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental studies indicate that children rely more on external feedback than adults. Some of these studies claim that they additionally show higher sensitivity toward positive feedback, while others find they preferably use negative feedback for learning. However, these studies typically did not disentangle feedback valence and expectancy, which might contribute to the controversial results. The present study aimed at examining the neurophysiological correlates of feedback processing in children (8–10 years) and adolescents (12–14 years) in a time estimation paradigm that allows separating the contribution of valence and expectancy. Our results show that in the feedback-related negativity (FRN), an event-related potential (ERP) reflecting the fast initial processing of feedback stimuli, children and adolescents did not differentiate between unexpected positive and negative feedback. Thus, they did not show higher sensitivity to positive feedback. The FRN did also not differentiate between expected and unexpected feedback, as found for adults. In contrast, in a later processing stage mirrored in the P300 component of the ERP, children and adolescents processed the feedback's unexpectedness. Interestingly, adolescents with better behavioral adaptation (high-performers) also had a more frontal P300 expectancy effect. Thus, the recruitment of additional frontal brain regions might lead to better learning from feedback in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects patients beyond the motor domain. According to previous evidence, one mechanism that may be impaired in the disease is face processing. However, few studies have investigated this process at the neural level in PD. Moreover, research using dynamic facial displays rather than static pictures is scarce, but highly warranted due to the higher ecological validity of dynamic stimuli. In the present study we aimed to investigate how PD patients process emotional and non-emotional dynamic face stimuli at the neural level using event-related potentials. Since the literature has revealed a predominantly right-lateralized network for dynamic face processing, we divided the group into patients with left (LPD) and right (RPD) motor symptom onset (right versus left cerebral hemisphere predominantly affected, respectively). Participants watched short video clips of happy, angry, and neutral expressions and engaged in a shallow gender decision task in order to avoid confounds of task difficulty in the data. In line with our expectations, the LPD group showed significant face processing deficits compared to controls. While there were no group differences in early, sensory-driven processing (fronto-central N1 and posterior P1), the vertex positive potential, which is considered the fronto-central counterpart of the face-specific posterior N170 component, had a reduced amplitude and delayed latency in the LPD group. This may indicate disturbances of structural face processing in LPD. Furthermore, the effect was independent of the emotional content of the videos. In contrast, static facial identity recognition performance in LPD was not significantly different from controls, and comprehensive testing of cognitive functions did not reveal any deficits in this group. We therefore conclude that PD, and more specifically the predominant right-hemispheric affection in left-onset PD, is associated with impaired processing of dynamic facial expressions, which could be one of the mechanisms behind the often reported problems of PD patients in their social lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spoken language, prosodic boundaries contribute to the way we understand sentences on-line. The present experiment used ERPs to investigate whether the informativity of prosodic boundaries depends on the availability of other linguistic cues. To this end, we examined the interplay between verb information, case and prosody in German verb-second structures. Unlike previous studies, unambiguous verb information signaled transitivity (a two-argument structure) before reaching potential arguments. Participants listened to sentences containing a succession of two noun phrases (NPs) that were either temporarily ambiguous or unambiguous. Ambiguous NPs were locally compatible with both an argument reading and a modifier reading. Sentences were presented with an early prosodic boundary typical of an argument reading or a late prosodic boundary typical of a modifier reading. Our findings suggest that the brain considers multiple cues for determining the argument status of an NP. In the presence of unambiguous cues like case or verb information, prosodic information plays a relatively minor role than when prosody is the only unambiguous cue. Contrary to previous studies, a mismatch between prosody and argument status was reflected by a late positive complex (LPC) without a preceding N400. Thus, unlike in previous studies, prosody did not affect early processing phases of argument integration, but a later well-formedness evaluation. For ambiguous sentences, prosodic boundaries triggered reanalysis processes reflected by the LPC. Our results suggest that cognitive processes related to prosody can be modulated by the availability of other linguistic information types, thus paving the way for neurolinguistic investigations of cross-linguistic differences in prosodic effects on sentence comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Tic disorders, such as the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and persistent tic disorder, are neurodevelopmental movement disorders involving impaired motor control. Hence, patients show repetitive unwanted muscular contractions in one or more parts of the body. A cognitive-behavioral therapy, with a particular emphasis on the psychophysiology of tic expression and sensorimotor activation, can reduce the frequency and intensity of tics. However, its impact on motor activation and inhibition is not fully understood. Methods To study the effects of a cognitive-behavioral therapy on electrocortical activation, we recorded the event-related potentials (ERP) and lateralized readiness potentials (LRP), before and after treatment, of 20 patients with tic disorders and 20 healthy control participants (matched on age, sex and intelligence), during a stimulus–response compatibility inhibition task. The cognitive-behavioral therapy included informational, awareness training, relaxation, muscle discrimination, cognitive restructuration and relapse prevention strategies. Results Our results revealed that prior to treatment; tic patients had delayed stimulus-locked LRP onset latency, larger response-locked LRP peak amplitude, and a frontal overactivation during stimulus inhibition processing. Both stimulus-locked LRP onset latency and response-locked LRP peak amplitude normalized after the cognitive behavioral therapy completion. However, the frontal overactivation related to inhibition remained unchanged following therapy. Conclusions Our results showed that P300 and reaction times are sensitive to stimulus–response compatibility, but are not related to tic symptoms. Secondly, overactivity of the frontal LPC and impulsivity in TD patients were not affected by treatment. Finally, CBT had normalizing effects on the activation of the pre-motor and motor cortex in TD patients. These results imply specific modifications of motor processes following therapy, while inhibition processes remained unchanged. Given that LRPs are partially generated within the sensorimotor and supplementary motor area, the reported reduction in tic frequency and improvements of LRPs components suggest that CBT induced a physiological change in patients' motor area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As might be expected, neural empathic responses toward someone in pain are shaped by the affective/social relationship between the observer and the suffering person. Brain activity associated with empathy is sensitive to previous knowledge on the other's social conduct, such that, for instance, an unfair person in pain elicits in the observer reduced activations of empathy-related brain regions compared to a fair person. We conjectured that even in the absence of information on the personality and social behavior of an individual, empathy might be modulated by the ‘first impression’ based on other's physical facial features, such that the other is perceived as trustworthy or untrustworthy. By means of event-related potentials technique, we monitored in two experiments the neural empathic responses associated with the pain of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces, either computerized and parametrically manipulated (Experiment 1) and real faces (Experiment 2) in a cue-based paradigm. We observed P3 empathic reactions towards individuals looking trustworthy whereas the reactions towards individuals looking untrustworthy were negligible, if not null. An additional experiment (Experiment 3) was conducted in order to substantiate our conclusions by demonstrating that the experimental paradigm we designed did very likely activate an empathic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-reference effect has been widely discussed. Previous scholars believed that self-related information can be processed faster is due to the positive attribute of self-concept which speeds up self-related information processing. When self-related information is given negative attributes, the self-reference effect will be weakened. In this study, fat and sick, two kinds of stimuli associated with disgust characteristics, were added to self- and other-faces. We found that disease stimuli, which are closely related to survival threats, eliminated the self-reference effect while the obesity stimuli only weakened the self-reference effect to a certain extent. Event-related potential (ERP) analysis demonstrated that sick-faces have a greater amplitude than standard-faces in the EPN and LPP components. We believe that this may be due to the urgency of the disease threat, which leads to the selective attention to the disease threat in the early perception stage and the allocation of more attention resources for rapid response in the later stage. In addition, we found that disgust sensitivity specifically maintains individuals' self-referential effects by dissociating individuals from others in disease contexts. These results further support the behavioral immune function of disgust as a gatekeeper of the self in potentially contaminated environments. In conclusion, our study showed that in the face of survival threat, the self-reference effect is eliminated, and disgust tried to slow down this elimination effect to protect self. This study extends the behavioral immunity theory to some extent and further deepens the understanding of the relationship between disgust and self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food-related inhibition plays a critical role in the manifestation of overweight. Previous research has focused exclusively on stimulus-driven (reactive) inhibition, which is different from intentional inhibition that refers to an internally generated decision to "stop". This study investigated the food-related neurophysiological correlates of intentional and reactive inhibitions in overweight and normal-weight adults. We compared 35 overweight participants (OWs) and 34 normal-weight participants (NWs) on performance and electroencephalography-based measures during a food-related go/no-go/choose task. In this task, participants made reactive responses to an instructed go/no-go target or made intentional choices whether to execute or inhibit a keypress when presented with a free-choice target. Our results mainly showed, 1) for group-difference, N2a amplitudes of OWs were less negative than that of NWs in the intentional trials; 2) for source difference, N2a amplitudes were less negative in reactive condition than in intentional condition uniquely in OWs. Moreover, comparison across intentional responses revealed that P2 amplitudes in no-go trials were lower than in go trials. Additionally, a greater body mass index correlated with lower intentional no-go-P2 and reactive go/no-go-P2 amplitudes. These findings suggest that overweight is associated with deficits in food-related intentional inhibition, which is segregated from reactive inhibition. The individual differences in premotor inhibition during free-choice situations might provide an explanation for overeating behaviors in overweight adults' daily life. Further, our results refine the ERP marker of intentional inhibition from N2 to N2a, which could be an essential neural mechanism underlying the "free won't" of food in OWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]