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Depression is a heterogeneous syndrome that impacts an individual's emotional, social, cognitive and bodily functioning. Depression is associated with biases in emotional processing, but alterations in basic sensory processing have received less attention in depression research. Here, we measured event‐related potentials (ERPs) in response to changes in the intensity of auditory stimuli and the location of somatosensory stimuli in participants with depression and in non‐depressed control participants. We tested whether auditory mismatch negativity, P3a or N1 intensity dependence response or somatosensory mismatch response, P3a, P50 or N80 can dissociate depressed participants and non‐depressed controls, and we also analysed the effects of depression medication and age in this sample. N1 intensity dependence response was increased in unmedicated depressed participants relative to non‐depressed controls. When age was controlled for in the analysis, the effect of depression was only at a trend level. N1 intensity dependence response correlated with depression severity at the whole sample level. We did not observe any depression‐related alterations in auditory mismatch negativity or P3a or somatosensory ERPs. Our results may reflect an association between the N1 intensity dependence response and altered neurotransmitter activity in depression, but this should be confirmed in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation is considered a crucial factor in determining emotion regulation choice (ER choice). Our previous study revealed that increased motivation led to a preference for distraction over reappraisal due to the narrowed attention, yet neural underpinnings supporting this phenomenon remain unclear. In this study, we used event‐related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether motivation influences ER choice by early attention processing (P2) or late resource engagement (LPP). EEG activities were recorded for the pictorial contexts varying in motivational intensity and direction, while participants (N = 68) were required to decide which strategy from the two options they would use to regulate their emotions. Consistent with previous studies, the results indicated that individuals chose more distraction over reappraisal in high‐withdrawal motivated contexts while a reversed pattern was observed in low‐withdrawal motivated contexts. Moreover, high‐intensity motivated emotional contexts result in enhanced P2 and LPP. Further analysis indicates that only frontal P2 and the early LPP mediate the effect of motivational intensity on ER choice. These findings suggest that heightened motivation leads to a preference for distraction over reappraisal during emotion regulation due to the greater occupation of attentional resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual search is guided by mental representations of target‐defining features (attentional templates) that are activated in a preparatory fashion. It remains unknown how many templates can be maintained concurrently, and what kind of costs are associated with multiple‐template versus single‐template search. Here, we compared the operation of attentional templates during three‐color and single‐color search tasks. Preparatory template activation processes were tracked by measuring N2pc components to task‐irrelevant singleton color probes that appeared in rapid succession during the interval between search displays. These probes attract attention (as indexed by an N2pc) if the corresponding color template is active at the time when the probe appears. In a three‐color search task where target identity was fully predictable (Experiment 1), only probes that matched the upcoming target color triggered N2pcs, demonstrating that only a single target template was activated. When three possible color targets appeared randomly and unpredictably (Experiment 2), probes that matched any of these colors triggered N2pcs, demonstrating that all three templates were activated concurrently. However, relative to a single‐color search task, clear costs emerged in this three‐color task for attentional guidance toward search targets and for search performance. These costs appear to be linked to inhibitory interactions between simultaneously active search templates. These findings show that while at least three target templates can be maintained in parallel, multiple‐template search is still subject to capacity limitations which affect both template‐guided attentional guidance and the subsequent selective processing of search targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study evaluates the neurocognitive and electrophysiological effects of 1‐year memantine treatment in 14 adolescents and young adults (mean age 24 years) with sickle cell disease (SCD, incluing sickle cell anaemia and sickle cell β‐thalassemia), hypothesizing improvements in cognitive functions and neural processing. Participants underwent assessments using subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and a computerized task‐switching paradigm with concurrent event‐related potential (ERP) recordings, both before and after the treatment period. Assessments focused on processing speed, working memory, attention and executive function. ERP measurements targeted brain response changes during task switching. Memantine treatment enhanced cognitive test performance, especially in processing speed as shown by the Digit–Symbol Coding and Symbol‐Search tests. Results indicated improved visuospatial and graphomotor speed, working memory and attention. The task‐switching test revealed reduced error rates, suggesting decreased cognitive load and enhanced executive control. Electrophysiological changes in P1 and P3 amplitudes at frontal and parietal locations post‐treatment pointed to more efficient neural processing in tasks requiring cognitive flexibility. These preliminary findings from a Phase II clinical study serve as a ‘proof of concept’, exploring the feasibility and potential effectiveness of memantine treatment in SCD—a previously uninvestigated context. They support the rationale for more extensive investigations to confirm these results and assess memantine's broader effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic numeracy first emerges as children learn the meanings of number words and how to use them to precisely count sets of objects. This development starts before children enter school and forms a foundation for lifelong mathematics achievement. Despite its importance, exactly how children acquire this basic knowledge is unclear. Here we test competing theories of early number learning by measuring event‐related brain potentials during a novel number word‐quantity comparison task in 3–4‐year‐old preschool children (N = 128). We find several qualitative differences in neural processing of number by conceptual stage of development. Specifically, we find differences in early attention‐related parietal electrophysiology (N1), suggesting that less conceptually advanced children process arrays as individual objects and more advanced children distribute attention over the entire set. Subsequently, we find that only more conceptually advanced children show later‐going frontal (N2) sensitivity to the numerical‐distance relationship between the number word and visual quantity. The nature of this response suggested that exact rather than approximate numerical meanings were being associated with number words over frontal sites. No evidence of numerical distance effects was observed over posterior scalp sites. Together these results suggest that children may engage parallel individuation of objects to learn the meanings of the first few number words, but, ultimately, create new exact cardinal value representations for number words that cannot be defined in terms of core, nonverbal number systems. More broadly, these results document an interaction between attentional and general cognitive mechanisms in cognitive development. Research Highlights: Conceptual development in numeracy is associated with a shift in attention from objects to sets.Children acquire meanings of the first few number words through associations with parallel attentional individuation of objects.Understanding of cardinality is associated with attentional processing of sets rather than individuals.Brain signatures suggest children attribute exact rather than approximate numerical meanings to the first few number words.Number‐quantity relationship processing for the first few number words is evident in frontal but not parietal scalp electrophysiology of young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on task switching has shown that the reconfiguration of stimulus–response mappings across trials is associated with behavioral switch costs. Here, we investigated the effects of switching representations of target‐defining features in visual search (attentional templates). Participants searched for one of two color‐defined target objects that changed predictably every two trials (Experiment 1) or every four trials (Experiment 2). Substantial costs were observed for search performance on target switch relative to target repeat trials. Preparatory target template activation processes were tracked by measuring N2pc components (indicative of attentional capture) to a rapid series of task‐irrelevant color singleton probes that appeared during the interval between search displays, and either matched the currently relevant or the other target color. N2pcs to relevant target color probes emerged from 800 ms before search display onset on target repetition trials, reflecting the activation of a corresponding color template. Crucially, probe N2pcs only emerged immediately before target onset on target switch trials, indicating that preparatory template activation was strongly delayed. In contrast, irrelevant color singleton probes did not trigger N2pcs on either repeat or switch trials, suggesting the absence of any target template inertia across trials. These results show that switching the identity of search targets delays preparatory target template activation and impairs subsequent attentional guidance processes. They suggest that performance costs on switch versus repeat trials are associated with differences in the time course of task preparation. Switching between cognitive tasks results in substantial performance costs, but the mechanisms responsible for these costs are not yet fully understood. Using electrophysiological markers of task preparation processes in visual search, we show that preparation is delayed when the identity of an upcoming search target changes. This new finding suggests strong links between switch costs and the time course of activating preparatory attentional task sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social comparison is central in human life and can be especially challenging in depression and social anxiety. We assessed event‐related potentials and emotions using a social comparison task in which participants received feedback on both their own and a co‐player's performance, in participants with depression and/or social anxiety (n = 63) and healthy controls (n = 72). Participants reported more negative emotions for downward (being better than the co‐player [participant correct, co‐player wrong]) and upward (being worse than the co‐player [participant wrong, co‐player correct]) comparisons versus even outcomes, with these effects being stronger in depression and social anxiety. At the Medial Frontal Negativity, both controls and depressed participants showed a more negative amplitude for upward comparison versus both the participant and co‐player performing wrong. Socially anxious subjects showed the opposite effect, possibly due to greater expectations about being worse than others. The P300 decreased for downward and upward comparisons compared to even outcomes, which may relate to the higher levels of conflict of social inequality. Depressed and socially anxious subjects showed a blunted P300 increase over time in response to the task outcomes, suggesting deficits in allocating resources for the attention of incoming social information. The LPP showed increased amplitude for downward and upward comparison versus the even outcomes and no group effect. Emotional findings suggest that social comparisons are more difficult for depressed and socially anxious individuals. Event‐related potentials findings may shed light on the neural substrates of these difficulties. This is the first study investigating neural responses to social comparison in participants with symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and healthy controls. Results showed heightened negative emotions and distinct event‐related potentials in participants with these disorders compared to controls. Findings suggest difficulties in dealing with the cognitive and emotional demands of social comparison in depression and social anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that trait anxiety relates to cognitive processing and behavior. However, the relationships between trait anxiety and sensory processing, goal‐directed performance and sensorimotor function are unclear, particularly in a multimodal context. This study used electroencephalography to evaluate whether trait anxiety influenced visual and tactile event‐related potentials (ERPs), as well as behavioral distractor cost, in a bimodal sensorimotor task. Twenty‐nine healthy young adults completed the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Participants were directed to focus on either tactile or visual stimuli while disregarding the other modality, responding to target stimulus amplitude with a proportional grip. Previous research suggests that somatosensory N70 and visual P2 ERPs serve as markers of attentional relevance, with attention also impacting the visual P3 ERP. It was hypothesized that trait anxiety would modulate the ERPs susceptible to attentional modulation (tactile N70, visual P2 and P3) and not affect behavioral performance. Trait anxiety showed a large, significant interaction with attention for visual P3 latency in response to unimodal visual stimuli, with a positive relationship between P3 latencies and trait anxiety when attending toward the stimulus and negative when attending away. A large, positive main effect of trait anxiety on visual N1 amplitude for bimodal stimuli was also detected. As predicted, trait anxiety related to ERPs but not behavioral distractor cost. These findings suggest that trait anxiety modulates visual but not somatosensory processing correlates based on attention. The absence of overt behavioral performance effects suggests compensatory mechanisms may offset underlying differences in sensory processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) have been used with the concealed information test (CIT) to detect concealed recognition of specific stimuli (i.e., "probes"). While most research has focused on the P300 component, which is larger for infrequent probes than for frequent control stimuli (i.e., "irrelevants"), some studies have investigated an earlier ERP component, the anterior N2, with mixed results. Although some studies have reported a larger anterior N2 for probes than irrelevants (N2 enhancement), other studies, including our own, have not found such an effect. The present study aimed to replicate and extend our previous findings using the same CIT paradigm and measurement parameters. Results of Bayesian analyses show strong evidence against the hypothesis of anterior N2 enhancement by probes, replicating our previous work. Bayesian analyses also show strong evidence against the hypothesis of N2 enhancement for the three components revealed by a temporal principal component analysis (PCA) conducted to disentangle potentially overlapping ERP effects. In conclusion, whereas the CIT has shown promise in detecting recognition of specific information, anterior N2 enhancement cannot be used as an electrophysiological measure of concealed information across CIT paradigms. Finding reliable markers of concealed information is critical for forensic applications. There have been claims that an event‐related potential, the anterior N2, is enhanced when concealing information. This electroencephalographic study directly replicates and extends our previous findings and shows that the anterior N2 is not a general marker of concealed information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why should researchers measure psychophysiological processes repeatedly over time? The study of psychophysiology inherently involves sampling biological processes as they manifest over time. The most common approach is to use a brief sample to make conclusions about how individuals or groups differ. Although these types of between‐subject comparisons have utility for understanding individual and group differences, many of the important conceptual questions in the field involve processes that are dynamic, varying within individuals over time. Using examples from the literature on affect regulation, this conceptual review contrasts three types of study designs: the classic single‐observation design and the aggregated and temporally linked repeated observation designs, which have great promise for measuring variables that fluctuate dynamically over time. Importantly, these designs can be integrated to elucidate research questions about risk (when and for whom will the likelihood of an unwanted outcome occurring increase?), mechanisms (how and why does a change in psychophysiology contribute to a change in another process of interest?), and interventions (how and when should interventions take place to modify an outcome?). Researchers are encouraged to implement intensive sampling in their research, which can be conducted in traditional laboratory settings (e.g., fMRI, event‐related brain potentials, and heart rate variability) and in ecologically valid contexts in everyday life using ambulatory assessment. Many important conceptual questions in the field of psychophysiology involve dynamic processes that vary within individuals over time. This article highlights research designs for measuring psychophysiological processes that can be integrated to elucidate research questions about risk (when and for whom will the likelihood of an outcome occurring increase?), mechanisms (how and why does a change in psychophysiology contribute to a change in another process of interest?), and interventions (how and when should interventions take place?). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tackles the Garden of Forking Paths, as a challenge for replicability and reproducibility of ERP studies. Here, we applied a multiverse analysis to a sample ERP N400 dataset, donated by an independent research team. We analyzed this dataset using 14 pipelines selected to showcase the full range of methodological variability found in the N400 literature using systematic review approach. The selected pipelines were compared in depth by looking into statistical test outcomes, descriptive statistics, effect size, data quality, and statistical power. In this way we provide a worked example of how analytic flexibility can impact results in research fields with high dimensionality such as ERP, when analyzed using standard null‐hypothesis significance testing. Out of the methodological decisions that were varied, high‐pass filter cut‐off, artifact removal method, baseline duration, reference, measurement latency and locations, and amplitude measure (peak vs. mean) were all shown to affect at least some of the study outcome measures. Low‐pass filtering was the only step which did not notably influence any of these measures. This study shows that even some of the seemingly minor procedural deviations can influence the conclusions of an ERP study. We demonstrate the power of multiverse analysis in both identifying the most reliable effects in a given study, and for providing insights into consequences of methodological decisions. This study shows that most ERP preprocessing and analysis steps can affect study outcomes, and that even some of the seemingly minor procedural deviations can influence conclusions of an ERP study, and it demonstrates the power of the multiverse analysis approach in both identifying the most reliable effects and providing concrete insights into consequences of a given methodological decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human motor learning involves cognitive strategies in addition to implicit adaptation. Differences in systems‐level neurophysiology between strategy‐based and implicit learning remain poorly understood. We asked how the P3 event‐related potential, an electroencephalography signal known to increase during early motor learning, relates to strategy‐based learning and implicit adaptation. We re‐analysed data from two experiments, in which participants (n = 64) reached towards a visual target, with online visual feedback replacing vision of their moving hand. We induced learning by rotating the visual feedback. In the first experiment, feedback rotations were turned on during pairs of two consecutive trials, interspersed between non‐rotated trials. In one condition, feedback was rotated relative to the actual movement, allowing participants to develop a re‐aiming strategy on the second trial of each pair, while it was rotated relative to the target in the other condition, rendering re‐aiming futile. P3 amplitude increased in the first rotated trial in both conditions, but this increase was more pronounced in the re‐aiming condition. In the second experiment, a constant visuomotor rotation was turned on for many consecutive trials. We instructed one group beforehand how to re‐aim successfully, while the other group had to develop a strategy by themselves. P3 amplitude increased during early adaptation only in the latter group. These findings collectively suggest that in the context of motor learning, the P3 ERP is associated with a need to develop, or adjust, a cognitive strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer presence influences risk‐taking behavior, particularly in adolescence. Based on the dual system model, this event‐related potential study examined whether and how the presence of a peer displayed a preference for risky behavior would increase adolescents' risk‐taking by disrupting their cognitive control processes in either emotional or non‐emotional contexts. A sample of 106 adolescents (17–19 years of age) completed two Stoop tasks and a Balloon Analog Risk Task under three peer presence conditions. Results revealed that compared to other conditions, the presence of a risk‐averse peer caused adolescents to make safer decisions through improving their conflict monitoring (more negative N200‐diff), whereas a risk‐preference peer's presence led adolescents to more risky decisions through disrupting their conflict resolution (more positive N450‐diff) but they were only observed on the Emotional Stroop task. These findings suggest that different peer presence contexts could increase or decrease adolescents' risk‐taking behaviors by influencing their cognitive control under an emotional context rather than in a non‐emotional context. Combining behavioral tasks with the event‐related potentials technique, this study facilitates a better understanding of neural underpinnings of peer presence on adolescents' risky decision‐making, and also helps guide public health strategies and policies for creating a risk‐averse peer environment and training their cognitive control in emotional situations to protect young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit greater sensitivity to non‐speech sounds, reduced sensitivity to speech, and increased variability in cortical activity during auditory speech processing. We assessed differences in cortical responses and variability in early and later processing stages of auditory speech versus non‐speech sounds in typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD. Twenty‐eight 4‐ to 9‐year‐old children (14 ASDs) listened to speech and non‐speech sounds during an electroencephalography session. We measured peak amplitudes for early (P2) and later (P3a) stages of auditory processing and inter‐trial theta phase coherence as a marker of cortical variability. TD children were more sensitive to speech sounds during early and later processing stages than ASD children, reflected in larger P2 and P3a amplitudes. Individually, twice as many TD children showed reliable differentiation between speech and non‐speech sounds compared to children with ASD. Children with ASD showed greater intra‐individual variability in theta responses to speech sounds during early and later processing stages. Children with ASD show atypical auditory processing of fundamental speech sounds, perhaps due to reduced and more variable cortical activation. These atypicalities in the consistency of cortical responses to fundamental speech features may impact the development of cortical networks and have downstream effects on more complex forms of language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social information can be used to optimize decision‐making. However, the simultaneous presentation of multiple sources of advice can lead to a distinction bias in judging the validity of the information. While the involvement of event‐related potential (ERP) components in social information processing has been studied, how they are modulated by (mis)judging an advisor's information validity remains unknown. In two experiments participants performed a decision‐making task with highly accurate or inaccurate cues. Each experiment consisted of an initial, learning, and test phase. During the learning phase, three advice cues were simultaneously presented and the validity of them had to be assessed. The effect of different cue constellations on ERPs was investigated. In the subsequent test phase, the willingness to follow or oppose an advice cue was tested. Results demonstrated the distinction bias with participants over or underestimating the accuracy of the most uncertain cues. The P2 amplitude was significantly increased during cue presentation when advisors were in disagreement as compared to when all were in agreement, regardless of cue validity. Further, a larger P3 amplitude during outcome presentation was found when advisors were in disagreement and increased with more informative cues. As such, the most uncertain cues were related to the smallest P3 amplitude. The findings hint at the possible role of P3 in judging and learning the predictability of social cues. This study provides novel insights into the role of P2 and P3 components during the judgment of social information validity. When considering advice of others during decision making, we often overestimate or underestimate how accurate the advisors' opinions are. In two experiments, we found that two event‐related potentials, P2 and P3, are associated with misjudging social information. Whereas P2 is modulated when observing advisors who disagree, P3 is associated with how informative a cue is for making the correct decision. Altogether, we demonstrate the electrophysiological correlates of (mis)judging social information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parietal P300 wave of event‐related potentials (ERPs) has been associated with various psychological operations in numerous laboratory tasks. This study aims to decompose the P3 wave of ERPs into subcomponents and link them with behavioral parameters, such as the strength of stimulus–response (S‐R) links and GO/NOGO responses. EEGs (31 channels), referenced to linked ears, were recorded from 172 healthy adults (107 women) who participated in two cued GO/NOGO tasks, where the strength of S‐R links was manipulated through instructions. P300 waves were observed in active conditions in response to cues, GO/NOGO stimuli, and in passive conditions when no manual response was required. Utilizing a combination of current source density transformation and blind source separation methods, we decomposed the P300 wave into two distinct components, purportedly originating from different parts of the parietal lobules. The amplitude of the parietal midline component (with current sources around Pz) closely mirrored the strength of the S‐R link across proactive, reactive, and passive conditions. The amplitude of the lateral parietal component (with current sources around P3 and P4) resembled the push–pull activity of the output nuclei of the basal ganglia in action selection‐inhibition operations. These findings provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying action selection processes and the reactivation of S‐R links. We aimed to associate subcomponents of P3 waves in event‐related potentials with behavioral parameters in cued GO/NOGO tasks. The parietal midline component was shown to reflect the strength of stimulus–response (S‐R) links across proactive, reactive, and passive conditions. The lateral parietal component mirrored basal ganglia activity in action selection. These results illuminate neural mechanisms for S‐R links and action selection operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impaired socioemotional functioning characterizes autistic children, but does weak inhibition control underlie their socioemotional difficulty? This study addressed this question by examining whether and, if so, how inhibition control is affected by face realism and emotional valence in school‐age autistic and neurotypical children. Fifty‐two autistic and 52 age‐matched neurotypical controls aged 10–12 years completed real and cartoon emotional face Go/Nogo tasks while event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The analyses of inhibition–emotion components (i.e., N2, P3, and LPP) and a face‐specific N170 revealed that autistic children elicited greater N2 while inhibiting Nogo trials and greater P3/LPP and late LPP for real but not cartoon emotional faces. Moreover, autistic children exhibited a reduced N170 to real face emotions only. Furthermore, correlation results showed that better behavioral inhibition and emotion recognition in autistic children were associated with a reduced N170. These findings suggest that neural mechanisms of inhibitory control in autistic children are less efficient and more disrupted during real face processing, which may affect their age‐appropriate socio‐emotional development. Lay Summary: Autistic children are more likely to have weak inhibition skills, which are essential for controlling emotions and supporting better social interaction. Although their cartoon face processing was intact, autistic children experienced greater difficulties identifying and inhibiting real face emotions compared with neurotypical children. This suggests that autistic children have weak inhibitory control and potentially use atypical real face processing strategies to navigate the social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a prevalent, heterogeneous, and debilitating disorder that often emerges in adolescence, and there is a need to better understand vulnerability processes to inform more targeted intervention efforts. Psychophysiological methods, like event‐related potentials (ERPs), can offer unique insights into the cognitive and emotional processes underlying depression vulnerability. I review my and others' research examining ERP measures of reward responsiveness in youth depression and present a conceptual model of the development of low reward responsiveness, its role in depression vulnerability, and potential windows for targeted intervention. There is evidence that a blunted reward positivity (RewP) is observable in children at risk for depression, appears to be shaped in part by early social experiences, and predicts later depressive symptoms in combination with other risk factors like stress exposure. Further, a component consistent with RewP is reliably elicited in response to social acceptance feedback in computerized peer interaction tasks and demonstrates unique associations with social contextual factors and depressive symptoms, supporting the utility of developing psychophysiological tasks that may better capture youths' real‐world experiences and social risk processes. In addition, I address the translational implications of clinical psychophysiological research and describe a series of studies showing that a reduced RewP predicts greater reductions in depressive symptoms with treatment but is not modifiable by current treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy. Finally, I describe our preliminary efforts to develop a positive emotion‐focused intervention for the offspring of depressed mothers, informed by the RewP literature, and describe future directions for translating psychophysiological research to intervention and prevention. In this review, I summarize research on depression vulnerability showing relatively consistent evidence of blunted reward responsiveness (measured by event‐related potentials) in children and adolescents at risk for depression that appears to be shaped in part by early social experiences and predicts later depressive symptoms in combination with other risk factors like stress exposure. I highlight the importance of examining reward processing in the social domain and offer future directions to translate psychophysiology research into intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable proportion of women subjectively perceive a detriment to their cognitive capacity during pregnancy, with decreased memory functions being the most frequently self‐reported concerns. However, objective investigation of these perceived cognitive deficits has yielded inconsistent results. This study focused on memory functions during late pregnancy using multiple tasks designed to assess various memory indices, for example, working memory, learning rate, immediate recall, proactive and retroactive interference, delayed recall, retrieval efficiency, visuospatial constructional ability, recognition, and executive function. Additionally, sustained attention and inhibitory control were examined using a combined recognition stop‐signal task. Electrophysiological brain activity during this task was recorded using a 128‐channel electroencephalographic‐event‐related potential system. Salivary cortisol levels were assessed both prior to and following the experimental session. In contrast to the widely held belief, results demonstrated that women in late pregnancy did not exhibit a decline in their performance across the various memory tests. In terms of accuracy, there was not a single task in which poorer performance was found for pregnant women. The quality of memory performance was comparable, and in some cases even superior, among women in the pregnancy group. On the stop‐signal task, pregnant women exhibited significantly better performance, and their electrophysiological data revealed greater centrally distributed P300 amplitude to "stop" signs, which may signify an enhanced neural efficiency in the domains of inhibitory executive control. Endocrine results revealed that pregnant women exhibited significantly lower levels of salivary cortisol, suggesting an attenuation of hypothalamic−pituitary−adrenocortical axis activity, which may contribute to the optimization of fetal development and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The N400 event‐related brain potential (ERP) semantic priming effect reflects greater activation of contextually related versus unrelated concepts in long‐term semantic memory. Deficits in this measure have been found in persons with schizophrenia and those at clinical high risk (CHR) for this disorder. In CHR patients, we previously found that these deficits predict poorer social functional outcomes after 1 year. In the present study, we tested whether these deficits predicted greater psychosis‐spectrum symptom severity and functional impairment over 2 years. We measured N400 semantic priming effects at baseline in CHR patients (n = 47) who viewed prime words each followed by a related/unrelated target word at stimulus‐onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 300 or 750 ms. We measured psychosis‐spectrum symptoms using the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms and role and social functioning with the Global Functioning: Role and Social scales, at baseline, 1 (n = 29) and 2 years (n = 25). There was a significant interaction between the N400 semantic priming effect at the 300‐ms SOA and time on GF:Role scores, indicating that, contrary to expectations, smaller baseline N400 semantic priming effects were associated with more improvement in role functioning from baseline to Year 1, but baseline N400 priming effects did not predict role functioning at Year 2. N400 priming effects were not significantly associated with different trajectories in psychosis‐spectrum symptoms or social functioning. Thus, CHR patients' N400 semantic priming effects did not predict clinical outcomes over 2 years, suggesting that this ERP measure may have greater value as a state or short‐term prognostic neurophysiological biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The locus coeruleus‐norepinephrine (LC‐NE) system, which regulates arousal levels, is important for cognitive control, including emotional conflict resolution. Additionally, the LC‐NE system is implicated in P300 generation. If the P300 is mediated by the LC‐NE system, and considering the established correlations between LC activity and pupil dilation, P300 amplitude should correlate with task‐evoked (phasic) pupil dilation on a trial‐by‐trial basis. However, prior studies, predominantly utilizing oddball‐type paradigms, have not demonstrated correlations between concurrently recorded task‐evoked pupil dilation and P300 responses. Using a recently developed emotional face‐word Stroop task that links pupil dilation to the LC‐NE system, here, we examined both intra‐ and inter‐individual correlations between task‐evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude. We found that lower accuracy, slower reaction times, and larger task‐evoked pupil dilation were obtained in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition. Furthermore, we observed intra‐individual correlations between task‐evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude, with larger pupil dilation correlating with a greater P300 amplitude. In contrast, pupil dilation did not exhibit consistent correlations with N450 and N170 amplitudes. Baseline (tonic) pupil size also showed correlations with P300 and N170 amplitudes, with smaller pupil size corresponding to larger amplitude. Moreover, inter‐individual differences in task‐evoked pupil dilation between the congruent and incongruent conditions correlated with differences in reaction time and P300 amplitude, though these effects only approached significance. To summarize, our study provides evidence for a connection between task‐evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude at the single‐trial level, suggesting the involvement of the LC‐NE system in P300 generation. The locus coeruleus‐norepinephrine system is implicated in the generation of the P300. Using pupillometry as an indirect measure of locus coeruleus‐norepinephrine activity, we demonstrated intra‐individual trial‐to‐trial correlations between concurrently recorded task‐evoked pupil dilation and P300 responses in the emotional face‐word Stroop task, with larger pupil dilation correlating with a greater P300 amplitude, suggesting the involvement of the locus coeruleus‐norepinephrine system in P300 generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated visual temporal integration, by which multiple stimuli appearing in rapid succession are perceived as a single event. Temporal integration not only depends intrinsically on the passage of time but also, extrinsically, on the number and distribution of successive stimuli that are presented across that time interval. Here, we used a missing element task to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic factors in temporal integration, by manipulating stimulus duration and number, respectively. We found that both contributed interactively to integration performance and that varying the information rate over time did not further modulate this pattern. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors had dissociable effects on the N1, N2, N2pc, and P3 components of the event‐related potential, implicating unique contributions to perceptual discrimination, spatio‐temporal grouping, attention, and response decision‐making. Stimulus number‐induced effects on the event‐related potential also generally arose later than those of stimulus duration. The latter already modulated the amplitude of the N1 and the early phase of the N2pc, while the former did not. The collective results suggest that while both intrinsic and extrinsic factors drive temporal integration, they do so in different ways. This difference during integration may eventually be reflected in the way in which we perceive longer, episodic events. We studied for the first time the electrophysiological correlates of in‐ and extrinsic factors in temporal integration. We found that both the intrinsically‐governed passage of time, and the extrinsically‐governed number of successive stimuli affect the tendency to integrate. Despite their common effect on perception and behavior, event‐related potentials showed that the two factors likely have very different underlying neural mechanisms. This difference may affect how we perceive events ranging from very brief ones of less than a second to much longer episodic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response inhibition difficulties are reported in individuals with eating disorders (EDs), anxiety, and depression. Although ED symptoms and internalizing symptoms co‐occur in preadolescence, there is limited research examining associations between these symptoms and response inhibition in this age group. This study is the first to investigate the associations between behavioral and neural markers of response inhibition, disordered eating (DE), and internalizing symptoms in a community sample of preadolescents. Forty‐eight children (M age = 10.95 years, 56.3% male) completed a Go/NoGo task, whereas electroencephalography was recorded. Self‐report measures of DE and internalizing symptoms were collected. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were associated with neural markers of suboptimal response inhibition (attenuated P3NoGo amplitudes) in preadolescence. In contrast, higher levels of depression were associated with greater response inhibition at a behavioral level. These findings suggest internalizing symptoms in preadolescence are associated with P3‐indexed difficulties in evaluation and monitoring, but these are not sufficient to disrupt behavioral performance on a response inhibition task. This pattern may reflect engagement of compensatory processes to support task performance. DE was not significantly associated with response inhibition, suggesting that difficulties in response inhibition may only be reliably observed in more chronic and severe DE and ED presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multisensory integration and attention can interact in a way that attention to the visual constituent of a multisensory object results in an attentional spreading to its ignored auditory constituent, which can be either stimulus‐driven or representation‐driven depending on whether the object's visual constituent receives extra representation‐based selective attention. Previous research using simple unrelated audiovisual combinations has shown that the stimulus‐driven attentional spreading is contingent on audiovisual temporal simultaneity. However, little is known about whether this temporal constraint applies also to the representation‐driven attentional spreading, and whether it holds for the stimulus‐driven process elicited by real‐life multisensory objects. The current event‐related potential study investigated these questions by systematically manipulating the visual‐to‐auditory stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA: 0/100/300 ms) in an object‐selective visual recognition task wherein the representation‐driven and stimulus‐driven spreading processes, measured as two distinct auditory negative difference (Nd) components, could be isolated independently. Our results showed that both the representation‐driven and stimulus‐driven Nds decreased as the SOA increased. Interestingly, the representation‐driven Nd was completely absent, whereas the stimulus‐driven Nd was still robust, when the auditory constituents were delayed by 300 ms. These findings not only indicate that the role of audiovisual simultaneity in the representation‐driven attentional spreading has been underestimated, but also suggest that learned associations between the unisensory constituents of real‐life objects render the stimulus‐driven attentional spreading more tolerant of audiovisual asynchrony. By using two distinct auditory Nd components to track the representation‐driven and stimulus‐driven visual‐to‐auditory attentional spreading effects, this study is the first to demonstrate that: (a) the role of audiovisual temporal synchrony in the representation‐driven spreading has been underestimated in extant literature; (b) highly learned association between the unisensory constituents of a meaningful multisensory object can render the synchrony‐sensitive stimulus‐driven spreading still prominent even at a large audiovisual asynchrony. Thus, it provides novel insights into the multifaceted influences of low‐level temporal correspondence and high‐level semantic relevance on the interplay between attention and multisensory integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography (EEG) data processing to derive event‐related potentials (ERPs) follows a standard set of procedures to maximize signal‐to‐noise ratio. This often includes ocular correction, which corrects for artifacts introduced by eye movements, typically measured by electrooculogram (EOG) using facial electrodes near the eyes. Yet, attaching electrodes to the face may be uncomfortable for some populations, best to avoid in some situations, and contribute to data loss. Eye movements can also be measured using electrodes in a standard 10–20 EEG cap. An examination of the impact of electrode selection on ERPs is needed to inform best practices. The present study examined data quality when using different electrodes to measure eye movements for ocular correction (i.e., facial electrodes, cap electrodes, and no ocular correction) for two well‐established and widely studied ERP components (i.e., reward positivity, RewP; and late positive potential, LPP) elicited in adolescents (N = 34). Results revealed comparable split‐half reliability and standardized measurement error (SME) between facial and cap electrode approaches, with lower SME for the RewP with facial or cap electrodes compared to no ocular correction. Few significant differences in mean amplitude of ERPs were observed, but the LPP to positive images differed when using facial compared to cap electrodes. Findings provide preliminary evidence of the ability to collect high‐quality ERP data without facial electrodes. However, when using cap electrodes for EOG measurement and ocular correction, it is recommended to use consistent procedures across the sample or statistically examine the impact of ocular correction procedures on results. This study examines the effects of using cap compared to facial electrodes to measure eye movements for ocular correction in event‐related potential (ERP) research. We tested the impact of electrode selection on data quality and mean amplitudes of reward‐ and emotion‐related ERPs in adolescents. Findings revealed comparable data quality but some differences in overall ERP magnitude, suggesting cap electrodes may be used if needed. A consistent approach to ocular correction within a study is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts in working memory (WM) can occur when retrieval cues activate competing items, which impairs the efficiency of retrieval. It has recently been shown that WM retrieval adapts similarly to these conflicts as predicted by conflict monitoring theory for selective attention tasks. Here, we utilized event‐related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether conflict and adaptive control in WM are reflected by the same neural markers that have previously been described for selective attention tasks. In our task, participants encoded two differently colored memory lists that contained four digits each (i.e., 2 5 7 1 and 4 5 9 1), and had to recognize whether a probe item from a specific list and position was correct or incorrect. Conflict during retrieval emerged when digits at corresponding positions (e.g., 2 and 5 at the first position) were different (incongruent), but not when these digits were the same (congruent). In behavioral data, we found a congruency sequence effect, that is, responses to incongruent probe items were slower, and this effect was reduced following trials with incongruent probe items. In ERPs, this behavioral marker of adaptive control was accompanied by two effects. First, congruency affected the amplitude of an N450, and this conflict effect was reduced after incongruent trials. Second, the posterior P3 amplitude varied with the congruency of the current and the previous trial. Both results resemble those found for the Stroop task and thus highlight the similarity between conflict and adaptive control in WM and selective attention tasks. Our study links theoretical ideas from two research fields—working memory (WM) and adaptive cognitive control. Utilizing event‐related potentials, our findings show that adaptive cognitive control in WM is reflected by the same neural markers as adaptive cognitive control of selective attention. Furthermore, our results suggest that adaptive cognitive control plays a critical role in optimizing the use of limited WM storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Post‐operative delirium (POD) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality but is bereft of treatments, largely due to our limited understanding of the underlying pathophysiology. We hypothesized that delirium reflects a disturbance in cortical connectivity that leads to altered predictions of the sensory environment. METHODS: High‐density electroencephalogram recordings during an oddball auditory roving paradigm were collected from 131 patients. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analysis facilitated inference about the neuronal connectivity and inhibition–excitation dynamics underlying auditory‐evoked responses. RESULTS: Mismatch negativity amplitudes were smaller in patients with POD. DCM showed that delirium was associated with decreased left‐sided superior temporal gyrus (l‐STG) to auditory cortex feedback connectivity. Feedback connectivity also negatively correlated with delirium severity and systemic inflammation. Increased inhibition of l‐STG, with consequent decreases in feed‐forward and feed‐back connectivity, occurred for oddball tones during delirium. DISCUSSION: Delirium is associated with decreased feedback cortical connectivity, possibly resulting from increased intrinsic inhibitory tone. Highlights: Mismatch negativity amplitude was reduced in patients with delirium.Patients with postoperative delirium had increased feedforward connectivity before surgery.Feedback connectivity was diminished from left‐side superior temporal gyrus to left primary auditory sensory area during delirium.Feedback connectivity inversely correlated with inflammation and delirium severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children form stereotyped expectations about the appropriateness of certain emotions for men versus women during the preschool years, based on cues from their social environments. Although ample research has examined the development of gender stereotypes in children, little is known about the neural responses that underlie the processing of gender‐stereotyped emotions in children. Therefore, the current study examined whether 3‐year‐olds differ in the neural processing of emotional stimuli that violate gender stereotypes (i.e., male faces with fearful or happy expressions) or confirm gender stereotypes (i.e., female faces with fearful or happy expressions), and whether boys and girls differ in their neural processing of the violation and confirmation of gender stereotypes. Data from 72 3‐year‐olds (±6 months, 43% boy) were obtained from the YOUth Cohort Study. Electroencephalography data were obtained when children passively viewed male and female faces displaying neutral, happy, or fearful facial expressions. This study provided first indications that happy male faces elicited larger P1 amplitudes than happy female faces in preschool children, which might reflect increased attentional processing of stimuli that violate gender stereotypes. Moreover, there was preliminary evidence that girls had larger negative central (Nc) responses, associated with salience processing, toward female happy faces than male happy faces, whereas boys had larger Nc responses toward male happy faces than female happy faces. No gender differences were found in the processing of neutral and fearful facial expressions. Our results indicate that electroencephalography measurements can provide insights into preschoolers' gender‐stereotype knowledge about emotions, potentially by looking at the early occipital and late fronto‐central responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies have investigated attentional biases toward weight‐related information among individuals with weight dissatisfaction, the mechanisms underlying the processing of task‐irrelevant and spatial‐irrelevant weight‐related information as distractors remain unclear. Participants were assigned to groups according to their levels of weight dissatisfaction to address this question. Participants with high weight dissatisfaction (HWD) were assigned to the experimental group; those with low weight dissatisfaction (LWD) were assigned to a control group. By recording event‐related potentials during a visual search task along the median vertical line, fatness‐related/thinness‐related/neutral words and scrambled strokes were presented horizontally in pairs as task‐irrelevant distractors. The results showed that intact words facilitated fast attentional orienting compared to scrambled strokes, as revealed by the significant N2pc for all types of intact words for both the HWD and LWD groups. More importantly, only fatness‐ and thinness‐related words elicited the evident PD in the HWD group, and the PD amplitudes were larger in the HWD group compared to the LWD group. These findings suggest that weight‐related distractors were actively suppressed after initial attentional orienting among females with HWD. This reveals the mechanisms of attentional biases toward weight‐related information among females with HWD and contributes to the model of the cognitive‐behavioral theory of body image disturbance. These results may help enhance prevention and interventions for reducing weight dissatisfaction. Although studies have investigated attentional biases toward weight‐related information among individuals with weight dissatisfaction, the mechanisms underlying the processing of task‐irrelevant and spatial‐irrelevant weight‐related information remain unclear. Initially, fatness‐related, thinness‐related, and neutral distractors facilitated fast attentional orienting compared to scrambled strokes in high‐weight dissatisfaction (HWD) and control groups. Furthermore, females with HWD actively suppressed attentional allocation toward both fatness‐ and thinness‐related distractors, suggesting that weight dissatisfaction contributes to the suppression of weight‐related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexually objectified women are perceived as dehumanized. This may affect the behavioral and neural responses underlying the observer's empathic reactions for their physical pain, although this hypothesis still lacks empirical support. In the present study, we measured the electrophysiological activity of 30 participants (14 females and 16 males), in an empathy for physical pain paradigm in which pictures of sexualized and non‐sexualized women were presented in painful and non‐painful situations. The behavioral results revealed that sexualized women were evaluated as experiencing less pain than non‐sexualized women. Neural evidence corroborated this finding showing that the perception of vicarious physical pain is lacking for sexualized women in both event‐related potentials (ERPs) and brain oscillation domains. Specifically, the P2 component and the event‐related synchronization/desynchronization (ERS/ERD) on the mu frequency band differed between painful and non‐painful stimulation exclusively when women were not sexualized. Our results provide the first evidence that the neurophysiological responses to the vicarious experience of physical pain are dampened or even absent for sexualized women. These findings expand our understanding of the neurophysiological signatures of empathic processes and highlight the detrimental effect of a sexual‐objectification bias in everyday contexts. The influence of the sexualization bias on the empathy for physical pain has been only tested in hypothetical scenarios, although it has possible implication in the gender‐based violence. In this EEG study, we provide the first empirical evidences that the vicarious experience of physical pain is dampened or even absent for sexualized women. These findings point to the detrimental effect of a sexual‐objectification bias, deepening our knowledge of the neurophysiological signatures of empathetic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Perseverative thought (PT) is a transdiagnostic construct associated with internalizing disorders. Bifactor models have shown that PT can be split into a general PT factor and lower‐order factors for specific forms of PT, such as rumination and worry. No bifactor study to date has investigated if the structure of PT differs across sexes. Methods: The study consisted of 280 individuals recruited for a larger study targeting risk factors for suicidal ideation and behaviours. Participants completed a diagnostic interview and self‐report questionnaires. Results: A two‐factor model of PT fit best in males, whereas a bifactor model fit best in females. In a structural equation model, worry was associated with generalized anxiety disorder diagnoses in females, but not males. Rumination was associated with depressive disorder diagnoses in females, but not males. Conclusions: The present study contributes to a growing literature on PT; we found that dimensionality of PT varied by sex. We also found that relations between PT factors and generalized anxiety disorder differed by sex. Sex differences in the internalizing spectrum and related risk factors need to be considered when examining the structure and function of risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we speak, corollary discharge mechanisms suppress the auditory conscious perception of the self‐generated voice in healthy subjects. This suppression has been associated with the attenuation of the auditory N1 component. To analyse this corollary discharge phenomenon (agency and ownership), we registered the event‐related potentials of 42 healthy subjects. The N1 and P2 components were elicited by spoken vowels (talk condition; agency), by played‐back vowels recorded with their own voice (listen‐self condition; ownership) and by played‐back vowels recorded with an external voice (listen‐other condition). The N1 amplitude elicited by the talk condition was smaller compared with the listen‐self and listen‐other conditions. There were no amplitude differences in N1 between listen‐self and listen‐other conditions. The P2 component did not show differences between conditions. Additionally, a peak latency analysis of N1 and P2 components between the three conditions showed no differences. These findings corroborate previous results showing that the corollary discharge mechanisms dampen sensory responses to self‐generated speech (agency experience) and provide new neurophysiological evidence about the similarities in the processing of played‐back vowels with our own voice (ownership experience) and with an external voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event‐related potential studies using affective words have indicated that selective attention to valence can increase affective discrimination at early perceptual stages. This effect most likely relies on neural associations between perceptual features of a stimulus and its affective value. Similar to words, emotional expressions in human faces are linked to specific visual elements. Therefore, selectively attending to a given emotion should allow for the preactivation of neural networks coding for the emotion and associated first‐order visual elements, leading to enhanced early processing of faces expressing the attended emotion. To investigate this, we employed an expression detection task (N = 65). Fearful, happy, and neutral faces were randomly presented in three blocks while participants were instructed to respond only to one predefined target level of expression in each block. Reaction times were the fastest for happy target faces, which was accompanied by an increased occipital P1 for happy compared with fearful faces. The N170 yielded an arousal effect (emotional > neutral) while both components were not modulated by target status. In contrast, the early posterior negativity (EPN) arousal effect tended to be larger for target compared with nontarget faces. The late positive potential (LPP) revealed large effects of status and expression as well as an interaction driven by an increased LPP specifically for nontarget fearful faces. These findings tentatively indicate that selective attention to facial affect may enhance early emotional processing (EPN) even though further research is needed. Moreover, late controlled processing of facial emotions appears to involve a negativity bias. Recent research suggests that selective attention to emotional stimuli can improve affective discrimination at early perceptual stages. Using emotional faces, we find indications that selective attention to facial affect might boost emotional processing during the EPN time window. Additionally, late controlled processing of facial emotions appears to involve a negativity bias and the increased allocation of resources toward attended (relative to unattended) faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression and social anxiety are common disorders that have a profound impact on social functioning. The need for studying the neural substrates of social interactions in mental disorders using interactive tasks has been emphasized. The field of neuroeconomics, which combines neuroscience techniques and behavioral economics multiplayer tasks such as the Ultimatum Game (UG), can contribute in this direction. We assessed emotions, behavior, and Event‐Related Potentials in participants with depression and/or social anxiety symptoms (MD/SA, n = 63, 57 females) and healthy controls (n = 72, 67 females), while they played the UG. In this task, participants received fair, mid‐value, and unfair offers from other players. Mixed linear models were implemented to assess trial level changes in neural activity. The MD/SA group reported higher levels of sadness in response to mid‐value and unfair offers compared to controls. In controls, the Medial Frontal Negativity associated with fair offers increased over time, while this dynamic was not observed in the MD/SA group. The MD/SA group showed a decreased P3/LPP in all offers, compared to controls. These results indicate an enhanced negative emotional response to unfairness in the MD/SA group. Neural results reveal a blunted response over time to positive social stimuli in the MD/SA group. Moreover, between‐group differences in P3/LPP may relate to a reduced saliency of offers and/or to a reduced availability of resources for processing incoming stimuli in the MD/SA group. Findings may shed light into the neural substrates of social difficulties in these disorders. It is crucial to study the neural substrates of social interactions in mental health using interactive tasks that immerse the participant in a social context. The Ultimatum Game was used to assess ERPs to fair, mid‐value, and unfair offers from others in depressed and/or socially anxious volunteers. We found blunted neural responses over time to fair offers as well as reduced availability of resources for processing incoming social stimuli in depression and social anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heightened sensitivity to unpredictable threat has been identified as a potential transdiagnostic mechanism of psychopathology. The majority of supporting research has been conducted in adults, and it is unclear whether psychophysiological indicators of sensitivity to unpredictable threat are comparable in youth during developmental periods associated with increased risk for psychopathology. In addition, no studies have examined whether sensitivity to unpredictable threat is correlated between parents and their offspring. The present study examined defensive motivation (startle reflex) and attentional engagement (probe N100, P300) in anticipation of predictable and unpredictable threat in a sample of 15‐year‐old adolescents (N = 395) and a biological parent (N = 379). Adolescents, compared to their parents, demonstrated greater startle potentiation and probe N100 enhancement in anticipation of unpredictable threat. In addition, overall startle potentiation in anticipation of threat was correlated between the adolescents and their parents. Adolescence is a key developmental period characterized by heightened defensive motivation and attentional engagement in anticipation of both predictable and unpredictable threat. Sensitivity to threat might index is one mechanism of vulnerability that is at least partially shared between parents and their offspring. This is the first family study to compare multiple psychophysiological indicators of sensitivity to unpredictable threat between adolescents and their biological parents. Adolescents, relative to their parents, demonstrate greater defensive motivation and early attentional engagement in anticipation of unpredictable threat. Moreover, the study provides novel evidence that defensive motivation in anticipation of threat is positively correlated between adolescents and their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention is the process of selecting relevant information and suppressing irrelevant information. However, it is still controversial whether attentional capture by salient but task‐irrelevant stimuli operates in a bottom‐up fashion (stimulus‐driven theory) or a top‐down fashion (goal‐driven theory) or if even salient distractors can be suppressed before capturing attention (signal suppression theory). In the present study, we investigated how saliency affects attentional capture (indexed by N2‐posterior‐contralateral [N2pc]) and suppression (indexed by distractor positivity [PD]) of abrupt‐onset and color singleton distractors in a visual search task. Experiment 1 showed that an abrupt‐onset distractor elicited both N2pc and PD, while a color singleton distractor elicited only PD. Moreover, the abrupt‐onset distractor elicited a larger N2pc and a larger PD relative to the color singleton distractor. In addition, both distractors elicited an early positive component, the positivity posterior contralateral (Ppc), which was also larger for abrupt onsets than for color singletons. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that when both the abrupt onset and color singleton were designed as targets, and thus required no attentional suppression, Ppc was elicited, but PD was not. This corroborated the finding in Experiment 1 that the later PD, not the early Ppc, reflected attentional suppression. Therefore, a more salient distractor demonstrates stronger early perceptual processing, can capture attention better and needs more attentional resources to be suppressed later. Based on these results, a three‐stage hypothesis is proposed, in which the saliency of a distractor modulates processing at early perception, attentional capture, and suppression stages. We provide strong evidence that attentional capture, measured by the N2pc component, occurs before suppression, measured by the PD component. We proposed a three‐stage model of attentional processing of a salient distractor, in which saliency of the distractor plays a crucial role. Our findings shed light on our understanding of how the visual attention system reacts to salient changes in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulties in face recognition contribute to social‐cognitive problems in autistic children. Evidence on behavioral interventions targeting this cognitive domain is limited. In non‐autistic individuals, a single exercise session is known to elicit temporary benefits for several cognitive functions. Our study investigates whether acute aerobic exercise influences face recognition in autistic children. In a randomized order, 29 participants completed a 20‐min moderately‐intense cycling bout on an ergometer and a control condition. Before and after each condition, participants categorized Mooney faces and instruments during a computerized cognitive task. Simultaneously, the N170 component of event‐related potentials and pupil size were recorded using electroencephalography and eyetracking, respectively. As indicated by a greater increase of reaction time in the exercise compared to the control condition, the results revealed impaired face recognition following aerobic exercise. This effect was accompanied by a lower decrease of the positive N170 amplitude and a trend towards a greater constriction of the pupil size in the exercise compared to the control condition. Our findings highlight the interplay of the physiological state and face recognition in autistic children. Exercise‐induced impairments in this social‐cognitive ability may be due to an interference with the learning effect that is typically seen for the structural encoding of faces. Lay Summary: Our findings indicate that a single aerobic exercise session temporarily impairs the ability to recognize faces in autistic children. On a neuronal level, this is due to a blocking of a learning effect that can be expected in difficult face recognition tasks. Following exercise, autistic children may experience an arousal level that is disadvantageous for social communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During preparation for action, the presentation of loud acoustic stimuli (LAS) can trigger movements at very short latencies in a phenomenon called the StartReact effect. It was initially proposed that a special, separate subcortical mechanism that bypasses slower cortical areas could be involved. We sought to examine the evidence for a separate mechanism against the alternative that responses to LAS can be explained by a combination of stimulus intensity effects and preparatory states. To investigate whether cortically mediated preparatory processes are involved in mediating reactions to LAS, we used an auditory reaction task where we manipulated the preparation level within each trial by altering the conditional probability of the imperative stimulus. We contrasted responses to non‐intense tones and LAS and examined whether cortical activation and subcortical excitability and motor responses were influenced by preparation levels. Increases in preparation levels were marked by gradual reductions in reaction time (RT) coupled with increases in cortical activation and subcortical excitability – at both condition and trial levels. Interestingly, changes in cortical activation influenced motor and auditory but not visual areas – highlighting the widespread yet selective nature of preparation. RTs were shorter to LAS than tones, but the overall pattern of preparation level effects was the same for both stimuli. Collectively, the results demonstrate that LAS responses are indeed shaped by cortically mediated preparatory processes. The concurrent changes observed in brain and behavior with increasing preparation reinforce the notion that preparation is marked by evolving brain states which shape the motor system for action. Our findings challenge the notion that fast responses to intense sensory stimuli bypass motor regions of the cortex. They also show that the dynamic nature of movement preparation is highly tuned to the conditional probability of an event. Furthermore, our results corroborate recent findings suggesting that movement preparation may be supported by activity in the auditory cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Excessiv generalization of fear contributes to the development and maintenance of pain. Prior research has demonstrated the importance of perception in fear generalization and found that individuals in painful conditions exhibited perceptual bias. However, the extent to which perceptual bias in pain affects the generalization of pain‐related fear and its underlying neural activity remains unclear. Methods: Here, we tested whether perceptual bias in experimental pain individuals led to the overgeneralization of pain‐related fear by recording behavioral and neural responses. To this end, we established an experimental pain model by spraying capsaicin on the surface of the seventh cervical vertebra of the participant. A total of 23 experimental pain participants and 23 matched nonpain controls learned fear conditioning and then completed the fear generalization paradigm combined with the perceptual categorization task. Results: We found that the novel and safety cues were more likely to be identified as threat cues in the experimental group, resulting in higher US expectancy ratings compared to the control group. The event‐related potential results showed that the experimental group exhibited earlier N1 latency and smaller P1 and late positive potential amplitudes than those in the control group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the experimental pain individuals exhibited an excessive generalization of fear affected by perceptual bias and reduced their attentional allocation to pain‐related fear stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human learners are capable to acquire foreign language vocabulary at an impressive speed even in adulthood. Previous studies have examined the neural mechanisms underlying rapid acquisition of Latin-alphabet vocabulary and revealed dynamic changes in several event-related potential (ERP) components during novel word learning. However, scant attention has been paid to the acquisition of Russian words. The present study used ERP and examined dynamic brain responses to rapid Russian word acquisition in 53 native Chinese speakers with no prior knowledge of Russian language. Behavioral data showed robust individual differences in Russian word acquisition, with most participants being able to rapidly learn a subset of novel Russian words in a few exposures. ERP results revealed significant learning effects in the P200, N400, and P600 amplitudes. Moreover, P600 amplitude changes predicted participants' word acquisition after learning. These findings demonstrated dynamic brain responses to rapid Russian word learning and suggested that the P600 component may serve as a bio-marker for individual learning ability in Russian word acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During unperturbed bipedal standing, postural control is governed primarily by subcortical and spinal networks. However, it is unclear if cortical networks begin to play a greater role when stability is threatened. This study investigated how initial and repeated exposure to a height‐related postural threat modulates cortical potentials time‐locked to discrete centre of pressure (COP) events during standing. Twenty‐seven young adults completed a series of 90‐s standing trials at LOW (0.8 m above the ground, away from edge) and HIGH (3.2 m above the ground, at edge) threat conditions. Three LOW trials were completed before and after 15 consecutive HIGH trials. Participants stood on a force plate while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. To examine changes in cortical activity in response to discrete postural events, prominent forward and backward peaks in the anterior–posterior COP time series were identified. EEG data were waveform‐averaged to these events and the amplitude of event‐related cortical activity was calculated. At the LOW condition, event‐related potentials (ERPs) were scarcely detectable. However, once individuals stood at the HIGH condition, clear ERPs were observed, with more prominent potentials being observed for forward (edge‐directed), compared to backward, COP events. Since forward COP peaks accelerate the centre of mass away from the platform edge, these results suggest there is intermittent recruitment of cortical networks that may be involved in the detection and minimization of postural sway toward a perceived threat. This altered cortical engagement appears resistant to habituation and may contribute to threat‐related balance changes that persist following repeated threat exposure. Key points: While standing balance control is regulated primarily by subcortical and spinal processes, it is unclear if cortical networks play a greater role when stability is threatened.This study examined how cortical potentials time‐locked to prominent peaks in the anterior–posterior centre of pressure (COP) time series were modulated by exposure to a height‐related postural threat.While cortical potentials recorded over the primary sensorimotor cortices were scarcely detectable under non‐threatening conditions, clear cortical potentials were observed when individuals stood under conditions of height‐related threat.Cortical potentials were larger in response to COP peaks directed toward, compared to away from, the platform edge, and showed limited habituation with repeated threat exposure.Since forward COP peaks accelerate the centre of mass away from the platform edge, these findings suggest that when balance is threatened, there is intermittent recruitment of cortical networks, which may minimize the likelihood of falling in the direction of a perceived threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of studies investigating the relationship between respiratory phases and cognitive/neural processing of external events has been increasing, but the findings remain controversial. This registered report examined the effect of the respiratory phase on the discrimination accuracy of visual stimuli in the emotional and non‐emotional domains. Forty‐two healthy young participants were asked to choose fearful over neutral facial expressions and to choose high‐contrast over low‐contrast Gabor patches during spontaneous nasal respiration. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were also recorded for each type of stimulus presented during each respiratory phase. It was hypothesized that discrimination accuracy would be higher when the stimuli were presented during inhalation than during exhalation. It was also hypothesized that the amplitudes of ERPs elicited by the stimuli would be greater during inhalation than during exhalation. For comparison, the effect of the cardiac phase was examined, with the expectation that discrimination accuracy would be higher when the stimuli were presented during systole than during diastole. It was also hypothesized that the amplitudes of ERPs elicited by the stimuli would be greater during systole than during diastole. As expected, the results indicated that fear discrimination accuracy was higher during inhalation than exhalation and during systole than diastole. However, this was not the case for contrast discrimination. No differences in ERPs were observed between respiratory phases in either task. These results suggest that natural breathing in through the nose facilitates the discrimination of emotional stimuli, possibly via subcortical processes. Using a two‐alternative forced‐choice task, this registered report demonstrated that discrimination accuracy of emotional visual stimuli was higher when they were presented during inhalation than during exhalation. This effect was not observed for non‐emotional visual stimuli. Event‐related potentials elicited by the facial images did not differ between the two respiratory phases. These results suggest that respiratory phases affect the perceptual processing of emotional stimuli, possibly via subcortical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary addresses how studies examining the neurophysiological correlates of racial categorization can provide insight into the neurocognitive mechanisms of the other‐race effect in recognition memory. Several articles in the special issue describe how event‐related potentials (ERPs) have been used to examine processing of faces that vary according to race, some of which have concluded that larger ERP amplitudes elicited by other‐race (relative to own‐race) faces indicates less efficient visual processing of other‐race faces. I describe findings from ERP studies of race categorization that suggest an alternative interpretation–that other‐race faces elicit stronger categorization, which impedes individuation of other‐race faces. Suggestions for future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the most well‐documented sequelae of early maltreatment and institutionalisation is attachment problems, including behaviours under the labels of reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED). Despite growing evidence of the neurobiological effects of institutionalisation, the neural correlates of these behavioural patterns are largely unknown. Methods: The current study examined effects of both institutionalisation in general and attachment disordered behaviour, in particular, on brain‐based markers of face processing, in 100 Portuguese children (70 currently institutionalised, 30 continuously raised by their families). Children's neural processing of caregiver's and stranger's faces was assessed with Event‐Related Potentials (ERPs). Results: Compared to children from the community, institutionalised children showed smaller amplitudes in the N170, to both stranger and caregiver faces. Amongst the institutionalised group, living in a setting with a higher children‐to‐caregivers' ratio was associated with smaller P400 amplitudes. The display of DSED symptoms was associated with a smaller P1 to both faces, as well as a reduced differentiation between faces in P400 amplitudes and smaller P400 to the stranger's face. In contrast, RAD symptoms were not associated with any ERP measures. Conclusions: Results replicate previously reported hypoactivation in institutionalised children, in a less‐globally deprived setting than past work, indicating that such a pattern is associated with lack of individualised care and increased symptoms of DSED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both stress and blunted reward responsiveness have been identified as core risk factors of depression. Whether blunted reward responsiveness increases psychological vulnerability to real‐life stress from a dynamic perspective (from stress reactivity to recovery) has not been investigated. By utilizing a real‐world stressful event (i.e. the final examination), this study aimed to explore the role of reward responsiveness in the stress‐emotional distress relationship during stress reactivity and recovery phases. We followed 57 undergraduates with three assessments, from six weeks before examination weeks (T1, baseline), one day before the examinations (T2) to two weeks after the examinations (T3), therefore, covering stress reactivity (T1 to T2) and recovery (T2 to T3) phases. At baseline, reward responsiveness was measured as the Reward Positivity (RewP) in the doors task. Stress and emotional distress (anxiety and depression) were reported at T1, T2 and T3 to capture their dynamic changes. Results showed that self‐report stress levels significantly increased from T1 to T2 (stress reactivity phase) and decreased from T2 to T3 (stress recovery phase). Furthermore, blunted reward responsiveness at baseline prospectively predicted emotional distress during the stress reactivity phase but not the recovery phase. Specifically, during the stress reactivity phase, higher perceived stress was associated with greater anxiety and depression only in participants with relatively smaller residual RewP amplitudes but not in participants with relatively larger residual RewP amplitudes. Our study demonstrated that a blunted reward responsiveness is a vulnerable factor of depression, especially when exposed to stress. Our findings provide insights into prevention and intervention for stress‐related disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing facial expressions is crucial for adaptive social interaction. Prior empirical research on facial expression processing has primarily focused on isolated faces; however, facial expressions appear embedded in surrounding scenes in everyday life. In this study, we attempted to demonstrate how the online car‐hailing scene affects the processing of facial expression. This study examined the processing of drivers' facial expressions in scenes by recording event‐related potentials, in which neutral or happy faces embedded in online car‐hailing orders were constructed (with type of vehicle, driver rating, driver surname, and level of reputation controlled). A total of 35 female volunteers participated in this experiment and were asked to judge which facial expressions that emerged in scenes of online car‐hailing were more trustworthy. The results revealed an interaction between facial expression scenes, brain areas, and electrode sites in the late positive potential, which indicated that happy faces elicited larger amplitudes than did neutral ones in the parietal areas and that scenes with happy facial expressions had shorter latencies than did those with neutral ones. As expected, the late positive potential evoked by happy facial expressions in a scene was larger than that evoked by neutral ones, which reflected motivated attention and motivational response processes. This study highlights the importance of scenes as context in the study of facial expression processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most prominent characteristics of psychopathy is a reduced processing of emotionally relevant information. However, it is still unclear how attentional mechanisms may modulate this deficit. The current study aimed to examine the impact of attentional focus on emotion processing in relation to the triarchic constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. Participants performed two tasks in which pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant framed pictures were presented. In the first task, participants were required to indicate the color of the frame (alternative‐focus task), whereas in the second task they were instructed to indicate the emotional category of the image (affect‐focus task). The Late Positive Potential (LPP) was used as an index of sustained engagement of attention to affective material. Confirming a successful task manipulation, we observed reduced LPP amplitudes, particularly for affective relevant material, in the alternative‐focus task compared to the affect‐focus task. Most interestingly, our results evidenced that trait meanness scores were associated with blunted elaborative processing of affective material (both appetitive and aversive) when this information was task‐relevant (affect‐focus task), but not when it was task‐irrelevant (alternative‐focus task). These findings indicate that high mean individuals are characterized by blunted elaborative processing of affective stimuli when their motivational relevance is determined in a top‐down manner (i.e., when it is task‐relevant). Our results highlight the need for further studying of the bottom‐up and top‐down dynamics of emotional attention in psychopathy. This study aims to clarify the impact of attentional focus on emotion processing regarding the triarchic psychopathy constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. The LPP was assessed under different attentional instructions to investigate the bottom‐up and top‐down dynamics of emotional attention. Meanness traits predicted blunted elaborative processing of affective material when their relevance was manipulated in a top‐down manner, indicating that a general blunted affective experience might underlie the core affective features of psychopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By recording event‐related potentials (ERPs) during a dot‐probe task, the present study examined the neural dynamics of attentional bias toward height‐related words among height dissatisfied males. Sixty male participants screened by Negative Physical Self Scale‐Stature Concerns subscale (NPS‐S) were assigned into a high height dissatisfaction (HHD) group and a low height dissatisfaction (LHD) group. The results showed that tall‐related versus neutral words elicited larger N2pc for both HHD and LHD groups, whereas short‐related versus neutral words elicited larger N2pc only for the HHD group. Additionally, an evident Pd was elicited by tall‐related words for the HHD group, but not for the LHD group. Taken together, these findings revealed attentional biases toward height‐related information for HHD individuals on a neural level. Specifically, HHD individuals showed an enhanced spatial attention oriented toward both tall‐related and short‐related words, and then, the allocated attention to the tall‐related words was terminated by an active suppression mechanism. Information processing biases for height dissatisfaction have been seldom studied. The present study investigated this topic by focusing on the components related to attention orienting (N2pc) and distractor suppression (Pd) in a dot‐probe task. Our findings clarified the selective attentional biases toward height‐related information for height dissatisfied individuals and may have important implications for clinical examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]