Electrocortical reactivity to emotional images and faces in middle childhood to early adolescence

Kujawa, Autumn; Klein, Daniel N.; Hajcak, Greg

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2012.03.005

Cited by 84 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This argument is consistent with the ratings we obtained for facial expressions in the present study, which were rated as less arousing and not as unpleasant as IAPS scenes. Furthermore, some previous behavioral evidence suggested that task-irrelevant emotional faces, although capable of involuntarily "capturing" sensory processing resources in visual cortex, do not exhibit a significant impact on behavior (Fenker et al 2010;Kujawa et al 2012). Nevertheless, the capture of attention was clearly visible in the initial drop in SSVEP amplitudes as well as in target detection rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

2015

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Emotionally arousing stimuli are known to rapidly draw the brain's processing resources, even when they are task-irrelevant. The steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) response, a neural response to a flickering stimulus which effectively allows measurement of the processing resources devoted to that stimulus, has been used to examine this process of attentional shifting. Previous studies have used a task in which participants detected periods of coherent motion in flickering random dot kinematograms (RDKs) which generate an SSVEP, and found that task-irrelevant emotional stimuli rapidly withdraw attentional resources from the task-relevant RDKs. However, it is not clear whether the changes in the SSVEP response are conditional on higher-level extraction of emotional cues as indexed by well-known event-related potential (ERPs) components, or if affective bias in competition for visual attention resources could be a consequence of an inherent, relatively time-invariant shifting process. In the present study, we used two different types of emotional distractors -IAPS pictures and facial expressions -for which emotional cue extraction occurs at different speeds, being typically earlier for faces (at ~170 ms, as indexed by the N170) than for IAPS images (220-230 ms, Early Posterior Negativity, EPN). We found that attentional resources were withdrawn from the foreground task towards task-irrelevant emotional background images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) following the extraction of emotional cues as indexed by visual ERP components. We also found that emotional modulation of attentional resources as measured by the SSVEP occurred earlier for faces (around 180 ms) than for IAPS pictures (around 400 ms). This is consistent with lowlevel attentional resources being re-allocated after emotional cue extraction rather than being linked to a time-fixed shifting process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

2015

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“…Prior to the hurricane, participants completed a version of the emotional interrupt paradigm (43; 44) previously used to measure the LPP in youth (37; 45). Sixty developmentally appropriate pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; 46) were presented: 20 pleasant images (e.g., children playing, cute animals), 20 neutral images (e.g., people in neutral situations, household objects), and 20 unpleasant or threatening images (e.g., sad/angry people, aggressive animals, weapons).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Stimuli Prospectively Predicts the Impact of a Natural Disaster on Psychiatric Symptoms in Children

Kujawa

Hajcak

Danzig

et al. 2016

Biological Psychiatry

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Background Natural disasters expose entire communities to stress and trauma, leading to increased risk for psychiatric symptoms. Yet, the majority of exposed individuals are resilient, highlighting the importance of identifying underlying factors that contribute to outcomes. Methods The current study was part of a larger prospective study of children in Long Island, NY (N = 260). At age 9, children viewed unpleasant and pleasant images while the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) component that reflects sustained attention towards salient information, was measured. Following the ERP assessment, Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history, hit the region. Eight weeks after the hurricane, mothers reported on exposure to hurricane-related stress and children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Symptoms were re-assessed 8 months after the hurricane. Results The LPP predicted both internalizing and externalizing symptoms after accounting for pre-hurricane symptomatology, and interacted with stress to predict externalizing symptoms. Among children exposed to higher levels of hurricane-related stress, enhanced neural reactivity to unpleasant images predicted greater externalizing symptoms 8 weeks after the disaster, while greater neural reactivity to pleasant images predicted lower externalizing symptoms. Moreover, interactions between the LPP and stress continued to predict externalizing symptoms 8 months after the hurricane. Conclusions Results indicate that heightened neural reactivity and attention towards unpleasant information, as measured by the LPP, predisposes children to psychiatric symptoms when exposed to higher levels of stress related to natural disasters, while greater reactivity to and processing of pleasant information may be a protective factor.

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“…Given evidence of distinct effects of depression on the LPP (Foti et al, 2010; Kayser et al, 2000; Kujawa, Hajcak et al, 2012), we also evaluated effects of depressive symptoms, hypothesizing that depressive symptoms would be associated with blunted LPPs to emotional faces. Due to normative developmental changes in the LPP (Hajcak & Dennis, 2009; Kujawa, Klein, & Hajcak, 2012; Kujawa, Klein et al, 2013), we controlled for age in all analyses. Lastly, given limited previous work evaluating the LPP in youth anxiety disorders, additional exploratory analyses examined whether enhanced LPPs to threat were specific to certain anxiety disorders or to clinical anxiety more generally and/or whether enhanced LPPs were more evident in more severe anxiety.…”

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confidence: 99%

Enhanced Neural Reactivity to Threatening Faces in Anxious Youth: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Kujawa

MacNamara

Fitzgerald

et al. 2015

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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Anxiety disorders are characterized by enhanced reactivity to threat, and event-related potentials (ERPs) are useful neural measures of the dynamics of threat processing. In particular, the late positive potential (LPP) is an ERP component that reflects sustained attention towards motivationally salient information. Previous studies in adults suggest that the LPP is enhanced to threatening stimuli in anxiety but blunted in depression; however, very little work has evaluated the LPP to threat in anxious youth. We measured the LPP during an emotional face-matching task in youth (age 7–19) with current anxiety disorders (n = 53) and healthy controls with no history of psychopathology (n = 37). We evaluated group differences, as well as the effect of depressive symptoms on the LPP. Youth with anxiety disorders exhibited enhanced LPPs to angry and fearful faces 1000–2000 ms after stimulus onset. Higher depressive symptoms were associated with reduced LPPs to angry faces across both groups. Enhanced LPPs to threatening faces were most apparent for social anxiety disorder, as opposed to generalized anxiety or separation anxiety disorder. Results suggest the LPP may be a useful neural measure of threat reactivity in youth with anxiety disorders and highlight the importance of accounting for symptoms of both depression and anxiety when examining emotional processing.

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Electrocortical reactivity to emotional images and faces in middle childhood to early adolescence

Cited by 84 publications

References 30 publications

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Stimuli Prospectively Predicts the Impact of a Natural Disaster on Psychiatric Symptoms in Children

Enhanced Neural Reactivity to Threatening Faces in Anxious Youth: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

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