Incongruence between Verbal and Non-Verbal Information Enhances the Late Positive Potential

Abstract

Smooth social communication consists of both verbal and non-verbal information. However, when presented with incongruence between verbal information and nonverbal information, the relationship between an individual judging trustworthiness in those who present the verbal-nonverbal incongruence and the brain activities observed during judgment for trustworthiness are not clear. In the present study, we attempted to identify the impact of incongruencies between verbal information and facial expression on the value of trustworthiness and brain activity using event-related potentials (ERP). Combinations of verbal information [positive/negative] and facial expressions [smile/angry] expressions were presented randomly on a computer screen to 17 healthy volunteers. The value of trustworthiness of the presented facial expression was evaluated by the amount of donation offered by the observer to the person depicted on the computer screen. In addition, the time required to judge the value of trustworthiness was recorded for each trial. Using electroencephalography, ERP were obtained by averaging the wave patterns recorded while the participants judged the value of trustworthiness. The amount of donation offered was significantly lower when the verbal information and facial expression were incongruent, particularly for [negative × smile]. The amplitude of the early posterior negativity (EPN) at the temporal lobe showed no significant difference between all conditions. However, the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) at the parietal electrodes for the incongruent condition [negative × smile] was higher than that for the congruent condition [positive × smile]. These results suggest that the LPP amplitude observed from the parietal cortex is involved in the processing of incongruence between verbal information and facial expression.

Age-related decline in emotional perspective-taking: Its effect on the late positive potential

“…As we found an opposite pattern of activation, it is possible that our task could have evoked other neural processes than the ones underlying the priming effects reported by previous studies (Diéguez-Risco et al, 2013Morioka et al, 2016). For instance, Diéguez-Risco et al (2013 used happy-or anger-inducing sentences that might have worked as primes during the processing of FEE.…”

“…The results obtained in the LPPs were consistent between the early and late time-windows, showing higher amplitudes in congruent than in incongruent trials. The direction of this effect is unexpected, since previous studies using context-target congruency tasks found larger LPPs after incongruent FEE, in conditions involving both implicit (Diéguez-Risco et al, 2013;Morioka et al, 2016) and explicit processing of congruency (Diéguez-Risco et al, 2015). Higher LPP amplitudes elicited by incongruent trials are systematically reported in the priming literature, namely in tasks requiring an evaluative congruity between primes and facial (Herring et al, 2011;Werheid, Alpay, Jentzsch, & Sommer, 2005) or verbal targets (Zhang, Li, Gold, & Jiang, 2010).…”

“…This component reflects facilitated attention to emotional stimuli, and its amplitude is greater after emotionally arousing compared to neutral pictures (Foti & Hajcak, 2008). In studies such as ours, which manipulated congruency between a prime and a target, the LPP indexes the processing of affective or evaluative congruency, and its amplitude is larger to incongruent targets compared to congruent ones (Morioka et al, 2016). This component is also modulated by cognitive appraisal and motivated attention (Weinberg & Hajcak, 2010), helping scenes (Cowell & Decety, 2015), and morally good actions (Yoder & Decety, 2014).…”

VALIDA: A Validation Therapy-Training Program for Staff of a Residential Care Facility

“…The facilitator' role in VT training needs to be emphasized. The communication incongruence, that is, when verbal and nonverbal information are inconsistent, diminishes trustworthiness (Morioka et al, 2016). Therefore, the facilitator needs to embody the validation methods and be empathic.…”

Specific Features of Perception of Semantically Equivalent Stimuli in the Verbal and Visual Form

“…The P3 component registered in the same areas is being associated with operations on comparing the incoming information to the inner model of the stimulus and decision whether they are identical or not [42,43]. It is also supposed that the frontal areas of the cortex are connected with the operative memory mechanisms [44,45] and are responsible for evaluating the significance of verbal and non-verbal stimuli depending on the context and past experience [46,47]. The activation of those areas associated with verbal thinking (starting with analyzing letters and up to pronounce words mentally) was demonstrated, in particular, by fMRI [9,48].…”