Visual mismatch negativity elicited by facial expressions: new evidence from the equiprobable paradigm

Abstract

BackgroundConverging evidence revealed that facial expressions are processed automatically. Recently, there is evidence that facial expressions might elicit the visual mismatch negativity (MMN), expression MMN (EMMN), reflecting that facial expression could be processed under non-attentional condition. In the present study, using a cross modality task we attempted to investigate whether there is a memory-comparison-based EMMN.Methods12 normal adults were instructed to simultaneously listen to a story and pay attention to a non-patterned white circle as a visual target interspersed among face stimuli. In the oddball block, the sad face was the deviant with a probability of 20% and the neutral face was the standard with a probability of 80%; in the control block, the identical sad face was presented with other four kinds of face stimuli with equal probability (20% for each). Electroencephalogram (EEG) was continuously recorded and ERPs (event-related potentials) in response to each kind of face stimuli were obtained. Oddball-EMMN in the oddball block was obtained by subtracting the ERPs elicited by the neutral faces (standard) from those by the sad faces (deviant), while controlled-EMMN was obtained by subtracting the ERPs elicited by the sad faces in the control block from those by the sad faces in the oddball block. Both EMMNs were measured and analyzed by ANOVAs (Analysis of Variance) with repeated measurements. sLORETA (standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography) was used to investigate the cortical generators of controlled-EMMN.ResultsBoth the oddball-EMMN in deviant-standard comparison and the controlled-EMMN in deviant-control comparison were observed at occipital-temporal regions with right hemisphere predominance. The oddball-EMMN was bigger and earlier than the controlled-EMMN because, besides the memory-based comparison, the former included a difference of refractoriness due to the distinction of presented probability between the deviant and standard face stimuli. The source analysis of controlled-EMMN indicated a current source primarily involved in posterior areas including superior temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobule as well as the insula.ConclusionsThe valid EMMN properly reflecting the memory-based comparison of facial expressions could be obtained, i.e., the controlled-EMMN.

Anger superiority effect for change detection and change blindness

“…It is notable that this differential negative deflection, like the N170 modulation, was more pronounced in the right hemisphere, which specializes in the processing of visual configural information [57]. Furthermore, vMMN studies using facial emotional expressions as deviant stimuli have reported similar right hemispheric dominance in the vMMN response [47,48]. Previous findings of change detection performance have shown that changes involving faces or other socially relevant stimuli are more easily detected than changes in socially neutral objects [43][44][45]58].…”

“…Because the experimental paradigm involved the presentation of repeated, unchanged visual displays interspersed by changed ones, we also expected to observe a visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) response to the changed stimuli. It has been shown that the vMMN response is elicited by regularity violations, also when participants are unaware of changes in stimuli [46][47][48].…”

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN): A review and meta-analysis of studies in psychiatric and neurological disorders

“…Visual MMN to changes in facial expressions has been reported several times in healthy participants (Astikainen, Cong, Ristaniemi, & Hietanen, 2013;Astikainen & Hietanen, 2009;Kimura, Kondo, Ohira, & Schr€ oger, 2012;Li, Lu, Sun, Gao, & Zhao, 2012;Susac, Ilmoniemi, Pihko, & Supek, 2003;Zhao & Li, 2006). Because both depression and BP are associated with abnormalities in emotion processing, and since depression affects social cognition (Wolkenstein, Sch€ onenberg, Schirm, & Hautzinger, 2011), vMMN seems to be a feasible tool to study altered emotion processing in this disorder.…”

Visual Mismatch Negativity and Categorization

“…The refractoriness issue is a central topic of vMMN research, but it is outside the scope of the present review. In a recent paper Li et al (2012) attempted to control the N170 refractoriness as a contributing factor of the deviant-minus-standard ERP difference in emotion-related vMMN. As the results showed, the contribution of selective N170 refractoriness cannot be ruled out; however, the emotion-related vMMN might have started in the early (~ 110 ms) latency range.…”

“…In these studies, either a set of standards acquired a category and the deviants were members of another category or the vMMN effects of category-member deviants and non-member deviants were compared. Currently, the effects of color categories (Athanasopoulos et al, 2010;Clifford et al, 2010;Fonteneau and Davidoff, 2007;Mo et al 2011), symmetry (Kecskés-Kovács et al 2013, facial emotions (Astikainen and Hietanen, 2009;Chang et al, 2010;Gayle et al, 2012;Li et al, 2012;Susac et al, 2010;Zhao and Li, 2006), left/right hand and gender have been investigated. In addition to the effects of language on color-related vMMN, the effects of word meaning (Wang et al, 2013) and phonological categorization (Files et al, 2013) were also investigated.…”