Abstract
Background: In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of the anticipatory activity of randomly presented faces and sounds of both high and low arousal level by recording EEG activity with a high spatial resolution EEG system. Methods: We preregistered the following three hypotheses: 1) a contingent Negative Variation (CNV) difference in the amplitude voltage between auditory vs faces stimuli; 2) a greater amplitude voltage in the CNV, in high arousal stimuli vs low arousal stimuli, both in auditory and faces stimuli, in the temporal window from 0 to 1000 ms before the stimulus presentation; 3) in the time window from 0 to 1000 ms a sensory specific activation at the brain source level in the temporal lobe and auditory cortex before the presentation of an auditory stimulus and an activation of occipital area, dedicated to the elaboration of visual stimuli, before the presentation of faces . Results: Using a preregistered, hypothesis-driven approach, we found no statistically significant differences in the CNV due to an overly conservative correction for multiple comparisons for the control of Type I error. By contrast, using a data-driven approach based on a machine learning algorithm (Support Vector Machine), we found a significantly larger amplitude in the occipital cluster of electrodes before the presentation of faces with respect to sounds, along with a larger amplitude in the right auditory cortex before the presentation of sounds with respect to faces. Furthermore, we found greater CNV activity in the late prestimulus interval for high vs. low-arousal sounds stimuli in the left centro-posterior scalp regions. Conclusions: These findings, although preliminary, seem to support the hypothesis that the neurophysiological anticipatory activity of random events is specifically driven by either the sensory characteristics or the arousal level of future stimuli.
Highlights
In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of the anticipatory activity of randomly presented faces and sounds of both high and low arousal level by recording EEG activity with a high spatial resolution EEG system
In our previous work (Duma et al, 2017), we investigated brain Predictive Anticipatory Activity (PPA) phenomena in relation to the passive presentation of randomly presented car accidents compared with safe journeys
The results showed a prestimulus greater Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) negativity amplitude for trials related to car crashes from those ending with no car accidents
Summary
We investigated the neural correlates of the anticipatory activity of randomly presented faces and sounds of both high and low arousal level by recording EEG activity with a high spatial resolution EEG system. Methods: We preregistered the following three hypotheses: 1) a contingent Negative Variation (CNV) difference in the amplitude voltage between auditory vs faces stimuli; 2) a greater amplitude voltage in the CNV, in high arousal stimuli vs low arousal stimuli, both in auditory and faces stimuli, in the temporal window from 0 to 1000 ms before the stimulus presentation; 3) in the time window from 0 to 1000 ms a sensory specific activation at the brain source level in the temporal lobe and auditory cortex before the presentation of an auditory stimulus and an activation of occipital area, dedicated to the elaboration of visual stimuli, before the presentation of faces. Conclusions: These findings, preliminary, seem to support the hypothesis that the neurophysiological anticipatory activity of random events is driven by either the sensory characteristics or the arousal level of future stimuli
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