Influences of social cognition on visuospatial attention: A neurophysiological investigation

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Influences of social cognition on visuospatial attention: A neurophysiological investigation Grace Wei1*, Jacqueline A. Rushby1, Christopher Sufani1 and Frances De Blasio1 1 University of New South Wales, Australia Aims: The reflexive orienting response triggered by non-predictive gaze cues is thought to be driven by a dedicated social neural network responsible for directing attention towards socially salient information. Atypical processing of eye gaze using concomitant perceptual features such as motion transients may underlie reflexive attentional orienting in groups with impairments in social cognition. Thus, reflecting the employment of qualitatively different cognitive mechanisms used to access social information. The present study examined the neurophysiological correlates of gaze processing, considering individual variability in social cognition and the relative salience of social and perceptual cues on visuospatial attention. Method: Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity and behavioural response time (RT) was recorded from 26 healthy adult participants during a spatial cueing task. Participants responded to presentations of a lateralised target on valid (congruently cued) or invalid (incongruently cued) trials across 3 conditions; social gaze, mouth motion and eye motion. Scores on the AQ, LSAS and TAS-20 were used to assess social cognitive functioning. ERP components were obtained with separate PCAs for each cue type and condition. Results: Behavioural analyses revealed cueing effects for the social gaze and mouth motion conditions. Responses did not differ significantly in the eye motion condition. In the social gaze condition, higher scores on the TAS-20 correlated with a reduction of the N2b frontal enhancement to invalid trials (r=.439, p<.05). In the mouth motion condition, higher LSAS and TAS scores were correlated with a greater overall N2b to invalid trials (r=.403, p<.05 and r=.429, p<.05 respectively). Conclusions: Findings suggest the social gaze cue is less salient for those with greater alexithymic traits. An attentional bias towards perceptual changes (mouth motion) parallel impairments in social cognitive functioning, and thus may reflect reduced sensitivity to social stimuli. Such paradigms may benefit investigations in clinical populations. Keywords: Event Related Potentials (ERPs), spatial attention, social cognition, Gaze Processing, Autism Spectrum Disorders, social anxiety, alexithymia, Principal Components Analysis (PCA), N2b Conference: ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Parramatta, Australia, 29 Nov - 1 Dec, 2017. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Abstract (Student Award) Citation: Wei G, Rushby JA, Sufani C and De Blasio F (2019). Influences of social cognition on visuospatial attention: A neurophysiological investigation. Conference Abstract: ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.224.00008 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Oct 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Ms. Grace Wei, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia, grace.wei@sydney.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Grace Wei Jacqueline A Rushby Christopher Sufani Frances De Blasio Google Grace Wei Jacqueline A Rushby Christopher Sufani Frances De Blasio Google Scholar Grace Wei Jacqueline A Rushby Christopher Sufani Frances De Blasio PubMed Grace Wei Jacqueline A Rushby Christopher Sufani Frances De Blasio Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.