Early Event-related Potential Components Research Articles

Posttraumatic growth modulates the response to negative emotions related to COVID-19: An event-related potentials study.

There is increasing interest in identifying how posttraumatic growth (PTG) impacts emotional processing following traumatic events (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Previous research suggests that high PTG levels may lead to enduring changes in positive emotional processing. Despite this fact, little is known regarding brain activation and responses to stressful emotional stimuli. The present study utilised event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether individual differences in emotional responses toward neutral and negative emotional stimuli related to COVID-19 are related to self-reported PTG levels. A total of 77 participants were analysed: 21 in the high PTG group and 56 in the control group. The amplitude of the N2 was smaller in the high PTG group compared to the control group under both negative and neutral conditions. When viewing the negative emotion pictures (vs. neutral pictures), the N2 amplitude significantly decreased for the high PTG group in the right occipital and frontal-parietal areas, whereas no significant change was observed among the control group. In the time window Late Positive Potential (LPP) 600-1000ms, emotional stimuli and the group interaction were significant. Viewing negative pictures (vs. neutral pictures) decreased the LPP 600-1000ms amplitudes for the control group, mainly originating from the brain's frontal regions. However, there were no such significant differences for the PTG group. Due to the limited sample size and cultural differences, the applicability of these results to other regions or countries needs to be verified. The presented findings suggest that the impact of PTG during emotional response is reflected in both bottom-up (evidenced by the early ERP components) and top-down (evidenced by the later ERP components) processes. Individuals with high PTG may use a meditation-related emotional regulation strategy of acceptance at the basic stage and non-judgement at a later stage.

In your skin? Somatosensory cortex is purposely recruited to situate but not simulate vicarious touch

Previous studies of vicarious touch suggest that we automatically simulate observed touch experiences in our own body representation including primary and secondary somatosensory cortex (SCx). However, whether these early sensory areas are activated in a reflexive manner and the extent with which such SCx activations represent touch qualities, like texture, remains unclear. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) of SCx's hierarchical processing stages, which map onto successive somatosensory ERP components, to investigate the timing of vicarious touch effects. In the first experiment, participants (n = 43) merely observed touch or no-touch to a hand; in the second, participants saw different touch textures (soft foam and hard rubber) either touching a hand (other-directed) or they were instructed that the touch was self-directed and to feel the touch. Each touch sequence was followed by a go/no-go task. We probed SCx activity and isolated SCx vicarious touch activations from visual carry over effects. We found that vicarious touch conditions (touch versus no-touch and soft versus hard) did not modulate early sensory ERP components (i.e. P50, N80); but we found effects on behavioural responses to the subsequent go/no-go stimulus consistent with post-perceptual effects. When comparing other- with self-directed touch conditions, we found that early and mid-latency components (i.e. P50, N80, P100, N140) were modulated consistent with early SCx activations. Importantly, these early sensory activations were not modulated by touch texture. Therefore, SCx is purposely recruited when participants are instructed to attend to touch; but such activation only situates, rather than fully simulates, the seen tactile experience in SCx.

Attention modulates early visual processing: An association between subjective contrast perception and early C1 ERP component.

The question of whether spatial attention can modulate initial afferent activity in area V1, as measured by the earliest visual event-related potential (ERP) component "C1", is still the subject of debate. Because attention always enhances behavioral performance, previous research has focused on finding evidence of attention-related enhancements in visual neural responses. However, recent psychophysical studies revealed a complex picture of attention's influence on visual perception: attention amplifies the perceived contrast of low-contrast stimuli while dampening the perceived contrast of high-contrast stimuli. This evidence suggests that attention may not invariably augment visual neural responses but could instead exert inhibitory effects under certain circumstances. Whether this bi-directional modulation of attention also manifests in C1 and whether the modulation of C1 underpins the attentional influence on contrast perception remain unknown. To address these questions, we conducted two experiments (N = 67 in total) by employing a combination of behavioral and ERP methodologies. Our results did not unveil a uniform attentional enhancement or attenuation effect of C1 across all subjects. However, an intriguing correlation between the attentional effects of C1 and contrast appearance for high-contrast stimuli did emerge, revealing an association between attentional modulation of C1 and the attentional modulation of contrast appearance. This finding offers new insights into the relationship between attention, perceptual experience, and early visual neural processing, suggesting that the attentional effect on subjective visual perception could be mediated by the attentional modulation of the earliest visual cortical response.

Sex Differences in Low-Level Multisensory Integration in Developmental Dyslexia.

Reading acquisition involves the integration of auditory and visual stimuli. Thus, low-level audiovisual multisensory integration might contribute to disrupted reading in developmental dyslexia. Although dyslexia is more frequently diagnosed in males and emerging evidence indicates that the neural basis of dyslexia might differ between sexes, previous studies examining multisensory integration did not evaluate potential sex differences nor tested its neural correlates. In the current study on 88 adolescents and young adults, we found that only males with dyslexia showed a deficit in multisensory integration of simple nonlinguistic stimuli. At the neural level, both females and males with dyslexia presented smaller differences in response to multisensory compared to those in response to unisensory conditions in the N1 and N2 components (early components of event-related potentials associated with sensory processing) than the control group. Additionally, in a subsample of 80 participants matched for nonverbal IQ, only males with dyslexia exhibited smaller differences in the left hemisphere in response to multisensory compared to those in response to unisensory conditions in the N1 component. Our study indicates that deficits of multisensory integration seem to be more severe in males than females with dyslexia. This provides important insights into sex-modulated cognitive processes that might confer vulnerability to reading difficulties.

Decrease in the P2 Amplitude of Object Working Memory after 8 h-Recovery Sleep Following 36 h-Total Sleep Deprivation: An ERP Study.

The impact of sleep deprivation on working memory can only be reversed by recovery sleep (RS). However, there are limited electrophysiological studies on the effect of RS on the improvement in working memory after sleep deprivation, and the changes in the early components of event-related potentials (ERPs) before and after RS are still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of RS on the earlier ERP components related to object working memory following 36 h of total sleep deprivation (TSD). Twenty healthy male participants performed an object working memory task after 36 h of TSD and after 8 h of RS. Electroencephalogram data were recorded accordingly while the task was performed. Repeated ANOVA showed that P2 amplitudes related to object working memory decreased significantly after 8 h of RS compared to after a 36 h period of TSD, but there was no significant difference from baseline (BS), which indicates a trend of recovery to the baseline state. An 8 h RS can partially improve impaired object working memory caused by TSD. However, a longer period of RS is needed for the complete recovery of cognitive function after a long period of TSD.

Dissociating different temporal stages of emotional word processing by feature-based attention

Negative emotional content is prioritized across different stages of information processing as reflected by different components of the event-related potential (ERP). In this preregistered study (N = 40), we investigated how varying the attentional focus allows us to dissociate the involvement of specific ERP components in the processing of negative and neutral words. Participants had to discriminate the orientation of lines overlaid onto the words, the word type (adjective/noun), or the emotional content (negative/neutral). Thus, attention was either not focused on words (distraction task), non-emotional aspects, or the emotional relevance of words. Regardless of the task, there were no significant differences between negative and neutral words for the P1, N1, or P2 components. In contrast, interactions between emotion and task were observed for the early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP). EPN differences were absent during the distraction task but were present in the other two tasks. LPP emotion differences were found only when attention was directed to the emotional content of words. Our study adds to the evidence that early ERP components do not reliably separate negative and neutral words. However, results show that mid-latency and late stages of emotion processing are separable by different attention tasks. The EPN represents a stage of attentional enhancement of negative words given sufficient attentional resources. Differential activations during the LPP stage are associated with more elaborative processing of the emotional meaning of words.

Neurocognitive Impairment in Non-Central Nervous System Cancer Survivors

Abstract: Cancer and its treatments entail a profound inflammatory response of the central nervous system (CNS). This intense neurotoxic process can lead to significant neurocognitive impairment even in non-CNS cancers. Few studies have examined this domain, and data available is based on limited designs using neuropsychological assessments comprising self-report or traditional testing batteries that capture basic response data. Here, we leverage cognitive electrophysiology, specifically Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), to examine and delineate neurocognitive impairments in non-CNS cancer survivors. Eleven survivors, who were on average 4.6 years in remission from head and neck cancer and 10 matched healthy controls underwent standardized cognitive and emotional “Go-Nogo” paradigms concomitant to EEG recording. Significant differences in amplitude morphology in the very early ERP components (C1, N1, P1) and middle ERP component (N2), were apparent between non-CNS cancer survivors and controls. Later ERP components (P3, N4) did not show amplitude differences. Non-CNS cancer survivors yielded faster latencies in the early components for pain-related stimuli during the emotional paradigm, albeit tended to yield slower ERP latencies overall across both experiments. These findings suggest that early gating and inhibitory control are dysregulated in non-CNS cancer survivors, which can impact executive functioning and cognitive processing involved in everyday activities for many years post-treatment. The findings do not fully align with ERP morphologies associated with neurocognitive impairment in degenerative conditions (such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease), affecting later-stage ERP components. Our initial results suggest that (1) cognitive impairments in cancer survivors do not follow a degenerative trajectory, (2) rather are in line with “lesion” related damage (such as stroke, epilepsy), and as such, (3) have the potential for treatments involving neurocognitive plasticity.

Biological postural oscillations during facial expression of pain in virtual characters modulate early and late ERP components associated with empathy: A pilot study

There is a surge in the use of virtual characters in cognitive sciences. However, their behavioural realism remains to be perfected in order to trigger more spontaneous and socially expected reactions in users. It was recently shown that biological postural oscillations (idle motion) were a key ingredient to enhance the empathic response to its facial pain expression. The objective of this study was to examine, using electroencephalography, whether idle motion would modulate the neural response associated with empathy when viewing a pain-expressing virtual character. Twenty healthy young adults were shown video clips of a virtual character displaying a facial expression of pain while its body was either static (Still condition) or animated with pre-recorded human postural oscillations (Idle condition). Participants rated the virtual human's facial expression of pain as significantly more intense in the Idle condition compared to the Still condition. Both the early (N2–N3) and the late (rLPP) event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with distinct dimensions of empathy, affective resonance and perspective-taking, respectively, were greater in the Idle condition compared to the Still condition. These findings confirm the potential of idle motion to increase empathy for pain expressed by virtual characters. They are discussed in line with contemporary empathy models in relation to human-machine interactions.

Global mapping congruence influences phonological interference: ERP evidence for early and persistent ortho-phonological effects in reading Chinese for meaning.

Phonological interference during written-word meaning judgments occurs in both Chinese and English, suggesting that word-level phonological activation is universal rather than dependent on the sublexical structures that vary with writing systems. To accommodate this universality, we distinguish two sources of phonological congruence between a meaning-bearing orthographic unit (word or character) and other units in the orthographic lexicon: (a) Global congruence between a word (or character) and its orthographic neighbors having the same pronunciation and (b) Local congruence between a word (or character) and its graphic constituents (letters or radicals). Recent evidence by Zhou and Perfetti in 2021 shows a greater role for global than local congruence in covert naming of Chinese characters. We hypothesize this is true also for meaning processing and use behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures to test this hypothesis during character meaning judgments. As expected, we found word-level phonological interference in meaning decision times. Further, ERPs detected interference effects related to global congruence at early and mid-latency ERP components; local congruence effects emerged only in interaction with global congruence. A late ERP component (LPC) also showed phonological interference, but no effect on mapping congruence. These time-course results suggest two phases of phonological activation: (a) character identification, influenced mainly by global congruence, as indicated in early and mid-latency ERP components and (b) meaning comparison, influenced only by lexical phonology, as indicated by the LPC component. The early phase of lexical processing is much the same whether meaning or pronunciation is required because it engages ortho-phonological associations that are not easily suppressed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of Long-Term Shaolin Zen Meditation on Emotional Processing in Aging: A Visual ERP Study.

The aging process is always accompanied by a decline in cognitive and emotional functions. Although previous studies have identified the positive effects of different meditative practices on emotional and cognitive functions, few studies have investigated the most primitive Chinese meditation-Shaolin Zen meditation. In particular, data are extremely limited regarding the brain mechanism of the effects of Shaolin Zen meditation on cognitive and emotional functions during aging. The current study aimed to explore the effects of long-term Shaolin Zen meditation practice on event-related potentials (ERPs) during facial emotion recognition in aging. ERPs were recorded from 16 monks with long-term meditation experience and 20 controls without meditation experience. The significant age-related degenerative changes in the early ERP components did not present in the meditators but only in the controls without meditation experience. Additionally, we found no group differences in the late P3 component. These findings suggest that long-term Shaolin Zen meditation practice can counteract the age-related cognitive decline in the "down-top" automatic processing of emotional stimuli.

Real-life relevant face perception is not captured by the N170 but reflected in later potentials: A comparison of 2D and virtual reality stimuli.

The perception of faces is one of the most specialized visual processes in the human brain and has been investigated by means of the early event-related potential component N170. However, face perception has mostly been studied in the conventional laboratory, i.e., monitor setups, offering rather distal presentation of faces as planar 2D-images. Increasing spatial proximity through Virtual Reality (VR) allows to present 3D, real-life-sized persons at personal distance to participants, thus creating a feeling of social involvement and adding a self-relevant value to the presented faces. The present study compared the perception of persons under conventional laboratory conditions (PC) with realistic conditions in VR. Paralleling standard designs, pictures of unknown persons and standard control images were presented in a PC- and a VR-modality. To investigate how the mechanisms of face perception differ under realistic conditions from those under conventional laboratory conditions, the typical face-specific N170 and subsequent components were analyzed in both modalities. Consistent with previous laboratory research, the N170 lost discriminatory power when translated to realistic conditions, as it only discriminated faces and controls under laboratory conditions. Most interestingly, analysis of the later component [230-420 ms] revealed more differentiated face-specific processing in VR, as indicated by distinctive, stimulus-specific topographies. Complemented by source analysis, the results on later latencies show that face-specific neural mechanisms are applied only under realistic conditions (A video abstract is available in the Supplementary material and via YouTube: https://youtu.be/TF8wiPUrpSY).

Empathic concern induction modulates behavioral ratings and neural responses to harm-related moral judgment: An event-related potentials study

Although empathic concern is critical in harm-related moral judgment, the temporal dynamics underlying the impact of empathic concern on moral judgment remain unclear. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how empathic concern induction shaped the way individuals perceive harmful/helpful behaviors. Behavioral results showed that participants assigned more blame to harmful behaviors in the empathic concern priming condition compared to those in the control condition. ERP results showed that helpful behaviors elicited larger N1 than did harmful behaviors. Additionally, harmful behaviors in the empathic concern priming condition elicited more negative N2 than did harmful behaviors in the control condition. Moreover, harmful behaviors elicited larger late positive potential (LPP) than did helpful behaviors in the control condition. These findings suggest that (1) empathic concern induction might increase moral sensitivity about harm-related norms; (2) participants independent of the empathic concern manipulation can distinguish between harmful behaviors and helpful behaviors similarly, as indicated by the early ERP component (N1); (3) empathic concern especially influences the intermediate (N2) and later (LPP) ERP components.

Electrocortical effects of detachment and reinterpretation on the regulation of negative emotion

Research has suggested a contradictory effect between detachment and reinterpretation, two distinct tactics of cognitive reappraisal, in the regulation of negative emotion. The reasons for this contradictory effect remain unclear. The present study explored the differences between these tactics in terms of potential early processes and neural mechanisms, comparing psychophysiological differences using event-related potentials (ERPs) in the regulation of negative emotion. Thirty college students were required to perform an emotion regulation task, in which they naturally viewed or applied a given emotion regulation strategy towards negative pictures. The results demonstrated that both tactics reduced emotional experiences (decrease of arousal and increase of valence). Reinterpretation was associated with reductions in the late positive potential (LPP) in the late time window, while detachment was not. Detachment showed a lower amplitude in the N1 and N2 ERP components and a higher P2 amplitude than reinterpretation. The differences in early ERP components (N1, N2, and P2) predicted the reduction of LPP amplitude. These findings reveal the differential effects of these tactics on emotional experience and neural responses and highlight the significance of early processes on emotion across the time course of cognitive reappraisal.

Automatic attention to sexual stimuli: exploring the role of neuroticism and sexual excitation/inhibition through event-related potentials.

Previous findings have shown that neuroticism is a higher-order vulnerability factor in the development and maintenance of sexual dysfunctions and can have an impact on the attentional processing of sexual stimuli; however, the influence of psychosexual dimensions on the early automatic phases of such cognitive processes has not been established yet. To examine the mediating role of sexual inhibition/excitation propensity in the relationship between neuroticism and automatic attention to visual erotica and to identify the neuroelectric correlates of such a process. We analyzed the answers provided by 58 individuals on the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised and the Sexual Inhibition/Excitation Scales. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a modified oddball paradigm containing romantic and sexually explicit pictures. Parallel mediations were performed to simultaneously test the mediating role of sexual inhibition/excitation in the relationship between neuroticism and each ERP. Three early attention ERP components (P1, P2, and N2) were assessed. Findings revealed an indirect effect of neuroticism on automatic attention, via sexual inhibition due to threat of performance failure (SIS1), for romantic and sexually explicit stimuli. This effect was significant only for component N2, which showed increased amplitudes and earlier latencies in participants with high SIS1. Sexual stimuli, due to their emotional valence and arousal potential, might be perceived as virtually threatening by individuals with neuroticism, who may benefit from strategies that decrease hyperarousal and sympathetic activation. This was one of the first studies to analyze neuroelectric activity associated with automatic attention toward sexual stimuli in relation to personality and sexual excitation/inhibition propensity. Nevertheless, the limited number of participants demands caution in generalizing the results. These results provide a better understanding of the relationship between personality and sexual cognition and open new avenues of research in relation to other automatic cognitive phenomena related to human sexual behavior.

Using Event-Related Potentials (ERP) to identify the purchase intention of a consumer for familiar brands

Several neurological processes are undergoing on a conscious and subconscious level every time a consumer likes or dislikes a product. There is presently significant research in Consumer Neuroscience based on consumer behaviour and understanding of these processes. In this study, we have used Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event-Related Potentials (ERP) to capture consumer responses to highly familiar product images. EEG analysed from the 27 participants was used to extract P1, N1, P300, N400 and Late Posterior components. The analysis showed that the early ERP components viz., P1, N1 and P300 can differentiate between consumer liking and disliking of products. In contrast, the late ERP components N400 and Late Posterior components could not differentiate in the highly familiar product category. The results indicate that after continuous exposure, consumer preference towards highly-familiar products occurs as a part of automatic, unconscious mental processes irrespective of the product properties. Further research in this direction can test for the transference of consumer preference: from a conscious mental process to a subconscious mental process due to excessive and continuous product exposure and marketing repetition. Our study demonstrates that consumer behaviour in response to highly-familiar products can be classified using early ERP components only.

Chinese patients’ response to doctor–patient relationship stimuli: evidence from an event-related potential study

BackgroundWith improvements in medical technology, the doctor–patient relationship should be further improved. However, disputes between doctors and patients have increased, with the two groups frequently hurting each other. Therefore, we sought to explore the perception of Chinese patients regarding the stimuli of doctor–patient relationships with different valence.MethodsWe used event-related potential (ERP) to explore the brain electrical activity of 19 undergraduate participants who had a clinical experience in the previous 6 months where they perceived negative, neutral, and positive doctor–patient relationships. The ERPs were recorded, and the early ERP components (P2) and late positive potential (LPP) were measured.ResultsCompared with the stimuli of negative doctor–patient relationships, those of positive doctor–patient relationships would attract more attention and have larger P2 amplitude; LPP was larger for the stimuli of negative doctor–patient relationships than neutral ones in the 500–800 ms, while in the 1100–1500 ms, the stimuli of neutral doctor–patient relationships elicited larger LPP amplitude than positive ones.ConclusionPatients paid more attention to the stimuli of positive doctor–patient relationships because they expected to have the same positive relationship. Although threatening elements in negative doctor–patient relationships would catch patients’ attention and make them have implicit emotional regulation, neutral stimuli with poker-faced doctors would cause lasting attention. These results illustrate the patients’ real perception of the different valence of doctor–patient relationship stimuli.

Early neural potentiation to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces.

For humans, it is vitally important to rapidly detect and process threatening signals regardless of whether stimuli occur at fixation or in the periphery. However, it is unknown whether eccentricity affects early neuronal electrophysiological responses to fear-conditioned stimuli. We examined early event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to fear-conditioned faces to address this question. Participants (N=80) were presented with faces, either paired with an aversive (CS+) or neutral sound (CS-), at central or peripheral positions. We ensured constant central fixation using online eye-tracking but directed attention to either centrally or peripherally presented faces. Manipulation checks showed successful fear-conditioning (i.e., on average lower ratings in valence and higher ratings in arousal and perceived threat) and successful shifts of visuospatial attention indexed by high task performance and pre-stimulus alpha lateralization of the EEG spectra. We observed a generally increased P1 to fear-conditioned faces regardless of presentation location. An N170 difference between fear-conditioned and neutral stimuli was found but was restricted to the central location and depended on the effectivity of fear-conditioning. A similar effect was observed for the early posterior negativity (EPN). Trait anxiety was not related to differential ERP responses to CS+ versus CS- faces for any ERP component. These findings suggest that the P1 indexes early responses to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Subsequent stages are modulated by the spatial location of the stimuli. This suggests different stages of neural processing of fear-conditioned faces depending on their spatial location. Finally, our results question the hypothesis that trait anxiety in healthy participants is related to altered visual processing of fear-conditioned faces.

Multisensory representations of space and time in sensory cortices.

Clear evidence demonstrated a supramodal organization of sensory cortices with multisensory processing occurring even at early stages of information encoding. Within this context, early recruitment of sensory areas is necessary for the development of fine domain-specific (i.e., spatial or temporal) skills regardless of the sensory modality involved, with auditory areas playing a crucial role in temporal processing and visual areas in spatial processing. Given the domain-specificity and the multisensory nature of sensory areas, in this study, we hypothesized that preferential domains of representation (i.e., space and time) of visual and auditory cortices are also evident in the early processing of multisensory information. Thus, we measured the event-related potential (ERP) responses of 16 participants while performing multisensory spatial and temporal bisection tasks. Audiovisual stimuli occurred at three different spatial positions and time lags and participants had to evaluate whether the second stimulus was spatially (spatial bisection task) or temporally (temporal bisection task) farther from the first or third audiovisual stimulus. As predicted, the second audiovisual stimulus of both spatial and temporal bisection tasks elicited an early ERP response (time window 50-90 ms) in visual and auditory regions. However, this early ERP component was more substantial in the occipital areas during the spatial bisection task, and in the temporal regions during the temporal bisection task. Overall, these results confirmed the domain specificity of visual and auditory cortices and revealed that this aspect selectively modulates also the cortical activity in response to multisensory stimuli.

Resisting repeated exposure: Characteristics of pain empathy for experienced physicians

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study tested whether state empathy for pain of experienced physicians could resist the influences of repeated exposure to depictions of people experiencing pain. We employed a three-phase paradigm which integrated a classical pain empathy measurement procedure and a multi-block free-view habituation procedure. In this paradigm, 18 experienced physicians with reduced empathy traits (clinical experience > 5 years) and 18 non-physician controls completed a pre-test phase of pain empathy, followed by a phase of repeated emotional exposure, and a post-test phase of pain empathy. Behavioral pain intensity rating and critical ERP components associated with pain empathy (i.e., N1, N2, and LPP) were measured and compared across participant groups, stimulus types, and experimental phases. Experienced physicians differed from controls in neural processes related to pain empathy, but their pain intensity ratings did not. Specifically, for early ERP components related to empathic arousal such as N1 and N2, we replicated and extended previous findings that physicians can inhibit these bottom-up processes of empathic arousal. In contrast, the P3 didn’t reflect a distinctive empathy process for the physicians. For the later reappraisal-related LPP component, however, we found a significant three-way interaction among participant groups, stimulus types, and experimental phases. This interaction provided the first evidence that pain empathy of experienced physicians with low empathic traits can resist repeated exposure to pain. Based on this evidence, the characteristics of pain empathy for experienced physicians and the relative adaptability of pain empathy for human beings are discussed.

Shyness, Emotion Processing, and Objective Quality of Life among Adults with Schizophrenia: An ERP Study

Although individual differences in temperament have been shown to influence Quality of Life (QoL) among individuals with schizophrenia, there exists large heterogeneity in such outcomes suggesting moderating factors. Here we used event-related potential (ERP) methodology to examine whether the processing of facial emotions moderated the association between shyness and objective QoL among adults with schizophrenia. Forty stable outpatients with schizophrenia completed measures of shyness and QoL. Early visual ERP components (P1, N170) were recorded while participants viewed emotional faces. We observed a significant interaction between shyness and P1 and N170 amplitudes in response to fearful faces in predicting Intrapsychic Foundations QoL. Patients with reduced P1 and N170 amplitudes to fearful compared to neutral faces displayed the lowest QoL, but only if they were also high in shyness. We also found a significant interaction between shyness and ERP latency at the P1 and N170 in response to happy faces. Patients who displayed longer P1 and N170 latencies to happy faces compared to neutral faces and with higher shyness levels scored lower on Intrapsychic Foundations and Interpersonal Relations QoL, respectively. These findings suggest that the neural processing of emotional faces and shyness interact to predict aspects of QoL among outpatients with schizophrenia.