Stages Of Perceptual Processing Research Articles

Influence of inhibitory tagging (IT) on emotional and cognitive conflict processing: Evidence from event-related potentials.

Inhibitory tagging (IT), a flexible central control mechanism based on the current task goals, reduces the cognitive conflict effect at the cued location by blocking the incompatible stimulus-response (S-R) code. However, it is unknown whether IT has a similar effect on emotional conflict. Thus, we combined the face-word Stroop task with the manipulation of inhibition of return (IOR) and used event-related potential (ERP) technology to simultaneously examine the modulation effect of IT on emotional and cognitive conflict processing. At the cued location, we found that the two types of conflict effect were significantly reduced and that the conflict processing-related N450 effect was absent. Our data further revealed that IT had similar effects on emotional and cognitive conflict processing. Although a negative difference wave (Nd) was found in the time window of 160 and 220ms, which may reflect the impaired early perceptual processing of the target at the cued location, the effect of Nd was not affected by stimulus congruency. These results illustrate that the cueing effect of conflict processing does not arise from the early stage of perceptual processing, but rather results from the blocked S-R code of the distractors due to IT functioning during the later stage of processing.

Increased reaction time adherence to response criterion in a sample discrimination task

In a signal detection task with equal-variance distributions and an unbiased criterion, the distribution of reaction times typically has a peak near the point of overlap between the two distributions. A sample discrimination task is used to determine whether slower reaction times are associated with a likelihood ratio near unity or to the placement of the decision criterion. Listeners decide whether a single presented tone was sampled from a normal distribution with a mean of 1000 Hz or a mean of 1100 Hz, with each distribution having a standard deviation of 100 Hz. Base rates are varied across conditions so that the optimal decision criterion corresponds to respective likelihood ratios of .25,.67, 1, 1.5, or 4. In all conditions, the peak of the reaction time distribution as a function of frequency is near the optimal criterion for maximizing percent correct. In conclusion, slower reaction times are found when the frequency of the tone is near the selected criterion rather than near a point where stimuli from the two distributions are most similar. The results suggest that increases in reaction time are associated with the decision stage rather than an earlier perceptual processing stage.

Subliminally and consciously induced cognitive conflicts interact at several processing levels

Controlled behavior is susceptible to conflicts that can emerge from subliminal or consciously processed information. While research suggests that both sources of conflicting information may interact in their modulation of controlled behavior, it has remained unclear which cognitive sub-processes involved in controlled behavior are affected by this interaction; i.e., at which processing level subliminally and consciously induced response conflicts interact in modulating controlled behavior. Moreover, we investigated whether this interaction of subliminally and consciously induced response conflicts was due to a nexus between the two types of conflict like a common cognitive process or factor. For this, n = 38 healthy young subjects completed a paradigm which combines subliminal primes and consciously perceived flankers while an electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. We show that the interaction of subliminal and conscious sources of conflict is not restricted to the response selection level (N2) but can already be shown at the earliest stages of perceptual and attentional processing (P1). While the degree of early attentional processing of subliminal information seems to depend on the absence of consciously perceived response conflicts, conflicts during the stage of response selection may be either reduced or enhanced by subliminal priming. Moreover, the results showed that even though the two different sources of conflict interact at the response selection level, they clearly originate from two distinct processes that interact before they detrimentally affect cognitive control.

Different Stages, Different Signals: The Modulating Effect of Cognitive Conflict on Subsequent Processing.

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the function of signals induced by cognitive conflict during the detection stage and the resolution stage of perceptual processing. The study used a combination of the Stroop task and an affective priming task to examine the conflict priming effect when the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 200 ms or 800 ms. Behavioral results showed that the RTs were shorter for positive targets following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes, and for negative targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes when the SOA was 200 ms. ERP results showed that the N2 amplitudes (200–300 ms) for incongruent stimuli were significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. Moreover, the N400 amplitudes (500–700 ms) for positive targets after congruent primes were significantly lower than those after incongruent primes when the SOA was 200 ms, which showed a significant negative priming effect. While the SOA was 800 ms, behavioral results showed that the RTs were shorter for positive targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes. ERP results showed that the N2 amplitudes (200–300 ms) for incongruent stimuli were significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. The N400 amplitudes (1100–1300 ms) for the negative targets after congruent primes were significantly lower than those after incongruent primes when the SOA was 800 ms, which showed a significant positive priming effect. The results demonstrated that the functions of signals induced by cognitive conflict were reversed in two different cognitive processing stages.

Effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness: Behavioral and ERP evidence from a lexical decision task

We investigated whether the effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness using event-related potentials (ERPs). The stimuli included concrete words (Experiment 1) and abstract words (Experiment 2) that were organized in an orthogonal design, with valence (positive and negative) and arousal (low and high) as factors in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, the impact of emotion on the effects of concrete words mainly resulted from the contribution of valence. Positive concrete words were processed more quickly than negative words and elicited a reduction of N400 (300–410ms) and enhancement of late positive complex (LPC; 450–750ms), whereas no differences in response times or ERPs were found between high and low levels of arousal. In Experiment 2, the interaction between valence and arousal influenced the impact of emotion on the effects of abstract words. Low-arousal positive words were associated with shorter response times and a reduction of LPC amplitudes compared with high-arousal positive words. Low-arousal negative words were processed more slowly and elicited a reduction of N170 (140–200ms) compared with high-arousal negative words. The present study indicates that word concreteness modulates the contributions of valence and arousal to the effects of emotion, and this modulation occurs during the early perceptual processing stage (N170) and late elaborate processing stage (LPC) for emotional words and at the end of all cognitive processes (i.e., reflected by response times). These findings support an embodied theory of semantic representation and help clarify prior inconsistent findings regarding the ways in which valance and arousal influence different stages of word processing, at least in a lexical decision task.

Alterations in neural processing of emotional faces in adolescent anorexia nervosa patients – an event-related potential study

The present study explored the neurophysiological correlates of perception and recognition of emotional facial expressions in adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) patients using event-related potentials (ERPs). We included 20 adolescent girls with AN and 24 healthy girls and recorded ERPs during a passive viewing task and three active tasks requiring processing of emotional faces in varying processing depths; one of the tasks also assessed emotion recognition abilities behaviourally. Despite the absence of behavioural differences, we found that across all tasks AN patients exhibited a less pronounced early posterior negativity (EPN) in response to all facial expressions compared to controls. The EPN is an ERP component reflecting an automatic, perceptual processing stage which is modulated by the intrinsic salience of a stimulus. Hence, the less pronounced EPN in anorexic girls suggests that they might perceive other people’s faces as less intrinsically relevant, i.e. as less “important” than do healthy girls.

Vertical position of Chinese power words influences power judgments: Evidence from spatial compatibility task and event-related Potentials

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the influence of vertical position on power judgments. Participants were asked to identify whether a Chinese word represented a powerful or powerless group (e.g., “king” or “servant”), which was presented in the top or bottom of the screen. The behavioral analysis showed that judging the power of powerful words were significantly faster when they were presented at the top position, compared with when they were presented at the bottom position. The ERP analysis showed enhanced N1 amplitude for congruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the top and the powerless words in the bottom of the screen) and larger P300 and LPC amplitude for incongruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the bottom and the powerless words in the top of the screen). The present findings provide further electrophysiological evidence that thinking about power can automatically activate the underlying spatial up-down (verticality) image schema and that the influence of vertical position on the power judgments not only occurs at the early perceptual stage of power word processing, but also at the higher cognitive stage (i.e., allocation of attention resources, conflict solving and response selection). This study revealed the neural underpinnings of metaphor congruent effect which have great significance to our understanding of the abstract concept power.

Sequential processing in young and older adults in the equiprobable auditory Go/NoGo task.

We recently proposed a sequential processing schema for the equiprobable auditory Go/NoGo task, based on a principal components analysis (PCA) of event-related potentials (ERPs) from a university student sample. Here we sought to replicate the schema, and use it to explore processing in well-functioning older adults. We compared behavioural responding and ERPs of 20 independent-living older adults (Mage=68.2years) to data from a sex- and handedness-matched group of university students (Mage=20.4years). ERPs had substantial latency differences between the groups, and hence were subjected to separate group temporal PCAs. Component latencies were systematically increased in the older group by some 26%, with no significant increase in RT or error rates. Despite some differences in their identified components, each group displayed differential component responsivity to Go versus NoGo; this was reduced in the older participants. The results support our processing schema, and provide insight into the processing stages in well-functioning older adults. Understanding the perceptual and cognitive processing stages in normal ageing is a pre-requisite for research on mild cognitive impairment and dementia. This study may also provide a simple paradigm and schema suitable for further exploration of functionality in ageing.

Attentional enhancement for positive and negative tones at an early stage of auditory processing

We report an event-related potential (ERP) study based on the hypothesis that valenced (i.e., positive and/or negative) tones are prioritized over neutral ones at an early, perceptual stage of auditory processing. In order to avoid perceptual confounds, we induced valence experimentally during a learning phase by assigning positive, negative, and neutral valences to tone-frequencies in a balanced design. In a subsequent test phase, EEG was recorded while these tones were entirely task-irrelevant. The amplitude of the auditory N1 was increased for valenced compared with neutral tones, indicating enhanced attention. While behavioral results of the learning phase, and both implicit and explicit measures of tone evaluation indicated differentiation between positive and negative valence, there was no such differentiation on the N1 amplitude. Our results suggest that it is the general relevance of the valenced tones that governs early attentional processes.

Attachment affects social information processing: Specific electrophysiological effects of maternal stimuli

Attachment is critical to each individual. It affects the cognitive-affective processing of social information. The present study examines how attachment affects the processing of social information, specifically maternal information. We assessed the behavioral and electrophysiological responses to maternal information (compared to non-specific others) in a Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT) with 22 participants. The results illustrated that attachment affected maternal information processing during three sequential stages of information processing. First, attachment affected visual perception, reflected by enhanced P100 and N170 elicited by maternal information as compared to others information. Second, compared to others, mother obtained more attentional resources, reflected by faster behavioral response to maternal information and larger P200 and P300. Finally, mother was evaluated positively, reflected by shorter P300 latency in a mother + good condition as compared to a mother + bad condition. These findings indicated that the processing of attachment-relevant information is neurologically differentiated from other types of social information from an early stage of perceptual processing to late high-level processing.

Auditory distraction transmitted by a cochlear implant alters allocation of attentional resources.

Cochlear implants (CIs) are auditory prostheses which restore hearing via electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The successful adaptation of auditory cognition to the CI input depends to a substantial degree on individual factors. We pursued an electrophysiological approach toward an analysis of cortical responses that reflect perceptual processing stages and higher-level responses to CI input. Performance and event-related potentials on two cross-modal discrimination-following-distraction (DFD) tasks from CI users and normal-hearing (NH) individuals were compared. The visual-auditory distraction task combined visual distraction with following auditory discrimination performance. Here, we observed similar cortical responses to visual distractors (Novelty-N2) and slowed, less accurate auditory discrimination performance in CI users when compared to NH individuals. Conversely, the auditory-visual distraction task was used to combine auditory distraction with visual discrimination performance. In this task we found attenuated cortical responses to auditory distractors (Novelty-P3), slowed visual discrimination performance, and attenuated cortical P3-responses to visual targets in CI users compared to NH individuals. These results suggest that CI users process auditory distractors differently than NH individuals and that the presence of auditory CI input has an adverse effect on the processing of visual targets and the visual discrimination ability in implanted individuals. We propose that this attenuation of the visual modality occurs through the allocation of neural resources to the CI input.

Configural and featural face processing are differently modulated by attentional resources at early stages: An event-related potential study with rapid serial visual presentation

It is widely reported that face recognition relies on two dissociable mechanisms, the featural and the configural processing. However, it is unclear whether these two processing types involve different neural mechanisms and are differently modulated by attentional resources. Using the attentional blink (AB) paradigm, we aimed to investigate the effect of attentional resources on configural and featural face processing by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). The amount of attentional resources was manipulated as deficient or sufficient by presenting the second target (T2) in or out of the AB period, respectively. We found that in addition to a traditional P3 attention effect, the amplitude of N170/VPP to the T2 stimuli was also sensitive to attentional resources, suggesting that attention affects face processing at an earlier perceptual processing stage. More importantly, configural face processing elicited a larger posterior P1 compared to featural face processing, but only when the attentional resources were sufficient. In contrast, the anterior N1 was larger for configural relative to featural face processing only when the attentional resources were deficient. These results suggest that early stages of configural and featural face processing are differently modulated by attentional resources, possibly with different underlying mechanisms.

Viewing hands and specifically one's own hand improves movement synchrony perception

Event Abstract Back to Event Viewing hands and specifically one's own hand improves movement synchrony perception Regine Zopf1, 2*, Jason Friedman3 and Mark Williams1, 2 1 Macquarie University, Department of Cognitive Science, Australia 2 Macquarie University, Perception in Action Research Centre, Faculty of Human Sciences, Australia 3 Tel Aviv University, Department of Physical Therapy, Israel We are constantly in motion and changing the position of our body and body-parts within complex environments. How does the brain keep track of what is part of one's body and what is not? Detecting the temporal synchrony between performed and viewed movements is crucial for perceiving one's own body movement. Furthermore, purely visual information also signals body ownership, for example, simply viewing an object form that looks like a body-part oriented specific to one's own body. It may be possible that the brain relies on the separate perceptual analysis of body ownership cues when keeping track of one's own body (e.g form, orientation, synchrony). Alternatively, these cues may interact in earlier stages of perceptual processing - body form and orientation cues may for example modulate temporal synchrony perception. In the present study we used a virtual hand setup to examine if body-specifying visual information, such as hand form and orientation cues, directly interacts with temporal movement perception. We employed psychophysical methods, specifically a two-interval force choice task in which participants were asked to judge the temporal synchrony between performed index finger flexion movements and viewed movements. Firstly, we found that the sensitivity to detect delays between performed and viewed movements is improved when viewing a hand as compared to dots. Secondly, we found that in particular viewing hand orientations which are anatomically plausible and commonly viewed for one's own body improves movement synchrony perception. These findings provide evidence that visual body form as well as body orientation information modulates temporal movement perception - in other words body specifying cues interact in perceptual processing. We suggest that such perceptual modulations when viewing one's own body guide and improve the perception of one's own movement. Keywords: body ownership, Body Representations, movement perception, Virtual hand, anatomical plausibility, intermodal synchrony perception Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Sensation and Perception Citation: Zopf R, Friedman J and Williams M (2015). Viewing hands and specifically one's own hand improves movement synchrony perception. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00313 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: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Regine Zopf, Macquarie University, Department of Cognitive Science, Sydney, Australia, regine.zopf@mq.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 Regine Zopf Jason Friedman Mark Williams Google Regine Zopf Jason Friedman Mark Williams Google Scholar Regine Zopf Jason Friedman Mark Williams PubMed Regine Zopf Jason Friedman Mark Williams 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.

Small number preference in guiding attention.

Healthy individuals are usually biased toward small numbers when they are asked to mentally bisect number intervals or generate number sequences. Number magnitude may be represented spatially along a left-to-right mental number line. The preference for small numbers is believed to reflect the leftward spatial bias of this numerical representation. This study examined whether small numbers captured visual attention more than larger numbers. Participants were asked to detect a target pre-cued by a small or a large number. We found that the response was faster when the target was pre-cued by a small number than when pre-cued by a large number, suggesting that visual attention is preferentially allocated to small numbers. In addition, this attentional preference for small numbers was distinct for participants of different educational backgrounds. For science or engineering participants, this small number preference was enhanced by left-hand responding and was positively correlated with the small number preference in a random number generation task, suggesting that the small number preference was attributable to a leftward bias of the spatial representation. For liberal arts participants, however, left-hand responding did not enhance the small number preference and no correlations were found between the attention task and the random number generation task, suggesting that non-spatial processing mediated the small number preference. Our findings show that the small number preference occurs as early as the perceptual processing stage and distinct mechanisms underlie the preference for small numbers for participants with different educational backgrounds.

Early stages of perceptual face processing are confined to the contralateral hemisphere: Evidence from the N170 component

High-level visual object processing is often assumed to be largely position-independent. Here we demonstrate that when faces and non-face objects simultaneously appear in opposite visual hemifields, the face-sensitive N170 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) is exclusively generated in the contralateral hemisphere. The effects of face inversion on N170 amplitudes and latencies also show strong contralateral biases. These results reveal that retinotopic biases in low-level visual cortex extend well into category-selective high-level vision. We suggest that the contralateral organisation of face-sensitive visual processing results from generic competitive interactions between hemispheres during the simultaneous perception of visual objects.

Working memory contents enhance perception under stimulus-driven competition.

It is well known that attention is biased toward a stimulus matching working memory contents. However, it has been debated at which processing stage this memory-driven attentional bias takes place. While some studies show that memory-driven attention affects the early, perceptual stage of information processing, others argue that the finding showing such an effect is the result of working memory contents reducing uncertainty regarding the location of a target stimulus, without affecting the perception of the target. The present study tested whether a previous finding showing the perceptual effect of memory-driven attention is solely due to reduced target location uncertainty. We found that attentional bias by working memory contents affected the perception of a target stimulus, especially when multiple stimuli were present, competing against each other. This perceptual effect was not due to reduced target location uncertainty because the target location was always indicated by a response cue. Similar results were found regardless of whether working memory contents predicted the target location or not. These findings suggest that automatic, involuntary orienting of attention by working memory contents affects perception by resolving stimulus-driven competition.

Effect of Cognitive Aging on Working Memory Consolidation

This study was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that the decline in memory consolidation in aging may be determined by the reduction of inhibitory control processes. To this end an Attentional Blink (AB) paradigm was employed. AB effect was more pronounced and lengthened for older adults (60–85 years) than young (18–22 years) and middle aged (45–55 years) groups, which could be due to interference at the perceptual stage itself. The onset of the first target involuntarily captures attentional resources, impairing subsequent target identification due to decrease in inhibitory control. Experiment 2 was conducted manipulating perceptual load in working memory to study interference as a function of load. The effect of load was more pronounced for older and middle-aged adults. The decline in memory consolidation in this group may be due to difficulties in early stages of perceptual processing, inhibitory control and unsuccessful suppression of irrelevant stimuli. These effects were also observed among middle-aged individuals.

Mechanisms of Multisensory Integration in the Time Domain

Information from different senses has to be combined in order to form a meaningful and coherent representation of our environment (e.g., Calvert, Spence, & Stein, 2004; Lalanne & Lorenceau, 2004). Because there is no dedicated sense organ for the perception of duration, researchers have been especially interested in understanding which mechanisms govern such a multimodal integration in the domain of time perception (e.g., Chen & Yeh, 2009; Klink, Montijn, & van Wezel, 2011; Romei, De Haas, Mok, & Driver, 2011). In a series of experiments, we investigated to what extent visual and auditory temporal information contribute to a combined temporal percept, and we show that this mutual influence is presumably determined by low-level influences on the perceptual processing stage rather than controlled, decisional processes (Bausenhart, De la Rosa, & Ulrich, in press). Furthermore, we demonstrated that incongruent audiovisual durations seem to be integrated through the occurrence of a temporal ventriloquism effect (De la Rosa & Bausenhart, 2013). In terms of the pacemaker-accumulator model of time perception, this points to an involvement of the switch component rather than to a modulation of the pacemaker rate by incongruent audiovisual information. Moreover, not only temporally incongruent, but also spatially incongruent multimodal information seems to have an influence on perceived duration. Specifically, visuo-spatial information can evoke a Kappa effect (i.e., prolonged perceived duration for intervals defined by spatially separated signals, cf. Cohen, Hansel, & Sylvester, 1953) in the perception of auditory temporal intervals. Taken together, perceived duration is affected by temporal and spatial information from different modalities, which is effectively, flexibly, and rather automatically combined, in order to deliver a coherent and stable perceptual impression.

Emotional Voice Processing: Investigating the Role of Genetic Variation in the Serotonin Transporter across Development

The ability to effectively respond to emotional information carried in the human voice plays a pivotal role for social interactions. We examined how genetic factors, especially the serotonin transporter genetic variation (5-HTTLPR), affect the neurodynamics of emotional voice processing in infants and adults by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The results revealed that infants distinguish between emotions during an early perceptual processing stage, whereas adults recognize and evaluate the meaning of emotions during later semantic processing stages. While infants do discriminate between emotions, only in adults was genetic variation associated with neurophysiological differences in how positive and negative emotions are processed in the brain. This suggests that genetic association with neurocognitive functions emerges during development, emphasizing the role that variation in serotonin plays in the maturation of brain systems involved in emotion recognition.

Regional linguistic variations in Canadian French: Do they affect performance on speech perception in noise?

Many audiologists working with a Canadian French population use word recognition tests to measure speech perception abilities in noise. The TMB test (Test de Mots dans le Bruit) includes four lists of 35 words presented in babble noise. The test is intended to measure the pre-cognitive perceptual stage of auditory processing and does not require understanding of the phonetic differences between speech sounds at a cognitive level. Previous studies examining performance on auditory tests similar to the TMB showed differences between populations speaking the same language but with different accentuations, such as the English spoken in the United States versus the United Kingdom. Variations in performance were attributed to accentuation differences between the speaker and the listener. To the authors' knowledge, no study appears to have investigated the effect of regional linguistic variations of Canadian French on word recognition in noise. Normative data for the TMB are being collected in three regions of Canada: Moncton, Montreal and Ottawa. Participants are all native speakers of Canadian French, but there are important linguistic variations across the three regions. Knowledge of the effect of regional linguistic variations on the TMB performance will help refine interpretation of test results in the audiology clinics.