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Different time course of visuocortical signal changes to fear-conditioned faces with direct or averted gaze: a ssVEP study with single-trial analysis.
Neuropsychologia. 2014 Sep; 62:101-10.N

Abstract

Social organisms fundamentally rely on experience to successfully navigate in a social world by associating social stimuli with aversive versus safe qualities. Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that visual cues reliably paired with danger are processed more efficiently than neutral cues, and that such facilitated sensory processing extends to low levels of the visual system. The present study aimed at determining the extent to which visual cortical engagement elicited by a face stimulus with learned affective value is modulated by relatively subtle facial features such as gaze direction and emotional expression. To this end, electro-cortical processing of direct-gaze compared to averted-gaze faces serving as CS+ cues was investigated in a differential fear conditioning paradigm. Furthermore it was investigated whether gaze shift interacted with angry facial expressions to confer greater immunity to extinction of learned associations. Behavioral ratings and visually evoked steady-state potentials (ssVEP) were recorded in healthy human participants. As expected, direct-gaze CS+ compared to averted-gaze CS- cues elicited larger ssVEP amplitudes during conditioning, whereas this differentiation was not observed when averted-gaze faces were paired with the aversive US. Importantly, a more fine-grained analysis examining trial-by-trial changes in visual cortical activation across the learning phases revealed that this effect was not necessarily due to lack of learning per se, but mainly due to a delayed build-up of cortical amplification for the averted-gaze CS+ cues. This suggests that the temporal dynamics of cortical engagement with aversively conditioned faces vary as a function of the cue with gaze direction as an important modulator of the speed of the acquisition of the aversive response.

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Publisher Full Text (DOI)

Authors+Show Affiliations

Wieser MJ
University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology, Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: wieser@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de.
Miskovic V
University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology, Würzburg, Germany; State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, Binghamton, NY, USA.
Rausch S
University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology, Würzburg, Germany; University of Florida, Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Keil A
University of Florida, Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, Gainesville, FL, USA.

MeSH

AdolescentAnalysis of VarianceBrain MappingCerebral CortexConditioning, ClassicalElectroencephalographyEvoked Potentials, VisualFaceFearFemaleFixation, OcularHumansMalePattern Recognition, VisualPhotic StimulationPsychiatric Status Rating ScalesReaction TimeTime FactorsVisual PathwaysYoung Adult

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

25050854

Citation

Wieser, Matthias J., et al. "Different Time Course of Visuocortical Signal Changes to Fear-conditioned Faces With Direct or Averted Gaze: a ssVEP Study With Single-trial Analysis." Neuropsychologia, vol. 62, 2014, pp. 101-10.
Wieser MJ, Miskovic V, Rausch S, et al. Different time course of visuocortical signal changes to fear-conditioned faces with direct or averted gaze: a ssVEP study with single-trial analysis. Neuropsychologia. 2014;62:101-10.
Wieser, M. J., Miskovic, V., Rausch, S., & Keil, A. (2014). Different time course of visuocortical signal changes to fear-conditioned faces with direct or averted gaze: a ssVEP study with single-trial analysis. Neuropsychologia, 62, 101-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.07.009
Wieser MJ, et al. Different Time Course of Visuocortical Signal Changes to Fear-conditioned Faces With Direct or Averted Gaze: a ssVEP Study With Single-trial Analysis. Neuropsychologia. 2014;62:101-10. PubMed PMID: 25050854.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Different time course of visuocortical signal changes to fear-conditioned faces with direct or averted gaze: a ssVEP study with single-trial analysis. AU - Wieser,Matthias J, AU - Miskovic,Vladimir, AU - Rausch,Sophie, AU - Keil,Andreas, Y1 - 2014/07/19/ PY - 2013/12/11/received PY - 2014/07/04/revised PY - 2014/07/10/accepted PY - 2014/7/23/entrez PY - 2014/7/23/pubmed PY - 2015/5/20/medline KW - Face KW - Fear conditioning KW - Gaze direction KW - Visual cortex KW - ssVEP SP - 101 EP - 10 JF - Neuropsychologia JO - Neuropsychologia VL - 62 N2 - Social organisms fundamentally rely on experience to successfully navigate in a social world by associating social stimuli with aversive versus safe qualities. Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that visual cues reliably paired with danger are processed more efficiently than neutral cues, and that such facilitated sensory processing extends to low levels of the visual system. The present study aimed at determining the extent to which visual cortical engagement elicited by a face stimulus with learned affective value is modulated by relatively subtle facial features such as gaze direction and emotional expression. To this end, electro-cortical processing of direct-gaze compared to averted-gaze faces serving as CS+ cues was investigated in a differential fear conditioning paradigm. Furthermore it was investigated whether gaze shift interacted with angry facial expressions to confer greater immunity to extinction of learned associations. Behavioral ratings and visually evoked steady-state potentials (ssVEP) were recorded in healthy human participants. As expected, direct-gaze CS+ compared to averted-gaze CS- cues elicited larger ssVEP amplitudes during conditioning, whereas this differentiation was not observed when averted-gaze faces were paired with the aversive US. Importantly, a more fine-grained analysis examining trial-by-trial changes in visual cortical activation across the learning phases revealed that this effect was not necessarily due to lack of learning per se, but mainly due to a delayed build-up of cortical amplification for the averted-gaze CS+ cues. This suggests that the temporal dynamics of cortical engagement with aversively conditioned faces vary as a function of the cue with gaze direction as an important modulator of the speed of the acquisition of the aversive response. SN - 1873-3514 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/25050854/Different_time_course_of_visuocortical_signal_changes_to_fear_conditioned_faces_with_direct_or_averted_gaze:_a_ssVEP_study_with_single_trial_analysis_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -