Demographic and clinical variables of study participants.

<p>Abbreviations: IQ (WAIS), intelligence quotient assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Forth Edition (WAIS-IV) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0102471#pone.0102471-Wechsler1" target="_blank">[68]</a>; AQ, Autism Spectrum Quotient <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0102471#pone.0102471-BaronCohen2" target="_blank">[45]</a>.</p

The MMN scalp potential distribution and the respective current source density (CSD) maps in people with ASC and controls.

<p>(A) A frontocentral minimum (or peak negativity) was similarly identified across the groups and categories. (B) The exploratory source distribution analyses on CSDs indicated that MMN received a major distribution from the bilateral auditory cortex. Additionally, for MMN to angry and angry-derived deviants, there was a trend toward a posterior temporal source in the ASC group.</p

Atypical Mismatch Negativity in Response to Emotional Voices in People with Autism Spectrum Conditions

<div><p>Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are characterized by heterogeneous impairments of social reciprocity and sensory processing. Voices, similar to faces, convey socially relevant information. Whether voice processing is selectively impaired remains undetermined. This study involved recording mismatch negativity (MMN) while presenting emotionally spoken syllables <i>dada</i> and acoustically matched nonvocal sounds to 20 subjects with ASC and 20 healthy matched controls. The people with ASC exhibited no MMN response to emotional syllables and reduced MMN to nonvocal sounds, indicating general impairments of affective voice and acoustic discrimination. Weaker angry MMN amplitudes were associated with more autistic traits. Receiver operator characteristic analysis revealed that angry MMN amplitudes yielded a value of 0.88 (<i>p</i><.001). The results suggest that people with ASC may process emotional voices in an atypical fashion already at the automatic stage. This processing abnormality can facilitate diagnosing ASC and enable social deficits in people with ASC to be predicted.</p></div

MMN amplitudes to emotional syllables and acoustically matched nonvocal sounds in people with ASC and controls at the electrode site Fz.

<p>MMN to angry deviants (black line) was significantly stronger in amplitude than MMN to happy deviants (gray line) in the controls (<i>p</i><.001), whereas no differentiation was identified in people with ASC (<i>p</i> = .67). Nonvocal deviants that retained the acoustic features of emotional syllables were derived from angry (angry-derived) and happy (happy-derived) syllables. People with ASC exhibited weaker emotional-derived MMN than did the controls.</p

Correlation between angry MMN amplitudes and autistic traits.

<p>Correlation between angry MMN amplitudes and autistic traits.</p

Grand average standard and deviant ERP waveforms for emotional syllables and acoustically matched nonvocal sounds in people with ASC and controls.

<p>Grand average standard and deviant ERP waveforms for emotional syllables and acoustically matched nonvocal sounds in people with ASC and controls.</p

Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis.

<p>The amplitude of angry MMN is suitable for predicting whether a person has a clinical diagnosis of ASC.</p

Data_Sheet_1_Test–Retest Reliability of Mismatch Negativity (MMN) to Emotional Voices.PDF

A voice from kin species conveys indispensable social and affective signals with uniquely phylogenetic and ontogenetic standpoints. However, the neural underpinning of emotional voices, beyond low-level acoustic features, activates a processing chain that proceeds from the auditory pathway to the brain structures implicated in cognition and emotion. By using a passive auditory oddball paradigm, which employs emotional voices, this study investigates the test–retest reliability of emotional mismatch negativity (MMN), indicating that the deviants of positively (happily)- and negatively (angrily)-spoken syllables, as compared to neutral standards, can trigger MMN as a response to an automatic discrimination of emotional salience. The neurophysiological estimates of MMN to positive and negative deviants appear to be highly reproducible, irrespective of the subject’s attentional disposition: whether the subjects are set to a condition that involves watching a silent movie or do a working memory task. Specifically, negativity bias is evinced as threatening, relative to positive vocalizations, consistently inducing larger MMN amplitudes, regardless of the day and the time of a day. The present findings provide evidence to support the fact that emotional MMN offers a stable platform to detect subtle changes in current emotional shifts.</p

Data_Sheet_1_Atypical Anxiety-Related Amygdala Reactivity and Functional Connectivity in Sant Mat Meditation.PDF

While meditation has drawn much attention in cognitive neuroscience, the neural mechanisms underlying its emotional processing remains elusive. Sant Mat meditators were recruited, who adopt a loving-kindness mode of meditation along with a vegetarian diet and an alcohol-restricted lifestyle and novices. We assessed their State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and scanned their amygdala reactivity in response to an explicit and implicit (backward masked) perception of fearful and happy faces. In contrast with novices, meditators reported lower STAI scores. Meditators showed stronger amygdala reactivity to explicit happiness than to fear, whereas novices exhibited the opposite pattern. The amygdala reactivity was reduced in meditators regardless of implicit fear or happiness. Those who had more lifetime practice in meditation reported lower STAI and showed a weaker amygdala response to fear. Furthermore, the amygdala in meditators, relative to novices, had a stronger positive functional connectivity with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) to explicit happiness, but a more negative connectivity with the insula and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to explicit fear. Mediation analysis indicated the amygdala reactivity as the mediator for the linkage between meditation experience and trait anxiety. The findings demonstrate the neural correlates that underpin the beneficial effects of meditation in Sant Mat. Long-term meditation could be functionally coupled with the amygdala reactivity to explicit and implicit emotional processing, which would help reduce anxiety and potentially enhance well-being.</p

Data_Sheet_1_The anti-anxiety drug lorazepam changes implicit behaviors but not explicit evaluations of sense of agency under authoritative pressure: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.DOCX

Previous research on coercion has neglected the fact that agents under authoritative pressure may also suffer from coercive power, which can trigger anxiety-like emotional negativity on its victims. Furthermore, high levels of neuroticism and/or anxiety have been found to be associated with the compliance of various forms of social pressure. In this study, we investigate the effects of the anxiolytic GABAA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid) modulator, lorazepam, on behavioral and neural responses to coercive power. Here, we applied a virtual obedience to authority paradigm alongside lorazepam administration (versus placebo), and during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Our results show that lorazepam administration exerted differential effects on the reaction times (RTs) when initiating harming versus helping behaviors, with longer harming RTs compared to helping RTs, despite comparable subjective ratings regarding perceived coercion. Coercive harming significantly increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Lorazepam administration decreased amygdala and hippocampus activity, but increased dlPFC and right temporoparietal junction activations. The lower activity in the hippocampus predicted higher ratings for perceived coercion. Furthermore, lorazepam significantly decreased the functional connectivity of the hippocampus with the dlPFC during coercive harming. In conclusion, we provide evidence –by incorporating multimodal indices, including neuroimaging, neuropharmacological interventions, and behavioral assessments– to posit that the GABAA agonist, lorazepam, might aid as a possible intervention in service of coping strategies against coercion.</p