Is your own face more than a highly familiar face?

This study aimed to elucidate whether distinct early processes underlie the perception of our own face. Alternatively, self-face perception might rely on the same processes that realize the perception of highly familiar faces. To this end, we recorded EEG activity while participants performed a facial recognition task in which they had to discriminate between their own face, a friend’s face, and an unknown face. We analyzed the event-related potentials (ERPs) to characterize the time course of neural processes involved in different stages of self-face recognition. Our results show that the N170 component was not sensitive to self-face. In contrast, the subsequent P200 component distinguished between self-face and the other faces. Finally, N250 amplitude increased as a function of face familiarity. Overall, our data suggest that self-face recognition neither emerges at the first stage of the encoding of facial information nor at a later stage when familiarity is processed. Rather, the distinctive processing of self-face arises at an intermediate stage (~200 ms), as indicated by a lower P200 amplitude. This could be taken as an indicator that self-face recognition is facilitated by a reduced need for attentional resources. In sum, our results suggest that self-face is more than a highly familiar faceThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) (UAMA13-4E-2192). C.P. was supported by the MINECO (FJCI-2015-24782

The influence of affective state on exogenous attention to emotional distractors: Behavioral and electrophysiological correlates

The interplay between exogenous attention to emotional distractors and the baseline affective state has not been well established yet. The present study aimed to explore this issue through behavioral measures and event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants (N = 30) completed a digit categorization task depicted over negative, positive or neutral distractor background pictures, while they experienced negative, positive and neutral affective states elicited by movie scenes. Behavioral results showed higher error rates and longer reaction times for negative distractors than for neutral and positive ones, irrespective of the current emotional state. Neural indices showed that the participants' affective state modulated N1 amplitudes, irrespective of distractor type, while the emotional charge of distractors modulated N2, irrespective of the emotional state. Importantly, an interaction of state and distractor type was observed in LPP. These results demonstrate that exogenous attention to emotional distractors is independent from modulating effects of the emotional baseline state at early, automatic stages of processing. However, attention to emotional distractors and affective state interact at later latencies.Tis work was supported by the grants PSI2014-54853-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain), CAM S2015/HUM-3327 from the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), and ID-88 012/2014 from the Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científca (Uruguay

Selection within working memory based on a color retro-cue modulates alpha oscillations

Working Memory (WM) maintains flexible representations. Retrospective cueing studies indicate that selective attention can be directed to memory representations in WM improving performance. While most of the work has explored the neural substrates of orienting attention based on a spatial retro-cue, behavioral studies show that a feature other than location can also improve WM performance. In the present work we explored the oscillatory underpinnings of orienting attention to a relevant representation held in WM guided by a feature value. We recorded EEG data in a group of 36 healthy human subjects (20 females) performing a WM task in which they had to memorize the orientation of four rectangles of different colors. After a maintenance period, a cue was presented indicating the color of the relevant item. We showed that directing attention to a memory item based on its color resulted in a modulation of posterior alpha activity, which appears as more desynchronization in the contralateral than in the ipsilateral hemisphere. Alpha lateralization is considered a neurophysiological marker of external and internal spatial attention. We propose that current findings support the idea that selection of a memory item based on a non-location feature could be accomplished by a spatial attentional mechanism. Moreover, using a centrally presented color retro-cue allowed us to surpass the confounds inherent to the use of spatial retro-cues, supporting that the observed lateralized alpha results from an endogenous attentional mechanismThis work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (UAMA13-4E-2192) to PC; by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain (SI2015-68368-P) and by the Comunidad de Madrid (Grant H2015/HUM-3327) to JAH. CP and PC were supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competividad of Spain (FJCI-2015-2478 to C.P., RYC-2010-05748 to P.C.

Cognitive development after a traumatic brain injury in childhood

Un traumatismo craneoencefálico (TCE) ocurrido durante la infancia puede incidir notablemente en el proceso de desarrollo cerebral del niño y, como consecuencia, en su desarrollo cognitivo y conductual. Sin embargo, la evolución de las capacidades cognitivas y conductuales tras un TCE en la infancia no es siempre igual, sino que depende de una serie de factores. Diversos estudios han revelado dos grupos principales de factores que interaccionan fuertemente entre sí, factores mórbidos y psicosociales. Esta interacción ha sido denominada hipótesis de doble riesgo, puesto que es la que determina el funcionamiento adaptativo postmórbido. Dentro del grupo de factores mórbidos se incluyen la gravedad del daño cerebral, las variables relacionadas con la edad y las características de la lesión. Entre los factores psicosociales destacan las características cognitivas y conductuales del niño previas al TCE y los factores ambientales, tales como el estatus socioeconómico, el estrés social y los recursos y el modo de funcionamiento de la familia. Por otra parte, las alteraciones que más frecuentemente se observan tras un TCE en la infancia son el enlentecimiento de la velocidad de procesamiento, así como dificultades en diversos procesos cognitivos, como la atención, la memoria, el lenguaje y las funciones ejecutivas. De entre estos procesos, las funciones ejecutivas son especialmente vulnerables, probablemente por el efecto conjunto de diversos factores –elevada prevalencia de daño focal frontal, efecto de desconexión como resultado de la lesión axonal difusa, lenta maduración de las regiones frontales–. Además de su elevada vulnerabilidad, las alteraciones en las funciones ejecutivas como consecuencia de un TCE durante la infancia son especialmente relevantes, ya que podrían estar subyaciendo a algunos de los déficits observados en los ámbitos cognitivo, psicosocial y académico; y un funcionamiento adecuado en todos estos ámbitos es esencial para lograr un comportamiento adaptado al entornoThe occurrence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) during childhood may disrupt ongoing brain development and, consequently, the development of cognitive and behavioural skills. However, cognitive and behavioural outcome after TBI is variable, depending upon morbid and psychosocial factors. The interaction between these two main groups of factors has been labelled the double hazard hypothesis, since it determines the adaptive post commorbid outcome. Morbid factors include severity of brain injury, age related variables, and the characteristics of the damage. Psychosocial factors consist of pre-TBI cognitive and behavioural functioning, socio-economic status, social stress and the family resources. Furthermore, the most frequent impairments after TBI during childhood are slower processing speed and difficulties in several cognitive processes, such as attention, memory, language and executive functions. Among the latter, executive functions are especially vulnerable, most likely due to the joint effect of several factors –high prevalence of focal frontal lesion, disconnection effect resulting from diffuse axonal injury, slow maturation of frontal regions–. Besides this high vulnerability, the impairment of executive functions as a consequence of TBI during childhood is extremely relevant, since it might underlie some of the observed deficits at the cognitive, psychosocial and academic levels. An adequate outcome at all these levels is critical to achieve an adaptive behaviourACR ha sido financiada por la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI

Suppression of no-longer relevant information in Working Memory: an alpha-power related mechanism?

Selective attention can enhance Working Memory (WM) performance by selecting relevant information, while preventing distracting items from encoding or from further maintenance. Alpha oscillatory modulations are a correlate of visuospatial attention. Specifically, an enhancement of alpha power is observed in the ipsilateral posterior cortex to the locus of attention, along with a suppression in the contralateral hemisphere. An influential model proposes that the alpha enhancement is functionally related to the suppression of information. However, whether ipsilateral alpha power represents a mechanism through which no longer relevant WM representations are inhibited has yet not been explored. Here we examined whether the amount of distractors to be suppressed during WM maintenance is functionally related to alpha power lateralized activity. We measure EEG activity while participants (N=36) performed a retro-cue task in which the WM load was varied across the relevant/irrelevant post-cue hemifield. We found that alpha activity was lateralized respect to the locus of attention, but did not track post-cue irrelevant load. Additionally, non-lateralized alpha activity increased with post-cue relevant load. We propose that alpha lateralization associated to retro-cuing might be related to a general orienting mechanism toward relevant representationThis work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (UAMA13-4E-2192) to PC; and by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain (Grants PSI2012-37535 and PSI2015-68368-P) and by the Comunidad de Madrid (Grant H2015/HUM-3327) to JA

Oscillatory brain mechanisms supporting response cancellation in selective stopping strategies

Although considerable progress has been made in understanding the neural substrates of simple or global stopping, the neural mechanisms supporting selective stopping remain less understood. The selectivity of the stop process is often required in our everyday life in situations where responses must be suppressed to certain signals but not others. Here, we examined the oscillatory brain mechanisms of response cancellation in selective stopping by controlling for the different strategies adopted by participants (n = 54) to accomplish a stimulus selective stop-signal task. We found that successfully cancelling an initiated response was specifically associated with increased oscillatory activity in the high-beta frequency range in the strategy characterized by stopping selectively (the so called dependent Discriminate then Stop, dDtS), but not in the strategy characterized by stopping non-selectively (Stop then Discriminate, StD). Beamforming source reconstruction suggests that this high-beta activity was mainly generated in the superior frontal gyrus (including the pre-supplementary motor area) and the middle frontal gyrus. Present findings provide neural support for the existence of different strategies for solving selective stopping tasks. Specifically, differences between strategies were observed in the oscillatory activity associated with the stop process and were restricted to the high-beta frequency range. Moreover, current results provide important evidence suggesting that high-beta oscillations in superior and middle frontal cortices play an essential role in cancelling an initiated motor responseThis work was supported by grants PSI2015-68368-P and PSI2017- 679 84922-R (MINECO), and H2015/HUM-3327 from the Comunidad de Madri

Expectance of low contrast retro-cues does not modulate anticipatory alpha power

It has been proposed that alpha oscillations reflect the endogenous modulation of visual cortex excitability. In particular, alpha power increases during the maintenance period in Working Memory (WM) tasks have been interpreted as a mechanism to avoid potential interference of incoming stimuli. In this study we tested whether alpha power was modulated during the maintenance of WM to enhance the processing of relevant incoming perceptual stimuli. To this aim, we manipulated the contrast of a stimulus presented during the maintenance period of a WM task. The to-be-detected stimulus could indicate which of the encoded representations was going to be probed after the delay (spatial retro-cue) or could signal that all the representations had equal probability to be tested (neutral retro-cue). Time-frequency analysis revealed that alpha power preceding retro-cue presentation was not differently modulated by the two different contrast conditions. This is, participants did not endogenously modulate alpha oscillations upon low perceptual contrast stimuli incoming. These results suggest that alpha delay activity is not a goal directed mechanism to control the inflow of information during WM maintenance. Instead, current data suggest that alpha delayed activity might be an index of increased allocation of attentional resources to the processing of the WM representationsThis work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion ´ y Universidades under grant PID2019–111335GA-I00, PGC2018–098558- B-I00 and PGC2018- 100682-B-100 and by the Comunidad de Madrid under Grant H2019/HUM-570

Magnetoencephalographic assessment of changes in brain activity in normal aging when performing a task under interference conditions

Determinar si la realización de una tarea de reconocimiento con interferencia activa, producía cambios en los patrones de activación cerebral con respecto a la presentación de otra con interferencia pasiva. Población y metodología: en veinte ancianos sanos se midió con magnetoencefalografía. Se realizó a cada uno de ellos la escala de Memoria de Wechsler-III (WMS-III), la escala de Inteligencia de Wechsler, el Boston Naming Test, el test de fluidez verbal, el test de clasificación de tarjetas de Wisconsin, el trail Making Test y el test de colores y palabras (STROOP). Los registros se llevaron a cabo mediante un magnetoencefalógrafo de 148 canales capaz de medir la actividad magnética generada en toda la convexidad craneal. Resultados: encontramos una mayor activación en la condición de interferencia activa en las regiones mediales temporales, corteza visual, y región ventral anterior durante los primeros 400 milisegundos en el hemisferio izquierdo y únicamente en el derecho para la corteza visual, mientras que en la condición de interferencia pasiva, se obtuvo una mayor activación en la región ventral anterior durante los 700-800 milisegundos en el hemisferio izquierdo. Conclusión: la presentación de estos dos tipos de interferencia, activa y pasiva, modula los patrones de activación fronto-temporales en el envejecimiento normalTo determine whether performing a recognition task under interference conditions produces changes in brain activity pattern compared with the activity seen under conditions of passive interference. Population and methods: Twenty healthy elderly subjects were subjected to magnetoencephalography. In each patient we applied the Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, the Boston Naming Test, the verbal fluency test, the Wisconsin card classification test, the Trail Making Test and the colors and words test (STROOP). The recordings were made using a 148-channel magnetoencephalograph capable of measuring the magnetic activity generated within the entire cranial convexity. Results: Greater activation was recorded under active interference conditions in the medial temporal regions, visual cortex and anterior ventral area in the first 400 ms in the left hemisphere and only in the right hemisphere for the visual cortex, while under passive interference conditions, increased activation was obtained in the anterior ventral region during the 700-800 ms in the left hemisphere. Conclusion: The presentation of both types of interference, active and passive, modulates the fronto-temporal activation patterns in normal agin

The natural frequencies of the resting human brain: an MEG-based atlas

Brain oscillations are considered to play a pivotal role in neural communication. However, detailed information regarding the typical oscillatory patterns of individual brain regions is surprisingly scarce. In this study we applied a multivariate data-driven approach to create an atlas of the natural frequencies of the resting human brain on a voxel-by-voxel basis. We analysed resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) data from 128 healthy adult volunteers obtained from the Open MEG Archive (OMEGA). Spectral power was computed in source space in 500 ms steps for 82 frequency bins logarithmically spaced from 1.7 to 99.5 Hz. We then applied k-means clustering to detect characteristic spectral profiles and to eventually identify the natural frequency of each voxel. Our results provided empirical confirmation of the canonical frequency bands and revealed a region-specific organisation of intrinsic oscillatory activity, following both a medial-to-lateral and a posterior-to-anterior gradient of increasing frequency. In particular, medial fronto-temporal regions were characterised by slow rhythms (delta/theta). Posterior regions presented natural frequencies in the alpha band, although with differentiated generators in the precuneus and in sensory-specific cortices (i.e., visual and auditory). Somatomotor regions were distinguished by the mu rhythm, while the lateral prefrontal cortex was characterised by oscillations in the high beta range (>20 Hz). Importantly, the brain map of natural frequencies was highly replicable in two independent subsamples of individuals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive atlas of ongoing oscillatory activity performed to date. Critically, the identification of natural frequencies is a fundamental step towards a better understanding of the functional architecture of the human brainThis work was supported by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain (grant PGC2018-100682-B-I00 to AC and PC) and the Comunidad de Madrid POEJ/FSE (grant PEJD-2017-PRE/SOC-3859 to AC). MM was supported by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (FPI-UAM-2017 fellowship). JG was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GR 2024/5-1 and GR 2024/8-1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

Changes in brain activity in normal aging in an interference task tested by magnetoencephalography

La presentación de estímulos que interfieren en el mantenimiento de una información previa dificulta el reconocimiento posterior de ésta. La resistencia a la interferencia disminuye en el envejecimiento normal, aspecto que se traduce en una peor ejecución de tareas que comprometen a la memoria operativa y que podría estar relacionado con una disfunción ejecutiva. Nuestro objetivo consistió en comprobar si la realización de una tarea de reconocimiento con interferencia activa, producía cambios en los patrones de activación cerebral con respecto a la presentación de otra con interferencia pasiva, en una muestra de veinte ancianos sanos y medido con magnetoencefalografía. Los resultados mostraron la presencia de una mayor activación en la condición de interferencia activa en las regiones mediales temporales, corteza visual, y región ventral anterior durante los primeros 400 milisegundos en el hemisferio izquierdo y únicamente en el derecho para la corteza visual, mientras que en la condición de interferencia pasiva, se obtuvo una mayor activación en la región ventral anterior durante los 700-800 milisegundos en el hemisferio izquierdo. Todo ello sugiere que la presentación de estos dos tipos de interferencia, activa y pasiva, modula los patrones de activación fronto-temporales en el envejecimiento normalThe presentation of stimuli interfering with the maintenance of previous information makes difficult the subsequent recognition of it. The interference resistance decreases in normal aging, which is evidenced as a worse performance in tasks affecting working memory and that could be related to an executive dysfunction. Our aim was to establish if performing a recognition task under active interference conditions caused changes in brain activation patterns from the performance of another task under passive interference conditions in a sample of 20 healthy elderly patients, measured with magnetoencephalography. The results evidenced the presence of a greater activation under active interference conditions in the medial temporal regions, visual cortex and anterior ventral area in the first 400 milliseconds in the left hemisphere and only in the right hemisphere for the visual cortex, while under passive interference conditions, a greater activation was obtained in the anterior ventral region during the 700-800 milliseconds in the left hemisphere. All of this suggests that the presentation of both types of interference, active and passive, modulates the fronto-temporal activation patterns in normal agin