Do Emotional Faces Affect Inhibition of Return? An ERP Study

Inhibition of Return (IOR) refers to an individual’s slowed localization or discrimination performance for targets that appear in previously cued versus uncued location after a relatively long delay after cue (∼300–500 ms). The current study adopted a cue-target paradigm and used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures to investigate whether IOR would be modulated by emotional faces during an emotion recognition task. For reaction time measure, we found IOR effect and the magnitude of IOR effect were comparable for fearful face target and neutral face target. For ERP measures, valid cues were associated with smaller P1 and larger N1 waveform than that for invalid cues. Fearful faces were associated with a larger N170 than neutral faces. The onset latency of the stimulus-locked lateralised readiness potential (LRP) in the valid cue condition was longer than that in the invalid cue condition, while there was no significant difference on the onset latency of the response-locked LRP between the valid cue and invalid cue condition. These results support the notion that, regardless the emotion component of the stimulus, the inhibitory bias of attention to previous visited location before response contributes to the IOR

Bilingual cognitive control in language switching: an fMRI study of English-Chinese late bilinguals.

The present study explored the bilingual cognitive control mechanism by comparing Chinese-English bilinguals' language switching in a blocked picture naming paradigm against three baseline conditions, namely the control condition (a fixation cross, low-level baseline), single L1 production (Chinese naming, high-level baseline), and single L2 production (English naming, high-level baseline). Different activation patterns were observed for language switching against different baseline conditions. These results indicate that different script bilingual language control involves a fronto-parietal-subcortical network that extends to the precentral gyrus, the Supplementary Motor Area, the Supra Marginal Gyrus, and the fusiform. The different neural correlates identified across different comparisons supported that bilingual language switching involves high-level cognitive processes that are not specific to language processing. Future studies adopting a network approach are crucial in identifying the functional connectivity among regions subserving language control

Mixed against control condition showed increased activity in a network of areas including the left IFG, the precentral gyrus, SMA, the left IPG, the bilateral fusiform gyrus extending to the occipital lobe, as well as the subcortical regions including the left caudate, and the right hippocampus.

<p>Mixed against control condition showed increased activity in a network of areas including the left IFG, the precentral gyrus, SMA, the left IPG, the bilateral fusiform gyrus extending to the occipital lobe, as well as the subcortical regions including the left caudate, and the right hippocampus.</p

Areas of increased activity for the mixed vs. control condition (MNI coordinates).

<p>Areas of increased activity for the mixed vs. control condition (MNI coordinates).</p

Language switching against L2 English naming condition showed activations in the left IFG, the bilateral Precentral gyrus and SMA, the bilateral IPG, the bilateral fusiform, the left lingual gyrus, the left inferior temporal gyrus, and the bilateral hippocampus.

<p>(cluster-level FWE corrected, p<0.05).</p

Areas of increased activity for the mixed condition vs. blocked naming in Chinese (MNI coordinates).

<p>Areas of increased activity for the mixed condition vs. blocked naming in Chinese (MNI coordinates).</p

Mixed against L1 Chinese naming condition showed broadly distributed areas falling into two big clusters.

<p>One peaked at the posterior part of the left IFG and extended all over the prefrontal cortex and to the bilateral SMA, left insula, left putamen and right caudate. The other peaked at the left inferior parietal gyrus and extended to the SMG and the Angular and precuneus. (cluster-level FWE corrected, p<0.05).</p

The three experimental conditions and the corresponding stimuli.

<p>The three experimental conditions and the corresponding stimuli.</p

Areas of increased activity for the mixed condition vs. blocked naming in English (MNI coordinates).

<p>Areas of increased activity for the mixed condition vs. blocked naming in English (MNI coordinates).</p