Emotion-Related Visual Mismatch Responses in Schizophrenia: Impairments and Correlations with Emotion Recognition.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential (ERP) measure of preattentional sensory processing. While deficits in the auditory MMN are robust electrophysiological findings in schizophrenia, little is known about visual mismatch response and its association with social cognitive functions such as emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Our aim was to study the potential deficit in the visual mismatch response to unexpected facial emotions in schizophrenia and its association with emotion recognition impairments, and to localize the sources of the mismatch signals. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:The sample comprised 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy control subjects. Controls were matched individually to patients by gender, age, and education. ERPs were recorded using a high-density 128-channel BioSemi amplifier. Mismatch responses to happy and fearful faces were determined in 2 time windows over six regions of interest (ROIs). Emotion recognition performance and its association with the mismatch response were also investigated. PRINCIPAL OBSERVATIONS:Mismatch signals to both emotional conditions were significantly attenuated in patients compared to controls in central and temporal ROIs. Controls recognized emotions significantly better than patients. The association between overall emotion recognition performance and mismatch response to the happy condition was significant in the 250-360 ms time window in the central ROI. The estimated sources of the mismatch responses for both emotional conditions were localized in frontal regions, where patients showed significantly lower activity. CONCLUSIONS:Impaired generation of mismatch signals indicate insufficient automatic processing of emotions in patients with schizophrenia, which correlates strongly with decreased emotion recognition

Memory-Based Mismatch Response to Frequency Changes in Rats

Any occasional changes in the acoustic environment are of potential importance for survival. In humans, the preattentive detection of such changes generates the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related brain potentials. MMN is elicited to rare changes (‘deviants’) in a series of otherwise regularly repeating stimuli (‘standards’). Deviant stimuli are detected on the basis of a neural comparison process between the input from the current stimulus and the sensory memory trace of the standard stimuli. It is, however, unclear to what extent animals show a similar comparison process in response to auditory changes. To resolve this issue, epidural potentials were recorded above the primary auditory cortex of urethane-anesthetized rats. In an oddball condition, tone frequency was used to differentiate deviants interspersed randomly among a standard tone. Mismatch responses were observed at 60–100 ms after stimulus onset for frequency increases of 5% and 12.5% but not for similarly descending deviants. The response diminished when the silent inter-stimulus interval was increased from 375 ms to 600 ms for +5% deviants and from 600 ms to 1000 ms for +12.5% deviants. In comparison to the oddball condition the response also diminished in a control condition in which no repetitive standards were presented (equiprobable condition). These findings suggest that the rat mismatch response is similar to the human MMN and indicate that anesthetized rats provide a valuable model for studies of central auditory processing

Visual mismatch negativity to masked stimuli presented at very brief presentation rates

Mismatch Negativity (MMN) has been characterised as a ‘pre-attentive’ component of an event-related potential (ERP) that is related to discrimination and error prediction processes. The aim of the current experiment was to establish whether visual MMN could be recorded to briefly presented, backward and forward masked visual stimuli, given both below and above levels of subjective experience. Evidence of visual MMN elicitation in the absence of the ability to consciously report stimuli would provide strong evidence for the automaticity of the visual MMN mechanism. Using an oddball paradigm, two stimuli that differed in orientation from each other, an + and an x were presented on a computer screen. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from nine participants (six females), mean age 21.4 years. Results showed that for stimuli that were effectively masked at 7ms presentation, there was little variation in the ERPs evoked to standard and deviant stimuli or in the subtraction waveform employed to delineate the visual MMN. At 14 ms stimulus presentation, when participants were able to report stimulus presence, an enhanced negativity at around 175 ms and 305 ms was observed to the deviant and was evident in the subtraction waveform. Although some of the difference observed in the ERPs can be attributed to stimulus characteristics, the use of a ‘lonely’ deviant protocol revealed attenuated visual MMN components at 14 ms stimulus presentation. Overall, results suggest that some degree of conscious attention is required before visual MMN components emerge, suggesting visual MMN is not an entirely pre-attentive process

The effect of sad mood on early sensory event-related potentials to task-irrelevant faces

Abstract It has been shown that the perceiver’s mood affects the perception of emotional faces, but it is not known how mood affects preattentive brain responses to emotional facial expressions. To examine the question, we experimentally induced sad and neutral mood in healthy adults before presenting them with task-irrelevant pictures of faces while an electroencephalography was recorded. Sad, happy, and neutral faces were presented to the participants in an ignore oddball condition. Differential responses (emotional – neutral) for the P1, N170, and P2 amplitudes were extracted and compared between neutral and sad mood conditions. Emotional facial expressions modulated all the components, and an interaction effect of expression by mood was found for P1: an emotional modulation to happy faces, which was found in neutral mood condition, disappeared in sad mood condition. For N170 and P2, we found larger response amplitudes for both emotional faces, regardless of the mood. The results add to the previous behavioral findings showing that mood already affects low-level cortical feature encoding of task-irrelevant faces

Does sales management matter?:a case of growth-oriented SMEs from Northern Finland

Abstract Sales management is one of the basic factors that determine the success and growth of any company. This study applies a systematic approach to sales management in order to explore sales capability. A sales maturity model is developed and used to analyse the sales capabilities of growth-oriented SMEs in Northern Finland. The secondary purpose of this study is to explore proactive versus reactive sales management and its relation to sales capability. This study found that sales capability is higher in strategic process management as well as in issues relating to people and organisations, but lower in issues relating to customer communication and customer data utilisation. Actively seeking new sales opportunities seems to be important for enhanced sales capability. Based on the results, growth-oriented SMEs should invest in systematic and proactive sales management. The developed sales maturity model can be utilised to enhance SMEs’ sales capability

Yrittäjyysilmasto Pohjois-Pohjanmaalla:SoloENTRE ja Yrittävä kulttuuri -hankkeen tuloksia

Abstract The objectives of the SoloENTRE and entrepreneurial culture -project were based on the provincial program and the provincial entrepreneurship education strategy. The project, in cooperation with micro-entrepreneurs, business service organizations and research actors, built a new set of micro-entrepreneurship services to support growth, job creation and export. The measures will support the sustainable growth and renewal of micro-entrepreneurs. The project was financed by the Council of Oulu Region the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Finnish Structural Funds programme. The project examined the current state of the entrepreneurial climate by providing information on attitudes towards entrepreneurship and media-mediated images of entrepreneurship. The attitudes of young people, teachers, and entrepreneurs in Northern Ostrobothnia concerning entrepreneurship were examined through surveys and interviews. Media-related attitudes about entrepreneurship were examined by analysing newspaper communication. The project contributed to the entrepreneurial climate through positive communication and events together with the media and business organizations. To strengthen the entrepreneurial culture, the project created materials that encourages entrepreneurship for various virtual platforms. The project participated in a nationwide network collaboration promoting an entrepreneurial culture. The project developed services that support digitalization, community, and future work models for those who are planning or already working as entrepreneurs. In the project, business service operators created services for the self-employed. The project also developed and produced a new type of web-based maturity model for educational institutions for self-assessment and goal-oriented development of experimental cultural development and the implementation of entrepreneurship education. The core group model of MicroENTRE micro-enterprises created in Northern Ostrobothnia is a peer network of micro-entrepreneurs, which has already expanded to several provinces. There is a significant need for the sharing and peer review of the expertise of business service operators. The SoloENTRE and entrepreneurial culture -project developed network cooperation between business service providers. Through the activities, the expertise and competence of the participants was strengthened through the sharing of knowledge and experiences and peer support.Tiivistelmä SoloENTRE ja Yrittävä kulttuuri -hankkeen tavoitteet pohjautuivat maakuntaohjelmaan ja maakunnalliseen yrittäjyyskasvatusstrategiaan. Hankkeessa rakennettiin yhteistyössä yksin- ja mikroyrittäjien, yrityspalveluorganisaatioiden ja tutkimustoimijoiden kanssa uudenlainen mikroyrittäjyyden palvelukokonaisuus, jolla tuetaan yritysten kasvua, työllistämistä ja vientiä. Toimenpiteet tukevat erityisesti yksin- ja mikroyrittäjien kestävää kasvua ja uudistumista. Hankkeen päärahoittajana oli Pohjois-Pohjanmaan liitto, Euroopan Aluekehitysrahasto (EAKR) Suomen rakennerahasto-ohjelman kautta. Hankkeessa selvitettiin yrittäjyyden ilmapiirin nykytilaa tuottamalla tietoa asenteista yrittäjyyteen ja median välittämistä yrittäjyyden mielikuvista. Pohjois-Pohjanmaan nuorten, opetushenkilöstön ja yrittäjien asenteita yrittäjyyttä kohtaan selvitettiin kyselyjen ja haastattelujen kautta, lisäksi median välittämää viestiä yrittäjyydestä tutkittiin painettujen lehtien viestintää analysoimalla. Hanke vaikutti yrittäjyysilmastoon positiivisella viestinnällä ja tapahtumilla yhdessä median ja yrittäjäjärjestöjen kanssa. Yrittävää kulttuuria vahvistettiin myös tallentamalla virtuaalisille alustoille yrittäjyyteen kannustavaa aineistoa. Hanke osallistui yrittävää kulttuuria edistävään valtakunnalliseen verkostoyhteistyöhön. Hankkeessa kehitettiin digitalisaation, yhteisöllisyyden ja tulevaisuuden työnteon muodot tukevia palveluita yrittäjyyttä suunnitteleville tai jo yrittäjinä toimiville. Hankkeessa yrityspalvelutoimijat kartoittivat yritysten palvelutarpeet ja tuottivat palvelutarjontaansa erityisesti yksinyrittäjille suunnattuja palveluita. Hanke kehitti ja tuotti lisäksi yksin- ja mikroyrityksille sekä yrityspalveluorganisaatioiden käyttöön yrityksen kasvun hallinnan ja digitalisoinnin valmiuksien arvioinnin ja kehittämisen avoimet sähköiset palvelut yhdessä kohderyhmien kanssa. Hanke kehitti ja tuotti uudenlaisen verkkopohjaisen kypsyysmallin myös oppilaitoksille yrittävän kulttuurin kehittymisen ja yrittäjyyskasvatuksen toteutumisen itsearviointiin ja päämäärätietoiseen kehittämiseen. Palvelu mahdollistaa yrittäjyyskasvatuksen tavoitteellisen seurannan ja tarvittavien toimenpiteiden suuntaamisen saatujen tulosten pohjalta. Pohjois-Pohjanmaalla luotu MicroENTRE:n mikroyritysten ydinryhmämalli on mikroyrittäjien vertaisverkosto, joka on laajentunut jo useaan maakuntaan ja sille on jatkuva tarve. Toiminnan aikana on huomioitu tarve vahvistaa yrityspalvelutoimijoiden asiantuntijuuden jakamista ja vertaistoimintaa. SoloENTRE ja Yrittävä kulttuuri -hankkeessa kehitettiin yrityspalvelutoimijoiden verkostoyhteistyötä. Toiminnan kautta osallistujien asiantuntijuus ja osaaminen vahvistui tiedon ja kokemusten jakamisen sekä vertaistuen kautta