Facial expressions depicting compassionate and critical emotions: the development and validation of a new emotional face stimulus set

Attachment with altruistic others requires the ability to appropriately process affiliative and kind facial cues. Yet there is no stimulus set available to investigate such processes. Here, we developed a stimulus set depicting compassionate and critical facial expressions, and validated its effectiveness using well-established visual-probe methodology. In Study 1, 62 participants rated photographs of actors displaying compassionate/kind and critical faces on strength of emotion type. This produced a new stimulus set based on N = 31 actors, whose facial expressions were reliably distinguished as compassionate, critical and neutral. In Study 2, 70 participants completed a visual-probe task measuring attentional orientation to critical and compassionate/kind faces. This revealed that participants lower in self-criticism demonstrated enhanced attention to compassionate/kind faces whereas those higher in self-criticism showed no bias. To sum, the new stimulus set produced interpretable findings using visual-probe methodology and is the first to include higher order, complex positive affect displays

Neural correlates of socio-emotional perception in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Social impairments are described as a common feature of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). However, the neural correlates underlying these impairments are largely unknown in this population. In this study, we investigated neural substrates of socio-emotional perception. METHODS: We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore neural activity in individuals with 22q11DS and healthy controls during the visualization of stimuli varying in social (social or non-social) or emotional (positive or negative valence) content. RESULTS: Neural hyporesponsiveness in regions of the default mode network (inferior parietal lobule, precuneus, posterior and anterior cingulate cortex and frontal regions) in response to social versus non-social images was found in the 22q11DS population compared to controls. A similar pattern of activation for positive and negative emotional processing was observed in the two groups. No correlation between neural activation and social functioning was observed in patients with the 22q11DS. Finally, no social × valence interaction impairment was found in patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate atypical neural correlates of social perception in 22q11DS that appear to be independent of valence processing. Abnormalities in the social perception network may lead to social impairments observed in 22q11DS individuals

Effects of Aversive Stimuli on Prospective Memory. An Event-Related fMRI Study

Prospective memory (PM) describes the ability to execute a previously planned action at the appropriate point in time. Although behavioral studies clearly showed that prospective memory performance is affected by the emotional significance attributed to the intended action, no study so far investigated the brain mechanisms subserving the modulatory effect of emotional salience on PM performance. The general aim of the present study was to explore brain regions involved in prospective memory processes when PM cues are associated with emotional stimuli. In particular, based on the hypothesised critical role of the prefrontal cortex in prospective memory in the presence of emotionally salient stimuli, we expected a stronger involvement of aPFC when the retrieval and execution of the intended action is cued by an aversive stimulus. To this aim BOLD responses of PM trials cued by aversive facial expressions were compared to PM trials cued by neutral facial expressions. Whole brain analysis showed that PM task cued by aversive stimuli is differentially associated with activity in the right lateral prefrontal area (BA 10) and in the left caudate nucleus. Moreover a temporal shift between the response of the caudate nucleus that preceded that of aPFC was observed. These findings suggest that the caudate nucleus might provide an early analysis of the affective properties of the stimuli, whereas the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (BA10) would be involved in a slower and more deliberative analysis to guide goal-directed behaviour

Motor signatures of emotional reactivity in frontotemporal dementia

Automatic motor mimicry is essential to the normal processing of perceived emotion, and disrupted automatic imitation might underpin socio-emotional deficits in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly the frontotemporal dementias. However, the pathophysiology of emotional reactivity in these diseases has not been elucidated. We studied facial electromyographic responses during emotion identification on viewing videos of dynamic facial expressions in 37 patients representing canonical frontotemporal dementia syndromes versus 21 healthy older individuals. Neuroanatomical associations of emotional expression identification accuracy and facial muscle reactivity were assessed using voxel-based morphometry. Controls showed characteristic profiles of automatic imitation, and this response predicted correct emotion identification. Automatic imitation was reduced in the behavioural and right temporal variant groups, while the normal coupling between imitation and correct identification was lost in the right temporal and semantic variant groups. Grey matter correlates of emotion identification and imitation were delineated within a distributed network including primary visual and motor, prefrontal, insular, anterior temporal and temporo-occipital junctional areas, with common involvement of supplementary motor cortex across syndromes. Impaired emotional mimesis may be a core mechanism of disordered emotional signal understanding and reactivity in frontotemporal dementia, with implications for the development of novel physiological biomarkers of socio-emotional dysfunction in these diseases

Is That Me or My Twin? Lack of Self-Face Recognition Advantage in Identical Twins

Despite the increasing interest in twin studies and the stunning amount of research on face recognition, the ability of adult identical twins to discriminate their own faces from those of their co-twins has been scarcely investigated. One’s own face is the most distinctive feature of the bodily self, and people typically show a clear advantage in recognizing their own face even more than other very familiar identities. Given the very high level of resemblance of their faces, monozygotic twins represent a unique model for exploring self-face processing. Herein we examined the ability of monozygotic twins to distinguish their own face from the face of their co-twin and of a highly familiar individual. Results show that twins equally recognize their own face and their twin’s face. This lack of self-face advantage was negatively predicted by how much they felt physically similar to their co-twin and by their anxious or avoidant attachment style. We speculate that in monozygotic twins, the visual representation of the self-face overlaps with that of the co-twin. Thus, to distinguish the self from the co-twin, monozygotic twins have to rely much more than control participants on the multisensory integration processes upon which the sense of bodily self is based. Moreover, in keeping with the notion that attachment style influences perception of self and significant others, we propose that the observed self/co-twin confusion may depend upon insecure attachment

Present-day importance of the velo-cardiac-facial syndrome (Sedlackova-Shprintzen)

Die vor 50 Jahren von Sedlackova (1955) erstbeschriebene Verbindung von Gaumen-Rachen-Insuffizienz mit typischen Gesichtszügen, Herzfehlbildungen und Intelligenzmangel wurde von Shprintzen (1978) wieder entdeckt, als VCF-Syndrom benannt und von Driscoll et al. (1992) durch eine Mikrodeletion 22q11.2 erklärt. Vrticka et al. (1996) bewiesen die Identität der Sedlackova und Shprintzen Syndrome. 16 von unseren 20 genetisch nachuntersuchten Patienten mit Sedlackova Syndrom wiesen Del 22q11.2 auf. 8 zeigten Gefässfehlbildungen, 16 Intelligenzmangel und 4 späte Psychosen. Diese Befunde begründen die Notwendigkeit von 1. gezielten Abklärungen bei allen VCF-verdächtigen Fällen, 2. Modifikationen des Therapieplanes und 3. genetischen Beratungen bei vorliegenden Del 22q11.2 wegen Vererbungsgefahr schwerer Fehlbildungen

Prion protein M129V polymorphism affects retrieval-related brain activity

The prion protein Met129Val polymorphism has recently been related to human long-term memory with carriers of either the 129MM or the 129MV genotype recalling 17% more words than 129VV carriers at 24 h following learning. Here, we sampled genotype differences in retrieval-related brain activity at 30 min and 24 h following learning. Furthermore, genotype groups were compared regarding grey matter concentrations and cognitive profiles. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a word recognition task on 12 Met/Met carriers, 12 Val/Met carriers, and 12 Val/Val carriers. These groups were matched for retrieval performance, gender, age, education, and other memory-related genetic polymorphisms. Although retrieval performance was matched, Val carriers exhibited enhanced retrieval-related brain activity at 30 min and 24 h following learning. At both time lags, correlations between retrieval-related brain activity and retrieval success were negative for Val homozygotes (the more activity, the worse retrieval success), while correlations showed no significance or were positive for Met homozygotes and heterozygotes. These results suggest a less economic use of retrieval-related neural resources in Val relative to Met carriers. Furthermore, Val carriers exhibited higher neocortical grey matter concentrations compared to Met carriers. When controlling for grey matter concentration, genotype effects in retrieval-related brain activity remained significant. Val and Met carriers yielded comparable brain activations for correct rejections of non-studied words and for working memory, which speaks to the specificity of the genotype effect. Findings suggest that the prion protein Met129Val polymorphism affects neural plasticity following learning at a time-scale of minutes to hours