事件相关脑电位考察汉语句法和语义的加工机制

This study sought to test the processing of three types of sentences in Chinese, as correct sentences, semantic violation sentences, and sentences containing semantic and syntactic violations, based on the following sentence pattern: "subject (noun) + yi/gang/zheng + predicate (verb)". Event-related potentials on the scalp were recorded using 32-channel electroencephalography. Compared with correct sentences, target words elicited an early left anterior negativity (N400) and a later positivity (P600) over frontal, central and temporal sites in sentences involving semantic violations. In addition, when sentences contained both semantic and syntactic violations, the target words elicited a greater N400 and P600 distributed in posterior brain areas. These results indicate that Chinese sentence comprehension involves covert grammar processes.     

Age-related differences in event-related potentials for early visual processing of emotional faces

With advancing age, processing resources are shifted away from negative emotional stimuli and toward positive ones. Here, we explored this ‘positivity effect’ using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants identified the presence or absence of a visual probe that appeared over photographs of emotional faces. The ERPs elicited by the onsets of angry, sad, happy and neutral faces were recorded. We examined the frontocentral emotional positivity (FcEP), which is defined as a positive deflection in the waveforms elicited by emotional expressions relative to neutral faces early on in the time course of the ERP. The FcEP is thought to reflect enhanced early processing of emotional expressions. The results show that within the first 130 ms young adults show an FcEP to negative emotional expressions, whereas older adults show an FcEP to positive emotional expressions. These findings provide additional evidence that the age-related positivity effect in emotion processing can be traced to automatic processes that are evident very early in the processing of emotional facial expressions.     

大脑中汉语"介词"加工的依赖性机制:来自事件相关电位研究的证据

目的考察分析汉语中动词与介词在大脑神经加工机制上的异同。方法采用事件相关电位（event—relatedpotentials,ERP）技术,选择以汉语为母语的正常被试者共16人,观察被试者在加工两类词时脑电的ERP波形变化。结果动词与介词的原始波比较结果表明,动词与介词在230—330ms的时间窗口均诱发一个负波,在350-500ms也均诱发一个负波,它们在峰值上均无显著差异;动词与介词的差异波比较结果表明,无论是在语义上还是句法上,发现两个类型的单词在刺激呈现后270—400ms和470—600ms的时间窗口内,在大脑两侧均诱发一个负波。结论大脑对动词与介词的加工机制没有出现显著差异,介词难以独立成类,N280也非虚词的特定性成分。     

大脑中汉语“介词”加工的依赖性机制：来自事件相关电位研究的证据(英文)

目的考察分析汉语中动词与介词在大脑神经加工机制上的异同。方法采用事件相关电位(event- related potentials,ERP)技术,选择以汉语为母语的正常被试者共16人,观察被试者在加工两类词时脑电的ERP波形变化。结果动词与介词的原始波比较结果表明,动词与介词在230-330ms的时间窗口均诱发一个负波,在350-500ms也均诱发一个负波,它们在峰值上均无显著差异;动词与介词的差异波比较结果表明,无论是在语义上还是句法上,发现两个类型的单词在刺激呈现后270-400ms和470-600ms的时间窗口内,在大脑两侧均诱发一个负波。结论大脑对动词与介词的加工机制没有出现显著差异,介词难以独立成类,N280也非虚词的特定性成分。     

The awareness of social inference test: development of a shortened version for use in adults with acquired brain injury

Objective: The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) is an ecologically valid test of complex social perception. Despite its utility for detecting social perception deficits in clinical groups, its lengthy administration time has limited its routine use in clinical practice. This paper describes the development and validation of a shortened version of the TASIT (TASIT-S) in 160 individuals (males = 129) with moderate to severe acquired brain injury (ABI).

Method: Both Rasch and confirmatory factor analysis modeling were used to create the TASIT-S, which, consistent with the original test, included the following subtests: (1) Emotion Evaluation Test (10 items), assessing basic emotion recognition; (2) Social Inference (Minimal) Test (9 items), assessing understanding of sincere and sarcastic exchanges; and (3) Social Inference (Enriched) Test (9 items), assessing comprehension of lies and sarcasm.

Results: The TASIT-S demonstrated excellent construct validity as evidenced by its high correlations with the original TASIT and correlations with social cognition and cognitive neuropsychological measures. Importantly, the TASIT-S also successfully differentiated between ABI participants and healthy controls (n = 43).

Conclusions: The new shortened version of the TASIT is a promising new tool with excellent psychometric properties that can assist clinicians with the detection of complex social perception deficits in ABI.     

神经性厌食患者事件相关电位CNV的研究

目的:探讨神经性厌食(AN)患者的事件相关电位CNV的特点以及认知功能损害的神经生物学机制。方法:应用美国Nicolet Spirit脑诱发电位仪,刺激采用纯音"Oddball"诱发模式,对43例AN患者(研究组)和34名健康对照(对照组)进行认知电位CNV的检测。结果:两组CNV主要指标比较,以研究组的PINV时程延长(t=2.44,P=0.02),波幅B降低(t=3.85,P=0.00)以及反应时间延长(t=-2.11,P=0.04);两组间比较,差异有统计学意义。两组CNV其他指标比较,潜伏期A(t=-1.76,P=0.08)、A-S2’(t=1.88,P=0.06)以及B时程(t=-0.65,P=0.52)差异均无统计学意义。结论:AN患者的CNV存在PINV时程延长、波幅B降低、反应时间延长,支持AN患者存在认知功能损害。     

The genetic and neuroanatomical basis of social dysfunction: Lessons from neurofibromatosis type 1

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common genetic condition associated with cognitive and social dysfunction as well as abnormal brain structure. The pathophysiology underlying social dysfunction in NF1 is poorly understood. Here, we investigate for the first time whether there is a broad deficit of social cognition in NF1 and explore the neural correlates for these deficits. Twenty‐nine adults with NF1 and 30 controls were administered an ecologically based test of social cognition, The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), to identify deficits in emotion recognition and sarcasm detection. We employed voxel‐based morphometry in a subset of NF1 patients (n = 16) and 16 additional controls to examine the neural correlates of these deficits. Results indicated that adults with NF1 were impaired in their ability to understand paradoxical sarcasm and their capacity to recognize emotion, particularly anger. TASIT performance was not associated with measures of attention, visuospatial skills or executive function. Relative to controls, gray matter (GM) volume within the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) was decreased, after controlling for total brain volume. Decreased volume in this region was significantly associated with social cognitive deficits in adults with NF1. We conclude that patients with NF1 are at high risk for a social cognitive deficit and provide evidence for a neuroanatomical basis for this deficit; GM volumetric reductions in the right STG. These findings improve our understanding of the nature of social interaction impairments in NF1 and add to the growing body of literature indicating the STG as a critical brain region for social cognition. Hum Brain Mapp 35:2372–2382, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theory of mind mediates the prospective relationship between abnormal social brain network morphology and chronic behavior problems after pediatric traumatic brain injury

Childhood and adolescence coincide with rapid maturation and synaptic reorganization of distributed neural networks that underlie complex cognitive-affective behaviors. These regions, referred to collectively as the ‘social brain network’ (SBN) are commonly vulnerable to disruption from pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, the mechanisms that link morphological changes in the SBN to behavior problems in this population remain unclear. In 98 children and adolescents with mild to severe TBI, we acquired 3D T1-weighted MRIs at 2–8 weeks post-injury. For comparison, 33 typically developing controls of similar age, sex and education were scanned. All participants were assessed on measures of Theory of Mind (ToM) at 6 months post-injury and parents provided ratings of behavior problems at 24-months post-injury. Severe TBI was associated with volumetric reductions in the overall SBN package, as well as regional gray matter structural change in multiple component regions of the SBN. When compared with TD controls and children with milder injuries, the severe TBI group had significantly poorer ToM, which was associated with more frequent behavior problems and abnormal SBN morphology. Mediation analysis indicated that impaired theory of mind mediated the prospective relationship between abnormal SBN morphology and more frequent chronic behavior problems. Our findings suggest that sub-acute alterations in SBN morphology indirectly contribute to long-term behavior problems via their influence on ToM. Volumetric change in the SBN and its putative hub regions may represent useful imaging biomarkers for prediction of post-acute social cognitive impairment, which may in turn elevate risk for chronic behavior problems.     

Social cognition in schizophrenia: an overview

The purpose of this column is to provide an overview of social cognition in schizophrenia. The column begins with a short introduction to social cognition. Then, we describe the application of social cognition to the study of schizophrenia, with an emphasis on key domains (i.e., emotion perception, Theory of Mind, and attributional style). We conclude the column by discussing the relationship of social cognition to neurocognition, negative symptoms, and functioning, with an eye toward strategies for improving social cognition in schizophrenia.     

Application of electroencephalography to the study of cognitive and brain functions in schizophrenia

The electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded from the human scalp is widely used to study cognitive and brain functions in schizophrenia. Current research efforts are primarily devoted to the assessment of event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs), extracted from the ongoing EEG, in patients with schizophrenia and in clinically unaffected individuals who, due to their family history and current mental status, are at high risk for developing schizophrenia. In this article, we discuss the potential usefulness of ERPs and EROs as genetic vulnerability markers, as pathophysiological markers, and as markers of possible ongoing progressive cognitive and cortical deterioration in schizophrenia. Our main purpose is to illustrate that these neurophysiological measures can offer valuable quantitative biological markers of basic pathophysiological mechanisms and cognitive dysfunctions in schizophrenia, yet they may not be specific to current psychiatry's diagnosis and classification. These biological markers can provide unique information on the nature and extent of cognitive and brain dysfunction in schizophrenia. Moreover, they can be utilized to gain deeper theoretical insights into illness etiology and pathophysiology and may lead to improvements in early detection and more effective and targeted treatment of schizophrenia. We conclude by addressing several key methodological, conceptual, and interpretative issues involved in this research field and by suggesting future research directions.     

The role of right temporoparietal junction in processing social prediction error across relationship contexts

How do people update their impressions of close others? Although people may be motivated to maintain their positive impressions, they may also update their impressions when their expectations are violated (i.e. prediction error). Combining neuroimaging and computational modeling, we test the hypothesis that brain regions associated with theory of mind, especially right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), underpin both motivated impression maintenance and impression updating evoked by prediction error. Participants had money either given to or taken away from them by a friend or a stranger and were then asked to rate each partner on trustworthiness and closeness across trials. Overall, participants engaged in less impression updating for friends vs strangers. Decreased rTPJ activity in response to a friend’s negative behavior (taking money) was associated with reduced negative updating and increased positive ratings of the friend. However, to the extent that participants did update their impressions (more negative ratings) of friends, this behavioral pattern was explained by greater prediction error and greater rTPJ activity. These findings suggest that rTPJ recruitment represents the integration of prediction error signals and the capacity to overcome people’s motivation to maintain positive impressions of friends in the face of conflicting evidence.     

Resting-state functional brain connectivity for human mentalizing: biobehavioral mechanisms of theory of mind in multiple sclerosis

Although neural hubs of mentalizing are acknowledged, the brain mechanisms underlying mentalizing deficit, characterizing different neurological conditions, are still a matter of debate. To investigate the neural underpinning of theory of mind (ToM) deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS), a region of interest (ROI)-based resting-state fMRI study was proposed. In total, 37 MS patients (23 females, mean age = 54.08 ± 11.37 years, median Expanded Disability Status Scale = 6.00) underwent an MRI and a neuro-psychosocial examination and were compared with 20 sex-age-education matched healthy subjects. A neuroanatomical ToM model was constructed deriving 11 bilateral ROIs and then between and within-functional connectivity (FCs) were assessed to test for group differences. Correlation with psychosocial scores was also investigated. Lower ToM performance was registered for MS both in cognitive and affective ToM, significantly associated with processing speed. A disconnection between limbic–paralimbic network and prefrontal execution loops was observed. A trend of aberrant intrinsic connectivity in MS within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was also reported. Finally, a correlation between cognitive ToM and intrinsic FC was detected in ACC and dorsal striatum, belonging to the limbic–paralimbic network, likely explaining the behavioral deficit in MS. The results suggest that aberrant intrinsic and extrinsic connectivity constitutes a crucial neural mechanism underlying ToM deficit in MS.     

Electrophysiological indices of automatic and controlled auditory information processing in first-episode, recent-onset and chronic schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Deficits in amplitudes of auditory event-related potentials (ERP) indexing preattentive, automatic (mismatch negativity, MMN) and controlled, attention-dependent (N2, P3) auditory information processing have been well described in chronic schizophrenia. Normal MMN, but deficient N2 and P3 have been reported in first-episode patients. No study has investigated these ERPs concurrently in first-episode patients; thus, reported differences in MMN, N2 and P3 generation may reflect differences in patient samples rather than genuine differences in abnormal generation of these ERPs. METHODS: We recorded MMN, N2 and P3 in 26 first-episode patients, 25 recent-onset patients within 1.5 to 5 years after first admission, 25 chronic patients and 39 healthy controls. RESULTS: Recent-onset and chronic, but not first-episode patients showed reduced MMN. However, among first-episode patients those with low premorbid educational achievement demonstrated significantly reduced MMN. All patient groups showed pronounced N2 deficits and, to a variable extent, abnormalities in P3 generation. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormalities in N2 and P3 generation appear to reflect premorbid neuropathology, whereas MMN deficits may index both ongoing disease processes associated with illness progression as well as premorbid neurocognitive impairment. ERPs may provide tools to assess static and progressive neuropathology in schizophrenia. These findings need confirmation in longitudinal studies.     

Age-dependent changes in the neural substrates of empathy in autism spectrum disorder

In typical development, empathic abilities continue to refine during adolescence and early adulthood. Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show deficits in empathy, whereas adults with ASD may have developed compensatory strategies. We aimed at comparing developmental trajectories in the neural mechanisms underlying empathy in individuals with ASD and typically developing control (TDC) subjects. Using an explicit empathizing paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging, 27 participants with ASD and 27 TDC aged 12–31 years were investigated. Participants were asked to empathize with emotional faces and to either infer the face’s emotional state (other-task) or to judge their own emotional response (self-task). Differential age-dependent changes were evident during the self-task in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right medial prefrontal cortex, right inferior parietal cortex, right anterior insula and occipital cortex. Age-dependent decreases in neural activation in TDC were paralleled by either increasing or unchanged age-dependent activation in ASD. These data suggest ASD-associated deviations in the developmental trajectories of self-related processing during empathizing. In TDC, age-dependent modulations of brain areas may reflect the ‘fine-tuning’ of cortical networks by reduction of task-unspecific brain activity. Increased age-related activation in individuals with ASD may indicate the development of compensatory mechanisms.