Individual differences in ERPs during mental rotation of characters: Lateralization,and performance level

The cognitive process of imaging an object turning around is called mental rotation. Many studies have been put forward analyzing mental rotation by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured during mental rotation of characters in a sample (N = 82) with a sufficient size to obtain even small effects. A bilateral ERP amplitude modulation as a function of angular displacement was observed at parietal leads without any lateralization. Sex had no effect on mental rotation of characters, neither with respect to performance nor with respect to brain potentials. When the sample was split into groups of high- and low-performers, however, the results indicated (a) in line with the idea of neural efficiency substantially larger amplitudes for low-performers; (b) that the smaller amplitudes of the high-performers involved larger parietal networks; and (c) a left-parietal disengagement of neural activity for high-performers but a right-parietal disengagement for low-performers. The latter finding became evident through an analysis of internal consistencies of ERP amplitudes across conditions and performance levels, showing that internal consistencies were reduced at all three leads in the high-performance group for the biggest rotation angle, relative the other conditions and the low-performing group.     

Emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task: An ERP study

In this paper, we aimed to verify the emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task using event-related potentials. Twenty-one healthy subjects were asked to categorize the emotional valences of pictures accompanied by emotionally congruent, either centrally or laterally positioned Chinese words. For both the foveal and lateral word presentations, the reaction times were faster compared to the picture-only presentation. Compared to the picture-only presentation, P200 amplitude increased under the foveal word presentation condition and decreased under the lateral word presentation condition, indicating that more attentional resources were required when an accompanying word was in the center of a picture than when the word was in the lateral position. Latency of P300 was shorter in response to picture–word stimuli irrespective of word position, indicating that an emotionally congruent word facilitated the emotional processing of the target picture, which verified the emotional facilitation effect and was consistent with the results in psychology. The late positive component was more positive when the picture–word stimuli were more positive, which reflected the feature of positivity offset. The findings suggest that the time window for an emotional facilitation effect may be limited to processing aspects associated with P300 (i.e., affective evaluation).     

Dissociating electrophysiological correlates of subjective,objective, and correct memory in investigating the emotion-induced recognition bias

Performance on tasks requiring discrimination of at least two stimuli can be viewed either from an objective perspective (referring to actual stimulus differences), or from a subjective perspective (corresponding to participant’s responses). Using event-related potentials recorded during an old/new recognition memory test involving emotionally laden and neutral words studied either blockwise or randomly intermixed, we show here how the objective perspective (old versus new items) yields late effects of blockwise emotional item presentation at parietal sites that the subjective perspective fails to find, whereas the subjective perspective (“old” versus “new” responses) is more sensitive to early effects of emotion at anterior sites than the objective perspective. Our results demonstrate the potential advantage of dissociating the subjective and the objective perspective onto task performance (in addition to analyzing trials with correct responses), especially for investigations of illusions and information processing biases, in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies.     

Perceptual visual grouping under inattention: electrophysiological functional imaging

Two types of perceptual visual grouping, differing in complexity of shape formation, were examined under inattention. Fourteen participants performed a similarity judgment task concerning two successive briefly presented central targets surrounded by task-irrelevant simple and complex grouping patterns. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 22 scalp electrodes and source current density estimations were conducted for the net response to the task-irrelevant background patterns, using low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA). Although participants’ subjective reports indicated that neither type of organization induced awareness, electrophysiological results showed they both evoked significant activation in occipital, parieto-temporal and frontal brain areas. Behavioral results demonstrated that only grouping of the simple pattern arose under inattention. In contrast to the complex pattern, the processing of the simple pattern was associated with an initially longer latency and higher activation beginning at 130 ms. These results support the distinction of grouping patterns differing in complexity of shape formation.     

不同认知方式个体图形一致性判断过程中的ERP研究

使用ERP技术对选取的27名右利手大学生（场独立14名,场依存13名）在图形一致性判断过程中的ERP进行分析,结果表明：1）在图形一致性的判断任务中,场依存者的前额叶与中央区在200ms之前的N85与P160峰-峰之差明显大于场独立者,在枕叶区的负波N120波幅明显高于场独立者,这说明场依存者在对图形一致性比较的视觉信息处理的早期阶段即进行了更深度的加工。2）场独立者的N290波幅高于场依存者,而N290潜伏期比场依存者明显的长,这说明场独立者在后期对图形进行了更深入的分析比对。     

Congruity Effects in Time and Space: Behavioral and ERP Measures

Two experiments investigated whether motion metaphors for time affected the perception of spatial motion. Participants read sentences either about literal motion through space or metaphorical motion through time written from either the ego-moving or object-moving perspective. Each sentence was followed by a cartoon clip. Smiley-moving clips showed an iconic happy face moving toward a polygon, and shape-moving clips showed a polygon moving toward a happy face. In Experiment 1, using an explicit judgment task, participants judged smiley-moving cartoons as related to ego-moving sentences about space and about time, and shape-moving cartoons as related to object-moving sentences. In Experiment 2, participants viewed the same stimuli, but the cartoons were task-irrelevant. Event-related brain potentials revealed an early attentional effect of congruity on cartoons following sentences about space, and a later semantic effect on cartoons following sentences about time. Results are most consistent with accounts that posit differences in the processing of novel and conventional metaphors.     

不同数学焦虑成人的算术策略运用差异：ERP研究

采用事件相关电位(ERP)技术和选择/无选法范式, 在两位数加法心算和估算中, 探索高、低数学焦虑个体的算术计算策略运用及其内在机制。行为结果：数学焦虑效应在策略运用的反应时和正确率指标上的差异都不显著; 而脑电结果：高数学焦虑个体的N400波幅显著高于低数学焦虑个体; 选择条件中, 估算与心算的数学焦虑效应的N100波幅差异; 无选条件中, 高低数学焦虑个体N1-P2复合波的波幅和潜伏期差异显著。数学焦虑效应在策略编码(0~250 ms)和策略选择/执行阶段(250 ms之后)存在差异。     

条件性的关联学习和消退过程的性别差异

采用事件相关电位技术和条件性关联学习模型相结合的方法, 考察在负性背景下男女性对一般事件的关联学习和消退是否存在差异。结果表明：在关联学习阶段, 男性较女性表现出P2潜伏期缩短和N2波幅增大, 而女性比男性表现出更大的P3波幅。在消退阶段, 女性较男性出现更小的P2波幅和更大的P3/LPP波幅。这说明女性可能慢于男性探索到条件刺激和非条件刺激之间的关联, 并且保持时间更久; 男性在相对早期对消退产生更大的反应, 女性则在相对晚期对消退投入更多的资源及努力。     

冲突适应独立于意识：来自行为和ERP的证据

尽管已有研究发现诸如抑制控制和任务转换等认知控制功能独立于意识, 但是对冲突适应是否需要意识的参与目前还存在激烈的争论。为了进一步探讨此问题, 本研究记录了18名被试在完成箭头偏对比掩蔽任务(meta-contrast masking task)时的行为和脑电数据。结果显示, 在有意识和无意识条件下在反应时和额中N2和中顶P3波幅上均表现出了显著的冲突适应效应。这不仅表明冲突控制独立于意识, 而且也表明先前无意识经验对人类信息加工系统的适应性调节作用。本研究对认识认知控制和意识的本质具有重要意义, 也为建构认知控制与意识关系的理论提供了启示。     

顿悟问题思维僵局早期觉察的脑电研究

思维僵局不仅是顿悟问题有别于常规问题的重要要素, 而且是顿悟赖以实现的基础。先前研究虽对顿悟瞬间的脑认知活动进行了较充分的探讨, 但却较少对思维僵局的有关过程进行研究。思维僵局究竟是源于早期的知觉阶段还是晚期的问题加工阶段至今仍是未解之谜, 但它却是人们认识顿悟过程所必需的。只有充分认识和理解了该过程, 才可能更全面地理解顿悟究竟建立在怎样的脑认知表征的基础之上。研究运用ERPs技术, 采用猜谜任务范式对顿悟中思维僵局产生的阶段及其脑认知活动进行了探讨。研究发现, 在120~210 ms和620~800 ms内, “有僵局”谜题较之“无僵局”谜题在额-中央区分别诱发了一个更正的P170和晚期LPC。其中, P170主要反映人脑对思维僵局的早期觉察, LPC则主要表征人脑经过一定解题尝试后对前期预评估僵局的修正和有意识反思。这些结果挑战了传统的思维僵局的晚期产生假说, 支持思维僵局的“早期产生机制”假说, 表明人脑在早期知觉阶段就能直觉地觉察思维僵局的存在。