EEG correlates of static and dynamic face perception: The role of naturalistic motion.

Much of our understanding of how the brain processes dynamic faces comes from research that compares static photographs to dynamic morphs, which exhibit simplified, computer-generated motion. By comparing static, video recorded, and dynamic morphed expressions, we aim to identify the neural correlates of naturalistic facial dynamism, using time-domain and time-frequency analysis. Dynamic morphs were made from the neutral and peak frames of video recorded transitions of happy and fearful expressions, which retained expression change and removed asynchronous and non-linear features of naturalistic facial motion.

Can deepfakes be used to study emotion perception? A comparison of dynamic face stimuli.

Video recordings accurately capture facial expression movements; however, they are difficult for face perception researchers to standardise and manipulate. For this reason, dynamic morphs of photographs are often used, despite their lack of naturalistic facial motion. This study aimed to investigate how humans perceive emotions from faces using real videos and two different approaches to artificially generating dynamic expressions - dynamic morphs, and AI-synthesised deepfakes.

The influence of dynamism and expression intensity on face emotion recognition in individuals with autistic traits.

Face emotion recognition (FER) ability varies across the population, with autistic traits in the general population reported to contribute to this variation. Previous studies used photographs of posed facial expressions, while real social encounters involve dynamic expressions of varying intensity. We used static photographs and dynamic videos, showing peak and partial facial expressions to investigate the influence of dynamism and expression intensity on FER in non-clinical adults who varied in autistic traits.

Embracing deepfakes and AI-generated images in neuroscience research.

The rise of deepfakes and AI-generated images has raised concerns regarding their potential misuse. However, this commentary highlights the valuable opportunities these technologies offer for neuroscience research. Deepfakes deliver accessible, realistic and customisable dynamic face stimuli, while generative adversarial networks (GANs) can generate and modify diverse and high-quality static content.

Faster social attention disengagement in individuals with higher autism traits.

Introduction: Atypical visual and social attention has often been associated with clinically diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and with the broader autism phenotype. Atypical social attention is of particular research interest given the importance of facial expressions for social communication, with faces tending to attract and hold attention in neurotypical individuals. In autism, this is not necessarily so, where there is debate about the temporal differences in the ability to disengage attention from a face.

Autism Traits and Cognitive Performance: Mediating Roles of Sleep Disturbance, Anxiety and Depression.

Theories about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have addressed cognitive deficits however few have examined how comorbid diagnoses, including sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression contribute to the underlying deficits. We investigated potential mediations of common ASD comorbidities in the relationship between sub-clinical autism traits and cognitive performance using an international community sample. Cognitive tasks assessed working memory [executive functioning (EF) theory], mental state attribution [theory of mind (ToM)], and global/local visual processing [weak central coherence (WCC) theory].

Alterations in Rapid Social Evaluations in Individuals with High Autism Traits.

Typically developing adults with low and high Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores made rapid social evaluations of neutral faces when these were primed by briefly presented emotional faces. High AQ participants rated neutral faces as more threatening than low AQ participants, regardless of the prime condition. Both groups rated target neutral faces as more threatening with fearful compared with neutral primes, while neither group demonstrated an effect of happy primes on the ratings of neutral target faces.

Corrigendum: Saccade Latency Provides Evidence for Reduced Face Inversion Effects With Higher Autism Traits.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.

Saccade Latency Provides Evidence for Reduced Face Inversion Effects With Higher Autism Traits.

Individuals on the autism spectrum are reported to show impairments in the processing of social information, including aspects of eye-movements towards faces. Abnormalities in basic-level visual processing are also reported. In the current study, we sought to determine if the latency of saccades made towards social targets (faces) in a natural scene as opposed to inanimate targets (cars) would be related to sub-clinical autism traits (ATs) in individuals drawn from a neurotypical population.

Anxiety as a Common Biomarker for School Children With Additional Health and Developmental Needs Irrespective of Diagnosis.

Currently very little evidence is available regarding the biological characteristics and common comorbid behaviors that are associated with children characterized by learning difficulties who require additional support at school. These children are usually referred to as having Additional Health and Developmental Needs by the Australian Government and the associated public education system more broadly though the problems may arise from academic, social and/or emotional stressors and may or may not include children with clinically diagnosed Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety levels (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale- Parent Report), autism traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient - Child Version) and sleep quality (Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children) in children with Additional Health and Developmental Needs without an intellectual disability, but with either a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ( = 25), Speech and Language Impairment ( = 37) or Other Diagnosis ( = 22).

Subclinical high schizotypy traits are associated with slower change detection.

Patients with schizophrenia often show impairments in visual information processing that have been linked to abnormal magnocellular or dorsal stream functioning. However, such deficits are not consistently reported, possibly due to the broad symptomology inherent to schizophrenia, and/or medication effects. To avoid these latter issues this study employed visual perceptual tasks targeting magnocellular (flicker-defined form contrast threshold), dorsal stream (motion coherence, change detection) and ventral stream (form coherence) processing, and compared performance of groups of high and low sub-clinical schizotypy traits from a neurotypical population (n = 20 per group).

Perceptual size discrimination requires awareness and late visual areas: A continuous flash suppression and interocular transfer study.

We applied continuous flash suppression (CFS) during an interocular transfer paradigm to evaluate the importance of awareness and the contribution of early versus late visual structures in size recognition. Specifically, we tested if size judgements of a visible target could be influenced by a congruent or incongruent prime presented to the same or different eye. Without CFS, participants categorised a target as "small" or "large" more quickly when it was preceded by a congruent prime - regardless of whether the prime and target were presented to the same or different eye.

Conscious awareness is required for the perceptual discrimination of threatening animal stimuli: A visual masking and continuous flash suppression study.

We investigated if the subliminal processing of threatening animal (snakes and spiders) and neutral object (cars and houses) stimuli can influence the discrimination of a subsequent visible stimulus. The prime and target pair were either identical, of the same category but with different physical features, or different in category and physical features. In two experiments, participants discriminated the basic level category (e.

Perceptual Discrimination of Basic Object Features Is Not Facilitated When Priming Stimuli Are Prevented From Reaching Awareness by Means of Visual Masking.

Our understanding of how form, orientation and size are processed within and outside of awareness is limited and requires further investigation. Therefore, we investigated whether or not the visual discrimination of basic object features can be influenced by subliminal processing of stimuli presented beforehand. Visual masking was used to render stimuli perceptually invisible.

An fMRI-Neuronavigated Chronometric TMS Investigation of V5 and Intraparietal Cortex in Motion Driven Attention.

The timing of networked brain activity subserving motion driven attention in humans is currently unclear. Functional MRI (fMRI)-neuronavigated chronometric transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to investigate critical times of parietal cortex involvement in motion driven attention. In particular, we were interested in the relative critical times for two intraparietal sulcus (IPS) sites in comparison to that previously identified for motion processing in area V5, and to explore potential earlier times of involvement.

Size Aftereffects Are Eliminated When Adaptor Stimuli Are Prevented from Reaching Awareness by Continuous Flash Suppression.

Size aftereffects are a compelling perceptual phenomenon in which we perceive the size of a stimulus as being different than it actually is following a period of visual stimulation of an adapter stimulus with a different size. Here, we used continuous flash suppression (CFS) to determine if size aftereffects require a high-level appraisal of the adapter stimulus. The strength of size aftereffects was quantified following a 3-s exposure to perceptually visible and invisible adapters.

Impaired Activation of Visual Attention Network for Motion Salience Is Accompanied by Reduced Functional Connectivity between Frontal Eye Fields and Visual Cortex in Strabismic Amblyopia.

Strabismic amblyopia is now acknowledged to be more than a simple loss of acuity and to involve alterations in visually driven attention, though whether this applies to both stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention has not been explored. Hence we investigated monocular threshold performance during a motion salience-driven attention task involving detection of a coherent dot motion target in one of four quadrants in adult controls and those with strabismic amblyopia. Psychophysical motion thresholds were impaired for the strabismic amblyopic eye, requiring longer inspection time and consequently slower target speed for detection compared to the fellow eye or control eyes.

The Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST): Physiological and Subjective Responses in Anticipation, and Post-stress.

The Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST) is designed to be a simple, quick, and non-invasive procedure aimed at activating the human stress system. The MAST has been developed by combining elements from two of the most common experimental paradigms measuring stress, the Trier Social Stress Test and the Cold Pressor Test. The aim of this study was to use the MAST procedure to elicit strong autonomic and subjective stress responses that can be quantified in terms of (systolic and diastolic) blood pressure, pulse rate (PR), and state anxiety ratings.

Neural Markers Associated with the Temporal Deployment of Attention: A Systematic Review of Non-motor Psychophysical Measures Post-stroke.

In recent years, evidence has emerged to suggest abnormal temporal dynamics of attentional processing in stroke patients, especially those presenting with neglect symptoms. However, there has been little profiling of the nature and extent of such temporal anomalies. In addition, many paradigms currently used to measure the time required to deploy visual attention in stroke require a psychomotor response, and may therefore confound performance outcomes.

Attention Orienting in Response to Non-conscious Hierarchical Arrows: Individuals with Higher Autistic Traits Differ in Their Global/Local Bias.

One aspect of the social communication impairments that characterize autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include reduced use of often subtle non-verbal social cues. People with ASD, and those with self-reported sub-threshold autistic traits, also show impairments in rapid visual processing of stimuli unrelated to social or emotional properties. Hence, this study sought to investigate whether perceptually non-conscious visual processing is related to autistic traits.

Mapping of the Underlying Neural Mechanisms of Maintenance and Manipulation in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Using An n-back Mental Rotation Task: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Mapping of the underlying neural mechanisms of visuo-spatial working memory (WM) has been shown to consistently elicit activity in right hemisphere dominant fronto-parietal networks. However to date, the bulk of neuroimaging literature has focused largely on the maintenance aspect of visuo-spatial WM, with a scarcity of research into the aspects of WM involving manipulation of information. Thus, this study aimed to compare maintenance-only with maintenance and manipulation of visuo-spatial stimuli (3D cube shapes) utilizing a 1-back task while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were acquired.

Beyond Neglect: Preliminary Evidence of Retrospective Time Estimation Abnormalities in Non-Neglect Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack Patients.

Perception of the passage of time is essential for safe planning and navigation of everyday activities. Findings from the literature have demonstrated a gross underestimation of time interval in right-hemisphere damaged neglect patients, but not in non-neglect unilaterally-damaged patients, compared to controls. This study aimed to investigate retrospective estimation of the duration of a target detection task over two occasions, in 30 stroke patients (12 left-side stroke 15 right-side stroke, and 3 right-side stroke with neglect) and 10 transient ischemic attack patients, relative to 31 age-matched controls.