Visual mismatch negativity is sensitive to symmetry as a perceptual category

Predicting the unpredicted … brain response: A systematic review of the feature-related visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) and the experimental parameters that affect it

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, I consider aspects of experimental design that affect the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN)-an electrophysiological (neural) correlate of prediction error in vision that is typically largest between 150 ms and 300 ms in the event-related potential (ERP) at occipito-parietal regions on the scalp. I compiled data from 145 published studies investigating changes in a single property or feature of visual input. This review provides a concise summary of the vMMN literature on unexpected changes in features of visual input, outlining the most used (according to review) and optimal (following discussion on theoretical and practical implications) parameters of experiments investigating feature deviance for posterity as well as contemporary research. The data compiled was analysed to reveal meaningful relationships between aspects of experimental design and vMMN mean amplitude and peak latency. Results suggest that whether a control for adaptation is used, whether attention is towards vs. away from the stimulus of interest, and stimulus presentation time determines mean amplitude. Whether attention is towards vs. away from the stimulus of interest, the time between the stimulus of interest, deviant probability, and the number of standards separating deviants determines peak latency. There is also some indication that magnitude of deviance affects mean amplitude in studies exploring orientation deviance. This review and its findings elucidate potentially fruitful areas of future research.

Visual mismatch negativity is more than the sum of microsequences

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), the difference between the event-related potentials (ERPs) to repeated (standard) events and changing (deviant) events, can be caused either by diminished activity to the repeated ones (stimulus-specific adaptation, SSA), increased activity to the new ones, or both effects. To determine which of these effects contribute to the emergence of vMMN, we investigated the effect of repetition on visual ERPs. To this end, we measured electrical brain activity to task-irrelevant stimuli both in case of stimulus onset (continuously present objects, ON-events) and stimulus offset (frequently or infrequently disappearing parts of the objects, OFF-events). We examined ERPs to changing events ("deviants"), first and second repetitions ("standards") and to changing events preceded by one, two or three different events in non-oddball (50 % deviant frequency) sequences along with ERPs to similar deviant and standard events in oddball (12,5 % deviant frequency) sequences. The absence of exogenous N1 adaptation (i.e., adaptation of the negativity in the range of putative deviant minus standard difference) in non-oddball sequences coupled with the emergence of vMMN in oddball sequences proves that vMMN can be considered more than pure stimulus-specific adaptation effect.

Prioritization of social information processing: Eye gaze elicits earlier vMMN than arrows

Numerous research studies have demonstrated that eye gaze and arrows act as cues that automatically guide spatial attention. However, it remains uncertain whether the attention shifts triggered by these two types of stimuli vary in terms of automatic processing mechanisms. In our current investigation, we employed an equal probability paradigm to explore the likenesses and distinctions in the neural mechanisms of automatic processing for eye gaze and arrows in non-attentive conditions, using visual mismatch negative (vMMN) as an indicator of automatic processing. The sample size comprised 17 participants. The results indicated a significant interaction between time duration, stimulus material, and stimulus type. The findings demonstrated that both eye gaze and arrows were processed automatically, triggering an early vMMN, although with temporal variations. The vMMN for eye gaze occurred between 180 and 220 ms, whereas for arrows it ranged from 235 to 275 ms. Moreover, arrow stimuli produced a more pronounced vMMN amplitude. The earlier vMMN response to eye gaze compared with arrows implies the specificity and precedence of social information processing associated with eye gaze over the processing of nonsocial information with arrows. However, arrow could potentially elicit a stronger vMMN because of their heightened salience compared to the background, and the expansion of attention focusing might amplify the vMMN impact. This study offers insights into the similarities and differences in attention processing of social and non-social information under unattended conditions from the perspective of automatic processing.

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for the flexible recruitment of feature- and object-based processing in visual working memory comparison

Previous research is inconclusive on when visual working memory (VWM) can be object-based or feature-based. Prior event-related potential (ERP) studies using change detection tasks have found that amplitudes of the N200-an ERP index of VWM comparison- are sensitive to changes in both relevant and irrelevant features, suggesting a bias toward object-based processing. To test whether VWM comparison processing can operate in a feature-based manner, we aimed to create circumstances that would support feature-based processing by: 1) using a strong task-relevance manipulation, and 2) repeating features within a display. Participants completed two blocks of a change detection task for four-item displays in which they were told to respond to color changes (task relevant) but not shape changes (task irrelevant). The first block contained only task-relevant changes to create a strong task-relevance manipulation. In the second block, both relevant and irrelevant changes were present. In both blocks, half of the arrays contained within-display feature repetitions (e.g. two items of the same color or shape). We found that during the second block, N200 amplitudes were sensitive to task-relevant but not irrelevant features regardless of repetition status, consistent with feature-based processing. However, analyses of behavioral data and N200 latencies suggested that object-based processing was occurring at some stages of VWM processing on task-irrelevant feature change trials. In particular, task-irrelevant changes may be processed after no task-relevant feature change is revealed. Overall, the results from the current study suggest that the VWM processing is flexible and can be either object- or feature-based.

Belief in biological origin of race (racial essentialism) increases sensitivities to cultural category changes measured by ERP mismatch negativity (MMN)

The dynamic multicultural view explains culture-specific effects on cognition that cultural knowledge is organized in multiple knowledge systems which are specific to each culture and differentially activated when exposed to related objects or scenes. This view predicts automatic categorizations of environmental information according to the culture-specific knowledge systems. This study investigated whether cultural information could be spontaneously categorized, and the modulation of this process by the belief in the biological origin of race (i.e., racial essentialism) with an event-related brain potential, the visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN). Deviant pictures of Eastern (Western) culture were randomly presented in a stream of standard Western (Eastern) pictures while participants were playing a video game. Participants who endorse racial essentialism (high group) showed vMMNs to the deviants with high relevance to the Eastern or Western culture and the deviant with low Eastern relevance; while participants with low racial essentialism showed vMMN to the deviant with high Eastern relevance only. These results revealed spontaneous cultural categorization with vMMN and the top-down modulation of spontaneous categorization by personal belief. In addition, this is the first demonstration of MMNs to cultural deviance and the potentials in applying MMNs to study psychological essentialism and social categorization.

Visual Mismatch Negativity: A Mini-Review of Non-pathological Studies With Special Populations and Stimuli

In this mini-review, we summarized the results of 12 visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) studies that attempted to use this component as a tool for investigating differences between non-clinical samples of participants as well as the possibility of automatic discrimination in the case of specific categories of visual stimuli. These studies investigated the effects of gender, the effects of long-term differences between the groups of participants (fitness, experience in different sports, and Internet addiction), and the effects of short-term states (mental fatigue and hypoxia), as well as the vMMN effect elicited by artworks as a special stimulus category.

Older Adults Automatically Detect Age of Older Adults' Photographs: A Visual Mismatch Negativity Study

The human face is one of the most frequently used stimuli in vMMN (visual mismatch negativity) research. Previous studies showed that vMMN is sensitive to facial emotions and gender, but investigations of age-related vMMN differences are relatively rare. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the models' age in photographs were automatically detected, even if the photographs were not parts of the ongoing task. Furthermore, we investigated age-related differences, and the possibility of different sensitivity to photographs of participants' own versus different ages. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to faces of young and old models in younger (N = 20; 18-30 years) and older groups (N = 20; 60-75 years). The faces appeared around the location of the field of a tracking task. In sequences the young or the old faces were either frequent (standards) or infrequent (deviants). According to the results, a regular sequence of models' age is automatically registered, and faces violating the models' age elicited the vMMN component. However, in this study vMMN emerged only in the older group to same-age deviants. This finding is explained by the less effective inhibition of irrelevant stimuli in the elderly, and corresponds to own-age bias effect of recognition studies.

Do categorical representations modulate early automatic visual processing? A visual mismatch-negativity study

Perceptual categorization is an important cognitive function. In the auditory domain, categorization already occurs within the first 200 ms of information processing, as indexed by the mismatch negativity. Here, we assessed the characteristics of the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) elicited during the categorization of previously unknown visual stimuli. To examine this, we used five-dot patterns with characteristics that allow for the formation of categories through rotation and reflection but not through other physical properties. To assess whether or not between-category and within-category vMMN differ in amplitude, the data was analyzed with the Bayesian approach. We observed that both between-category and within-category deviants elicited a vMMN, but that both vMMNs were comparable in magnitude. This finding suggests that abstract categorical representations are not always automatically processed at early visual stages and demonstrates limitations of generalization from the auditory domain to visual domain.

Improved Pre-attentive Processing With Occipital rTMS Treatment in Major Depressive Disorder Patients Revealed by MMN

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the improvement effect of occipital repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) combined with escitalopram oxalate tablets on pre-attentive processing in patients with first-episode, medication-naive depression.

METHODS

Patients who were hospitalized between January and December 2019 were selected. They were randomly allocated to real occipital rTMS stimulation group with 27 cases receiving intermittent theta-burst (iTBS) and sham stimulation group with 24 cases over 20 days. The rTMS treatment target is located at the Oz point of the occipital region. Both groups took escitalopram oxalate tablets, and the average daily drug dose was 15.294 ± 5.041 mg. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) was used to assess the symptoms of depression before and after treatment, and mismatch negativity (MMN) was used to assess the improvement of pre-attentive processing before and after treatment.

RESULTS

After 20 days of treatment, the total score of HAMD (13.495 ± 3.700) in both groups was significantly lower than that before treatment [21.910 ± 3.841, F(1, 49) = 46, 3.690, p < 0.001]. After treatment, the latency of MMN in the real stimulation group (182.204 ± 31.878 ms) was significantly lower than that in the sham stimulation group (219.896 ± 42.634 ms, p < 0.001), and the amplitude of MMN in the real stimulation group (-7.107 ± 3.374 ms) was significantly higher than that in the sham stimulation group (-2.773 ± 3.7 32 ms, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Occipital rTMS treatment can enhance the early therapeutic effect and effectively improve the pre-attentive processing of patients with depression and provide a scientific basis for the new target of rTMS therapy in clinical patients with depression.

Do categorical representations modulate early perceptual or later cognitive visual processing? An ERP study

Encoding of perceptual categorical information has been observed in later cognitive processing like memory encoding and maintenance, starting around 300 ms after stimulus onset (P300). However, it remains open whether categorical information is also encoded in early perceptual processing steps (reflected in the mismatch negativity component; vMMN). The main goal of this study was to assess the influence of categorical information on both early perceptual (i.e., vMMN component) and later cognitive (i.e., P300 component) processing within one paradigm. Hence, we combined an oddball paradigm with a delayed memory task. We used five-dot patterns belonging to different categories even though categorical information is not mirrored in their physical characteristics. Distinct vMMNs were observed for patterns belonging to the same as compared to different categories, suggesting that abstract categorical information was encoded during early perceptual processing. However, inconsistent with prior studies, we observed no effect of categories on the P300, indicating no additional encoding of categorical information in later cognitive stages of processing. Our findings emphasize that the encoding of categorical information depends on specific task demands and hence is more flexible and dynamic than previously suggested.

The response to symmetry in extrastriate areas and its time course are modulated by selective attention

Neurophysiological studies have shown a strong activation in visual areas in response to symmetry. Electrophysiological (EEG) studies, in particular, have confirmed that amplitude at posterior electrodes is more negative for symmetrical compared to asymmetrical patterns. This response is present even when observers perform tasks that do not require processing of symmetry. In this sense the activation is automatic. In this study we test this automaticity more directly by presenting stimuli that contain both symmetry and asymmetry, as overlapping patterns of dots of different colour (black and white). Observers were asked to respond to symmetry in only one of the two colours. If feature-based attention has no role the response should depend on properties of the image. If attention fully filters only the relevant colour the response should depend on properties of the relevant colour only. Neither of these models fully explained the data. We conclude that selective attention does modulate the neural response to symmetry, however we also found a significant contribution from the irrelevant pattern.

The effect of perceptual load on the processing of multiple social categories in face

The aim of this study is to explore the processing features of the multi-social categories and their mechanisms of interaction. Adopting the Inhibition Paradigm in experiment 1, this study investigated whether the race and gender information obtained from images of face would influence the judgment of name category under the different perceptual load levels. The results of two sub-experiments showed that facial features contained strong, intuitive clues for race category. When the perceptual load level was low, it was automatically processed whether it was related to the task or not; when the perceptual load level was high, the automated process did not occur. The gender category utilized top-down flexible processing, which could be affected easily by the intent of the task. It was not processed when it was irrelevant to the task. Experiment 2 further proved that the different levels of difficulty would not have impact on the results of experiment 1. In summary, this study suggests that the race category is an automatic process from the bottom to up, which affects the processing of irrelevant primitive social categories; and that gender processing is regulated by the task intention, exhibiting top-down processing characteristics without affecting the processing of irrelevant primary social categories. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is an asymmetry in the interaction of the primary social categories.

Visual mismatch response and fMRI signal adaptation correlate in the occipital-temporal cortex

Several electrophysiological studies found response differences to a given stimulus when it is repeated frequently as compared to when it occurs rarely in oddball sequences. Initially defined in acoustic perception, such difference also exists in the visual modality and is referred to as visual mismatch negativity (vMMN). However, the repetition of a stimulus also leads to the reduction of the blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal (fMRI adaptation, fMRIa) when compared to alternating stimuli in fMRI experiments. So far no study compared the vMMN to fMRIa within the same paradigm and participants. Here we tested the possible connection between fMRIa and vMMN in a visual oddball paradigm in two separate sessions, acquiring electrophysiological and neuroimaging data for real and false characters from the same participants. We found significant visual mismatch response (vMM) as well as fMRIa for both character types. Importantly, the magnitude of the vMM over the CP1 electrode cluster showed a significant correlation with the fMRIa within the letter form area, for real characters. This finding suggests that similar neural mechanisms are responsible for the two phenomena.

Visual mismatch negativity indicates automatic, task-independent detection of artistic image composition in abstract artworks

In complex abstract art, image composition (i.e., the artist's deliberate arrangement of pictorial elements) is an important aesthetic feature. We investigated whether the human brain detects image composition in abstract artworks automatically (i.e., independently of the experimental task). To this aim, we studied whether a group of 20 original artworks elicited a visual mismatch negativity when contrasted with a group of 20 images that were composed of the same pictorial elements as the originals, but in shuffled arrangements, which destroy artistic composition. We used a passive oddball paradigm with parallel electroencephalogram recordings to investigate the detection of image type-specific properties. We observed significant deviant-standard differences for the shuffled and original images, respectively. Furthermore, for both types of images, differences in amplitudes correlated with the behavioral ratings of the images. In conclusion, we show that the human brain can detect composition-related image properties in visual artworks in an automatic fashion.

Early lexical processing of Chinese words indexed by Visual Mismatch Negativity effects

Although Mismatch Negativity (MMN) effects indicating early, automatic lexical processing have been reported in the auditory language modality, so far these have not been reliably obtained in MMN studies of visual word recognition. The present study explores this discrepancy by investigating whether visual MMN (vMMN) effects can be obtained in written Chinese single-character word recognition. While participants were engaged in a non-linguistic distraction task, we measured Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) time-locked to perifoveally-presented real and pseudo- characters matched in overall visual-orthographic attributes. VMMN was defined as significant difference between the ERPs to characters presented as deviants or as standards in a context of non-characters. For the native Chinese readers, af ter sub-lexical structural detection from 120-160 ms, only real characters elicited vMMN at the interval of 170-210 ms, suggesting that lexical information in Chinese words is processed early and automatically. In a later window of 340-380 ms, both real and pseudo- characters yielded vMMNs. In a control group of non-Chinese participants, no evidence of vMMN was found for either real or pseudo-characters. Taken together, these results suggest that long-term memory representations for real characters may enable their early processing even in unattended conditions.

Visual mismatch negativity to vanishing parts of objects in younger and older adults

We investigated visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) to vanishing parts of continuously present objects by comparing the event-related potentials (ERPs) to infrequently (deviant) and frequently (standard) disappearing parts of the objects. This paradigm both excludes low-level stimulus-specific adaptation differences between the responses to deviants and standards, and increases the ecological validity of the stimuli. In comparison to frequently disappearing parts of the stimulus objects, infrequently vanishing parts elicited posterior negative event-related brain activity (vMMN). However, no vMMN emerged to the reappearance of the same parts of the objects. We compared the ERPs of an older and a younger sample of participants. In the 120-180 ms time period vMMN was similar in the two age groups, but in the 180-220 ms time period vMMN emerged only in the younger participants. We consider this difference as an index of more elaborate automatic processing of infrequent stimulus changes in younger adults.

Automatic detection of orientation variance

Rapid extraction of the overall statistics of the visual scene is crucial for the human ability to rapidly perceive the general 'gist'. The aim of this work was to investigate if there exists neural evidence for such a process i.e. automatic, unattended detection of overall statistical differences between scenes. In order to do this, Visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN), an early evoked neural response component, was measured. We presented a sequence of sets of oriented patterns of a given (random) mean orientation and varied the variance of the orientations of the patterns, so that some sets contained similar orientations (ordered) or the orientations were random (disordered). These two types of sets of patterns were presented in an oddball sequence such that one type occurred often and the other was a rare, unexpected stimulus. We found a significant vMMN in response to a randomly oriented stimulus amongst more ordered stimuli, which suggested that humans perceive 'ordered' vs 'disordered' scenes categorically. We conclude that by manipulating the variance of the orientations contained within each stimulus we are able to show that this property is automatically encoded in visual neural response.

When Elderly Outperform Young Adults-Integration in Vision Revealed by the Visual Mismatch Negativity

We studied the possibility of age-related differences of visual integration at an automatic and at a task-related level. Data of 15 young (21.9 ± 1.8 years) and 15 older (66.6 ± 3.5 years) women were analyzed in our experiment. Automatic processing was investigated in a passive oddball paradigm, and the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) of event-related brain potentials was measured. Letters and pseudo-letters were presented either as single characters, or the characters were presented successively in two fragments. In case of simultaneous presentation of the two fragments (whole character) vMMN emerged in both age groups. However, in successive presentation vMMN was elicited only by the deviant pseudo-letters, and only in the older group. The longest stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in this group was 50 ms, indicating longer information persistence in elderly. In a psychophysical experiment, the task was to indicate, which member of a character pair was a legal letter. Again, the letters and pseudo-letters were presented as fragments. We obtained successful integration at 30 ms (0 ms interstimulus interval), but not at longer SOAs in both age groups, showing that in case of task-relevant stimulation level there was no detectable age-related performance difference. We interpreted the results as the efficiency of local inhibitory circuits is compromised in elderly, leading to longer stimulus persistence, and hence better visual perception in this particular case.

Neural correlates of cigarette health warning avoidance among smokers

BACKGROUND

Eye-tracking technology has indicated that daily smokers actively avoid pictorial cigarette package health warnings. Avoidance may be due to a pre-cognitive perceptual bias or a higher order cognitive bias, such as reduced emotional processing. Using electroencephalography (EEG), this study aimed to identify the temporal point at which smokers' responses to health warnings begin to differ.

METHOD

Non-smokers (n=20) and daily smokers (n=20) viewed pictorial cigarette package health warnings and neutral control stimuli. These elicited Event Related Potentials reflecting early perceptual processing (visual P1), pre-attentive change detection (visual Mismatch Negativity), selective attentional orientation (P3) and a measure of emotional processing, the Late Positive Potential (LPP).

RESULTS

There was no evidence for a difference in P1 responses between smokers and non-smokers. There was no difference in vMMN and P3 amplitude but some evidence for a delay in vMMN latency amongst smokers. There was strong evidence for delayed and reduced LPP to health warning stimuli amongst smokers compared to non-smokers.

CONCLUSION

We find no evidence for an early perceptual bias in smokers' visual perception of health warnings but strong evidence that smokers are less sensitive to the emotional content of cigarette health warnings. Future health warning development should focus on increasing the emotional salience of pictorial health warning content amongst smokers.

A frontal attention mechanism in the visual mismatch negativity

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We examine frontal mechanisms underlying the visual mismatch negativity.

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EEG and fMRI activity was examined in respect to unattended oddball stimuli.

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Left inferior frontal gyrus was associated with changes in the stimuli.

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Our findings correspond to similarly implicated regions in the auditory domain.

Automatic detection of environmental change is a core component of attention. The mismatch negativity (MMN), an electrophysiological marker of this mechanism, has been studied prominently in the auditory domain, with cortical generators identified in temporal and frontal regions. Here, we combined electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess whether the underlying frontal regions associated with auditory change detection also play a role in visual change detection. Twenty healthy young adults completed a visual MMN task in separate EEG and fMRI sessions. Region of interest analyses were conducted on left and right middle frontal (MFG) and inferior frontal (IFG) gyri, i.e., the frontal areas identified as potential auditory MMN generators. A significant increase in activation was observed in the left IFG and MFG in response to blocks containing deviant stimuli. These findings suggest that a frontal mechanism is involved in the detection of change in the visual MMN. Our results support the notion that frontal mechanisms underlie attention switching, as measured via MMN, across multiple modalities.

Asymmetry of automatic change detection shown by the visual mismatch negativity: an additional feature is identified faster than missing features

In two experiments, we demonstrated that an asymmetric effect of the brain electric activity that is elicited by nonattended visual stimuli is similar to the one found in responses observed in the performance of visual search tasks. The automatic detection of violated sequential regularities was investigated by measuring the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In Experiment 1, within a sequence of stimulus displays with O characters, infrequently presented Q characters elicited an earlier vMMN than did infrequent O characters within a sequence of Q characters. In Experiment 2, similar asymmetric results emerged if only 16% of the characters were different within an infrequent display. In both experiments, these stimuli were irrelevant; during the stimulus sequences, participants performed a demanding videogame. We suggest that the underlying match/mismatch and decision processes are similar in the vMMN and in the attention-related visual search paradigm, at least in the case of the stimuli in the present experiments.

Neurons in macaque inferior temporal cortex show no surprise response to deviants in visual oddball sequences

Many studies measured neural responses in oddball paradigms, showing a different response to the same stimulus when presented with a low (deviant) compared with a high probability (standard) in a sequence. Such a differential response is manifested in event-related potential studies as the mismatch negativity (MMN) and has been observed in several sensory modalities, including vision. Other studies showed that stimulus repetition suppresses the neural response. It has been suggested that this adaptation effect underlies the smaller responses to the standard compared with the deviant stimulus in oddball sequences. However, the MMN may also reflect the violation of a prediction based on the sequence of standards, i.e., a surprise response. We examined the presence of a surprise response to deviants in visual oddball sequences in macaque (Macaca mulatta) inferior temporal (IT) cortex, a higher-order cortical area. In agreement with visual MMN studies, single-unit IT responses were greater for the deviant than for the standard stimuli. However, single IT neurons showed no greater response to the deviant stimulus in the oddball sequence than to the same stimulus presented with the same probability in a sequence that consisted of many stimuli. LFPs also showed no evidence of a surprise response. These data suggest that stimulus-specific adaptation, without a surprise-related boost of activity to the deviant, underlies the responses in visual oddball sequences even in higher visual cortex. Furthermore, we show that for IT neurons such adaptive mechanisms take into account a relatively short stimulus history, with weaker effects at longer time scales.

Visual mismatch negativity: a predictive coding view

An increasing number of studies investigate the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) or use the vMMN as a tool to probe various aspects of human cognition. This paper reviews the theoretical underpinnings of vMMN in the light of methodological considerations and provides recommendations for measuring and interpreting the vMMN. The following key issues are discussed from the experimentalist's point of view in a predictive coding framework: (1) experimental protocols and procedures to control "refractoriness" effects; (2) methods to control attention; (3) vMMN and veridical perception.

Automatic detection of trustworthiness of the face: a visual mismatch negativity study

Recognizing intentions of strangers from facial cues is crucial in everyday social interactions. Recent studies demonstrated enhanced event-related potential (ERP) responses to untrustworthy compared to trustworthy faces. The aim of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of automatic processing of trustworthiness cues in a visual oddball paradigm in two consecutive experimental blocks. In one block, frequent trustworthy (p = 0.9) and rare untrustworthy face stimuli (p = 0.1) were briefly presented on a computer screen with each stimulus consisting of four peripherally positioned faces. In the other block stimuli were presented with reversed probabilities enabling the comparison of ERPs evoked by physically identical deviant and standard stimuli. To avoid attentional effects participants engaged in a central detection task. Analyses of deviant minus standard difference waveforms revealed that deviant untrustworthy but not trustworthy faces elicited the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) component. The present results indicate that adaptation occurred to repeated unattended trustworthy (but not untrustworthy) faces, i.e., an automatic expectation was elicited towards trustworthiness signals, which was violated by deviant untrustworthy faces. As an evolutionary adaptive mechanism, the observed fast detection of trustworthiness-related social facial cues may serve as the basis of conscious recognition of reliable partners.

Is it a face of a woman or a man? Visual mismatch negativity is sensitive to gender category

The present study investigated whether gender information for human faces was represented by the predictive mechanism indexed by the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) event-related brain potential (ERP). While participants performed a continuous size-change-detection task, random sequences of cropped faces were presented in the background, in an oddball setting: either various female faces were presented infrequently among various male faces, or vice versa. In Experiment 1 the inter-stimulus-interval (ISI) was 400 ms, while in Experiment 2 the ISI was 2250 ms. The ISI difference had only a small effect on the P1 component, however the subsequent negativity (N1/N170) was larger and more widely distributed at longer ISI, showing different aspects of stimulus processing. As deviant-minus-standard ERP difference, a parieto-occipital negativity (vMMN) emerged in the 200–500 ms latency range (~350 ms peak latency in both experiments). We argue that regularity of gender on the photographs is automatically registered, and the violation of the gender category is reflected by the vMMN. In conclusion the results can be interpreted as evidence for the automatic activity of a predictive brain mechanism, in case of an ecologically valid category.

Oscillatory characteristics of the visual mismatch negativity: what evoked potentials aren't telling us

The visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) response is typically examined by subtracting the average response to a deviant stimulus from the response to the standard. This approach, however, can omit a critical element of the neural response, i.e., the non-phase-locked (“induced”) oscillatory activity. Recent investigations of the oscillatory characteristics of the auditory mismatch negativity (aMMN) identified a crucial role for theta phase locking and power. Oscillatory characteristics of the vMMN from 39 healthy young adults were investigated in order to establish whether theta phase locking plays a similar role in the vMMN response. We explored changes in phase locking, overall post-stimulus spectral power as well as non-phase-locked spectral power compared to baseline (−300 to 0 ms). These were calculated in the frequency range of 4–50 Hz and analysed using a non-parametric cluster based analysis. vMMN was found intermittently in a broad time interval 133–584 ms post-stimulus and was associated with an early increase in theta phase locking (75–175 ms post-stimulus) that was not accompanied by an increase in theta power. Theta phase locking in the absence of an increase in theta power has been associated with the distribution and flow of information between spatially disparate neural locations. Additionally, in the 450–600 ms post-stimulus interval, deviant stimuli yielded a stronger decrease in non-phase-locked alpha power than standard stimuli, potentially reflecting a shift in attentional resources following the detection of change. The examination of oscillatory activity is crucial to the comprehensive analysis of a neural response to a stimulus, and when combined with evoked potentials (EPs) provide a more complete picture of neurocognitive processing.

Altered visual information processing systems in bipolar disorder: evidence from visual MMN and P3

Objective: Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3 are unique ERP components that provide objective indices of human cognitive functions such as short-term memory and prediction. Bipolar disorder (BD) is an endogenous psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme shifts in mood, energy, and ability to function socially. BD patients usually show cognitive dysfunction, and the goal of this study was to access their altered visual information processing via visual MMN (vMMN) and P3 using windmill pattern stimuli.

Methods: Twenty patients with BD and 20 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and handedness participated in this study. Subjects were seated in front of a monitor and listened to a story via earphones. Two types of windmill patterns (standard and deviant) and white circle (target) stimuli were randomly presented on the monitor. All stimuli were presented in random order at 200-ms durations with an 800-ms inter-stimulus interval. Stimuli were presented at 80% (standard), 10% (deviant), and 10% (target) probabilities. The participants were instructed to attend to the story and press a button as soon as possible when the target stimuli were presented. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded throughout the experiment using 128-channel EEG equipment. vMMN was obtained by subtracting standard from deviant stimuli responses, and P3 was evoked from the target stimulus.

Results: Mean reaction times for target stimuli in the BD group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Additionally, mean vMMN-amplitudes and peak P3-amplitudes were significantly lower in the BD group than in controls.

Conclusions: Abnormal vMMN and P3 in patients indicate a deficit of visual information processing in BD, which is consistent with their increased reaction time to visual target stimuli.

Significance: Both bottom-up and top-down visual information processing are likely altered in BD.

The visual mismatch negativity elicited with visual speech stimuli

The visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), deriving from the brain's response to stimulus deviance, is thought to be generated by the cortex that represents the stimulus. The vMMN response to visual speech stimuli was used in a study of the lateralization of visual speech processing. Previous research suggested that the right posterior temporal cortex has specialization for processing simple non-speech face gestures, and the left posterior temporal cortex has specialization for processing visual speech gestures. Here, visual speech consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli with controlled perceptual dissimilarities were presented in an electroencephalography (EEG) vMMN paradigm. The vMMNs were obtained using the comparison of event-related potentials (ERPs) for separate CVs in their roles as deviant vs. their roles as standard. Four separate vMMN contrasts were tested, two with the perceptually far deviants (i.e., “zha” or “fa”) and two with the near deviants (i.e., “zha” or “ta”). Only far deviants evoked the vMMN response over the left posterior temporal cortex. All four deviants evoked vMMNs over the right posterior temporal cortex. The results are interpreted as evidence that the left posterior temporal cortex represents speech contrasts that are perceived as different consonants, and the right posterior temporal cortex represents face gestures that may not be perceived as different CVs.

Object-related regularities are processed automatically: evidence from the visual mismatch negativity

One of the most challenging tasks of our visual systems is to structure and integrate the enormous amount of incoming information into distinct coherent objects. It is an ongoing debate whether or not the formation of visual objects requires attention. Implicit behavioral measures suggest that object formation can occur for task-irrelevant and unattended visual stimuli. The present study investigated pre-attentive visual object formation by combining implicit behavioral measures and an electrophysiological indicator of pre-attentive visual irregularity detection, the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) of the event-related potential. Our displays consisted of two symmetrically arranged, task-irrelevant ellipses, the objects. In addition, there were two discs of either high or low luminance presented on the objects, which served as targets. Participants had to indicate whether the targets were of the same or different luminance. In separate conditions, the targets either usually were enclosed in the same object or in two different objects (standards). Occasionally, the regular target-to-object assignment was changed (deviants). That is, standards and deviants were exclusively defined on the basis of the task-irrelevant target-to-object assignment but not on the basis of some feature regularity. Although participants did not notice the regularity nor the occurrence of the deviation in the sequences, task-irrelevant deviations resulted in increased reaction times. Moreover, compared with physically identical standard displays deviating target-to-object assignments elicited a negative potential in the 246–280 ms time window over posterio-temporal electrode positions which was identified as vMMN. With variable resolution electromagnetic tomography (VARETA) object-related vMMN was localized to the inferior temporal gyrus. Our results support the notion that the visual system automatically structures even task-irrelevant aspects of the incoming information into objects.