Event-related potentials to unattended changes in facial expressions: detection of regularity violations or encoding of emotions?

ABSTRACT: Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), a component in event-related potentials (ERPs), can be elicited when rarely presented "deviant" facial expressions violate regularity formed by repeated "standard" faces. vMMN is observed as differential ERPs elicited between the deviant and standard faces. It is not clear, however, whether differential ERPs to rare emotional faces interspersed with repeated neutral ones reflect true vMMN (i.e., detection of regularity violation) or merely encoding of the emotional content in the faces. Furthermore, a face-sensitive N170 response, which reflects structural encoding of facial features, can be modulated by emotional expressions. Owing to its similar latency and scalp topography with vMMN, these two components are difficult to separate. We recorded ERPs to n

SUBMITTER: Astikainen P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3769632 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature