Maria Teresa Turano

Individual differences in face processing captured by ERPs.

A rapid neural adaptation procedure and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were employed to study individual differences in Good and Bad recognizers in face perception. The major goal was to characterize the sensitivity of the P100 and the N170 to the identity repetition effect as a function of inter-individual perceptual abilities. For these purposes an integrated methodological approach was used in which a self-report, a standardized test and behavioral performances were combined with ERPs measures. Specifically, two groups of face recognizers (Good and Bad recognizers) were selected by means of a self-report questionnaire on face recognition abilities (The Italian Face Abilities Questionnaire) and the scoring at the Cambridge Face Memory Test. The P100 showed an early neural tuning for faces in Good recognizers. The N170 triggered by the adaptor showed face specificity compared to cars but, importantly, only Good recognizers showed a decreased amplitude of N170 for test faces of the same identity compared to test faces of different identity while this was not the case for Bad recognizers. These results show that ERPs are a suitable and sensitive tool to tap individual differences in face recognition. In conclusion, our results show the importance of considering inter-individual different perceptual abilities in face processing research.

The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning throughout adulthood

ABSTRACT The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning has been widely explored. However, how aging modulates this association regarding both objective performance and subjective-perception is still neglected. Participants, aged between 18 and 81 years, performed a face memory test and completed subjective face recognition and socioemotional questionnaires. General and social anxiety, and neuroticism traits account for the individual variation in face recognition abilities during adulthood. Aging modulates these relationships because as they age, individuals that present a higher level of these traits also show low-level face recognition ability. Intriguingly, the association between depression and face recognition abilities is evident with increasing age. Overall, the present results emphasize the importance of embedding face metacognition measurement into the context of these studies and suggest that aging is an important factor to be considered, which seems to contribute to the relationship between socioemotional and face-cognitive functioning.

Fear boosts the early neural coding of faces

Abstract The rapid extraction of facial identity and emotional expressions is critical for adapted social interactions. These biologically relevant abilities have been associated with early neural responses on the face sensitive N170 component. However, whether all facial expressions uniformly modulate the N170, and whether this effect occurs only when emotion categorization is task-relevant, is still unclear. To clarify this issue, we recorded high-resolution electrophysiological signals while 22 observers perceived the six basic expressions plus neutral. We used a repetition suppression paradigm, with an adaptor followed by a target face displaying the same identity and expression (trials of interest). We also included catch trials to which participants had to react, by varying identity (identity-task), expression (expression-task) or both (dual-task) on the target face. We extracted single-trial Repetition Suppression (stRS) responses using a data-driven spatiotemporal approach with a robust hierarchical linear model to isolate adaptation effects on the trials of interest. Regardless of the task, fear was the only expression modulating the N170, eliciting the strongest stRS responses. This observation was corroborated by distinct behavioral performance during the catch trials for this facial expression. Altogether, our data reinforce the view that fear elicits distinct neural processes in the brain, enhancing attention and facilitating the early coding of faces.

Corrigendum to: Fear boosts the early neural coding of faces

VC The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com

Worry and anger rumination in fibromyalgia syndrome

The aim of the present study was twofold: 1) to investigate the psychological profile of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FS) as compared to patients with other chronic pain syndromes (CP) and healthy subjects (HS); 2) to examine the associations between anxiety, depression, worry and angry rumination in FS patients. FS patients (N=30), CP patients (N=30) and HS (N=30) completed measurements of anxiety, depression, worry and angry rumination. FS patients showed higher levels of state and trait anxiety, worry and angry rumination than CP patients and HS, and higher levels of depression than HS. Worry and angry rumination were strongly associated in the FS group. FS patients may use worry and rumination as coping strategies to deal with their negative emotional experience, which might impair their emotional wellbeing. Findings from the present study add to our understanding of the psychological profile of FS patients, and have important implications for developing a tailored CBT protocol for pain management in FS patients.

Prosopagnosia congenita: uno studio preliminare nella popolazione italiana

La prosopagnosia congenita (Congenital Prosopagnosia: CP) e un deficit di riconoscimento dei volti familiari presente, presumibilmente, fin dalla nascita ed in assenza di danni cerebrali. Nel presente studio 300 soggetti sono stati sottoposti ad un approccio metodologico integrato che ha previsto l’utilizzo di un questionario, appositamente creato per l’autovalutazione della capacita di riconoscimento dei volti e di un test oggettivo, ampiamente utilizzato in letteratura, per fini diagnostici - il Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT, Duchaine e Nakayama, 2006). Nella prima fase dello studio, in base al punteggio riportato al questionario di autovalutazione, sono stati selezionati 12 individui potenzialmente prosopagnosici i quali sono stati, successivamente, sottoposti al CFMT. Tre di questi hanno presentato prosopagnosia congenita; questo dato ci ha permesso di stimare un preliminare tasso di prevalenza del deficit nella popolazione italiana. Nella seconda fase dello studio, i tre soggetti prosopagnosici individuati sono stati sottoposti ad una serie di esperimenti comportamentali per esplorare, piu dettagliatamente, quali meccanismi di elaborazione dei volti risultano particolarmente compromessi in presenza di CP. La batteria comprendeva: un compito per testare l’eventuale presenza dell’effetto inversione per i volti, un test di riconoscimento di volti famosi italiani, un compito di elaborazione della familiarita di volti ignoti con il classico paradigma Old-New, due compiti di riconoscimento di altre categorie di stimoli complessi. I risultati hanno mostrato un deficit specifico per i volti, confermato da una debole traccia mnestica; l’assenza del classico effetto inversione potrebbe essere indice di un’alterazione del processo olistico. In conclusione, i risultati riportano per la prima volta la presenza della CP presso la popolazione italiana e suggeriscono l’uso di un approccio metodologico integrato per la selezione del campione clinico per futuri studi presso la popolazione italiana.