Salvatore Campanella - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Salvatore Campanella

Research paper thumbnail of Event-related potentials (ERPs) in ecstasy (MDMA) users during a visual oddball task

Biological Psychology, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of Epilepsy and DBS: hippocampus role in the EEG pattern generation during sleep?

Abstract: Implantation of electrodes in the left hippocampus and chronic deep brain stimulation h... more Abstract: Implantation of electrodes in the left hippocampus and chronic deep brain stimulation has been performed in one patient who suffered from refractory epilepsy. Continuous recordings of intra-cortical electrical activity (sEEG with the

Research paper thumbnail of Vegetative coma and auditory oddball paradigm with ERPs and fMRI: Implications for the consciousness model of Damasio

Oddball designs are often used in clinical domain to get information on (1) the integrity of stim... more Oddball designs are often used in clinical domain to get information on (1) the integrity of stimulus analysis in sensory-specific cortex (N1-P2); (2) the patient's ability to orient his/her attention to a target stimulation (N2-P3a); and (3) cognitive processing related to memory and/or response (P3a-P3b). In this study, 3 patients in a comatose state ( vegetative) was confronted with a classical auditory oddball P300 design during the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) and with fMRI with the same stimuli. ERPs and fMRI data were compared in order to assess whether a brain response was generated by deviant rare stimuli, thereby providing some information on the depth of the patient's consciousness. Moreover, results are discussed on the basis of the consciousness model developped by Damasio.A and Guerit.J.M for the CEPs in comatose.

Research paper thumbnail of Emotional deficit in subjects with psychopathic tendencies as assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2: an event-related potentials study

Neuroscience Letters, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of Why it is time to develop the use of cognitive event-related potentials in the treatment of psychiatric diseases

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of How clinical neurophysiology may contribute to the understanding of a psychiatric disease such as schizophrenia

Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 2009

The increasing knowledge about anatomical structures and cellular processes underlying psychiatri... more The increasing knowledge about anatomical structures and cellular processes underlying psychiatric disorders may help bridge the gap between clinical manifestations and basic physiological processes. Accordingly, important insights have been brought these last years into a main psychiatric affection, i.e. schizophrenia. Here we reviewed and described, by comparison to healthy people, different physiological parameters - oculomotor measures, startle response, and cognitive event related potentials, which are altered in schizophrenia, in order to link these physiological parameters to dysfunctional cognitive processes and specific clinical symptoms. Schizophrenic patients displayed: (1) abnormalities in smooth pursuit eye movements and saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks that may stem from the same prefrontal "inhibitory" cortical dysfunction; (2) deficits in prepulse inhibition and facilitation suggesting disturbed attentional modulations, which seem also correlated to abnormal patterns of prefrontal activation; and (3) decreased amplitude for cognitive ERP situated all along the continuum of the information processing, suggesting that schizophrenia shows neurophysiological deficits since the level of the sensory cortex and not only disturbances involving associative cortices and limbic structures. The heterogeneity of schizophrenic disorders regarding symptomatology, course, and outcome is underlain by various pathophysiological processes that physiological parameters may help define. These alterations may be related to precise cognitive processes that are easily neurophysiologically monitored in order to create more homogeneous subgroups of schizophrenic patients.

Research paper thumbnail of Why is adolescence a key period of alcohol initiation and who is prone to develop long-term problem use?: A review of current available data

Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology, 2013

Early adolescence is a key developmental period for the initiation of alcohol use, and consumptio... more Early adolescence is a key developmental period for the initiation of alcohol use, and consumption among adolescents is characterized by drinking in high quantities. At the same time, adolescence is characterized by rapid biological transformations including dramatic changes in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. This article begins with an overview of the unique neural and behavioural characteristics of adolescent development that predispose these individuals to seek rewards and take risks such as initiation of drinking and high levels of alcohol intake. The authors then outline important factors associated with an increased risk for developing alcohol problems in later adolescence and young adulthood. Thereafter they address causality and the complex interplay of risk factors that lead to the development of alcohol use problems in late adolescence and young adults. A few recommendations for the prevention of underage drinking...

Research paper thumbnail of Enhanced perceptual responses during visual processing of facial stimuli in young socially anxious individuals

The present study investigated whether social anxiety modulates the processing of facial expressi... more The present study investigated whether social anxiety modulates the processing of facial expressions. Event-related potentials were recorded during an oddball task in young adults reporting high or low levels of social anxiety as evaluated by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Repeated pictures of faces with a neutral expression were infrequently replaced by pictures of the same face displaying happiness, anger, fear or disgust. For all participants, response latencies were shorter in detecting faces expressing disgust and happiness as compared to fear or anger. Low social anxiety individuals evoked enhanced P1 in response to angry faces as compared to other stimuli while high socially anxious participants displayed enlarged P1 for all emotional stimuli as compared to neutral ones, and general higher amplitudes as compared to non-anxious individuals. Conversely, the face-specific N170 and the task-related decision P3b were not influenced by social anxiety. These results suggest increased pre-attentive detection of facial cues in socially anxious individuals and are discussed within the framework of recent models of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of Categorical perception of unfamiliar facial identities, the face-space metaphor, and the morphing technique

Visual Cognition, 2003

Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an image-morphing procedure ... more Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an image-morphing procedure to investigate the categorical perception of unfamiliar and familiar facial identities. Two delayed matching tasks are reported here. First, independently of face familiarity, subjects discriminate more easily two different morphed faces belonging to two different identities than two different morphed faces belonging to the same one,

Research paper thumbnail of A validated battery of vocal emotional expressions

Research paper thumbnail of Neurophysiological correlates of response inhibition predict relapse in detoxified alcoholic patients: some preliminary evidence from event-related potentials

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2014

Alcohol dependence is a chronic relapsing disease. The impairment of response inhibition and alco... more Alcohol dependence is a chronic relapsing disease. The impairment of response inhibition and alcohol-cue reactivity are the main cognitive mechanisms that trigger relapse. Despite the interaction suggested between the two processes, they have long been investigated as two different lines of research. The present study aimed to investigate the interaction between response inhibition and alcohol-cue reactivity and their potential link with relapse. Event-related potentials were recorded during a variant of a "go/no-go" task. Frequent and rare stimuli (to be inhibited) were superimposed on neutral, nonalcohol-related, and alcohol-related contexts. The task was administered following a 3-week detoxification course. Relapse outcome was measured after 3 months, using self-reported abstinence. There were 27 controls (seven females) and 27 patients (seven females), among whom 13 relapsed during the 3-month follow-up period. The no-go N2, no-go P3, and the "difference" wave (P3d) were examined with the aim of linking neural correlates of response inhibition on alcohol-related contexts to the observed relapse rate. Results showed that 1) at the behavioral level, alcohol-dependent patients made significantly more commission errors than controls (P<0.001), independently of context; 2) through the subtraction no-go P3 minus go P3, this inhibition deficit was neurophysiologically indexed in patients with greater P3d amplitudes (P=0.034); and 3) within the patient group, increased P3d amplitude enabled us to differentiate between future relapsers and nonrelapsers (P=0.026). Our findings suggest that recently detoxified alcoholics are characterized by poorer response-inhibition skills that demand greater neural resources. We propose that event-related potentials can be used in conjunction with behavioral data to predict relapse; this would identify patients that need a higher level of neural resources when suppressing a response is requested.

Research paper thumbnail of Subclinical alexithymia modulates early audio-visual perceptive and attentional event-related potentials

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of A pharmacological modulation of opiate withdrawal using an up-/down-regulation of the noradrenergic system in opiate-dependent rats

The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2005

Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others ... more Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others the alpha adrenergic system appears to be extremely sensitive to opioid exposure and has, therefore, been proposed to play a key role in opiate withdrawal symptoms. In order to better understand the influence of the noradrenergic system in opioid withdrawal and be able to develop new therapeutic strategies, we studied the effect of pre-treatment with the alpha2 agonist (clonidine) and alpha2 antagonist (yohimbine) on naloxone-precipitated withdrawal in opiate-dependent rats. As is already known clonidine pre-treatment significantly enhances autonomic and behavioural signs of opioid withdrawal whereas yohimbine significantly attenuates them with dose-related effect. We also tested the effect of clonidine (0.1 mg/kg) during naloxone-precipitated opiate withdrawal in rats pre-treated with yohimbine (5 mg/kg) and we observed that yohimbine pre-treatment potentiates clonidine efficiency in decreasing opiate withdrawal signs. This study supports the possibility of using a noradrenergic antagonist in order to regulate adrenoreceptors chronically exposed to opioids, therefore interfering with the intensity of naloxone-precipitated opiate withdrawal and potentiating later effectiveness of noradrenergic agonists like clonidine. These results may have various applications in clinical opiate detoxification protocols and are discussed through an up-/down- regulation of adrenoreceptors.

Research paper thumbnail of Event-related potentials and biomarkers of psychiatric diseases: the necessity to adopt and develop multi-site guidelines

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Latent deleterious effects of binge drinking over a short period of time revealed only by electrophysiological measures

Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN, 2009

Episodic excessive alcohol consumption (i.e., binge drinking) is now considered to be a major pub... more Episodic excessive alcohol consumption (i.e., binge drinking) is now considered to be a major public health problem, but whereas short-and long-term harmful consequences of this behaviour are clearly established at medical, social and cognitive levels, the cerebral correlates of these impairments are still unknown. Our study explores the midterm cerebral effects of binge-drinking behaviours among young adults. We selected 2 groups of first-year university students with no history of drinking habits, paired for psychological and behavioural measures on the basis of their expected alcohol consumption during the forthcoming academic year. The binge drinker group expected to have high personal alcohol consumption, whereas the control group expected low consumption. We used a test-retest paradigm within a 9-month period (session 1 in September 2005, session 2 in May 2006). At each testing session, we recorded auditory event-related potentials while the participants performed an emotional...

Research paper thumbnail of Below and beyond the recognition of emotional facial expressions in alcohol dependence: from basic perception to social cognition

Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2014

Studies that have carried out experimental evaluation of emotional skills in alcohol-dependence h... more Studies that have carried out experimental evaluation of emotional skills in alcohol-dependence have, up to now, been mainly focused on the exploration of emotional facial expressions (EFE) decoding. In the present paper, we provide some complements to the recent systematic literature review published by Donadon and de Lima Osório on this crucial topic. We also suggest research avenues that must be, in our opinion, considered in the coming years. More precisely, we propose, first, that a battery integrating a set of emotional tasks relating to different processes should be developed to better systemize EFE decoding measures in alcohol-dependence. Second, we propose to go below EFE recognition deficits and to seek for the roots of those alterations, particularly by investigating the putative role played by early visual processing and vision-emotion interactions in the emotional impairment observed in alcohol-dependence. Third, we insist on the need to go beyond EFE recognition defici...

Research paper thumbnail of The neural substrates sustaining the retrieval of face-name associations: a PET activation study

Research paper thumbnail of Étude comparative en potentiels évoqués des données fournies par le biais d'analyses de groupes et individuelles

Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 1999

Comparison between grand-average and individual analyses: an event-related potentials study.Purpo... more Comparison between grand-average and individual analyses: an event-related potentials study.Purpose —Event-related potentials (ERPs) studies in human subjects have shown inter-individual response variations, probably linked to anatomical and functional brain disparities. The present study was conducted to compare the results obtained by a standard grand-average method and a single subject analysis of VEPs to faces.Material and method —Fifty-eight channel ERPs (analysis time: 1,024 ms) were recorded in 13 normal volunteers during gender or familiarity judgements on unknown and known faces, as well as on a control task using meaningless patterns. Data were then submitted to individual and group averages.Results and conclusion —Three activities were identified by both procedures: a P1/N1 complex, a vertex positive potential (P2 or VPP) associated with a temporal negativity, and a N2 negativity. These peaks displayed a marked inter-individual topographical variability. Regarding the outcome of statistical analyses, a certain number of differences were found: on P1, in which individual analyses revealed a strong effect of experimental conditions, while the grand-average method did not; on VPP, in which grand-average analyses suggested an interaction between experimental conditions, face familiarity and cerebral lateralization, while individual analyses did not; and on N2, in which grand-average data showed a clear lateralization effect, while individual analyses did not. A P3 component (Pz, 250 ms) was also defined in grand-average data, but could not be clearly described in individual data. Statistical analyses on this P3 component were thus only performed on group data and revealed a right lateralization and an interaction between face familiarity and experimental conditions. These findings confirmed the existence of a marked topographical variability of ERPs to face and, therefore, question the validity of grand-average studies. Moreover, these results suggest a better efficiency of individual analyses for studying short and middle-latency peaks, while grand-averages appear to be better suited for studying late components.

Research paper thumbnail of Categorical perception of facial gender information: Behavioural evidence and the face-space metaphor

Visual Cognition, 2001

Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an imagemorphing procedure t... more Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an imagemorphing procedure to investigate the categorical perception of facial gender information. Three experiments, an identification and two matching tasks, were reported. First, we showed that, even when facial image information changes linearly across unfamiliar male and female faces, gender is perceived categorically. This holds only when faces are

Research paper thumbnail of Integrating face and voice in person perception

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Event-related potentials (ERPs) in ecstasy (MDMA) users during a visual oddball task

Biological Psychology, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of Epilepsy and DBS: hippocampus role in the EEG pattern generation during sleep?

Abstract: Implantation of electrodes in the left hippocampus and chronic deep brain stimulation h... more Abstract: Implantation of electrodes in the left hippocampus and chronic deep brain stimulation has been performed in one patient who suffered from refractory epilepsy. Continuous recordings of intra-cortical electrical activity (sEEG with the

Research paper thumbnail of Vegetative coma and auditory oddball paradigm with ERPs and fMRI: Implications for the consciousness model of Damasio

Oddball designs are often used in clinical domain to get information on (1) the integrity of stim... more Oddball designs are often used in clinical domain to get information on (1) the integrity of stimulus analysis in sensory-specific cortex (N1-P2); (2) the patient's ability to orient his/her attention to a target stimulation (N2-P3a); and (3) cognitive processing related to memory and/or response (P3a-P3b). In this study, 3 patients in a comatose state ( vegetative) was confronted with a classical auditory oddball P300 design during the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) and with fMRI with the same stimuli. ERPs and fMRI data were compared in order to assess whether a brain response was generated by deviant rare stimuli, thereby providing some information on the depth of the patient's consciousness. Moreover, results are discussed on the basis of the consciousness model developped by Damasio.A and Guerit.J.M for the CEPs in comatose.

Research paper thumbnail of Emotional deficit in subjects with psychopathic tendencies as assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2: an event-related potentials study

Neuroscience Letters, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of Why it is time to develop the use of cognitive event-related potentials in the treatment of psychiatric diseases

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of How clinical neurophysiology may contribute to the understanding of a psychiatric disease such as schizophrenia

Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 2009

The increasing knowledge about anatomical structures and cellular processes underlying psychiatri... more The increasing knowledge about anatomical structures and cellular processes underlying psychiatric disorders may help bridge the gap between clinical manifestations and basic physiological processes. Accordingly, important insights have been brought these last years into a main psychiatric affection, i.e. schizophrenia. Here we reviewed and described, by comparison to healthy people, different physiological parameters - oculomotor measures, startle response, and cognitive event related potentials, which are altered in schizophrenia, in order to link these physiological parameters to dysfunctional cognitive processes and specific clinical symptoms. Schizophrenic patients displayed: (1) abnormalities in smooth pursuit eye movements and saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks that may stem from the same prefrontal "inhibitory" cortical dysfunction; (2) deficits in prepulse inhibition and facilitation suggesting disturbed attentional modulations, which seem also correlated to abnormal patterns of prefrontal activation; and (3) decreased amplitude for cognitive ERP situated all along the continuum of the information processing, suggesting that schizophrenia shows neurophysiological deficits since the level of the sensory cortex and not only disturbances involving associative cortices and limbic structures. The heterogeneity of schizophrenic disorders regarding symptomatology, course, and outcome is underlain by various pathophysiological processes that physiological parameters may help define. These alterations may be related to precise cognitive processes that are easily neurophysiologically monitored in order to create more homogeneous subgroups of schizophrenic patients.

Research paper thumbnail of Why is adolescence a key period of alcohol initiation and who is prone to develop long-term problem use?: A review of current available data

Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology, 2013

Early adolescence is a key developmental period for the initiation of alcohol use, and consumptio... more Early adolescence is a key developmental period for the initiation of alcohol use, and consumption among adolescents is characterized by drinking in high quantities. At the same time, adolescence is characterized by rapid biological transformations including dramatic changes in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. This article begins with an overview of the unique neural and behavioural characteristics of adolescent development that predispose these individuals to seek rewards and take risks such as initiation of drinking and high levels of alcohol intake. The authors then outline important factors associated with an increased risk for developing alcohol problems in later adolescence and young adulthood. Thereafter they address causality and the complex interplay of risk factors that lead to the development of alcohol use problems in late adolescence and young adults. A few recommendations for the prevention of underage drinking...

Research paper thumbnail of Enhanced perceptual responses during visual processing of facial stimuli in young socially anxious individuals

The present study investigated whether social anxiety modulates the processing of facial expressi... more The present study investigated whether social anxiety modulates the processing of facial expressions. Event-related potentials were recorded during an oddball task in young adults reporting high or low levels of social anxiety as evaluated by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Repeated pictures of faces with a neutral expression were infrequently replaced by pictures of the same face displaying happiness, anger, fear or disgust. For all participants, response latencies were shorter in detecting faces expressing disgust and happiness as compared to fear or anger. Low social anxiety individuals evoked enhanced P1 in response to angry faces as compared to other stimuli while high socially anxious participants displayed enlarged P1 for all emotional stimuli as compared to neutral ones, and general higher amplitudes as compared to non-anxious individuals. Conversely, the face-specific N170 and the task-related decision P3b were not influenced by social anxiety. These results suggest increased pre-attentive detection of facial cues in socially anxious individuals and are discussed within the framework of recent models of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of Categorical perception of unfamiliar facial identities, the face-space metaphor, and the morphing technique

Visual Cognition, 2003

Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an image-morphing procedure ... more Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an image-morphing procedure to investigate the categorical perception of unfamiliar and familiar facial identities. Two delayed matching tasks are reported here. First, independently of face familiarity, subjects discriminate more easily two different morphed faces belonging to two different identities than two different morphed faces belonging to the same one,

Research paper thumbnail of A validated battery of vocal emotional expressions

Research paper thumbnail of Neurophysiological correlates of response inhibition predict relapse in detoxified alcoholic patients: some preliminary evidence from event-related potentials

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2014

Alcohol dependence is a chronic relapsing disease. The impairment of response inhibition and alco... more Alcohol dependence is a chronic relapsing disease. The impairment of response inhibition and alcohol-cue reactivity are the main cognitive mechanisms that trigger relapse. Despite the interaction suggested between the two processes, they have long been investigated as two different lines of research. The present study aimed to investigate the interaction between response inhibition and alcohol-cue reactivity and their potential link with relapse. Event-related potentials were recorded during a variant of a "go/no-go" task. Frequent and rare stimuli (to be inhibited) were superimposed on neutral, nonalcohol-related, and alcohol-related contexts. The task was administered following a 3-week detoxification course. Relapse outcome was measured after 3 months, using self-reported abstinence. There were 27 controls (seven females) and 27 patients (seven females), among whom 13 relapsed during the 3-month follow-up period. The no-go N2, no-go P3, and the "difference" wave (P3d) were examined with the aim of linking neural correlates of response inhibition on alcohol-related contexts to the observed relapse rate. Results showed that 1) at the behavioral level, alcohol-dependent patients made significantly more commission errors than controls (P<0.001), independently of context; 2) through the subtraction no-go P3 minus go P3, this inhibition deficit was neurophysiologically indexed in patients with greater P3d amplitudes (P=0.034); and 3) within the patient group, increased P3d amplitude enabled us to differentiate between future relapsers and nonrelapsers (P=0.026). Our findings suggest that recently detoxified alcoholics are characterized by poorer response-inhibition skills that demand greater neural resources. We propose that event-related potentials can be used in conjunction with behavioral data to predict relapse; this would identify patients that need a higher level of neural resources when suppressing a response is requested.

Research paper thumbnail of Subclinical alexithymia modulates early audio-visual perceptive and attentional event-related potentials

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of A pharmacological modulation of opiate withdrawal using an up-/down-regulation of the noradrenergic system in opiate-dependent rats

The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2005

Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others ... more Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others the alpha adrenergic system appears to be extremely sensitive to opioid exposure and has, therefore, been proposed to play a key role in opiate withdrawal symptoms. In order to better understand the influence of the noradrenergic system in opioid withdrawal and be able to develop new therapeutic strategies, we studied the effect of pre-treatment with the alpha2 agonist (clonidine) and alpha2 antagonist (yohimbine) on naloxone-precipitated withdrawal in opiate-dependent rats. As is already known clonidine pre-treatment significantly enhances autonomic and behavioural signs of opioid withdrawal whereas yohimbine significantly attenuates them with dose-related effect. We also tested the effect of clonidine (0.1 mg/kg) during naloxone-precipitated opiate withdrawal in rats pre-treated with yohimbine (5 mg/kg) and we observed that yohimbine pre-treatment potentiates clonidine efficiency in decreasing opiate withdrawal signs. This study supports the possibility of using a noradrenergic antagonist in order to regulate adrenoreceptors chronically exposed to opioids, therefore interfering with the intensity of naloxone-precipitated opiate withdrawal and potentiating later effectiveness of noradrenergic agonists like clonidine. These results may have various applications in clinical opiate detoxification protocols and are discussed through an up-/down- regulation of adrenoreceptors.

Research paper thumbnail of Event-related potentials and biomarkers of psychiatric diseases: the necessity to adopt and develop multi-site guidelines

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Latent deleterious effects of binge drinking over a short period of time revealed only by electrophysiological measures

Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN, 2009

Episodic excessive alcohol consumption (i.e., binge drinking) is now considered to be a major pub... more Episodic excessive alcohol consumption (i.e., binge drinking) is now considered to be a major public health problem, but whereas short-and long-term harmful consequences of this behaviour are clearly established at medical, social and cognitive levels, the cerebral correlates of these impairments are still unknown. Our study explores the midterm cerebral effects of binge-drinking behaviours among young adults. We selected 2 groups of first-year university students with no history of drinking habits, paired for psychological and behavioural measures on the basis of their expected alcohol consumption during the forthcoming academic year. The binge drinker group expected to have high personal alcohol consumption, whereas the control group expected low consumption. We used a test-retest paradigm within a 9-month period (session 1 in September 2005, session 2 in May 2006). At each testing session, we recorded auditory event-related potentials while the participants performed an emotional...

Research paper thumbnail of Below and beyond the recognition of emotional facial expressions in alcohol dependence: from basic perception to social cognition

Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2014

Studies that have carried out experimental evaluation of emotional skills in alcohol-dependence h... more Studies that have carried out experimental evaluation of emotional skills in alcohol-dependence have, up to now, been mainly focused on the exploration of emotional facial expressions (EFE) decoding. In the present paper, we provide some complements to the recent systematic literature review published by Donadon and de Lima Osório on this crucial topic. We also suggest research avenues that must be, in our opinion, considered in the coming years. More precisely, we propose, first, that a battery integrating a set of emotional tasks relating to different processes should be developed to better systemize EFE decoding measures in alcohol-dependence. Second, we propose to go below EFE recognition deficits and to seek for the roots of those alterations, particularly by investigating the putative role played by early visual processing and vision-emotion interactions in the emotional impairment observed in alcohol-dependence. Third, we insist on the need to go beyond EFE recognition defici...

Research paper thumbnail of The neural substrates sustaining the retrieval of face-name associations: a PET activation study

Research paper thumbnail of Étude comparative en potentiels évoqués des données fournies par le biais d'analyses de groupes et individuelles

Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 1999

Comparison between grand-average and individual analyses: an event-related potentials study.Purpo... more Comparison between grand-average and individual analyses: an event-related potentials study.Purpose —Event-related potentials (ERPs) studies in human subjects have shown inter-individual response variations, probably linked to anatomical and functional brain disparities. The present study was conducted to compare the results obtained by a standard grand-average method and a single subject analysis of VEPs to faces.Material and method —Fifty-eight channel ERPs (analysis time: 1,024 ms) were recorded in 13 normal volunteers during gender or familiarity judgements on unknown and known faces, as well as on a control task using meaningless patterns. Data were then submitted to individual and group averages.Results and conclusion —Three activities were identified by both procedures: a P1/N1 complex, a vertex positive potential (P2 or VPP) associated with a temporal negativity, and a N2 negativity. These peaks displayed a marked inter-individual topographical variability. Regarding the outcome of statistical analyses, a certain number of differences were found: on P1, in which individual analyses revealed a strong effect of experimental conditions, while the grand-average method did not; on VPP, in which grand-average analyses suggested an interaction between experimental conditions, face familiarity and cerebral lateralization, while individual analyses did not; and on N2, in which grand-average data showed a clear lateralization effect, while individual analyses did not. A P3 component (Pz, 250 ms) was also defined in grand-average data, but could not be clearly described in individual data. Statistical analyses on this P3 component were thus only performed on group data and revealed a right lateralization and an interaction between face familiarity and experimental conditions. These findings confirmed the existence of a marked topographical variability of ERPs to face and, therefore, question the validity of grand-average studies. Moreover, these results suggest a better efficiency of individual analyses for studying short and middle-latency peaks, while grand-averages appear to be better suited for studying late components.

Research paper thumbnail of Categorical perception of facial gender information: Behavioural evidence and the face-space metaphor

Visual Cognition, 2001

Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an imagemorphing procedure t... more Categorization is a fundamental property of the human brain. We used an imagemorphing procedure to investigate the categorical perception of facial gender information. Three experiments, an identification and two matching tasks, were reported. First, we showed that, even when facial image information changes linearly across unfamiliar male and female faces, gender is perceived categorically. This holds only when faces are

Research paper thumbnail of Integrating face and voice in person perception

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007