Neural responses elicited to face motion and vocalization pairings.

Full Abstract

During social interactions our brains continuously integrate incoming auditory and visual input from the movements and vocalizations of others. Yet, the dynamics of the neural events elicited to these multisensory stimuli remain largely uncharacterized. Here we recorded audiovisual scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) to dynamic human faces with associated human vocalizations. Audiovisual controls were a dynamic monkey face with a species-appropriate vocalization, and a house with opening front door with a creaking door sound. Subjects decided if audiovisual stimulus trials were congruent (e.g. human face-human sound) or incongruent (e.g. house image-monkey sound). An early auditory ERP component, N140, was largest to human and monkey vocalizations. This effect was strongest in the presence of the dynamic human face, suggesting that species-specific visual information can modulate auditory ERP characteristics. A motion-induced visual N170 did not change amplitude or latency across visual motion category in the presence of sound. A species-specific incongruity response consisting of a late positive ERP at around 400 ms, P400, was selectively larger only when human faces were mismatched with a non-human sound. We also recorded visual ERPs at trial onset, and found that the category-specific N170 did not alter its behavior as a function of stimulus category-somewhat unexpected as two face types were contrasted with a house image. In conclusion, we present evidence for species-specificity in vocalization selectivity in early ERPs, and in a multisensory incongruity response whose amplitude is modulated only when the human face motion is paired with an incongruous auditory stimulus.

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Author information

Author/s: Puce, Aina (A); Epling, James A (JA); Thompson, James C (JC); Carrick, Olivia K (OK);

Affiliation: Center for Advanced Imaging, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-9236, USA. apuce(-atsign-)hsc.wvu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jan; vol 45 (issue 1) : pp 93-106

Dates: Created 2007/02/05; Completed 2007/02/26;

PMID: 16766000, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Animals
Area Under Curve
Brain - physiology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Face
Female
Haplorhini

Haplorhini
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Motion Perception - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Social Perception
Speech Perception - physiology
Temporal Lobe - physiology
Vocalization, Animal - physiology

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