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Biomedical subjects

J K Hietanen

Publications and source records attributed to J K Hietanen.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Emotion recognition and social adjustment in school-aged girls and boys.

The present study investigated emotion recognition accuracy and its relation to social adjustment in 7-10 year-old children. The ability to recognize basic emotions from facial and vocal expressions was measured and compared to peer popularity and to teacher-rated social competence. The results showed that emotion recognition was related to these measures of social adjustment, but the gender of a child and emotion category affected this relationship. Emotion recognition accuracy was significantly related to social adjustment for the girls, but not for the boys. For the girls, especially the recognition of surprise was related to social adjustment. Together, these results suggest that the ability to recognize others' emotional states from nonverbal cues is an important socio-cognitive ability for school-aged girls.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Does your gaze direction and head orientation shift my visual attention?

The effects of another person's gaze direction and head orientation on the observer's attentional processes were investigated. Subjects responded to visual, laterally presented reaction signals. The presentation of the reaction signal was preceded by a facial cue stimulus signaling a direction which was either congruent, neutral, or incongruent with the laterality of the reaction signal. A head (front and profile views) with an averted gaze affected the response times in comparison to the front view of a face with a straight gaze. In contrast, a profile view of a head with a compatible gaze direction did not result in such an effect. The results indicate that visual information from the other individual's gaze direction and head orientation is integrated, and the integrated information is fed to the brain areas subserving visual attention orienting.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Modulation of neutral face evaluation by laterally presented emotional expressions.

The present study examined hemispheric asymmetries in emotional processing. 40 right-handed women were presented sequences of Happy, Sad, and Disgusted facial expressions to their left and right visual fields followed by a Neutral face presented to ipsi- or contralateral visual field. After Happy sequences, Neutral faces were rated as significantly more pleasant than after Sad sequences. In respect to hemispheric asymmetries, the analyses gave a significant effect of visual field only for Sad sequences. The ratings of Neutral faces were significantly more positive after presentations of Sad sequences to the left than to the right visual field. These modulational effects are suggested to support recent findings of hemispheric asymmetries of human emotions.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Face-selective processing in human extrastriate cortex around 120 ms after stimulus onset revealed by magneto- and electroencephalography.

Quick recognition of faces is crucial to a variety of human interactions, and highly specialized pathways may be involved in the processing of faces. To reveal selectivity to faces in early cortical processing, whole-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) were used to record event-related responses to faces and degraded faces and their inverted counterparts. We observed increases in the peak latency and amplitude of the early 120-ms component (P120) for the inverted faces. These effects were enhanced for the 1 70-ms component (N170). For the degraded counterparts, a significant effect of the inversion was observed only for the N170, which was strongly delayed. Source modelling suggested that the early response originated at the posterior occipital areas whereas the later response was generated anterior and lateral to this location. We conclude that under sufficiently good conditions face-selective activity may be taking place during the P120.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1998

Facial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles.

The purpose of the study was to investigate facial and emotional reactions while viewing two different types of smiles and the relation of emotional empathy to these reactions. Facial EMG was recorded from the orbicularis oculi and zygomaticus major muscle regions while subjects individually watched two blocks of stimuli. One block included posed facial expressions of the Duchenne smile (a felt smile) and a neutral face, the other block included expressions of another type of smile called non-Duchenne smile (an unfelt smile) and a neutral face. Emotional experiences were asked after each stimulus block. Finally, a measure of empathy was given. Facial EMG reactions differentiated between the neutral face and the Duchenne smile but not between the neutral face and the non-Duchenne smile. The Duchenne smile block induced experience of pleasure for the subjects who saw it as the first stimulus block. Empathy was correlated to the rated experiences of pleasure and interest after the Duchenne smile block.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Modulation of human auditory information processing by emotional visual stimuli.

Auditory event-related potentials mismatch negativity (MMN) and N100 were recorded from seven subjects while they read text and watched emotionally negative, neutral, and positive pictures varying in valence and arousal. The MMN reflects automatic detection of change in auditory stimulus stream. Functionally different N100 is triggered by onset of various auditory stimuli. The N100 was stabile during all visual conditions. The MMN was very similar during text reading, and neutral and negative slide viewing, but was significantly attenuated during viewing of positively valenced slides. We suggest that visual emotional information of high positive valence and low arousal is a signal of nonthreatening and nonappetitive environment. This kind of environment probably reduces the need for auditory change detection.

Alpha Rhythm↗
PubMed1998

Facial electromyographic responses to vocal affect expressions.

In this study we investigated facial electromyographic (EMG) responses to vocal affect expressions. We also measured emotion-related action tendencies by requesting the subjects to indicate their tendency to approach or withdraw from the person uttering the stimulus word. In addition, emotional contagion (EC) was measured with a questionnaire-based scale. The results showed that hearing the expression of anger increased EMG activity in the subjects' brow region more than hearing contentment. In contrast, the expression of contentment activated the periocular muscle region more than anger. The expressions of anger elicited behavioral withdrawal responses, whereas the neutral expressions and contentment evoked approach responses. Subjects scoring low and high on EC exhibited different patterns of EMG responses. The results support the view that negative and positive affects are contagious from hearing human vocal affect expressions.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1997

Face-specific responses from the human inferior occipito-temporal cortex.

Whole-head neuromagnetic responses were recorded from seven subjects to pictures of faces and to various control stimuli. Four subjects displayed signals specific to faces. The combination of functional information from magnetoencephalography and anatomical data from magnetic resonance images suggests that the face-specific activity was generated in the inferior occipitotemporal cortex. All four subjects showed the face-specific response in the right hemisphere, one of them also in the left. Our results, together with recent position emission tomography and lesion studies, suggest a right-hemisphere preponderance of face processing in the inferior occipitotemporal cortex.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

A comparison of visual responses to object- and ego-motion in the macaque superior temporal polysensory area.

The responses of visual movement-sensitive neurons in the anterior superior temporal polysensory area (STPa) of monkeys were studied during object-motion, ego-motion and during both together. The majority of the cells responded only to the image of a moving object against a stationary background and failed to respond to the retinal movement of the same object (against the same background) caused by the monkey's ego-motion. All the tested cells continued responding to the object-motion during ego-motion in the opposite direction. By contrast, most cells failed to respond to the motion of an object when the observer and object moved at the same speed and direction (eliminating observer-relative motion cues). The results indicate that STPa cells compute motion relative to the observer and suggest an influence of reference signals (vestibular, somatosensory or retinal) in the discrimination of ego- and object-motion. The results extend observations indicating that STPa cells are selective for visual motion originating from the movements of external objects and unresponsive to retinal changes correlated with the observer's own movements.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Motion sensitive cells in the macaque superior temporal polysensory area: response discrimination between self-generated and externally generated pattern motion.

It was previously shown [17] that visual movement sensitive neurons lacking selectivity in the anterior parts of the dorsal superior temporal sulcus (STP) of monkeys exhibited selective responses to externally moved objects and failed to respond to the sight of the animal's own limb movements. This paper describes a series of experiments in which a monkey was trained to operate an apparatus that produced visual motion of a projected two-dimensional patterned stimulus. Single unit responses from STP were recorded and responses to visual motion, produced externally by the experimenter, were compared to the responses to visual motion (of the same pattern) produced by the monkey itself. The majority of the movement sensitive cells giving reliable responses to the pattern motion responded statistically more strongly to the experimenter-induced motion than to the motion induced by the monkey itself. The cell responses were observed not to be affected by the motion velocity and the monkey's motor activity (handle rotation without any visual stimulation) did not affect the cell's spontaneous activity. The results indicate that the response discrimination of STP cells between externally and self-induced stimulus motion is not based on form sensitivity. Moreover, the mechanism which produces the described response selectivity is not only limited to naturally occurring visual consequences of the monkey's own motor activity but is plastic and can extend to arbitrary associations between the monkey's movements and consequent visual motion.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1993

Motion sensitive cells in the macaque superior temporal polysensory area. I. Lack of response to the sight of the animal's own limb movement.

An animal's own behaviour can give rise to sensory stimulation that is very similar to stimulation of completely external origin. Much of this self-induced stimulation has little informative value to the animal and may even interfere with the processing of externally induced stimulation. We have measured responses of visual movement sensitive neurons in the anterior part of the dorsal superior temporal sulcus of monkeys to stimulation caused by the animal's own active movements. These cells responded to any stimuli moved by the experimenter, but gave no response to the sight of animal's own limb movements. The cells remained responsive to external stimulation, however, while the monkey's own hand was moving in view. Responses to self-induced movements were recovered if the monkey introduced a novel object in its hand into view. Various possible neural mechanisms for explaining the results are discussed, and it is suggested that the studied neurons belong to a system that detects unexpected and hence behaviourally relevant sensory events.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Directional tuning of motion-sensitive cells in the anterior superior temporal polysensory area of the macaque.

An investigation was made into the directional sensitivity of cells in the macaque anterior superior temporal polysensory region (STPa) to the motion of objects. The cells studied were sensitive to the presence of motion but showed little or no selectivity for the form of the stimulus. Directional tuning was not continuously distributed about all possible directions. The majority of cells were most responsive to motion in a direction within 15 degrees of one of the three cartesian axes (up/down, left/right, towards/away). Tuning to direction varied in sharpness. For most (34/37) cells the angular change in direction required to reduce response to half maximal was between 45 and 70 degrees (for 3/37 cells it was > 90 degrees). The estimates of the directionality (median Id = 0.97) of STPa cells was similar to that reported for posterior motion processing areas (the middle temporal area, MT, and the medial superior temporal area, MST). The tuning for direction (sharpness, distribution and discrimination) of the motion-sensitive STPa cells were found to be similar to the tuning for perspective view of STPa cells selective for static form of the head and body. On average the STPa responses showed a 100- to 300-ms transient burst of activity followed by a tonic discharge maintained at approximately 20% of the peak firing rate for the duration of stimulation. The responses of motion-sensitive STPa cells occurred at an earlier latency (mean 91 ms) than responses of cells selective for static form (mean 119 ms), but the time course of responses of the two classes of cell were similar in many other respects. The early response latency and directional selectivity indicate that motion sensitivity in STPa cells derives from the dorsal visual pathway via MT/MST. The similarity of tuning for direction and perspective view within STPa may facilitate the integration of motion and form processing within this high-level brain area.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1992

Organization and functions of cells responsive to faces in the temporal cortex.

Cells selectively responsive to the face have been found in several visual sub-areas of temporal cortex in the macaque brain. These include the lateral and ventral surfaces of inferior temporal cortex and the upper bank, lower bank and fundus of the superior temporal sulcus (STS). Cells in the different regions may contribute in different ways to the processing of the facial image. Within the upper bank of the STS different populations of cells are selective for different views of the face and head. These cells occur in functionally discrete patches (3-5 mm across) within the STS cortex. Studies of output connections from the STS also reveal a modular anatomical organization of repeating 3-5 mm patches connected to the parietal cortex, an area thought to be involved in spatial awareness and in the control of attention. The properties of some cells suggest a role in the discrimination of heads from other objects, and in the recognition of familiar individuals. The selectivity for view suggests that the neural operations underlying face or head recognition rely on parallel analyses of different characteristic views of the head, the outputs of these view-specific analyses being subsequently combined to support view-independent (object-centred) recognition. An alternative functional interpretation of the sensitivity to head view is that the cells enable an analysis of 'social attention', i.e. they signal where other individuals are directing their attention. A cell maximally responsive to the left profile thus provides a signal that the attention (of another individual) is directed to the observer's left. Such information is useful for analysing social interactions between other individuals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1992

The effects of lighting conditions on responses of cells selective for face views in the macaque temporal cortex.

Neural mechanisms underlying recognition of objects must overcome the changes in an object's appearance caused by inconsistent viewing conditions, particularly those that occur with changes in lighting. In humans, lesions to the posterior visual association cortex can impair the ability to recognize objects and faces across different lighting conditions. Inferotemporal lesions in monkey have been shown to produce a similar difficulty in object matching tasks. Here we report on the extent to which cell responses selective for the face and other views of the head in monkey temporal cortex tolerate changes in lighting. For each cell studied the (preferred) head view eliciting maximal response was first established under normal lighting. Cells were then tested with the preferred head view lit from different directions (i.e. front, above, below or from the side). Responses of some cells failed to show complete generalization across all lighting conditions but together as a "population" they responded equally strongly under all four lighting conditions. Further tests on sub-groups of cells revealed that stimulus selectivity was maintained despite unusual lighting. The cells discriminated between head and control stimuli and between different views of the head independent of the lighting direction. The results indicate that constancy of recognition across different lighting conditions is apparent in the responses of single cells in the temporal cortex. Lighting constancy appears to be established by matching the retinal image to view-specific descriptions of objects (i.e. neurons which compute object structure from a limited range of perspective views).

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Viewer-centred and object-centred coding of heads in the macaque temporal cortex.

An investigation was made into the sensitivity of cells in the macaque superior temporal sulcus (STS) to the sight of different perspective views of the head. This allowed assessment of (a) whether coding was 'viewer-centred' (view specific) or 'object-centred' (view invariant) and (b) whether viewer-centred cells were preferentially tuned to 'characteristic' views of the head. The majority of cells (110) were found to be viewer-centred and exhibited unimodal tuning to one view. 5 cells displayed object-centred coding responding equally to all views of the head. A further 5 cells showed 'mixed' properties, responding to all views of the head but also discriminating between views. 6 out of 56 viewer and object-centred cells exhibited selectivity for face identity or species. Tuning to view varied in sharpness. For most (54/73) cells the angle of perspective rotation reducing response to half maximal was 45-70 degrees but for 19/73 it was greater than 90 degrees. More cells were optimally tuned to characteristic views of the head (the full face or profile) than to other views. Some cells were, however, found tuned to intermediate views throughout the full 360 degree range. This coding of many distinct head views may have a role in the analysis of social signals based on the interpretation of the direction of other individuals' attention.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Frameworks of analysis for the neural representation of animate objects and actions.

A variety of cell types exist in the temporal cortex providing high-level visual descriptions of bodies and their movements. We have investigated the sensitivity of such cells to different viewing conditions to determine the frame(s) of reference utilized in processing. The responses of the majority of cells in the upper bank of the superior temporal sulcus (areas TPO and PGa) found to be sensitive to static and dynamic information about the body were selective for one perspective view (e.g. right profile, reaching right or walking left). These cells can be considered to provide viewer-centred descriptions because they depend on the observer's vantage point. Viewer-centred descriptions could be used in guiding behaviour. They could also be used as an intermediate step for establishing view-independent responses of other cell types which responded to many or all perspective views selectively of the same object (e.g. head) or movement. These cells have the properties of object-centred descriptions, where the object viewed provides the frame of reference for describing the disposition of object parts and movements (e.g. head on top of shoulders, reaching across the body, walking forward 'following the nose'). For some cells in the lower bank of the superior temporal sulcus (area TEa) the responses to body movements were related to the object or goal of the movements (e.g. reaching for or walking towards a specific place). This goal-centred sensitivity to interaction allowed the cells to be selectively activated in situations where human subjects would attribute causal and intentional relationships.

Animals↗