Open AccessEmotional context facilitates cortical prediction error responses
Author(s) -
Vogel Bob O.,
Shen Christina,
Neuhaus Andres H.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.22868
Subject(s) - mismatch negativity , psychology , mean squared prediction error , oddball paradigm , expression (computer science) , cognitive psychology , context (archaeology) , cognition , predictive coding , emotional expression , electroencephalography , event related potential , coding (social sciences) , neuroscience , computer science , biology , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , algorithm , programming language
In the predictive coding framework, mismatch negativity (MMN) is regarded a correlate of the prediction error that occurs when top–down predictions conflict with bottom–up sensory inputs. Expression‐related MMN is a relatively novel construct thought to reflect a prediction error specific to emotional processing, which, however, has not yet been tested directly. Our paradigm includes both neutral and emotional deviants, thereby allowing for investigating whether expression‐related MMN is emotion‐specific or unspecifically arises from violations of a given sequence. Twenty healthy participants completed a visual sequence oddball task where they were presented with (1) sequence deviants, (2) emotional sequence deviants, and (3) emotional deviants. Mismatch components were assessed at ventral occipitotemporal scalp sites and analyzed regarding their amplitudes, spatiotemporal profiles, and neuronal sources. Expression‐related MMN could be clearly separated from its neutral counterpart in all investigated aspects. Specifically, expression‐related MMN showed enhanced amplitude, shorter latency, and different neuronal sources. Our results, therefore, provide converging evidence for a quantitative specificity of expression‐related MMN and seems to provide an opportunity to study prediction error during preattentive emotional processing. Our neurophysiological evidence ultimately suggests that a basic cognitive operator, the prediction error, is enhanced at the cortical level by processing of emotionally salient stimuli. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3641–3652, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.