Name: a semantic priming event-related potential (erp) task to study lexico-semantic and visuo-semantic processing in autism spectrum disorder
Uploaded: 2018-04-12T14:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential ERP Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder at JoVE.com

Development of this paradigm was supported by the Therapeutic Cognitive Neuroscience Fund and the Benjamin and Adith Miller Family Endowment on Aging, Alzheimer's, and Autism Research.

All methods described here were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Johns Hopkins University, where the original study6 was performed.
1.Creating Stimuli
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	<li>Create an initial list of concrete nouns from which prime-target pairs will be made.
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		<li>From a selected corpus such as Subtlex19, select approximately 500 concrete nouns and obtain variables of interest (e.g., frequency, length, concretene...

<ol>
	<li>Tager-Flusberg, H., Paul, R., Lord, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Language+and+communication+in+autism.">Language and communication in autism.</a> Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. , 335-364 (2005).</li><li>Kamio, Y., Robins, D., Kelley, E., Swainson, B., Fein, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Atypical+Lexical/Semantic+Processing+in+High-Functioning+Autism+Spectrum+Disorders+without+Early+Language+Delay.">Atypical Lexical/Semantic Processing in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders without Early Language Delay.</a> Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 37, 1116-1122 (2007).</li><li>McCleery, J. P., Ceponiene, R., Burner, K. 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A., Gaughan, H., Kreuzer, J., Kurtzberg, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Electrophysiologic+correlates+of+semantic+classification+in+autistic+and+normal+children.">Electrophysiologic correlates of semantic classification in autistic and normal children.</a> Developmental Neuropsychology. 16 (1), 79-99 (1999).</li><li>Kamio, Y., Toichi, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Dual+access+to+semantics+in+autism:+is+pictorial+access+superior+to+verbal+access?.">Dual access to semantics in autism: is pictorial access superior to verbal access?.</a> Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 41 (7), 859-867 (2000).</li><li>Coderre, E. 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D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Event-Related+Potentials+and+the+Semantic+Matching+of+Pictures.">Event-Related Potentials and the Semantic Matching of Pictures.</a> Brain and Cognition. , 201-212 (1990).</li><li>Hamm, J. P., Johnson, B. W., Kirk, I. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Comparison+of+the+N300+and+N400+ERPs+to+picture+stimuli+in+congruent+and+incongruent+contexts.">Comparison of the N300 and N400 ERPs to picture stimuli in congruent and incongruent contexts.</a> Clinical Neurophysiology. 212, 1339-1350 (2002).</li><li>Ganis, G., Kutas, M., Sereno, M. I. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+search+for+&amp;#34;common+sense&amp;#34;:+an+electrophysiological+study+of+the+comprehension+of+words+and+pictures+in+reading.">The search for &amp;#34;common sense&amp;#34;: an electrophysiological study of the comprehension of words and pictures in reading.</a> Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 8 (2), 89-106 (1996).</li><li>Nigam, A., Hoffman, J. E., Simons, R. F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=N400+to+Semantically+Anomalous+Pictures+and+Words.">N400 to Semantically Anomalous Pictures and Words.</a> Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 4 (1), 15-22 (1992).</li><li>Coltheart, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+MRC+psycholinguistic+database.">The MRC psycholinguistic database.</a> Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 33A, 497-505 (1981).</li><li>Brysbaert, M., New, B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Moving+beyond+Kucera+and+Francis:+A+critical+evaluation+of+current+word+frequency+norms+and+the+introduction+of+a+new+and+improved+word+frequency+measure+for+American+English.">Moving beyond Kucera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English.</a> Behavior Research Methods. 41 (4), 977-990 (2009).</li><li>Davies, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> The Corpus of Contemporary American English: 450 million words, 1990-present. , (2009).</li><li>Zuccolotto, A. P., Roush, R. E., Eschman, A., Schneider, W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> E-Prime 2.0 Getting Started Guide. , (2012).</li><li>Duncan, C. C., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Event-related+potentials+in+clinical+research:+Guidelines+for+eliciting,+recording,+and+quantifying+mismatch+negativity,+P300,+and+N400.">Event-related potentials in clinical research: Guidelines for eliciting, recording, and quantifying mismatch negativity, P300, and N400.</a> Clinical Neurophysiology. 120 (11), 1883-1908 (2009).</li><li>Tools, P. S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> E-Prime Extensions for Net Station 2.0 User Manual. , (2014).</li><li>Electrical Geodesics Inc. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Net Station 5 User Manual. , (2017).</li><li>Tanner, D., Morgan-Short, K., Luck, S. 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J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Is+&amp;#34;Blank&amp;#34;+a+suitable+neutral+prime+for+event-related+potential+experiments?.">Is &amp;#34;Blank&amp;#34; a suitable neutral prime for event-related potential experiments?.</a> Brain and Language. 97, 91-101 (2006).</li><li>Franklin, M. S., Dien, J., Neely, J. H., Huber, E., Waterson, L. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Semantic+priming+modulates+the+N400,+N300,+and+N400RP.">Semantic priming modulates the N400, N300, and N400RP.</a> Clinical Neurophysiology. 118 (5), 1053-1068 (2007).</li><li>Luck, S. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique. , (2005).</li><li>Groppe, D. M., Urbach, T. P., Kutas, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mass+univariate+analysis+of+event-related+brain+potentials/fields+I:+A+critical+tutorial+review.">Mass univariate analysis of event-related brain potentials/fields I: A critical tutorial review.</a> Psychophysiology. 48, 1711-1725 (2011).</li><li>Tanner, D., Van Hell, J. G. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=ERPs+reveal+individual+differences+in+morphosyntactic+processing.">ERPs reveal individual differences in morphosyntactic processing.</a> Neuropsychologia. 56, 289-301 (2014).</li><li>D'Arcy, R. C. N., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Electrophysiological+assessment+of+language+function+following+stroke.">Electrophysiological assessment of language function following stroke.</a> Clinical Neurophysiology. 114 (4), 662-672 (2003).</li><li>P&#233;rez Vel&#225;zquez, J. L., Gal&#225;n, R. 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The present paper has reported critical steps in developing a semantic priming ERP paradigm with picture and word stimuli for exploring semantic processing deficits in individuals with ASD. Major steps include creating the stimuli, programming the task, and performing EEG testing and analyses. The most time-consuming part of this procedure is likely to be the creation of stimuli, as this requires careful matching both between and within stimulus pairs, conditions, and modalities on variables such as length, frequency, an...

Researchers in cognitive psychology have long been interested in how people understand the meaning of language. Language processing involves a sequence of steps of increasing complexity, from letter and word recognition, to semantic processing, to syntactic parsing. Semantic processing refers to accessing the meaning of a stimulus, be it a word, picture, or sound. Following early steps of initial word recognition, access of a word&#39;s meaning, or semantics, is a crucial step in language processing. Semantic integration refers to the process of integrating the meaning of stimuli to understand their relationships, and is crucial for higher-level language processing such as understanding sentences. Not only does the meaning of each word in a sentence need to be accessed, but the meanings of each individual word need to be integrated to form a coherent understanding of sentence meaning, or &#34;gist&#34;.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have significant deficits in language comprehension1. There is some evidence suggesting that these difficulties stem from deficits in semantic processing and integration2,3,4. However, other studies have suggested that individuals with ASD do not show semantic processing deficits when materials are presented in non-linguistic (e.g., visual or auditory) modalities3,5,6. Such findings suggest that semantic processing deficits in ASD may be restricted to linguistic (i.e., written or spoken) modalities. As such, approaches that contrast different modalities may provide insight into the extent to which semantic processing deficits are domain-specific or indicative of a pervasive processing style. The purpose of this paper is to describe a methodology for comparing semantic processing between different modalities using a semantic priming task during concurrent electrophysiological recording.
The semantic priming paradigm has a long history in research investigating how semantic processing influences lower-level word recognition7,8. In traditional semantic priming tasks, a prime word is presented (e.g., cat) followed by a target word that is either semantically related (e.g., dog) or unrelated (e.g., book) to the prime. Such a task is often done in the context of a lexical decision task, such that participants are asked to determine whether the target word is a real word or not. Other paradigms may have participants perform a semantic categorization task on the target word, or judge whether the two stimuli are related or not. Regardless of the specific task, decades of evidence have established that reaction times (RTs) are faster to target words that are semantically related to the prime compared to those that are unrelated.
This &#34;semantic priming effect&#34; has been attributed to a number of mechanisms in theoretical accounts7,8. One is that the priming effect is due to automatic spreading activation through the semantic network, such that the retrieval of the prime word&#39;s meaning activates the meaning of other semantically related words, including the target word. This then reduces the time needed for semantic activation of the target word. A second theoretical mechanism is that of expectancy, which posits that upon seeing the prime word, participants generate an expected set of potential targets. Target words that are included in this set are then recognized more quickly. Finally, others have postulated the existence of a post-lexical mechanism of semantic matching, which establishes the existence of a semantic relationship between the prime and target word. Regardless of the specific mechanism underlying the effect, semantic priming can be a useful index of semantic processing and integration. This paradigm is also not limited to lexical stimuli, and can also be used to investigate semantic priming of non-language stimuli like pictures9 as well as cross-modal semantic priming (e.g., between words and pictures)3.
Semantic priming effects have been well-studied in the psycholinguistic literature, and have been investigated with regards to the type of prime-target relations, the timing of prime and target presentation, and many other manipulations8. The electrophysiological correlates of this effect have also been well-characterized10. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method of recording neural activity via changes in electrical activity measured at the scalp. EEG is a useful choice of methodology for a semantic priming paradigm because it has very good temporal resolution (on the order of milliseconds, ms) and can thereby provide subtle differences in semantic processing between conditions or groups even in the absence of behavioral effects or responses.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) are time-locked changes in the EEG that arise in response to a specific stimulus or behavior. Depending on the timing and polarity of the response, different components of the ERP are reflective of different aspects of cognitive processing. The N400 component is a well-established marker of semantic processing and semantic integration11,12 (although several other interpretations exist10,13). The N400 amplitude is reduced when semantic integration is easier (such as when the prime and target in a semantic priming paradigm are semantically related) compared to when semantic integration is more difficult (such as when two words are unrelated). Importantly, the amplitude difference between related and unrelated conditions (i.e., the &#34;N400 effect&#34;) is not specific to language. N400 effects are also observed in non-language modalities, such as in response to pairs of semantically-related and unrelated pictures or environmental sounds14,15,16,17. The N400 is thus a useful ERP component for the purposes of the current paradigm because it can be used as a modality-independent estimate of semantic processing and integration abilities.
Individuals with ASD show reduced or absent semantic priming effects and N400 effects in response to language stimuli2,3,4, suggesting impairments in semantic processing. Such effects have been found in response to visuo-semantic and audio-semantic stimuli3,5,6, lending support to the claim that semantic processing is selectively impaired for language stimuli. However, most previous studies comparing modalities have used cross-modal priming, such that the prime-target pair contains a lexical stimulus. Given the proposal that individuals with ASD have deficits in semantic processing of language stimuli, such cross-modal stimuli may have affected results. To truly investigate whether semantic processing of language is selectively impaired in individuals with ASD, within-modality pairs of lexical and non-lexical stimuli must be used. In a recent study, Coderre et al.6 provided the first direct comparison of within-modality word and picture semantic priming to investigate semantic processing deficits in adults (ages 18-68) with ASD. Participants with ASD and typically-developing (TD) participants viewed pairs of pictures and words and were asked to judge whether the stimuli were related or not. During this semantic priming task, their brain activity was recorded using EEG. By comparing N400 effects between groups and modalities, this paradigm provided insight into the nature of semantic processing in individuals with ASD.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the semantic priming ERP methodology employed by Coderre et al.6. Although this paradigm was initially implemented to study semantic processing in adults with ASD, it may prove useful for any experimenters wishing to explore the neural correlates of lexico-semantic and visuo-semantic processing, either in TD individuals or in specific clinical populations.

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			<td height="126" style="height:126px;width:216px;">EEG system</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Geodesic EEG system (GES) 400 system: Net Amps 400 amplifier, NetStation 5.3, 128-channel HydroCel Geodesic Sensor nets</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">Potassium chloride</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="105">
			<td height="105" style="height:105px;width:216px;">Plastic bucket</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;">EGI provides a plastic bucket for mixing electrolyte but any clean container can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Baby shampoo</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Johnson&#39;s</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)</td>
			<td style="width:71px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
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a semantic priming event-related potential (erp) task to study lexico-semantic and visuo-semantic processing in autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have characteristic deficits in understanding the meaning of language, or semantic processing. However, some evidence indicates that semantic processing of non-linguistic stimuli is intact, suggesting that semantic deficits may be language-specific. To appropriately characterize semantic processing deficits in individuals with ASD, comparison of within-modality linguistic (e.g., written words) and non-linguistic (e.g., pictures) stimuli is required. This paper describes such a methodology that makes use of a semantic priming paradigm during concurrent recording of electroencephalographic (EEG) data. EEG provides a dynamic measure of brain activity that is well-suited to characterize subtle differences in semantic processing that may not be observable at the behavioral level. The semantic priming paradigm presents a prime picture or word (e.g., dog) followed by a target picture or word that is either related (e.g., cat) or unrelated (e.g., pencil) to the prime. This paradigm can thus be used to evaluate semantic processing across different modalities, and to compare lexico-semantic and visuo-semantic processing abilities in individuals with ASD and how they might differ from TD individuals. The specific steps involved in creating the stimuli, performing the EEG testing, and analyzing the EEG data are discussed. Representative results illustrate how the N400 component of the event-related potential (ERP) is reduced following semantically-related prime-target pairs compared to unrelated pairs. Comparisons of the N400 between conditions, modalities, and groups can provide estimates of the success of semantic processing, and can thereby be used to characterize semantic deficits in individuals with ASD or other clinical populations.

If stimuli have been appropriately sorted into related and unrelated conditions, an N400 effect should be observed for both word and picture stimuli (Figure 2). This is identifiable as a greater negative amplitude in unrelated conditions compared to related conditions. For word stimuli, the effect should occur from 300&#8211;500 ms over central or centro-parietal scalp6,10. For picture stimuli, the ef...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential ERP Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder at JoVE.com

A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential ERP Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

This paper describes a semantic priming ERP task using within-modality pairs of pictures and words to investigate semantic processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential (ERP) Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have characteristic deficits in understanding the meaning of language, or semantic processing. However, ...

The overall goal of this semantic priming ERP methodology is to compare semantic processing of linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli in the form of words and pictures, in individuals with autism spectrum disorders, compared to typically-developing individuals. This method can help answer key questions in the autism field, such as whether individuals with autism spectrum disorders have a global deficit in semantic processing that extends beyond language. The main advantage of this technique is that it uses electroencephalography, a technique of measuring brain activity that can pick up on very subtle differences in cognitive processing between groups.Demonstrating the procedure will be Emme O'Rourke, a research assistant in my lab. Measure the circumference of the participant's head, passing through the inion and nasion in order to select the appropriate sized EEG net. Begin by immersing the electroencephalography, or EEG electrodes, in electrolyte solution for five minutes.Instruct the participant to close their eyes, then place the net so it fits snugly against their head. Once all electrodes have been seated against the scalp, check impedances. Re-seat or re-wet any electrodes with impedances above 50 kilo-Ohms.Finally, instruct the participant to judge whether the stimuli on the screen are related or unrelated, by pressing a button on the keyboard. Tell them to wait to make their response until the second stimulus has disappeared from the screen, and the black cross has disappeared. Finally, have the participant complete the task.Begin by opening the EEG processing software. To filter the data, create a new filtering tool by selecting filtering in the create drop-down menu, and rename the tool. Then set the highpass filter to 0.1 Hertz, and the lowpass filter to 50 Hertz.Save the tool, then drag the original EEG recording file into the input files box at the top left in the window, and hit run. Next, to segment the data into trials, create a new segmentation tool, and name it appropriately. Under categories to create, hit the plus sign to create a new category, and rename it picture related.Drag the code icon into the create category based on criteria box, and set it as code is PIC1, to time lock to the presentation of stimulus 1. Drag the key code icon into the create category box, and set it as key code cell number is 1. Note, to include only correct trials, drag another key code icon into the create category box, and set it as key code eval is 1.Then, at the bottom of the window, set the segment length to extend segment 100 milliseconds before, and 2, 300 milliseconds after. Clone the category by hitting the clone button, and rename it picture unrelated. Set the code to PIC1, and the key code cell number to 2.Clone the category and rename it word related. Set the code to WRD1, and the key code cell number to 3. Then clone the category again, and rename it word unrelated.Set the code to WRD1 and the key code cell number to 4. Save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run. To perform artifact detection, create a new artifact detection tool, and name it.Under artifact detection settings, hit the plus sign at the bottom of the window to add a new setting. Select bad channels from the drop-down menu under operation. Leave all of the default settings.Add a new setting and add select eye blink from the operation drop-down menu, and leave all of the default settings. Then, add a new setting, and select eye movement from the operation drop-down menu, and leave all of the settings. Save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run.Open the resulting file in the review panel and scroll through every trial by hitting the arrow buttons under the categories menu on the right sidebar. Mark trials as good or bad by hitting the green or red circles, respectively. When done, close the file to save the results.Next, create a new bad bad channel replacement tool, and name it. Save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run. Perform single subject averaging to collapse over trials.Create a new averaging tool and name it appropriately. Under averaging settings, select handle source files together, and handle subjects separately. Then, save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run.Next, create a new montage operations tool, and name it appropriately. Select the appropriate net from the drop-down menu under list montages for sensor layout. Select average reference, and make sure the exclude bad channels from reference box is selected.Save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run. Finally, perform baseline correction using the first 100 milliseconds of the segment. Create a new baseline correction tool, and name it.Under baseline correction settings, click select baseline from portion of segment. Select baseline with respect to segment time equals zero, and baseline begins 100 milliseconds before time zero, and is 100 milliseconds long. Lastly, save the tool, then drag the most recent preprocessed file into the input files box at the top left of the window, and hit run.Here, representative ERP waveforms at electrode CZ show a larger amplitude to unrelated conditions compared to related conditions, at approximately 400 milliseconds. Further, these topographic plots show the unrelated/related difference, averaged over a window from 400 to 500 milliseconds. Clinical groups, such as individuals with ASD, may show a smaller N400 effect in response to words, which suggests difficulties with lexicosemantic processing.Once the stimuli are created and the task is ready, EEG testing and pre-processing takes approximately one and a half hours per participant. This technique provides a unique way for researchers in the field of autism to explore semantic processing across different modalities in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Following this procedure, other methods, like functional magnetic resonance imaging, can be performed to answer additional questions, like the neural circuitry underlying lexicosemantic and visual-semantic processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.Don't forget that working with individuals with autism can sometimes be challenging, and that certain adaptations or amendments to testing may need to be done while performing the EEG procedure.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

The Crossmodal Congruency Task as a Means to Obtain an Objective Behavioral Measure in the Rubber Hand Illusion Paradigm

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a popular experimental paradigm. Participants view touch on an artificial rubber hand while the participants' own hidden hand is touched. If the viewed and felt touches are given at the same time then this is sufficient to induce the compelling experience that the rubber hand is one's own hand. The RHI can be used to investigate exactly how the brain constructs distinct body representations for one's own body. Such representations are crucial for successful interactions with the external world. To obtain a subjective measure of the RHI, researchers typically ask participants to rate statements such as "I felt as if the rubber hand were my hand". Here we demonstrate how the crossmodal congruency task can be used to obtain an objective behavioral measure within this paradigm.
The variant of the crossmodal congruency task we employ involves the presentation of tactile targets and visual distractors. Targets and distractors are spatially congruent (i.e. same finger) on some trials and incongruent (i.e. different finger) on others. The difference in performance between incongruent and congruent trials - the crossmodal congruency effect (CCE) - indexes multisensory interactions. Importantly, the CCE is modulated both by viewing a hand as well as the synchrony of viewed and felt touch which are both crucial factors for the RHI.
The use of the crossmodal congruency task within the RHI paradigm has several advantages. It is a simple behavioral measure which can be repeated many times and which can be obtained during the illusion while participants view the artificial hand. Furthermore, this measure is not susceptible to observer and experimenter biases. The combination of the RHI paradigm with the crossmodal congruency task allows in particular for the investigation of multisensory processes which are critical for modulations of body representations as in the RHI.

We demonstrate how an objective measure can be employed in the widely employed rubber hand illusion paradigm. This measure is obtained by modifying the well-established crossmodal congruency task. This task allows the investigation of multisensory processes which are critical for modulations of body representations as in the rubber hand illusion.

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a popular experimental paradigm. Participants view touch on an artificial rubber hand while the participants' own hidden ...

The 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task: A Task of Attention and Impulse Control for Rodents

This protocol describes the 5-choice serial reaction time task, which is an operant based task used to study attention and impulse control in rodents. Test day challenges, modifications to the standard task, can be used to systematically tax the neural systems controlling either attention or impulse control. Importantly, these challenges have consistent effects on behavior across laboratories in intact animals and can reveal either enhancements or deficits in cognitive function that are not apparent when rats are only tested on the standard task. The variety of behavioral measures that are collected can be used to determine if other factors (i.e., sedation, motivation deficits, locomotor impairments) are contributing to changes in performance. The versatility of the 5CSRTT is further enhanced because it is amenable to combination with pharmacological, molecular, and genetic techniques.

This protocol describes the 5-choice serial reaction time task, which is an operant based task used to study attention and impulse control in rodents. Test day challenges, which are modifications of the standard task, increase flexibility of the task and can be combined with other manipulations to more fully characterize behavior.

This protocol describes the 5-choice serial reaction time task, which is an operant based task used to study attention and impulse control in rodents. ...

Measuring Neural and Behavioral Activity During Ongoing Computerized Social Interactions: An Examination of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, an understanding of how perceptions of social exclusion develop over the course of a social interaction is important for advancing treatments aimed at lessening the harmful costs of being excluded. To date, most scientific examinations of social exclusion have looked at exclusion after a social interaction has been completed. While this has been very helpful in developing an understanding of what happens to a person following exclusion, it has not helped to clarify the moment-to-moment dynamics of the process of social exclusion. Accordingly, the current protocol was developed to obtain an improved understanding of social exclusion by examining the patterns of event-related brain activation that are present during social interactions. This protocol allows greater precision and sensitivity in detailing the social processes that lead people to feel as though they have been excluded from a social interaction. Importantly, the current protocol can be adapted to include research projects that vary the nature of exclusionary social interactions by altering how frequently participants are included, how long the periods of exclusion will last in each interaction, and when exclusion will take place during the social interactions. Further, the current protocol can be used to examine variables and constructs beyond those related to social exclusion. This capability to address a variety of applications across psychology by obtaining both neural and behavioral data during ongoing social interactions suggests the present protocol could be at the core of a developing area of scientific inquiry related to social interactions.

Research on social exclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. As the field expands, it is imperative to develop sophisticated methodologies allowing for the simultaneous measurement of neural and behavioral outcomes during social exclusion. This protocol utilizes event-related brain potentials to record ongoing neural activity during computerized social interactions.

Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, ...

Investigating the Effects of Antipsychotics and Schizotypy on the N400 Using Event-Related Potentials and Semantic Categorization

Within the field of cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a popular method of visualizing brain function. This is in part because of its excellent spatial resolution, which allows researchers to identify brain areas associated with specific cognitive processes. However, in the quest to localize brain functions, it is relevant to note that many cognitive, sensory, and motor processes have temporal distinctions that are imperative to capture, an aspect that is left unfulfilled by fMRI&#8217;s suboptimal temporal resolution. To better understand cognitive processes, it is thus advantageous to utilize event-related potential (ERP) recording as a method of gathering information about the brain. Some of its advantages include its fantastic temporal resolution, which gives researchers the ability to follow the activity of the brain down to the millisecond. It also directly indexes both excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials by which most brain computations are performed. This sits in contrast to fMRI, which captures an index of metabolic activity. Further, the non-invasive ERP method does not require a contrast condition: raw ERPs can be examined for just one experimental condition, a distinction from fMRI where control conditions must be subtracted from the experimental condition, leading to uncertainty in associating observations with experimental or contrast conditions. While it is limited by its poor spatial and subcortical activity resolution, ERP recordings&#8217; utility, relative cost-effectiveness, and associated advantages offer strong rationale for its use in cognitive neuroscience to track rapid temporal changes in neural activity. In an effort to foster increase in its use as a research imaging method, and to ensure proper and accurate data collection, the present article will outline &#8211; in the framework of a paradigm using semantic categorization to examine the effects of antipsychotics and schizotypy on the N400 &#8211; the procedure and key aspects associated with ERP data acquisition.

Using event-related EEG potentials (ERPs), we investigate the effects of antipsychotic medications on abnormal semantic brain activations in healthy individuals with schizotypal traits. We use ERPs to track distinct changes in brain activity, shedding insight into the cognitive processes associated with semantic categorization.

Within the field of cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a popular method of visualizing brain function. This is in ...

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Rapid auditory processing and acoustic change detection abilities play a critical role in allowing human infants to efficiently process the fine spectral and temporal changes that are characteristic of human language. These abilities lay the foundation for effective language acquisition; allowing infants to hone in on the sounds of their native language. Invasive procedures in animals and scalp-recorded potentials from human adults suggest that simultaneous, rhythmic activity (oscillations) between and within brain regions are fundamental to sensory development; determining the resolution with which incoming stimuli are parsed. At this time, little is known about oscillatory dynamics in human infant development. However, animal neurophysiology and adult EEG data provide the basis for a strong hypothesis that rapid auditory processing in infants is mediated by oscillatory synchrony in discrete frequency bands. In order to investigate this, 128-channel, high-density EEG responses of 4-month old infants to frequency change in tone pairs, presented in two rate conditions (Rapid: 70 msec ISI and Control: 300 msec ISI) were examined. To determine the frequency band and magnitude of activity, auditory evoked response averages were first co-registered with age-appropriate brain templates. Next, the principal components of the response were identified and localized using a two-dipole model of brain activity. Single-trial analysis of oscillatory power showed a robust index of frequency change processing in bursts of Theta band (3 - 8 Hz) activity in both right and left auditory cortices, with left activation more prominent in the Rapid condition. These methods have produced data that are not only some of the first reported evoked oscillations analyses in infants, but are also, importantly, the product of a well-established method of recording and analyzing clean, meticulously collected, infant EEG and ERPs. In this article, we describe our method for infant EEG net application, recording, dynamic brain response analysis, and representative results.

High-density electroencephalography (dEEG) is being used increasingly to study brain development and plasticity in the early years of life. Here we present an application of sophisticated analysis techniques that builds on traditional EEG recording to understand the oscillatory dynamics of rapid auditory processing in the infant brain.

Rapid auditory processing and acoustic change detection abilities play a critical role in allowing human infants to efficiently process the fine spectral ...

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In addition to impairments in social communication and the presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, deficits in sensory processing are now recognized as a core symptom in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our ability to perceive and interact with the external world is rooted in sensory processing. For example, listening to a conversation entails processing the auditory cues coming from the speaker (speech content, prosody, syntax) as well as the associated visual information (facial expressions, gestures). Collectively, the &#8220;integration&#8221; of these multisensory (i.e., combined audiovisual) pieces of information results in better comprehension. Such multisensory integration has been shown to be strongly dependent upon the temporal relationship of the paired stimuli. Thus, stimuli that occur in close temporal proximity are highly likely to result in behavioral and perceptual benefits &#8211; gains believed to be reflective of the perceptual system&#39;s judgment of the likelihood that these two stimuli came from the same source. Changes in this temporal integration are expected to strongly alter perceptual processes, and are likely to diminish the ability to accurately perceive and interact with our world. Here, a battery of tasks designed to characterize various aspects of sensory and multisensory temporal processing in children with ASD is described. In addition to its utility in autism, this battery has great potential for characterizing changes in sensory function in other clinical populations, as well as being used to examine changes in these processes across the lifespan.

We describe how to implement a battery of behavioral tasks to examine the processing and integration of sensory stimuli in children with ASD. The goal is to characterize individual differences in temporal processing of simple auditory and visual stimuli and relate these to higher order perceptual skills like speech perception.

In addition to impairments in social communication and the presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, deficits in sensory processing are ...

Event-related Potentials During Target-response Tasks to Study Cognitive Processes of Upper Limb Use in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

Unilateral Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is a very common cause of disability in childhood. It is characterized by unilateral motor impairments that are frequently dominated in the upper limb. In addition to a reduced movement capacity of the affected upper limb, several children with unilateral CP show a reduced awareness of the remaining movement capacity of that limb. This phenomenon of disregarding the preserved capacity of the affected upper limb is regularly referred to as Developmental Disregard (DD). Different theories have been postulated to explain DD, each suggesting slightly different guidelines for therapy. Still, cognitive processes that might additionally contribute to DD in children with unilateral CP have never been directly studied. The current protocol was developed to study cognitive aspects involved in upper limb control in children with unilateral CP with and without DD. This was done by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) extracted from the ongoing EEG during target-response tasks asking for a hand-movement response. ERPs consist of several components, each of them associated with a well-defined cognitive process (e.g., the N1 with early attention processes, the N2 with cognitive control and the P3 with cognitive load and mental effort). Due to its excellent temporal resolution, the ERP technique enables to study several covert cognitive processes preceding overt motor responses and thus allows insight into the cognitive processes that might contribute to the phenomenon of DD. Using this protocol adds a new level of explanation to existing behavioral studies and opens new avenues to the broader implementation of research on cognitive aspects of developmental movement restrictions in children.

Several children with unilateral Cerebral Palsy seem to disregard the preserved capacity of their affected upper limb. This Developmental Disregard is extensively described in the literature but the involved cognitive processes have not been studied. To study underlying cognitive factors of upper limb control, an event-related potential protocol was developed.

Unilateral Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is a very common cause of disability in childhood. It is characterized by unilateral ...

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder

This protocol offers a detailed description of a psychophysiological experiment using script-driven trauma-related imagery and standardized clinical instruments within a comparative design assessing physiological and psychopathological features of individuals with BPD. This method aims at studying the psychological and physiological effects of trauma-related dissociation. Since the psychodiagnostic classification of trauma-related disorders relies on the observation of evolutionarily determined responses to life-threat, an integrated assessment paradigm for the study of reactions to traumatic memories proposes a very appropriate methodological approach.
The employed script-driven imagery paradigm uses individual recall instructions to activate trauma-related memory networks and prompt associated emotional and physiological responses. These responses are measured by means of self-rating scales and physiological assessments. During the individual recall, participants are asked to vividly imagine traumatic and everyday experiences and other situations triggered by short personalized verbal scripts they authored beforehand together with the experimenters. A wide range of affective reactions and different physiological parameters can be measured. We used this paradigm to investigate dissociative states in BPD and to find physiological and affective correlates of dissociative states. Some of the participants were having severe traumatic antecedents.
To investigate different reaction patterns within the same diagnostic group, participants with different levels of traumatic histories, symptom severities, and co-morbidities should be included. By using short verbal scripts, the level of stress induced to participants is held as low as possible without affecting the validity of the object of investigation.

We present a protocol of personalized script-driven trauma-related imagery and clinical assessments within a comparison design for investigating peritraumatic dissociation (PD), psychophysiological reactions, i.e. heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC), and psychological features of often severely traumatized individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

This protocol offers a detailed description of a psychophysiological experiment using script-driven trauma-related imagery and standardized clinical ...

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Sentence comprehension relies on the ability to rapidly integrate different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information. However, there is currently a paucity of research exploring how preschool children with autism understand sentences using different types of cues. The mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension remains largely unclear. The present study presents a protocol to examine the sentence comprehension abilities of preschool children with autism. More specifically, a visual world paradigm of eye-tracking is used to explore the moment-to-moment sentence comprehension in the children. The paradigm has multiple advantages. First, it is sensitive to the time course of sentence comprehension and thus can provide rich information about how sentence comprehension unfolds over time. Second, it requires minimal task and communication demands, so it is ideal for testing children with autism. To further minimize the computational burden of children, the present study measures eye movements that arise as automatic responses to linguistic input rather than measuring eye movements that accompany conscious responses to spoken instructions.

We present a protocol to examine the use of morphological cues during real-time sentence comprehension by children with autism.

Sentence comprehension relies on the ability to rapidly integrate different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information. However, there is ...

Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies

The confounding factors of unexpectedness and semantic integration difficulty naturally residing in anomalous sentences in language studies make it difficult to determine the underlying processing mechanism of ERP components. Unlike the traditional static approach of manipulating expectancy through corpus frequency or cloze probability, this protocol proposes a dynamic method to enhance participants&#39; expectancy for rarely-met anomalous sentences by multiple repetitions while maintaining their semantic integration difficulties. To address the time cost increase resulting from multiple repetitions, this protocol proposes to repeat only the strictly simplified core structure extracted from the anomalous sentence before presenting the semantically enriched, much more informative complete anomalous sentence containing the anomalous core structure to reinitiate the semantic integration processing. The complete anomalous sentence elicited a P600 effect. It suggests that the participants did not give up processing the anomalous information after repetitions and the same semantic integration difficulty was successfully reinitiated. Importantly, the representative experimental results reveal that the greatly attenuated N400 effect caused by multiple repetitions was not recovered by the follow-up reinitiated semantic integration difficulty. It suggests that the attenuated N400 effect should be mainly attributed to the enhancement of expectancy for anomalous information by multiple repetitions. The experimental results show that this method can effectively enhance participants&#39; expectancy for anomalous sentences while retaining the semantic integration difficulty.

We present a protocol to dissociate the intertwining factors of integrative difficulty and unexpectedness in semantically anomalous sentences by applying multiple repetitions to enhance participant&#39;s expectancy for anomalous sentences. The dissociation helps to investigate the major contributor of elicited event-related potentials (ERP) effects such as N400 in language studies.

The confounding factors of unexpectedness and semantic integration difficulty naturally residing in anomalous sentences in language studies make it ...