Electro-cortical correlates of multisensory integration using ecologically valid emotional stimuli: Differential effects for fear and disgust

M E Stefanou; Neil M Dundon; P E G Bestelmeyer; K Koldewyn; C W N Saville; C Fleischhaker; B Feige; M Biscaldi; N Smyrnis; C Klein

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.01.011

Electro-cortical correlates of multisensory integration using ecologically valid emotional stimuli: Differential effects for fear and disgust

Biol Psychol. 2019 Mar:142:132-139. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.01.011. Epub 2019 Jan 24.

Authors

M E Stefanou¹, Neil M Dundon², P E G Bestelmeyer³, K Koldewyn³, C W N Saville³, C Fleischhaker¹, B Feige⁴, M Biscaldi¹, N Smyrnis⁵, C Klein⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany.
² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany; Brain Imaging Center, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
³ School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece.
⁶ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: christoph.klein.kjp@uniklinik-freiburg.de.

PMID: 30685414
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.01.011

Abstract

Multisensory integration (MSI) is crucial for human communication and social interaction and has been investigated in healthy populations and neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the use of stimuli with high ecological validity is sparse, especially in event-related potential (ERP) studies. The present study examined the ERP correlates of MSI in healthy adults using short (500 ms) ecologically valid professional actor-produced emotions of fear or disgust as vocal exclamation or facial expression (unimodal conditions) or both (bimodal condition). Behaviourally, our results show a general visual dominance effect (similarly fast responses following bimodal and visual stimuli) and an MSI-related speedup of responses only for fear. Electrophysiologically, both P100 and N170 showed MSI-related amplitude increases only following fear, but not disgust stimuli. Our results show for the first time that the known differential neural processing of fear and disgust also holds for the integration of dynamic auditory and visual information.

Keywords: Emotional dynamic stimuli; Event related potentials (ERPs); Miller’s race model inequality; Multisensory integration (MSI).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acoustic Stimulation / methods
Adult
Disgust*
Ecological and Environmental Phenomena
Emotions / physiology
Evoked Potentials / physiology*
Facial Expression
Fear / physiology*
Female
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Male
Patient Simulation
Photic Stimulation / methods
Reaction Time
Signal Detection, Psychological / physiology*
Voice
Young Adult