Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.dib.2021.106993

Language：Others   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2021.02.010

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Introduction Subliminal affective priming effects (SAPEs) refer to the phenomenon by which the presentation of an affective prime stimulus influences the subsequent affective evaluation of a target stimulus. Previous studies have reported that unconsciously processed stimuli affect behavioral performance more than consciously processed stimuli. However, the impact of SAPEs on the face-specific N170 component is unclear. We studied how SAPEs for fearful faces affected the N170 for subsequent supraliminal target faces using event-related potentials (ERPs).Methods Japanese adults (n = 44, 20 females) participated in this study. Subliminal prime faces (neutral or fearful) were presented for 17 ms, followed by a backward mask for 283 ms and 800 ms target faces (neutral, emotionally ambiguous, or fearful). 128-channel ERPs were recorded while participants judged the expression of target faces as neutral or fearful. Response rates and response times were also measured for assessing behavioral alterations.Results Although the behavioral results revealed no evidence of SAPEs, we found gender-related SAPEs in right N170 amplitude. Specifically, female participants exhibited enhanced right N170 amplitude for emotionally neutral faces primed by fearful faces, while male participants exhibited decreased N170 amplitude in fearful prime trials with fearful target faces. Male participants exhibited significant correlations between N170 amplitude and behavioral response time in the fearful prime-neutral target condition.Conclusions Our ERP results suggest the existence of a gender difference in target-face processing preceded by subliminally presented face stimuli in the right occipito-temporal region.

DOI： 10.1002/brb3.2060

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.neures.2019.11.006

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

INTRODUCTION: The right fusiform face area (FFA) is important for face recognition, whereas the left visual word fusiform area (VWFA) is critical for word processing. Nevertheless, the early stages of unconscious and conscious face and word processing have not been studied systematically. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To explore hemispheric differences for face and word recognition, we manipulated the visual field (left vs. right) and stimulus duration (subliminal [17 ms] versus supraliminal [300 ms]). We recorded P100 and N170 peaks with high-density ERPs in response to faces/objects or Japanese words/scrambled words in 18 healthy young subjects. RESULTS: Contralateral P100 was larger than ipsilateral P100 for all stimulus types in the supraliminal, but not subliminal condition. The face- and word-N170s were not evoked in the subliminal condition. The N170 amplitude for the supraliminal face stimuli was significantly larger than that for the objects, and right hemispheric specialization was found for face recognition, irrespective of stimulus visual hemifield. Conversely, the supraliminal word-N170 amplitude was not significantly modulated by stimulus type, visual field, or hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that visual awareness is crucial for face and word recognition. Our study using hemifield stimulus presentation further demonstrates the robust right FFA for face recognition but not the left VWFA for word recognition in the Japanese brain.

DOI： 10.1002/brb3.1649

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.134911

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Background: Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can entrain and enhance cortical oscillatory activity in a frequency-dependent manner. In our previous study (Nakazono et al., 2016), 20 Hz (beta) tACS significantly increased excitability of primary motor cortex compared with 10 Hz (alpha) tACS. alpha oscillations are a prominent feature of the primary visual cortex (V1) in a resting electroencephalogram. Hence, we investigated whether alpha and beta tACS can differentially influence multiple visual functions.Methods: Firstly, we evaluated the after-effects of alpha and beta tACS on pattern-reversal (PR) and focal-flash (FF) visual evoked potentials (VEPs). Secondly, we determined the relationship between resting alpha oscillations and PR-VEPs modulated by tACS. Thirdly, the behavioral effects of tACS were assessed by contrast sensitivity.Results: alpha tACS modulated the amplitudes of PR-VEPs, compared with beta tACS, but did not modulate the FF-VEPs. Time-frequency analysis revealed that alpha tACS facilitated event-related alpha phase synchronizations without increasing power, which consequently increased the PR-VEP amplitudes. There was a significant positive correlation between PR-VEP amplitudes and resting alpha oscillations. These findings suggested that alpha tACS modulated alpha oscillations, and affected visual functions of contrast and spatial frequency. Indeed, alpha tACS also improved subjects' contrast sensitivity at the behavioral level. Conversely, beta tACS increased posterior alpha activity, but did not change VEP amplitudes.Conclusions: alpha tACS can influence different neuronal populations from those influenced by beta tACS. Thus, our results provide evidence that alpha tACS sharpens multiple visual functions by modulating alpha oscillations in V1. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc.

DOI： 10.1016/j.brs.2019.10.022

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.10.018

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1016/j.dib.2018.12.053

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.14814/phy2.12387

Event date： 2019.11

Language：Japanese  

Venue：ザ・セレクトン福島／コラッセふくしま   Country：Japan  

Event date： 2023.8

Language：English   Presentation type：Symposium, workshop panel (public)  

Venue：仙台国際センター   Country：Japan  

Event date： 2021.12

Language：Japanese  

Venue：仙台   Country：Japan  

Event date： 2020.6

Language：Japanese  

Venue：横浜   Country：Japan  

Language：Japanese