Browsing by Author "Pasion, Rita"
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- Autistic traits and event-related potentials in the general population: A scoping review and meta-analysisPublication . Mazer, Prune; Garcez, Helena; Macedo, Inês; Pasion, Rita; Silveira, Celeste; Sempf, Frederieke; Ferreira-Santos, FernandoDifferences in short and long-latency Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) can help us infer abnormalities in brain processing, considering early and later stages of stimuli processing across tasks and conditions. In autism research, the adult population remains largely understudied compared to samples at early stages of development. In this context, this scoping review briefly summarises what has been described in community and subclinical adult samples of autism. The current scoping review and meta-analysis includes 50 records (N = 1652) and comprehensively explores short and long-latency ERP amplitudes and their relationship with autistic traits in adult community samples. This meta-analysis identified, with small to medium effect sizes, distinctive patterns in late ERP amplitudes, indicating enhanced responses to visual stimuli and the opposite patterns to auditory tasks in the included sample. Additionally, a pattern of higher amplitudes was also found for the component P3b in autistic traits. Differential effects in visual and auditory domains are explored in light of the predictive processing framework for Autism. It remains possible that different brain mechanisms operate to explain symptoms related with different sensory modalities. P3b is discussed as a possible component of interest in future studies as it revealed a more robust effect for differentiating severity in the expression of autistic traits in adulthood
- Cardiac interoceptive processing across psychopathy dimensions: evidence from the heartbeat tapping task and the attentional modulation of heartbeat-evoked potentialsPublication . Campos, Carlos; Sá, Catarina; Mazer, Prune; Pasion, Rita; Garcez, Helena; Paiva, Tiago O.; Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Barbosa, Fernando; Rocha, Nuno; Campos, CarlosPsychopathy is a multidimensional personality structure encompassing interpersonal, affective, and behavioral traits. Interoception (ability to perceive and subjectively experience inner bodily states) may be a putative mechanism underlying the etiological pathways of psychopathy. Individual differences in interoceptive processing across psychopathy dimensions may interfere with the ability to perceive somatic sensations that signal the emotional valence of everyday events. To examine the association between psychopathy dimensions (triarchic phenotypes - boldness, meanness, and disinhibition; classical 4-facets - interpersonal, affective, impulsive, antisocial) and cardiac interoceptive processing, namely objectively measured cardiac interoceptive attention and accuracy. Fifty community-dwelling participants (25 women) were recruited and completed: (a) self-report measures indexing psychopathy, trait-based interoceptive attention and accuracy, and alexithymia; (b) modified Heartbeat Tapping Task to index cardiac interoceptive accuracy, where subjects were required to tap after each heartbeat under rest and breath hold conditions (the latter enhanced the magnitude of cardiac signals); (c) modified Heartbeat Attention Task for producing an attentional modulation of heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) - neuronal markers of cardiac interoceptive processing - where subjects were required to allocate their attention on their heart vs. an exteroceptive stimulus (objective measure of interoceptive attention). Cardiac interoception was only significantly related to boldness traits. Boldness was positively associated with cardiac interoceptive accuracy after the breath hold manipulation (non-significant after controlling for heart rate), despite no significant effects being observed at rest. Boldness was also negatively correlated with the attentional modulation of HEP due to atypical neuronal responses when allocating attentional resources to the heart. The current findings implicate cardiac interoception in the boldness phenotype, as this psychopathy dimension was associated with enhanced interoceptive-specific perceptual sensitivity and atypical neuronal responses to cardiac afferent inputs when attending to heart-related sensations. Future studies should examine how other interoceptive modalities (e.g., respiratory, gastric) are implicated in psychopathy.
- Does attention to cardiac sensations modulate heartbeat-evoked potentials even after controlling for cognitive demands?Publication . Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Vieira, Beatriz; Carina, Fernandes; Barbosa, Fernando; Santos, Fernando Ferreira; Pereira, Mariana R.; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Mazer, Prune; Pasion, Rita; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone; Paiva, Tiago Oliveira; Campos, Carlos; Campos, Carlos; Rocha, Nuno; Mazer, PruneHeartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) have been shown to be modulated by attentional focus (cardiac vs. exteroceptive attention), suggesting that HEP are a neural correlate of interoceptive prediction errors. However, this effect has not been consistently replicated, and differences in cognitive effort when contrasting interoceptive vs. exteroceptive attention may be a confounding factor. We devised a modified Heartbeat Attention Task to examine whether cardiac attention can modulate HEP amplitude even when cognitive demands are matched across interoceptive and exteroceptive conditions. In exteroceptive blocks, subjects were required to count subtle bursts of volume increase embedded within a continuous white noise. The bursts’ volume was individually tailored for each participant (near absolute threshold) and were presented in a rhythmic pattern replicating a typical heart rate. In interoceptive blocks, participants were asked to count their heartbeats, whilst the white noise was still presented, ensuring that the neural effects were driven by the attention shift rather than sensory changes. The task was first completed by 50 participants (25F; 28.44y) during a 9-electrode EEG recording: frontal, central and parietal sites. No significant differences were found regarding counted heartbeats (M=122.00) vs white noise bursts (M=118.86) as well as on perceived attentional efforts (heart M=65.00 vs bursts M=67.00), indicating similar task demands across conditions. No significant differences between conditions were found on HEP amplitude across all electrodes (p > .137 for all), suggesting no attentional modulation of HEP amplitude after accounting for cognitive demands. Due to the reduced number of electrodes, a follow-up sample of 26 participants (13F; 21.73y) completed the task using a new EEG geodesic 64-channel sensor net. This dataset is currently under processing and will allow for a more comprehensive data-driven analytic approach (cluster-based permutation test) to ensure whether the attentional modulation of HEP amplitude is indeed absent when accounting for cognitive demands.
- EEG signatures during pregnancy and their role on parenting-related measures: scoping reviewPublication . Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Amaoui, Sofia; Lamela, Diogo; Jongenelen, Inês; Costa, Raquel; Oliveira, Jorge; Pasion, Rita; Pinto, Tiago Miguel; Paiva, Tiago Oliveira; Campos, Carlos; Campos, CarlosThis scoping review aims to map and synthesise the current research evidence targeting the electroencephalography (EEG) neural correlates during pregnancy and its association with parenting-related measures during pregnancy and postpartum period. Pregnancy is characterised by a wide range of biological changes associated with adaptation to parenthood. A growing body of literature has examined the neural correlates of pregnancy using EEG, revealing distinct patterns in pregnant females, with these EEG metrics changing throughout gestation and postpartum. Due to the heterogeneity of the evidence, the current literature lacks an organised synthesis, making it difficult to understand the neural correlates during pregnancy and their association with parentingrelated measures during pregnancy and postpartum period. Studies will be included if they contain a quantitative EEG metric in their assessment in pregnant women. Studies will be included if they involve clinical or community samples. No sociodemographic, obstetric, or health exclusion criteria will be applied. The scoping review will be conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) guidelines and will be reported following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Searches will be conducted in 7 databases (Cochrane for Trials and Reviews, PsycInfo, PubMed, Psychological and Behavioural Science Collection, Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection) for articles published in English, Portuguese, or Spanish with no limitation on the region or publication time frame. Two independent reviewers will screen each record following a standardised flowchart using asreview lab. Data extraction will be performed by the two reviewers using charting tables in Excel. Disagreements at any step will be resolved via consensus or by a third reviewer. Results will be reported using tables and graphs along with a descriptive analysis, according to the research questions.
- Fostering advances to neuropsychological assessment based on the Research Domain Criteria: The bridge between cognitive functioning and physiologyPublication . Geraldo, Andreia; Azeredo, Andreia; Pasion, Rita; Dores, Artemisa Rocha; Barbosa, FernandoThe current review aimed to explore the advances in neuropsychological assessment in light of a recent research framework designed to improve our knowledge on mental health – the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). RDoC proposals on neuropsychological tests were reviewed across the RDoC cognitive systems domain. The focus is on the physiological unit of analysis and the potential applications are illustrated given the functional relevance of RDoC constructs to psychopathological and neurological conditions. The advances in neuropsychology anchored in RDoC are not observable in terms of innovative paradigms, but rather in the eurobiological correlates that may be obtained from the classical neuropsychological tasks. The behavior unit of analysis may be integrated with physiological outcomes while mapping distinct cognitive constructs simultaneously. Under the aegis of RDoC, the integration of multiple levels of analysis allows to obtain a more detailed and complete neuropsychological characterization with high potential to be translated into better intervention strategies.
- How distinct Autism and Schizotypal trait dimensions influence neural predictive processingPublication . Mazer, Prune; Pasion, Rita; Fontes, Melissa; Pires, Cristiana; Silveira, Celeste; Fernando Ferreira-Santos; Mazer, PruneThe Predictive Processing (PP) framework provides a compelling model for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). In this study, we developed visual and auditory oddball tasks with two levels of target detection difficulty to effectively elicit event-related potential (ERP) components. A total of 122 participants from the community completed these tasks during an EEG recording and self-reports assessing their variations on autistic and schizotypal traits. Results revealed that task difficulty significantly reduced P300 amplitudes across both auditory and visual modalities. Higher Restricted Interests and Detail Orientation autistic traits resulted in enhanced N2 amplitudes in the difficult visual task. Our findings also indicated a trend-level reduction in visual P300 amplitude and modulation of the auditory complex N1-P2 for individuals with higher autistic scores regarding difficulties in communication. For positive schizotypal traits, an unexpected trend-level association with increased auditory P300 amplitude emerged. These findings highlight differential impacts of ASD and SSD dimensions, on predictive processing, with variations observed across sensory modalities, task difficulty, and ERP components. This study advances our understanding of neurophysiological variability in ASD and SSD, supporting dimensional approaches to neurodevelopmental disorders and emphasizing the need for symptom-specific research. Our findings contribute to the growing body of literature on predictive processing in ASD and SSD, suggesting pathways for more refined investigations into the neural variability associated with these traits.
- Neurophysiological markers of cardiac interoceptive processing in expectant parents: a study with heartbeat-evoked potentialsPublication . Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Marshall, Amanda; Lamela, Diogo; Jongenelen, Inês; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Costa, Raquel; Pasion, Rita; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone; Pinto, Tiago Miguel; Feldman, Ruth; Campos, Carlos; Campos, Carlos; Rocha, NunoPregnancy and parenthood are associated with functional and morphological brain changes. Specifically, the parental caregiving network encompasses key structures implicated in interoception, that is, the ability to perceive and subjectively experience inner bodily states. Interoceptive processing may be critical for successful caregiving, allowing parents to integrate perceived changes in their own bodily states with information stemming from their child. Thus, it is feasible to hypothesize that pregnancy-related neurophysiological changes can modify interoception in expectant parents. Objective: To compare neural markers of cortical interoceptive processing (heartbeat-evoked potentials; HEP) between first-time expectant parents (mothers and fathers) and matched non-parents. First-time expectant heterosexual couples at 26-34 weeks gestational age (n = 70) and matched non-parents (n = 140, 70 female) will complete a multilevel interoception assessment protocol. Neural markers of interoception will be indexed by HEP, that is, neurophysiological responses to cardiac afferent inputs which are obtained through electroencephalography recordings (EEG) time-locked to electrocardiography events (ECG). HEP will be recorded while participants complete the Baby Face Repetition Suppression Paradigm in which sad or neutral infant facial expressions are either repeated or alternated in a 500 ms interstimulus interval. This manipulation induces an emotion-specific repetition modulation on HEP amplitude (differential effects for sad vs. neutral facial expressions). A condition with adult facial expressions will be employed to examine domain-general vs. infant-specific effects. Expectant parents will display increased allocation of neural resources to interoceptive inputs (larger repetition-induced HEP modulation) in contrast to non-parents, particularly when considering infant facial expressions. Effect sizes will be larger when contrasting sad vs. neutral infant facial expressions. Findings from this pioneering study will provide further understanding of the parental brain and the role of interoception during pregnancy, contributing to the comprehension of complex processes involved in caregiving and the development of the parent-infant bond.
- Neurophysiological markers of cardiac interoceptive processing in first-time expectant mothersPublication . Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Marshall, Amanda; Lamela, Diogo; Jongenelen, Inês; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Costa, Raquel; Pasion, Rita; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone; Pinto, Tiago Miguel; Feldman, Ruth; Campos, Carlos; Campos, Carlos; Rocha, NunoPregnancy is a complex biological phenomenon where two distinct pathways may produce changes in interoception (ability to perceive and subjectively experience inner bodily states). First, pregnancy modifies the parental caregiving brain network, which includes key regions for interoceptive processing, particularly the insula. Second, pregnancy also changes the strength, frequency, and/or nature of interoceptive signals across different modalities (e.g., cardiac, respiratory, gastric). This study investigates pregnancy-related changes in neural markers of cortical interoceptive processing, specifically heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP), by comparing first-time expectant mothers with non-pregnant, age-matched females. Data were collected from first-time expectant mothers (n = 13; Mage = 32.15 years) and matched controls (n = 8; mean age = 30.88 years) at 28–32 weeks of gestation. EEG recordings, time-locked to R-peaks (ECG), were obtained while participants completed the Infant Face Repetition Suppression Task. This paradigm was designed to induce an emotion (sad vs. neutral) and age-specific (infant vs. adult) modulation of HEP amplitude. A cluster mass permutation test was employed to identify the electrodes and time-windows where HEP amplitude was effectively modulated (right frontal-central; 308 - 600 ms). Repetition-suppression effects on HEP amplitude were observed for adult stimuli (p = .049, d = 0.499), while no modulation was observed in the infant condition (p = .471, d = 0.174). Pregnant participants displayed significantly lower HEP amplitude in adult trials in comparison to non-pregnant controls (p = .046, g = 0.997). Despite significant differences only emerging in the adult trials, pregnant women displayed lower HEP amplitude across all conditions. These findings suggest that pregnancy modifies cardiac interoceptive processing, leading to an overall decrease in HEP amplitude. Contrary to our hypothesis, expectant mothers did not exhibit infant- or emotion-specific changes in neural markers of cardiac interoception.
- Refining the link between psychopathy, antisocial behavior, and empathy: a meta-analytical approach across different conceptual frameworksPublication . Campos, Carlos; Pasion, Rita; Azeredo, Andreia; Eduarda, Ramião; Mazer, Prune; Machado, Inês; Barbosa, FernandoThe current meta-analysis included 431 records (N= 123,414) to comprehensively explore the complex interaction between psychopathy, antisocial behavior, and empathy. First, empathy domains (cognitive and affective) were used to provide critical insights for distinguishing antisocial behavior from psychopathy. Cognitive empathy was more impaired in antisocial groups (gcognitive= -.40; gaffective= -.11), while high psychopathy samples displayed larger deficits in affective empathy (gaffective= -.44; gcognitive= -.23), although this dissociation was not clear in correlational analyses. Secondly, the specific associations between empathy domains and psychopathy dimensions were evaluated. Psychopathy traits closely related to antisocial behavior were mildly associated with both empathy domains (r= -.07 to -.14). Callous-affective traits were largely associated with affective empathy (r= -.32 to -.35) and moderately correlated to cognitive empathy (r= -.26). Diverging results were found for the interpersonal dimension, as boldness-adaptive manifestations were unrelated to cognitive empathy (r= .05), while non-adaptive interpersonal traits were negatively associated with both empathy domains (rcognitive= -.14; raffective= -.25). Overall, these findings suggest that: (1) psychopathy and antisocial behavior display distinct empathic profiles; (2) psychopathy dimensions are differentially associated with cognitive and affective empathy; (3) the interaction between interpersonal traits and empathic processes is different across the conceptual models of psychopathy.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the visual mismatch negativity in schizophreniaPublication . Mazer, Prune; Carneiro, Fabio; Domingo, Juan; Pasion, Rita; Silveira, Celeste; Ferreira-Santos, FernandoMismatch negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential component automatically elicited by events that violate predictions based on prior events. To elicit this component, researchers use stimulus repetition to induce predictions, and the MMN is obtained by subtracting the brain response to rare or unpredicted stimuli from that of frequent stimuli. Under the Predictive Processing framework, one increasingly popular interpretation of the mismatch response postulates that MMN represents a prediction error. In this context, the reduced MMN amplitude to auditory stimuli has been considered a potential biomarker of Schizophrenia, representing a reduced prediction error and the inability to update the mental model of the world based on the sensory signals. It is unclear, however, whether this amplitude reduction is specific for auditory events or if the visual MMN reveals a similar pattern in schizophrenia spectrum disorder. This review and meta-analysis aimed to summarise the available literature on the vMMN in schizophrenia. A systematic literature search resulted in 10 eligible studies that resulted in a combined effect size of g = −.63, CI [−.86, −.41], reflecting lower vMMN amplitudes in patients. These results are in line with the findings in the auditory domain. This component offers certain advantages, such as less susceptibility to overlap with components generated by attentional demands. Future studies should use vMMN to explore abnormalities in the Predictive Processing framework in different stages and groups of the SSD and increase the knowledge in the search for biomarkers in schizophrenia.