A neural social oddball signal lateralized to the right hemisphere C Amaral, M Simões, M Castelo-Branco |
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IBILI- Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
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| Visual evoked potential oddball paradigms are in general based on stimuli of relative simplicity. Here we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of complex social cognition using 3D human models as targets of attention. Challenging single trial classification of neural signals was attempted for detection of “social” oddball events. Non-animated stimulus target types were as follows: non-social control oddballs (rotating “balls”), gazing faces, rotating faces. Social target animations included rotating heads and head movement of 1 out of 4 avatars. We found a P300 signal for all stimulus types irrespective of their social complexity as assessed by repeated measures ANOVA. Symmetry analysis showed a specific right lateralization only for realistic social animations. These findings suggest a novel social cognition P300 component. The robustness of this social cognition signal was tested using single trial event classifiers. We obtained a significant balanced accuracy classification of around 79%, which is noteworthy due to social stimulus complexity. In sum, 3D stimuli representing complex ecological social animations elicit a right lateralized neurophysiological correlate of target detection. The fact that meaningful classifications of complex social events can be characterized even at the single trial level opens a potential application to brain computer interfaces in social cognition disorders. |
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