Attentional Bias Among Individual With Neglect In Childhood: Event-related Potentials Research

Background Neglect may have short-term or long-term adverse effects on the children’s cognition, social emotions and behaviors and development etc. Currently, the domestic researches on neglect mainly focused on neglect and resilience, isolation and the behaviors induced by them. Seldom of the researches have done a follow-up study on the individual having been neglected in childhood and have deeply investigated the influencing mechanism of neglect on cognition, such as, individual attention and memory etc. The cognitive research on individual attention, memory etc was of great significance to the behavioral regulation and intervention of the individual having been neglected in childhood.Objective This research is to explore the neural mechanism of attentional bias using cues of different kinds and pictures of different emotional valence from perspectives of ethlogy and electrophysiology with the help of ERP. In this research, the emotional face pictures are taken as experimental materials, and the individual having been neglected in childhood are participants. This research further analyzes the correlation between the behaviors of the individual having been neglected in childhood and the ERP data. Meanwhile, this research analyzes the correlation between the individual of different neglect level and different ERP elements of the individual from the perspective of electrophysiology.Methods The participants of this research were 40 students volunteered to take part in the experience. They were selected out by the Child Neglect Scale (CNS). The participants were divided into two groups:the experimental group and the control group. There were 20 students (11 boys) in the experimental group with an average CNS score of 46.35±3.345. There were also 20 students in the control group (7boys). In the control group, the positive, negative and neutral face pictures were taken as experimental materials programmed by Eprim2.0 and the space cuing tasks were designed to get the behavioral data and the EEG data of two groups of participants with help of ERP. The average amplitude data of PI, N1, and P300 of participants with invalid cues of positive, negative and neutral face pictures were got through analysis by Neuroscan4.5. The CNS score, behavioral data and EEG data of participants were statistically analyzed with SPSS 18.0. Data of reaction time and EEG data were analyzed with the analysis of the variance of repeated measurement of three factors. Data of reaction time under different conditions and different ERP elements were analyzed. Meanwhile, the CNS score of the participants and the average amplitude data of P1,N1, and P300 under different conditions were analyzed.Results1. Behavioral data resultsThe analysis of variance of repeated measurement of three factors was performed, taking the type of participants (neglect level:high and low), the type of cues (valid and invalid), and the type of emotional face pictures (positive, neutral and negative) as independent variable and the reaction time of participants as dependent variable. The results showed that the main effect of the type of cues is obvious (F (1,38)=182.31, P<0.001); The reaction time under valid cues (372.89±7.59) was superior than that under invalid cues (440.03±8.38); The main effect between participants was not obvious (F(1,38)=0.188, P=0.84). The main effect between different emotional face pictures was not obvious (F(2, 38)=0.06, P=0.94). The interaction effect did not appear.2. ERP resultsAnalysis of variance of was performed to the average amplitude of PI. The result was: The main effect of the type of participants was not obvious (F(1,38)=0.559,P=0.46).The main effect of the type of cues was not obvious (F(1,38)=0.324, P=0.57). The main effect of the type of emotional face pictures was obvious (F(2,38)=3.348, P=0.04). Further analysis showed that the difference between negative emotional face pictures and positive emotional face pictures was obvious (P=0.012); The difference between negative emotional face pictures and neutral emotional face pictures was nearly obvious (P=0.084); The difference between positive emotional face pictures and neutral emotional face pictures was not obvious (P=0.72). Compared to the positive (,P=0.012) and neutral emotional face pictures (P=0.084), the negative emotional face pictures induce larger amplitude of P1. Other main effects and interaction effects did not appear (Fs< 1, Ps>0.05).Analysis of variance of was performed to the average amplitude of N1. The result was: The main effect of the type of participants was obvious (F(1,38)=5.178, P=0.029). Further paired comparison showed that participants in the experimental group induced larger amplitude of N1 than those in the control group. The main effect of the type of cues was obvious (F (1,38)=6.131, P=0.018). Further paired comparison showed that invalid cues induced larger amplitude of N1 than valid cues. The main effect of the type of emotional face pictures was obvious (F(2,38)=4.091, P=0.021). Further multiple comparison showed that the difference between negative emotional face pictures and positive emotional face pictures was obvious (P=0.006); The difference between negative emotional face pictures and neutral emotional face pictures was not obvious (P=0.16); The difference between positive emotional face pictures and neutral emotional face pictures was not obvious (P> 0.05). Negative emotional face pictures induced smaller amplitude of N1 than positive emotional face pictures. Other interaction effects did not appear (Fs< 1, Ps>0.05).Analysis of variance of was performed to the average amplitude of P300. The result showed that the main effect of the type of participants was obvious (F (1,38)=11.664, P=0.002). Further paired comparison showed that participants in the experimental group induced smaller amplitude of P300 than those in the control group. Other main effects and interaction effects did not appear (Fs< 1, Ps>0.05).3. Correlation analysis to the behavioral data and ERP data of participants in the experimental groupThe Pearson correlation analysis was performed to the reaction time and the amplitude of different ERP elements of participants in the experimental group. The result was:With invalid cues, to P1, there was an obvious positive correlation between the reaction time of the positive emotional face pictures and the amplitude (r=0.47, P< 0.05). There was an obvious positive correlation between the reaction time of the negative emotional face pictures and the amplitude of the participants in the experimental group (r=0.52, P<0.05). There was no obvious correlation between the reaction time of the neutral emotional face pictures and the amplitude of the participants in the experimental group (r=0.34,P>0.05). To N1, there was a nearly obvious correlation between the reaction time of the negative emotional face pictures and the amplitude of the participants in the experimental group (r=0.43, P=0.06). There was no obvious correlation between the reaction time of the positive and the neutral emotional face pictures and the amplitude (P>0.05). To P300, there was an obvious positive correlation between the reaction time of the positive emotional face pictures and the amplitude(r=-0.59, P<0.01). There was an obvious positive correlation between the reaction time of the negative emotional face pictures and the amplitude of the participants in the experimental group(r=0.68,P<0.01). There was an obvious correlation between the reaction time of the neutral emotional face pictures and the amplitude of the participants in the experimental group(r=0.78, P<0.001).To the different elements of the control group, there were no obvious correlation between the reaction time of the positive, negative and neutral emotional face pictures and the amplitudes.4. Correlation analysis to neglect level and EEG data of participantsThe Pearson correlation analysis was performed to the CNS score of the participants and the amplitudes of different ERP elements. The results was:With invalid cues, to P300, there was an obvious negative correlation between the CNS score with positive emotional face pictures and the amplitude of P300 (r=-0.36, P<0.05); there was an obvious negative correlation between the CNS score with negative emotional face pictures and the amplitude of P300 (r=-0.36, P<0.05). And there was a nearly obvious correlation between the CNS score with neutral emotional face pictures and the amplitude of P300 (r=-0.28, P=0.08).Conclusions1. The effect of emotional information on the individual reflects mainly at the early stage of the cognition process. Attentional bias of the individual to negative emotions exists and it may need more attention resources to handle negative emotions.2. Compared to common human beings, the ability of the brain to mobilize resources declines when the individual having been neglected in childhood carry out attention tasks. It shows that the impairment of cognition function may accompany the individual with neglect.3. Emotions of valence may have affective priming effect at the early stage of the cognitive process of the individual having been neglected in childhood.4. The higher the neglect level, the less cognitive resources the brain can mobilize in the information processing when the individual carry out cognitive tasks.