Browsing by Author "Kausel, Leonie"

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    A Multimodal Interface for Speech Perception: the role of the Left Superior Temporal Sulcus in Social Cognition and Autism
    (2024) Kausel, Leonie; Michon, Maëva; Soto Icaza, Patricia; Aboitiz Domínguez, Francisco Javier
    Multimodal integration is crucial for human interaction, in particular for social communication, which relies on integrating information from various sensory modalities. Recently a third visual pathway specialized in social perception was proposed, which includes the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) playing a key role in processing socially relevant cues and high-level social perception. Importantly, it has also recently been proposed that the left STS contributes to audiovisual integration of speech processing. In this article, we propose that brain areas along the right STS that support multimodal integration for social perception and cognition can be considered homologs to those in the left, language-dominant hemisphere, sustaining multimodal integration of speech and semantic concepts fundamental for social communication. Emphasizing the significance of the left STS in multimodal integration and associated processes such as multimodal attention to socially relevant stimuli, we underscore its potential relevance in comprehending neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by challenges in social communication such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Further research into this left lateral processing stream holds the promise of enhancing our understanding of social communication in both typical development and ASD, which may lead to more effective interventions that could improve the quality of life for individuals with atypical neurodevelopment.
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    Learning emotional dialects: A British population study of cross-cultural communication
    (2023) Tsikandilakis, Myron; Bali, Persefoni; Lanfranco, Renzo C.; Kausel, Leonie; Yu, Zhaoliang; Boncompte, Gonzalo; Karlis, Alexandros-Konstantinos; Alshammari, Alkadi; Li, Ruiyi; Milbank, Alison; Burdett, Michael; Mevel, Pierre-Alexis; Madan, Christopher; Derrfuss, Jan
    The aim of the current research was to explore whether we can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional faces in British participants. We tested several methods for improving the recognition of freely-expressed emotional faces, such as different methods for presenting other-culture expressions of emotion from individuals from Chile, New Zealand and Singapore in two experimental stages. In the first experimental stage, in phase one, participants were asked to identify the emotion of cross-cultural freely-expressed faces. In the second phase, different cohorts were presented with interactive side-by-side, back-to-back and dynamic morphing of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional faces, and control conditions. In the final phase, we repeated phase one using novel stimuli. We found that all non-control conditions led to recognition improvements. Morphing was the most effective condition for improving the recognition of cross-cultural emotional faces. In the second experimental stage, we presented morphing to different cohorts including own-to-other and other-to-own freely-expressed cross-cultural emotional faces and neutral-to-emotional and emotional-to-neutral other-culture freely-expressed emotional faces. All conditions led to recognition improvements and the presentation of freely-expressed own-to-other cultural-emotional faces provided the most effective learning. These findings suggest that training can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional expressions.
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    Oscillatory activity underlying cognitive performance in children and adolescents with autism: a systematic review
    (2024) Soto-Icaza, Patricia; Soto-Fernandez, Patricio; Kausel, Leonie; Marquez-Rodriguez, Victor; Carvajal-Paredes, Patricio; Martinez-Molina, Maria Paz; Figueroa-Vargas, Alejandra; Billeke, Pablo
    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that exhibits a widely heterogeneous range of social and cognitive symptoms. This feature has challenged a broad comprehension of this neurodevelopmental disorder and therapeutic efforts to address its difficulties. Current therapeutic strategies have focused primarily on treating behavioral symptoms rather than on brain psychophysiology. During the past years, the emergence of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (NIBS) has opened alternatives to the design of potential combined treatments focused on the neurophysiopathology of neuropsychiatric disorders like ASD. Such interventions require identifying the key brain mechanisms underlying the symptomatology and cognitive features. Evidence has shown alterations in oscillatory features of the neural ensembles associated with cognitive functions in ASD. In this line, we elaborated a systematic revision of the evidence of alterations in brain oscillations that underlie key cognitive processes that have been shown to be affected in ASD during childhood and adolescence, namely, social cognition, attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. This knowledge could contribute to developing therapies based on NIBS to improve these processes in populations with ASD.
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    Patients recovering from COVID-19 who presented with anosmia during their acute episode have behavioral, functional, and structural brain alterations
    (2024) Kausel, Leonie; Figueroa-Vargas, Alejandra; Zamorano, Francisco; Stecher, Ximena; Aspe-Sanchez, Mauricio; Carvajal-Paredes, Patricio; Marquez-Rodriguez, Victor; Martinez-Molina, Maria Paz; Roman, Claudio; Soto-Fernandez, Patricio; Valdebenito-Oyarzo, Gabriela; Manterola, Carla; Uribe-San-Martin, Reinaldo; Silva, Claudio; Henriquez-Ch, Rodrigo; Aboitiz, Francisco; Polania, Rafael; Guevara, Pamela; Munoz-Venturelli, Paula; Soto-Icaza, Patricia; Billeke, Pablo
    Patients recovering from COVID-19 commonly exhibit cognitive and brain alterations, yet the specific neuropathological mechanisms and risk factors underlying these alterations remain elusive. Given the significant global incidence of COVID-19, identifying factors that can distinguish individuals at risk of developing brain alterations is crucial for prioritizing follow-up care. Here, we report findings from a sample of patients consisting of 73 adults with a mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection without signs of respiratory failure and 27 with infections attributed to other agents and no history of COVID-19. The participants underwent cognitive screening, a decision-making task, and MRI evaluations. We assessed for the presence of anosmia and the requirement for hospitalization. Groups did not differ in age or cognitive performance. Patients who presented with anosmia exhibited more impulsive alternative changes after a shift in probabilities (r = - 0.26, p = 0.001), while patients who required hospitalization showed more perseverative choices (r = 0.25, p = 0.003). Anosmia correlated with brain measures, including decreased functional activity during the decision-making task, thinning of cortical thickness in parietal regions, and loss of white matter integrity. Hence, anosmia could be a factor to be considered when identifying at-risk populations for follow-up.
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    "There Is No (Where a) Face Like Home": Recognition and Appraisal Responses to Masked Facial Dialects of Emotion in Four Different National Cultures
    (2021) Tsikandilakis, Myron; Yu, Zhaoliang; Kausel, Leonie; Boncompte, Gonzalo; Lanfranco, Renzo C.; Oxner, Matt; Bali, Persefoni; Urale Leong, Poutasi; Qing, Man; Paterakis, George; Caci, Salvatore; Milbank, Alison; Mevel, Pierre-Alexis; Carmel, David; Madan, Christopher; Derrfuss, Jan; Chapman, Peter
    The theory of universal emotions suggests that certain emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise and happiness can be encountered cross-culturally. These emotions are expressed using specific facial movements that enable human communication. More recently, theoretical and empirical models have been used to propose that universal emotions could be expressed via discretely different facial movements in different cultures due to the non-convergent social evolution that takes place in different geographical areas. This has prompted the consideration that own-culture emotional faces have distinct evolutionary important sociobiological value and can be processed automatically, and without conscious awareness. In this paper, we tested this hypothesis using backward masking. We showed, in two different experiments per country of origin, to participants in Britain, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, backward masked own and other-culture emotional faces. We assessed detection and recognition performance, and self-reports for emotionality and familiarity. We presented thorough cross-cultural experimental evidence that when using Bayesian assessment of non-parametric receiver operating characteristics and hit-versus-miss detection and recognition response analyses, masked faces showing own cultural dialects of emotion were rated higher for emotionality and familiarity compared to other-culture emotional faces and that this effect involved conscious awareness.
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    Theta and alpha oscillations may underlie improved attention and working memory in musically trained children
    (2024) Kausel, Leonie; Zamorano, F.; Billeke, P.; Sutherland, M. E.; Alliende, M. I.; Larrain-Valenzuela, J.; Soto-Icaza, P.; Aboitiz, F.
    Introduction: Attention and working memory are key cognitive functions that allow us to select and maintain information in our mind for a short time, being essential for our daily life and, in particular, for learning and academic performance. It has been shown that musical training can improve working memory performance, but it is still unclear if and how the neural mechanisms of working memory and particularly attention are implicated in this process. In this work, we aimed to identify the oscillatory signature of bimodal attention and working memory that contributes to improved working memory in musically trained children.Materials and methods: We recruited children with and without musical training and asked them to complete a bimodal (auditory/visual) attention and working memory task, whereas their brain activity was measured using electroencephalography. Behavioral, time-frequency, and source reconstruction analyses were made.Results: Results showed that, overall, musically trained children performed better on the task than children without musical training. When comparing musically trained children with children without musical training, we found modulations in the alpha band pre-stimuli onset and the beginning of stimuli onset in the frontal and parietal regions. These correlated with correct responses to the attended modality. Moreover, during the end phase of stimuli presentation, we found modulations correlating with correct responses independent of attention condition in the theta and alpha bands, in the left frontal and right parietal regions.Conclusions: These results suggest that musically trained children have improved neuronal mechanisms for both attention allocation and memory encoding. Our results can be important for developing interventions for people with attention and working memory difficulties.