EEG correlates of self-recognition in morphed faces: association with social anxiety

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Abstract

Recognizing one’s own face is important for self-identification and is considered an indicator of self-consciousness. Social anxiety is related to special attention to self. The aim was to investigate the oscillatory dynamics associated with self-recognition/non-self-recognition in morphed faces and the correlation with social anxiety in these processes. During EEG recordings with 128 electrodes, 48 volunteers (31 females) recognized themselves in morphed faces. During self-recognition, a greater increase in theta rhythm was revealed in the time interval from 800 to 1500 ms than in the non-self-recognition condition. Based on the data on the relationship of the theta rhythm with attention and memory, it could be assumed that the increase in theta rhythm may be related to memory and attention processes when perceiving details, mismatches, and misrepresentation of one’s own face. Social anxiety was positively related to the magnitude of theta rhythm during self-recognition, it could be related to the increased attention that socially anxious people focus on themselves and distortions of their own face.

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About the authors

A. V. Bocharov

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Author for correspondence.
Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

A. N. Savostyanov

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

A. E. Saprygin

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

S. S. Tamozhnikov

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

P. D. Rudych

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

D. A. Lebedkin

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

N. S. Milakhina

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

E. A. Merkulova

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

G. G. Knyazev

Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine

Email: bocharovav@neuronm.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

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2. Fig. 1. Event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) in time-frequency domain in condition Self and condition Stranger. Warm colors show an increase in spectral power (synchronization) compared to the baseline interval, cool colors show a decrease (desynchronization). Green color shows zero values – there were no changes in spectral power. In the right part of the figure, the brown color shows the frequency-time ranges of statistically significant differences between conditions Self vs Stranger

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3. Fig. 2. Distribution across head electrodes of ERSPs in the Self and Stranger conditions in the theta frequency range (4–7 Hz) and in the time interval from 800 to 1500 ms. The scale shows the gradation of the theta rhythm spectral power increase from cool colors to warm colors. In the right part of the figure, electrodes are highlighted by red colour where significant differences were observed between the conditions of Self vs Stranger

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4. Fig. 3. Correlations of the Social Anxiety scale and ERSPs after presentation of morphed faces in Self condition. Positive correlation coefficients are shown in warm color and negative correlation coefficients are shown in cold color. Non-significant correlation coefficients are shown in green. 0 corresponds to the onset of presentation of the morphed face image. The cortical maps at the top of the figure show the distribution of significant correlation coefficients by electrodes

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