Enhancing the perception of social facial cues using non-invasive brain stimulation

这个项目将研究大脑刺激和知觉训练是否有助于提高健康成年人和非典型群体的社会感知能力。即使在最短暂的社会互动中，我们也面临着广泛的社会信号，其中一些通过面部表现出来。我们成功地解释和使用这些信号的能力是我们日常生活中的一个重要特征。近年来，我们在理解大脑机制方面取得了很大进展，这些机制用于我们的一系列社会感知能力(例如，情绪感知、个人感知)。这个项目以此为基础，研究了增加这些大脑区域的神经活动是否可以增强我们的社会感知能力。为此，该项目将使用新的脑刺激技术，称为经颅直流电刺激(Tdcs)和经颅随机噪音刺激(Trns)。这些技术包括在放置在头皮上的两个橡胶垫之间传递小电流(1-2毫安)。当电流在两个垫子之间流动时，它们下面的大脑区域变得更容易兴奋。这使得特定的大脑区域对它所处理的信号更有反应，而且已经表明，如果在某人训练/学习一项新技能(招募被刺激的大脑区域)时给予兴奋性刺激，那么学习/训练的好处就会增强，而且发生得更快。该项目将使用这些类型的大脑刺激，以检查我们是否可以促进人脸识别和面部情感识别。这将包括对典型和非典型群体的研究(例如，发育性面容失认症--个人无法感知他人的面部特征)。该项目还将以最近的研究为基础，使用面部训练范式，通过在训练期间刺激大脑来改善面部认同感和情绪处理能力。根据其他领域的研究结果，有人预测，在涉及每项任务的大脑区域(即个人知觉和情绪知觉)中，增加兴奋性将增强特定的社会知觉技能。将社会知觉训练范式与脑刺激相结合，也有望提高训练效果，持续时间更长。因此，这些发现将为我们深入了解大脑影响我们社会感知能力的机制，并确定我们是否可以影响它们，以促进典型和非典型群体的社会感知能力。

This project will examine whether brain stimulation and perceptual training can help to improve social perception abilities in healthy adults and atypical groups.Even in the most fleeting social interaction, we are confronted with a wide array of social signals several of which are displayed by the face. Our ability to successfully interpret and use these signals is a critical feature of our everyday lives. In recent years we have made large strides in understanding brain mechanisms that we use for a range of our social perception abilities (e.g. emotion perception, person perception). This project builds on this by examining whether increasing neural activity in these brain regions can enhance our social perception abilities. To do this, the project will use novel brain stimulation techniques called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS). These techniques involve a small current (1-2milliamps) being passed between two rubber pads that are placed on the scalp. When current flows between the two pads, the brain area underneath them becomes more excitable. This makes the particular brain area more responsive to signals that it processes and it has been shown that if the excitatory stimulation is given while someone is training / learning a new skill (that recruits the brain area being stimulated) then the benefits of learning / training are enhanced and occur more rapidly. The project will use these types to brain stimulation to examine whether we can facilitate face recognition and facial emotion recognition. This will include studies in typical and atypical groups (e.g. in developmental prosopagnosia - where individuals are unable to perceive the facial identities of other people). The project will also build upon recent studies using face-training paradigms to improve facial identity and emotion processing abilities, by stimulating the brain during training. Based upon findings in other domains, it is predicted that increasing excitability in brain areas shown to be involved in each task (i.e. person perception and emotion perception) will enhance specific social perception skills. It is also expected that pairing social perception training paradigms with brain stimulation will lead to training effects being boosted and lasting longer. The findings will therefore provide insights into the mechanisms of the brain that contribute to our social perception abilities and determine whether we can influence them in order facilitate social perception abilities in typical and atypical groups.