EEG Task Insights: Unraveling Brain Processes

In this series of webinars, Dr Rianne Haartsen delved into the Face ERP task, designed to reveal insights into facial recognition, the Resting State task, where we investigate baseline brain activity to better understand neural networks and connectivity and the Visual Steady State task, an exploration of how the brain responds to rhythmic visual stimuli. 

The Face Event-Related Potentials (ERP) task is a specialized EEG experiment designed to investigate the brain's response to facial stimuli. By analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs), researchers can uncover neural signatures associated with facial recognition and beyond, such as emotional processing, and social cognition.

In this presentation by Dr. Haartsen, we delve into what the Face ERP task measures. For example, the quick deflection of brain potentials in response to facial stimuli, as explored in this task, holds promise for understanding and stratifying autistic individuals based on their experience with face processing, providing a potential marker for social exposure. 

In this second video, we dive into the Resting State task, which feature synchronized audio-visual stimuli that allows to study the brain's background activity during rest, shedding light on its receptiveness to external stimuli, brain's inherent connectivity patterns and its response to sensory input, offering a deeper understanding of how age and experience influence neural dynamics.

In our third video, we cover the Visual Steady State task. While this task has found extensive use in animal studies for measuring sensory gating, its application in humans opens new avenues of research into neural synchronization and the potential imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory neural activity. This task offers a unique window into understanding unbalanced neural synchrony and its implications for neurodevelopmental conditions, promising exciting insights into the complexities of the human brain.