[Changes in face expression recognition caused by additional visual-spatial load].

Changes in face expression recognition and EEG synchronization arising from additional load on working memory were studied in healthy adults. Two types of additional task--semantic and visuospatial--were used to load working memory in an experiment with a visual set, formed to facial stimuli. During perception of new facial stimuli, both these types of additional task caused an increase of erroneous face expression recognitions in the form of assimilative illusions. Alpha-band (8-10 Hz) EEG synchronization analysis revealed that additional memory load causes a decrease of frontal attention system input in set-forming and set-shifting. As for theta-band (4-7 Hz) synchronization, it changed ambiguously at additional memory load--in right fronto-temporal region coherence function decreased; other coherence connections, especially intra-hemispheric and in the left hemisphere, increased. At issue is the crucial role of fronto-thalamic and cortico-hippocampal systems in plasticity of visual sets formed to facial expressions.