Influence of affective verbal context on emotional facial expression perception of social anxiety

Does outcome feedback similarly impact the processing of surprised faces in competitive and cooperative contexts? Evidence from ERP

Competition and cooperation are pervasive across diverse domains of human society, and outcome feedback in these contexts has been shown to significantly influence human emotional responses and behavioral strategies. However, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms through which outcome feedback in obstructive and supportive settings affects the perception of facial expressions of interactors. To address this issue, thirty-seven participants in this event-related potential (ERP) study completed a modified version of the Tetris game with randomly assigned interactors (cooperative supporter, competitive hinderer). After receiving outcome feedback (correct, incorrect), participants were asked to rate the valence of surprised faces which were assumed to be displayed by interactors. Behaviorally, surprised faces in supportive correct feedback contexts were rated as more pleasant, while those in obstructive correct feedback contexts were rated as less pleasant. The ERP results showed a significant main effect of outcome feedback on the FRN and LPPfeedback, with enhanced amplitudes for incorrect relative to correct trials. More importantly, face-related P1, N170, and EPN components showed significant interactions between interaction type and outcome feedback. Surprised faces in obstructive correct contexts evoked larger P1 amplitudes compared to those faces in obstructive incorrect contexts. Conversely, amplified N170 and EPN responses were observed for faces in supportive correct contexts compared to those in supportive incorrect contexts. For the LPPface, an amplified response to faces was observed in correct feedback contexts compared to incorrect ones, irrespective of the influence of interaction type. Altogether, these findings offer the first empirical evidence that feedback cues in obstructive and supportive contexts can interactively influence the top-down processing of facial expressions, shifting attention away from the suppression of aversive stimuli towards a focus on self-related positive information, thus providing insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the impact of complex social information on higher-order cognitive processes.

Social anxiety prediction based on ERP features: A deep learning approach

BACKGROUND

Social Anxiety Disorder is traditionally diagnosed using subjective scales that may lack accuracy. Recently, EEG technology has gained importance for anxiety detection due to its ability to capture stable and objective neurophysiological activities. However, existing methods mainly focus on extracting EEG features during resting states, with limited use of psychologically features like Event-Related Potential (ERP) in task-related states for anxiety detection in deep learning frameworks.

METHODS

We collected EEG data from 63 participants exposed to four facial expressions and extracted task-relevant features. Using the EEGNet model, we predicted social anxiety and evaluated its performance using metrics such as accuracy, F1 score, sensitivity, and specificity. We compared EEGNet's performance with Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DeepConvNet), ShallowConvNet, Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM), and SVM. To assess the generalizability of the results, we carried out the same procedure on our prior dataset.

RESULTS

EEGNet outperformed other models, achieving 99.16 % accuracy with Late Positive Potential (LPP). ERP components yielded higher accuracy than time-domain and frequency-domain features for social anxiety recognition. Accuracy was better for neutral and negative facial stimuli. Consistency across two datasets indicates stability of findings.

LIMITATIONS

Due to limited publicly available task-state datasets, only our own were used. Future studies could assess generalizability on larger datasets from different sources.

CONCLUSIONS

We conducted the first test of ERP features in anxiety recognition tasks. Results show ERP features have greater potential in social anxiety recognition, with LPP exhibiting high stability and accuracy. Outcomes indicate recognizing social anxiety with negative or neutral facial stimuli is more useful.

Research hotspots and trends of neuroimaging in social anxiety: a CiteSpace bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science and Scopus database

Background

This study focused on the research hotspots and development trends of the neuroimaging of social anxiety (SA) in the past 25 years.

Methods

We selected 1,305 studies on SA neuroimaging from the Web of Science and Scopus from January 1998 to December 2023. CiteSpace was used to analyze the number of published articles visually, cited references, cooperation among authors and institutions, co-occurrence of keywords, clustering of keywords, burst of keywords, and time zone of co-occurring keywords.

Results

A total of 1,305 articles were included, and the annual number of articles published over nearly 25 years showed the overall trend is on the rise. The analysis of author and institutional collaboration reveals that most authors collaborate closely. Among them, the team led by Pine, Daniel S published 59 articles, making it the most central team. Harvard University is identified as the most central institution in this network. The research hotspots can be categorized into four areas: research techniques, cognitive processing research areas, core brain regions and brain networks, and the neural predictors of treatment outcomes in SA. The most recent burst keywords are "cognitive behavioral therapy," "systematic review," "machine learning," "major clinical study," "transcranial direct current stimulation," "depression," and "outcome assessment," which provided clues on research frontiers. Based on the burst map and keyword time zone map, it appears that exploring the activity of brain regions involved in cognitive processing, such as face processing and attentional bias, as well as the comorbidity of SA and depression, through brain imaging technology, using brain signals as predictors of treatment outcomes in SA.

Conclusion

This study conducted a comprehensive, objective, and visual analysis of publications, and revealed hot topics and trends concerning the study of the brain mechanism of SA from 1998 to 2023. This work might assist researchers in identifying new insights on potential collaborators and institutions, hot topics, and research directions.

Emotional Evaluations from Partners and Opponents Differentially Influence the Perception of Ambiguous Faces

The influence of contextual valence and interpersonal distance on facial expression perception remains unclear despite their significant role in shaping social perceptions. In this event-related potential (ERP) study, we investigated the temporal dynamics underlying the processing of surprised faces across different interpersonal distances (partner, opponent, or stranger) and contextual valence (positive, neutral, or negative) contexts. Thirty-five participants rated the valence of surprised faces. An advanced mass univariate statistical approach was utilized to analyze the ERP data. Behaviorally, surprised faces in partner-related negative contexts were rated more negatively than those in opponent- and stranger-related contexts. The ERP results revealed an increased P1 amplitude for surprised faces in negative relative to neutral contexts. Both the early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potentials (LPP) were also modulated by contextual valence, with larger amplitudes for faces in positive relative to neutral and negative contexts. Additionally, when compared to stranger-related contexts, faces in partner-related contexts exhibited enhanced P1 and EPN responses, while those in opponent-related contexts showed amplified LPP responses. Taken together, these findings elucidate the modulation of intricate social contexts on the perception and interpretation of ambiguous facial expressions, thereby enhancing our understanding of nonverbal communication and emotional cognition.

Event-related alpha power in early stage of facial expression processing in social anxiety: Influence of language context

Accurate interpretation of the emotional information conveyed by others' facial expressions is crucial for social interactions. Event-related alpha power, measured by time-frequency analysis, is a frequently used EEG index of emotional information processing. However, it is still unclear how event-related alpha power varies in emotional information processing in social anxiety groups. In the present study, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants from the social anxiety and healthy control groups viewed facial expressions (angry, happy, neutral) preceded by contextual sentences conveying either a positive or negative evaluation of the subject. The impact of context on facial expression processing in both groups of participants was explored by assessing behavioral ratings and event-related alpha power (0-200 ms after expression presentation). In comparison to the healthy control group, the social anxiety group exhibited significantly lower occipital alpha power in response to angry facial expressions in negative contexts and neutral facial expressions in positive contexts. The influence of language context on facial expression processing in individuals with social anxiety may occur at an early stage of processing.