1
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Li S, Zhang Y, Li H, Hao B, He W, Luo W. Is processing superiority a universal trait for all threats? Divergent impacts of fearful, angry, and disgusted faces on attentional capture. Cortex 2024; 177:37-52. [PMID: 38833819 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024]
Abstract
Fearful, angry, and disgusted facial expressions are evolutionarily salient and convey different types of threat signals. However, it remains unclear whether these three expressions impact sensory perception and attention in the same way. The present ERP study investigated the temporal dynamics underlying the processing of different types of threatening faces and the impact of attentional resources employed during a perceptual load task. Participants were asked to judge the length of bars superimposed over faces presented in the center of the screen. A mass univariate statistical approach was used to analyze the EEG data. Behaviorally, task accuracy was significantly reduced following exposure to fearful faces relative to neutral distractors, independent of perceptual load. The ERP results revealed that the P1 amplitude over the right hemisphere was found to be enhanced for fearful relative to disgusted faces, reflecting the rapid and coarse detection of fearful cues. The N170 responses elicited by fearful, angry, and disgusted faces were larger than those elicited by neutral faces, suggesting the largely automatic and preferential processing of threats. Furthermore, the early posterior negativity (EPN) component yielded increased responses to fearful and angry faces, indicating prioritized attention to stimuli representing acute threats. Additionally, perceptual load exerted a pronounced influence on the EPN and late positive potential (LPP), with larger responses observed in the low perceptual load condition, indicating goal-directed cognitive processing. Overall, the early sensory processing of fearful, angry, and disgusted faces is characterized by differential sensitivity in capturing attention automatically, despite the importance of these facial signals for survival. Fearful faces produce a strong interference effect and are processed with higher priority than angry and disgusted ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuaixia Li
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China
| | - Yihan Zhang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China
| | - Hui Li
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China
| | - Bin Hao
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China
| | - Weiqi He
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China.
| | - Wenbo Luo
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China.
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2
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Fischer-Jbali LR, Alacreu A, Galvez-Sánchez CM, Montoro CI. Measurement of event-related potentials from electroencephalography to evaluate emotional processing in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Psychophysiol 2024; 198:112327. [PMID: 38447702 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2024.112327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The present systematic review and meta-analysis intended to: 1) determine the extent of abnormalities in emotional processing linked to emotional event-related potentials (ERPs) in Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and 2) integrate data from similar emotional tasks into a meta-analysis to clearly demonstrate the scientific and clinical value of measuring emotional ERPs by electroencephalography (EEG) in FMS. METHODS A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing emotional processing indicated by ERPs in FMS patients and healthy controls was conducted. Fifteen articles were included in the systematic review after applying the eligibility criteria. RESULTS Nine articles demonstrated disturbances in emotional processing in FMS. These emotional disturbances were distributed over the whole range of ERP latencies, mainly over central, parietal, temporal and occipital areas. Despite of this, quantitative analysis revealed only significant differences in N250 and LPP/LPC between FMS patients and healthy controls, with smaller LPP/LPC and greater N250 seen in FMS. DISCUSSION N250 and LPP/LPC seem to be the ERPs with the greatest potential to determine emotional alterations in FMS. These ERPs are related to complex cognitive processes such as decoding features relevant to affect recognition (N250) as well differentiation between emotions, persistent engagement, conflict resolution or evaluation of emotional intensity (LPC/LPP). However, differences in task setup had an important impact on the variation of ERP outcomes. Systematization of protocols and tasks is indispensable for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- L R Fischer-Jbali
- University of Innsbruck, Department of Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - A Alacreu
- University of Zaragoza, Department of Psychology, Zaragoza, Spain.
| | | | - C I Montoro
- University of Jaén, Department of Psychology, Jaén, Spain.
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3
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Zhang P, Song Y, Tadesse E, Khalid S, Gao C, Li W. An EPR study of the cognitive processes underlying the impact of self-relevant information on emotional word processing. BMC Psychol 2024; 12:90. [PMID: 38389094 PMCID: PMC10885381 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-01586-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique, this study successively presented names (in either a supra- or subthreshold manner) and emotional words to examine how self-relevant cue (self-name) affects emotional word processing in word class judgment task (to determine whether an emotional word is a noun or adjective) and valence judgment task (to determine whether an emotional word is positive or negative). At the suprathreshold condition, self-relevant positive words elicited a more significant Early posterior negativity (EPN) than negative words only in the valence judgment task. In contrast, at the subthreshold condition, self-relevant negative words elicited an enhanced Late positive potential (LPP) than positive words only in the word class judgment task. These results indicate that self-relevant cue affects emotional word processing at both suprathreshold and subthreshold conditions; nevertheless, the effect manifests as self-positive bias at the suprathreshold condition and self-negative bias at the subthreshold condition. The experimental task modulates these dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ping Zhang
- Shanghai Urban Construction Vocational College, Shanghai, China
| | - Yidan Song
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Endale Tadesse
- Faculty of Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
| | - Sabika Khalid
- Faculty of Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
| | - Chunhai Gao
- Faculty of Education, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Weijun Li
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
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4
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Zheng R, Zhang M, Guo T, Guasch M, Ferré P. Emotional Prototypicality Ratings for 636 Chinese Words: A Database of Chinese Words with Affective Information. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2023; 52:2775-2792. [PMID: 37740090 PMCID: PMC10703967 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-10018-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/06/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023]
Abstract
Exemplars of concepts vary in their degree of prototypicality. This is also true for emotion concepts. This study presents prototypicality ratings for a large set of Chinese words. The database contains 636 potential Chinese emotion words (i.e., words that directly express particular emotions, like " happy" and " sad"), from different grammatical categories. Native Chinese speakers rated the words in terms of emotional prototypicality. The database also contains values for valence, arousal, and emotionality. The analyses of the ratings revealed that 502 out of 636 words had a high prototypicality value (value equal to or above three on a 1-to-5 scale), the most prototypical words being negative and high-arousal words. The analyses also indicated that the emotional prototypicality of a word was positively related to both arousal and emotionality, and negatively related to valence. Among these variables, arousal was the most important contributor. Similar results have been found in studies conducted in other languages. This will be a useful resource for researchers interested in studying emotion words in the Chinese language and for those interested in cross-linguistic comparisons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiyao Zheng
- Department of Psychology and CRAMC, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carretera de Valls, s.n., 43007, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Meng Zhang
- School of English Studies, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing, China
| | - Taomei Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Marc Guasch
- Department of Psychology and CRAMC, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carretera de Valls, s.n., 43007, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Pilar Ferré
- Department of Psychology and CRAMC, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carretera de Valls, s.n., 43007, Tarragona, Spain.
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5
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Itier RJ, Durston AJ. Mass-univariate analysis of scalp ERPs reveals large effects of gaze fixation location during face processing that only weakly interact with face emotional expression. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17022. [PMID: 37813928 PMCID: PMC10562468 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44355-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/06/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Decoding others' facial expressions is critical for social functioning. To clarify the neural correlates of expression perception depending on where we look on the face, three combined gaze-contingent ERP experiments were analyzed using robust mass-univariate statistics. Regardless of task, fixation location impacted face processing from 50 to 350 ms, maximally around 120 ms, reflecting retinotopic mapping around C2 and P1 components. Fixation location also impacted majorly the N170-P2 interval while weak effects were seen at the face-sensitive N170 peak. Results question the widespread assumption that faces are processed holistically into an indecomposable perceptual whole around the N170. Rather, face processing is a complex and view-dependent process that continues well beyond the N170. Expression and fixation location interacted weakly during the P1-N170 interval, supporting a role for the mouth and left eye in fearful and happy expression decoding. Expression effects were weakest at the N170 peak but strongest around P2, especially for fear, reflecting task-independent affective processing. Results suggest N170 reflects a transition between processes rather than the maximum of a holistic face processing stage. Focus on this peak should be replaced by data-driven analyses of the epoch using robust statistics to fully unravel the early visual processing of faces and their affective content.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roxane J Itier
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
| | - Amie J Durston
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
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6
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Schindler S, Bruchmann M, Straube T. Beyond facial expressions: A systematic review on effects of emotional relevance of faces on the N170. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 153:105399. [PMID: 37734698 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2023] [Revised: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 09/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023]
Abstract
The N170 is the most prominent electrophysiological signature of face processing. While facial expressions reliably modulate the N170, there is considerable variance in N170 modulations by other sources of emotional relevance. Therefore, we systematically review and discuss this research area using different methods to manipulate the emotional relevance of inherently neutral faces. These methods were categorized into (1) existing pre-experimental affective person knowledge (e.g., negative attitudes towards outgroup faces), (2) experimentally instructed affective person knowledge (e.g., negative person information), (3) contingency-based affective learning (e.g., fear-conditioning), or (4) the immediate affective context (e.g., emotional information directly preceding the face presentation). For all categories except the immediate affective context category, the majority of studies reported significantly increased N170 amplitudes depending on the emotional relevance of faces. Furthermore, the potentiated N170 was observed across different attention conditions, supporting the role of the emotional relevance of faces on the early prioritized processing of configural facial information, regardless of low-level differences. However, we identified several open research questions and suggest venues for further research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany.
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
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7
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Eiserbeck A, Maier M, Baum J, Abdel Rahman R. Deepfake smiles matter less-the psychological and neural impact of presumed AI-generated faces. Sci Rep 2023; 13:16111. [PMID: 37752242 PMCID: PMC10522659 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42802-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/28/2023] Open
Abstract
High-quality AI-generated portraits ("deepfakes") are becoming increasingly prevalent. Understanding the responses they evoke in perceivers is crucial in assessing their societal implications. Here we investigate the impact of the belief that depicted persons are real or deepfakes on psychological and neural measures of human face perception. Using EEG, we tracked participants' (N = 30) brain responses to real faces showing positive, neutral, and negative expressions, after being informed that they are either real or fake. Smiling faces marked as fake appeared less positive, as reflected in expression ratings, and induced slower evaluations. Whereas presumed real smiles elicited canonical emotion effects with differences relative to neutral faces in the P1 and N170 components (markers of early visual perception) and in the EPN component (indicative of reflexive emotional processing), presumed deepfake smiles showed none of these effects. Additionally, only smiles presumed as fake showed enhanced LPP activity compared to neutral faces, suggesting more effortful evaluation. Negative expressions induced typical emotion effects, whether considered real or fake. Our findings demonstrate a dampening effect on perceptual, emotional, and evaluative processing of presumed deepfake smiles, but not angry expressions, adding new specificity to the debate on the societal impact of AI-generated content.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Eiserbeck
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
- Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Martin Maier
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
- Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Julia Baum
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany
| | - Rasha Abdel Rahman
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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8
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Bruchmann M, Fahnemann K, Schindler S, Busch NA, Straube T. Early neural potentiation to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14215. [PMID: 36331158 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Revised: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
For humans, it is vitally important to rapidly detect and process threatening signals regardless of whether stimuli occur at fixation or in the periphery. However, it is unknown whether eccentricity affects early neuronal electrophysiological responses to fear-conditioned stimuli. We examined early event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to fear-conditioned faces to address this question. Participants (N = 80) were presented with faces, either paired with an aversive (CS+) or neutral sound (CS-), at central or peripheral positions. We ensured constant central fixation using online eye-tracking but directed attention to either centrally or peripherally presented faces. Manipulation checks showed successful fear-conditioning (i.e., on average lower ratings in valence and higher ratings in arousal and perceived threat) and successful shifts of visuospatial attention indexed by high task performance and pre-stimulus alpha lateralization of the EEG spectra. We observed a generally increased P1 to fear-conditioned faces regardless of presentation location. An N170 difference between fear-conditioned and neutral stimuli was found but was restricted to the central location and depended on the effectivity of fear-conditioning. A similar effect was observed for the early posterior negativity (EPN). Trait anxiety was not related to differential ERP responses to CS+ versus CS- faces for any ERP component. These findings suggest that the P1 indexes early responses to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Subsequent stages are modulated by the spatial location of the stimuli. This suggests different stages of neural processing of fear-conditioned faces depending on their spatial location. Finally, our results question the hypothesis that trait anxiety in healthy participants is related to altered visual processing of fear-conditioned faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Kristin Fahnemann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Niko A Busch
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
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9
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Bruchmann M, Mertens L, Schindler S, Straube T. Potentiated early neural responses to fearful faces are not driven by specific face parts. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4613. [PMID: 36944705 PMCID: PMC10030637 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31752-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Prioritized processing of fearful compared to neutral faces is reflected in increased amplitudes of components of the event-related potential (ERP). It is unknown whether specific face parts drive these modulations. Here, we investigated the contributions of face parts on ERPs to task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces using an ERP-dependent facial decoding technique and a large sample of participants (N = 83). Classical ERP analyses showed typical and robust increases of N170 and EPN amplitudes by fearful relative to neutral faces. Facial decoding further showed that the absolute amplitude of these components, as well as the P1, was driven by the low-frequency contrast of specific face parts. However, the difference between fearful and neutral faces was not driven by any specific face part, as supported by Bayesian statistics. Furthermore, there were no correlations between trait anxiety and main effects or interactions. These results suggest that increased N170 and EPN amplitudes to task-irrelevant fearful compared to neutral faces are not driven by specific facial regions but represent a holistic face processing effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany.
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.
| | - Léa Mertens
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
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10
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Vormbrock R, Bruchmann M, Menne L, Straube T, Schindler S. Testing stimulus exposure time as the critical factor of increased EPN and LPP amplitudes for fearful faces during perceptual distraction tasks. Cortex 2023; 160:9-23. [PMID: 36680924 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Revised: 12/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Fearful facial expressions are prioritized across different information processing stages, as evident in early, intermediate, and late components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Recent studies showed that, in contrast to early N170 modulations, mid-latency (Early Posterior Negativity, EPN) and late (Late Positive Potential, LPP) emotional modulations depend on the attended perceptual feature. Nevertheless, several studies reported significant differences between emotional and neutral faces for the EPN or LPP components during distraction tasks. One cause for these conflicting findings might be that when faces are presented sufficiently long, participants attend to task-irrelevant features of the faces. In this registered report, we tested whether the presentation duration of faces is the critical factor for differences between reported emotional modulations during perceptual distraction tasks. To this end, 48 participants were required to discriminate the orientation of lines overlaid onto fearful or neutral faces, while face presentation varied (100 msec, 300 msec, 1,000 msec, 2,000 msec). While participants did not need to pay attention to the faces, we observed main effects of emotion for the EPN and LPP, but no interaction between emotion and presentation duration. Of note, unregistered exploratory tests per presentation duration showed no significant EPN and LPP emotion differences during short durations (100 and 300 msec) but significant differences with longer durations. While the presentation duration seems not to be a critical factor for EPN and LPP emotion effects, future studies are needed to investigate the role of threshold effects and the applied analytic designs to explain conflicting findings in the literature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ria Vormbrock
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Lucas Menne
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany.
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11
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Zhu C, Zhao X, Lu F, Wang Y, Zhao Y, Kou D, Liu D, Luo W. Estimation Strategy Utilization Is Modulated by Implicit Emotion Regulation: Evidence from Behavioral and Event-Related Potentials Studies. Brain Sci 2022; 13:brainsci13010077. [PMID: 36672058 PMCID: PMC9857239 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
A large number of studies have studied the influence of emotional experience on an individual's estimation performance, but the influence of implicit emotion regulation is still unknown. Participants were asked to complete the following tasks in order: idiom matching task, multiplication computational estimation task (MCE task), gender judgment task (GJ task), and emotional experience intensity assessment task. The words matching task was adopted to achieve the purpose of implicit emotion regulation (implicit reappraisal and implicit suppression). Behavioral results showed that implicit reappraisal and implicit suppression equally contributed to improving an individual's estimation speed (but not ACC (accuracy)). The MCE task related ERP (event-related potential) results showed that the influence of implicit emotion regulation on estimation consisted of two phases. In the first phase (encoding phase), implicit reappraisal both enhanced (larger P1 amplitudes) and weakened (smaller N170 amplitudes) an individual's encoding sensitivity, while implicit suppression enhanced an individual's encoding sensitivity (larger P1 amplitudes). In the second phase (estimation strategies retrieval phase), implicit reappraisal (but not implicit suppression) cost more attention resources (larger LPC2 and LPC3 amplitudes). The present study suggested that both implicit reappraisal and implicit suppression contributed to improving an individual's estimation performance, and the regulation effect of implicit suppression (vs. implicit reappraisal) was better.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuanlin Zhu
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China
| | - Xinyi Zhao
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China
| | - Feng Lu
- College of Educational Science, Taizhou University, Taizhou 225300, China
| | - Yun Wang
- School of Foreign Languages, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, China
| | - Yuan Zhao
- Police Officer Academy, Shandong University of Political Science and Law, Jinan 250014, China
| | - Dongquan Kou
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China
- Correspondence: (D.K.); (D.L.); (W.L.); Tel.: +86-0514-8797-5536 (D.K.); +86-0512-6588-0832 (D.L.); +86-411-8215-3336 (W.L.)
| | - Dianzhi Liu
- School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
- Correspondence: (D.K.); (D.L.); (W.L.); Tel.: +86-0514-8797-5536 (D.K.); +86-0512-6588-0832 (D.L.); +86-411-8215-3336 (W.L.)
| | - Wenbo Luo
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian 116029, China
- Correspondence: (D.K.); (D.L.); (W.L.); Tel.: +86-0514-8797-5536 (D.K.); +86-0512-6588-0832 (D.L.); +86-411-8215-3336 (W.L.)
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12
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Jacques C, Caharel S. The time course of categorical perception of facial expressions. Neuropsychologia 2022; 177:108424. [PMID: 36400243 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Decoding emotions on others' faces is one of the most important functions of the human brain, which has been widely studied in cognitive neuroscience. However, the precise time course of facial expression categorization in the human brain is still a matter of debate. Here we used an original paradigm to measure categorical perception of facial expression changes during event-related potentials (ERPs) recording, in which a face stimulus dynamically switched either to a different expression (between-category condition) or to the same expression (within-category condition), the physical distance between the two successive faces being equal across conditions. The switch between faces generated a negative differential potential peaking at around 160 ms over occipito-temporal regions, similar in term of latency and topography to the well-known face-selective N170 component. This response was larger in the condition where the switch occurred between faces that were perceived as having different facial expressions compared to the same expression. In addition, happy expressions were categorized around 20 ms faster than fearful expressions (respectively, 135 and 156 ms). These findings provide evidence that changes of facial expressions are categorically perceived as early as 160 ms following stimulus onset over the occipito-temporal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corentin Jacques
- Université Catholique de Louvain, Psychological Science Research Institute (IPSY), Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
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13
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Vaitonytė J, Alimardani M, Louwerse MM. Scoping review of the neural evidence on the uncanny valley. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR REPORTS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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14
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Moshel ML, Robinson AK, Carlson TA, Grootswagers T. Are you for real? Decoding realistic AI-generated faces from neural activity. Vision Res 2022; 199:108079. [PMID: 35749833 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2022.108079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Revised: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Can we trust our eyes? Until recently, we rarely had to question whether what we see is indeed what exists, but this is changing. Artificial neural networks can now generate realistic images that challenge our perception of what is real. This new reality can have significant implications for cybersecurity, counterfeiting, fake news, and border security. We investigated how the human brain encodes and interprets realistic artificially generated images using behaviour and brain imaging. We found that we could reliably decode AI generated faces using people's neural activity. However, while at a group level people performed near chance classifying real and realistic fakes, participants tended to interchange the labels, classifying real faces as realistic fakes and vice versa. Understanding this difference between brain and behavioural responses may be key in determining the 'real' in our new reality. Stimuli, code, and data for this study can be found at https://osf.io/n2z73/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michoel L Moshel
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Psychology, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia.
| | - Amanda K Robinson
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, QLD, Australia
| | | | - Tijl Grootswagers
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, NSW, Australia
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15
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Miki K, Takeshima Y, Kida T, Kakigi R. The ERP and psychophysical changes related to facial emotion perception by expertise in Japanese hospitality, "OMOTENASHI". Sci Rep 2022; 12:9089. [PMID: 35701462 PMCID: PMC9197832 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11905-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2021] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the emotion perception process based on hospitality expertise. Forty subjects were divided into the OMOTENASHI group working at inns considered to represent the spirit of hospitality, OMOTENASHI in Japan, and CONTROL group without experience in the hospitality industry. We presented neutral, happy, and angry faces to investigate P100 and N170 by these faces, and psychophysical changes by the favor rating test to evaluate emotional perception. In the favor rating test, the score was significantly smaller (less favorable) in OMOTENASHI than in CONTROL. Regarding event-related potential components, the maximum amplitude of P100 was significantly larger for a neutral face at the right occipital electrode in OMOTENASHI than in CONTROL, and it was significantly larger for an angry face at both occipital electrodes in OMOTENASHI than in CONTROL. However, the peak latency and maximum amplitude of N170 were not significantly different between OMOTENASHI and CONTROL at both temporal electrodes for each emotion condition. Differences on the favor rating test and P100 in OMOTENASHI suggested that workers at inns may more quickly notice and be more sensitive to the facial emotion of guests due to hospitality training, and/or that hospitality expertise may increase attention to emotion by top-down and/or bottom-up processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kensaku Miki
- Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan. .,Integrative Physiology, College of Nursing, Aichi Medical University, 1-1 Yazakokarimata, Nagakute, Aichi, 480-1195, Japan. .,School of Nursing, Japanese Red Cross Toyota College of Nursing, Toyota, Aichi, Japan.
| | - Yasuyuki Takeshima
- Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
| | - Tetsuo Kida
- Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan.,Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Developmental Disability Center, Kaugai, Aichi, Japan
| | - Ryusuke Kakigi
- Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
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16
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Schindler S, Richter TS, Bruchmann M, Busch NA, Straube T. Effects of task load, spatial attention, and trait anxiety on neuronal responses to fearful and neutral faces. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14114. [PMID: 35652518 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate on how different components of the event-related potential (ERP) to threat-related facial expressions are modulated by attentional conditions and interindividual differences in trait anxiety. In the current study (N = 80), we examined ERPs to centrally presented, task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces, while participants had to solve a face-unrelated visual task, which differed in difficulty and spatial position. Critically, we used a fixation-controlled experimental design and ensured the spatial attention manipulation by spectral analysis of the EEG. Besides the factors emotion, spatial attention, and perceptual load, we also investigated correlations between trait anxiety and ERPs. While P1 emotion effects were insignificant, the N170 was increased to fearful faces regardless of load and spatial attention conditions. During the EPN time window, a significantly increased negativity for fearful faces was observed only during low load and spatial attention to the face. We found no significant relationship between ERPs and trait anxiety, questioning the hypothesis of a general hypersensitivity toward fearful expressions in anxious individuals. These results show a high resistance of the N170 amplitude increase for fearful faces to spatial attention and task load manipulations. By contrast, the EPN modulation by fearful faces index a resource-dependent stage of the ERP, requiring both spatial attention at the location of faces and low load of the face-irrelevant task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Theresa Sofie Richter
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Niko A Busch
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.,Institute of Psychology, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
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17
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Fischer-Jbali LR, Montoro CI, Montoya P, Halder W, Duschek S. Central nervous activity during an emotional Stroop task in fibromyalgia syndrome. Int J Psychophysiol 2022; 177:133-144. [PMID: 35588963 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Revised: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition of widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like depression, fatigue and cognitive impairments. In addition to central nervous pain sensitization, emotional dysregulation may be involved in FMS pathogenesis. This study investigated emotional influences on cognitive processing in FMS. Event-related potentials and theta oscillations were recorded during an emotional Stroop task including positive, negative, and neutral adjectives in 36 FMS patients and 35 controls. Patients had larger P3 amplitudes and greater theta power than controls, independent of the emotional word content. In patients, but not controls, negative words were associated with a larger late positive component (LPC) amplitude than positive words. No group difference was seen for P1, early posterior negativity or N4. Reaction times (RTs) were longer in patients than controls, independent of emotional word content. The P3 and theta oscillation findings suggest greater cognitive effort and attentional mobilization in FMS, which is needed to overcome the reduction of attentional resources resulting from central nervous pain sensitization. Although RTs do not support attentional bias in FMS, emotional modulation of the LPC amplitude may reflect preferential central nervous processing of negative information, which could contribute to pain and affective symptoms characterizing FMS. ACCESS TO RESEARCH DATA: The research data of the study are available to the public via the Open Science Framework repository (OSF: https://osf.io/tsyre/).
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Affiliation(s)
- L R Fischer-Jbali
- UMIT Tirol, University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tirol, Austria.
| | - C I Montoro
- University of Jaén, Department of Psychology, Jaén, Spain.
| | - P Montoya
- University of the Balearic Islands, Research Institute of Health Sciences, Spain.
| | - W Halder
- County Hospital Hochzirl, Austria.
| | - S Duschek
- UMIT Tirol, University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tirol, Austria.
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18
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Central Nervous Activity during a Dot Probe Task with Facial Expressions in Fibromyalgia. Biol Psychol 2022; 172:108361. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Revised: 05/22/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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19
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Maier M, Blume F, Bideau P, Hellwich O, Abdel Rahman R. Knowledge-augmented face perception: Prospects for the Bayesian brain-framework to align AI and human vision. Conscious Cogn 2022; 101:103301. [DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 11/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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20
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Bublatzky F, Schellhaas S, Guerra P. The mere sight of loved ones does not inhibit psychophysiological defense mechanisms when threatened. Sci Rep 2022; 12:2515. [PMID: 35169193 PMCID: PMC8847570 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06514-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Looking at pictures of loved ones, such as one's romantic partner or good friends, has been shown to alleviate the experience of pain and reduce defensive reactions. However, little is known about such modulatory effects on threat and safety learning and the psychophysiological processes involved. Here, we explored the hypothesis that beloved faces serve as implicit safety cues and attenuate the expression of fear responses and/or accelerate extinction learning in a threatening context. Thirty-two participants viewed pictures of their loved ones (romantic partner, parents, and best friend) as well as of unknown individuals within contextual background colors indicating threat-of-shock or safety. Focusing on the extinction of non-reinforced threat associations (no shocks were given), the experiment was repeated on two more test days while the defensive startle-EMG, SCR, and threat ratings were obtained. Results confirmed pronounced defensive responding to instructed threat-of-shock relative to safety context (e.g., threat-enhanced startle reflex and SCR). Moreover, threat-potentiated startle response slowly declined across test days indicating passive extinction learning in the absence of shocks. Importantly, neither a main effect of face category (loved vs. unknown) nor a significant interaction with threat/safety instructions was observed. Thus, a long-term learning history of beneficial relations (e.g., with supportive parents) did not interfere with verbal threat learning and aversive apprehensions. These findings reflect the effects of worries and apprehensions that persist despite the repeated experience of safety and the pictorial presence of loved ones. How to counter such aversive expectations is key to changing mal-adaptive behaviors (e.g., avoidance or stockpiling), biased risk perceptions, and stereotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bublatzky
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany. .,Department of Personality, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
| | - Sabine Schellhaas
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Pedro Guerra
- Department of Personality, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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21
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Soto-Icaza P, Beffara-Bret B, Vargas L, Aboitiz F, Billeke P. Differences in cortical processing of facial emotions in broader autism phenotype. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0262004. [PMID: 35041646 PMCID: PMC8765621 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous condition that affects face perception. Evidence shows that there are differences in face perception associated with the processing of low spatial frequency (LSF) and high spatial frequency (HSF) of visual stimuli between non-symptomatic relatives of individuals with autism (broader autism phenotype, BAP) and typically developing individuals. However, the neural mechanisms involved in these differences are not fully understood. Here we tested whether face-sensitive event related potentials could serve as neuronal markers of differential spatial frequency processing, and whether these potentials could differentiate non-symptomatic parents of children with autism (pASD) from parents of typically developing children (pTD). To this end, we performed electroencephalographic recordings of both groups of parents while they had to recognize emotions of face pictures composed of the same or different emotions (happiness or anger) presented in different spatial frequencies. We found no significant differences in the accuracy between groups but lower amplitude modulation in the Late Positive Potential activity in pASD. Source analysis showed a difference in the right posterior part of the superior temporal region that correlated with ASD symptomatology of the child. These results reveal differences in brain processing of recognition of facial emotion in BAP that could be a precursor of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Soto-Icaza
- Laboratorio de Neurociencia Social y Neuromodulación, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (neuroCICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | | | | | - Francisco Aboitiz
- Laboratorio de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Departamento de Psiquiatría, Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencias, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Pablo Billeke
- Laboratorio de Neurociencia Social y Neuromodulación, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (neuroCICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
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22
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Liu H, Liu Y, Dong X, Liu H, Han B. Effect of Cognitive Control on Age-Related Positivity Effects in Attentional Processing - Evidence From an Event-Related Brain Potential Study. Front Psychol 2021; 12:755635. [PMID: 34925159 PMCID: PMC8671695 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.755635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies investigating age-related positivity effects during facial emotion processing have yielded contradictory results. The present study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive control during attentional processing of emotional faces among older adults. We used go/no-go detection tasks combined with event-related potentials and source localization to examine the effects of response inhibition on age-related positivity effects. Data were obtained from 23 older and 23 younger healthy participants. Behavioral results showed that the discriminability index (d') of older adults on fear trials was significantly greater than that of younger adults [t(44)=2.37, p=0.024, Cohen's d=0.70], whereas an opposite pattern was found in happy trials [t(44)=2.56, p=0.014, Cohen's d=0.75]. The electroencephalography results on the amplitude of the N170 at the left electrode positions showed that the fear-neutral face pairs were larger than the happy-neutral ones for the younger adults [t(22)=2.32, p=0.030, Cohen's d=0.48]; the older group's right hemisphere presented similar tendency, although the results were not statistically significant [t(22)=1.97, p=0.061, Cohen's d=0.41]. Further, the brain activity of the two hemispheres in older adults showed asymmetrical decrement. Our study demonstrated that the age-related "positivity effect" was not observed owing to the depletion of available cognitive resources at the early attentional stage. Moreover, bilateral activation of the two hemispheres may be important signals of normal aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haining Liu
- Department of Psychology, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China.,Hebei Key Laboratory of Nerve Injury and Repair, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China
| | - Yanli Liu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China
| | - Xianling Dong
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China
| | - Haihong Liu
- Department of Psychology, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China.,Centre for Research in Psychology and Human Well Being, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
| | - Buxin Han
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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23
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Bruchmann M, Schindler S, Dinyarian M, Straube T. The role of phase and orientation for ERP modulations of spectrum-manipulated fearful and neutral faces. Psychophysiology 2021; 59:e13974. [PMID: 34792184 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Prioritized processing of fearful compared to neutral faces has been proposed to result from evolutionary adaptation of the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) to the features of emotionally relevant faces and/or vice versa. However, it is unknown whether a stimulus merely has to feature the amplitude spectrum of a fearful face to be prioritized or whether the relevant spatial frequencies have to occur with specific phases and orientations. Prioritized processing is indexed by specific increases of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) of the EEG and occurs throughout different early processing stages, indexed by emotion-related modulations of the P1, N170, and EPN. In this pre-registered study, we manipulated phase and amplitude properties of the Fourier spectra of neutral and fearful faces to test the effect of phase coherence (PC, face vs. scramble) and orientation coherence (OC, original vs. rotational average) and their interactions with differential emotion processing. We found that differential emotion processing was not present at the level of P1 but strongly affected N170 and EPN. In both cases, intact phase coherence was required for enhanced processing of fearful faces. OC did not interact with emotion. While faces produced the typical N170 effect, we observed a reversed effect for scrambles. Additional exploratory independent component analysis (ICA) suggests that this reversal could signal a mismatch between an early "perceptual hypothesis" and feedback of configural information. In line with our expectations, fearful-neutral differences for the N170 and EPN depend on configural information, i.e., recognizable faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
| | - Mandana Dinyarian
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
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24
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Zhu C, Jiang Y, Wang Y, Liu D, Luo W. Arithmetic performance is modulated by cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression: Evidence from behavioral and ERP findings. Neuropsychologia 2021; 162:108060. [PMID: 34653496 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2021] [Revised: 10/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that negative emotional experiences are detrimental to individual's arithmetic performance, and no study has investigated whether such negative influence can be improved through emotional regulation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between emotion regulation and individual's performance in completing arithmetic problem verification task. Participants were asked to complete arithmetic problem verification task using the down-up strategy (e.g., doing 30 × 70 = 2100 for 34 × 67), under neutral, happy, and fear priming conditions, during which they were asked to regulate their emotional experience by using cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. Behavioral results showed that, under happy priming condition, cognitive reappraisal (but not expression suppression) contributed to improving individual's estimation speed. Additionally, under happy and fear priming conditions, cognitive reappraisal (vs. expression suppression) reduced individuals' emotional experience intensity. The arithmetic problem verification task-related ERP results showed that the P1 amplitudes elicited by using cognitive reappraisal (vs. freely view) were larger under happy and fear priming conditions, but the P1 amplitudes elicited by using expression suppression were larger only under happy condition. Meanwhile, the corresponding N170 amplitudes were smaller when using cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression (vs. freely view). Additionally, using cognitive reappraisal (vs. expression suppression) cost less cognitive resource (smaller LPC amplitudes). The present study indicated that both cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression contributed to improving individual's arithmetic performance, and the regulation effect of cognitive reappraisal was better than that of expression suppression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuanlin Zhu
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
| | - Yuhan Jiang
- School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China
| | - Yun Wang
- School of Foreign Languages, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China
| | - Dianzhi Liu
- School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.
| | - Wenbo Luo
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
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25
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Implicit happy and fear experience contributes to computational estimation strategy execution: Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence. Neuropsychologia 2021; 159:107959. [PMID: 34271003 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Previous study have explored the influence of explicit emotion priming on computational estimation strategy execution, but the corresponding influence of implicit emotion priming still remains unknown. The present study aimed to solve this problem. Participants were asked to complete two-digit multiplication computational estimation task, under different implicit emotion priming conditions (gender judgment task). In the two-digit multiplication computational estimation task, the computational estimation question was presented in the middle of the screen, meanwhile, two alternative answers were presented side by side at the bottom of the screen, participants were required to select which answer is correct, by using the down-up strategy (e.g., doing 30 × 50 = 1500 for 34 × 46). Behavioral results showed that the response speed under implicit happy and fear (vs. neutral and angry) priming conditions was quicker, and the accuracy under different priming conditions showed no significant difference. The ERP results showed that the influence of implicit emotion priming on computational estimation strategy execution consisted of two phases: in the first phase, the N1 amplitudes elicited by completing the multiplication computational estimation task were smaller under implicit fear (vs. angry) priming condition; in the second phase, the corresponding P2 amplitudes under implicit happy (vs. fear) priming condition were smaller. The present study indicated that implicit happy and fear experience contributed to complete computational estimation tasks, suggesting that implicit negative emotional (e.g., fear) experience was not always detrimental to computational estimation strategy execution.
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26
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Takeda A, Yamada E, Uehara T, Ogata K, Okamoto T, Tobimatsu S. Data-point-wise spatiotemporal mapping of human ventral visual areas: Use of spatial frequency/luminance-modulated chromatic faces. Neuroimage 2021; 239:118325. [PMID: 34216773 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2020] [Revised: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual information involving facial identity and expression is crucial for social communication. Although the influence of facial features such as spatial frequency (SF) and luminance on face processing in visual areas has been studied extensively using grayscale stimuli, the combined effects of other features in this process have not been characterized. To determine the combined effects of different SFs and color, we created chromatic stimuli with low, high or no SF components, which bring distinct SF and color information into the ventral stream simultaneously. To obtain neural activity data with high spatiotemporal resolution we recorded face-selective responses (M170) using magnetoencephalography. We used a permutation test procedure with threshold-free cluster enhancement to assess statistical significance while resolving problems related to multiple comparisons and arbitrariness found in traditional statistical methods. We found that time windows with statistically significant threshold levels were distributed differently among the stimulus conditions. Face stimuli containing any SF components evoked M170 in the fusiform gyrus (FG), whereas a significant emotional effect on M170 was only observed with the original images. Low SF faces elicited larger activation of the FG and the inferior occipital gyrus than the original images, suggesting an interaction between low and high SF information processing. Interestingly, chromatic face stimuli without SF first activated color-selective regions and then the FG, indicating that facial color was processed according to a hierarchy in the ventral stream. These findings suggest complex effects of SFs in the presence of color information, reflected in M170, and unveil the detailed spatiotemporal dynamics of face processing in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akinori Takeda
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Research Center for Brain Communication, Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami City, Kochi 782-8502, Japan.
| | - Emi Yamada
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
| | - Taira Uehara
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Department of Neurology, IUHW Narita Hospital, 852 Hatakeda, Narita, Chiba 286-8520, Japan
| | - Katsuya Ogata
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy at Fukuoka, International University of Health and Welfare, 137-1 Enokidu, Okawa, Fukuoka 831-8501, Japan
| | - Tsuyoshi Okamoto
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan; Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
| | - Shozo Tobimatsu
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Department of Orthoptics, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka International University of Health and Welfare, 3-6-40 Momochihama, Sawara-ku, Fukuoka 814-0001, Japan
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The early processing of fearful and happy facial expressions is independent of task demands - Support from mass univariate analyses. Brain Res 2021; 1765:147505. [PMID: 33915164 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2020] [Revised: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Most ERP studies on facial expressions of emotion have yielded inconsistent results regarding the time course of emotion effects and their possible modulation by task demands. Most studies have used classical statistical methods with a high likelihood of type I and type II errors, which can be limited with Mass Univariate statistics. FMUT and LIMO are currently the only two available toolboxes for Mass Univariate analysis of ERP data and use different fundamental statistics. Yet, no direct comparison of their output has been performed on the same dataset. Given the current push to transition to robust statistics to increase results replicability, here we compared the output of these toolboxes on data previously analyzed using classic approaches (Itier & Neath-Tavares, 2017). The early (0-352 ms) processing of fearful, happy, and neutral faces was investigated under three tasks in a within-subject design that also controlled gaze fixation location. Both toolboxes revealed main effects of emotion and task but neither yielded an interaction between the two, confirming the early processing of fear and happy expressions is largely independent of task demands. Both toolboxes found virtually no difference between neutral and happy expressions, while fearful (compared to neutral and happy) expressions modulated the N170 and EPN but elicited maximum effects after the N170 peak, around 190 ms. Similarities and differences in the spatial and temporal extent of these effects are discussed in comparison to the published classical analysis and the rest of the ERP literature.
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28
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Liang P, Jiang J, Chen J, Wei L. Affective Face Processing Modified by Different Tastes. Front Psychol 2021; 12:644704. [PMID: 33790842 PMCID: PMC8006344 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Accepted: 02/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial emotional recognition is something used often in our daily lives. How does the brain process the face search? Can taste modify such a process? This study employed two tastes (sweet and acidic) to investigate the cross-modal interaction between taste and emotional face recognition. The behavior responses (reaction time and correct response ratios) and the event-related potential (ERP) were applied to analyze the interaction between taste and face processing. Behavior data showed that when detecting a negative target face with a positive face as a distractor, the participants perform the task faster with an acidic taste than with sweet. No interaction effect was observed with correct response ratio analysis. The early (P1, N170) and mid-stage [early posterior negativity (EPN)] components have shown that sweet and acidic tastes modified the ERP components with the affective face search process in the ERP results. No interaction effect was observed in the late-stage (LPP) component. Our data have extended the understanding of the cross-modal mechanism and provided electrophysiological evidence that affective facial processing could be influenced by sweet and acidic tastes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei Liang
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Hubei, China.,Brain and Cognition Research Center (BCRC), Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Hubei, China
| | - Jiayu Jiang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoning, China.,School of Fundamental Sciences, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Jie Chen
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Hubei, China
| | - Liuqing Wei
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Hubei, China.,Brain and Cognition Research Center (BCRC), Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Hubei, China
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29
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Tanaka M, Yamada E, Maekawa T, Ogata K, Takamiya N, Nakazono H, Tobimatsu S. Gender differences in subliminal affective face priming: A high-density ERP study. Brain Behav 2021; 11:e02060. [PMID: 33528111 PMCID: PMC8035456 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2020] [Revised: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Subliminal affective priming effects (SAPEs) refer to the phenomenon by which the presentation of an affective prime stimulus influences the subsequent affective evaluation of a target stimulus. Previous studies have reported that unconsciously processed stimuli affect behavioral performance more than consciously processed stimuli. However, the impact of SAPEs on the face-specific N170 component is unclear. We studied how SAPEs for fearful faces affected the N170 for subsequent supraliminal target faces using event-related potentials (ERPs). METHODS Japanese adults (n = 44, 20 females) participated in this study. Subliminal prime faces (neutral or fearful) were presented for 17 ms, followed by a backward mask for 283 ms and 800 ms target faces (neutral, emotionally ambiguous, or fearful). 128-channel ERPs were recorded while participants judged the expression of target faces as neutral or fearful. Response rates and response times were also measured for assessing behavioral alterations. RESULTS Although the behavioral results revealed no evidence of SAPEs, we found gender-related SAPEs in right N170 amplitude. Specifically, female participants exhibited enhanced right N170 amplitude for emotionally neutral faces primed by fearful faces, while male participants exhibited decreased N170 amplitude in fearful prime trials with fearful target faces. Male participants exhibited significant correlations between N170 amplitude and behavioral response time in the fearful prime-neutral target condition. CONCLUSIONS Our ERP results suggest the existence of a gender difference in target-face processing preceded by subliminally presented face stimuli in the right occipito-temporal region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mutsuhide Tanaka
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.,Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Science, Kyushu University of Health and Welfare, Nobeoka, Japan
| | - Emi Yamada
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Toshihiko Maekawa
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Katsuya Ogata
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Naomi Takamiya
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Hisato Nakazono
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Shozo Tobimatsu
- Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
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30
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Iffland B, Klein F, Schindler S, Kley H, Neuner F. "She finds you abhorrent" - The impact of emotional context information on the cortical processing of neutral faces in depression. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:426-444. [PMID: 33721228 PMCID: PMC8121719 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00877-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Depression is associated with abnormalities in patterns of information processing, particularly in the context of processing of interpersonal information. The present study was designed to investigate the differences in depressive individuals in cortical processing of facial stimuli when neutral faces were presented in a context that involved information about emotional valence as well as self-reference. In 21 depressive patients and 20 healthy controls, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the presentation of neutral facial expressions, which were accompanied by affective context information that was either self- or other-related. Across conditions, depressive patients showed larger mean P100 amplitudes than healthy controls. Furthermore, mean late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes of depressive patients were larger in response to faces in self-related than in other-related context. In addition, irrespective of self-reference, mean LPP responses of depressive patients to faces presented after socially threatening sentences were larger compared with faces presented after neutral sentences. Results regarding self-reference supported results of previous studies indicating larger mean amplitudes in self-related conditions. Findings suggest a general heightened initial responsiveness to emotional cues and a sustained emotion processing of socially threatening information in depressive patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Iffland
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany.
| | - Fabian Klein
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Hanna Kley
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Frank Neuner
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany
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31
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Steinweg AL, Schindler S, Bruchmann M, Moeck R, Straube T. Reduced early fearful face processing during perceptual distraction in high trait anxious participants. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13819. [PMID: 33755207 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Fearful facial expressions are prioritized across different stages of information processing as reflected by early, mid-latency, and late components of event-related brain potentials (ERP). Trait anxiety has been proposed to modulate these responses, but it is yet unclear how such modulations depend on feature-based attention. In this preregistered study (N = 80), we investigated the effects of trait anxiety on ERP differences between fearful and neutral faces across three different tasks. Participants had to discriminate either the orientation of lines overlaid onto the faces, the gender of the face, or the emotional expression, thus increasing attention to emotionally relevant facial features across the tasks. Fearful versus neutral faces elicited increased P1 and N170 amplitudes across tasks and potentiated amplitudes when attention was directed to faces (early posterior negativity [EPN]) or the expression (EPN and late positive potential). Higher trait anxiety was related to smaller EPN differences between fearful and neutral faces during the perceptual discrimination task. This early relationship suggests reduced instead of amplified processing of fearful faces for high trait anxious participants under perceptual distraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Lena Steinweg
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Robert Moeck
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.,Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
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32
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Fischer-Jbali LR, Montoro CI, Montoya P, Halder W, Duschek S. Central nervous activity during implicit processing of emotional face expressions in fibromyalgia syndrome. Brain Res 2021; 1758:147333. [PMID: 33539799 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Revised: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by chronic widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety and cognitive impairments. In addition to central nervous pain sensitization, emotional dysregulation may be involved in FMS pathogenesis. This study investigated central nervous correlates of affective and attentional processing in FMS using an implicit task. METHODS Event-related potentials (ERPs) of the EEG were recorded in 25 FMS patients and 37 healthy controls while they had to name the frame color of pictures displaying emotional expressions (angry, painful, happy, neutral). The actual picture had to be ingored. Symptoms of pain, depression and anxiety were also assessed. RESULTS Patients exhibited smaller P2 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes, and a greater N250 amplitude, than controls. The N250 amplitude varied according to the emotional expressions displayed in patients, but not in controls. No group differences arose for the P1 or N170 amplitudes. Patients had longer reaction times and made more errors on the task; task performance was more closely related to pain severity than to other symptoms. CONCLUSION The reduced P2 and LPP amplitudes indicate deficient short-term mobilization of attentional resources and sustained attention in FMS; the greater N250 amplitude may reflect greater engagement in the decoding of complex facial features, which is necessary to compensate for attentional impairments. Affective modulation of the N250 suggests that the neural mechanisms underlying complex visual processes are particularly susceptible to emotional influences in FMS. The behavioral data confirm attentional deficits in the disorder and implicate clinical pain therein.
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Affiliation(s)
- L R Fischer-Jbali
- UMIT Tirol - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Austria.
| | - C I Montoro
- University of Jaén, Department of Psychology, Jaén, Spain.
| | - P Montoya
- University of the Balearic Islands, Department of Psychology, Spain.
| | - W Halder
- County Hospital Hochzirl, Austria.
| | - S Duschek
- UMIT Tirol - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Austria.
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33
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Schindler S, Wolf M, Bruchmann M, Straube T. Fearful face scrambles increase early visual sensory processing in the absence of face information. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 53:2703-2712. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Revised: 01/04/2021] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
| | - Maren‐Isabel Wolf
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Muenster Germany
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34
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Sperl MFJ, Wroblewski A, Mueller M, Straube B, Mueller EM. Learning dynamics of electrophysiological brain signals during human fear conditioning. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117569. [PMID: 33221446 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 09/13/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Electrophysiological studies in rodents allow recording neural activity during threats with high temporal and spatial precision. Although fMRI has helped translate insights about the anatomy of underlying brain circuits to humans, the temporal dynamics of neural fear processes remain opaque and require EEG. To date, studies on electrophysiological brain signals in humans have helped to elucidate underlying perceptual and attentional processes, but have widely ignored how fear memory traces evolve over time. The low signal-to-noise ratio of EEG demands aggregations across high numbers of trials, which will wash out transient neurobiological processes that are induced by learning and prone to habituation. Here, our goal was to unravel the plasticity and temporal emergence of EEG responses during fear conditioning. To this end, we developed a new sequential-set fear conditioning paradigm that comprises three successive acquisition and extinction phases, each with a novel CS+/CS- set. Each set consists of two different neutral faces on different background colors which serve as CS+ and CS-, respectively. Thereby, this design provides sufficient trials for EEG analyses while tripling the relative amount of trials that tap into more transient neurobiological processes. Consistent with prior studies on ERP components, data-driven topographic EEG analyses revealed that ERP amplitudes were potentiated during time periods from 33-60 ms, 108-200 ms, and 468-820 ms indicating that fear conditioning prioritizes early sensory processing in the brain, but also facilitates neural responding during later attentional and evaluative stages. Importantly, averaging across the three CS+/CS- sets allowed us to probe the temporal evolution of neural processes: Responses during each of the three time windows gradually increased from early to late fear conditioning, while long-latency (460-730 ms) electrocortical responses diminished throughout fear extinction. Our novel paradigm demonstrates how short-, mid-, and long-latency EEG responses change during fear conditioning and extinction, findings that enlighten the learning curve of neurophysiological responses to threat in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias F J Sperl
- Department of Psychology, Personality Psychology and Assessment, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
| | - Adrian Wroblewski
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Translational Neuroimaging Marburg, University of Marburg, 35039 Marburg, Germany.
| | - Madeleine Mueller
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Translational Neuroimaging Marburg, University of Marburg, 35039 Marburg, Germany; Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Benjamin Straube
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Translational Neuroimaging Marburg, University of Marburg, 35039 Marburg, Germany.
| | - Erik M Mueller
- Department of Psychology, Personality Psychology and Assessment, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
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35
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Schindler S, Bruchmann M, Steinweg AL, Moeck R, Straube T. Attentional conditions differentially affect early, intermediate and late neural responses to fearful and neutral faces. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2020; 15:765-774. [PMID: 32701163 PMCID: PMC7511883 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Revised: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The processing of fearful facial expressions is prioritized by the human brain. This priority is maintained across various information processing stages as evident in early, intermediate and late components of event-related potentials (ERPs). However, emotional modulations are inconsistently reported for these different processing stages. In this pre-registered study, we investigated how feature-based attention differentially affects ERPs to fearful and neutral faces in 40 participants. The tasks required the participants to discriminate either the orientation of lines overlaid onto the face, the sex of the face or the face's emotional expression, increasing attention to emotion-related features. We found main effects of emotion for the N170, early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP). While N170 emotional modulations were task-independent, interactions of emotion and task were observed for the EPN and LPP. While EPN emotion effects were found in the sex and emotion tasks, the LPP emotion effect was mainly driven by the emotion task. This study shows that early responses to fearful faces are task-independent (N170) and likely based on low-level and configural information while during later processing stages, attention to the face (EPN) or-more specifically-to the face's emotional expression (LPP) is crucial for reliable amplified processing of emotional faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
| | - Anna-Lena Steinweg
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
| | - Robert Moeck
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster D-48149, Germany
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36
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Schindler S, Bublatzky F. Attention and emotion: An integrative review of emotional face processing as a function of attention. Cortex 2020; 130:362-386. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Revised: 05/28/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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37
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Time-dependent effects of perceptual load on processing fearful and neutral faces. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107529. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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38
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Bruchmann M, Schindler S, Straube T. The spatial frequency spectrum of fearful faces modulates early and mid‐latency ERPs but not the N170. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13597. [DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2020] [Revised: 04/20/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience University of Muenster Münster Germany
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39
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Roberge A, Duncan J, Fiset D, Brisson B. Dual-Task Interference on Early and Late Stages of Facial Emotion Detection Is Revealed by Human Electrophysiology. Front Hum Neurosci 2019; 13:391. [PMID: 31780912 PMCID: PMC6856761 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Rapid and accurate processing of potential social threats is paramount to social thriving, and provides a clear evolutionary advantage. Though automatic processing of facial expressions has been assumed for some time, some researchers now question the extent to which this is the case. Here, we provide electrophysiological data from a psychological refractory period (PRP) dual-task paradigm in which participants had to decide whether a target face exhibited a neutral or fearful expression, as overlap with a concurrent auditory tone categorization task was experimentally manipulated. Specifically, we focused on four event-related potentials (ERP) linked to emotional face processing, covering distinct processing stages and topography: the early posterior negativity (EPN), early frontal positivity (EFP), late positive potential (LPP), and also the face-sensitive N170. As expected, there was an emotion modulation of each ERP. Most importantly, there was a significant attenuation of this emotional response proportional to the degree of task overlap for each component, except the N170. In fact, when the central overlap was greatest, this emotion-specific amplitude was statistically null for the EFP and LPP, and only marginally different from zero for the EPN. N170 emotion modulation was, on the other hand, unaffected by central overlap. Thus, our results show that emotion-specific ERPs for three out of four processing stages—i.e., perceptual encoding (EPN), emotion detection (EFP), or content evaluation (LPP)—are attenuated and even eliminated by central resource scarcity. Models assuming automatic processing should be revised to account for these results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amélie Roberge
- Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
| | - Justin Duncan
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
- Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada
| | - Benoit Brisson
- Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada
- *Correspondence: Benoit Brisson
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40
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Burra N, Kerzel D. Task Demands Modulate Effects of Threatening Faces on Early Perceptual Encoding. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2400. [PMID: 31708839 PMCID: PMC6821787 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The threat capture hypothesis states that threatening stimuli are automatically processed with higher priority than non-threatening stimuli, irrespective of observer intentions or focus of attention. We evaluated the threat capture hypothesis with respect to the early perceptual stages of face processing. We focused on an electrophysiological marker of face processing (the lateralized N170) in response to neutral, happy, and angry facial expressions displayed in competition with a non-face stimulus (a house). We evaluated how effects of facial expression on the lateralized N170 were modulated by task demands. In the pixel task, participants were required to identify the gender of the face, which made the face task-relevant and entailed structural encoding of the face stimulus. In the pixel task, participants identified the location of a missing pixel in the fixation cross, which made the face task-irrelevant and placed it outside the focus of attention. When faces were relevant, the lateralized N170 to angry faces was enhanced compared to happy and neutral faces. When faces were irrelevant, facial expression had no effect. These results reveal the critical role of task demands on the preference for threatening faces, indicating that top-down, voluntary processing modulates the prioritization of threat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Dirk Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
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Bublatzky F, Riemer M, Guerra P. Reversing Threat to Safety: Incongruence of Facial Emotions and Instructed Threat Modulates Conscious Perception but Not Physiological Responding. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2091. [PMID: 31572272 PMCID: PMC6753879 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2019] [Accepted: 08/28/2019] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Facial expressions inform about other peoples’ emotion and motivation and thus are central for social communication. However, the meaning of facial expressions may change depending on what we have learned about the related consequences. For instance, a smile might easily become threatening when displayed by a person who is known to be dangerous. The present study examined the malleability of emotional facial valence by means of social learning. To this end, facial expressions served as cues for verbally instructed threat-of-shock or safety (e.g., “happy faces cue shocks”). Moreover, reversal instructions tested the flexibility of threat/safety associations (e.g., “now happy faces cue safety”). Throughout the experiment, happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions were presented and auditory startle probes elicited defensive reflex activity. Results show that self-reported ratings and physiological reactions to threat/safety cues dissociate. Regarding threat and valence ratings, happy facial expressions tended to be more resistant becoming a threat cue, and angry faces remain threatening even when instructed as safety cue. For physiological response systems, however, we observed threat-potentiated startle reflex and enhanced skin conductance responses for threat compared to safety cues regardless of whether threat was cued by happy or angry faces. Thus, the incongruity of visual and verbal threat/safety information modulates conscious perception, but not the activation of physiological response systems. These results show that verbal instructions can readily overwrite the intrinsic meaning of facial emotions, with clear benefits for social communication as learning and anticipation of threat and safety readjusted to accurately track environmental changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bublatzky
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.,Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Martin Riemer
- Aging & Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany.,Faculty for Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Pedro Guerra
- Department of Personality, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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