Abstract
Expectancy congruency has been shown to modulate event-related potentials (ERPs) to emotional stimuli, such as facial expressions. However, it is unknown whether the congruency ERP effects to facial expressions can be modulated by cognitive manipulations during stimulus expectation. To this end, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while participants viewed (neutral and fearful) facial expressions. Each trial started with a cue, predicting a facial expression, followed by an expectancy interval without any cues and subsequently the face. In half of the trials, participants had to solve a cognitive task in which different letters were presented for target letter detection during the expectancy interval. Furthermore, facial expressions were congruent with the cues in 75% of all trials. ERP results revealed that for fearful faces, the cognitive task during expectation altered the congruency effect in N170 amplitude; congruent compared to incongruent fearful faces evoked larger N170 in the non-task condition but the congruency effect was not evident in the task condition. Regardless of facial expression, the congruency effect was generally altered by the cognitive task during expectation in P3 amplitude; the amplitudes were larger for incongruent compared to congruent faces in the non-task condition but the congruency effect was not shown in the task condition. The findings indicate that cognitive tasks during expectation reduce the processing of expectation and subsequently, alter congruency ERP effects to facial expressions.
Highlights
From an evolutionary perspective, expecting the emotional significance of an upcoming event on the basis of environmental cues may help an individual in preparing adaptive reactions to potentially threatening situations (Nitschke et al, 2006; Galli et al, 2011)
event-related potentials (ERPs) results showed that for fearful faces, the congruency effect was modulated by the cognitive task during expectation in the N170; N170 amplitudes were smaller for fearful faces after the incongruent vs. the congruent cue in the non-task condition but such a congruency effect was not evident in the task condition
For the P3 component, the cognitive task during expectation generally altered the congruency effect, regardless of facial expressions; emotionally incongruent as compared to congruent faces were larger in P3 amplitude in the non-task condition but such a congruency effect was not shown in the task condition
Summary
From an evolutionary perspective, expecting the emotional significance of an upcoming event on the basis of environmental cues may help an individual in preparing adaptive reactions to potentially threatening situations (Nitschke et al, 2006; Galli et al, 2011). In an everchanging environment, the events sometimes turn out to be incongruent with our expectations (e.g., Schnider et al, 2007; Vachon et al, 2012; Barbalat et al, 2013) and the adaptive task is to detect such expectancy incongruent events This is, for example, relevant in the context of processing facial expressions, as some facial expressions (i.e., fearful) represent potential threat. Concerning an early ERP time range, the N170 seems to be of great importance regarding to expectancy congruency to facial expressions, as this component is thought to be sensitive to faces (Bentin et al, 2007). Regarding to the expectancy congruency of facial expressions, the N170 is larger for congruent as compared to incongruent facial expressions (Hietanen and Astikainen, 2013)
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