Evidence of Rapid Modulation by Social Information of Subjective, Physiological, and Neural Responses to Emotional Expressions.

Martial Mermillod,Sylvain Harquel,Magdalena Rychlowska,Léo Pio-Lopez,Frédéric Dutheil,Nicolas Vermeulen,Delphine Grynberg,Paula M Niedenthal,Brice Beffara,Sylvie Droit-Volet

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00231

Abstract

Recent research suggests that conceptual or emotional factors could influence the perceptual processing of stimuli. In this article, we aimed to evaluate the effect of social information (positive, negative, or no information related to the character of the target) on subjective (perceived and felt valence and arousal), physiological (facial mimicry) as well as on neural (P100 and N170) responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions (EFE) that varied from neutral to one of the six basic emotions. Across three studies, the results showed reduced ratings of valence and arousal of EFE associated with incongruent social information (Study 1), increased electromyographical responses (Study 2), and significant modulation of P100 and N170 components (Study 3) when EFE were associated with social (positive and negative) information (vs. no information). These studies revealed that positive or negative social information reduces subjective responses to incongruent EFE and produces a similar neural and physiological boost of the early perceptual processing of EFE irrespective of their congruency. In conclusion, the article suggests that the presence of positive or negative social context modulates early physiological and neural activity preceding subsequent behavior.

Highlights

Extant behavioral research suggests the relevance of top-down processes in the use of concepts (Schyns et al, 1998; Vermeulen et al, 2009), percepts (Bar, 2004; Quétard et al, 2015, 2016), and affects (Scherer, 1997; Hess et al, 2007; Rudrauf et al, 2008; Niedenthal et al, 2009)
With regards to perceived valence of facial expressions, this study showed that expressions of negative emotions were perceived as less negative when preceded by a positive label compared to a neutral situation whereas positive emotions were rated as less positive when preceded by a negative label compared to an absence of social information
Whereas we hypothesized that social information will modulate facial mimicry in response to congruent emotional facial expressions (EFE), we found a significant increase of EMG activity when EFE were preceded by both positive and negative social label compared to the control situation without social information

Summary

Introduction

Extant behavioral research suggests the relevance of top-down processes in the use of concepts (Schyns et al, 1998; Vermeulen et al, 2009), percepts (Bar, 2004; Quétard et al, 2015, 2016), and affects (Scherer, 1997; Hess et al, 2007; Rudrauf et al, 2008; Niedenthal et al, 2009). In a social neuroscience perspective, recent studies show that the physiological (i.e., facial mimicry) and neural underpinnings of the perception of EFE may depend upon high-level social factors associated with the targets or with the participants. Facial emotions expressed by cultural in-group (compared to out-group) targets modulate facial mimicry of participants (Mondillon et al, 2007) and event-related potentials in response to these EFE (Kubota and Ito, 2007). Because LPP amplitudes are larger for high arousing (vs low arousing) stimuli (Schupp et al, 2006), these results suggest that social relevance may function as top-down factor on positive EFE, leading observers to perceive happy faces as more relevant (i.e., larger LPP amplitude)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion