Abstract
As social signals, identical facial expressions can be perceived differently, even oppositely, depending on the circumstances. Fast and accurate understanding of the information conveyed by others’ facial expressions is crucial for successful social interaction. In the current study, we used electroencephalographic analysis of several event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how the brain processes the facial expressions of others when they indicate different self-outcomes. In half of the trial blocks, a happy face indicated “Win” and an angry face indicated “Lose.” In the other half of the blocks, the rule was reversed. The results showed that the N170 could distinguish expression valence and the N300 could distinguish outcome valence. The valence of the expression (happy or angry) and the valence of the outcome (Win or Loss) interacted with each other in the early, automatic perceptual processing stage (N1) as well as in the later, cognitive evaluation stage (P300). Standardized Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (sLORETA) results indicated that the N1 modulation only occurred for happy faces, which may relate to automatic emotion regulation, while the interaction on P300 was significant only for angry faces, which might be associated with the regulation of negative emotions.
Highlights
The facial expressions of others convey information that is important for social communication
We used Standardized Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography to determine the sources of the differences that we found in the N100 and P300 components. sLORETA is a functional imaging method based on certain EEG and neuroanatomical constraints (Pascual-Marqui et al, 1994)
We found a significant main effect of face on N170 amplitude such that angry faces elicited significant larger amplitudes than happy faces. [Happy: −5.922 μV; Angry: −6.258 μV; F(1, 17) = 7.457, ηp2 = 0.305, and p = 0.014]
Summary
The facial expressions of others convey information that is important for social communication. The same facial expression can be perceived differently depending on these influencing factors. This phenomenon could be assumed in two ways. A happy face of a partner indicates one’s team is winning In this case, both the valence of the facial expression and the valence of its outcome to him/her are positive. The processing and decoding of facial expressions of emotion involves a double check of valence and specific emotional information for the perceiver (Aguado et al, 2013, 2019). How the valence of a perceived emotion and the valence of the self-outcome it conveys are processed in the brain has not yet been explored
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