Processing of affective faces varying in valence and intensity in shy adults: An event-related fMRI study.

Erica L Tatham,Jay Schulkin,Elliott A Beaton,Geoffrey B Hall,Louis A Schmidt

doi:10.3922/j.psns.2013.1.09

Erica L Tatham, Jay Schulkin + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2013.1.09

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Abstract

behavioral and electrocortical studies have found that shy and socially anxious adults are hypersensitive to the processing of negative and ambiguous facial emotions. We attempted to extend these findings by examining the neural correlates of affective face processing in shy adults using an event-related fMRI design. We presented pairs of faces that varied in affective valence and intensity. The faces were morphed to alter the degree of intensity of the emotional expressive faces. Twenty-four (12 shy and 12 non-shy) young adult participants then made same/different judgments to these faces while in an MR scanner. We found that shy adults exhibited greater neural activation across a distinct range of brain regions to pairs of faces expressing negative emotions, moderate levels of emotional intensity, and emotional faces that were incongruent with one another. In contrast, non-shy individuals exhibited greater neural activation across a distinct range of brain regions to pairs of faces expressing positive emotions, low levels of emotional intensity, and emotional faces that were congruent with one another. Findings suggest that there are differences in neural responses between shy and non-shy adults when viewing affective faces that vary in valence, intensity, and discrepancy.

Highlights

Recent behavioral and electrocortical studies have found that shy and socially anxious adults are hypersensitive to the processing of negative and ambiguous facial emotions
We examined whether people who are shy would show greater sensitivity to lower versus higher intensities of faces varying in affective valence than non-shy adults and whether there were distinct neural correlates associated with these processes
To examine if neural responses during detection were related to affective valence, we contrasted neural responses for shy and non-shy adults when they viewed faces categorized as positively valenced emotion with negatively valenced emotions

Summary

Introduction

Recent behavioral and electrocortical studies have found that shy and socially anxious adults are hypersensitive to the processing of negative and ambiguous facial emotions. Shy adults exhibited greater bilateral amygdala activation (Beaton et al, 2008) and reduced fusiform activity (Beaton et al, 2009) during the processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces as measured by fMRI These patterns of neural responses suggest that shy individuals exhibit an initial hypervigilance for detecting negative emotions and threat cues as reflected in a short ERP latency to the processing of fear faces and increased bilateral amygdala activation, possibly followed by avoidance of unfamiliar faces reflected in reduced fusiform activity. Together these findings are consistent with a vigilance–avoidance hypothesis of anxiety (e.g., Bogels & Mansell, 2004).

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