The man behind the mask: The effect of visual masks on event-related potentials elicited in response to emotional faces.

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The man behind the mask: The effect of visual masks on event-related potentials elicited in response to emotional faces. Emma J. Kornfeld1*, Samantha K. Allen1, Jacqueline A. Rushby1 and Skye McDonald1 1 University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Australia Aims: Facial expressions are an integral part of communication, and the processing of such stimuli has been shown to occur as early as 50ms. Event-related potentials (ERPs) allow great insight into understanding the time course of face processing and what factors may affect this processing. The current study investigated whether masking briefly presented emotional facial expressions influenced the ERPs elicited in response to these expressions. Method: 17 university students (8 male) viewed a series of angry and happy faces that were presented for either 30ms or 125ms and then masked by either a neutral face or a scrambled image. Allocation to neutral face mask and pixel mask conditions was counterbalanced. P100, N170, P200, N250 and LPP ERPs were examined at PO7 and PO8. Results: Amplitudes for all components were larger at PO8 compared to PO7, and larger for the pixel mask condition compared to the neutral face. Duration of presentation only showed a significant effect in the pixel mask condition, such that the angry faces presented for a short amount of time elicited a larger N170 and N250 than other faces at PO7. At PO8 the happy faces elicited significantly larger P2 amplitudes than angry, while the happy and angry faces presented at the shorter duration elicited a larger N250 than faces presented for longer durations. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the processing of emotional stimuli can occur at a subconscious level, even when masked by non-emotional stimuli. Understanding such rapid processing is key to interpreting the deficits in emotion processing that underlie many psychiatric disorders. Keywords: face processing, Event-related potentials, ERP, backward masking, emotion processing Conference: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Psychophysiology Citation: Kornfeld EJ, Allen SK, Rushby JA and McDonald S (2015). The man behind the mask: The effect of visual masks on event-related potentials elicited in response to emotional faces.. Conference Abstract: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00020 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Oct 2015; Published Online: 30 Nov 2015. * Correspondence: Miss. Emma J Kornfeld, University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia, emma.kornfeld@student.unsw.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Emma J Kornfeld Samantha K Allen Jacqueline A Rushby Skye McDonald Google Emma J Kornfeld Samantha K Allen Jacqueline A Rushby Skye McDonald Google Scholar Emma J Kornfeld Samantha K Allen Jacqueline A Rushby Skye McDonald PubMed Emma J Kornfeld Samantha K Allen Jacqueline A Rushby Skye McDonald Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.