Neutral Face Condition Research Articles

Reward History Modulates the Processing of Task-Irrelevant Emotional Faces in a Demanding Task.

The aim of the current study was to examine how reward-associated emotional facial distractors could capture attentional resources in a demanding visual task using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the learning phase, a high- or low-reward probability was paired with angry, happy, or neutral faces. Then, in the test phase, participants performed a face-irrelevant task with no reward at stake, in which they needed to discriminate the length of two lines presented in the center of the screen while faces that were taken from the learning phase were used as distractors presented in the periphery. The behavioral results revealed no effect of distractor emotional valence since the emotional information was task-irrelevant. The ERP results in the test phase revealed a significant main effect of distractor emotional valence for the parieto-occipital P200 (170-230 ms); the mean amplitudes in both the angry- and happy-face conditions were more positive than the neutral-face condition. Moreover, we found that the high-reward association enhanced both the N170 (140-180 ms) and EPN (260-330 ms) relative to the low-reward association condition. Finally, the N2pc (270-320 ms) also exhibited enhanced neural activity in the high-reward condition compared to the low-reward condition. The absence of emotional effects indicated that task-irrelevant emotional facial stimuli did not impact behavioral or neural responses in this highly demanding task. However, reward-associated information was processed when attention was directed elsewhere, suggesting that the processing of reward-associated information worked more in an automatic way, irrespective of the top-down task demand.

Politically Biased Time Perception and Perspective

Abstract The main objective of this study was to determine if the estimation of time could be used to reveal an implicit political bias. The study also aimed at determining if a political bias is related to a specific temporal perspective or to other personality factors. The main demonstration is based on a bisection temporal task where the participants were asked to say if the duration of the presentation of a politician’s photo is short or long. There were three independent variables of interest: the location of politicians on the left (liberal) or right (conservative) on the political axis, the emotions expressed on a politician’s photo (joy, anger or neutral), and the political allegiances of the participants. Overall, compared to conditions with neutral faces or faces expressing joy, participants overestimated the duration of faces expressing anger. This effect, however, depends on the political allegiance of the participants. Compared to the neutral face condition, liberal participants overestimated the length of presentation of politicians’ faces in the joy and anger conditions. The results also showed that, compared to the condition in which photos of conservative politicians are presented, conservative participants underestimated the presentation duration of liberal politicians’ photos; such an influence of the orientation of presented politicians was not observed with liberal participants. The results also reveal that conservative participants differed from liberal participants on the future-oriented scale and on the past-positive-oriented scale of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). The study shows that time perception can be used to reveal a kind of implicit political bias.

Facial expressions modulate pain perception in patients with chronic migraine.

First, we investigated whether the exposure to different visual feedback conditions may modulate pain perception by means of visual induced analgesia in patients with chronic migraine. Second, to comprehend the way emotional face expressions could induce visual analgesia, we evaluated the degree of identification with the four experimental conditions. In a 1 × 4 within-subject study design, 38 female chronic migraine patients were exposed to different visual stimuli - positive face, neutral face, negative face, and control (white screen) - during a migraine attack. Visual stimuli were presented 3 times in a randomized order (each condition lasted 40 seconds). Migraine pain ratings and identification scores were assessed immediately after the observation of each visual condition. We observed a significant difference in pain ratings between the positive (median: 30, 95% CI 26.69 to 38.20) and the negative (median: 30, 95% CI 33.09 to 44.13) (z = -4.46, p < 0.0001) facial expressions or the neutral facial expression (median: 30, 95% CI 31.89 to 42.41) (z = 3.41, p < 0.001). Participants identified more with the neutral face condition than with the other conditions. Observation of a positive emotional face resulted sufficient to modulate pain perception possibly via the mediation of emotion regulation for positive emotions. This study paves the way for the integration of new cognitive behavioural interventions based on the adoption of visual induced analgesia to further control pain perception in chronic migraine patients.

Mental Simulation of Facial Expressions: Mu Suppression to the Viewing of Dynamic Neutral Face Videos.

The mirror neuron network (MNN) has been proposed as a neural substrate of action understanding. Electroencephalography (EEG) mu suppression has commonly been studied as an index of MNN activity during execution and observation of hand and finger movements. However, in order to establish its role in higher order processes, such as recognizing and sharing emotions, more research using social emotional stimuli is needed. The current study aims to contribute to our understanding of the sensitivity of mu suppression to facial expressions. Modulation of the mu and occipital alpha (8–13 Hz) rhythms was calculated in 22 participants while they observed dynamic video stimuli, including emotional (happy and sad) and neutral (mouth opening) facial expressions, and non-biological stimulus (kaleidoscope pattern). Across the four types of stimuli, only the neutral face was associated with a significantly stronger mu suppression than the non-biological stimulus. Occipital alpha suppression was significantly greater in the non-biological stimulus than all the face conditions. Source estimation standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) analysis comparing the neural sources of mu/alpha modulation between neutral face and non-biological stimulus showed more suppression in the central regions, including the supplementary motor and somatosensory areas, than the more posterior regions. EEG and source estimation results may indicate that reduced availability of emotional information in the neutral face condition requires more sensorimotor engagement in deciphering emotion-related information than the full-blown happy or sad expressions that are more readily recognized.

Faces presenting sadness enhance self-control abilities in gifted adolescents.

Self-regulation skills refer to processes allowing emotional and cognitive adaptation of the individual. Some gifted adolescents are known for their imbalance between high intellectual abilities and low emotional skills. Thus, this study aimed at examining the interplay between emotion and cognition in gifted and non-gifted adolescents. A stop-signal task, a response inhibition task including neutral, happy, or sad faces as signal triggering inhibition, was administered to 19 gifted and 20 typically developing male adolescents (12-18years old). Gifted adolescents showed lower response inhibition abilities than non-gifted adolescents in the neutral and happy face conditions. Sad faces in gifted adolescents were associated with higher response inhibition compared to happy condition. In typically developing adolescents, emotional information (happy or sad faces) was related to lower response inhibition compared to neutral face condition. This study highlights that gifted adolescents present different self-regulation skills than their typically developing peers. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Some gifted adolescents present higher intellectual abilities alongside with lower socio-emotional skills. Self-regulation skills refer to processes allowing emotional and cognitive adaptation. Self-regulation skills might help to understand gifted adolescents, but remain scarcely studied. What does this study adds? Task-relevant emotional information impaired cognitive control in typically developing adolescents. Gifted adolescents are able to use sad faces to enhance their cognitive control abilities.

History of Childhood Maltreatment and College Academic Outcomes: Indirect Effects of Hot Execution Function.

College students who report a history of childhood maltreatment may be at risk for poor outcomes. In the current study, we conducted an exploratory analysis to examine potential models that statistically mediate associations between aspects of maltreatment and aspects of academic outcome, with a particular focus on executive functions (EF). Consistent with contemporary EF research, we distinguished between relatively “cool” EF tasks (i.e., performed in a context relatively free of emotional or motivational valence) and “hot” EF tasks that emphasize performance under more emotionally arousing conditions. Sixty-one male and female college undergraduates self-reported childhood maltreatment history (emotional abuse and neglect, physical abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse) on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and were given two EF measures: (1) Go-No-Go (GNG) test that included a Color Condition (cool); Neutral Face Condition (warm); and Emotion Face condition (hot), and (2) Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a measure of risky decision making that reflects hot EF. Academic outcomes were: (1) grade point average (GPA: first-semester, cumulative, and semester concurrent with testing), and (2) Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Correlational patterns suggested two EF scores as potential mediators: GNG reaction time (RT) in the Neutral Face condition, and IGT Block 2 adaptive responding. Indirect effects analyses indicated that IGT Block 2 adaptive responding has an indirect effect on the relationship between CTQ Total score and 1st semester GPA, and between CTQ Emotional Abuse and concurrent GPA. Regarding college adaptation, we identified a consistent indirect effect of GNG Neutral Face RT on the relationship between CTQ Emotional Neglect and SACQ total, academic, social, and personal–emotional adaption scores. Our results demonstrate that higher scores on a child maltreatment history self-report negatively predict college academic outcomes as assessed by GPA and by self-reported adaptation. Further, relatively “hot” EF task performance on the IGT and GNG tasks serves as a link between child maltreatment experiences and college achievement and adaptation, suggesting that hot EF skills may be a fruitful direction for future intervention efforts to improve academic outcomes for this population.

"Incidental fear cues increase monetary loss aversion": Correction to Schulreich, Gerhardt, and Heekeren (2016).

Reports an error in "Incidental fear cues increase monetary loss aversion" by Stefan Schulreich, Holger Gerhardt and Hauke R. Heekeren (Emotion, 2016[Apr], Vol 16[3], 402-412). In the current article, there was an error in the Study 2 portion of the article. The fourth paragraph of the Results section should read as follows: Performing the same analyses as in Study 1, we found an effect of incidental fear cues on decision behavior. Participants accepted fewer gambles in the fearful-face condition (32.77%) than in the neutral-face condition (33.96%), with Z = -2.187, p = .027, d = -0.998 in the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and β = 0.012, SE = 0.0053, F(1, 21) = 4.434, p = .047, partial η² = .174 in the linear regression. This suggests increased risk aversion in the fearful-face condition. Concerning personality, however, there were no significant between-subjects effects or between-within interaction effects (all ps = .349). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-52358-001.) In many everyday decisions, people exhibit loss aversion-a greater sensitivity to losses relative to gains of equal size. Loss aversion is thought to be (at least partly) mediated by emotional-in particular, fear-related-processes. Decision research has shown that even incidental emotions, which are unrelated to the decision at hand, can influence decision making. The effect of incidental fear on loss aversion, however, is thus far unclear. In two studies, we experimentally investigated how incidental fear cues, presented during (Study 1) or before (Study 2) choices to accept or reject mixed gambles over real monetary stakes, influence monetary loss aversion. We find that the presentation of fearful faces, relative to the presentation of neutral faces, increased risk aversion-an effect that could be attributed to increased loss aversion. The size of this effect was moderated by psychopathic personality: Fearless dominance, in particular its interpersonal facet, but not self-centered impulsivity, attenuated the effect of incidental fear cues on loss aversion, consistent with reduced fear reactivity. Together, these results highlight the sensitivity of loss aversion to the affective context. (PsycINFO Database Record

Decreased neural response for facial emotion processing in subjects with high genetic load for schizophrenia

BackgroundPatients with schizophrenia show impairment in facial emotion processing which is essential for successful social cognition. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study aimed to investigate the implicit facial emotion recognition processing in participants with high genetic load for schizophrenia (GHR) as a possible trait marker of developing schizophrenia. MethodsBlock design fMRI of implicit facial emotion processing was used in 20 participants with GHR aged 16–35, and 17 age, sex, and education year-matched healthy controls (HC). During the facial emotional processing for fearful, happy, and neutral face stimuli, participants were asked to explicitly determine the gender per stimuli. ResultsOccipito-temporo-limbic area in fearful face condition and involvement of broader region including prefrontal cortex in neutral face condition revealed significant attenuation of BOLD signal activation in GHR compared to HC. The GHR demonstrated less activity in right amygdala during fearful and neutral face condition. ConclusionThe study presented that GHR displayed abnormal brain activity in occipito-temporo-limbic-frontal network implicated in facial emotion processing. It indicates that abnormal facial emotion processing may be influenced by a genetic factor and could be a trait marker in schizophrenia.

Emotional interference modulates performance monitoring in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

BackgroundEnhanced performance monitoring in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), typically measured by error-related negativity (ERN), provides evidence for the fronto–striatal model of OCD. Here, we examined whether performance monitoring in OCD patients is modulated by emotional interference induced by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. MethodsA modified version of the flanker task with emotional face stimuli (fearful vs. neutral faces) was performed by 22 OCD patients and 22 healthy control subjects while electroencephalogram signals were recorded. Response-locked ERN was defined as the mean amplitude from 20 to 120msec after the response. ResultsDuring trials with fearful face stimuli, OCD patients showed larger ERN amplitude than control subjects, but there was no difference between groups during trials with neutral face stimuli. Whereas OCD patients exhibited enhanced ERN amplitude in the fearful face condition compared with the neutral face condition, control subjects showed no variation between conditions. OCD patients also exhibited larger correct response negativity amplitude than control subjects in both fearful and neutral face conditions. ConclusionsThese results support the theory that OCD involves overactive performance monitoring and indicate that emotional interference modulates performance monitoring in patients with OCD, thus implying that affective function in the fronto–striatal network forms part of the neural basis of OCD.

Early visual processing for low spatial frequency fearful face is correlated with cortical volume in patients with schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia present with dysfunction of the magnocellular pathway, which might impair their early visual processing. We explored the relationship between functional abnormality of early visual processing and brain volumetric changes in schizophrenia. Eighteen patients and 16 healthy controls underwent electroencephalographic recordings and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. During electroencephalographic recordings, participants passively viewed neutral or fearful faces with broad, high, or low spatial frequency characteristics. Voxel-based morphometry was performed to investigate brain volume correlates of visual processing deficits. Event related potential analysis suggested that patients with schizophrenia had relatively impaired P100 processing of low spatial frequency fearful face stimuli compared with healthy controls; patients’ gray-matter volumes in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortices positively correlated with this amplitude. In addition, patients’ gray-matter volume in the right cuneus positively correlated with the P100 amplitude in the left hemisphere for the high spatial frequency neutral face condition and that in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex negatively correlated with the negative score of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. No significant correlations were observed in healthy controls. This study suggests that the cuneus and prefrontal cortex are significantly involved with the early visual processing of magnocellular input in patients with schizophrenia.

Dissociative part-dependent biopsychosocial reactions to backward masked angry and neutral faces: An fMRI study of dissociative identity disorder

ObjectiveThe Theory of Structural Dissociation of the Personality (TSDP) proposes that dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients are fixed in traumatic memories as “Emotional Parts” (EP), but mentally avoid these as “Apparently Normal Parts” of the personality (ANP). We tested the hypotheses that ANP and EP have different biopsychosocial reactions to subliminally presented angry and neutral faces, and that actors instructed and motivated to simulate ANP and EP react differently.MethodsWomen with DID and matched healthy female actors (CON) were as ANP and EP (DIDanp, DIDep, CONanp, CONep) consecutively exposed to masked neutral and angry faces. Their brain activation was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The black-and-white dotted masks preceding and following the faces each had a centered colored dot, but in a different color. Participants were instructed to immediately press a button after a perceived color change. State anxiety was assessed after each run using the STAI-S. Final statistical analyses were conducted on 11 DID patients and 15 controls for differences in neural activity, and 13 DID patients and 15 controls for differences in behavior and psychometric measures.ResultsDifferences between ANP and EP in DID patients and between DID and CON in the two dissociative parts of the personality were generally larger for neutral than for angry faces. The longest reaction times (RTs) existed for DIDep when exposed to neutral faces. Compared to DIDanp, DIDep was associated with more activation of the parahippocampal gyrus. Following neutral faces and compared to CONep, DIDep had more activation in the brainstem, face-sensitive regions, and motor-related areas. DIDanp showed a decreased activity all over the brain in the neutral and angry face condition. There were neither significant within differences nor significant between group differences in state anxiety. CON was not able to simulate genuine ANP and EP biopsychosocially.ConclusionsDID patients have dissociative part-dependent biopsychosocial reactions to masked neutral and angry faces. As EP, they are overactivated, and as ANP underactivated. The findings support TSDP. Major clinical implications are discussed.

Facial emotion linked cooperation in patients with paranoid schizophrenia: A test on the Interpersonal Communication Model

Patients with schizophrenia consistently show deficits in facial affect perception and social behaviours. It is illusive to suggest that these deficits in facial affect perception cause poor social behaviours. The present research aims to study how facial affects influence ingratiation, cooperation and punishment behaviours of the patients. Forty outpatients with paranoid schizophrenia, 26 matched depressed patients and 46 healthy volunteers were recruited. After measurement of clinical symptoms and depression, their facial emotion recognition, neurocognitive functioning and the facial affects dependent cooperative behaviour were measured using a modified version of Mixed-Motive Game. The depressed control group showed demographic characteristics, depression levels and neurocognitive functioning similar to the schizophrenic group. Patients with schizophrenia committed significantly more errors in neutral face identification than the other two groups. They were significantly more punitive on the Mixed-Motive Game in the neutral face condition. Neutral face misidentification was a unique emotion-processing deficit in the schizophrenic group. Their increase in punitive behaviours in the neutral face condition might confuse their family members and trigger more expressed emotion from them, thus increasing the risk of relapse. Family members might display more happy faces to promote positive relationships with patients.

Infants' neural processing of positive emotion and eye gaze

Previous research demonstrated that young infants' neural processing of novel objects is enhanced by a fearful face gazing toward the object. The current event-related potential (ERP) study addresses the question of whether this effect is driven by the particular threat-value of a fearful expression or whether a positive emotion could elicit a similar response. Three-month-old infants' brain responses were measured while infants were presented with happy and neutral faces gazing toward simultaneously presented objects (Experiment 1) or happy and neutral faces gazing away from objects (Experiment 2). Then the objects were presented again without the face. While infants showed an increased neural response for happy relative to neutral faces looking towards objects, infants did not differentiate between happy and neutral faces gazing away from the objects. Furthermore, infants showed no different response to objects alone in Experiment 1. However, infants responded with an increased negative central component (Nc) indicating increased attention for objects in the neutral face condition in Experiment 2. The current results confirm previous findings showing that infants allocate increased attention to an emotional face if it directs eye gaze toward an object in the environment. However, a happy expression does not increase subsequent processing of the gaze-cued object. The findings are discussed in terms of early social cognitive development.

FMRI of fearful facial affect recognition in panic disorder: The cingulate gyrus–amygdala connection

Background This study investigated cingulate cortex (CC) and amygdala response to fearful facial affect recognition in patients with panic disorder (PD) as measured by BOLD fMRI during the presentation of static facial images. Methods Eight patients with PD and eight controls were studied. Scanning was performed on a GE Signa 1.5-T scanner. Echo planar and high-resolution MR images were acquired. Results Controls produced greater CC activation compared to patients with PD in response to fearful faces. Furthermore, patients with PD produced less amygdala activation than controls in response to fearful faces. During the neutral face condition, overall activation for the CC was significantly greater in PD patients although anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation was not as markedly different between both groups. There were no between group differences in amygdala activation on exposure to the neutral face. Only left CC activation was significantly correlated negatively with HAM-A in PD patients in the fearful facial affect condition. Limitations Although comparable to similar studies, the sample size is small enough to warrant further investigation. Also, the effects of medication need to be considered when interpreting these results. Conclusions Patients with PD activate the ACC and amygdala significantly less than controls when asked to identify fearful facial affect during fMRI. The higher the anxiety, the lower the left CC activation. Thus, chronic hyperarousal in PD may diminish attentional resources and emotional response reflected in reduced ACC and amygdala activation. Even if these are medication effects, the differences from controls are clinically relevant.

顔線画の表情と視覚的注意の定位―口の形状が視線による手掛かり一致効果に及ぼす影響―

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the shape of the mouth on spatial attention evoked by gaze. Mouth shapes used were a straight mouth, a round mouth, an upper semicircular mouth, and a lower semicircular mouth, which correspond to a neutral expression, a surprise expression, an unpleasant expression, and a pleasant expression, respectively. No cuing effects were found in 600 ms and 1000 ms SOA conditions. In shorter SOA conditions (50 ms to 300 ms), facial expressions revealed significantly different time courses of the cuing effect. A significant response time (RT) gain appeared later and disappeared earlier in the pleasant face condition than in the neutral face condition. In the surprise face condition, the RT gain was lost earlier than in the neutral face condition. An unpleasant face condition showed a rather similar change in RT gain to the neutral face condition. SOA conditions in terms of maximal gains were discussed.

Task relevant effects on the assessment of cerebral specialization for facial emotion

Hemispheric specialization for processing different types of rapidly exposed stimuli was examined in a forced choice reaction time task. Four conditions of recognition were included: tacial emotion, neutral faces, emotional words, and neutral words. Only the facial emotion condition produced a significant visual field advantage (in favor of the left visual field), but this condition did not differ significantly from the neutral face condition's left visual field superiority. The verbal conditions produced significantly decreased latencies with RVF presentation, while the LVF presentation was associated with decreased latencies on the facial conditions. These results suggested that facial recognition and affective processing cannot be separated as independent factors generating right hemisphere superiority for facial emotion perception, and that task parameters (verbal vs. nonverbal) are important influences upon effects in studies of cerebral specialization.