The facilitated processing of threatening faces: an ERP analysis.
Threatening, friendly, and neutral faces were presented to test the hypothesis of the facilitated perceptual processing of threatening faces. Dense sensor event-related brain potentials were measured while subjects viewed facial stimuli. Subjects had no explicit task for emotional categorization of the faces. Assessing early perceptual stimulus processing, threatening faces elicited an early posterior negativity compared with nonthreatening neutral or friendly expressions. Moreover, at later stages of stimulus processing, facial threat also elicited augmented late positive potentials relative to the other facial expressions, indicating the more elaborate perceptual analysis of these stimuli. Taken together, these data demonstrate the facilitated perceptual processing of threatening faces. Results are discussed within the context of an evolved module of fear (A. Ohman & S. Mineka, 2001).
Schupp
Harald T
HT
Department of Psychology, University of of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. harald.schupp@uni-konstanz.de
Ohman
Arne
A
Junghöfer
Markus
M
Weike
Almut I
AI
Stockburger
Jessica
J
Hamm
Alfons O
AO
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D011897:Random Allocation; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception