title: Culture, gaze and the neural processing of fear expressions.
abstract: The direction of others' eye gaze has important influences on how we perceive their emotional expressions. Here, we examined differences in neural activation to direct- versus averted-gaze fear faces as a function of culture of the participant (Japanese versus US Caucasian), culture of the stimulus face (Japanese versus US Caucasian), and the relation between the two. We employed a previously validated paradigm to examine differences in neural activation in response to rapidly presented direct- versus averted-fear expressions, finding clear evidence for a culturally determined role of gaze in the processing of fear. Greater neural responsivity was apparent to averted- versus direct-gaze fear in several regions related to face and emotion processing, including bilateral amygdalae, when posed on same-culture faces, whereas greater response to direct- versus averted-gaze fear was apparent in these same regions when posed on other-culture faces. We also found preliminary evidence for intercultural variation including differential responses across participants to Japanese versus US Caucasian stimuli, and to a lesser degree differences in how Japanese and US Caucasian participants responded to these stimuli. These findings reveal a meaningful role of culture in the processing of eye gaze and emotion, and highlight their interactive influences in neural processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. radams@psu.edu
authors.forename: Reginald B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: Nicholas O
authors.initials: NO
authors.lastname: Rule
authors.forename: Jonathan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: Kestutis
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kveraga
authors.forename: Nouchine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hadjikhani
authors.forename: Sakiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
authors.forename: Nalini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ambady
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012938:Social Perception; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult