Don't look at me in anger! Enhanced processing of angry faces in anticipation of public speaking.
Anxiety is supposed to enhance the processing of threatening information. Here, we investigated the cortical processing of angry faces during anticipated public speaking. To elicit anxiety, a group of participants was told that they would have to perform a public speech. As a control condition, another group was told that they would have to write a short essay. During anticipation of these tasks, participants saw facial expressions (angry, happy, and neutral) while electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potential analysis revealed larger N170 amplitudes for angry compared to happy and neutral faces in the anxiety group. The early posterior negativity as an index of motivated attention was also enhanced for angry compared to happy and neutral faces in participants anticipating public speaking. These results indicate that fear of public speaking influences early perceptual processing of faces such that especially the processing of angry faces is facilitated.
Wieser
Matthias J
MJ
Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. wieser@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Pauli
Paul
P
Reicherts
Philipp
P
Mühlberger
Andreas
A
D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult