Context sensitivity in the detection of changes in facial emotion.
In social contexts, reading subtle changes in others' facial expressions is a crucial communication skill. To measure this ability, we developed an expression-change detection task, wherein a series of pictures of changes in an individual's facial expressions within contextual scenes were presented. The results demonstrated that the detection of subtle changes was highly sensitive to contextual stimuli. That is, participants identified the direction of facial-expression changes more accurately and more quickly when they were 'appropriate'-consistent with the valence of the contextual stimulus change-than when they were 'inappropriate'. Moreover, individual differences in sensitivity to contextual stimuli were correlated with scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, a commonly used measure of alexithymia tendencies. These results suggest that the current behavioural task might facilitate investigations of the role of context in human social cognition.
Department of Functional Brain Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.|Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Behavior and Cognition Joint Research Laboratory, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, Japan 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.
Yuichi
Y
Yamashita
Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Human Informatics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan.
Tomomi
T
Fujimura
Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
Kentaro
K
Katahira
Department of Functional Brain Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
Manabu
M
Honda
Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8561 Chiba, Japan.
Masato
M
Okada
Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Behavior and Cognition Joint Research Laboratory, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, Japan 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198 Japan.|Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
Kazuo
K
Okanoya
D000293:Adolescent; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult