Effect of Affective Personality Information on Face Processing: Evidence from ERPs.
This study explored the extent to which there are the neural correlates of the affective personality influence on face processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the learning phase, participants viewed a target individual's face (expression neutral or faint smile) paired with either negative, neutral or positive sentences describing previous typical behavior of the target. In the following EEG testing phase, participants completed gender judgments of the learned faces. Statistical analyses were conducted on measures of neural activity during the gender judgment task. Repeated measures ANOVA of ERP data showed that faces described as having a negative personality elicited larger N170 than did those with a neutral or positive description. The early posterior negativity (EPN) showed the same result pattern, with larger amplitudes for faces paired with negative personality than for others. The size of the late positive potential was larger for faces paired with positive personality than for those with neutral and negative personality. The current study indicates that affective personality information is associated with an automatic, top-down modulation on face processing.
Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
Qiu L
QL
Luo
Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
Han L
HL
Wang
Psychological Sciences Research Institute and Institute of Neuroscience, Universite Catholique de Louvain Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Milena
M
Dzhelyova
Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
Ping
P
Huang
Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
Lei
L
Mo
ERPs; face processing; person perception; personality