The influence of prior expectations on facial expression discrimination in schizophrenia

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 2301-2311 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Barbalat ◽  
M. Rouault ◽  
N. Bazargani ◽  
S. Shergill ◽  
S.-J. Blakemore
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Prior Information ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Other ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Specific Instruction ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Sensory Evidence

BackgroundBelief inflexibility is a thinking style observed in patients with schizophrenia, in which patients tend to refute evidence that runs counter to their prior beliefs. This bias has been related to a dominance of prior expectations (prior beliefs) over incoming sensory evidence. In this study we investigated the reliance on prior expectations for the processing of emotional faces in schizophrenia.MethodEighteen patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy controls were presented with sequences of emotional (happy, fearful, angry or neutral) faces. Perceptual decisions were biased towards a particular expression by a specific instruction at the start of each sequence, referred to as the context in which stimuli occurred. Participants were required to judge the emotion on each face and the effect of the context on emotion discrimination was investigated.ResultsFor threatening emotions (anger and fear), there was a performance cost for facial expressions that were incongruent with, and perceptually close to, the expression named in the instruction. For example, for angry faces, participants in both groups made more errors and reaction times (RTs) were longer when they were asked to look out for fearful faces compared with the other contexts. This bias against sensory evidence that runs counter to prior information was stronger in the patients, evidenced by a group by context interaction in accuracy and RTs for anger and fear respectively.ConclusionsOverall, the present data suggest an overdependence on prior expectations for threatening stimuli, reflecting belief inflexibility, in schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Social Information Processing in Substance Use Disorders: Insights From an Emotional Go-Nogo Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Bjork ◽  
Lori Keyser-Marcus ◽  
Jasmin Vassileva ◽  
Tatiana Ramey ◽  
David C. Houghton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Fearful Face

Positive social connections are crucial for recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Of interest is understanding potential social information processing (SIP) mediators of this effect. To explore whether persons with different SUD show idiosyncratic biases toward social signals, we administered an emotional go-nogo task (EGNG) to 31 individuals with Cocaine Use Disorder (CoUD), 31 with Cannabis Use Disorder (CaUD), 79 with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), and 58 controls. Participants were instructed to respond to emotional faces (Fear/Happy) but withhold responses to expressionless faces in two task blocks, with the reverse instruction in the other two blocks. Emotional faces as non-targets elicited more “false alarm” (FA) commission errors as a main effect. Groups did not differ in overall rates of hits (correct responses to target faces), but participants with CaUD and CoUD showed reduced rates of hits (relative to controls) when expressionless faces were targets. OUD participants had worse hit rates [and slower reaction times (RT)] when fearful faces (but not happy faces) were targets. CaUD participants were most affected by instruction effects (respond/“go” vs withhold response/“no-go” to emotional face) on discriminability statistic A. Participants were faster to respond to happy face targets than to expressionless faces. However, this pattern was reversed in fearful face blocks in OUD and CoUD participants. This experiment replicated previous findings of the greater salience of expressive face images, and extends this finding to SUD, where persons with CaUD may show even greater bias toward emotional faces. Conversely, OUD participants showed idiosyncratic behavior in response to fearful faces suggestive of increased attentional disruption by fear. These data suggest a mechanism by which positive social signals may contribute to recovery.

scholarly journals Experience And Emotional Face Processing In Infancy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Safar
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Paired Comparison ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Emotional Face Processing ◽  
Emotional Face

Experience is suggested to shape the development of emotion processing abilities in infancy. The current dissertation investigated the influence of familiarity with particular face types and emotional faces on emotional face processing within the first year of life using a variety of metrics. The first study examined whether experience with a particular face type (own- vs. other-race faces) affected 6- and 9-month-old infants’ attentional looking preference to fearful facial expressions in a visual paired-comparison (VPC) task. Six-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful over happy facial expressions when expressed by own-race faces, but not other race-faces, whereas 9-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful expressions when expressed by both own-race and other-race faces, suggesting that experience influences how infants deploy their attention to different facial expressions. Using a longitudinal design, the second study examined whether exposure to emotional faces via picture book training at 3 months of age affected infants’ allocation of attention to fearful over happy facial expressions in both a VPC and ERP task at 5 months of age. In the VPC task, 3- and 5-month-olds without exposure to emotional faces demonstrated greater allocation of attention to fearful facial expressions. Differential exposure to emotional faces revealed a potential effect of training: 5-month-olds infants who experienced fearful faces showed an attenuated preference for fearful facial expressions compared to infants who experienced happy faces or no training. Three- and 5-month-old infants did not, however, show differential neural processing of happy and fearful facial expressions. The third study examined whether 5- and 7-month-old infants can match fearful and happy faces and voices in an intermodal preference task, and whether exposure to happy or fearful faces influences this ability. Neither 5- nor 7-month-old infants showed intermodal matching of happy or fearful facial expressions, regardless of exposure to emotional faces. Overall, results from this series of studies add to our understanding of how experience influences the development of emotional face processing in infancy.

Neural correlates of perception of emotional facial expressions in out-patients with mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety. A multicenter fMRI study

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 2253-2264 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. R. Demenescu ◽  
R. Renken ◽  
R. Kortekaas ◽  
M.-J. van Tol ◽  
J. B. C. Marsman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Depressed Patients

BackgroundDepression has been associated with limbic hyperactivation and frontal hypoactivation in response to negative facial stimuli. Anxiety disorders have also been associated with increased activation of emotional structures such as the amygdala and insula. This study examined to what extent activation of brain regions involved in perception of emotional faces is specific to depression and anxiety disorders in a large community-based sample of out-patients.MethodAn event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm was used including angry, fearful, sad, happy and neutral facial expressions. One hundred and eighty-two out-patients (59 depressed, 57 anxiety and 66 co-morbid depression-anxiety) and 56 healthy controls selected from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) were included in the present study. Whole-brain analyses were conducted. The temporal profile of amygdala activation was also investigated.ResultsFacial expressions activated the amygdala and fusiform gyrus in depressed patients with or without anxiety and in healthy controls, relative to scrambled faces, but this was less evident in patients with anxiety disorders. The response shape of the amygdala did not differ between groups. Depressed patients showed dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) hyperactivation in response to happy faces compared to healthy controls.ConclusionsWe suggest that stronger frontal activation to happy faces in depressed patients may reflect increased demands on effortful emotion regulation processes triggered by mood-incongruent stimuli. The lack of strong differences in neural activation to negative emotional faces, relative to healthy controls, may be characteristic of the mild-to-moderate severity of illness in this sample and may be indicative of a certain cognitive-emotional processing reserve.

scholarly journals Psychophysical evidence for distinct contributions in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions in backward masking task

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-172
Author(s):  
Remigiusz Szczepanowski ◽  
Agata Sobków
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Present Report ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Backward Masking ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Conscious Processing

The present report examined the hypothesis that two distinct visual routes contribute in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions. Having the participants presented with a backwardly masked task, we analyzed conscious processing of spatial frequency contents of emotional faces according to both objective and subjective taskrelevant criteria. It was shown that fear perception in the presence of the low-frequency faces can be supported by stronger automaticity leading to less false positives. In contrary, the detection of high-frequency fearful faces was more likely supported by conscious awareness leading to more true positives.

scholarly journals Categorical Perception of emotional faces is not affected by aging

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy Rossignol ◽  
Raymond Bruyer ◽  
Pierre Philippot ◽  
Salvatore Campanella
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Normal Aging ◽  
Correct Recognition ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Emotional Recognition ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Healthy Participants

Effects of normal aging on categorical perception (CP) of facial emotional expressions were investigated. One-hundred healthy participants (20 to 70 years old; five age groups) had to identify morphed expressions ranging from neutrality to happiness, sadness and fear. We analysed percentages and latencies of correct recognition for nonmorphed emotional expressions, percentages and latencies of emotional recognition for morphed-faces, locus of the boundaries along the different continua and the number of intrusions. The results showed that unmorphed happy and fearful faces were better processed than unmorphed sad and neutral faces. For morphed faces, CP was confirmed, as latencies increased as a function of the distance between the displayed morph and the original unmorphed photograph. The locus of categorical boundaries was not affected by age. Aging did not alter the accuracy of recognition for original pictures, no more than the emotional recognition of morphed faces or the rate of intrusions. However, latencies of responses increased with age, for both unmorphed and morphed pictures. In conclusion, CP of facial expressions appears to be spared in aging.

scholarly journals Experience And Emotional Face Processing In Infancy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Safar
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Paired Comparison ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Emotional Face Processing ◽  
Emotional Face

Experience is suggested to shape the development of emotion processing abilities in infancy. The current dissertation investigated the influence of familiarity with particular face types and emotional faces on emotional face processing within the first year of life using a variety of metrics. The first study examined whether experience with a particular face type (own- vs. other-race faces) affected 6- and 9-month-old infants’ attentional looking preference to fearful facial expressions in a visual paired-comparison (VPC) task. Six-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful over happy facial expressions when expressed by own-race faces, but not other race-faces, whereas 9-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful expressions when expressed by both own-race and other-race faces, suggesting that experience influences how infants deploy their attention to different facial expressions. Using a longitudinal design, the second study examined whether exposure to emotional faces via picture book training at 3 months of age affected infants’ allocation of attention to fearful over happy facial expressions in both a VPC and ERP task at 5 months of age. In the VPC task, 3- and 5-month-olds without exposure to emotional faces demonstrated greater allocation of attention to fearful facial expressions. Differential exposure to emotional faces revealed a potential effect of training: 5-month-olds infants who experienced fearful faces showed an attenuated preference for fearful facial expressions compared to infants who experienced happy faces or no training. Three- and 5-month-old infants did not, however, show differential neural processing of happy and fearful facial expressions. The third study examined whether 5- and 7-month-old infants can match fearful and happy faces and voices in an intermodal preference task, and whether exposure to happy or fearful faces influences this ability. Neither 5- nor 7-month-old infants showed intermodal matching of happy or fearful facial expressions, regardless of exposure to emotional faces. Overall, results from this series of studies add to our understanding of how experience influences the development of emotional face processing in infancy.

The Effect of Symbol Background Color on the Speed of Locating Targets by Adults Without Disabilities: Implications for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Display Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 1482-1488
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Thistle
Keyword(s):  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Other ◽  
Background Color ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Display Design ◽  
Line Drawings ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Perceptual Factors

Purpose Previous research with children with and without disabilities has demonstrated that visual–perceptual factors can influence the speech of locating a target on an array. Adults without disabilities often facilitate the learning and use of a child's augmentative and alternative communication system. The current research examined how the presence of symbol background color influenced the speed with which adults without disabilities located target line drawings in 2 studies. Method Both studies used a between-subjects design. In the 1st study, 30 adults (ages 18–29 years) located targets in a 16-symbol array. In the 2nd study, 30 adults (ages 18–34 years) located targets in a 60-symbol array. There were 3 conditions in each study: symbol background color, symbol background white with a black border, and symbol background white with a color border. Results In the 1st study, reaction times across groups were not significantly different. In the 2nd study, participants in the symbol background color condition were significantly faster than participants in the other conditions, and participants in the symbol background white with black border were significantly slower than participants in the other conditions. Conclusion Communication partners may benefit from the presence of background color, especially when supporting children using displays with many symbols.

Items’ Cross-Category Associations as a Confounding Factor in the Implicit Association Test

2001 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie C. Steffens ◽  
Inga Plewe
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Confounding Factor ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Association Test ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reaction Time Difference ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Degree Of Association

Abstract. The introduction of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 ) has stimulated numerous research activities. The IAT is supposed to measure the degree of association between concepts. Instances have to be assigned to these concepts by pressing appropriate keys as quickly as possible. The reaction time difference between certain conditions, termed the IAT effect, is used as an indicator of the degree of the concepts’ association. We tested the hypothesis that the degree of association between one concept (or category) and the instances of the other presented concept also influences reaction times. In our experiment, the instances in the target categories, male and female names, were kept constant. The adjectives in the evaluative categories were manipulated: Either the pleasant adjectives were female-associated and the unpleasant adjectives were male-associated, or vice versa. These stereotypic associations were indeed found to exert a substantial influence on the size of the IAT effect. This finding casts doubt on the assumption that the IAT effect may be interpreted as a pure measure of the degree of association between concepts.

Faster Choice-Reaction Times to Positive than to Negative Facial Expressions

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka M. Leppänen ◽  
Mirja Tenhunen ◽  
Jari K. Hietanen
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Happy Face ◽  
Response Onset ◽  
Response Execution ◽  
Onset Response ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Choice Reaction Times

Abstract Several studies have shown faster choice-reaction times to positive than to negative facial expressions. The present study examined whether this effect is exclusively due to faster cognitive processing of positive stimuli (i.e., processes leading up to, and including, response selection), or whether it also involves faster motor execution of the selected response. In two experiments, response selection (onset of the lateralized readiness potential, LRP) and response execution (LRP onset-response onset) times for positive (happy) and negative (disgusted/angry) faces were examined. Shorter response selection times for positive than for negative faces were found in both experiments but there was no difference in response execution times. Together, these results suggest that the happy-face advantage occurs primarily at premotoric processing stages. Implications that the happy-face advantage may reflect an interaction between emotional and cognitive factors are discussed.

scholarly journals Isomorphism and language-specific devices in comprehension of Korean suffixal passive construction by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyu-Ho Shin ◽  
Sun Hee Park
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Other ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Case Marking

Abstract Across languages, a passive construction is known to manifest a misalignment between the typical order of event composition (agent-before-theme) and the actual order of arguments in the constructions (theme-before-agent), dubbed non-isomorphic mapping. This study investigates comprehension of a suffixal passive construction in Korean by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean, focusing on isomorphism and language-specific devices in the passive. We measured learners’ judgment of the acceptability of canonical and scrambled suffixal passives as well as their reaction times (relative to a canonical active transitive). Our analysis generated three major findings. First, learners uniformly preferred the canonical passive to the scrambled passive. Second, as proficiency increased, the judgment gap between the canonical active transitive and the canonical suffixal passive narrowed, but the gap between the canonical active transitive and the scrambled suffixal passive did not. Third, learners (and even native speakers) spent more time in judging the acceptability of the canonical suffixal passive than they did in the other two construction types. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the mapping nature involving a passive voice, indicated by language-specific devices (i.e., case-marking and verbal morphology dedicated to Korean passives), in L2 acquisition.

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