Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces

Influence of male's facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness and social interest on female's decisions of fairness

The present study employed dictator game and ultimatum game to investigate the effect of facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness and social interest in expressing positive ("I like you") versus negative signals ("I don't like you") on decision making. Female participants played against male recipients in dictator game and ultimatum game while played against male proposers in ultimatum game. Results showed that participants offered recipients with attractive faces more money than recipients with unattractive faces. Participants also offered recipients with attractive voices more money than recipients with unattractive voices, especially under the positive social interest condition. Moreover, participants allocated more money to recipients who expressed positive social interest than those who expressed negative social interest, whereas they would also expect proposers who expressed positive social interest to offer them more money than proposers who expressed negative social interest. Overall, the results inform beauty premium for faces and voices on opposite-sex economic bargaining. Social interest also affects decision outcomes. However, the beauty premium and effect of social interest varies with participants' roles.

Modulation of the attentional response to baby schema by testosterone in pedohebephilic men and its relation to the nurturing system

Previous fMRI research found increased brain responses in men with pedophilic interest to non-sexual pictures of child and animal faces. This raised the question of whether an aberrant nurturing system could be linked to pedophilia. To further explore this hypothesis, 20 pedohebephilic and 23 teleiophilic men performed a target detection task with adult versus infant human and animal faces, which measured selective attention towards the baby schema by comparing reaction times to infant versus adult targets that were presented amongst distractors of the other category. Since the response to baby schema can be influenced by steroid hormones, saliva samples were additionally collected to determine endogenous testosterone, progesterone, estradiol and cortisol. Contrary to expectations, all men did not react faster to infant than adult faces. Yet, pedohebephilic men were more distracted by infant's faces than teleiophilic men. Pedohebephilic men with higher testosterone were faster in orienting attention to infant targets in the context of adult distractors. This association was not observed in teleiophilic men. Our results support the idea of an overactive nurturing system in pedophilia, which may be influenced by the endogenous testosterone level.

Facing infant cuteness: How nurturing care motivation and oxytocin system gene methylation are associated with responses to baby schema features

Baby schema features are a specific set of physical features-including chubby cheeks, large, low-set eyes, and a large, round head-that have evolutionary adaptive value in their ability to trigger nurturant care. In this study among nulliparous women (N = 81; M age = 23.60, SD = 0.44), we examined how sensitivity to these baby schema features differs based on individual variations in nurturant care motivation and oxytocin system gene methylation. We integrated subjective ratings with measures of facial expressions and electroencephalography (EEG) in response to infant faces that were manipulated to contain more or less pronounced baby schema features. Linear mixed effects analyses demonstrated that infants with more pronounced baby schema features were rated as cuter and participants indicated greater motivation to take care of them. Furthermore, infants with more pronounced baby schema features elicited stronger smiling responses and enhanced P2 and LPP amplitudes compared to infants with less pronounced baby schema features. Importantly, individual differences significantly predicted baby schema effects. Specifically, women with low OXTR methylation and high nurturance motivation showed enhanced differentiation in automatic neurophysiological responses to infants with high and low levels of baby schema features. These findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in continued research to further understand the complexities of sensitivity to child cues, including facial features, which will improve our understanding of the intricate neurobiological system that forms the basis of caregiving behavior.

Fat or fillers: The dilemma in eyelid surgery

The aging of the periocular region has always aroused great interest. A fresh, young, and attractive sight determined an ever-greater attention to surgical and non-surgical techniques to obtain this result. In particular, the change in the concept of a young look, considered then "full", led to the increasing use of surgical (fat grafting) or medical (hyaluronic acid) filling techniques. Eyelid rejuvenation became increasingly popular in the field of cosmetic treatments, with a focus on achieving a youthful and refreshed appearance. Among the various techniques available, the choice between using fat grafting or fillers presented a clinical dilemma. In particular, what surgery considered of fundamental importance was a long-lasting result over time. On the other hand, aesthetic medicine considered it fundamental not to have to resort to invasive treatments. But what was the reality? Was there one path better than the other, and above all, was there a better path for patients? The minireview aims to explore the physiopathology, diagnosis, treatment options, prognosis, and future studies regarding this dilemma. We analyzed the literature produced in the last 20 years comparing the two techniques. Current literature reveals advancements in biomaterials, stem cell research and tissue engineering held promise for further enhancing the field of eyelid rejuvenation. The choice between fat grafting and fillers in eyelid cosmetic treatments presented a clinical dilemma. Understanding physiopathology, accurately diagnosing eyelid aging, exploring treatment options, assessing prognosis, and conducting future studies were essential for providing optimal care to patients seeking eyelid rejuvenation.

Lorenz's classic 'baby schema': a useful biological concept?

Konrad Lorenz introduced the concept of a 'baby schema', suggesting that infants have specific physical features, such as a relatively large head, large eyes and protruding cheeks, which function as an innate releaser to promote caretaking motivation from perceivers. Over the years, a large body of research has been conducted on the baby schema. However, there are two critical problems underpinning the current literature. First, the term 'baby schema' lacks consistency among researchers. Some researchers use the term baby schema to refer to infant stimuli (often faces) in comparison with adults (categorical usage), while others use the term to refer to the extent that features contribute to cuteness perception (spectrum usage). Second, cross-species continuity of the 'baby schema' has been assumed despite few empirical demonstrations. The evolutionary and comparative relevance of the concept is, therefore, debatable, and we cannot exclude the possibility that extreme sensitivity to the baby schema is a uniquely human trait. This article critically reviews the state of the existing literature and evaluates the significance of the baby schema from an evolutionary perspective.

Neither Parents' Sex Nor the Type of Family Modulates Attentional Bias Toward Infant Faces: A Preliminary Study in Different-Sex and Same-Sex Parents

An attentional bias toward infant versus adult faces has been detected in parents and positively associated with sensitive caregiving behaviors. In previous research, the attentional bias has been measured as the difference in attention, in terms of reaction times, captured by infant versus adult faces; the larger the difference, the greater the cognitive engagement that adults deployed to infant faces. However, research so far has been mostly confined to samples of mothers, who have been more represented than fathers. Moreover, new family forms, especially same-sex families of men, have been left out of research. To clarify potential sex differences and extend previous findings to diverse family forms, we implemented a modified Go/no-Go attentional task measuring attentional bias to infant faces in parents with children aged from 2 to 36 months. The sample (N = 86) was matched and included 22 fathers and 22 mothers from different-sex families and 20 fathers and 22 mothers from same-sex families. Overall, the results confirmed that infant faces induced a greater attentional bias compared to adult faces. Moreover, we found that neither the type of family nor parents' sex modulated the attentional bias toward infant faces. The findings are discussed in relation to the importance of understanding the correlates of parental response to infant cues going beyond a heteronormative perspective on parenting.

Influence of Physical Attractiveness and Gender on Patient Preferences in Digital Doctor Consultations: Experimental Study

BACKGROUND

The rise of digital health services, particularly digital doctor consultations, has created a new paradigm in health care choice. While patients traditionally rely on digital reviews or referrals to select health care providers, the digital context often lacks such information, leading to reliance on visual cues such as profile pictures. Previous research has explored the impact of physical attractiveness in general service settings but is scant in the context of digital health care.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to fill the research gap by investigating how a health care provider's physical attractiveness influences patient preferences in a digital consultation setting. We also examine the moderating effects of disease severity and the availability of information on health care providers' qualifications. The study uses signal theory and the sexual attribution bias framework to understand these dynamics.

METHODS

Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the influence of health care providers' physical attractiveness and gender on patient preferences in digital consultations. Study 1 (n=282) used a 2×2 between-subjects factorial design, manipulating doctor attractiveness and gender. Study 2 (n=158) focused on women doctors and manipulated disease severity and participant gender. Study 3 (n=150) replicated study 2 but added information about the providers' abilities.

RESULTS

This research found that patients tend to choose attractive doctors of the opposite gender but are less likely to choose attractive doctors of the same gender. In addition, our studies revealed that such an effect is more prominent when the disease severity is high. Furthermore, the influence of gender stereotypes is mitigated in both the high and low disease severity conditions when service providers' qualification information is present.

CONCLUSIONS

This research contributes to the literature on medical information systems research and sheds light on what information should be displayed on digital doctor consultation platforms. To counteract stereotype-based attractiveness biases, health care platforms should consider providing comprehensive qualification information alongside profile pictures.

Two what, two where, visual cortical streams in humans

ROLLS, E. T. Two What, Two Where, Visual Cortical Streams in Humans. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV 2024. Recent cortical connectivity investigations lead to new concepts about 'What' and 'Where' visual cortical streams in humans, and how they connect to other cortical systems. A ventrolateral 'What' visual stream leads to the inferior temporal visual cortex for object and face identity, and provides 'What' information to the hippocampal episodic memory system, the anterior temporal lobe semantic system, and the orbitofrontal cortex emotion system. A superior temporal sulcus (STS) 'What' visual stream utilising connectivity from the temporal and parietal visual cortex responds to moving objects and faces, and face expression, and connects to the orbitofrontal cortex for emotion and social behaviour. A ventromedial 'Where' visual stream builds feature combinations for scenes, and provides 'Where' inputs via the parahippocampal scene area to the hippocampal episodic memory system that are also useful for landmark-based navigation. The dorsal 'Where' visual pathway to the parietal cortex provides for actions in space, but also provides coordinate transforms to provide inputs to the parahippocampal scene area for self-motion update of locations in scenes in the dark or when the view is obscured.

The Effects of Live Streamer's Facial Attractiveness and Product Type on Consumer Purchase Intention: An Exploratory Study with Eye Tracking Technology

As a booming branch of online retailing, live-streaming e-commerce can present abundant information dimensions and diverse forms of expression. Live-streaming e-commerce has enabled online retailers to interact with customers face-to-face, resulting in widespread instances of emotional and impulse buying behavior. Prior research in live-streaming e-commerce has suggested that live streamers' characteristics, especially the live streamer's face, can affect customers' purchase intentions. The present research used questionnaire surveys and an eye tracking experiment to investigate the impact of live streamer's facial attractiveness on consumer purchase intention for search-based and experience-based products. The questionnaire survey analyzed 309 valid questionnaires and revealed that attractive faces are the key influencing factor driving consumers' impulse purchase intentions. Moreover, consumers' emotional experience plays a partial mediating role in the process of live streamers' faces influencing purchase intention. The eye tracking experiment further explored the mechanism of a live streamer's facial attractiveness on consumers' purchase intentions of search-based products and experience-based products from the perspective of visual attention by analyzing 64 valid sets of data. The results showed that attractive faces attract more consumers' attention and, therefore, increase their purchase intention. Furthermore, there is a significant interaction between product type, the live streamer's facial attractiveness, and consumers' purchase intentions. In the case of unattractive live streamers, consumers are more likely to buy search-based products than experience-based products, while the purchase intention does not vary between search-based products and experience-based products in the case of attractive live streamers. The present study provides evidence for 'beauty premium' in live-streaming e-commerce and sheds light on the design of the match between live streamers and different types of products.

Let's put a smile on that face-A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs

In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits-such as selfies or pictures of friends and family-are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a 'good' photo-one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing-are not well understood. Here, we studied how a subtle change in facial expression (smiling) in portraits determines their aesthetic image value (beyond a more positive appearance of the depicted person). We used AI-based image processing tools in a broad set of portrait photographs and generated neutral and slightly smiling versions of the same pictures. Consistent across two experiments, portraits with a subtle smile increased both spontaneous aesthetic preferences in a swiping task as well as improving more explicit aesthetic ratings after prolonged viewing. Participants distinguished between aspects associated with image beauty and the depicted person's attractiveness, resulting in specific interactions between variables related to participant traits, image content, and task. Our study confirms that a subtle-and in this case fully artificial-smile reliably increases the aesthetic quality of portraits, illustrating how current image processing methods can target psychologically important variables and thereby increase the aesthetic value of photographs.

Eyelash length attractiveness across ethnicities

Eyelashes evolved to protect eyes. An optimum eyelash length functions to protect eyes from external hazards such as contaminations, excessive evaporation or shear stress from airflow. They can also be an indicator of a person's health as various congenital and noncongenital diseases can lead to short or long eyelashes. The current study aimed to extend a recent investigation on the preference for eyelash length in humans from an evolutionary adaptive perspective. Specifically, the current study tested whether the inverted-U function for eyelash length preference recently reported for White faces, generalises to other ethnicities, and whether ethnic background modulates preference for eyelash lengths. To investigate this question, men and women of Asian, Black, and White ethnicities from the U.S. rated the attractiveness of female Indian, Asian, Black, and White faces with varying eyelash lengths. The eyelashes ranged in length from no eyelashes to half the width of an eye. Results showed that Asian, Black, and White men and women preference for eyelash length followed an inverted-U function across all four ethnicities, supporting a general preference for human eyelash length that is approximately one-third the width of an eye. In addition, the results showed that the most attractive eyelashes for Black women were skewed toward a greater eyelash-length to eye-width ratio when compared to the other images. The source of this skew is presently unknown, as it could reflect a change in perceptual sensitivity to eyelash length with skin colour or changes in preference related to perceptions of participants' ethnicity.

Cuteness and the Power of Emotion

Background

There is an agreement among individuals from different cultures in how they judge the cuteness of a face. There are observations suggesting that some preferences may be neurobiological rather than cultural. Most of the studies conducted use adult faces with a neutral expression; however, the mechanisms involved in rating cuteness are not exactly the same as those involved in the perception of attractiveness. Furthermore, it is not always taken into account that emotional expressions influence the impression on the beauty of a face. The objective of the study is to evaluate the influence of the different emotions on the perception of cuteness of children's faces.

Materials and Methods

We included 60 adults and 21 children who observed 150 photographs of children's faces expressing the six basic emotions and had to rate facial cuteness.

Results

Participants gave the highest cuteness score to faces with happy emotions (mean [M] = 6.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 6.48-7.30) and the lowest to those that expressed negative emotions (M = 5.32, 95% CI 4.87-5.78, t(160) = 5.08, P <.001). This was evidenced in adults and children of both genders, regardless of the gender of the stimulus.

Conclusions

In our study, we found that facial expression generates an impact on the perception that a subject has on the cuteness of the face. The faces that show happiness were scored as more cute compared to those that expressed anger, disgust, or sadness. We suggest that expression of positive emotions, like a smile, could increase the conducts associated with caring, placing the child in a more favorable situation for the future.

Revisiting the baby schema by a geometric morphometric analysis of infant facial characteristics across great apes

Infants across species are thought to exhibit specific facial features (termed the "baby schema", such as a relatively bigger forehead and eyes, and protruding cheeks), with an adaptive function to induce caretaking behaviour from adults. There is abundant empirical evidence for this in humans, but, surprisingly, the existence of a baby schema in non-human animals has not been scientifically demonstrated. We investigated which facial characteristics are shared across infants in five species of great apes: humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, mountain gorillas, and Bornean orangutans. We analysed eight adult and infant faces for each species (80 images in total) using geometric morphometric analysis and machine learning. We found two principal components characterizing infant faces consistently observed across species. These included (1) relatively bigger eyes located lower in the face, (2) a rounder and vertically shorter face shape, and (3) an inverted triangular face shape. While these features are shared, human infant faces are unique in that the second characteristic (round face shape) is more pronounced, whereas the third (inverted triangular face shape) is less pronounced than other species. We also found some infantile features only found in some species. We discuss future directions to investigate the baby schema using an evolutionary approach.

Preliminary data on oxytocin modulation of neural reactivity in women to emotional stimuli of children depending on childhood emotional neglect

Sensitivity for rewarding cues and distress signals from children is fundamental to human caregiving and modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated whether oxytocin regulates neural responses to reward or distress cues form children. In a placebo-controlled, within-subject design, we measured neural responses to positive, negative, and neutral cues from children in 22 healthy female subjects who received oxytocin (24 IU) versus placebo. Further, based on current literature, we hypothesized that oxytocin effects are modulated by experiences of childhood trauma. The task elicited valence-specific effects-positive images activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, and right putamen, and images of children in distress activated the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus, and right medial superior frontal cortex. The effects of oxytocin depended on subjective reports of childhood emotional neglect. Self-reported neglect interacted with oxytocin administration in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal areas. In individuals with higher scores of emotional neglect, oxytocin increased neural reactivity of limbic structures to positive and neutral images. Our findings need replication in larger samples and can therefore be considered preliminary but are in line with the recent literature on the modulating effect of childhood adversity on the sensitivity to oxytocin administration.

Gender differences in brain response to infant emotional faces

Infant emotional stimuli can preferentially engage adults' attention and provide valuable information essential for successful interaction between adults and infants. Exploring the neural processes of recognizing infant stimuli promotes better understandings of the mother-infant attachment mechanisms. Here, combining task-functional magnetic resonance imaging (Task-fMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI), we investigated the effects of infants' faces on the brain activity of adults. Two groups including 26 women and 25 men were recruited to participate in the current study. During the task-fMRI, subjects were exposed to images of infant emotional faces (including happy, neutral, and sad) randomly. We found that the brains of women and men reacted differently to infants' faces, and these differential areas are in facial processing, attention, and empathetic networks. The rs-fMRI further showed that the connectivity of the default-mode network-related regions increased in women than in men. Additionally, brain activations in regions related to emotional networks were associated with the empathetic abilities of women. These differences in women might facilitate them to more effective and quick adjustments in behaviors and emotions during the nurturing infant period. The findings provide special implications and insights for understanding the neural processing of reacting to infant cues in adults.

The Great Porn Experiment V2.0: Sexual Arousal Reduces the Salience of Familiar Women When Heterosexual Men Judge Their Attractiveness

Pornography has become widely accessible in recent years due to its integration with the Internet, generating social scientific and moralistic debate on potential "media effects," given correlations between consumption and various sexual traits and behaviors. One popular public debate (Wilson, 2012) claimed that exposure to Internet pornography has addictive qualities that could impact men's sexual relationships, underpinned by the "Coolidge effect," where males are sexually motivated by the presence of novel mates. As claims about Internet and sexual addictions are scientifically controversial, we provide a direct experimental test of his proposal. Adapting a paradigm used to examine "Coolidge-like" effects in men, we examined the extent to which exposure to images of pornographic actresses altered men's attractiveness ratings of (1) familiar faces/bodies on second viewing and (2) familiar versus novel women's faces/bodies. Independent of slideshow content (pornographic versus clothed versions of same actress), heterosexual men were less attracted to familiar bodies, and homosexual men were less attracted to familiar women (faces and bodies), suggesting that mere visual exposure to attractive women moderated men's preferences. However, consistent with one of our preregistered predictions, heterosexual but not homosexual men's preferences for familiar versus novel women were moderated by slideshow content such that familiar women were less salient on the attractiveness dimension compared to novel women when sexual arousal was greater (pornographic versus clothed slideshows). In sum, our findings demonstrate that visual exposure/sexual arousal moderates attractiveness perceptions, albeit that much greater nuance is required considering earlier claims.

Crying the blues: The configural processing of infant face emotions and its association with postural biases

Several studies have exploited the face inversion paradigm to unveil the mechanisms underlying the processing of adult faces, showing that emotion recognition relies more on a global/configural processing for sadness and on a piecemeal/featural processing for happiness. This difference might be due to the higher biological salience of negative rather than positive emotions and consequently should be higher for infant rather than adult faces. In fact, evolution might have promoted specific adaptations aimed to prioritize the infant face by the attention system in order to foster survival during infancy, a rather long period during which the newborn depends entirely on adults. Surprisingly, no study has yet exploited this paradigm to investigate the processing of emotions from infant faces. In this study, the face inversion paradigm was used to explore emotion recognition of infant compared with adult faces in a sample of adult participants. In addition, the existence of potential differences associated with specific postural biases (e.g., the left-cradling bias) during interactions with infants was explored. The presence of rotational effects for the recognition of both happy and sad infant faces suggests that infant face emotions are predominantly processed in a configural fashion, this perceptual effect being more evident in sadness. Results are discussed in the context of the biological and social salience of the emotional infant face.

Stronger brain activation for own baby but similar activation toward babies of own and different ethnicities in parents living in a multicultural environment

Specific facial features in infants automatically elicit attention, affection, and nurturing behaviour of adults, known as the baby schema effect. There is also an innate tendency to categorize people into in-group and out-group members based on salient features such as ethnicity. Societies are becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, and there are limited investigations into the underlying neural mechanism of the baby schema effect in a multi-ethnic context. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine parents' (N = 27) neural responses to (a) non-own ethnic in-group and out-group infants, (b) non-own in-group and own infants, and (c) non-own out-group and own infants. Parents showed similar brain activations, regardless of ethnicity and kinship, in regions associated with attention, reward processing, empathy, memory, goal-directed action planning, and social cognition. The same regions were activated to a higher degree when viewing the parents' own infant. These findings contribute further understanding to the dynamics of baby schema effect in an increasingly interconnected social world.

The Intricate Web of Asymmetric Processing of Social Stimuli in Humans

Although the population-level preference for the use of the right hand is the clearest example of behavioral lateralization, it represents only the best-known instance of a variety of functional asymmetries observable in humans. What is interesting is that many of such asymmetries emerge during the processing of social stimuli, as often occurs in the case of human bodies, faces and voices. In the present paper, after reviewing previous literature about human functional asymmetries for social and emotional stimuli, we suggest some possible links among them and stress the necessity of a comprehensive account (in both ontogenetic and phylogenetic terms) for these not yet fully explained phenomena. In particular, we propose that the advantages of lateralization for emotion processing should be considered in light of previous suggestions that (i) functional hemispheric specialization enhances cognitive capacity and efficiency, and (ii) the alignment (at the population level) of the direction of behavioral asymmetries emerges, under social pressures, as an evolutionary stable strategy.

Swipes and Saves: A Taxonomy of Factors Influencing Aesthetic Assessments and Perceived Beauty of Mobile Phone Photographs

Digital images taken by mobile phones are the most frequent class of images created today. Due to their omnipresence and the many ways they are encountered, they require a specific focus in research. However, to date, there is no systematic compilation of the various factors that may determine our evaluations of such images, and thus no explanation of how users select and identify relatively “better” or “worse” photos. Here, we propose a theoretical taxonomy of factors influencing the aesthetic appeal of mobile phone photographs. Beyond addressing relatively basic/universal image characteristics, perhaps more related to fast (bottom-up) perceptual processing of an image, we also consider factors involved in the slower (top-down) re-appraisal or deepened aesthetic appreciation of an image. We span this taxonomy across specific types of picture genres commonly taken—portraits of other people, selfies, scenes and food. We also discuss the variety of goals, uses, and contextual aspects of users of mobile phone photography. As a working hypothesis, we propose that two main decisions are often made with mobile phone photographs: (1) Users assess images at a first glance—by swiping through a stack of images—focusing on visual aspects that might be decisive to classify them from “low quality” (too dark, out of focus) to “acceptable” to, in rare cases, “an exceptionally beautiful picture.” (2) Users make more deliberate decisions regarding one’s “favorite” picture or the desire to preserve or share a picture with others, which are presumably tied to aspects such as content, framing, but also culture or personality, which have largely been overlooked in empirical research on perception of photographs. In sum, the present review provides an overview of current focal areas and gaps in research and offers a working foundation for upcoming research on the perception of mobile phone photographs as well as future developments in the fields of image recording and sharing technology.

Creation and Validation of the Japanese Cute Infant Face (JCIF) Dataset

Research interest in cuteness perception and its effects on subsequent behavior and physiological responses has recently been increasing. The purpose of the present study was to produce a dataset of Japanese infant faces that are free of portrait rights and can be used for cuteness research. A total of 80 original facial images of 6-month-old infants were collected from their parents. The cuteness level of each picture was rated on a 7-point scale by 200 Japanese people (100 men and 100 women in their 20s–60s). Prototypical high- and low-cuteness faces were created by averaging the top 10 and bottom 10 faces according to the mean cuteness ratings. Then, 50 composite faces were made by mixing two faces randomly chosen from the 60 unused middle-cuteness faces. The normative cuteness ratings of these composite faces were obtained from 229 Japanese men and women in their 20s–60s. The shape of each composite face was transformed to be cuter (+50%) or less cute (–50%) along a continuum between the high- and low-cuteness prototypical faces. A two-alternative forced-choice task (N = 587) confirmed that cuteness discrimination was better than the chance level for all 50 face pairs. Moreover, the results showed that young men had poorer sensitivity to cuteness differences in infant faces than older men and women of any age. This Japanese Cute Infant Face (JCIF, “jay-sif”) dataset, including composite face images and normative rating scores, is publicly available online.

Adult attachment style moderates the effect of oxytocin on neural responses to infant emotional faces

Oxytocin (OT) is known for its positive influence on maternal motivation and behavior, however, the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) on neural activity during the perception of infant stimuli are often inconsistent. These discrepancies further reveal the need to take into account individual differences in IN-OT research. The present study aims to examine whether the effects of IN-OT on maternal-related neural responses to infant faces were moderated by participants' attachment style. Using a between-groups, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 65 nulliparous females were randomly assigned to groups receiving a single dose of 24 IU oxytocin or a placebo via intranasal administration. The neural responses of participants were assessed during a facial recognition task with joy, neutral, and crying infant faces. The results indicated that females with high levels of attachment anxiety exhibited decreased right amygdala activity in response to infant joy faces and decreased bilateral insula activity in response to infant crying faces following IN-OT. Meanwhile, IN-OT enhanced bilateral amygdala and left inferior orbital frontal cortex (OFC) activity in response to infant crying faces in females with high levels of attachment avoidance. In addition, some beneficial effects of IN-OT were also observed in females with low levels of attachment avoidance or anxiety. Our findings demonstrated that the beneficial effects of IN-OT on neural responses to infant faces may depend on individual differences in adult attachment style, thereby contributing to our understanding of the role of OT in maternal caregiving.

Impact of Face Masks and Viewers' Anxiety on Ratings of First Impressions from Faces

Face mask is now a common feature in our social environment. Although face covering reduces our ability to recognize other's face identity and facial expressions, little is known about its impact on the formation of first impressions from faces. In two online experiments, we presented unfamiliar faces displaying neutral expressions with and without face masks, and participants rated the perceived approachableness, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and dominance from each face on a 9-point scale. Their anxiety levels were measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. In comparison with mask-off condition, wearing face masks (mask-on) significantly increased the perceived approachableness and trustworthiness ratings, but showed little impact on increasing attractiveness or decreasing dominance ratings. Furthermore, both trait and state anxiety scores were negatively correlated with approachableness and trustworthiness ratings in both mask-off and mask-on conditions. Social anxiety scores, on the other hand, were negatively correlated with approachableness but not with trustworthiness ratings. It seems that the presence of a face mask can alter our first impressions of strangers. Although the ratings for approachableness, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and dominance were positively correlated, they appeared to be distinct constructs that were differentially influenced by face coverings and participants’ anxiety types and levels.

Neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty

The judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty objectively refer to the perception and evaluation of moral traits, which are generally influenced by facial attractiveness. For centuries, people have equated beauty with the possession of positive qualities, but it is not clear whether the association between beauty and positive qualities exerts a similarly implicit influence on people's responses to moral goodness and moral beauty, how it affects those responses, and what is the neural basis for such an effect. The present study is the first to examine the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. We found that beautiful faces in both moral judgments activated the left ventral occipitotemporal cortices sensitive to the geometric configuration of the faces, demonstrating that both moral goodness and moral beauty required the automatic visual analysis of geometrical configuration of attractive faces. In addition, compared to beautiful faces during moral goodness judgment, beautiful faces during moral beauty judgment induced unique activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures involved in the emotional-valenced information about attractive faces. The opposite comparison elicited specific activity in the left superior temporal cortex and premotor area, which play a critical role in the recognition of facial identity. Our results demonstrated that the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the process of higher order moral decision-makings exhibit both task-general and task-specific characteristics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality and aesthetics.

Identifying with the beautiful: Facial attractiveness effects on unisensory and multisensory self-other distinction

People tend to evaluate their own traits and abilities favourably and such favourable self-perceptions extend to attractiveness. However, the exact mechanism underlying this self-enhancement bias remains unclear. One possibility could be the identification with attractive others through blurring of self–other boundaries. Across two experiments, we used the enfacement illusion to investigate the effect of others’ attractiveness in the multisensory perception of the self. In Experiment 1 (N = 35), participants received synchronous or asynchronous interpersonal visuo-tactile stimulation with an attractive and non-attractive face. In Experiment 2 (N = 35), two new faces were used and spatial incongruency was introduced as a control condition. The results showed that increased ratings of attractiveness of an unfamiliar face lead to blurring of self–other boundaries, allowing the identification of our psychological self with another’s physical self and specifically their face, and this seems to be unrelated to perceived own attractiveness. The effect of facial attractiveness on face ownership showed dissociable mechanisms, with multisensory integration modulating the effect on similarity but not identification, an effect that may be purely based on vision. Overall, our findings suggest that others’ attractiveness may lead to positive distortions of the self. This research provides a psychophysical starting point for studying the impact of others’ attractiveness on self-face recognition, which can be particularly important for individuals with malleable, embodied self–other boundaries and body image disturbances.

Effects of visual attention modulation on dynamic functional connectivity during own-face viewing in body dysmorphic disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by preoccupations with misperceptions of one's physical appearance. Previous neuroimaging studies in BDD have yet to examine dynamic functional connectivity (FC) patterns between brain areas, necessary to capture changes in activity in response to stimuli and task conditions. We used Leading Eigenvector Dynamics Analysis to examine whole-brain dynamic FC from fMRI data during an own-face viewing task in 29 unmedicated adults with BDD with facial concerns and 30 healthy controls. The task involved two parts: (1) unconstrained, naturalistic viewing and (2) holding visual attention in the center of the image, to reduce scanning and fixation on perceived facial flaws. An FC state consisting of bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex regions occurred significantly less often during the visual attention condition and afterward during the unconstrained face viewing in BDD participants, compared to the first unconstrained face viewing, a pattern that differed from controls. Moreover, the probability of this state during the second unconstrained face viewing was associated with severity of obsessions and compulsions and degree of poor insight in BDD, suggesting its clinical significance. These findings have implications for understanding the pathophysiology of own-face viewing in BDD and how it is affected by modification of viewing patterns, which may have implications for novel perceptual retraining treatment designs.

What colour should I wear? How clothing colour affects women's judgement of other women's body attractiveness and body size

Research has indicated that female body perception and associated body-viewing gaze behaviour in women viewers can be influenced by a variety of internal and external factors (e.g., own body satisfaction, clothing style, and viewing angle). Although the clothing colour affects women's visual and aesthetic appearance rated by men or women wearer themselves, its impact on women judging other women's body attractiveness and body size is largely unclear. In this eye-tracking study we presented female body images of Caucasian and African avatars in a continuum of common dress sizes wearing different colours (black, grey, white, red, green and blue), and asked 31 young Caucasian women to rate the perceived body attractiveness and body size. Our analysis revealed that clothing colour black and red attracted the highest body attractiveness and slimmer body size ratings, whereas green and grey induced the lowest body attractiveness and overestimated body size judgements. Such colour-induced modulatory effect on body perception was further influenced by the avatar race (or skin tone; e.g., higher attractiveness ratings for colours white, blue and green in African than in Caucasian avatars), and was associated with the changes of body-viewing gaze allocation at the upper body and waist-hip regions (i.e. colour black and white attracting more viewing at the upper body and waist-hip regions, respectively). Taken together, it seems that the clothing colour and its contrast with skin tone play valuable roles in mediating women's body perception of other women.

Not all "caregivers" are created equal: Liking, caring and facial expression responses to the baby schema as a function of parenthood and testosterone

The baby schema elicits care from potential caregivers. However, much of the research on the baby schema is based on self-report only. To address this issue, we explored the effects of baby schema and child age on facial expressions (EMG) and eye-blink startle, in addition to self-reported liking and caring for 43 men and 48 women (39 parents). Further, basal testosterone was assessed. All groups responded with liking and caring to high baby schema, but only women also responded with more positive facial expressions. Caring and smiling towards infants compared to first graders depended on parenthood and testosterone levels. Basal testosterone levels were negatively associated with overall responsiveness to children in women and fathers, but positively in non-fathers. Whereas the baby schema overall lead to positive affect and caring, the scope of these responses and the processes underlying them depended on gender, parenthood and hormonal status.

Friend effects framework: Contrastive and hierarchical processing in cheerleader effects

Cheerleader effects, group attractiveness effects, and divisive normalization are all characterized by faces appearing more attractive when seen within a group. However, it is possible that your friends could have a detrimental effect upon your attractiveness too: if these group effects arose partly as a contrastive process between your face and your friends, then highly attractive friends may diminish your attractiveness. We confirm this hypothesis across two experiments by showing that the presence of highly attractive friends can indeed make you appear less attractive (i.e., a reverse cheerleader effect), suggesting friend effects are driven in part by a contrastive process against the group. However, these effects are also influenced by your own attractiveness in a fashion that appears consistent with hierarchical encoding, where less attractive targets benefit more from being viewed in an increasingly unattractive group than attractive targets. Our final experiment demonstrates that the company of others not only alters our attractiveness, but also induces shifts in how average or distinctive a target face appears too, with these averageness effects associated with the friend effects observed in our first experiment. We present a Friend Effects Framework within which 'friend effects' is an umbrella term for the positive (e.g., cheerleader effects, group attractiveness effects) and negative (i.e., the reverse cheerleader effect) ways in which hierarchical encoding, group contrastive effects, and other influences of friends can have on your attractiveness.

Brain structure changes associated with sexual orientation

Biological sex differences in brain function and structure are reliably associated with several cortico-subcortical brain regions. While sexual orientation (hetero- versus homosexuality) has been similarly linked to functional differences in several phylogenetically-old brain areas, the research on morphological brain phenotypes associated with sexual orientation is far from conclusive. We examined potential cerebral structural differences linked to sexual orientation in a group of 74 participants, including 37 men (21 homosexual) and 37 women (19 homosexual) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Gray matter volumes (GMV) were compared with respect to sexual orientation and biological sex across the entire sample using full factorial designs controlling for total intracranial volume, age, handedness, and education. We observed a significant effect of sexual orientation for the thalamus and precentral gyrus, with more GMV in heterosexual versus homosexual individuals, and for the putamen, with more GMV in homosexual + than heterosexual individuals. We found significant interactions between biological sex and sexual orientation, indicating that the significant effect for the putamen cluster was driven by homosexual women, whereas heterosexual women had increased precentral gyrus GMV. Heterosexual men exhibited more GMV in the thalamus than homosexual men. This study shows that sexual orientation is reflected in brain structure characteristics and that these differ between the sexes. The results emphasize the need to include or control for potential effects of participants' sexual orientation in neuroimaging studies. Furthermore, our findings provide important new insights into the brain morphology underlying sexual orientation and likely have important implications for understanding brain functions and behavior.

Sex differences in the social brain and in social cognition

Many studies have reported sex differences in empathy and social skills. In this review, several lines of empirical evidences about sex differences in functions and anatomy of social brain are discussed. The most relevant differences involve face processing, facial expression recognition, response to baby schema, the ability to see faces in things, the processing of social interactions, the response to the others' pain, interest in social information, processing of gestures and actions, biological motion, erotic, and affective stimuli. Sex differences in oxytocin-based parental response are also reported. In conclusion, the female and male brains show several neuro-functional differences in various aspects of social cognition, and especially in emotional coding, face processing, and response to baby schema. An interpretation of this sexual dimorphism is provided in the view of evolutionary psychobiology.

Male brain processing of the body odor of ovulating women compared to that of pregnant women

Female chemical signals underlie the advertising of sexual receptivity and fertility. Whether the body odor of a pregnant woman also has a signaling function with respect to male behavior is yet to be conclusively established. This study examines how the body odors of ovulating and pregnant women differentially affect the behavior of heterosexual men. Body odor samples were collected from 5 pregnant women and 5 matched controls during ovulation. In a double-blind functional magnetic resonance imaging design, 18 heterosexual men were exposed to female body odors during ovulation (OV) and pregnancy (PRG) while being required to indicate the attractiveness of concurrently presented female portrait images. The participants were also required to indicate whether they assumed a depicted woman was pregnant. While neither OV nor PRG altered the perceived attractiveness of a presented face, the men tended to identify the women as pregnant while exposed to a PRG body odor. On the neural level, OV activated a network of the frontotemporal and limbic regions, while PRG activated the superior medial frontal gyrus. The results suggest that the detection of sexual availability activates the male brain regions associated with face processing and reward/motivation, whereas sensing pregnancy activates a region responsible for empathy and prosocial behavior. Thus, the female body odor during pregnancy likely helps foster circumstances conducive to the future care of offspring while the body odor advertising sexual availability promotes mating behavior. The brains of heterosexual men may be capable of unconsciously discriminating between these two types of olfactory stimuli.

Seeking the "Beauty Center" in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art

During the past two decades, cognitive neuroscientists have sought to elucidate the common neural basis of the experience of beauty. Still, empirical evidence for such common neural basis of different forms of beauty is not conclusive. To address this question, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on the existing neuroimaging studies of beauty appreciation of faces and visual art by nonexpert adults (49 studies, 982 participants, meta-data are available at https://osf.io/s9xds/ ). We observed that perceiving these two forms of beauty activated distinct brain regions: While the beauty of faces convergently activated the left ventral striatum, the beauty of visual art convergently activated the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC). However, a conjunction analysis failed to reveal any common brain regions for the beauty of visual art and faces. The implications of these results are discussed.

Social Perception of Faces: Brain Imaging and Subjective Ratings

The aim of this study was to investigate how a female face is perceived in terms of its attractiveness, dominance, health, femininity-masculinity, and maturity in direct relation to the body fat percentage (BFP) conveyed by the face. To compare how young adults (ages 18 to 35) respond to different levels of body fat percentage both subjectively and objectively we collected survey ratings and electroencephalography (EEG) data across five different levels of BFP from 40 participants. We adapted the experimental design from a prior behavioral study and used calibrated and morphed female face images of five different BFP levels. The results of the survey are in consensus with the previous study and assessed to be a successful replication. From the EEG data, event-related potentials (ERPs) were extracted from one electrode location (right occipitotemporal brain region) known to be particularly sensitive to face-stimuli. We found statistically significant differences in the amplitudes of the P200 component (194 ms post stimulus onset) between the thickest face and all four other BFP conditions, and in the amplitudes of the N300 component (274 ms post stimulus onset) between the average face and three other BFP conditions. As expected, there were no significant differences among the N170 amplitudes of all five BFP conditions since this ERP component simply reflects the processing of faces in general. From these results, we can infer that holistic face encoding characterized by the N170 component in the right occipitotemporal area is followed by serial evaluative processes, whose categorical and qualitative matrix and spatiotemporal dynamics should be further explored in future studies, especially in relation to the social constructs that were focused on in this study.

Unsupervised inference approach to facial attractiveness

The perception of facial attractiveness is a complex phenomenon which depends on how the observer perceives not only individual facial features, but also their mutual influence and interplay. In the machine learning community, this problem is typically tackled as a problem of regression of the subject-averaged rating assigned to natural faces. However, it has been conjectured that this approach does not capture the complexity of the phenomenon. It has recently been shown that different human subjects can navigate the face-space and "sculpt" their preferred modification of a reference facial portrait. Here we present an unsupervised inference study of the set of sculpted facial vectors in such experiments. We first infer minimal, interpretable and accurate probabilistic models (through Maximum Entropy and artificial neural networks) of the preferred facial variations, that encode the inter-subject variance. The application of such generative models to the supervised classification of the gender of the subject that sculpted the face reveals that it may be predicted with astonishingly high accuracy. We observe that the classification accuracy improves by increasing the order of the non-linear effective interaction. This suggests that the cognitive mechanisms related to facial discrimination in the brain do not involve the positions of single facial landmarks only, but mainly the mutual influence of couples, and even triplets and quadruplets of landmarks. Furthermore, the high prediction accuracy of the subjects' gender suggests that much relevant information regarding the subjects may influence (and be elicited from) their facial preference criteria, in agreement with the multiple motive theory of attractiveness proposed in previous works.

Perceptual Advantage of Animal Facial Attractiveness: Evidence From b-CFS and Binocular Rivalry

Research has shown that attractive human faces enjoy an advantage in both conscious and preconscious processing. Here we examined whether this preference for attractiveness is exclusive to human faces by measuring participants’ sensitivity to the attractiveness of cat and tiger faces. Experiment 1 measured the time taken to break continuous flash suppression (b-CFS), whereas Experiment 2 measured the dominant time in binocular rivalry (BR). The results showed that attractive cat faces were detected more quickly (Experiment 1) and dominated for longer time in visual awareness (Experiment 2). However, no effect of attractiveness was found for tiger faces in Experiment 1, while attractive tiger faces also dominated for longer time in visual awareness in Experiment 2. The results provide first evidence that the preference for attractive animal faces can be shown involuntarily or without apparent conscious control. The findings suggest that human preference for facial attractiveness may contain an aesthetic element rather than being a purely adaptive means for mate choice.

Pictures of preterm infants elicit increased affective responses and reduced reward-motivation or perspective taking in the maternal brain

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent-child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent-child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers' (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and full-term infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers' self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers' ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent-child relationship of parents with a preterm child.

Body odours as a chemosignal in the mother-child relationship: new insights based on an human leucocyte antigen-genotyped family cohort

Mothers are able to identify the body odour (BO) of their own child and prefer this smell above other BOs. It has hence been assumed that the infantile BO functions as a chemosignal promoting targeted parental care. We tested this hypothesis and examined whether children's BOs signal genetic similarity and developmental status to mothers. In addition, we assessed whether BOs facilitate inbreeding avoidance (Westermarck effect). In a cross-sectional design, N = 164 mothers participated with their biological children (N = 226 children, aged 0-18 years) and evaluated BO probes of their own and four other, sex-matched children. Those varied in age and in genetic similarity, which was assessed by human leucocyte antigen profiling. The study showed not only that mothers identified and preferred their own child's BO, but also that genetic similarity and developmental status are transcribed in BOs. Accordingly, maternal preference of their own child's odour changes throughout development. Our data partly supported the Westermarck effect: mothers' preference of pubertal boys' BOs was negatively related to testosterone for the own son, but not for unfamiliar children. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Olfactory communication in humans'.

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers' neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers' (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples.

Reduced Enhancement of Memory for Faces Encoded by Semantic and Socioemotional Processes in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

OBJECTIVES

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit impaired semantic and socioemotional processes, which are thought to be related to dysfunctions in the fronto-striatal circuit. However, little is known about how the memory enhancement by these processes was reduced in PD. The present study investigated this issue.

METHODS

The retrieval performance of face memories encoded by semantic and socioemotional processes was compared between 24 PD patients and 24 age-matched healthy controls (HC). During encoding, participants were presented with unfamiliar faces and made judgment about them in three encoding conditions of semantic judgment (Semantics), attractiveness judgment (Attractiveness), and form judgment (Form). In Semantics, participants rated to what degree each face looked like an office worker, whereas in Attractiveness, participants rated how attractive each face was. The Form condition as a control required participants to judge the shape of each face. During retrieval after encoding, participants made old or new judgment for target and distracter faces.

RESULTS

In HC, the retrieval of faces encoded by Semantics and Attractiveness was significantly more accurate than that encoded by Form, whereas this memory enhancement was not identified in PD. In addition, individual scores in frontal lobe function and long-term memory correlated with the retrieval performance of memories encoded in Semantics and Attractiveness but not Form.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that the processing of semantic and socioemotional signals conveyed from faces could be impaired in PD and that the impairment of these processes could decrease the enhancement of face memories by semantic and socioemotional elaborations.

Substance use and mothers' neural responses to infant cues

Substance use may influence mothers' responsiveness to their infants and negatively impact the parent-infant relationship. Maternal substance use may co-opt neural circuitry involved in caregiving, thus reducing the salience of infant cues and diminishing the sense of reward experienced by caring for infants. Gaps in understanding exist with regard to the mechanisms by which substance use operates to influence mothers' processing of infant cues and how this translates to caregiving. Therefore, we examined how substance use might relate to maternal neural responses to infant cues using event-related potentials (ERPs). Substance-using (n = 29) and nonsubstance-using (n = 29) mothers viewed photographs of infant faces and heard recordings of infant vocalizations while electroencephalography was recorded simultaneously. Three specific ERP components were used to examine initial processing of infant faces (N170) and cries (N100), and attentional allocation to infant faces and cries (P300). Substance-using mothers did not discriminate facial affect at early encoding stages (N170), were generally slower to orient to infant cries (N100), showed heightened responses to neutral faces (P300), and failed to adaptively differentiate between high-distress versus low-distress cries (P300). These differences may be important to caregiving behaviors associated with the formation of mother-child attachment. Implications are discussed, as are limitations and future directions.

Positive social feedback alters emotional ratings and reward valuation of neutral faces

Evaluation of facial and vocal emotional cues is vital in social interactions but can be highly influenced by characteristics of the observer, such as sex, age, and symptoms of affective disorders. Our evaluations of others' emotional expressions are likely to change as we get to know them and anticipate how they are likely to behave. However, the role of associative learning in the evaluation of social cues remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated whether emotional ratings (valence and arousal) and reward valuation ("liking" and "wanting" measures) of neutral facial expressions can be altered through associative learning. We also examined whether emotional ratings and reward valuation varied with symptoms of anxiety and depression, disorders known to impair socio-affective functioning. Participants (N = 324) were young adults, ranging in scores across dimensions of depression and anxiety symptoms: "general distress" (common to depression and anxiety), "anhedonia-apprehension" (more specific to depression), and "fears" (more specific to anxiety). They rated neutral faces and completed a probabilistic learning task that paired images of neutral faces with positive or negative social feedback. Results demonstrated that pairing neutral faces with positive social feedback increased ratings of arousal, valence, and reward valuation (both "liking" and "wanting"). Pairing neutral faces with negative feedback reduced valence ratings and reduced "wanting," but did not impact arousal ratings or "liking." Symptoms of general distress were associated with negative bias in valence ratings, symptoms of anhedonia-apprehension were associated with reduced "wanting," and symptoms of fears were associated with altered accuracy over trials. Notably, the association between general distress and negative bias was reduced following the associative learning task. This suggests that disrupted evaluation of social cues can be improved through brief training.