1
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Maxwell JW, Sanchez DN, Ruthruff E. Infrequent facial expressions of emotion do not bias attention. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2023; 87:2449-2459. [PMID: 37258662 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-023-01844-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Despite the obvious importance of facial expressions of emotion, most studies have found that they do not bias attention. A critical limitation, however, is that these studies generally present face distractors on all trials of the experiment. For other kinds of emotional stimuli, such as emotional scenes, infrequently presented stimuli elicit greater attentional bias than frequently presented stimuli, perhaps due to suppression or habituation. The goal of the current study then was to test whether such modulation of attentional bias by distractor frequency generalizes to facial expressions of emotion. In Experiment 1, both angry and happy faces were unable to bias attention, despite being infrequently presented. Even when the location of these face cues were more unpredictable-presented in one of two possible locations-still no attentional bias was observed (Experiment 2). Moreover, there was no bottom-up influence for angry and happy faces shown under high or low perceptual load (Experiment 3). We conclude that task-irrelevant posed facial expressions of emotion cannot bias attention even when presented infrequently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua W Maxwell
- Department of Psychology, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
| | - Danielle N Sanchez
- Department of Psychology, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
| | - Eric Ruthruff
- Department of Psychology, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
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2
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Differential Modulation of Effective Connectivity in the Brain's Extended Face Processing System by Fearful and Sad Facial Expressions. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0380-20.2021. [PMID: 33658311 PMCID: PMC8174049 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0380-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 02/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The processing of emotional facial expressions is underpinned by the integration of information from a distributed network of brain regions. Despite investigations into how different emotional expressions alter the functional relationships within this network, there remains limited research examining which regions drive these interactions. This study investigated effective connectivity during the processing of sad and fearful facial expressions to better understand how these stimuli differentially modulate emotional face processing circuitry. Ninety-eight healthy human adolescents and young adults, aged between 15 and 25 years, underwent an implicit emotional face processing fMRI task. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM), we examined five brain regions implicated in face processing. These were restricted to the right hemisphere and included the occipital and fusiform face areas, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Processing sad and fearful facial expressions were associated with greater positive connectivity from the amygdala to dlPFC. Only the processing of fearful facial expressions was associated with greater negative connectivity from the vmPFC to amygdala. Compared with processing sad faces, processing fearful faces was associated with significantly greater connectivity from the amygdala to dlPFC. No difference was found between the processing of these expressions and the connectivity from the vmPFC to amygdala. Overall, our findings indicate that connectivity from the amygdala and dlPFC appears to be responding to dimensional features which differ between these expressions, likely those relating to arousal. Further research is necessary to examine whether this relationship is also observable for positively valenced emotions.
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3
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Klaus J, Schutter DJLG. Functional topography of anger and aggression in the human cerebellum. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117582. [PMID: 33221449 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
New insights into the functional neuroanatomic correlates of emotions point toward the involvement of the cerebellum in anger and aggression. To identify cerebellar regions commonly activated in tasks examining the experience of anger and threat as well as exerting an aggressive response, two coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses reporting a total of 57 cerebellar activation foci from 819 participants were performed. For anger processing (18 studies), results showed significant clusters in the bilateral posterior cerebellum, overlapping with results from previous meta-analyses on emotion processing, and implying functional connectivity to cognitive, limbic, and social canonic networks in the cerebral cortex. By contrast, active aggression expression (10 studies) was associated with significant clusters in more anterior regions of the cerebellum, overlapping with cerebellar somatosensory and motor regions and displaying functional connectivity with the somatomotor and default mode network. This study not only strengthens the notion that the cerebellum is involved in emotion processing, but also provides the first quantitative evidence for distinct cerebellar functional activation patterns related to anger and aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Klaus
- Utrecht University, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology The Netherlands
| | - Dennis J L G Schutter
- Utrecht University, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology The Netherlands.
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4
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Bublatzky F, Kavcıoğlu F, Guerra P, Doll S, Junghöfer M. Contextual information resolves uncertainty about ambiguous facial emotions: Behavioral and magnetoencephalographic correlates. Neuroimage 2020; 215:116814. [PMID: 32276073 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Revised: 03/17/2020] [Accepted: 04/01/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Environmental conditions bias our perception of other peoples' facial emotions. This becomes quite relevant in potentially threatening situations, when a fellow's facial expression might indicate potential danger. The present study tested the prediction that a threatening environment biases the recognition of facial emotions. To this end, low- and medium-expressive happy and fearful faces (morphed to 10%, 20%, 30%, or 40% emotional) were presented within a context of instructed threat-of-shock or safety. Self-reported data revealed that instructed threat led to a biased recognition of fearful, but not happy facial expressions. Magnetoencephalographic correlates revealed spatio-temporal clusters of neural network activity associated with emotion recognition and contextual threat/safety in early to mid-latency time intervals in the left parietal cortex, bilateral prefrontal cortex, and the left temporal pole regions. Early parietal activity revealed a double dissociation of face-context information as a function of the expressive level of facial emotions: When facial expressions were difficult to recognize (low-expressive), contextual threat enhanced fear processing and contextual safety enhanced processing of subtle happy faces. However, for rather easily recognizable faces (medium-expressive) the left hemisphere (parietal cortex, PFC, and temporal pole) showed enhanced activity to happy faces during contextual threat and fearful faces during safety. Thus, contextual settings reduce the salience threshold and boost early face processing of low-expressive congruent facial emotions, whereas face-context incongruity or mismatch effects drive neural activity of easier recognizable facial emotions. These results elucidate how environmental settings help recognize facial emotions, and the brain mechanisms underlying the recognition of subtle nuances of fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bublatzky
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Germany.
| | - Fatih Kavcıoğlu
- Chair of Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Germany
| | - Pedro Guerra
- Department of Personality, University of Granada, Spain
| | - Sarah Doll
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Markus Junghöfer
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
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5
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Lin H, Müller-Bardorff M, Gathmann B, Brieke J, Mothes-Lasch M, Bruchmann M, Miltner WHR, Straube T. Stimulus arousal drives amygdalar responses to emotional expressions across sensory modalities. Sci Rep 2020; 10:1898. [PMID: 32024891 PMCID: PMC7002496 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58839-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 12/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The factors that drive amygdalar responses to emotionally significant stimuli are still a matter of debate - particularly the proneness of the amygdala to respond to negatively-valenced stimuli has been discussed controversially. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether the amygdala responds in a modality-general fashion or whether modality-specific idiosyncrasies exist. Therefore, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study systematically investigated amygdalar responding to stimulus valence and arousal of emotional expressions across visual and auditory modalities. During scanning, participants performed a gender judgment task while prosodic and facial emotional expressions were presented. The stimuli varied in stimulus valence and arousal by including neutral, happy and angry expressions of high and low emotional intensity. Results demonstrate amygdalar activation as a function of stimulus arousal and accordingly associated emotional intensity regardless of stimulus valence. Furthermore, arousal-driven amygdalar responding did not depend on the visual and auditory modalities of emotional expressions. Thus, the current results are consistent with the notion that the amygdala codes general stimulus relevance across visual and auditory modalities irrespective of valence. In addition, whole brain analyses revealed that effects in visual and auditory areas were driven mainly by high intense emotional facial and vocal stimuli, respectively, suggesting modality-specific representations of emotional expressions in auditory and visual cortices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huiyan Lin
- Institute of Applied Psychology, School of Public Administration, Guangdong University of Finance, 510521, Guangzhou, China.
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany.
| | - Miriam Müller-Bardorff
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
| | - Bettina Gathmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
| | - Jaqueline Brieke
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
| | - Martin Mothes-Lasch
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
| | - Wolfgang H R Miltner
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
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6
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Kale EH, Üstün S, Çiçek M. Amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity increased during face discrimination but not time perception. Eur J Neurosci 2019; 50:3873-3888. [PMID: 31376287 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2019] [Revised: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Time sensitivity is affected by emotional stimuli such as fearful faces. The effect of threatening stimuli on time perception depends on numerous factors, including task type and duration range. We applied a two-interval forced-choice task using face stimuli to healthy volunteers to evaluate time perception and emotion interaction using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We conducted finite impulse response analysis to examine time series for the significantly activated brain areas and psycho-physical interaction to investigate the connectivity between selected regions. Time perception engaged a right-lateralised frontoparietal network, while a face discrimination task activated the amygdala and fusiform face area (FFA). No voxels were active with regard to the effect of expression (fearful versus neutral). In parallel with this, our behavioural results showed that attending to the fearful faces did not cause duration overestimation. Finally, connectivity of the amygdala and FFA to the middle frontal gyrus increased during the face processing condition compared to the timing task. Overall, our results suggest that the prefrontal-amygdala connectivity might be required for the emotional processing of facial stimuli. On the other hand, attentional load, task type and task difficulty are discussed as possible factors that influence the effects of emotion on time perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emre H Kale
- Brain Research Centre, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Health Science Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Sertaç Üstün
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Metehan Çiçek
- Brain Research Centre, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Health Science Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
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7
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Emotional Semantic Congruency based on stimulus driven comparative judgements. Cognition 2019; 190:20-41. [PMID: 31022649 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2018] [Revised: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
A common cognitive process in everyday life consists in the comparative judgements of emotions given a pair of facial expressions and the choice of the most positive/negative among them. Results from three experiments on complete-facial expressions (happy/angry) and mixed-facial expressions (neutral/happy-or-angry) pairs viewed with (Experiment 1 and 3) or without (Experiment 2) foveation and performed in conditions in which valence was either task relevant (Experiment 1 and 2) or task irrelevant (Experiment 3), show that comparative judgements of emotions are stimulus driven. Judgements' speed increased as the target absolute emotion intensity grew larger together with the average emotion of the pair, irrespective of the compatibility between the valence and the side of motor response: a semantic congruency effect in the domain of emotion. This result undermines previous interpretation of results in the context of comparative judgements based on the lateralization of emotions (e.g., SNARC-like instructional flexibility), and is fully consistent with our formalization of emotional semantic congruency: the direct Speed-Intensity Association model.
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8
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Zhao D, Lin H, Xie S, Liu Z. Emotional arousal elicited by irrelevant stimuli affects event-related potentials (ERPs) during response inhibition. Physiol Behav 2019; 206:134-142. [PMID: 30954488 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2018] [Revised: 03/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies using the Go/Nogo task have indicated that response inhibition is influenced by the arousal elicited by emotional stimuli, when those stimuli are relevant to response selection of Go and Nogo trials. Due to stimulus and task design issues, however, it is uncertain whether response inhibition is affected by emotional valence or arousal, when emotional stimuli are irrelevant to response selection. Therefore, the present study aimed to re-investigate this issue by circumventing limitations of previous research. To address this issue, thirty-one young adults (16 females and 15 males) were required to make motor responses to frequently-presented faces of one sex (Go trials) and to inhibit responses to less-frequently presented faces of the opposite sex (Nogo trials). Crucially, the faces were superimposed onto positive, negative and neutral pictures. The pictures were presented in a randomized order. The arousal values between positive and negative pictures were highly matched. Results showed that Nogo faces elicited smaller N2 but larger P3a amplitudes, when the faces were associated with positive and negative pictures as compared to neutral pictures. These findings suggest that response inhibition is influenced by emotional arousal, when emotional stimuli are irrelevant to response selection. Additionally, for Go faces, results showed smaller N2 but larger P3a amplitudes within negative pictures as compared to neutral and positive pictures, suggesting a role of emotional valence elicited by irrelevant stimuli on response execution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongmei Zhao
- Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, 510521 Guangzhou, China
| | - Huiyan Lin
- Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, 510521 Guangzhou, China.
| | - Siying Xie
- Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, China; Division Neural Dynamics of Visual Cognition, Department of Education and Psychology, Free University Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Zhiya Liu
- Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, China.
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9
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Müller-Bardorff M, Bruchmann M, Mothes-Lasch M, Zwitserlood P, Schlossmacher I, Hofmann D, Miltner W, Straube T. Early brain responses to affective faces: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study. Neuroimage 2018; 178:660-667. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2018] [Revised: 05/23/2018] [Accepted: 05/31/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022] Open
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10
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Zantinge G, van Rijn S, Stockmann L, Swaab H. Concordance between physiological arousal and emotion expression during fear in young children with autism spectrum disorders. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2018; 23:629-638. [PMID: 29595334 PMCID: PMC6463270 DOI: 10.1177/1362361318766439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
This study aimed to measure emotional expression and physiological arousal in response to fear in 21 children with autism spectrum disorders (43-75 months) and 45 typically developing children (41-81 months). Expressions of facial and bodily fear and heart rate arousal were simultaneously measured in response to a remote controlled robot (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery). Heart rate analyses revealed a main effect of task from baseline to fear ( p < 0.001, ηp2 ), no interaction effect and no effect for group. In addition, children with autism spectrum disorder showed intact facial and bodily expressions of fearful affect compared to typically developing children. With regard to the relationship between expression and arousal, the results provided evidence for concordance between expression and arousal in typically developing children ( r = 0.45, n = 45, p < 0.01). For children with autism spectrum disorder, no significant correlation was found ( r = 0.20, n = 21, p = 0.38). A moderation analysis revealed no significant interaction between expression and arousal for children with and without autism spectrum disorder ( F(1, 62) = 1.23, p = 0.27, ηp2 ), which might be the result of limited power. The current results give reason to further study concordance between expression and arousal in early autism spectrum disorder. Discordance might significantly impact social functioning and is an important topic in light of both early identification and treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gemma Zantinge
- 1 Leiden University, The Netherlands.,2 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands
| | - Sophie van Rijn
- 1 Leiden University, The Netherlands.,2 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands
| | | | - Hanna Swaab
- 1 Leiden University, The Netherlands.,2 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands.,3 Rivierduinen, The Netherlands
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11
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Mishra MV, Srinivasan N. Exogenous attention intensifies perceived emotion expressions. Neurosci Conscious 2017; 2017:nix022. [PMID: 30042853 PMCID: PMC6007186 DOI: 10.1093/nc/nix022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2017] [Revised: 10/12/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Spatial attention not only enhances early visual processing and improves performance but also alters phenomenology of basic perceptual features. However, in spite of extensive research on attention altering appearance, it is still unknown whether attention also intensifies perceived facial emotional expressions. We investigated the effect of exogenous attention on two categories of emotions, one positive (happy) and one negative (sad) in separate sessions. Exogenous attention was manipulated using peripheral cues followed by two faces varying in emotional intensity that were presented on either side of fixation. Participants were asked to report the location of the emotional face displaying higher intensity of emotion. At short cue-to-target interval [CTI, Experiment 1 (60 ms)], participants reported the cued emotional face as more intense in expression compared with the uncued face. However, at longer CTI [Experiment 2 (500 ms)], this effect was absent. Results show that exogenous attention enhances appearance of higher level features, such as emotional intensity, irrespective of valence. Further, two experiments investigated the mediating role of facial contrast as a possible underlying mechanism for the observed effect. Although the results show that higher contrast faces are judged as more in emotional intensity, spatial attention effects seem to be dependent on task instructions. Possible mechanisms underlying the attentional effects on emotion intensity are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maruti V Mishra
- Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Narayanan Srinivasan
- Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
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