Neural differentiation of emotional faces as a function of interpersonal violence among adolescent girls

Interpersonal violence (IV) is associated with altered neural threat processing and risk for psychiatric disorder. Representational similarity analysis (RSA) is a multivariate approach examining the extent to which differences between stimuli correspond to differences in multivoxel activation patterns to these stimuli within each ROI. Using RSA, we examine overlap in neural patterns between threat and neutral faces in youth with IV. Participants were female adolescents aged 11-17 who had a history of IV exposure (n = 77) or no history of IV, psychiatric diagnoses, nor psychiatric medications (n = 37). Participants completed a facial emotion processing task during fMRI. Linear mixed models indicated that increasing hippocampal differentiation of fear and neutral faces was associated with increasing IV severity. Increased neural differentiation of these facial stimuli in the left and right hippocampus was associated with increasing physical abuse severity. Increased differentiation by the dACC correlated with increasing physical assault severity. RSA for most ROIs were not significantly associated with univariate activity, except for a positive association between amygdala RSA and activity to fear faces. Differences in statistically significant ROIs for physical assault and physical abuse may highlight distinct effects of trauma type on encoding of threat vs. neutral faces. Null associations between RSA and univariate activation in most ROIs suggest unique contributions of RSA for understanding IV compared to traditional activation. Implications include understanding mechanisms of risk in IV and trauma-specific treatment selection. Future work should replicate these findings in longitudinal studies and identify sensitive periods for neural alterations in RSA.

Oral Oxytocin Facilitates Responses to Emotional Faces in Reward and Emotional-Processing Networks in Females

INTRODUCTION

Oxytocin (OXT) is proposed as a potential therapeutic peptide for social dysfunction due to its modulatory actions on socioemotional regulation in humans. While the majority of studies have used intranasal OXT administration, we have recently shown that oral (lingual spray), but not intranasal, administration can significantly enhance activity of the brain reward system in response to emotional faces in males; however, its effects on females are unknown.

METHODS

Seventy healthy females participated in the current randomized, placebo-controlled, pharmaco-imaging clinical trial, and the results were compared with our previous data from 75 males who underwent the same protocol. Participants were randomly assigned to OXT (24 IU) or placebo (PLC) groups and completed an implicit emotional face paradigm (angry/fear/happy/neutral) where they were only required to identify face gender.

RESULTS

In line with previous results in males, oral OXT significantly increased plasma OXT concentration changes and enhanced putamen responses to all emotional faces compared to PLC in females. Additionally, OXT increased left amygdala activity to happy and angry faces and enhanced putamen-superior temporal gyrus functional coupling during processing of happy faces in females which was significantly different from males.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that oral OXT enhances responses in both reward and emotional-processing networks in females as well as males, and additionally, in females, it strengthens coupling between reward and social cognition regions.

Atypical oscillatory dynamics during emotional face processing in paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder with MEG

Children and youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) demonstrate difficulties with social, emotional and cognitive functions in addition to the core diagnosis of obsessions and compulsions. This is the first magnetoencephalography (MEG) study to examine whole-brain neurophysiological functional connectivity of emotional face processing networks in paediatric OCD. Seventy-two participants (OCD: n = 36; age 8-17 yrs; typically developing controls: n = 36, age 8-17 yrs) completed an implicit emotional face processing task in the MEG. Functional connectivity networks in canonical frequency bands were compared between groups, and within OCD and control groups between emotions (angry vs. happy). Between groups, participants with OCD showed increased functional connectivity in the gamma band to angry faces, suggesting atypical perception of angry faces in OCD. Within groups, the OCD group showed greater engagement of the beta band, suggesting the over-use of top-down processing when perceiving happy versus angry emotions, while controls engaged in bottom-up gamma processing, also greater to happy faces. Over-activation of top-down processing has been linked to difficulties modifying one's cognitive set. Findings establish altered patterns of neurophysiological connectivity in children with OCD, and are striking in their oscillatory specificity. Our results contribute to a greater understanding of the neurobiology of the disorder, and are foundational for the possibility of alternative targets for intervention.

The influence of childhood emotional neglect on emotional face processing in young adults

Childhood emotional neglect (CEN) refers to a failure to meet the basic emotional needs of a child, which can seriously impact interpersonal communication and psychological health in young adults. Emotional face processing is critical in interpersonal communication; however, whether CEN affects this processing in young adults has not been investigated. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the effects of CEN on emotional face processing in young adults. Using the Child Trauma Questionnaire, an online survey was conducted with 5010 students from four universities in Tianjin, China. After online interviews and diagnosis by professional doctors, we obtained 20 participants with CEN (CEN group) and 20 without CEN (control group). None of the participants had any mental diseases. A 2 × 4 mixed design was used to investigate the differences in accuracy and response time when identifying the valence of the emotional faces. Compared to the control group, the CEN group identified the valence of all emotional faces more slowly, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of accuracy. CEN caused delayed emotional face processing in young adults, which may be related to unresponsive, unavailable, and limited emotional interaction patterns between parents and their children.

Brain functional correlates of emotional face processing in body dysmorphic disorder

Previous neuroimaging studies in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) have focused on discordances in visual processing systems. However, little is known about brain functional aberrations in individuals with BDD during emotional face processing. An fMRI paradigm with negative emotional faces was employed in 20 individuals with BDD and 43 mentally healthy controls (HC). We compared functional activity and whole-brain connectivity patterns of the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus (FFG) between both groups. Regression analyses were performed for associations of body dysmorphic symptoms with brain activity and connectivity. Individuals with BDD exhibited higher activity in the left amygdala compared to HC (p_FWE = .04) as well as increased functional connectivity of the left amygdala with a network including frontostriatal and temporal regions (p_FWE < .05). The FFG revealed increased functional connectivity in individuals with BDD, mapping to brain areas such as the cingulate cortex and temporo-limbic regions (p_FWE < .05). In HC, higher levels of body dysmorphic symptoms were associated with higher functional amygdala and FFG activity (p_FWE < .05). Individuals with BDD show aberrant functional activity and connectivity patterns within the amygdala and the FFG for negative emotional face processing. Body dysmorphic symptoms in HC are associated with a mild pattern of brain functional alterations, which could emphasize the relevance of a dimensional approach in addition to diagnosis. Treatments for BDD could benefit from targeting visual misperception and evaluation processes upon confrontation with emotional information.

Monitoring the effect of oxytocin on the neural sensitivity to emotional faces via frequency-tagging EEG: A double-blind, cross-over study

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is suggested to exert an important role in human social behaviors by modulating the salience of social cues. To date, however, there is mixed evidence whether a single dose of OXT can improve the behavioral and neural sensitivity for emotional face processing. To overcome difficulties encountered with classic event-related potential studies assessing stimulus-saliency, we applied frequency-tagging EEG to implicitly assess the effect of a single dose of OXT (24 IU) on the neural sensitivity for positive and negative facial emotions. Neutral faces with different identities were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with an expressive face (angry, fearful, and happy, in separate sequences) every fifth image (i.e., 1.2 Hz oddball frequency). These distinctive frequency tags for neutral and expressive stimuli allowed direct and objective quantification of the neural expression-categorization responses. The study involved a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial with 31 healthy adult men. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find an effect of OXT on facial emotion processing, neither at the neural, nor at the behavioral level. A single dose of OXT did not evoke social enhancement in general, nor did it affect social approach-avoidance tendencies. Possibly ceiling performances in facial emotion processing might have hampered further improvement.

Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal on Subjective and Neural Reactivity to Angry Faces in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder, Clinical Controls with Mixed Anxiety Disorders and Healthy Children

Cognitive models of social anxiety suggest that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by both enhanced emotional reactivity and deficits in emotion regulation. Emotional reactivity to socially threatening children's faces and their modulation through reappraisal were measured via subjective ratings and electrocortical responses in children (age 10-13) with SAD (n = 28), clinical controls with mixed anxiety disorders (n = 28), and healthy controls (n = 29). Children with SAD showed higher subjective reactivity to the images of angry children's faces while all children reported reduced reactivity in their subjective ratings following reappraisal. Reduced electrocortical reactivity after reappraisal was only evident in older children and boys and was unrelated to anxiety. The present study indicates that cognitive reappraisal may be beneficial in reducing subjective reactivity in children with anxiety disorders, while neural effects of reappraisal may emerge at older ages.

Atypical development of emotional face processing networks in autism spectrum disorder from childhood through to adulthood

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MEG connectivity to emotional faces in ASD and typical controls 6–39 years of age was investigated.

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Distinct age-related changes in connectivity were observed in the groups to happy and angry faces.

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Age-related between-group differences in functional connectivity were found in gamma band.

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Emotion-specific age-related between-group differences were seen in beta.

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Findings highlight specific neurodevelopmental trajectories to emotional faces in ASD vs. TD.

Impairments in social functioning are hallmarks of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and atypical functional connectivity may underlie these difficulties. Emotion processing networks typically undergo protracted maturational changes, however, those with ASD show either hyper- or hypo-connectivity with little consensus on the functional connectivity underpinning emotion processing. Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate age-related changes in whole-brain functional connectivity of eight regions of interest during happy and angry face processing in 190 children, adolescents and adults (6–39 years) with and without ASD. Findings revealed age-related changes from child- through to mid-adulthood in functional connectivity in controls and in ASD in theta, as well as age-related between-group differences across emotions, with connectivity decreasing in ASD, but increasing for controls, in gamma. Greater connectivity to angry faces was observed across groups in gamma. Emotion-specific age-related between-group differences in beta were also found, that showed opposite trends with age for happy and angry in ASD. Our results establish altered, frequency-specific developmental trajectories of functional connectivity in ASD, across distributed networks and a broad age range, which may finally help explain the heterogeneity in the literature.

High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates emotional face processing in individuals with high autistic traits: A sham-controlled study

The deficit in emotional face processing is a critical impairment for individuals with high autistic traits. The temporalparietal junction(TPJ) is considered to be closely related to emotional face processing. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of highdefinition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) on facial emotion processing of individuals with high autistic traits using eye-tracking technology. Twenty-nine participants with high autistic traits completed an eyetracking task (including happy, fearful and neutral faces) before and after five consecutive days of stimulation (anodal or sham). Results showed that anodal HD-tDCS significantly increased fixation time and fixation count in the mouth area, but this effect was not found after the sham stimulation. Moreover, this increased effect of mouth recognition with anodal rTPJ HD-tDCS was shown in both happy and fearful faces, but no remarkable difference was found in neutral faces. These findings suggest that right TPJ anodal HD-tDCS can facilitate emotional face processing in individuals with high autistic traits.

Amygdala response to emotional faces in adolescents with persistent post-concussion symptoms

Approximately 30% of adolescents with concussion develop persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS) that include emotional symptoms. Elevated amygdalae reactivity to emotional faces has been reported in a variety of psychopathologies characterized by emotional symptoms overlapping with those in PPCS. We tested the hypothesis that amygdalae reactivity to emotional faces in adolescents with PPCS+ is elevated compared to concussed adolescents without PPCS and healthy controls. Concussed adolescents (ages 14-18) with (PPCS+; n = 23) and without PPCS (PPCS-; n = 13) participated in visits at least 4 weeks post-injury. Adolescents without prior concussion served as controls (HC; n = 15). All participants completed a detailed clinical battery and a common emotional face processing task that involved matching of emotional faces or shapes. Compared to HC and PPCS-, adolescents with PPCS+ had elevated depression symptoms, anhedonia, general psychological symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Contrary to our hypothesis, PPCS+ had lower amygdalae activity to the emotional faces versus shapes condition relative to HC and a trend for lower activity relative to PPCS-. There was a non-significant inverse association between anhedonia amygdalae activity in adolescents with PPCS. Results suggest that adolescents with PPCS have altered amygdalae activity during the processing of emotional face stimuli.

Neurophysiological evidence for distinct biases in emotional face processing associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children

Attentional bias to threat has been implicated in both internalizing and externalizing disorders. This study utilizes event-related potentials to examine early stages of perceptual attention to threatening (angry or fearful) versus neutral faces among a sample of 200 children ages 6-8 years from a low-income, urban community. Although both internalizing and externalizing symptoms were associated with processing biases, the nature of the bias differed between these two symptom domains. Internalizing symptoms were associated with heightened early attentional selection (P1) and later perceptual processing (P2) of fearful faces. In contrast, externalizing symptoms were associated with reduced early attentional selection (P1) of fearful faces and enhanced perceptual processing (P2) of neutral faces, possibly indicative of a hostile interpretation bias for ambiguous social cues. These results provide insight into the distinct cognitive-affective processes that may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

Emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorder: Effects in gamma connectivity

Impairments in social functioning are characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Differences in functional networks during face processing in ASD compared to controls have been reported; however, the spatial-temporal dynamics of networks underlying affective processing are still not well understood. The current magnetoencephalography study examined whole-brain functional connectivity to implicit happy and angry faces in 104 adults with and without ASD. A network of reduced gamma band (30-55 Hz) phase synchrony occurring 80-308 ms following angry face presentation was found in adults with ASD compared to controls. The network involved widespread connections primarily anchored in frontal regions, including bilateral orbitofrontal areas, bilateral inferior frontal gyri, and left middle frontal gyrus extending to occipital, temporal, parietal, and subcortical regions. This finding suggests disrupted long-range neuronal communication to angry faces. Additionally, reduced gamma band-specific connectivity may reflect altered E/I balance in brain regions critical for emotional face processing in ASD.

An intergenerational family study on the impact of experienced and perpetrated child maltreatment on neural face processing

Altered processing of emotional faces due to childhood maltreatment has repeatedly been reported, and may be a key process underlying the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment. The current study is the first to examine the role of neural reactivity to emotional and neutral faces in the transmission of maltreatment, using a multi-generational family design including 171 participants of 51 families of two generations with a large age range (8-69 years). The impact of experienced and perpetrated maltreatment (abuse and neglect) on face processing was examined in association with activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and insula in response to angry, fearful, happy and neutral faces. Results showed enhanced bilateral amygdala activation in response to fearful faces in older neglected individuals, whereas reduced amygdala activation was found in response to these faces in younger neglected individuals. Furthermore, while experienced abuse was associated with lower IFG activation in younger individuals, experience of neglect was associated with higher IFG activation in this age group, pointing to potentially differential effects of abuse and neglect and significant age effects. Perpetrated abusive and neglectful behavior were not related to neural activation in any of these regions. Hence, no indications for a role of neural reactivity to emotional faces in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment were found.

Happy and Angry Faces Elicit Atypical Neural Activation in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

BACKGROUND

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant impairments in social interactions and communication. The ability to accurately perceive and interpret emotional faces is critical to successful social interactions. However, few studies have investigated the spatiotemporal profile of the neural mechanisms underlying emotional face processing in ASD, particularly in children. The current study fills this important gap.

METHODS

Participants were 55 children: 28 children with ASD (mean age = 9.5 ± 1.3 years) and 27 control children (mean age = 8.5 ± 1.3 years). All children completed an implicit emotional face task while magnetoencephalography was recorded. We examined spatiotemporal differences between the groups in neural activation during implicit processing of emotional faces.

RESULTS

Within-group analyses demonstrated greater right middle temporal (300-375 ms) and superior temporal (300-400 ms) activation to angry faces than to happy faces in control children, while children with ASD showed greater activation from 250 to 500 ms to happy faces than to angry faces across frontal and temporal regions. Between-group analyses demonstrated that children with ASD showed similar patterns of late (425-500 ms) posterior cingulate and thalamic underactivity to both angry and happy faces relative to control children, suggesting general atypical processing of emotional information.

CONCLUSIONS

Atypical posterior cingulate cortex and thalamus recruitment in children with ASD to emotional faces suggests poor modulation of toggling between the default mode network and task-based processing. Increased neural activity to happy faces compared with angry faces in children with ASD suggests reduced salience or immature response to anger, which in turn could contribute to deficits in social cognition in ASD.

Convergence of BOLD and ERP measures of neural reactivity to emotional faces in children and adolescents with and without anxiety disorders

The neural bases of emotion are commonly measured using blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal and the late positive potential (LPP) event-related potential (ERP) component, but rarely together in the same individuals. Despite evidence of developmental changes in processing socio-emotional signals (e.g., faces) as reflected by both BOLD and LPP indices of brain maturation, the literature on the correspondence between these measures is limited to healthy adults, leaving questions regarding such correspondence across development and in clinical populations unaddressed. We examined the relationship between BOLD and LPP during an emotional face processing task in a large sample of youth (N = 70; age 7-19 years) with and without anxiety disorders, and tested whether BOLD signal in regions corresponding to LPP may account for age-related decreases in LPP. Greater activation in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)/orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG), left supplementary motor area, right superior parietal lobule, and bilateral amygdala correlated with enhanced LPP to emotional faces in both anxious and healthy youth. Older youth exhibited reduced activation in bilateral IFG/OFG and bilateral amygdala, as well as reduced LPP. Decreased right IFG/OFG activation mediated the association between age and LPP. These findings support correspondence between these measures and need for multi-method approaches and indicate that age-related decreases in LPP may be driven, in part, by decreased IFG/OFG activation.

Neural functional correlates of empathic face processing

OBJECTIVES

Empathy is a human trait related to the ability to share someone else's feelings, and emotional face processing is one of its measures. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies showed significant neural correlates of empathic face processing. We aimed to identify those brain areas most consistently involved in empathy for emotional faces.

METHODS

We carried ALE meta-analysis of whole-brain data from fMRI studies during empathic face-processing tasks. We included 23 studies conducted on a total of 568 participants (247 males and 321 females, mean age 32.2 years).

RESULTS

Emotional vs. control faces processing significantly correlated with activations of the left anterior cingulate cortex (BA 32), right precentral gyrus (BA 6), left amygdala, right superior frontal gyrus (BA 9), left middle occipital gyrus (BA 37), right insula (BA 13), left putamen, and left posterior cingulate cortex (BA 31).

CONCLUSIONS

Empathy is a complex process correlating with bi-hemispheric cortico-limbic activations involved in emotional cue processing, self-other/same-different discrimination, perspective-taking, theory of mind, emotional arousal, and decision-making.

Amygdala habituation to emotional faces in adolescents with internalizing disorders, adolescents with childhood sexual abuse related PTSD and healthy adolescents

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A study investigating habituation patterns in the amygdala.

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Compares adolescents with internalizing disorders and adolescents with CSA-related PTSD.

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Initial heightened response and fast habituation in amygdala for the PTSD group.

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No habituation of amygdala response in the internalizing group.

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Possible difference in underlying neurobiological mechanisms for emotional face processing.

Adolescents with internalizing disorders and adolescents with childhood sexual abuse related post-traumatic stress disorder (CSA-related PTSD) show a large overlap in symptomatology. In addition, brain research indicated hyper-responsiveness and sustained activation instead of habituation of amygdala activation to emotional faces in both groups. Little is known, however, about whether the same patterns of amygdala habituation are present in these two groups. The current study examined habituation patterns of amygdala activity to emotional faces (fearful, happy and neutral) in adolescents with a DSM-IV depressive and/or anxiety disorder (N = 25), adolescents with CSA-related PTSD (N = 19) and healthy controls (N = 26). Behaviourally, the adolescents from the internalizing and CSA-related PTSD group reported more anxiety to fearful and neutral faces than adolescents from the control group and adolescents from the CSA-related PTSD group reacted slower compared to the internalizing group. At the whole brain level, there was a significant interaction between time and group within the left amygdala. Follow-up ROI analysis showed elevated initial activity in the amygdala and rapid habituation in the CSA-related PTSD group compared to the internalizing group. These findings suggest that habituation patterns of amygdala activation provide additional information on problems with emotional face processing. Furthermore, the results suggest there are differences in the underlying neurobiological mechanisms related to emotional face processing for adolescents with internalizing disorders and adolescents with CSA-related PTSD. Possibly CSA-related PTSD is characterized by a stronger primary emotional response driven by the amygdala.

Emotional face recognition in adolescent suicide attempters and adolescents engaging in non-suicidal self-injury

Little is known about the bio-behavioral mechanisms underlying and differentiating suicide attempts from non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents. Adolescents who attempt suicide or engage in NSSI often report significant interpersonal and social difficulties. Emotional face recognition ability is a fundamental skill required for successful social interactions, and deficits in this ability may provide insight into the unique brain-behavior interactions underlying suicide attempts versus NSSI in adolescents. Therefore, we examined emotional face recognition ability among three mutually exclusive groups: (1) inpatient adolescents who attempted suicide (SA, n = 30); (2) inpatient adolescents engaged in NSSI (NSSI, n = 30); and (3) typically developing controls (TDC, n = 30) without psychiatric illness. Participants included adolescents aged 13-17 years, matched on age, gender and full-scale IQ. Emotional face recognition was evaluated using the diagnostic assessment of nonverbal accuracy (DANVA-2). Compared to TDC youth, adolescents with NSSI made more errors on child fearful and adult sad face recognition while controlling for psychopathology and medication status (ps < 0.05). No differences were found on emotional face recognition between NSSI and SA groups. Secondary analyses showed that compared to inpatients without major depression, those with major depression made fewer errors on adult sad face recognition even when controlling for group status (p < 0.05). Further, compared to inpatients without generalized anxiety, those with generalized anxiety made fewer recognition errors on adult happy faces even when controlling for group status (p < 0.05). Adolescent inpatients engaged in NSSI showed greater deficits in emotional face recognition than TDC, but not inpatient adolescents who attempted suicide. Further results suggest the importance of psychopathology in emotional face recognition. Replication of these preliminary results and examination of the role of context-dependent emotional processing are needed moving forward.

The electrophysiological effects of the serotonin 1A receptor agonist buspirone in emotional face processing

Emotional face processing is critically modulated by the serotonergic system, and serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonists impair emotional face processing. However, the specific contribution of the 5-HT1A receptor remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the spatiotemporal brain mechanisms underpinning the modulation of emotional face processing induced by buspirone, a partial 5-HT1A receptor agonist. In a psychophysical discrimination of emotional faces task, we observed that the discrimination fearful versus neutral faces were reduced, but not happy versus neutral faces. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials elicited by emotional face images, after placebo and buspirone administration. Buspirone modulated response strength (i.e., global field power) in the interval 230-248ms after stimulus onset. Distributed source estimation over this time interval revealed that buspirone decreased the neural activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that was evoked by fearful faces. These results indicate temporal and valence-specific effects of buspirone on the neuronal correlates of emotional face processing. Furthermore, the reduced neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in response to fearful faces suggests a reduced attention to fearful faces. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the role of 5-HT1A receptors in emotional face processing and have implications for affective disorders that are characterized by an increased attention to negative stimuli.

Is it in the eyes? Dissociating the role of emotion and perceptual features of emotionally expressive faces in modulating orienting to eye gaze

This study investigated the role of the eye region of emotional facial expressions in modulating gaze orienting effects. Eye widening is characteristic of fearful and surprised expressions and may significantly increase the salience of perceived gaze direction. This perceptual bias rather than the emotional valence of certain expressions may drive enhanced gaze orienting effects. In a series of three experiments involving low anxiety participants, different emotional expressions were tested using a gaze-cueing paradigm. Fearful and surprised expressions enhanced the gaze orienting effect compared with happy or angry expressions. Presenting only the eye regions as cueing stimuli eliminated this effect whereas inversion globally reduced it. Both inversion and the use of eyes only attenuated the emotional valence of stimuli without affecting the perceptual salience of the eyes. The findings thus suggest that low-level stimulus features alone are not sufficient to drive gaze orienting modulations by emotion. Rather, they interact with the emotional valence of the expression that appears critical. The study supports the view that rapid processing of fearful and surprised emotional expressions can potentiate orienting to another person's averted gaze in non-anxious people.