Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Psychophysiology. 2010 Mar 1;47(2):271-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00938.x. Epub 2009 Dec 16.
Anxiety is supposed to enhance the processing of threatening information. Here, we investigated the cortical processing of angry faces during anticipated public speaking. To elicit anxiety, a group of participants was told that they would have to perform a public speech. As a control condition, another group was told that they would have to write a short essay. During anticipation of these tasks, participants saw facial expressions (angry, happy, and neutral) while electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potential analysis revealed larger N170 amplitudes for angry compared to happy and neutral faces in the anxiety group. The early posterior negativity as an index of motivated attention was also enhanced for angry compared to happy and neutral faces in participants anticipating public speaking. These results indicate that fear of public speaking influences early perceptual processing of faces such that especially the processing of angry faces is facilitated.
焦虑被认为可以增强对威胁信息的处理。在这里，我们研究了在预期演讲时愤怒面孔的皮质处理。为了引起焦虑，一组参与者被告知他们将不得不进行公开演讲。作为对照条件，另一组参与者被告知他们将不得不写一篇短文。在预期这些任务的过程中，参与者在看到面部表情（愤怒、高兴和中性）的同时记录了脑电图。事件相关电位分析显示，在焦虑组中，与高兴和中性面孔相比，愤怒面孔的 N170 振幅更大。作为动机注意指标的早期后负波（early posterior negativity）在参与者预期公开演讲时也对愤怒面孔比对高兴和中性面孔更强。这些结果表明，对公开演讲的恐惧会影响面孔的早期感知处理，从而特别促进对愤怒面孔的处理。
