Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education of China, Chongqing 400715, China.
Sci China Life Sci. 2010 Nov;53(11):1361-8. doi: 10.1007/s11427-010-4083-4. Epub 2010 Nov 3.
The present study tested whether neural sensitivity to salient emotional facial expressions was influenced by emotional expectations induced by a cue that validly predicted the expression of a subsequently presented target face. Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by fearful and neutral faces were recorded while participants performed a gender discrimination task under cued ('expected') and uncued ('unexpected') conditions. The behavioral results revealed that accuracy was lower for fearful compared with neutral faces in the unexpected condition, while accuracy was similar for fearful and neutral faces in the expected condition. ERP data revealed increased amplitudes in the P2 component and 200-250 ms interval for unexpected fearful versus neutral faces. By contrast, ERP responses were similar for fearful and neutral faces in the expected condition. These findings indicate that human neural sensitivity to fearful faces is modulated by emotional expectations. Although the neural system is sensitive to unpredictable emotionally salient stimuli, sensitivity to salient stimuli is reduced when these stimuli are predictable.
本研究旨在测试情绪预期是否会影响人们对显著情绪面部表情的神经敏感性，这种情绪预期是由一个线索诱发的，该线索有效地预测了随后呈现的目标面部表情。在参与者进行性别辨别任务时，记录了由恐惧和中性面孔引发的事件相关电位（ERPs），该任务在有线索（“预期”）和无线索（“意外”）的条件下进行。行为结果表明，在意外条件下，与中性面孔相比，参与者对恐惧面孔的准确性较低，而在预期条件下，恐惧面孔和中性面孔的准确性相似。ERP 数据显示，与中性面孔相比，意外的恐惧面孔在 P2 成分和 200-250 毫秒区间的振幅增加。相比之下，在预期条件下，恐惧面孔和中性面孔的 ERP 反应相似。这些发现表明，人类对恐惧面孔的神经敏感性受到情绪预期的调节。尽管神经系统对不可预测的情绪显著刺激敏感，但当这些刺激可预测时，对显著刺激的敏感性会降低。
