Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
Brain Cogn. 2011 Oct;77(1):113-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.05.001. Epub 2011 Jun 17.
Responses to threat occur via two known independent processing routes. We propose that early, reflexive processing is predominantly tuned to the detection of congruent combinations of facial cues that signal threat, whereas later, reflective processing is predominantly tuned to incongruent combinations of threat. To test this prediction, we examined responses to threat-gaze expression pairs (anger versus fear expression by direct versus averted gaze). We report on two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, one employing prolonged presentations (2s) of threat-gaze pairs to allow for reflective processing (Study 1), and one employing severely restricted (33 ms), backward masked presentations of threat-gaze pairs to isolate reflexive neural responding (Study 2). Our findings offer initial support for the conclusion that early, reflexive responses to threat are predominantly tuned to congruent threat-gaze pairings, whereas later reflective responses are predominantly tuned to ambiguous threat-gaze pairings. These findings highlight a distinct dual function in threat perception.
威胁的反应是通过两种已知的独立处理途径发生的。我们提出，早期的反射性加工主要针对面部线索的一致组合进行调整，这些线索信号着威胁，而后期的反射性加工主要针对威胁的不一致组合进行调整。为了验证这一预测，我们研究了对威胁注视表情对（直接注视和回避注视时的愤怒表情与恐惧表情）的反应。我们报告了两项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究的结果，一项研究采用延长的呈现（2 秒）威胁注视对，以允许进行反射性加工（研究 1），另一项研究采用严重受限（33 毫秒）、向后掩蔽呈现威胁注视对，以隔离反射性神经反应（研究 2）。我们的发现初步支持了这样的结论，即对威胁的早期反射性反应主要针对一致的威胁注视配对进行调整，而后期的反射性反应主要针对模棱两可的威胁注视配对进行调整。这些发现突出了威胁感知中的一种独特的双重功能。
