Department of Psychology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, United States.
Neuropsychologia. 2012 Apr;50(5):553-66. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.01.019. Epub 2012 Jan 24.
The face conveys a rich source of non-verbal information used during social communication. While research has revealed how specific facial channels such as emotional expression are processed, little is known about the prioritization and integration of multiple cues in the face during dyadic exchanges. Classic models of face perception have emphasized the segregation of dynamic vs. static facial features along independent information processing pathways. Here we review recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence suggesting that within the dynamic stream, concurrent changes in eye gaze and emotional expression can yield early independent effects on face judgments and covert shifts of visuospatial attention. These effects are partially segregated within initial visual afferent processing volleys, but are subsequently integrated in limbic regions such as the amygdala or via reentrant visual processing volleys. This spatiotemporal pattern may help to resolve otherwise perplexing discrepancies across behavioral studies of emotional influences on gaze-directed attentional cueing. Theoretical explanations of gaze-expression interactions are discussed, with special consideration of speed-of-processing (discriminability) and contextual (ambiguity) accounts. Future research in this area promises to reveal the mental chronometry of face processing and interpersonal attention, with implications for understanding how social referencing develops in infancy and is impaired in autism and other disorders of social cognition.
面部传达了丰富的非言语信息，这些信息在社交交流中被使用。虽然研究已经揭示了特定的面部通道（如情感表达）是如何被处理的，但对于在两人交流中面部多个线索的优先化和整合知之甚少。传统的面部知觉模型强调了动态与静态面部特征沿着独立的信息处理途径的分离。在这里，我们回顾了最近的行为和神经科学证据，这些证据表明，在动态信息流中，眼动和情感表达的同时变化可以对面部判断和视觉空间注意的隐蔽转移产生早期的独立影响。这些影响在初始视觉传入处理冲动中部分分离，但随后在杏仁核或通过再传入视觉处理冲动中整合。这种时空模式可能有助于解决在眼动指向注意力线索的情绪影响的行为研究中令人困惑的差异。我们讨论了对视-表情相互作用的理论解释，特别考虑了加工速度（可辨别性）和上下文（模糊性）的解释。该领域的未来研究有望揭示面部处理和人际注意力的心理时间进程，这对于理解社会参照在婴儿期是如何发展的，以及在自闭症和其他社会认知障碍中是如何受损的，具有重要意义。
