Lu Hui, Wang Yu, Xu Shuang, Wang Yifeng, Zhang Ruiping, Li Tsingan
aInstitute of Developmental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing bFaculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing cSchool of Educational Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang dKey laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology and Center for Information in BioMedicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu eDepartment of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Neuroreport. 2015 Aug 19;26(12):663-8. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000412.
Aggression is reported to modulate neural responses to the threatening information. However, whether aggression can modulate neural response to different kinds of threatening facial expressions (angry and fearful expressions) remains unknown. Thus, event-related potentials were measured in individuals (13 high aggressive, 12 low aggressive) exposed to neutral, angry, and fearful facial expressions while performing a frame-distinguishing task, irrespective of the emotional valence of the expressions. Highly aggressive participants showed no distinct neural responses between the three facial expressions. In addition, compared with individuals with low aggression, highly aggressive individuals showed a decreased frontocentral response to fearful faces within 250-300 ms and to angry faces within 400-500 ms of exposure. These results indicate that fearful faces represent a more threatening signal requiring a quick cognitive response during the early stage of facial processing, whereas angry faces elicit a stronger response during the later processing stage because of its eminent emotional significance. The present results represent the first known evidence that aggression is associated with different neural responses to fearful and angry faces. By exploring the distinct temporal responses to fearful and angry faces modulated by aggression, this study more precisely characterizes the cognitive characteristics of aggressive individuals.
据报道，攻击性会调节对威胁性信息的神经反应。然而，攻击性是否能调节对不同类型威胁性面部表情（愤怒和恐惧表情）的神经反应仍不清楚。因此，在个体（13名高攻击性个体、12名低攻击性个体）执行区分框架任务时，测量其在面对中性、愤怒和恐惧面部表情时的事件相关电位，而不考虑表情的情感效价。高攻击性参与者在三种面部表情之间未表现出明显的神经反应。此外，与低攻击性个体相比，高攻击性个体在暴露于恐惧面孔250 - 300毫秒内以及暴露于愤怒面孔400 - 500毫秒内时，额中央反应减弱。这些结果表明，恐惧面孔代表了一个更具威胁性的信号，在面部处理的早期阶段需要快速的认知反应，而愤怒面孔由于其显著的情感意义，在后期处理阶段引发更强的反应。目前的结果是已知的首个证据，表明攻击性与对恐惧和愤怒面孔的不同神经反应有关。通过探索攻击性调节的对恐惧和愤怒面孔的不同时间反应，本研究更精确地刻画了攻击性个体的认知特征。
