Department of Pharmacy Practice, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, United States.
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, United States; Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child and Family Development, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, United States.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2021 Jan 30;307:111237. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111237. Epub 2020 Dec 13.
Perceptions of emotional facial expressions and trustworthiness of others guides behavior and has considerable implications for individuals who work in fields that require rapid decision making, such as law enforcement. This is particularly complicated for more ambiguous expressions, such as 'neutral' faces. We examined behavioral and electrocortical responses to facial expressions in 22 student police officers (18 males; 23.2 ± 3.63 years). Participants completed an emotional face appraisal task that involved viewing three expressions (fearful, neutral, happy) and were asked to identify the emotion and rate the trustworthiness of each face. The late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential that tracks emotional intensity and/or salience of a stimulus, was measured during the task. Overall, participants rated neutral faces similarly to fearful faces and responded fastest to these expressions. Neutral faces also elicited a robust late LPP response that did not differ from LPP to fearful or happy faces, and there was substantial individual variation in trustworthiness ratings for neutral faces. Together, 'neutral' facial expressions elicited similar trustworthiness ratings to negatively-valenced stimuli. Brain and behavioral responses to neutral faces also varied across student officers; thus, encounters with ambiguous faces in the field may promote increased perceived threat in some officers, which may have real-world consequences (e.g., decision to shoot, risk of psychopathology).
对情绪面部表情的感知和对他人的信任会影响行为，这对那些需要快速做出决策的领域的人（如执法人员）有很大的影响。对于更模糊的表情，如“中性”脸，这一点尤其复杂。我们研究了 22 名学生警察（18 名男性；23.2±3.63 岁）的面部表情的行为和脑电反应。参与者完成了一项情绪面部评估任务，其中包括观看三种表情（恐惧、中性、快乐），并被要求识别情绪并对每张脸的可信度进行评分。晚正电位（LPP）是一种与刺激的情绪强度和/或显著性相关的事件相关电位，在任务期间进行测量。总的来说，参与者对中性脸的评价与对恐惧脸的评价相似，对这些表情的反应也最快。中性脸也引起了强烈的晚期 LPP 反应，与恐惧或快乐脸的 LPP 没有区别，而且对中性脸的可信度评价存在很大的个体差异。总之，“中性”面部表情引起的信任度评价与负面情绪刺激相似。学生警察对中性脸的大脑和行为反应也存在差异；因此，在现场遇到模糊的面孔可能会导致一些警察感知到更大的威胁，这可能会产生实际后果（例如，决定开枪，出现精神病理学的风险）。
