Lin Huiyan, Liang Jiafeng
Laboratory for Behavioral and Regional Finance, School of National Finance, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China.
Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China.
J Neuropsychol. 2025 Mar;19(1):81-97. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12392. Epub 2024 Sep 17.
Previous studies have shown that high-arousal positive and negative facial expressions influence event-related potential (ERP) and time-frequency responses depending on attentional focuses. However, little is known about how relevant neural responses are influenced by surprised facial expressions, which are also high in arousal but ambiguous in valence. To address the issue, 38 participants were presented with surprised, happy, angry and neutral facial expressions. Attention was manipulated to focus on facial emotional attributes, facial non-emotional attributes, non-facial attributes, or was free to the participants. ERP results showed larger N170 responses to surprised compared to neutral facial expressions when attention focused on facial attributes and to surprised compared to angry and neutral facial expressions when attention focused on facial non-emotional attributes. Time-frequency analyses revealed reduced power of early occipital theta to surprised compared to happy and angry expressions when attention focused on facial emotions and to surprised compared to angry expressions when attention focused on non-facial stimuli. Parietal delta power was smaller for surprised facial expressions than for angry facial expressions when attention focused on facial emotions and for surprised facial expressions than for angry and neutral facial expressions when attention was directed to non-facial stimuli. These findings might suggest that neural responses to surprised facial expressions are modulated by attentional focus.
先前的研究表明，高唤醒水平的正面和负面面部表情会根据注意力焦点影响事件相关电位（ERP）和时频反应。然而，对于惊讶面部表情如何影响相关神经反应却知之甚少，惊讶面部表情同样具有高唤醒水平，但效价不明确。为了解决这个问题，研究人员向38名参与者展示了惊讶、高兴、愤怒和中性的面部表情。注意力被操控以聚焦于面部情感属性、面部非情感属性、非面部属性，或者参与者可以自由分配注意力。ERP结果显示，当注意力聚焦于面部属性时，与中性面部表情相比，对惊讶面部表情的N170反应更大；当注意力聚焦于面部非情感属性时，与愤怒和中性面部表情相比，对惊讶面部表情的N170反应更大。时频分析表明，当注意力聚焦于面部情感时，与高兴和愤怒表情相比，对惊讶表情的早期枕叶θ波功率降低；当注意力聚焦于非面部刺激时，与愤怒表情相比，对惊讶表情的早期枕叶θ波功率降低。当注意力聚焦于面部情感时，惊讶面部表情的顶叶δ波功率比愤怒面部表情小；当注意力指向非面部刺激时，惊讶面部表情的顶叶δ波功率比愤怒和中性面部表情小。这些发现可能表明，对惊讶面部表情的神经反应受到注意力焦点的调节。
