Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 9, 2026

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
Interaction of threat expressions and eye gaze: an event-related potential study
Jason S Nomi1, Candice Frances, Maia T Nguyen
1Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Abstract:
The current study examined the interaction of fearful, angry, happy, and neutral expressions with left, straight, and right eye gaze directions. Human participants viewed faces consisting of various expression and eye gaze combinations while event-related potential (ERP) data were collected. The results showed that angry expressions modulated the mean amplitude of the P1, whereas fearful and happy expressions modulated the mean amplitude of the N170. No influence of eye gaze on mean amplitudes for the P1 and N170 emerged. Fearful, angry, and happy expressions began to interact with eye gaze to influence mean amplitudes in the time window of 200-400 ms. The results suggest early processing of expression influence ERPs independent of eye gaze, whereas expression and gaze interact to influence later ERPs.

