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Consciously over Unconsciously Perceived Rewards Facilitate Self-face Processing: An ERP Study
Youlong Zhan1,2, Xiao Xiao3, Jie Chen1,2
1Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China.
Scientific Reports
|August 12, 2017
Summary
Consciously perceived rewards enhance self-face processing more than unconscious rewards. This study reveals how awareness of rewards impacts our perception of ourselves versus others.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Reward perception influences cognitive processes.
- The impact of conscious vs. unconscious rewards on social cognition is understudied.
- Self-face processing is crucial for social cognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how consciously and unconsciously perceived rewards modulate self-face processing.
- To examine the temporal dynamics of self-face recognition under different reward conditions.
Main Methods:
- Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded.
- Participants judged facial identity (self, friend, stranger) after high/low monetary rewards presented supraliminally or subliminally.
- P3 component was analyzed for reward and face type interactions.
Main Results:
- A significant interaction was found between reward value, presentation type, and face type in the P3 component.
- Conscious rewards (supraliminal) enhanced P3 for self-faces with high rewards, but reduced it for friend-faces.
- Unconscious rewards (subliminal) enhanced P3 for self-faces with high rewards, with no effect on friend or stranger faces.
Conclusions:
- Consciously processed rewards offer distinct advantages in self-face processing compared to unconsciously processed rewards.
- Awareness of rewards allows for more flexible integration of reward value and self-relevance.
- These findings highlight the differential modulation of social cognition by conscious versus unconscious reward perception.
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