An objective and reliable electrophysiological marker for implicit trustworthiness perception.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Trustworthiness judgments are often assumed to be implicit, yet research predominantly uses explicit methods.
• The neural basis of implicit trustworthiness processing remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether trustworthiness can be processed implicitly using electroencephalography.
• To determine if neural signatures reflect implicit trustworthiness cues in faces.

Main Methods:

• Employed the fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) paradigm with electroencephalography (EEG).
• Presented faces at 6 Hz, with trustworthiness cues varying at 1 Hz, without requiring explicit judgments.
• Analyzed neural responses to detect synchronization with trustworthiness variations.

Main Results:

• Observed significant 1 Hz neural responses, indicating detection of facial trustworthiness variations.
• Found reduced responses for inverted faces, suggesting involvement of higher-order face processing.
• Demonstrated reliability of neural responses and their correlation with explicit trustworthiness judgments.

Conclusions:

• Confirmed that trustworthiness processing can occur implicitly, resolving a theoretical debate.
• Established FPVS as a viable tool for studying implicit face perception.
• Highlighted potential applications of FPVS in pre-verbal and clinical populations for assessing face processing.