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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 16, 2025

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Published on: July 31, 2016

Face and emotional expression processing under continuous perceptual load tasks: An ERP study.

Sebastian Schindler¹, Clara Tirloni², Maximilian Bruchmann¹

¹Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany.

Biological Psychology

|February 26, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

High perceptual load does not affect early visual processing of emotional faces (P1, N170). However, low load enhances early posterior negativity (EPN) for emotional face discrimination, suggesting a processing bottleneck.

Keywords:

Continuous task performance EEG/ERP Early ERPs Faces Fearful expressions Perceptual load

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Published on: July 31, 2016

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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

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Published on: August 26, 2011

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Electrophysiology

Background:

High perceptual load is hypothesized to impede early visual processing of irrelevant stimuli.
Previous research yielded mixed results regarding perceptual load's impact on early event-related potentials (ERPs) for emotional faces.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the influence of continuous perceptual load on ERPs elicited by task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces.
To examine how perceptual load affects the processing of faces versus their phase-scrambled counterparts and emotional discrimination.

Main Methods:

A preregistered electroencephalography (EEG) study with 40 participants.
Participants performed a task under varying levels of continuous perceptual load.
ERPs were recorded in response to task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces and their phase-scrambled versions.

Main Results:

Perceptual load did not modulate face or emotion effects on the P1 and N170 components.
The Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) showed greater face-scramble and fearful-neutral differentiation under low load compared to high load.
P1 modulations were face-independent, while N170 modulations were face-dependent and sensitive to emotion.

Conclusions:

Early visual processing stages (P1, N170) for faces and emotions demonstrate high automaticity, being resistant to perceptual load.
The EPN may indicate a bottleneck in visual information processing, being more susceptible to perceptual load.
Findings suggest distinct processing dynamics for early visual components under varying cognitive demands.