Event-Related Potentials to Facial Expressions Are Related to Stimulus-Level Perceived Arousal and Valence

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Neuroscience

Background:

• Facial expressions convey crucial information about individuals' internal states.
• Understanding the neural basis of facial expression processing is key to social cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if event-related potentials (ERPs) in facial expression visual processing are modulated by perceived arousal and valence.
• To determine how subjective ratings of arousal and valence relate to neural responses to different facial emotions.

Main Methods:

• Recorded ERPs from 80 participants categorizing gender of fearful, angry, happy, and neutral faces.
• Participants rated each face on arousal and valence using Likert scales.
• Hierarchical mass univariate statistics and ANOVA models analyzed ERPs, incorporating emotion, valence, and arousal as factors.

Main Results:

• ERPs related to facial expression processing were significantly modulated by perceived arousal and valence.
• The N170 component showed the most substantial interaction with arousal and valence ratings across emotion contrasts.
• Effects on P2 and EPN components were less consistently related to arousal and valence ratings.

Conclusions:

• Neural processing of facial expressions is demonstrably linked to participants' subjective arousal and valence perceptions.
• The influence of arousal and valence on ERPs varies depending on the specific emotion contrast and neural component examined.
• Findings contribute to understanding the interplay between stimulus properties and subjective experience in emotion perception.