 |
| Research article summary (published 30 May 2003): |
The role of spatial attention in the processing of facial expression: an ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions.
Full Abstract
To investigate the time course of emotional expression processing, we recorded ERP responses to stimulus arrays containing neutral versus angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, or surprised faces. In one half of the experiment, the task was to discriminate emotional and neutral facial expressions. Here, an enhanced early frontocentral positivity was elicited in response to emotional as opposed to neutral faces, followed by a broadly distributed positivity and an enhanced negativity at lateral posterior sites. These emotional expression effects were very similar for all six basic emotional expressions. In the other half of the experiment, attention was directed away from the faces toward a demanding perceptual discrimination task. Under these conditions, emotional expression effects were completely eliminated, demonstrating that brain processes involved in the detection and analysis of facial expression require focal attention. The face-specific N170 component was unaffected by any emotional expression, supporting the hypothesis that structural encoding and expression analysis are independent processes.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Eimer, Martin (M); Holmes, Amanda (A); McGlone, Francis P (FP);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, England. m.eimer(-atsign-)bbk.ac.uk
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience (Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2003-Jun; vol 3 (issue 2) : pp 97-110
Dates: Created 2003/08/28; Completed 2003/10/07; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12943325, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.