Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing

Bublatzky F, Pittig A, Schupp HT, Alpers GW (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience Oxford University Press

Book Volume: 12

Pages Range: 811-822

Journal Issue: 5

DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx001

Abstract

The human face conveys emotional and social information, but it is not well understood how these two aspects influence face perception. In order to model a group situation, two faces displaying happy, neutral or angry expressions were presented. Importantly, faces were either facing the observer, or they were presented in profile view directed towards, or looking away from each other. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), face pairs were rated regarding perceived relevance, wish-to-interact, and displayed interactivity, as well as valence and arousal. All variables revealed main effects of facial expression (emotional > neutral), face orientation (facing observer > towards > away) and interactions showed that evaluation of emotional faces strongly varies with their orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 33) examined the temporal dynamics of perceptual- attentional processing of these face constellations with event-related potentials. Processing of emotional and neutral faces differed significantly in N170 amplitudes, early posterior negativity (EPN), and sustained positive potentials. Importantly, selective emotional face processing varied as a function of face orientation, indicating early emotion-specific (N170, EPN) and late threat-specific effects (LPP, sustained positivity). Taken together, perceived personal relevance to the observer- conveyed by facial expression and face direction-amplifies emotional face processing within triadic group situations.

Authors with CRIS profile

Andre Pittig Professorship for Translational Psychotherapy

Involved external institutions

Universität Mannheim DE Germany (DE) Universität Konstanz DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Bublatzky, F., Pittig, A., Schupp, H.T., & Alpers, G.W. (2017). Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(5), 811-822. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx001

MLA:

Bublatzky, Florian, et al. "Face-to-face: Perceived personal relevance amplifies face processing." Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 12.5 (2017): 811-822.

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