Neuroscience Letters, 2012, 526: 85– 90

The processing of anticipated and  unanticipated fearful faces: An ERP study

Ming Peng¹, Alain De  Beuckelaer^1,2,3, Lin Yuan¹, Renlai  Zhou^1,4,5,∗

¹Beijing Key Lab of Applied  Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University,  Beijing, China

²Department of Personnel Management  and Work and Organizational Psychology and Department of Sociology, Ghent  University, Belgium

³Institute for Management Research,  Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

⁴State Key Laboratory of Cognitive  Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing,  China

⁵Research Center of Emotion  Regulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

Abstract：  previous ERPs studies examined  the influence of attention on emotional face processing, such as the influence  of spatial attention (Holmes, Kiss, & Eimer, 2006) and the extent to which  attentional resources are available (Luo, Feng, He, Wang, & Luo, 2010),  however wever,the  potential effect of anticipation on emotional face was not  examined. Therefore, our ERP study was designed to study the time course of  neural activity related to the processing of anticipated vs. unanticipated  fearful faces. In order to arrive the aim, we concerned the ERP components  before the face onset (SPN-like component, stimulus-preceding negativity) and  after the face onset (N1, P1, P2, N170, N300, and  P3).In  unpredictable trials, the chance of a consistent prime-face sequence was 50%. As  a consequence, participants were not in a position to anticipate the expression  (fear/neutral) of the next face to appear. In contrast, in predictable trials,  participants were able to anticipate the type of face to appear next because the  chance of an inconsistent prime-face sequence was 75%. In total, data from 17  participants (i.e., reaction times; ERP waveforms) were analyzed. RT data on  fearful faces showed that (Figure 1), in unpredictable trials, fearful faces are  processed significantly faster in consistent trials than in inconsistent trials.  In predictable trials, the same difference, albeit non-significant, was found  across consistent and inconsistent trials. These results indicate that  processing fearful faces is influenced by anticipation. However, the effect in  predictable trials was not strong enough to result in faster RTs in inconsistent  trials than in consistent trials. ERP results (Figure 2) showed that amplitudes  in the SPN-like component differed: (a) between predictable and unpredictable  trials and (b) between fearful and neutral faces in predictable trials. Both  results indicate that the SPN-like component may be involved in the processing  of anticipated stimuli. Our study results also showed that emotion processing  clearly differed between predictable and unpredictable trials in the early  stage. Emotion processing started earlier in predictable trials (N1 and N170)  than in unpredictable trials (P2), which indicates that processing of expression  was accelerated in predictive trials. N300 and P3 amplitudes did not differ  between predictable and unpredictable trials. These findings regarding N300 and  P3 suggest that cognitive control and elaborate processing of emotion are not  modulated by subjective anticipation.

Keywords: facial expressions,  anticipation, predictability, Event-related potential (ERP)

可预期和不可预期恐惧面孔的加工：一项ERP研究

彭明¹, Alain De  Beuckelaer^1,2,3, 原琳¹, 周仁来^1,4,5,∗

¹北京师范大学北京应用试验心理重点实验室北京 100875

²根特大学人事管理和组织心理学系和社会学系根特比利时

³奈梅亨大学管理研究学院奈梅亨荷兰

⁴北京师范大学认知神经科学与学习国家重点实验室北京 100875

⁵北京师范大学情绪调节研究中心北京 100875

摘要：以往的ERPs研究大多考察注意对情绪面孔加工的影响，如空间注意的影响（Holmes,  Kiss, & Eimer, 2006）以及注意资源的影响（Luo, Feng, He, Wang, & Luo,  2010）。但是，可预期性对情绪面孔加工的影响却很少被关注。因此，本研究考察可预期以及不可预期的恐惧面孔加工的神经活动的时间进程的差异。为了达到此目的，我们将关注面孔出现之前和面孔出现之后的脑电成分。在可预期条件下，启动词与面孔一致的比例为50%，这样被试无法通过启动词来预期面孔的表情（恐惧/中性）。而在可预期条件下，启动词与面孔不一致的比例为75%，被试可以通过启动词来预期面孔将会呈现与之相反的表情。共有17个有效数据。反应时结果显示（图1），在不可预期条件下，恐惧面孔在启动词-面孔一致时的反应时显著的快于不一致。在可预期条件下，恐惧面孔在启动词-面孔一致时的反应时快于不一致，但是并没有达到显著。这个结果说明恐惧面孔的加工受到了预期的影响，但是预期对恐惧面孔加工的影响并没有足够大到在可预期条件下出现不一致的反应时快于一致时的反应时。ERP结果显示可预期与不可预期条件的SPN-like成分的波幅差异显著，可预期条件下恐惧和中性面孔SPN-like成分的波幅差异也显著。这两个结果说明SPN-like成分可能参与了对刺激预期的加工。研究结果还表明可预期和不可预期的情绪加工在早期ERP成分上表现出差异。可预期条件下的加工比不可预期条件下对情绪的加工要早，说明可预期条件下情绪信息的加工被提前。可预期和不可预期的情绪加工在晚期ERP成分上没有差异，说明对情绪的认知控制和精细加工没有受到预期的影响。

关键词：面孔表情，预期，可预测性，事件相关电位（ERP）