Processing of masked and unmasked emotional faces under different attentional conditions: an electrophysiological investigation

Abstract

In order to investigate the interactions between non-spatial selective attention, awareness and emotion processing, we carried out an ERP study using a backward masking paradigm, in which angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions were presented, while participants attempted to detect the presence of one or the other category of facial expressions in the different experimental blocks. ERP results showed that negative emotions enhanced an early N170 response over temporal-occipital leads in both masked and unmasked conditions, independently of selective attention. A later effect arising at the P2 was linked to awareness. Finally, selective attention was found to affect the N2 and N3 components over occipito-parietal leads. Our findings reveal that (i) the initial processing of facial expressions arises prior to attention and awareness; (ii) attention and awareness give rise to temporally distinct periods of activation independently of the type of emotion with only a partial degree of overlap; and (iii) selective attention appears to be influenced by the emotional nature of the stimuli, which in turn impinges on unconscious processing at a very early stage. This study confirms previous reports that negative facial expressions can be processed rapidly, in absence of visual awareness and independently of selective attention. On the other hand, attention and awareness may operate in a synergistic way, depending on task demand.

Post-Decision Wagering Affects Metacognitive Awareness of Emotional Stimuli: An Event Related Potential Study

“…: [ 52 – 53 ]). Our interpretation is also consistent with results suggesting that fearful stimuli recruit more attentional resources (see: [ 54 ]), and their detection occurs earlier than for neutral stimuli [ 46 , 55 ]. This, in turn, again suggests that all of the ERP components analysed within the study are not necessarily NNC, but they instead reflect higher sensitivity of the system to important stimuli that only later could give rise to awareness.…”

“…that negativity is even more enhanced than the negativity which is a result of the face processing components). However, it also may be suggested that the more pronounced N170 and EPN components reflect a more detailed, sensitive and focussed processing of facial stimulus that only at later stages of processing result in higher awareness [ 45 – 46 ]. Thus, N170 and EPN would be necessary but not sufficient correlates of awareness.…”

Impaired conscious access and abnormal attentional amplification in schizophrenia

“…The literature on attention has primarily focused on the issues of whether attention modulates early as well as late processes. Our study confirms that attention can have a strong modulating influence on early components, although withdrawal of attention does not completely eradicate them ( Feng et al 2012 ; Hillyard and Anllo-Vento 1998 ; Kastner and Ungerleider 2000 ; Luck and Ford 1998 ; Woodman and Luck 2003 ; Zotto and Pegna 2015 ). However, our study points to another way in which attention impacts perceptual processing.…”

Awareness of Emotional Expressions in Cannabis Users: An Event-Related Potential Study

“…Researchers have used ERPs to measure the time-course of processing facial expressions. A number of studies indicated that even when awareness of emotional facial expressions was restricted using backward masking, multiple ERP components were modulated by negative target faces (fear and anger) compared to non-negative faces (happy and neutral) (Pegna et al, 2008, 2011; Del Zotto and Pegna, 2015; Vukusic et al, 2017). The P1 ERP component has a positive peak around 80–120 ms in the lateral occipital electrodes.…”