In context: emotional intent and temporal immediacy of contextual descriptions modulate affective ERP components to facial expressions

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this study, we explored how contextual information about threat dynamics affected the electrophysiological correlates of face perception. Forty-six healthy native Swedish speakers read verbal descriptions signaling an immediate vs delayed intent to escalate or deescalate an interpersonal conflict. Each verbal description was followed by a face with an angry or neutral expression, for which participants rated valence and arousal. Affective ratings confirmed that the emotional intent expressed in the descriptions modulated emotional reactivity to the facial stimuli in the expected direction. The electrophysiological data showed that compared to neutral faces, angry faces resulted in enhanced early and late event-related potentials (VPP, P300 and LPP). Additionally, emotional intent and temporal immediacy modulated the VPP and P300 similarly across angry and neutral faces, suggesting that they influence early face perception independently of facial affect. By contrast, the LPP amplitude to faces revealed an interaction between facial expression and emotional intent. Deescalating descriptions eliminated the LPP differences between angry and neutral faces. Together, our results suggest that information about a person’s intentions modulates the processing of facial expressions.</jats:p>

Attribution of intentions in autism spectrum disorder: A study of event‐related potentials

“…As mentioned, the AI waveform in neurotypical participants showed two distinct peaks compatible with P200 and P300 components. For further analysis we considered the mean amplitude in the (180–250 ms) and (250–400 ms) intervals, respectively (Breznitz, 2008; Chen et al, 2020; Rischer et al, 2020).…”

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“…It has been largely documented that, during facial processing, information from the structural features of the face is rapidly integrated with (and affected by) contextual variables, derived from the observed face (e.g., eye gaze), its surrounding body elements (e.g., body posture), the external scene (e.g., visual background), and the perceiver (e.g., his/her biographical knowledge or processing biases) [ Kleck, 2003, 2005;Artuso et al, 2021); for a review see Meeren et al (2005), Wieser and Brosch (2012), Rischer et al (2020)]. Kleck, 2003, 2005;Artuso et al, 2021) for a review see Meeren et al (2005), Wieser and Brosch (2012), Rischer et al (2020).…”

“…It has been largely documented that, during facial processing, information from the structural features of the face is rapidly integrated with (and affected by) contextual variables, derived from the observed face (e.g., eye gaze), its surrounding body elements (e.g., body posture), the external scene (e.g., visual background), and the perceiver (e.g., his/her biographical knowledge or processing biases) [ Kleck, 2003, 2005;Artuso et al, 2021); for a review see Meeren et al (2005), Wieser and Brosch (2012), Rischer et al (2020)]. Kleck, 2003, 2005;Artuso et al, 2021) for a review see Meeren et al (2005), Wieser and Brosch (2012), Rischer et al (2020). Numerous studies have shown that this context effect on facial processing is limited to late latencies (Bradley, 2009;Hajcak et al, 2009Hajcak et al, , 2010Diéguez-Risco et al, 2013;Wessing et al, 2013), and that contexts that are conditioned to arousal (particularly threat) increase LPP amplitude (Klein et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2016;Stolz et al, 2019).…”

“…( Adams and Kleck, 2003 , 2005 ; Artuso et al, 2021 ) for a review see Meeren et al (2005) , Wieser and Brosch (2012) , Rischer et al (2020) . Numerous studies have shown that this context effect on facial processing is limited to late latencies ( Bradley, 2009 ; Hajcak et al, 2009 , 2010 ; Diéguez–Risco et al, 2013 ; Wessing et al, 2013 ), and that contexts that are conditioned to arousal (particularly threat) increase LPP amplitude ( Klein et al, 2015 ; Xu et al, 2016 ; Stolz et al, 2019 ).…”

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“…As one of the classical approaches used in emotion processing research, facial processing marked by rapid attentional processing has caused great concern due to distinct responsiveness of early components to faces (Jessen & Grossmann, 2020; Rischer et al, 2020). Due to its excellent temporal resolution and sensibility to specific psychological processes, the time course of facial emotion processing has been investigated mostly using event-related potentials (ERPs) and witnessed an evident rise to inspect neurophysiological processes associated with emotional processing in the last two decades.…”