Should I smile or should I frown? An ERP study on the voluntary control of emotion‐related facial expressions

Abstract

We investigated the motor planning and reprogramming of facial expressions of happiness and anger with a response-priming task. A response signal commanded the production of a validly or invalidly cued facial expression. Electromyogram showed performance costs of inhibiting the falsely prepared expression and reprogramming the correct one in invalid trials. These performance costs were larger in zygomaticus major than corrugator supercilii, indicating better control over the latter. Event-related potentials indicated no emotion specificity in the initial preparation of anger and happiness in the contingent negative variation. During reprogramming, anger came along with greater allocation of processing resources for the inhibition of the preactivated motor plan (N2), and the updating of a new one (P3). These additional processing resources and the faster control over corrugator may reflect the need for being quick and accurate in displaying threat.

Are event-related potentials to dynamic facial expressions of emotion related to individual differences in the accuracy of processing facial expressions and identity?

“…In the behavioral part, we assessed individual differences in face cognition abilities in general, and the specific abilities of emotion perception and recognition, using a multivariate test battery consisting of several tasks for each latent variable (Hildebrandt et al, 2015;Wilhelm, Hildebrandt, Manske, Schacht, & Sommer, 2014). In the psychophysiological part, we recorded ERPs while a subsample, randomly selected from the psychometric sample, completed three different tasks: (1) learning and recognition of facial identity (Kaltwasser et al, 2014), (2) the classification of dynamic facial expressions of emotion (Künecke et al, 2014;Recio, Schacht & Sommer, 2014), and (3) the production of facial expressions (Recio, Shmuilovich, & Sommer, 2014). In the present study, we focused on the emotion specificities of the ERPs recorded during the emotion classification task, and on their relationship to the accuracy of face identity and facial emotion processing obtained in the psychometric part.…”

Money or smiles: Independent ERP effects of associated monetary reward and happy faces

“…Therefore, it has been assumed that humans have evolved a biological preparedness to rapidly detect emotional expressions (e.g., [ 4 ]). For facial expressions of emotion, preferential processing has been unveiled both at the behavioural and neural level, and in particular for angry facial expressions (e.g., [ 5 – 9 ]). However, for happy facial expressions, a faster and more accurate recognition compared to other expressions has been demonstrated [ 10 , 11 ], that is potentially based one the exclusive role of happiness as a positive expression [ 12 , 13 ].…”

Money or smiles: Independent ERP effects of associated monetary reward and happy faces

“…Therefore, it has been assumed that humans have evolved a biological preparedness to rapidly detect emotional expressions (e.g., Öhman & Mineka, 2001). For facial expressions of emotion, a preferential processing has been unveiled both at the behavioral and neural level, mainly for angry facial expressions (e.g., Recio, Shmuilovich, & Sommer, 2014;Recio, Sommer, & Schacht, 2011;Rellecke, Palazova, Sommer, & Schacht, 2011;Rellecke, Sommer, & Schacht, 2012;Schupp et al, 2004). However, for happy facial expressions a recognition advantage has been demonstrated (Kirita & Endo, 1995), manifested in an increased and faster recognition accuracy compared to other facial expressions potentially based one the exclusive role of happiness as a positive expression (Calvo & Lundqvist, 2008;Leppänen & Hietanen, 2004).…”