Categorical perception of happiness and fear facial expressions: an ERP study - PubMed

Categorical perception of happiness and fear facial expressions: an ERP study

S Campanella et al. J Cogn Neurosci. 2002.

Abstract

Behavioral studies have shown that two different morphed faces perceived as reflecting the same emotional expression are harder to discriminate than two faces considered as two different ones. This advantage of between-categorical differences compared with within-categorical ones is classically referred as the categorical perception effect. The temporal course of this effect on fear and happiness facial expressions has been explored through event-related potentials (ERPs). Three kinds of pairs were presented in a delayed same-different matching task: (1) two different morphed faces perceived as the same emotional expression (within-categorical differences), (2) two other ones reflecting two different emotions (between-categorical differences), and (3) two identical morphed faces (same faces for methodological purpose). Following the second face onset in the pair, the amplitude of the bilateral occipito-temporal negativities (N170) and of the vertex positive potential (P150 or VPP) was reduced for within and same pairs relative to between pairs. This suggests a repetition priming effect. We also observed a modulation of the P3b wave, as the amplitude of the responses for the between pairs was higher than for the within and same pairs. These results indicate that the categorical perception of human facial emotional expressions has a perceptual origin in the bilateral occipito-temporal regions, while typical prior studies found emotion-modulated ERP components considerably later.

Similar articles

• Right N170 modulation in a face discrimination task: an account for categorical perception of familiar faces.

  Campanella S, Hanoteau C, Dépy D, Rossion B, Bruyer R, Crommelinck M, Guérit JM. Campanella S, et al. Psychophysiology. 2000 Nov;37(6):796-806. Psychophysiology. 2000. PMID: 11117460

• Modification of N170 by different emotional expression of schematic faces.

  Krombholz A, Schaefer F, Boucsein W. Krombholz A, et al. Biol Psychol. 2007 Oct;76(3):156-62. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.07.004. Epub 2007 Jul 26. Biol Psychol. 2007. PMID: 17764809

• Morphed facial expressions elicited a N400 ERP effect: a domain-specific semantic module?

  Balconi M, Pozzoli U. Balconi M, et al. Scand J Psychol. 2005 Dec;46(6):467-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00478.x. Scand J Psychol. 2005. PMID: 16277647

• Distributed and interactive brain mechanisms during emotion face perception: evidence from functional neuroimaging.

  Vuilleumier P, Pourtois G. Vuilleumier P, et al. Neuropsychologia. 2007 Jan 7;45(1):174-94. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.06.003. Epub 2006 Jul 18. Neuropsychologia. 2007. PMID: 16854439 Review.

• Event-related potentials and event-related oscillations during identity and facial emotional processing in schizophrenia.

  Ramos-Loyo J, González-Garrido AA, Sánchez-Loyo LM, Medina V, Basar-Eroglu C. Ramos-Loyo J, et al. Int J Psychophysiol. 2009 Jan;71(1):84-90. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.07.008. Epub 2008 Jul 23. Int J Psychophysiol. 2009. PMID: 18727940

Cited by

• Processing Facial Expressions That Conflict With Their Meanings to an Observer: An Event Related Potential Study.

  Yang Q, Zhang Y, Wang J, Wu Y. Yang Q, et al. Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 17;11:1273. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01273. eCollection 2020. Front Psychol. 2020. PMID: 32625149 Free PMC article.

• Fear boosts the early neural coding of faces.

  Turano MT, Lao J, Richoz AR, Lissa P, Degosciu SBA, Viggiano MP, Caldara R. Turano MT, et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017 Dec 1;12(12):1959-1971. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsx110. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017. PMID: 29040780 Free PMC article.

• Effect of doctor-patient news-induced moral judgments on pain empathy for doctors and patients in China.

  Li H, Zhao D, Yang B, Zhao Y, Huang H, Jiang H, Chen M, Zhou Q, Ying L. Li H, et al. Front Neurosci. 2022 Nov 23;16:1037659. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1037659. eCollection 2022. Front Neurosci. 2022. PMID: 36507339 Free PMC article.

• Emotion modulates early auditory response to speech.

  Wang J, Nicol T, Skoe E, Sams M, Kraus N. Wang J, et al. J Cogn Neurosci. 2009 Nov;21(11):2121-8. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2008.21147. J Cogn Neurosci. 2009. PMID: 18855553 Free PMC article.

• Experience-dependent coding of facial expression in superior temporal sulcus.

  Furl N, van Rijsbergen NJ, Treves A, Friston KJ, Dolan RJ. Furl N, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Aug 14;104(33):13485-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0702548104. Epub 2007 Aug 7. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007. PMID: 17684100 Free PMC article.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Silverchair Information Systems