Psychophysiological correlates of face processing in social phobia - PubMed

Psychophysiological correlates of face processing in social phobia

Iris-Tatjana Kolassa et al. Brain Res. 2006.

Abstract

Social phobia has been associated with abnormal processing of angry faces, which directly signal disapproval--a situation that social phobics fear. This study investigated the electrophysiological correlates of emotional face processing in socially phobic and non-phobic individuals. Subjects identified either the gender (modified emotional Stroop task) or the expression of angry, happy, or neutral faces. Social phobics showed no deviations from controls in reaction times, heart rates, P1, or P2 amplitudes in response to angry faces, although elevated FSS scores were associated with higher P1 amplitudes in social phobic persons. In addition, social phobic persons showed enhanced right temporo-parietal N170 amplitudes in response to angry faces in the emotion identification task. Furthermore, higher scores on the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were associated as a trend with larger N170 amplitudes in response to angry faces in the emotion identification task. Thus, the present results suggest that social phobics show abnormalities in the early visual processing of angry faces, as reflected by the enhanced right-hemispheric N170 when the emotion of the angry face was the focus of attention, while behavioral responses and heart rates showed no evidence for preferred processing of angry facial expressions.

Similar articles

• The time-course of attention to emotional faces in social phobia.

  Gamble AL, Rapee RM. Gamble AL, et al. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2010 Mar;41(1):39-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.08.008. Epub 2009 Sep 6. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2010. PMID: 19781689

• A functional MRI study of amygdala responses to angry schematic faces in social anxiety disorder.

  Evans KC, Wright CI, Wedig MM, Gold AL, Pollack MH, Rauch SL. Evans KC, et al. Depress Anxiety. 2008;25(6):496-505. doi: 10.1002/da.20347. Depress Anxiety. 2008. PMID: 17595018

• Effect of task conditions on brain responses to threatening faces in social phobics: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

  Straube T, Kolassa IT, Glauer M, Mentzel HJ, Miltner WH. Straube T, et al. Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Dec 15;56(12):921-30. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.09.024. Biol Psychiatry. 2004. PMID: 15601601

• The faces of development: a review of early face processing over childhood.

  Taylor MJ, Batty M, Itier RJ. Taylor MJ, et al. J Cogn Neurosci. 2004 Oct;16(8):1426-42. doi: 10.1162/0898929042304732. J Cogn Neurosci. 2004. PMID: 15509388 Review.

• The face in the crowd effect unconfounded: happy faces, not angry faces, are more efficiently detected in single- and multiple-target visual search tasks.

  Becker DV, Anderson US, Mortensen CR, Neufeld SL, Neel R. Becker DV, et al. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2011 Nov;140(4):637-59. doi: 10.1037/a0024060. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2011. PMID: 21744984 Review.

Cited by

• The temporal unfolding of face processing in social anxiety disorder--a MEG study.

  Riwkes S, Goldstein A, Gilboa-Schechtman E. Riwkes S, et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2014 Nov 8;7:678-87. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.11.002. eCollection 2015. Neuroimage Clin. 2014. PMID: 25844308 Free PMC article.

• Electrophysiological evidence of attentional biases in social anxiety disorder.

  Mueller EM, Hofmann SG, Santesso DL, Meuret AE, Bitran S, Pizzagalli DA. Mueller EM, et al. Psychol Med. 2009 Jul;39(7):1141-52. doi: 10.1017/S0033291708004820. Epub 2008 Dec 15. Psychol Med. 2009. PMID: 19079826 Free PMC article.

• Individual differences in anxiety predict neural measures of visual working memory for untrustworthy faces.

  Meconi F, Luria R, Sessa P. Meconi F, et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Dec;9(12):1872-9. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst189. Epub 2014 Feb 3. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014. PMID: 24493843 Free PMC article.

• The Positive Effects of Trait Emotional Intelligence during a Performance Review Discussion - A Psychophysiological Study.

  Salminen M, Ravaja N. Salminen M, et al. Front Psychol. 2017 Mar 28;8:463. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00463. eCollection 2017. Front Psychol. 2017. PMID: 28400747 Free PMC article.

• From neural signatures of emotional modulation to social cognition: individual differences in healthy volunteers and psychiatric participants.

  Ibáñez A, Aguado J, Baez S, Huepe D, Lopez V, Ortega R, Sigman M, Mikulan E, Lischinsky A, Torrente F, Cetkovich M, Torralva T, Bekinschtein T, Manes F. Ibáñez A, et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Jul;9(7):939-50. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst067. Epub 2013 May 17. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014. PMID: 23685775 Free PMC article.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Elsevier Science

• Medical

  • MedlinePlus Health Information