注视方向影响社交焦虑个体对情绪面孔加工的眼动研究

目的 探讨注视方向线索对社交焦虑个体面部表情加工的影响.方法 从安徽医科大学抽取56名本科生,依Liebowitz社交焦虑量表(LSAS)得分将被试分为高社交焦虑组(HSA)和低社交焦虑组(LSA),采用配对的厌恶和中性面孔作为实验刺激材料并记录眼动数据.结果 直视条件下,HSA组注视厌恶面孔的时间为(2311.09±521.41)ms,注视中性面孔的时间为(1910.69±607.59)ms,差异具有统计学意义(P＜0.05),LSA组注视厌恶面孔与中性面孔的时间差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05);斜视条件下,HSA与LSA注视厌恶面孔与中性面孔的时间差异均无统计学意义(P＞0.05).结论 注视方向影响了社交焦虑个体对厌恶表情的加工,表明直视的厌恶面孔对于HSA个体来说是一种社交威胁信息,斜视的厌恶面孔不是明确的社交威胁信息.     

重复呈现情绪面孔对抑郁症状大学生注意偏向的影响

目的 探讨抑郁症状大学生对重复呈现的情绪面孔是否存在注意偏向.方法 以贝克抑郁量表(Beck depression inventory,BDI)和自评抑郁量表(serf-rating depression scale,SDS)为工具,从1 000余名青年大学生中随机筛选出正常被试(n=20,正常对照组)、抑郁低分被试(n=20,抑郁低分组)和抑郁高分被试(n=20,抑郁高分组).从中科院心理研究所制作的真人情绪面孔中选取26组配对照片(中性面孔和悲伤面孔),分别呈现给各组被试,进行点探测任务的行为学实验.情绪面孔共重复呈现了4次.每次呈现之后,测量被试者对情绪面孔的反应时间和正确率.数据用SPSS 12.0进行统计分析.结果 ①抑郁低分组、抑郁高分组与正常对照组之间在点探测任务正确率上没有显著差异;②抑郁高分被试在第4次呈现情绪面孔的平均反应时间明显低于第1次呈现的平均反应时间(P<0.01),而其他各组与呈现的次数间无显著差异(P>0.05);③与正常组相比,抑郁高分组对悲伤图片有较高的平均注意偏向分值,表现出明显的主效应(P<0.05).情绪面孔图片呈现次数也表现出明显的主效应(P<0.05).在图片类型x呈现次数x组别之间存在明显的交互作用(P<0.05).结论 抑郁高分个体对首次呈现的负性面孔出现注意偏向,4次呈现负性刺激能改变青年抑郁高分被试的注意偏向.     

Are faces special in Alzheimer's disease? Cognitive conceptualisation, neural correlates, and diagnostic relevance of impaired memory for faces and names

Memory for faces and names has increasingly become a focus of cognitive assessment and research in Alzheimer's disease (AD). This paper reviews evidence from cognitive and clinical neuroscience regarding the question of whether AD is associated with a specific deficit in face recognition, face-name association, and retrieval of semantic information and names. Cognitive approaches conceptualizing face recognition and face-name association have revealed that, compared to other types of visual stimuli, faces are "special" because of their complexity and high intraclass similarity, and because their association with proper names is arbitrary and unique. Neuroimaging has revealed that due to this particular status, face perception requires a complex interplay of highly specialized secondary visual areas located in the occipitotemporal cortex with a widely distributed system of cortical areas subserving further task-dependent processing. Our review of clinical research suggests that AD-related deficits in face recognition are primarily due to mnestic rather than perceptual deficits. Memory for previously studied or famous faces is closely related to mediotemporal and temporocortical brain regions subserving episodic and semantic memory in general, suggesting that AD-related impairments in this domain are due to neural degeneration in these areas. Despite limited specificity due to the apparent absence of a "genuine" domain-specific deficit of face memory in AD, testing memory for faces and names is useful in clinical contexts, as it provides highly sensitive indices of episodic and semantic memory performance. Therefore, clinical assessment of face memory can usefully contribute to early detection of memory deficits in prodromal and initial stages of AD, and represents a basis for further attempts at rehabilitation. Further advantages, such as ecological validity, high task comprehensibility and, in the case of novel face learning, independence from premorbid intelligence level, render measures of face recognition valuable for clinical assessment in early AD.     

Effects of aging and exposure duration on perceptual biases in chimeric face processing

Experiments using chimeric faces, where the left and the right hand side of the face are different, have shown that observers tend to bias their responses toward the information on the left. Here we investigate the effects of aging as well as exposure duration on this leftward bias. Forty female and male blended as well as chimeric faces were presented to 24 young and 23 elderly adults in either sub-saccadic 100 msec, 300 msec or free view conditions. We found firstly that an increase in exposure duration resulted in an increase in the degree of leftward perceptual biases, irrespective of age, in line with hypotheses stressing the contribution of scanning to chimeric face processing. Secondly, fundamental differences in the perceptual biases between the groups were found in so far that the younger subjects demonstrated significant perceptual biases to chimeric face stimuli even at sub-saccadic exposure durations, whilst for older adults this was the case for the 300 msec and free view conditions only. This differential perceptual activity can be viewed in terms of either reduced right hemispheric function, or increased bilateral function as a possible consequence of elderly adults experiencing the task as more effortful.     

Happy but not so approachable: the social judgments of individuals with generalized social phobia

Background: We examined social approachability judgments in a psychiatric population that frequently experiences interpersonal difficulties and reduced social satisfaction, individuals with generalized social phobia (gSP). Methods: Our objective was to broaden the understanding of the social cognitive tendencies of individuals with gSP by systematically investigating their interpretation of positive facial expressions. We hypothesized that approachability ratings would be lower for positive as well as negative emotional faces in the gSP group compared to the healthy comparison group. Each participant evaluated 24 emotional faces presented on a computer screen. Participants first labeled the faces as either happy, disgust, or angry in emotional expression, and then they rated each face's approachability. Analysis of variance and post hoc analyses were used to identify group, emotion, and group by emotion rating differences. Results: Happy face approachability ratings were higher than disgust and anger in both groups. The central finding was that individuals with gSP rated happy faces as less approachable than the healthy participants and that degree of social anxiety was associated with lower approachability ratings within the gSP sample. Explicit approachability judgments of negative faces did not differ as predicted. Conclusions: Consistent with earlier indirect evidence of interpretation biases of positive social emotional information, this study reveals that individuals with gSP demonstrate explicit, subjective social interpretation biases of overtly positive social feedback. The therapeutic relevance of these results is discussed. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Noh mask test for analysis of recognition of facial expression

A preliminary study on the Noh mask test for analysis of recognition of facial expression was performed. The present study was conducted on 15 normal subjects (mean age: 32 years, SD 9.7 years) as the first step to test for the differences between psychiatric patients and normal subjects. Stimuli were created by photographs of 15 Noh masks at different vertical angles. Subjects were given 12 tasks (12 emotion items), and each task consisted of 15 trials (15 Noh mask images). In each trial, the subject viewed a colour monitor, and was shown an emotion item, followed by a Noh mask image. The subject pressed either the yes or no key to indicate whether the Noh mask image expressed the emotion item. The subject's response and reaction time to each Noh mask image showed no deviation, although the subject's response and reaction time to each emotion item showed some deviation. As the vertical angle of the Noh mask changed, normal subjects recognized all emotion items except the 'uncanny' expression. Factor analysis of the 15 Noh mask images produced three factors, and the analysis of 12 emotion items produced five factors. Thus, the Noh mask test was simplified to nine images and nine items. Further developments of the Noh mask test may include the evaluation of the dysfunction of perception on delicate facial expression in psychiatric patients.