The influence of spatial frequency content on facial expression processing: An ERP study using rapid serial visual presentation

Abstract

Spatial frequency (SF) contents have been shown to play an important role in emotion perception. This study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the time course of neural dynamics involved in the processing of facial expression conveying specific SF information. Participants completed a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, in which SF-filtered happy, fearful, and neutral faces were presented. The face-sensitive N170 component distinguished emotional (happy and fearful) faces from neutral faces in a low spatial frequency (LSF) condition, while only happy faces were distinguished from neutral faces in a high spatial frequency (HSF) condition. The later P3 component differentiated between the three types of emotional faces in both LSF and HSF conditions. Furthermore, LSF information elicited larger P1 amplitudes than did HSF information, while HSF information elicited larger N170 and P3 amplitudes than did LSF information. Taken together, these results suggest that emotion perception is selectively tuned to distinctive SF contents at different temporal processing stages.

Figure 1

Grand average ERPs for LSF happy, LSF neutral, LSF fearful, HSF happy, HSF neutral, and HSF fearful faces recorded at the indicated electrode sites. The gray area represents the time window of each component.

Figure 2

The interaction effect of facial expression by SF on the N170 amplitude. Bars represent the standard error of the mean. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

Figure 3

Grand average ERP topographies of the P1, N170, and P3 components across two SFs and three emotion conditions.

Figure 4

Examples of the stimuli and the RSVP paradigm used in this experiment. (A) Each trial contained 12 inverted faces (IF) and two target stimuli (T1 and T2), followed by two questions (Q1 and Q2) at the end of each trial. The T1 emerged randomly and equiprobably at the fifth, sixth, seventh position, T1 and T2 were presented within an interval of 232 ms. (B) Example for the two questions in each trial.