Oxford Handbook of Face Perception by Calder Andy; Rhodes Gillian; Johnson Mark H

Author:Calder, Andy; Rhodes, Gillian; Johnson, Mark H.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Summary and conclusions

Whether the perception of facial expressions is dependent on attention and perceptual goals, or may arise in a relatively automatic way instead, has been debated for a long time in psychology and neuroscience. Different methods (psychophysics, ERPs, MEG, EMG, fMRI), different paradigms (e.g. backward-masking, Stroop-like interference, dot-probe paradigm, binocular rivalry, etc.), and different neurological populations (e.g. blindsight, neglect, amygdala-damaged patients) have been studied to answer questions about the neural substrates of automaticity in face and emotion processing, and the boundary conditions that may allow or constrain automaticity. However, automaticity is a relatively ill-defined notion that encompasses a number of distinct features, which may or may not apply for different processes involved in face expression recognition—including not only unawareness but also non-intentionality and goal-independence, lack of cognitive control, resistance of resource depletion, as well as efficiency and rapidity. Abundant empirical evidence supports the view that emotional face processing may exhibit several of these properties, as it can arise fast, efficiently, and involuntarily, in a stimulus-driven manner, independent of the current task requirements, without selective attention or without awareness; and that the amygdala and closely interconnected (cortical or subcortical) structures are critically involved in these aspects of automaticity.

Nevertheless, automatic processing can be modulated by various factors, which may or may not be under voluntary control, such as task demands, expectations, past experiences, personality traits, perceptual load or sensory competition. Hence, like other reflexive processes in the nervous system, the degree of emotion expression processing as well as its impact on other cognitive systems is likely to reflect both purely sensory driven effects and top-down influences due to internal states of the observer, probably acting and interacting at several different neural sites (e.g. in the amygdala proper and/or through its reciprocal connections with visual, parietal, and prefrontal cortical areas). Moreover, some aspects of automaticity in expression processing might not be specific to faces but extend to other categories of emotional or biologically relevant stimuli, even though it is likely that human expertise with face processing make the effects of facial expressions particularly efficient. Thus, taken together, both behavioral and neurophysiological findings suggest that processes associated with automaticity in face processing may primarily reflect some “default settings” in the brain rather than hard-wired, inflexible, and encapsulated processes. Top-down influences associated with voluntary control such as endogenous attention and explicit task goals may operate in parallel to these automatic processes, or may regulate their actual effectiveness and impact on other processes.

We are now just beginning to unveil the variety and complexity of such interactions between face recognition, emotion perception, executive control, and conscious awareness. Future research should more precisely tease apart the neural components underlying the different psychological properties associated with notions of automaticity and control.

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