Interpreting ambiguous social cues in unpredictable contexts
Interpreting ambiguous social cues in unpredictable contexts
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DOI：
10.1093/scan/nsw003
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发表时间：
2016-05-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
Whalen, Paul J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Davis, F. Caroline;Neta, Maital;Whalen, Paul J.
不可预测的环境可能会引发焦虑，并引发对厌恶刺激的夸张情绪反应。即使是中性刺激，当以不可预测的方式呈现时，也会引发类似焦虑的行为，并引起杏仁核活动的增强。杏仁核在启动对生物相关信息的反应中起着关键作用，例如情绪的面部表情。虽然有些表达明确表示消极（愤怒）或积极（快乐）的事件，但其他表达（例如惊讶）则更加模糊，因为它们可以根据上下文预测任何一种效价。在这里，我们试图确定模糊面部表情的不可预测的呈现是否会使参与者产生偏见，从而更消极地解释它们。我们使用功能性磁共振成像和面部肌电图（EMG）来表征对可预测和不可预测的惊讶面孔的反应。我们观察到杏仁核对可预测的惊讶面孔的反应适度但持续增加，并且对不可预测的面孔的反应相对增加，然后习惯化，类似于先前观察到的对明显负面（例如恐惧）面孔的反应。我们还观察到减少皱眉肌肌电图反应可预测的惊讶的脸介绍，类似于快乐的脸，和增加的反应不可预测的惊讶的脸介绍，类似于愤怒的脸。总的来说，这些数据表明，不可预测性使人们倾向于消极地解释模糊的社会线索。
Unpredictable environments can be anxiety-provoking and elicit exaggerated emotional responses to aversive stimuli. Even neutral stimuli, when presented in an unpredictable fashion, prime anxiety-like behavior and elicit heightened amygdala activity. The amygdala plays a key role in initiating responses to biologically relevant information, such as facial expressions of emotion. While some expressions clearly signal negative (anger) or positive (happy) events, other expressions (e.g. surprise) are more ambiguous in that they can predict either valence, depending on the context. Here, we sought to determine whether unpredictable presentations of ambiguous facial expressions would bias participants to interpret them more negatively. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and facial electromyography (EMG) to characterize responses to predictable vs unpredictable presentations of surprised faces. We observed moderate but sustained increases in amygdala reactivity to predictable presentations of surprised faces, and relatively increased amygdala responses to unpredictable faces that then habituated, similar to previously observed responses to clearly negative (e.g. fearful) faces. We also observed decreased corrugator EMG responses to predictable surprised face presentations, similar to happy faces, and increased responses to unpredictable surprised face presentations, similar to angry faces. Taken together, these data suggest that unpredictability biases people to interpret ambiguous social cues negatively.