Neurodynamics of Compound Threat Cue Perception

描述（由申请人提供）：社会线索，如眼神、面部和身体情感、性别、外表，在很大程度上是相互独立的，通常是在不同的领域中孤立的。例如，情感表达在社会心理学框架内得到了最广泛的研究，而面部识别在视觉认知框架内得到了最广泛的研究。重要的是，这两门学科都没有充分解决各种线索对社会感知的综合影响。本研究采用跨学科、多方法的方法来研究这个问题。现在需要一个概念上的合并，一个特别关注知觉处理中社会线索的交集的概念。由于这些线索具有共同的社会意义，我们预测复合社会线索将导致对社会和情感处理很重要的大脑系统（如杏仁核、眼窝额叶皮层和颞上沟）的相互作用。我们还预测，在有限意识的条件下，反应将优先调整到一致（即“清晰”）的线索，而在有意识的处理中，他们将优先调整到不一致（即“模糊”）的威胁线索。对情感感知的神经生物学基础的研究正处于形成阶段。在当前的应用中，我们认为社会和情感信息本质上是共享意义的。如果得到证实，我们的非语言社会语言的复杂性将更加易于处理和清晰地描绘，并将进一步阐明反射与意识水平加工的相互作用。尤其是大脑区域

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social cues, such as eye gaze, facial and bodily emotion, gender, appearance, have largely been studied independent of one another, often isolated within separate fields. Emotional expression, for example, has been most extensively studied within a social psychological framework, and facial identity largely within a visual cognition framework. Importantly, neither discipline adequately addresses the combined influences of various cues on social perception. This research takes an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach to this question. A conceptual merger is required now, one that focuses specifically on the intersection of social cues in perceptual processing. Because of shared social meanings across cues, we predict that compound social cues will lead to interactions in brain systems known to be important for social and emotion processing, such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and superior temporal sulcus. We also predict that under conditions of restricted awareness, responses will be preferentially attuned to congruent (i.e., "clear") cues, whereas for conscious processing they will be preferentially attuned to incongruent (i.e., "ambiguous") threat cues. Research examining the neurobiological underpinnings of affective perception is in its formative stages. In the current application, we contend that social and emotional messages inherently share meaning. If substantiated, the complexities of our nonverbal social language will be more tractable and clearly delineated, and the interplay of reflexive- versus conscious-level processing will be further elucidated. Notably, the brain regions of interest that will be examined have been implicated in the types of socio-emotional impairments that characterize such psychopathological disorders as autism, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and Turner's syndrome, as well as various forms of related brain lesions (e.g., temporal lobectomy). We specifically aim to make significant strides toward future work applying compound social cue theory to patient populations with anxiety disorders and deficits in socio-emotional perception related to the particular brain systems of interest.