Study on the Difference of Recognizing Threatening Facial Expressions between High and Low Trait Aggressive Individuals: Evidences from ERP Study

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5) : 1026-1033.

PDF(695 KB)
PDF(695 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5) : 1026-1033.

Study on the Difference of Recognizing Threatening Facial Expressions between High and Low Trait Aggressive Individuals: Evidences from ERP Study

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In order to reveal the characteristics and electrophysiological mechanism of recognizing threatening facial expressions (anger and fear) in individuals with high trait aggression, the ERP differences of individuals with high and low trait aggression during recognizing threatening facial expressions were studied. In this study, the Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire was used to select 26 individuals with high trait aggression and 27 individuals with low trait aggression as subjects. Then, the subjects were asked to complete the facial recognition task. The task was divided into four blocks, and each expression was randomly presented 20 times in each block. First, the instructions were presented to the participants. Then 500 ms fixation point was presented in the middle of the screen, then the faces were presented. Participants were asked to judge the facial expressions within 1500 ms, and if anger to press "D", fear to press "F", neutral to press "J". The subject needs to make a quick response under the premise of ensuring the accuracy rate, and then 1500 ms + 500 ms black screen was presented. While subjects performed the face recognition task, Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded from 64 scalp sites using tin electrodes mounted in an elastic cap (Brain Products, Gilching, Germany). The results showed that for angry and fearful expressions, the incubation period of N170 component in individuals with high trait aggression was significantly shorter than that in individuals with low trait aggression (ps<.05). For angry and fearful expressions, the amplitude of P200 component in individuals with high trait aggression was significantly higher than that in individuals with low trait aggression (ps<.05). In conclusion, results from the present study reveal that individuals with high trait aggression are highly sensitive to anger and fear facial expressions, which is reflected in the early and middle stages of anger and fear facial expressions, rather than the late stages. In the early pre-attention stage, individuals with high trait aggression give priority attention to anger and fear facial expressions. In the middle attention stage, individuals with high trait aggression can well identify anger and fear facial expressions and carry out selection processing. The results of the present study provide the electrophysiological basis for the process model of aggression. It also is of great significance to reveal the internal mechanism of trait aggression, so as to understand why individuals with high trait aggression frequently engage in uninhibited behaviors, and to provide an important perspective for proposing effective intervention measures of aggression behavior.

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Study on the Difference of Recognizing Threatening Facial Expressions between High and Low Trait Aggressive Individuals: Evidences from ERP Study[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(5): 1026-1033
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