社交焦虑者对面孔表情存在持续性注意偏向:来自N2pc的证据

Sustained Attentional Bias of Individuals with High Social Anxiety to Facial Expressions:Evidence from N2pc

目的:探讨社交焦虑者在Early-N2pc(180ms—250ms)、Late-N2pc(250ms—300ms)和SPCN(350ms—500ms)三个阶段对面孔表情加工的注意偏向。方法:采用3(表情:愤怒、恐惧、快乐)^(*)3(成分:Early-N2pc、Late-N2pc、SPCN)^(*)2(组别:社交焦虑组、健康组)的实验设计,测量被试的N2pc幅值。结果:(1)社交焦虑组和健康组均在Late-N2pc阶段达到幅值峰值,但是社交焦虑组的幅值峰值持续至SPCN阶段,而健康组的幅值峰值在SPCN阶段显著下降,这种N2pc在晚期阶段的时间进程变化特点不受表情类型影响。(2)在较早阶段(Early-N2pc),仅恐惧表情诱发个体产生了较大的N2pc幅值,表明人脑对威胁性信息的快速加工可能具有表情特异性。结论:社交焦虑个体可能通过调节对环境刺激加工后期阶段的注意资源分配来影响注意加工过程。

Objective:To investigate the relationship between social anxiety and attentional resource allocation in the later period,this study focused on N2pc that was observed through the dot-probe paradigm of emotion.Methods:A 3(Expression:happy,angry,fear)×3(Component:Early-N2pc、Late-N2pc、SPCN)×2(Group:SA,HC)mixed design factorial ANOVA was conducted.Results:(1)The ERP amplitudes of participants with SA and HC reached their peak values in the late N2pc stage;however,the amplitudes of participants with SA continued to prevail in the SPCN stage,whereas the amplitudes of participants with HC significantly decreased at the SPCN stage.In addition,the duration of N2pc at late stages was not affected by the expression type.(2)The N2pc effect of fear was detected in the early N2pc stage,whereas the N2pc effects of anger and happiness were observed in the late N2pc stage.These aspects provided evidence that a fast pathway for threat information in the human brain may be fear specific.Conclusion:The study revealed that the differences in attentional bias to facial expression stimuli between individuals with SA and HC were mainly reflected in the SPCN stage,indicating that the level of social anxiety may affect the attentional processing by regulating the allocation of attention resources to environmental stimuli.