Event-Related Alpha Oscillatory Response in Early Stage of Facial Expression Processing in Social Anxiety: Influence of Language Context

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Accurate interpretation of the emotional information conveyed by others’ facial expression is crucial for social interactions. The alpha oscillation response, which is an important event-related potential-based metric in studies of emotional information processing, to emotional facial processing in social anxiety is unclear.Method: In this case-control study, participants viewed facial expressions (angry, happy, neutral) preceded by a contextual sentence conveying either positive or negative evaluations about the participant. Contextual influences were reflected in rating and occipital and frontal alpha oscillation measured by event-related potentials (ERP).Results: With congruently emotional context and expression, occipital alpha oscillation power was significantly lower in social anxiety group than that in healthy control group. And in negative context, frontal alpha lateralization was significantly lower in social anxiety group than that in healthy control group.Conclusion: Social anxiety individuals showed stronger attentional inhibition of face expression processing only when the language context was emotionally congruent with the facial expression. The effect of context on facial expression processing in social anxiety individuals was manifested in the early stage of face processing as a contextual consistency effect, and the effect of negative information may be more pronounced.