Abstract：
Recent studies have shown that the processing of neutral facial expressions could be modulated by the valence and self-relevance of preceding verbal evaluations. However, these studies have not distinguished the dimension (i.e., morality and competence) from verbal evaluations. In fact, there is a hot controversy about whether morality or competence receives more weight. Therefore, using the ERP technique, the current study aimed to address this issue by comparing the influence of morality and competence evaluations on behavioral and neural responses to neutral facial expressions when these evaluations varied with contextual valence and self-relevance. Our ERP results revealed that the early EPN amplitudes were larger for neutral faces after receiving evaluations about self relative to evaluations about senders. Moreover, the EPN was more negative after a competence evaluation relative to a morality evaluation when these evaluations were positive, while this effect was absent when these evaluations were negative. The late LPP was larger after a morality evaluation compared to a competence evaluation when these evaluations were negative and directed to self. However, no significant LPP effect between morality and competence evaluations was observed when these evaluations were positive. The present study extended previous studies by showing that early and late processing stages of faces are affected by the evaluation dimension in a top-down manner and further modulated by contextual valence and self-relevance.
摘要：
最近的研究表明，中性面部表情的处理可以通过先前言语评估的效价和自相关性来调节。然而,这些研究没有区分维度(即，道德和能力)来自口头评价。事实上,关于道德或能力是否更重要，存在着激烈的争议。因此,使用ERP技术，本研究旨在通过比较道德和能力评估对中性面部表情的行为和神经反应的影响来解决这一问题，当这些评估随上下文效价和自我相关性而变化时。我们的ERP结果表明，在收到有关自我的评估相对于发件人的评估后，中性面孔的早期EPN幅度更大。此外，在能力评估后，相对于道德评估，当这些评估是积极的时，EPN更消极，而当这些评价为阴性时，这种影响是不存在的。道德评估后，与能力评估相比，当这些评估是负面的并针对自我时，后期的LPP更大。然而,当道德和能力评价为阳性时,在这些评价之间没有观察到显著的LPP效应.本研究通过表明面部的早期和后期处理阶段以自上而下的方式受到评估维度的影响，并进一步受到上下文效价和自相关性的调节，从而扩展了先前的研究。
