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Minimal group membership biases early neural processing of emotional expressions
Author(s) -
Gamond Lucile,
Vilarem Emma,
Safra Lou,
Conty Laurence,
Grèzes Julie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.13735
Subject(s) - psychology , categorization , electroencephalography , anger , functional magnetic resonance imaging , dissociation (chemistry) , perception , facial expression , group (periodic table) , emotional expression , neural correlates of consciousness , face perception , cognitive psychology , cognition , communication , neuroscience , social psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , chemistry , organic chemistry
Mere affiliation with a social group alters people's perception of other individuals. One suggested mechanism behind such influence is that group membership triggers divergent visual facial representations for in‐group and out‐group members, which could constrain face processing. Here, using electroencephalography ( EEG ) under functional magnetic resonance imagery ( fMRI ) during a group categorization task, we investigated the impact of mere affiliation to an arbitrary group on the processing of emotional faces. The results indicate that in‐ and out‐group members trigger differential event‐related potential activity, appearing 150 ms after presentation of group membership information, which correlated with medial prefrontal fMRI activity. Additionally, EEG activity in the earliest stages of face processing (30–100 ms after expression onset) dissociated unexpected group‐related emotions (in‐group anger and out‐group joy) from expected ones and correlated with temporo‐parietal junction fMRI activity. We discuss the possibility that such dissociation may result from top‐down influences from divergent representations for in‐group and out‐group members. Taken together, the present results suggest that mere membership in an arbitrary group polarized expectations which constrain the first steps of face processing.