Detecting implicit and explicit facial emotions at different ages

Giulia Prete, Irene Ceccato (), Emanuela Bartolini, Adolfo Di Crosta, Pasquale La Malva, Rocco Palumbo, Bruno Laeng, Luca Tommasi, Nicola Mammarella and Alberto Di Domenico
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Giulia Prete: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Irene Ceccato: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Emanuela Bartolini: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Adolfo Di Crosta: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Pasquale La Malva: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Rocco Palumbo: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Bruno Laeng: University of Oslo
Luca Tommasi: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Nicola Mammarella: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara
Alberto Di Domenico: “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara

European Journal of Ageing, 2024, vol. 21, issue 1, No 8, 11 pages

Abstract: Abstract Emotions are processed in the brain through a cortical route, responsible for detailed-conscious recognition and mainly based on image High Spatial Frequencies (HSF), and a subcortical route, responsible for coarse-unconscious processing and based on Low SF (LSF). However, little is known about possible changes in the functioning of the two routes in ageing. In the present go/no-go online task, 112 younger adults and 111 older adults were asked to press a button when a happy or angry face appeared (go) and to inhibit responses for neutral faces (no-go). Facial stimuli were presented unfiltered (broadband image), filtered at HSF and LSF, and hybrids (LSF of an emotional expression superimposed to the HSF of the same face with a neutral expression). All stimuli were also presented rotated on the vertical axis (upside-down) to investigate the global analysis of faces in ageing. Results showed an overall better performance of younger compared to older participants for all conditions except for hybrid stimuli. The expected face-inversion effect was confirmed in both age groups. We conclude that, besides an overall worsening of the perceptual skill with ageing, no specific impairment in the functioning of both the cortical and the subcortical route emerged.

Keywords: Go/no-go task; Emotion processing; Spatial frequencies; Hybrid faces; Age-related differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10433-024-00805-1

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