Accurate recognition of the emotions of other people is essential for successful human interactions. Previous studies showed inconsistent results of the impact of acute psychosocial stress on emotion recognition. Thus, the present study aimed at investigating the influence of psychosocial stress on the recognition of facial emotional expressions of different valance. Eighty-eight participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups: stress (exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test) and control. Participants of both groups completed a facial emotion recognition test before and after the manipulation. The results demonstrated an enhancement in emotion recognition in the stress group but not in controls. Further analyses revealed that while stress enhanced the accurate recognition of anger, happiness, surprise, and neutral/calmness, it impaired the recognition of fear and had no effect on the recognition of sadness and disgust. The findings are discussed in light of evolutionary assumptions regarding differential processing mechanisms of emotion expressions.
KeywordsStressFacial Emotion RecognitionTSST
Bannerman, R. L., Milders, M., & Sahraie, A. (2010). Attentional Bias to Brief Threat-Related Faces Revealed by Saccadic Eye Movements. Emotion, 10, 733-738. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019354
Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The Essential Difference. The Truth about the Male and Female Brain. New York: Basic Books.
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test Revised Version: A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241-251. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00715
Bechtoldt, M. N., & Schneider, V. K. (2016). Predicting Stress from the Ability to Eavesdrop on Feelings: Emotional Intelligence and Testosterone Jointly Predict Cortisol Reactivity. Emotion, 16, 815-825. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000134
Blair, R. J. R. (1995). A Cognitive Developmental Approach to Morality: Investigating the Psychopath. Cognition, 57, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(95)00676-P
Brown, W. M., & Moore, C. (2002). Smile Asymmetries and Reputation as Reliable Indicators of Likelihood to Cooperate: An Evolutionary Analysis. In S. P. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research (Vol. 11, pp. 59-78). Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Corbett, B., Weinberg, L., & Duarte, A. (2017). The Effect of Mild Acute Stress during Memory Consolidation on Emotional Recognition Memory. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 145, 34-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2017.08.005
Curtis, W. J., & Cicchetti, D. (2013). Affective Facial Expression Processing in 15-Month-Old Infants Who Have Experienced Maltreatment: An Event-Related Potential Study. Child Maltreatment, 18, 140-154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559513487944
Cusi, A. M., Nazarov, A., Holshausen, K., Macqueen, G. M., & McKinnon, M. C. (2012). Systematic Review of the Neural Basis of Social Cognition in Patients with Mood Disorders. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 37, 154-169. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.100179
Deckers, J. W., Lobbestael, J., van Wingen, G. A., Kessels, R. P., Arntz, A., & Egger J. I. (2015). The Influence of Stress on Social Cognition in Patients with Borderline Personality disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 52, 119-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.11.003
Hamann, S. (2001). Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Emotional Memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 394-400. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01707-1
Hanggi, Y. (2004). Stress and Emotion Recognition: An Internet Experiment Using Stressinduction. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 63, 113-125. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185.63.2.113
Herridge, M. L., Harrison, D. W., Mollet, G. A., & Shenal, B. V. (2004). Hostility and Facial Affect Recognition: Effects of a Cold Pressor Stressor on Accuracy and Cardiovascular Reactivity. Brain & Cognition, 55, 564-571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2004.04.004
Huang, S.-L., Chang, Y.-C., & Chen, Y.-J. (2011). Task-Irrelevant Angry Faces Capture Attention in Visual Search While Modulated by Resources. Emotion, 11, 544-552. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022763
Kirkland, R. A., Peterson, E., Baker, C. A., Miller, S., & Pulos, S. (2013). Meta-Analysis Reveals Adult Female Superiority in Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. North American Journal of Psychology, 15, 121-146.
Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K.-M., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1993). The “Trier Social Stress Test” —A Tool for Investigating Psychobiological Stress Responses in a Laboratory Setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28, 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1159/000119004
LaBar, K. S., & Cabeza, R. (2006). Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotional Memory. Nature Reviews, Neuroscience, 7, 54-64. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1825
Li, S., Weerda, R., Milde, C., Wolf, O. T., & Theil, C. M. (2014). Effects of Acute Psychosocial Stress on Neural Activity to Emotional and Neutral Faces in a Face Recognition Memory Paradigm. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 8, 598-610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-013-9287-3
Lieslehto, J., Kiviniemi, V., Maki, P., Koivukangas, J., Nordstrom, T., Miettunen, J., & Paus, T. (2017). Early Adversity and Brain Response to Faces in Young Adulthood. Human Brain Mapping, 38, 4470-4478. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23674
Lupien, S. J., Maheu, F., Tu, M., Fiocco, A., & Schramek, T. E. (2007). The Effects of Stress and Stress Hormones on Human Cognition: Implications for the Field of Brain and Cognition. Brain & Cognition, 65, 209-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2007.02.007
Markovits, H., Trémolière, B., & Blanchette, I. (2018). Reasoning Strategies Modulate Gender Differences in Emotion Processing. Cognition, 170, 76-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.012
Marsh, A. A., Ambady, N., & Kleck, R. E. (2005). The Effects of Fear and Anger Facial Expressions on Approach- and Avoidance-Related Behaviors. Emotion, 5, 119-124. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.119
McEwen, B. S. (2007). Physiology and Neurobiology of Stress and Adaptation: Central Role of the Brain. Physiological Reviews, 87, 873-904. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006
Oei, N. Y., Veer, I. M., Wolf, O. T., Spinhoven, P., Rombouts, S. A., & Elzinga, B. M. (2012). Stress Shifts Brain Activation towards Ventral “affective” Areas during Emotional Distraction. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 403-412. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr024
Preuschoft, S. (1999). Are Primates Behaviorists? Formal Dominance, Cognition, and Free-Floating Rationales. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113, 91-95. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.113.1.91
Reed, L. I., & DeScioli, P. (2017). Watch Out! How Fearful Face Adds Credibility to Warning of Danger. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 490-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.03.003
Roozendaal, B., Okuda, S., de Quervain, D.J., & McGaugh, J.L. (2006) Glucocorticoids Interact with Emotion-Induced Noradrenergic Activation in Influencing Different Memory Functions. Neuroscience, 138, 901-910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.07.049
Sacco, D. F., & Hugenberg, K. (2009). The Look of Fear and Anger: Facial Maturity Modulates Recognition of Fearful and Angry Expressions. Emotion, 9, 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014081
Schoof, D., Preuß, D., & Wolf, O. T. (2008). Psychosocial Stress Induces Working Memory Impairments in a n-Back Paradigm. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 33, 643-653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.02.004
Shields, G. S., Sazma, M. A., & Yonelinas, A. P. (2016). The Effects of Acute Stress on Core Executive Functions: A Meta-Analysis and Comparison with Cortisol. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 68, 651-668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.038
Skoluda, N., Strahler, J., Schlotz, W., Niederberger, L., Marques, S., Fischer, S., & Nater, U. M. (2015). Intra-Individual Psychological and Physiological Responses to Acute Laboratory Stressors of Different Intensity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 51, 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.10.002
Smeets, T., Dziobek, I., & Wolf, O. T. (2009). Social Cognition under Stress: Differential Effects of Stress-Induced Cortisol Elevations in Healthy Young Men and Women. Hormones & Behavior, 55, 507-513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.01.011
Staal, M. A. (2004). Stress, Cognition, and Human Performance: A Literature Review and Conceptual Framework. Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center.
Tottenham, N., Tanaka, J. W., Leon, A. C., McCarry, T., Nurse, M., Hare, T.A., & Nelson, C. (2009). The NimStim Set of Facial Expressions: Judgments from Untrained Research Participants. Psychiatry Research, 168, 242-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.05.006
van Marle, H. J. F., Hermans, E. J., Qin, S., & Fernández, G. (2009). From Specificity to Sensitivity: How Acute Stress Affects Amygdala Processing of Biologically Salient Stimuli. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 649-655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.05.014
Wolf, O. T. (2006). Effects of Stress Hormones on the Structure and Function of the Human Brain. Expert Review of Endocrinology & Metabolism, 1, 623-632. https://doi.org/10.1586/17446651.1.5.623
Wolf, O. T., Schulte, J. M., Drimalla, H., Hamacher-Dang, T. C., Knoch, D., & Dziobek, I. (2015). Enhanced Emotional Empathy after Psychosocial Stress in Young Healthy Men. Stress, 18, 631-637. https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2015.1078787