查看文章

Prioritized processing of fearful compared to neutral faces is reflected in behavioral advantages such as lower detection thresholds, but also in enhanced early and late event‐related potentials (ERPs). Behavioral advantages have recently been associated with the spatial frequency spectrum of fearful faces, better fitting the human contrast sensitivity function than the spectrum of neutral faces. However, it is unclear whether and to which extent early and late ERP differences are due to low‐level spatial frequency spectrum information or high‐level representations of the facial expression. In this pre‐registered EEG study (N = 38), the effects of fearful‐specific spatial frequencies on event‐related ERPs were investigated by presenting faces with fearful and neutral expressions whose spatial frequency spectra were manipulated so as to contain either the average power spectra of neutral, fearful, or both expressions …