情绪变化的自动化加工：来自EMMN的启示

人脑如何自动化加工瞬息万变的情绪信息?研究者们在借鉴听觉通道的失匹配负波(mismatch negativity,MMN)研究的基础上,进一步发展出了表情失匹配负波(expression mismatch negativity,EMMN),以此作为视觉情绪信息前注意加工的重要指标。与以往的一般视觉线索的视觉失匹配负波(visualmismatch negativity,vMMN)有所区别,EMMN研究专注于人脑如何自动化加工瞬息万变的情绪信息。当前的研究主要探讨了不同类型的面部表情、不同性别、高低流体智力个体的EMMN差异,以及自闭症、抑郁症、精神分裂症等异常个体EMMN的特点。此外,从预测编码的角度阐释了EMMN的机制。今后的研究有必要聚焦EMMN在临床诊断和治疗中的应用,考察不同情绪线索EMMN的特点,并进一步揭示EMMN的神经机制。

The automatic processing of changes in emotion: Implications from EMMN

How does the human brain automatically process changing emotional information?Based on the theory of mismatch negativity(MMN),which is generated from our auditory system,a new concept named expression mismatch negativity(EMMN)has been developed by researchers.EMMN is regarded as the index of pre-attentive processing.EMMN is primarily responsible for detecting the variation of information that contains emotional details,and this is where it differs from the visual mismatch negativity(vMMN)that accounts for processing common visual information.Current review mainly discusses how EMMN differs in regard to different facial expression,gender,and fluid intelligence.We also focused on EMMN in aberrated populations such as autism,major depression,and schizophrenia.In addition,we sheds light on the mechanism of EMMN through a perspective based on the predictive-coding theory.In addition to further exploring the neural mechanism of EMMN,future studies should focus particularly on the application of EMMN in clinical diagnosis and therapy,as well as pay close attention to the feature of EMMN in different emotional cues.