Highlights
- •A novel approach to determine SF information usage in decoding of pain expressions.
- •Low-SF advantage is found for decoding pain and emotional expressions.
- •This low-SF advantage depends on in the temporal aspects of processing.
- •Decoding of low-SF expressions is not only faster but occurs earlier than high-SF.
- •Pain expressions require longer time to decode than emotional expressions.
Abstract
We are able to recognize others’ experience of pain from their facial expressions.
However, little is known about what makes the recognition of pain possible and whether
it is similar or different from core emotions. This study investigated the mechanisms
underpinning the recognition of pain expressions, in terms of spatial frequency (SF)
information analysis, and compared pain with 2 core emotions (ie, fear and happiness).
Two experiments using a backward masking paradigm were conducted to examine the time
course of low- and high-SF information processing, by manipulating the presentation
duration of face stimuli and target-mask onset asynchrony. Overall, we found a temporal
advantage of low-SF over high-SF information for expression recognition, including
pain. This asynchrony between low- and high-SF happened at a very early stage of information
extraction, which indicates that the decoding of low-SF expression information is
not only faster but possibly occurs before the processing of high-SF information.
Interestingly, the recognition of pain was also found to be slower and more difficult
than core emotions. It is suggested that more complex decoding process may be involved
in the successful recognition of pain from facial expressions, possibly due to the
multidimensional nature of pain experiences.
Perspective
Two studies explore the perceptual and temporal properties of the decoding of pain
facial expressions. At very early stages of attention, the recognition of pain was
found to be more difficult than fear and happiness. It suggests that pain is a complex
expression, and requires additional time to detect and process.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 06, 2020
Accepted:
July 12,
2020
Received in revised form:
June 20,
2020
Received:
August 11,
2019
Footnotes
This research was funded by a Graduate School PhD Scholarship provided by the University of Bath to the first author.
Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of this research.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
