Psychophysical evidence for distinct contributions in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions in backward masking task

Remigiusz Szczepanowski , Agata Sobków

Abstract

The present report examined the hypothesis that two distinct visual routes contribute in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions. Having the participants presented with a backwardly masked task, we analyzed conscious processing of spatial frequency contents of emotional faces according to both objective and subjective task- relevant criteria. It was shown that fear perception in the presence of the low-frequency faces can be supported by stronger automaticity leading to less false positives. In contrary, the detection of high-frequency fearful faces was more likely supported by conscious awareness leading to more true positives.