Neural responses to faces reflect social personality traits

Abstract

Faces are a developmentally primary and critically important source of social information, and they are processed differently from most other visual percepts. Studies of brain electrophysiology reveal a face-sensitive component, the N170, which is typically enhanced to faces relative to other stimuli. Research in social disabilities suggests that an atypical N170 response in this population may stem from decreased developmental exposure to faces secondary to reduced social interest. Here we examined the relationship between neural responses to faces and social personality characteristics in a normative sample. Participants were pre-screened to identify individuals scoring high on extraversion or introversion. Both groups were presented with upright and inverted face stimuli. An inversion effect, a marker of expertise for faces, was observed in people with high extraversion but not in those with high introversion. These findings suggest that, within typically developing populations, social attitudes are reflected in the neural correlates of face perception.

Keywords:

• Personality
• Extraversion
• Social motivation
• N170
• Event-related potential (ERP/EEG)
• Face perception

This work was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of MSc Psychodynamic Developmental Neuroscience by CHMC. This work was supported by the Anna Freud Centre-University College London - Yale Child Study Centre program (UK) and the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation (USA), NIMH RO3 MHO79908 (USA), and by CTSA Grant No. UL1 RR024139 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH roadmap for Medical Research (USA). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH. We are grateful to Victoria Morrow for theoretical insight and Christopher Bailey for technical assistance.