Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39821290›Full record

ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2025

Neural mechanisms underlying the interactive exchange of facial emotional expressions.

Leon O H Kroczek, Andreas Mühlberger

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Leon O H KroczekDepartment of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Regensburg University, Universitätsstraße 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5588-5067
Andreas MühlbergerDepartment of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Regensburg University, Universitätsstraße 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Facial emotional expressions are crucial in face-to-face social interactions, and recent findings have highlighted their interactive nature. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. This electroencephalography study investigated whether the interactive exchange of facial expressions modulates socio-emotional processing. Participants (N = 41) displayed a facial emotional expression (angry, neutral, or happy) toward a virtual agent, and the agent then responded with a further emotional expression (angry or happy) or remained neutral (control condition). We assessed subjective experience (valence, arousal), facial EMG (Zygomaticus, Corrugator), and event-related potentials (EPN, LPP) elicited by the agent's response. Replicating previous findings, we found that an agent's happy facial expression was experienced as more pleasant and elicited increased Zygomaticus activity when participants had initiated the interaction with a happy compared to an angry expression. At the neural level, angry expressions resulted in a greater LPP than happy expressions, but only when participants directed an angry or happy, but not a neutral, expression at the agent. These findings suggest that sending an emotional expression increases salience and enhances the processing of received emotional expressions, indicating that an interactive setting alters brain responses to social stimuli.

Indexed as

BrainEmotionsFacial ExpressionFacial RecognitionSocial InteractionSocial PerceptionAdultElectroencephalographyElectromyographyEvoked PotentialsFacial MusclesFemaleHumansMalePhotic StimulationYoung AdultEEG/ERPemotionfacial expressionssocial interactionvirtual agents

Identifiers

PMID39821290
PMCPMC11781275

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.