Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40046006›Full record

ArticleCognitive neurodynamics2025

Shared neural dynamics of facial expression processing.

Madeline Molly Ely, Géza Gergely Ambrus

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Cognitive neurodynamics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing 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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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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.

Madeline Molly ElyDepartment of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole House P319, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB UK.ORCID 0009-0002-7683-8179
Géza Gergely AmbrusDepartment of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole House P319, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8400-8178

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The ability to recognize and interpret facial expressions is fundamental to human social cognition, enabling navigation of complex interpersonal interactions and understanding of others' emotional states. The extent to which neural patterns associated with facial expression processing are shared between observers remains unexplored, and no study has yet examined the neural dynamics specific to different emotional expressions. Additionally, the neural processing dynamics of facial attributes such as sex and identity in relation to facial expressions have not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we investigated the shared neural dynamics of emotional face processing using an explicit facial emotion recognition task, where participants made two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) decisions on the displayed emotion. Our data-driven approach employed cross-participant multivariate classification and representational dissimilarity analysis on EEG data. The results demonstrate that EEG signals can effectively decode the sex, emotional expression, and identity of face stimuli across different stimuli and participants, indicating shared neural codes for facial expression processing. Multivariate classification analyses revealed that sex is decoded first, followed by identity, and then emotion. Emotional expressions (angry, happy, sad) were decoded earlier when contrasted with neutral expressions. While identity and sex information were modulated by image-level stimulus features, the effects of emotion were independent of visual image properties. Importantly, our findings suggest enhanced processing of face identity and sex for emotional expressions, particularly for angry faces and, to a lesser extent, happy faces. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-025-10230-4.

Indexed as

ElectroencephalographyEmotionsFace processingFacial expressionsMultivariate pattern analysis

Identifiers

PMID40046006
PMCPMC11880506

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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.