The Impact of Perceptual Adaptation and Real Exposure to Catastrophic Events on Facial Emotion Categorization.

ABSTRACT: Background/Objectives: Facial expressions are central to nonverbal communication and social cognition, and their recognition is shaped not only by facial features but also by contextual cues and prior experience. In high-threat contexts, rapid and accurate decoding of others' emotions is adaptively advantageous. Grounded in neurocognitive models of face processing and vigilance, we tested whether brief perceptual adaptation to emotionally salient scenes, real-world disaster exposure, and pre-traumatic stress reactions enhance facial-emotion categorization. Methods: Fifty healthy adults reported prior direct exposure to catastrophic events (present/absent) and completed the Pre-Traumatic Stress Reactions Checklist (Pre-Cl; low/high). In a computerized task, participants viewed

SUBMITTER: La Malva P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12838887 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature