社交焦虑者往往存在面部表情加工的缺陷。首先介绍了社交焦虑者对面部情绪表情的普遍性加工特点,然后介绍了社交焦虑者对积极面部表情的加工缺陷和对消极面部表情的加工偏向的相关研究。鉴于威胁性面孔可能是重要的焦虑诱发源,接着详细介绍了社交焦虑者对带有威胁信息的特异性面部表情的加工偏向的研究。对于现有研究结果中存在的分歧,从被试的异质性、实验材料的不一致性、实验参数和任务的选择等方面进行了分析,并提出未来研究需要控制特质焦虑和状态焦虑因素、模拟各种真实的社交情境等。
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients usually show deficits in facial expression processing. The present review first summarizes the general characteristics of facial processing deficits in SAD patients. We then discuss studies that probed the processing deficiency of positive facial expressions and the bias for negative facial expressions in SAD patients. Because threatening facial expression might be an important stressor for social anxiety, studies addressing the bias for threat-related facial expressions in SAD patients are particularly analyzed. Inconsistent findings in the literature, as identified in the present review, are probably caused by the variation of methodological features across studies, such as subject heterogeneity, inconformity of facial stimuli and different choices of experimental tasks and parameters. For future studies, researchers are encouraged to control trait anxiety and state anxiety and to conduct experiments in simulated (thus more ecologically valid) social situations.