Interaction of anger with anxiety and responses to emotional facial expressions

In this study, effects of interaction of anger with anxiety on the perception of emotional facial expressions and associated with this perception oscillatory dynamics of cortical responses elicited by presentation of angry, neutral, and happy faces were investigated. Subjects filled out the Buss–Perry aggression scales and the Spielberger’s State Trait Anxiety Inventory. Anxiety moderated the effect of anger both on estimates of angry and happy faces and on face presentation-related spectral perturbations. In the low anxiety group, anger scores were positively related to the extent of face presentation-related theta synchronization. In the high anxiety group this effect was not significant. The results are discussed in light of Corr’s “joint subsystems” hypothesis (Corr, 2002).