Emotional scenes and facial expressions elicit different psychophysiological responses

We examined if emotional faces elicit physiological responses similar to pictures of emotional scenes. Forty one students viewed emotional scenes (negative, neutral, and positive) and emotional faces (angry, neutral, and happy). Heart rate, orbicularis oculi and electrodermal activity were measured continuously, and the startle reflex was elicited. Although the patterns of valence and arousal ratings were comparable, physiological response patterns differed. For scenes we replicated the valence-specific modulation of the startle response, heart rate deceleration, and the arousal-related modulation of the electrodermal response. In contrast, for faces we found valence-specific modulation only for the electrodermal response, but the startle and heart rate deceleration were modulated by arousal. Although arousal differences may account for some differences in physiological responding this shows that not all emotional material that is decoded similarly leads to the same psychophysiological output.

Research Highlights► We found different physiological response patterns for emotional faces and scenes. ► Scenes: Startle and heart rate were modulated by stimulus valence, SCR by arousal. ► Faces: SCR was modulated by stimulus valence, startle and heart rate by arousal. ► Similarly decoded emotional stimuli not always lead to similar physiological output.