Paying attention to faces is of special interest for humans as well as for scientific research. The experimental manipulation of facial information offers an ecologically valid approach to investigate emotion, attention and social functioning. Humans are highly specialized in face perception and event-related brain potentials (ERP) provide insights into the temporal dynamics of involved neuronal mechanisms. Here, we summarize ERP research from the last decade, examining the processing of emotional compared to neutral facial expressions along the visual processing stream. A particular focus lies on exploring the impact of attention tasks on early (P1, N170), mid-latency (P2, EPN) and late (P3, LPP) stages of processing. This review systematizes facial emotion effects as a function of different attention tasks: 1) When faces serve as mere distractors, 2) during passive viewing designs, 3) directing attention at faces in general, and 4) paying attention to facial expressions. We find fearful and angry expressions to reliably modulate the N170, EPN, and LPP component, the latter benefiting from attention directed at the emotional facial expression.

注意面部不仅对人类而且对科学研究特别重要。面部信息的实验性操作提供了一种生态学上有效的方法来研究情绪，注意力和社交功能。人类在面部感知和事件相关的脑电势（ERP）方面高度专业化，可洞悉所涉及的神经元机制的时间动态。在这里，我们总结了近十年来的ERP研究，考察了视觉处理流中与中性面部表情相比的情感处理。特别关注的是探索注意任务对处理的早期（P1，N170），中延迟（P2，EPN）和后期（P3，LPP）阶段的影响。这篇评论根据不同的注意力任务将面部情绪效果系统化：1）当人脸仅是干扰因素时，2）在被动观看设计中，3）将注意力集中在人脸上，以及4）注意面部表情。我们发现恐惧和愤怒的表情可以可靠地调节N170，EPN和LPP分量，后者受益于针对情感面部表情的关注。