Relevance of emotional information varies with self-involvement. The current study was undertaken to test whether subtle facial self-resemblance is sufficient to affect attentional and affective processing of complex socio-emotional pictures. Faces digitally manipulated to resemble the participants’ (final sample: N = 21) own versus unfamiliar control faces (form and color morphs) were presented in pictures of emotionally evocative social interactions, that is, threat versus sex scenes. At stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of either 300 ms or 3,000 ms after picture onset, startle responses were elicited by acoustic white noise bursts (50 ms, 105 dB), and recorded at the orbicularis oculi via electromyography (EMG). The majority of participants remained unaware of the morphing manipulation, and awareness did not affect the principal results. As indexed by inhibition of startle at short lead intervals and by picture-evoked heart rate deceleration, facial self-resemblance modulates effects of motivational salience in a context-sensitive way, increasing prepulse inhibition with threat-related, but not erotic cues. Overall, the present study suggests that visual cues of general motivational significance and of self-relevance are integrated in a fast, presumably automatic manner.

中文翻译：

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自相似以上下文敏感的方式调节社会情感图片的处理

情绪信息的相关性随自我参与而变化。当前的研究是为了测试微妙的面部自我形象是否足以影响复杂的社会情感图片的注意力和情感处理。在情感上令人回味的社交互动（即威胁与性爱场景）的图片中，展示了经过数字化处理以类似于参与者自己的面孔（最终样本：N = 21）与不熟悉的对照面孔（形式和颜色变化）的面孔。在图像发作后300 ms或3,000 ms的刺激发作异步（SOA）时，由声学白噪声脉冲（50 ms，105 dB）引起惊吓反应，并通过肌电图（EMG）记录在眼眶。大多数参与者仍然不知道变形操作，并且意识并未影响主要结果。通过在短时间间隔内抑制惊吓和通过图像诱发的心率减缓来指示，面部自我相似以情境敏感的方式调节动机显着性的作用，从而增加了与威胁相关但不是色情提示的前冲抑制。总体而言，本研究表明，具有一般动机意义和自我关联性的视觉线索以一种快速，大概是自动的方式进行了整合。