AUTHOR=Abutalebi Jubin , Gallo Federico , Fedeli Davide , Houdayer Elise , Zangrillo Federica , Emedoli Daniele , Spina Alfio , Bellini Camilla , Del Maschio Nicola , Iannaccone Sandro , Alemanno Federica 

TITLE=On the brain struggles to recognize basic facial emotions with face masks: an fMRI study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1339592

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1339592

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic impacted public health and our lifestyles leading to new social adaptations such as quarantine, social-distancing and facial masks. Face masks, covering extended facial zones, hamper our ability to extract relevant socio-emotional information from others’ faces. In this fMRI study, we investigated how face masks interfere with facial emotion-recognition, focusing on brain responses and connectivity patterns as a function of the presence of a face mask.
Methods: 25 healthy participants (13F; mean age: 32.64±7.24y; mean education: 18.28±1.31y) were included. Participants underwent task-related fMRI during the presentation of images of faces expressing basic emotions (joy or fear versus neutral expression). Half of the faces were covered by a face mask. Subjects had to recognize the facial emotion (masked or unmasked). FMRI whole-brain and Regions of Interest analyses were performed, as well as psychophysiological interaction analysis (PPI).
Results: Subjects recognized better and faster emotions of unmasked faces. FMRI analyses showed that masked faces induced a stronger activation of a right occipito-temporal cluster, including the Fusiform Gyrus and the Occipital Face Area bilaterally. The same activation pattern was found for the neutral masked > neutral unmasked contrast. PPI analyses of the masked > unmasked contrast showed, in the right Occipital Face Area, a stronger correlation with the left superior frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, left superior parietal lobe and the right supramarginal gyrus.
Discussion: Our study showed how our brain differentially struggles to recognize face-masked basic emotions, implementing more neural resources to correctly categorize those incomplete facial expressions.