Data for: How does gaze direction affect facial processing in social anxiety? —An ERP study.

Firstly, the present study provides the Electrophysiological evidence that gaze direction affects the processing of facial expressions in social anxiety. Secondly, our results demonstrate selective attentional bias towards self-relevant threatening information in social anxiety. The current ERP results demonstrated that identification of angry faces with direct but not averted gaze elicited larger N2 amplitudes in high socially anxious individuals compared to low socially anxious individuals. Lastly, significant correlations were found between the N2 amplitudes to angry faces with direct gaze and social anxiety severity in socially anxious participants. These results suggest that socially anxious individuals showed a selective attention bias to clear threatening information, and the N2 amplitudes which reflected social anxiety level could be used as electrophysiological indicator for social anxiety diagnosis and intervention.

首先，本研究提供了电生理学证据，表明注视方向会影响社交焦虑个体对面部表情的加工过程。其次，本研究结果证实，社交焦虑个体存在对自我相关威胁性信息的选择性注意偏向。本次事件相关电位（Event-Related Potential, ERP）结果显示，相较于低社交焦虑个体，高社交焦虑个体对带有直接注视而非回避注视的愤怒面孔进行识别时，诱发的N2波幅更大。最后，在社交焦虑参与者中，直接注视愤怒面孔所诱发的N2波幅与社交焦虑严重程度之间存在显著相关。上述结果表明，社交焦虑个体对明确的威胁性信息存在选择性注意偏向，且反映社交焦虑水平的N2波幅可作为社交焦虑诊断与干预的电生理学指标。