Emotional processing of masked vs. unmasked faces in school-aged children and their fathers

• In Event: Face masks and socioemotional development: Multimodal research on emotion processing of masked faces

Abstract

Children’s ability to recognize the emotions of others has been linked to their development within multiple socioemotional domains, including social competence, cooperation, assertion, self-control, and prosocial behaviors. Moreover, being able to accurately identify others’ emotions has been associated with being liked by peers and teachers. Emotional processing is also important for sensitive parenting.

Mask wearing has been widely adopted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions of children and their parents have worn face masks, and interacted with masked others, regularly, in order to reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus. However, the effects of masking on facial emotional processing, and of cumulative mask exposure on the long-term development of socioemotional skills, are not yet well-understood. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine emotional processing of masked vs unmasked faces in both children and adults.

Within a sample of school-aged children and their fathers drawn from a larger longitudinal study, we administered a new computerized task that features both masked and unmasked faces displaying different emotions during fMRI scanning. Given that most prior work only examined emotional processing using adult stimuli, this task included both adult and same-aged child masked and unmasked faces. Fathers also reported on their as well as their child’s overall mask exposure.

We hypothesized that we would see neural and behavioral differences between mask conditions that varied by emotion and age. We also expected that children and their fathers’ ability to accurately process masked faces would be associated with greater mask exposure. In other words, we expected that participants who have spent more time interacting with masked others might show more skill at interpreting masked faces, as well as different patterns of brain activation, compared to those with more limited mask exposure.

Results to date support our hypotheses. As predicted, both children and their fathers show significantly less accurate processing of masked faces as compared to unmasked faces (p < .001). Fathers with greater mask exposure are significantly better at accurately identifying masked faces as compared to fathers with less mask exposure (ß=.002, t=2.522, p=.026, 95% CI = [.0003, .004]). However, there is no association between child mask exposure and mask emotional processing. We are currently examining how these faces are processed in regions of the brain associated with emotion and salience perception such as the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and ventral striatum, and whether activation in these areas varies based on mask exposure. We will also explore whether fathers who are more accurate in processing masked faces (or who have more mask exposure) have children who process masked faces more accurately as well.

To our knowledge, no published study has yet reported on the neural correlates of masked face processing in children and their fathers. This is a critical gap in the literature given that many children and adults have extensively interacted with masked others over the past several years. Combining behavioral and neuroimaging approaches will afford us a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of masking on the developing social brain.

Authors

• Yael Haya Waizman, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author

• Pia Elizabeth Sellery, University of Colorado Boulder

• Jasmine Liu, University of Southern California

• Jasmin Wang

• Darby E. Saxbe, University of Southern California