Electrophysiological Correlates of Shyness Affected by Facial Attractiveness

Previous neurological studies of shyness have focused on the hemispheric asymmetry of alpha spectral power. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have focused on the interaction between different frequencies bands in the brain of shyness. Additionally, shy individuals are even shyer when confron...

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Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 12; p. 739585
Main Authors Xu, Xiaofan, Li, Bingbing, Liu, Ping, Li, Dan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 05.01.2022
Subjects
delta-beta correlation
EEG
facial attractiveness
Psychology
public speaking
shyness
facial attractiveness
shyness
delta-beta correlation
public speaking
EEG
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Summary:Previous neurological studies of shyness have focused on the hemispheric asymmetry of alpha spectral power. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have focused on the interaction between different frequencies bands in the brain of shyness. Additionally, shy individuals are even shyer when confronted with a group of people they consider superior to them. This study aimed to reveal the neural basis of shy individuals using the delta-beta correlation. Further, it aimed to investigate the effect of evaluators' facial attractiveness on the delta-beta correlation of shyness during the speech anticipation phase. We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) activity of 94 participants during rest and anticipation of the public speaking phase. Moreover, during the speech anticipation phase, participants were presented with high or low facial attractiveness. The results showed that, as predicted, the delta-beta correlation in the frontal region was more robust for high shyness than for low shyness during the speech anticipation phase. However, no significant differences were observed in the delta-beta correlation during the baseline phase. Further exploration found that the delta-beta correlation was more robust for high facial attractiveness than low facial attractiveness in the high shyness group. However, no significant difference was found in the low-shyness group. This study suggests that a stronger delta-beta correlation might be the neural basis for shy individuals. Moreover, high facial attractiveness might enhance the delta-beta correlation of high shyness in anticipation of public speaking.
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This article was submitted to Decision Neuroscience, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Edited by: Vaishnav Krishnan, Baylor College of Medicine, United States
Reviewed by: Atul Maheshwari, Baylor College of Medicine, United States; Vilfredo De Pascalis, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Anita Harrewijn, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.739585