In the study of the recognition of emotional facial expressions one controversial issue is the role of attention paid to the part of the face most involved in expressing a specific emotion. Although it is well known that we look at different parts of the face to recognize facial expressions, depending on the emotion being expressed, it is yet to be found if the recognition processes actually depend on a proper attentional allocation and, if so, to what facial features attention should be allocated to. In two studies it is explored how attention allocation relates to emotion recognition processes. Attention to certain facial features was directly manipulated and the impact on emotion recognition measured. In the first study, we tested if the emotion recognition process benefits from explicitly directing the attentional focus to the most activated facial muscles in each emotion. Photos of emotional facial expressions (happiness, fear and disgust) were presented for 1 second, each of them containing, or not, a cotton bud pointing to the principal muscle related to the emotion being expressed (Zygomatic, Corrugator and Levator, respectively). It was found that the attentional manipulation benefited the recognition accuracy of facial expressions that were difficult to recognize a priori, especially those of disgust. In the second study, we used a black cross that would prime the facial region of interest, being presented before the photo (for 200ms) as well as during the photo presentation. Apart from the congruent condition where attention was always directed to muscle most involved in that emotion (as in study 1), an incongruent condition was added to tested if focusing the attention on a facial muscle incongruent with the expression (e.g. attention allocated to the Corrugator muscle in an happy facial expression) would impair the recognition of the emotion. Additionally, in two other conditions attention was diverted from facial muscles involved in emotion expression, either towards the outside (peripheral condition) or towards the central part of the face (central condition). Both emotion recognition accuracy and eye-movements were used as dependent measures. These studies are the first, to our knowledge, to experimentally manipulate attention allocation towards specific facial regions, in a non-clinical population, and together allow us to explore the casual role of attentional mechanisms in the emotion recognition processes.

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