The Face of the Other: Investigating the psychological and neurophysiological predictors of emotion authenticity discrimination

This thesis investigates the psychological mechanisms and neurophysiological correlates underlying the ability to distinguish between genuine and simulated facial expressions. Through an experimental design combining behavioral measurements and EEG recording, the study explores how stimulus-related factors (type of emotion and expressive intensity) and individual differences (traits of alexithymia and Theory of Mind) influence the accuracy of authenticity recognition. The experimental protocol involved recording the resting state EEG, followed by the administration of an emotional discrimination task (modified EAR task) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) questionnaires to a sample of 40 participants. The data were analyzed using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) for behavioral measures and spectral analysis for electrophysiological data, with the aim of identifying cognitive and neural predictors of behavioral performance.