Facial Emotion Saliency Defines the Interplay Between Holistic and Featural Processing Even at Subliminal Levels

Proper recognition of facial emotions is crucial for social development and adaptation. The way in which faces are perceptually represented through a neurologically-constrained hierarchy was psychophysically investigated with reference to featural versus holistic, configural processing. Emotional saliency, even at subliminal levels, can determine the type of processing that is predominant.