Abstract
Facial expressions are one of the most important sources of information about another’s emotional states. More recently, other cues such as body posture have been shown to influence how facial expressions are perceived. It has been argued that this biasing effect is underpinned by an early integration of visual information from facial expression and body posture. Here, we replicate this biasing effect, but, using a psychophysical procedure, show that adaptation to facial expressions is unaffected by body context. The integration of face and body information therefore occurs downstream of the sites of adaptation, known to be localised in high-level visual areas of the temporal lobe. Contrary to previous research, our findings thus provide direct evidence for late integration of information from facial expression and body posture. They are consistent with a hierarchical model of social perception, in which social signals from different sources are initially processed independently and in parallel by specialised visual mechanisms. Integration of these different inputs in later stages of the visual system then supports the emergence of the integrated whole-person percept that is consciously experienced.
Highlights
Facial expressions provide important information about a person’s emotional state (Bruce & Young, 2012)
This finding indicates that categorization and adaptation might target different visual representations: while aftereffects are based on representations of facial representations that have not yet incorporated information from body context, categorization is based on the integrated face-body percept
Study 2 indicates that, even when using stimuli that lead to a strong influence of angry body context on categorization of disgusted facial expressions, body context has no effect on adaptation
Summary
Facial expressions provide important information about a person’s emotional state (Bruce & Young, 2012). Several studies have highlighted the importance of body context in the processing of facial expression: a body posture showing an incongruent emotion biases perception of the facial emotion towards that of the body (for reviews, see de Gelder et al, 2006; Hassin, Aviezer, & Bentin, 2013). It has been suggested that the integration of information from face and body underlying these biases occurs early in the visual system (Aviezer et al, 2008; Aviezer, Bentin, Dudarev, & Hassin, 2011; Meeren, van Heijnsbergen, & de Gelder, 2005). Integration of emotional face and body information in occipital areas would suggest that facial expression information would have to be extracted much earlier in the processing stream than current evidence suggests
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
