Abstract
Advances in computer and communications technology have deeply affected the way we communicate. Social media have emerged as a major means of human communication. However, a major limitation in such media is the lack of non-verbal stimuli, which sometimes hinders the understanding of the message, and in particular the associated emotional content. In an effort to compensate for this, people started to use emoticons, which are combinations of keyboard characters that resemble facial expressions, and more recently their evolution: emojis, namely, small colorful images that resemble faces, actions and daily life objects. This paper presents evidence of the effect of emojis on memory retrieval through a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study. A total number of fifteen healthy volunteers were recruited for the experiment, during which successive stimuli were presented, containing words with intense emotional content combined with emojis, either with congruent or incongruent emotional content. Volunteers were asked to recall a memory related to the stimulus. The study of the reaction times showed that emotional incongruity among word+emoji combinations led to longer reaction times in memory retrieval compared to congruent combinations. General Linear Model (GLM) and Blind Source Separation (BSS) methods have been tested in assessing the influence of the emojis on the process of memory retrieval. The analysis of the fMRI data showed that emotional incongruity among word+emoji combinations activated the Broca's area (BA44 and BA45) in both hemispheres, the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) and the inferior prefrontal cortex (BA47), compared to congruent combinations. Furthermore, compared to pseudowords, word+emoji combinations activated the left Broca's area (BA44 and BA45), the amygdala, the right temporal pole (BA48) and several frontal regions including the SMA and the inferior prefrontal cortex.
Highlights
Communication plays an essential role in our everyday life and draws on both verbal and nonverbal cues to convey information
A Tukey test for mean separation pointed out that there exists a significant difference between the congruent positive stimulus (HH) and incongruent stimulus, i.e., the difference in the response time between congruent and incongruent is mainly driven from the stimuli of the HH state
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the impact of emojis on the autobiographical memory retrieval is documented in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Summary
Communication plays an essential role in our everyday life and draws on both verbal (e.g., speech) and nonverbal (e.g., gestures, facial expressions, the tone of the voice) cues to convey information. The Face-to-Face Communication (FFC) has been replaced to a large extent, by the so-called Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) [1]. CMC is an effective tool for communicating verbal messages, yet it lacks the subtle nonverbal cues of FFC. In FFC, multi-modal signals are naturally produced (auditory and visual at least) while in CMC only visual-verbal cues are available, making typed messages on a computer screen appear emotionally neutral. The absence of non-verbal cues may reduce the communication efficiency and this may cause a misinterpretation of the nature of the message and the intention of the sender [3]. CMC needs to become more elaborate and less prescriptive and adapt to social needs such as to convey emotion
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