Gender specific brain activations for perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Gender specific brain activations for perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies Mariska Kret1*, Julie Grezes2, Swann Pichon2 and Beatrice De-Gelder1 1 University of Tilburg, Netherlands 2 Ecole Normale Superieure, France We express and communicate emotions with our whole body, the face included. Are faces better signal bearers than bodies, does each contribute in its own way depending on the emotion and does it matter for the observer whether the actor is male or female? We undertook a systematic comparison of the neurofunctional network dedicated to processing facial and bodily expressions. Our design allowed us to measure the role of gender. Two event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments using an oddball task were performed. The first experiment used short video fragments of angry and neutral facial and bodily expressions of male and female actors. The second experiment used fearful and neutral expressions. The amygdala was sensitive to all expressions, but significantly more to faces. The cuneus, fusiform gyrus, middle temporal gyrus (MT/V5/EBA), superior temporal sulcus and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), superior parietal lobule, primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and at a subcortical level, the thalamus, were specifically involved in processing bodies. It is suggested that V1 concerns early emotion detection, in particular facial expressions. Threatening body expressions, whether fearful or angry, modulated activity in MT/V5/EBA, right TPJ and SI. Another major finding is that emotions expressed by male and female actors were equally well recognized, but activation of emotion processing areas only appeared when observers watched threat from male actors. In conclusion, our results show the importance for current theories of how emotional stimuli are processed of using face as well as body images and of taking into consideration the gender of observer and actor. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: Kret M, Grezes J, Pichon S and De-Gelder B (2009). Gender specific brain activations for perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.203 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 10 Jun 2009; Published Online: 10 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Mariska Kret, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, Netherlands, m.e.kret@uvt.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Mariska Kret Julie Grezes Swann Pichon Beatrice De-Gelder Google Mariska Kret Julie Grezes Swann Pichon Beatrice De-Gelder Google Scholar Mariska Kret Julie Grezes Swann Pichon Beatrice De-Gelder PubMed Mariska Kret Julie Grezes Swann Pichon Beatrice De-Gelder Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.