Abstract
In the natural environment, facial and bodily expressions influence each other. Previous research has shown that bodily expressions significantly influence the perception of facial expressions. However, little is known about the cognitive processing of facial and bodily emotional expressions and its temporal characteristics. Therefore, this study presented facial and bodily expressions, both separately and together, to examine the electrophysiological mechanism of emotional recognition using event-related potential (ERP). Participants assessed the emotions of facial and bodily expressions that varied by valence (positive/negative) and consistency (matching/non-matching emotions). The results showed that bodily expressions induced a more positive P1 component and a shortened latency, whereas facial expressions triggered a more negative N170 and prolonged latency. Among N2 and P3, N2 was more sensitive to inconsistent emotional information and P3 was more sensitive to consistent emotional information. The cognitive processing of facial and bodily expressions had distinctive integrating features, with the interaction occurring in the early stage (N170). The results of the study highlight the importance of facial and bodily expressions in the cognitive processing of emotion recognition.
Highlights
In daily life, both the face and body can convey emotional information
For N2 and P3, the positive-face with positive-body and negative-face with negativebody were combined into one level, while the positive-face with negative-body and negative-face with positivebody were combined into one level, and the data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA
The results showed that the main effect of a stimulus was significant
Summary
Both the face and body can convey emotional information. For example, sad faces are often accompanied by body expressions such as lowering of the head, happy faces are accompanied by body gestures such as dancing with joy, and angry faces are accompanied by body expressions such as clenched fists and stomping (Proverbio et al, 2018). We used event-related potential (ERP) to explore the differences in the recognition of facial and bodily expressions, as well as the characteristics of their interaction over time. Gu et al (2013) used ERP to study the interaction between facial and bodily expressions and proposed a three-stage model of processing of facial and bodily expressions. Some studies have begun to explore the interaction between bodily and facial expressions, they focus mostly on understanding the behavioral results of this interaction and the characteristics of the early components of ERP. The experimental task was manipulated to allow us to explore the interaction between facial and bodily expressions by asking participants to judge the facial and bodily expressions separately and together for both consistent and inconsistent emotional expressions
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