Processing Of Emotional Expressions Research Articles

A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies.

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialisation and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (R. J. R. Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the sensitivity of children with psychopathic tendencies to facial expressions. Children with psychopathic tendencies and a comparison group, as defined by the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD; P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press), were presented with a cinematic display of a standardised set of facial expressions that depicted sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. Participants observed as these facial expressions slowly evolved through 20 successive frames of increasing intensity. The children with psychopathic tendencies presented with selective impairments; they needed significantly more stages before they could successfully recognise the sad expressions and even when the fearful expressions were at full intensity were significantly more likely to mistake them for another expression. These results are interpreted with reference to an amygdala and empathy impairment explanation of psychopathy.

Hemispheric Dominance for Emotions, Empathy and Social Behaviour: Evidence from Right and Left Handers with Frontotemporal Dementia.

Although evidence from primates suggests an important role for the anterior temporal cortex in social behaviour, human research has to date concentrated almost solely on the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. By describing four cases of the temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia we show how this degenerative condition provides an excellent model for investigating the role of the anterior temporal lobe, especially the right, in emotions, empathy and social behaviour. Assessments of semantic memory, processing of emotional facial expression and emotional prosody were made, empathy was measured, and facial expressions of emotion were coded. Of the two right handers described, one subject with predominantly left temporal lobe atrophy had severe semantic impairment but normal performance on all emotional tasks. In contrast, the subject with right temporal lobe atrophy showed severely impaired recognition of emotion from faces and voices that was not due to semantic or perceptual difficulties. Empathy was lost, interpersonal skills were severely affected and facial expression of emotion was characterized by a fixed expression that was unresponsive to situations. Additionally, two left handers with right temporal lobe atrophy are described. One demonstrated the same pattern of hemispheric lateralization as the right handers and had emotional impairment. The other left hander showed the opposite pattern of deficits, suggesting a novel presentation of anomalous dominance with reversed hemispheric specialization of semantic memory and emotional processing.

Expression recognition and behavioural problems in early adolescence

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialisation and social interaction. Fifty-five children (aged 11–14 years) in mainstream education participated in this study. They were presented with a standardised set of pictures of facial expressions and asked to name one of the six emotions illustrated (sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise). Following experimental testing, their behaviour was rated by two independent teachers on the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD). The PSD assesses two dimensions of behavioral problems: affective-interpersonal disturbance and impulsive behaviour/conduct problems. The results showed that the ability to recognise sad and fearful expressions (but not happy, angry, disgusted, or surprised expressions) was inversely related to both level of affective-interpersonal disturbance and impulsive/conduct problems. These results are interpreted with reference to current models of empathy and its disorders.

Lateralisation of perceptual processing of pro- and anti-social emotions displayed in chimeric faces

Previous studies using a restricted range of split field chimeric faces suggest that the processing of facial emotional expressions is a highly lateralised phenomenon. Two theories have emerged with regard to the role the two cerebral hemispheres play in this processing. The "right hemisphere" hypothesis (e.g. Borod, Koff, Lorch, & Nicholas, 1988) suggests that the right hemisphere plays a prominent role in the processing of both positive and negative facial expressions. In contrast, the "valence hypothesis" (e.g. Reuter-Lorenz & Davidson, 1981) proposes that, while the right hemisphere plays the major role in processing negative emotions, the left hemisphere has a special role for positive emotions. Using all six of the human "universal facial expressions" (Ekman &Friesen, 1971) we present evidence that, superimposed onto a left visual field advantage (right hemisphere specialisation) for emotional processing, there is a "left shift" (right visual field advantage) for pro- as opposed to anti-social expression. We propose that facial expressions that are likely to be related to approach for communicative purposes initiate a greater degree of left hemisphere involvement. As a consequence, we suggest that for future laterality studies, the six universal emotional expressions should be reconsidered using a pro- to anti-social dimension rather than positive and negative groupings.

Different scalp topography of brain potentials related to expression and identity matching of faces

Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data were recorded while subjects performed two tasks on the same set of faces (presented in pairs). One task was identity matching and the other expression matching. Two groups of subjects participated, one familiar and the other unfamiliar with the faces. Subjects were less accurate in matching expressions than identity. Familiarity facilitated identity but not expression matching. ERPs to mismatches in both tasks elicited a negativity around 400 ms, which was similar in latency and amplitude in the two tasks, but differed in scalp topography. Whereas the mismatch negativity had the same landscape over the left hemisphere for both tasks, the component related to expression had larger amplitudes over the right-temporal regions. Familiarity had no effect on these negativities, although it affected a late positivity (LP). These results support the idea of distinct neural systems subserving face processing, and agree with a role of the right hemisphere for the processing of emotional expressions.

Dissociation of implicit and explicit neural mechanisms for processing of emotional facial expressions: A model for investigating developmental disorders of social behavior

Dissociation of implicit and explicit neural mechanisms for processing of emotional facial expressions: A model for investigating developmental disorders of social behavior

Right hemisphere damage impairs the ability to process emotional expressions of unusual faces.

Patients with focal brain damage, right and left hemisphere damage, and nonpatient controls were asked to match photographs of emotion expressions that were depicted in unusual (line drawings, strange, and schematic) and normal (usual) representations of faces with the target emotion expressions of normal face. Nonpatient controls were significantly superior to right hemisphere damaged patients in matching photographs of emotion expressions that were depicted in line drawings of normal face and schematic face.

Prefrontal involvement in schizophrenia

The distribution of brain activation during working memory processing of emotional vocal expressions was studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in eight female subjects performing n-back tasks with three load levels (0-back, 1-back, and 2-back tasks). The stimuli in the n-back tasks were the Finnish female name [Saara] uttered in an astonished, angry, frightened, commanding, and scornful mode, and the subjects were instructed to memorize the emotional connotation of the stimuli. Subregions in the prefrontal, parietal, and visual association areas were load-dependently activated during the performance of the n-back tasks. The most consistently activated areas in the prefrontal region were detected in the inferior frontal gyrus corresponding to Brodmann's areas (BAs) 44 and 45 and in the middle and superior frontal gyri (BAs 6/8). Activation was also found in the inferior parietal lobe and intraparietal sulcus (BAs 40/7) and visual association areas including the lingual and fusiform gyri. The results suggest that a distributed neuronal network in occipital, parietal, and frontal areas is involved in working memory processing of emotional content of aurally presented information.

Defective Conceptualization of Emotional Facial Expressions During T2 Signal Enhancement of the Right Amygdala

Abstract A 35-year-old right-handed woman (CK) showed deficits in sorting and rating emotional facial expressions and experienced temporary emotional hyperarousal with panic attacks during a T2-signal enhancement of the reglon of the right amygdala. In a sorting task CK was able to match positive, but not negative, basic emotions. Furthermore CK rated most facial emotions as unpleasant and unaroused. In the further course, the neuroradiologically demonstrated lesion dlsappeared, as well as the Impaired Identification and judgement of emotional faclal expressions. The results suggest that a lesion of the right amygdala is sufficient to disturb the processing of emotional facial expressions.

Defective conceptualization of emotional facial expressions during T2 signal enhancement of the right amygdala

A 35-year-old right-handed woman (CK) showed deficits in sorting and rating emotional facial expressions and experienced temporary emotional hyperarousal with panic attacks during a T2-signal enhancement of the reglon of the right amygdala. In a sorting task CK was able to match positive, but not negative, basic emotions. Furthermore CK rated most facial emotions as unpleasant and unaroused. In the further course, the neuroradiologically demonstrated lesion dlsappeared, as well as the Impaired Identification and judgement of emotional faclal expressions. The results suggest that a lesion of the right amygdala is sufficient to disturb the processing of emotional facial expressions.

Alexithymia: A Right Hemisphere Dysfunction Specific to Recognition of Certain Facial Expressions?

The most prominent features of alexithymic people are a demonstrated reduction in the ability to identify and to describe their own feelings. In recent years, these characteristics have been related to a functional disturbance of the right cerebral hemisphere. This should result in a number of other observable effects. The present study investigated whether high and low alexithymics from a nonclinical population differed in the degree of leftward perceptual bias on chimeric tasks. The chimeras consisted of pictures of faces made of up conjoined emotive and nonemotive halves as well as asymmetrically distributed stars. Differences between high and low alexithymics in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion of whole faces were also examined. High scorers on a test of alexithymia showed overall less leftward perceptual bias than low scorers on the chimeric tasks and poorer recognition of facial expressions of whole faces. There was little evidence that the reduced left bias was specific to processing of emotional expressions only, or that differences in processing of facial expressions were emotion specific. These results are argued to support the right hemisphere dysfunction model of alexithymia.

Neural Activation during Covert Processing of Positive Emotional Facial Expressions

Lesion studies indicate distinct neural systems for recognition of facial identity and emotion. Split-brain experiments also suggest that emotional evaluation of a stimulus can occur without conscious identification. The present study tested a hypothesis of a differential neural response, independent of explicit conscious mediation, to emotional compared to nonemotional faces. The experimental paradigm involved holding in mind an image of a face across a 45-s delay while regional cerebral blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography. Prior to the delay, a single face was presented with an explicit instruction to match it to one of two faces, photographed at different angles from the target face, presented at the end of the delay. Repeated blood flow measures were obtained while subjects held happy or neutral faces in mind or during a neutral control fixation condition without initial face presentation. The representation of emotional faces over a delay period, compared to either the nonemotional or the fixation condition, was associated with significant activation in the left ventral prefrontal cortex, the left anterior cingulate cortex, and the right fusiform gyrus. The findings support our hypothesis of a differential neural response to facial emotion, independent of conscious mediation, in regions implicated in the processing of faces and of emotions.

Decoders' processing of emotional facial expression — a top‐down or bottom‐up mechanism?

AbstractTo date little evidence is available as to how emotional facial expression is decoded, specifically whether a bottom‐up (data‐driven) or a top‐down (schema‐driven) approach is more appropriate in explaining the decoding of emotions from facial expression. A study is reported (conducted with N = 20 subjects each in Germany and Italy), in which decoders judged emotions from photographs of facial expressions. Stimuli represented a selection of photographs depicting both single muscular movements (action units) in an otherwise neutral face, and combinations of such action units. Results indicate that the meaning of action units changes often with context; only a few single action units transmit specific emotional meaning, which they retain when presented in context. The results are replicated to a large degree across decoder samples in both nations, implying fundamental mechanisms of emotion decoding.

The hunger disease

Recent evidence raised the importance of the cerebellum in emotional processes, with specific regard to negative emotions. However, its role in the processing of face emotional expressions is still unknown. This study was aimed at assessing whether face emotional expressions influence the cerebellar learning processes, using the delay eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) as a model. Visual stimuli composed of faces expressing happy, sad and neutral emotions were used as conditioning stimulus in forty healthy subjects to modulate the cerebellum-brainstem pathway underlying the EBCC. The same stimuli were used to explore their effects on the blink reflex (BR) and its recovery cycle (BRRC) and on the cerebellar-brain inhibition (CBI). Data analysis revealed that the learning component of the EBCC was significantly reduced following the passive view of sad faces, while the extinction phase was modulated by both sad and happy faces. By contrast, BR, BRRC and CBI were not significantly affected by the view of emotional face expressions. The present study provides first evidence that the passive viewing of faces displaying emotional expressions, are processed by the cerebellum, with no apparent involvement of the brainstem and the cerebello-cortical connection. In particular, the view of sad faces, reduces the excitability of the cerebellar circuit underlying the learning phase of the EBCC. Differently, the extinction phase was shortened by both happy and sad faces, suggesting that different neural bases underlie learning and extinction of emotions expressed by faces.

Hemispheric differences in recognition of facial expressions: a VHF-study of negative, positive, and neutral emotions.

The present study was concerned with a tachistoscopic investigation of asymmetry of recognition of different facial emotional expressions. Twenty-eight subjects had nine different drawings of facial expressions (either positive, negative, or neutral in emotional content) presented either to the left or right visual half-field. Recognition of the correct face was made for each stimulus-presentation. The results showed overall better recognition for presentations in the left half-field (LVF) (i.e., right hemisphere) compared to right half-field (RVF) (i.e., left hemisphere) presentations. Furthermore, while all three emotional categories were recognized about equally well in the right half-field, positive emotional expressions were significantly better than the neutral and negative categories when presented to the left half-field. The results are discussed in relation to previous findings of cerebral asymmetry in processing of emotional facial expressions.

Hemispheric asymmetries in processing emotional expressions

Three experiments are reported on visual field asymmetries in the perception of emotional expressions on the face. In experiment I full faces expressing six different emotions were presented unilaterally for exposure durations, allowing the subject to judge whether the facial expression was positive or negative. Right-handed subjects judged all expressions except happiness as more negative when presented in the left visual field (LVF). This effect was smaller for left-handers and was absent in left-handers who use the non-inverted writing posture. In experiment II subjects were presented with happy, sad and “mixed” chimeric faces, projected to each visual field, for durations allowing only the detection of the existence of a face. LVF presentations produced greater differential rating of emotional valence for the three types of stimuli. In experiment III chimeric faces containing happy and sad expressions were presented unilaterally for durations allowing the subject to perceive the existence of two expressions on the face. The subjects were required to decide whether the mood expressed in the face was predominantly negative or positive. RVF presentations resulted in a bias toward positive judgements. These results indicate right hemispheric superiority for the perception and processing of emotional valence and a left hemispheric perceptual bias toward positive aspects of emotional stimuli.

Sex and hemisphere differences in access to codes for processing emotional expressions and faces.

Sex and hemisphere differences in access to codes for processing emotional expressions and faces.

Sex and hemisphere differences in access to codes for processing emotional expressions and faces.

Sex and hemisphere differences in access to codes for processing emotional expressions and faces.

Opposite cerebral hemispheric superiorities for visual associative processing of emotional facial expressions and objects

STUDIES of patients with unilateral cerebral lesions1 or surgically disconnected hemispheres2 suggest a functional asymmetry in processing visual information by the two hemispheres. The right hemisphere (RH) seems to favour matching of pictures of objects by similarity of shape (apperceptive matching), whereas the left hemisphere (LH) favours matching by similarity of meaning or conceptual category (associative matching). As, on the other hand, considerable recent experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that the RH might have a distinct role in processing emotional information3–8, it would be surprising if the RH lacked the capacity of associative processing which is important in emotional communication. Using tachistoscopic half-field presentation the present study produces evidence for a RH superiority for associative processing in response to adequate stimuli such as emotional facial expressions, whereas the LH is more efficient in detecting similarity of function between objects whose shapes are very different.