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Statistical pattern recognition reveals shared neural signatures for displaying and recognizing specific facial
Sofia Volynets1, Dmitry Smirnov1, Heini Saarimäki1,2
1Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, School of Science, Aalto University, FI-0076 Aalto, Finland.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
|October 2, 2020
Summary
Viewing facial expressions activates corresponding brain representations, suggesting embodied emotion recognition. Somatomotor neural signatures support facial expression recognition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Human neuroimaging and behavioral studies suggest somatomotor mirroring aids facial expression recognition.
- The embodied emotion recognition model posits that understanding emotions involves simulating them internally.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether observing facial expressions activates neural representations corresponding to those expressions.
- To determine if somatomotor neural signatures support facial expression recognition across different modalities (observing vs. displaying).
Main Methods:
- fMRI scans were conducted on 12 healthy female volunteers observing and displaying facial expressions (joy, anger, disgust).
- A Bayesian logistic regression pattern classifier was trained to distinguish expressions within and between modalities.
- Cross-modal classification accuracy was assessed with and without functional realignment.
Main Results:
- Facial expressions were accurately classified both within the observing/displaying modalities and across them.
- Primary motor and somatosensory cortices were key regions for cross-modal classification.
- Embodied emotion recognition was supported, with expression-specific somatomotor neural signatures identified.
Conclusions:
- Observing facial expressions triggers corresponding neural representations in the brain.
- Somatomotor neural signatures play a crucial role in recognizing facial expressions, supporting the embodied emotion recognition model.
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