Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception
Social species perceive emotion via extracting diagnostic features of body movements. Although extensive studies have contributed to knowledge on how the entire body is used as context for decoding bodily expression, we know little about whether specific body parts (e.g., arms and legs) transmit eno...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Brain Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/4/466 |
| _version_ | 1827621453032325120 |
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| author | Jie Ren Rui Ding Shuaixia Li Mingming Zhang Dongtao Wei Chunliang Feng Pengfei Xu Wenbo Luo |
| author_facet | Jie Ren Rui Ding Shuaixia Li Mingming Zhang Dongtao Wei Chunliang Feng Pengfei Xu Wenbo Luo |
| author_sort | Jie Ren |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Social species perceive emotion via extracting diagnostic features of body movements. Although extensive studies have contributed to knowledge on how the entire body is used as context for decoding bodily expression, we know little about whether specific body parts (e.g., arms and legs) transmit enough information for body understanding. In this study, we performed behavioral experiments using the Bubbles paradigm on static body images to directly explore diagnostic body parts for categorizing angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Results showed that subjects recognized emotional bodies through diagnostic features from the torso with arms. We then conducted a follow-up functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment on body part images to examine whether diagnostic parts modulated body-related brain activity and corresponding neural representations. We found greater activations of the extra-striate body area (EBA) in response to both anger and fear than neutral for the torso and arms. Representational similarity analysis showed that neural patterns of the EBA distinguished different bodily expressions. Furthermore, the torso with arms and whole body had higher similarities in EBA representations relative to the legs and whole body, and to the head and whole body. Taken together, these results indicate that diagnostic body parts (i.e., torso with arms) can communicate bodily expression in a detectable manner. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T11:04:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-03db52ad9d0b441f8648f897f410ed23 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T11:04:46Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-03db52ad9d0b441f8648f897f410ed232023-12-01T00:59:37ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252022-03-0112446610.3390/brainsci12040466Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear PerceptionJie Ren0Rui Ding1Shuaixia Li2Mingming Zhang3Dongtao Wei4Chunliang Feng5Pengfei Xu6Wenbo Luo7Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, ChinaResearch Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, ChinaResearch Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, ChinaResearch Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, ChinaFaculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, ChinaSchool of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, ChinaFaculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaResearch Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, ChinaSocial species perceive emotion via extracting diagnostic features of body movements. Although extensive studies have contributed to knowledge on how the entire body is used as context for decoding bodily expression, we know little about whether specific body parts (e.g., arms and legs) transmit enough information for body understanding. In this study, we performed behavioral experiments using the Bubbles paradigm on static body images to directly explore diagnostic body parts for categorizing angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Results showed that subjects recognized emotional bodies through diagnostic features from the torso with arms. We then conducted a follow-up functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment on body part images to examine whether diagnostic parts modulated body-related brain activity and corresponding neural representations. We found greater activations of the extra-striate body area (EBA) in response to both anger and fear than neutral for the torso and arms. Representational similarity analysis showed that neural patterns of the EBA distinguished different bodily expressions. Furthermore, the torso with arms and whole body had higher similarities in EBA representations relative to the legs and whole body, and to the head and whole body. Taken together, these results indicate that diagnostic body parts (i.e., torso with arms) can communicate bodily expression in a detectable manner.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/4/466bodily perceptionBubbles paradigmdiagnostic body partsfMRIEBA |
| spellingShingle | Jie Ren Rui Ding Shuaixia Li Mingming Zhang Dongtao Wei Chunliang Feng Pengfei Xu Wenbo Luo Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception Brain Sciences bodily perception Bubbles paradigm diagnostic body parts fMRI EBA |
| title | Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception |
| title_full | Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception |
| title_fullStr | Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception |
| title_full_unstemmed | Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception |
| title_short | Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception |
| title_sort | features and extra striate body area representations of diagnostic body parts in anger and fear perception |
| topic | bodily perception Bubbles paradigm diagnostic body parts fMRI EBA |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/4/466 |
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