Emotion Perception from Face, Voice, and Touch: Comparisons and Convergence. Issue 3 (March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schirmer, Annett; Adolphs, Ralph
• Is Part Of: Trends in cognitive sciences. Volume 21:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 216
• Page End: 228
• Publication Date: 2017-03
• Subjects: Cognitive science -- Periodicals; Cognitive neuroscience -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.01.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-6613

Abstract

Abstract : Historically, research on emotion perception has focused on facial expressions, and findings from this modality have come to dominate our thinking about other modalities. Here we examine emotion perception through a wider lens by comparing facial with vocal and tactile processing. We review stimulus characteristics and ensuing behavioral and brain responses and show that audition and touch do not simply duplicate visual mechanisms. Each modality provides a distinct input channel and engages partly nonoverlapping neuroanatomical systems with different processing specializations (e.g., specific emotions versus affect). Moreover, processing of signals across the different modalities converges, first into multi- and later into amodal representations that enable holistic emotion judgments. Trends: Facial expression and perception have long been the primary emphasis in research. However, there is a growing interest in other channels like the voice and touch. Facial, vocal, and tactile emotion processing have been explored with a range of techniques including behavioral judgments, electroencephalography/event-related potentials, fMRI contrast studies, and multivoxel pattern analyses. Results point to similarities (e.g., increased responses to social and emotional signals) as well as differences (e.g., differentiation of individual emotions versus encoding of affect) between communication channels. Channel similarities and differences enable holistic emotion recognition, a process that depends on multisensory integration during early, perceptual and later, conceptual stages.