The neural representation of facial-emotion categories reflects conceptual structure

Abstract

Humans reliably categorize configurations of facial actions into specific emotion categories, leading some to argue that this process is invariant between individuals and cultures. However, growing behavioral evidence suggests that factors such as emotion-concept knowledge may shape the way emotions are visually perceived, leading to variability—rather than universality—in facial-emotion perception. Understanding variability in emotion perception is only emerging, and the neural basis of any impact from the structure of emotion-concept knowledge remains unknown. In a neuroimaging study, we used a representational similarity analysis (RSA) approach to measure the correspondence between the conceptual, perceptual, and neural representational structures of the six emotion categories Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise. We found that subjects exhibited individual differences in their conceptual structure of emotions, which predicted their own unique perceptual structure. When viewing faces, the representational structure of multivoxel patterns in the right fusiform gyrus was significantly predicted by a subject’s unique conceptual structure, even when controlling for potential physical similarity in the faces themselves. Finally, cross-cultural differences in emotion perception were also observed, which could be explained by individual differences in conceptual structure. Our results suggest that the representational structure of emotion expressions in visual face-processing regions may be shaped by idiosyncratic conceptual understanding of emotion categories.

<p>Similar and Different Regional Homogeneity Changes Between Bipolar Disorder and Unipolar Depression: A Resting-State fMRI Study</p>

“…22 Studies demonstrate that the middle temporal gyrus plays a role in language processing, the fusiform gyrus is involved in the recognition of objects and facial expressions. 23 The occipital cortex is responsible for collecting and processing visual information. Therefore, the abnormalities in these brain areas are usually associated with the clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment, memory loss, and emotional disorders in patients with mood disorders.…”

Above and beyond the concrete: The diverse representational substrates of the predictive brain

“…During visual perception, category cues shape perceptual expectations (Gandolfo & Downing 2019). During social perception, the structure of emotion concepts shapes the perception of emotion in faces (Brooks & Freeman 2018;Brooks et al 2019). During simulation, abstracta such as event knowledge and personal semantics (Renoult et al 2012) shape which specific, concrete details people will use to fill in the blanks (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce 2000;D'Argembeau & Mathy 2011).…”

Culture shapes our understanding of others’ thoughts and emotions: An investigation across 12 countries

“…For example, a neat differenciation of emotion categories was only observed in WEIRD but not Eastern (Chinese) perceivers (Jack et al, 2012). In addition, the representational structure of emotion expressions in visual face-processing brain regions has been found to be predicted by intra-cultural conceptual similarity between emotions (Brooks et al, 2019). Both findings suggest that conceptual knowledge about emotions scaffolds facial emotion recognition.…”