The neural response to emotional prosody, as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

Mitchell, Rachel L.C.; Elliott, Richard M.; Barry, Martin; Cruttenden, Alan; Woodruff, Peter

doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(03)00017-4

Cited by 295 publications

(181 citation statements)

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“…The left IFC thus might also decode emotional cues from nonspeech vocalizations, indicating that left IFC activity is not exclusive to syntacto-semantic speech processing, but serves more general functions during the processing of human utterances. Finally, although the IFC has been proposed to be involved in the explicit decoding of emotional prosody when attention is directed to the emotional cues in voices, IFC activity has also been found when attention is directed away from emotional cues in voices (Belin et al, 2008a;Fecteau et al, 2005;Morris et al, 1999;Wildgruber et al, 2004Wildgruber et al, , 2005 or during passive listening (Mitchell et al, 2003). This contradicts some proposals that the IFC is predominantly involved in the explicit evaluation of emotional voices or when attention is directly focused on the emotional value of voices (Bruck et al, 2011;Schirmer and Kotz, 2006;Wildgruber et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Recent neuroimaging studies found several right IFC peak activations distributed from the posterior to the anterior IFC located in BA 44 Kotz et al, 2003), BA 45 (Bach et al, 2008;Beaucousin et al, 2007;Ethofer et al, 2006;Sander et al, 2005), and BA 47 (Bach et al, 2008;Beaucousin et al, 2007;Belin et al, 2008a;Ethofer et al, 2009;Mitchell, 2006;Sander et al, 2005), as well as in the fOP Kotz et al, 2003;Mitchell et al, 2003;Schirmer et al, 2004) (see Fig. 2).…”

Section: The Functional Role Of the Ifc In Processing Emotional Vocalmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…However, it seems that the medium of vocal expressions as a bottom-up factor can also influence this peak distribution. Concerning this medium or nature of vocalizations, vocal expressions of emotions can be purely nonverbal, such as laughs, cries, or screams (Sauter et al, 2010;Simon-Thomas et al, 2009), but they can also be superimposed on semantically neutral Kotz et al, 2003;Leitman et al, 2010) and semantically emotional language (Beaucousin et al, 2007;Mitchell, 2006;Mitchell et al, 2003;Schirmer et al, 2004), as well as on pseudospeech (Bach et al, 2008;Sander et al, 2005). Given this distinction between nonverbal vocal expressions and emotional prosody, it might be assumed that emotional intonations superimposed on speech strongly engage the left IFC, whereas nonverbal expressions activate the right IFC (Meyer et al, 2005).…”

Section: The Medium Of Vocal Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Activation foci in the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) (A) according to the attentional focus (explicit attention or task (red), implicit attention or task (green), passive listening (blue)) and (B) according to the medium of vocal expressions (nonverbal, emotional prosody). For activation foci according to attentional focus, one activation focus in right inferior BA 47 was found during passive listening to emotional vocalizations (triangle; Mitchell et al, 2003). Black dots in A indicate peak activations taken from studies for which general IFC activity was found independent of attentional focus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing of emotional vocalizations in bilateral inferior frontal cortex

Frühholz

Grandjean

2013

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

103

100

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a b s t r a c tA current view proposes that the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is particularly responsible for attentive decoding and cognitive evaluation of emotional cues in human vocalizations. Although some studies seem to support this view, an exhaustive review of all recent imaging studies points to an important functional role of both the right and the left IFC in processing vocal emotions. Second, besides a supposed predominant role of the IFC for an attentive processing and evaluation of emotional voices in IFC, these recent studies also point to a possible role of the IFC in preattentive and implicit processing of vocal emotions. The studies specifically provide evidence that both the right and the left IFC show a similar anterior-to-posterior gradient of functional activity in response to emotional vocalizations. This bilateral IFC gradient depends both on the nature or medium of emotional vocalizations (emotional prosody versus nonverbal expressions) and on the level of attentive processing (explicit versus implicit processing), closely resembling the distribution of terminal regions of distinct auditory pathways, which provide either global or dynamic acoustic information. Here we suggest a functional distribution in which several IFC subregions process different acoustic information conveyed by emotional vocalizations. Although the rostro-ventral IFC might categorize emotional vocalizations, the caudo-dorsal IFC might be specifically sensitive to their temporal features.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: The Functional Role Of the Ifc In Processing Emotional Vocalmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: The Medium Of Vocal Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Processing of emotional vocalizations in bilateral inferior frontal cortex

Frühholz

Grandjean

2013

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

103

100

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“…Consensus suggests a right hemisphere advantage for emotional (non-semantic) aspects of language and prosody (Mitchell and Crow, 2005), particularly in the right STS and MTG, whereas more semantic aspects of language recruit more left-sided regions (Mitchell et al, 2003). This hemispheric pattern has been seen using fMRI (Mitchell et al, 2003) (Wildgruber et al, 2005), transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (Vingerhoets et al, 2003), repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (van Rijin et al, 2005), event-related potential (Eckstein and Friederici, 2005), and in lesion studies (Pell, 2006). Therefore, it is possible, that the tone processing impairment on the right in the SPD subjects is related to non-semantic aspects of their odd speech.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory processing abnormalities in schizotypal personality disorder: An fMRI experiment using tones of deviant pitch and duration

Dickey

Mórocz

Niznikiewicz

et al. 2008

Schizophrenia Research

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Background-One of the cardinal features of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is language abnormalities. The focus of this study was to determine whether or not there are also processing abnormalities of pure tones differing in pitch and duration in SPD.Methods-Thirteen neuroleptic-naïve male subjects met full criteria for SPD and were groupmatched on age and parental socioeconomic status to 13 comparison subjects. Verbal learning was measured with the California Verbal Learning Test. Heschl's gyrus volumes were measured using structural MRI. Whole-brain fMRI activation patterns in an auditory task of listening to tones including pitch and duration deviants were compared between SPD and control subjects. In a Contributors Dickey: designed the study, collected the fMRI data, analyzed the clinical and fMRI data, and wrote the manuscript. Morocz: analyzed the fMRI data. Niznikiewicz: collected and analyzed the ERP data, and contributed to the manuscript. Voglmaier: collected and analyzed CVLT data, and performed SCID interview. Dreusicke: analyzed the fMRI data. Toner: aided in fMRI data collection. Yoo: aided in initial fMRI data collection. Khan: aided in final fMRI data presentation. Shenton: reviewed the manuscript. McCarley: reviewed the manuscript. Conflict of interestAll authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Results-In the region of the STG, SPD subjects demonstrated more activation to pitch deviants bilaterally (p<0.001); and to duration deviants in the left hemisphere (p=0.005) (two-sample t). SPD subjects also showed more bilateral parietal cortex activation to duration deviants. In no region did comparison subjects activate more than SPD subjects in either experiment. Exploratory correlations for SPD subjects suggest a relationship between peak activation on the right for deviant tones in the pitch experiment with odd speech and impaired verbal learning. There was no difference between groups on Heschl's gyrus volume. NIH Public AccessConclusions-These data suggest that SPD subjects have inefficient or hyper-responsive processing of pure tones both in terms of pitch and duration deviance that is not attributable to smaller Heschl's gyrus volumes. Finally, these auditory processing abnormalities may have significance for the odd speech heard in some SPD subjects and downstream language and verbal learning deficits.

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Reading Affect in the Face and Voice

Wang¹,

Lee²,

Sigman³

et al. 2007

Arch Gen Psychiatry

204

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Context: Understanding a speaker's communicative intent in everyday interactions is likely to draw on cues such as facial expression and tone of voice. Prior research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show reduced activity in brain regions that respond selectively to the face and voice. However, there is also evidence that activity in key regions can be increased if task demands allow for explicit processing of emotion.Objectives: To examine the neural circuitry underlying impairments in interpreting communicative intentions in ASD using irony comprehension as a test case, and to determine whether explicit instructions to attend to facial expression and tone of voice will elicit more normative patterns of brain activity.Design, Setting, and Participants: Eighteen boys with ASD (aged 7-17 years, full-scale IQ Ͼ70) and 18 typically developing (TD) boys underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles. Main Outcome Measures:Blood oxygenation leveldependent brain activity during the presentation of short scenarios involving irony. Behavioral performance (accuracy and response time) was also recorded.Results: Reduced activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and right superior temporal gyrus was observed in children with ASD relative to TD children during the perception of potentially ironic vs control scenarios. Importantly, a significant groupϫcondition interaction in the medial prefrontal cortex showed that activity was modulated by explicit instructions to attend to facial expression and tone of voice only in the ASD group. Finally, medial prefrontal cortex activity was inversely related to symptom severity in children with ASD such that children with greater social impairment showed less activity in this region.Conclusions: Explicit instructions to attend to facial expression and tone of voice can elicit increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, part of a network important for understanding the intentions of others, in children with ASD. These findings suggest a strategy for future intervention research. Psychiatry. 2007;64:698-708 Arch Gen

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The neural response to emotional prosody, as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

Cited by 295 publications

References 58 publications

Processing of emotional vocalizations in bilateral inferior frontal cortex

Processing of emotional vocalizations in bilateral inferior frontal cortex

Auditory processing abnormalities in schizotypal personality disorder: An fMRI experiment using tones of deviant pitch and duration

Reading Affect in the Face and Voice

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