Open AccessEnhanced perceptual, emotional, and motor processing in response to dynamic facial expressions of emotion 1
Author(s) -
YOSHIKAWA SAKIKO,
SATO WATARU
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5884.2006.00321.x
Subject(s) - facial expression , psychology , perception , neuroimaging , cognitive psychology , amygdala , emotional expression , inferior frontal gyrus , communication , neuroscience , functional magnetic resonance imaging
Dynamic facial expressions of emotion constitute natural and powerful media compared with static ones. However, little is known about the processing of dynamic facial expressions of emotion. In this paper, we describe the results of our recent neuroimaging and psychological studies on this issue. A neuroimaging study was conducted to investigate brain activity while viewing dynamic facial expressions. The results revealed that the broad region of visual cortices, the amygdala, and the right inferior frontal gyrus were more activated in response to dynamic facial expressions than control stimuli, such as static facial expressions and dynamic mosaics. In corresponding with the characteristics of these brain activities, the results of three psychological studies indicated that the dynamic presentation: (a) intensified the perceptual image of the facial expression (perceptual enhancement); (b) enhanced the emotional feeling; and (c) elicited spontaneous and rapid facial mimicry. These results revealed that the dynamic property facilitates the perceptual, emotional, and motor processing of facial expressions of emotion.