Citation

Kret ME, Pichon S, Grèzes J, de Gelder B. Neuroimage 2011; 54(2): 1755-1762.

Affiliation

Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences Laboratory, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.08.012

PMID

20723605

Abstract

Neuroscientific research on the perception of emotional signals has mainly focused on how the brain processes threat signals from pictures of facial expressions. Much less is known about body postures or about the processing of dynamic images. We undertook a systematic comparison of the neurofunctional network dedicated to processing facial and bodily expressions. Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments investigated whether areas involved in processing social signals are activated differently by threatening signals (fear and anger) from facial or bodily expressions. The amygdala (AMG) was more active for facial than for bodily expressions. Body stimuli triggered higher activation than face stimuli in a number of areas. These were the cuneus, fusiform gyrus (FG), extrastriate body area (EBA), temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), superior parietal lobule (SPL), primary somatosensory cortex (SI) as well as the thalamus. Emotion specific effects were found for TPJ and FG for bodies and faces alike. EBA and STS were more activated by threatening bodies.

Language: en