Cognitive and physiological markers of emotional awareness in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

The ability to understand emotion in others is one of the most important factors involved in regulating social interactions in primates. Such emotional awareness functions to coordinate activity among group members, enable the formation of long-lasting individual relationships, and facilitate the pursuit of shared interests. Despite these important evolutionary implications, comparative studies of emotional processing in humans and great apes are practically nonexistent, constituting a major gap in our understanding of the extent to which emotional awareness has played an important role in shaping human behavior and societies. This paper presents the results of two experiments that examine chimpanzees' responses to emotional stimuli. First, changes in peripheral skin temperature were measured while subjects viewed three categories of emotionally negative video scenes; conspecifics being injected with needles (INJ), darts and needles alone (DART), and conspecific directing agonism towards the veterinarians (CHASE). Second, chimpanzees were required to use facial expressions to categorize emotional video scenes, i.e., favorite food and objects and veterinarian procedures, according to their positive and negative valence. With no prior training, subjects spontaneously matched the emotional videos to conspecific facial expressions according to their shared emotional meaning, indicating that chimpanzee facial expressions are processed emotionally, as are human expressions. Decreases in peripheral skin temperature, indicative of negative sympathetic arousal, were significantly lower when subjects viewed the INJ and DART videos, compared to the CHASE videos, indicating greater negative arousal when viewing conspecifics being injected with needles, and needles themselves, than when viewing conspecifics engaged in general agonism. Accepted after revision: 8 April 2001 ❚ Electronic Publication     

A daily investigation of the role of manager empathy on employee well-being

In a daily diary study, the authors investigated the top-down influence of manager empathy on a process model of employee well-being. Sixty employees supervised by one of 13 managers completed a daily survey for 2 weeks, producing a total of 436 observations. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that, at the daily level, employees who reported somatic complaints made less progress on their goals and felt lower levels of positive affect and higher levels of negative affect. At the group level, cross-level main and interactive effects of manager empathy were observed, such that groups of employees with empathic managers experienced lower average levels of somatic complaints, and daily goal progress was more strongly related to positive affect for groups of employees with empathic managers. We discuss the implications of these results for the emerging literature on leaders as managers of group emotion.     

Empathy and emotion recognition in semantic dementia: A case report

Recent studies have demonstrated that patients suffering from frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) show impairments in empathy and emotional processing. In this study, we examined two different aspects of these abilities in a patient with semantic dementia (SD), a variant of FTLD. The first aspect was the assessment of the cognitive and emotional components of empathy through the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The second was the naming and comprehension of emotions using the Ekman 60 Faces Test. The patient’s emotion word knowledge was spared and the emotional aspects of empathy preserved. Conversely, the patient performed below average for all of the basic emotions when an emotion word had to be matched with a picture. When picture-to-picture matching was tested, however, the patient was able to recognize happiness. This case is a good example of a dissociation of covert and overt emotional functioning in SD. Results are discussed in terms of the impaired empathic behavior and emotional functioning in FTLD.     

Are the windows to the soul the same in the East and West? Cultural differences in using the eyes and mouth as cues to recognize emotions in Japan and the United States

The current research investigated the hypothesis that, depending on an individual’s cultural background, facial cues in different parts of the face are weighted differently when interpreting emotions. Given that the eyes are more difficult to control than the mouth when people express emotions, we predicted that individuals in cultures where emotional subduction is the norm (such as Japan) would focus more strongly on the eyes than the mouth when interpreting others’ emotions. By contrast, we predicted that people in cultures where overt emotional expression is the norm (such as the US) would tend to interpret emotions based on the position of the mouth, because it is the most expressive part of the face. This hypothesis was confirmed in two studies, one using illustrated faces, and one using edited facial expressions from real people, in which emotional expressions in the eyes and mouth were independently manipulated. Implications for our understanding of cross-cultural psychology, as well of the psychology of emotional interpretation, are discussed.     

The social face of emotion recognition: Evaluations versus stereotypes

The goal of the present paper was to demonstrate the influence of general evaluations and stereotype associations on emotion recognition. Earlier research has shown that evaluative connotations between social category members and emotional expression predict whether recognition of positive or negative emotional expressions will be facilitated (e.g. Hugenberg, 2005). In the current paper we tested the hypothesis that stereotype associations influence emotion recognition processes, especially when the difference between valences of emotional expressions does not come into play. In line with this notion, when participants in the present two studies were asked to classify positive versus negative emotional expressions (i.e. happy versus anger, or happy versus sadness), valence congruency effects were found. Importantly, however, in a comparative context without differences in valence in which participants were asked to classify two distinct negative emotions (i.e. anger versus sadness) we found that recognition facilitation occurred for stereotypically associated discrete emotional expressions. With this, the current results indicate that a distinction between general evaluative and cognitive routes can be made in emotion recognition processes.     

The color-vision approach to emotional space: Cortical evoked potential data

A framework for accounting for emotional phenomena proposed by Sokolov and Boucsein (2000) employs conceptual dimensions that parallel those of hue, brightness, and saturation in color vision. The approach that employs the concepts of emotional quality, intensity, and saturation has been supported by psychophysical emotional scaling data gathered from a few trained observers. We report cortical evoked potential data obtained during the change between different emotions expressed in schematic faces. Twenty-five subjects (13 male, 12 female) were presented with a positive, a negative, and a neutral computer-generated face with random interstimulus intervals in a within-subjects design, together with four meaningful and four meaningless control stimuli made up from the same elements. Frontal, central, parietal, and temporal ERPs were recorded from each hemisphere. Statistically significant outcomes in the P300 and N200 range support the potential fruitfulness of the proposed color-vision-model-based approach to human emotional space.     

Conscious and unconscious face recognition is improved by high-frequency rTMS on pre-motor cortex

Simulation process and mirroring mechanism appear to be necessary to the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Prefrontal areas were found to support this simulation mechanism. The present research analyzed the role of premotor area in processing emotional faces with different valence (positive vs. negative faces), considering both conscious and unconscious pathways. High-frequency rTMS (10 Hz) stimulation was applied to prefrontal area to induce an activation response when overt (conscious) and covert (unconscious) processing was implicated. Twenty-two subjects were asked to detect emotion/no emotion (anger, fear, happiness, neutral). Error rates (ERs) and response times (RTs) were considered in response to the experimental conditions. ERs and RTs decreased in case of premotor brain activation, specifically in response to fear, for both conscious and unconscious condition. The present results highlight the role of the premotor system for facial expression processing, supporting the existence of two analogous mechanisms for conscious and unconscious condition.     

The “simulation” of the facial expression of emotions in case of short and long stimulus duration. The effect of pre-motor cortex inhibition by rTMS

Embodied cognition model states that the “simulation process” is necessary to the recognition of emotional significance of face. The present research explored the contribution of frontal motor brain components (i.e. mainly premotor area) to embodied cognition by using rTMS stimulation, to produce a temporary disruption of this specific cortical site. Secondly, short and long stimulus duration conditions were included to verify the contribution of the “simulation process” in response to overt and covert emotional stimulus comprehension. Nineteen subjects were asked to detect emotion/no emotion (anger, fear, happiness, neutral) in these two experimental conditions, by using a backward masking procedure. Five-second rTMS (1 Hz) was delivered before the stimulus onset. False alarms (Fa) and RTs increased and Hits decreased when frontal premotor brain activity was disrupted, specifically in response to anger and fear, for both long and shortduration condition. Thus, the present results highlight the main role of the frontal motor system for emotion facial expression processing.     

Children’s representations of facial expression and identity: Identity-contingent expression aftereffects

This investigation used adaptation aftereffects to examine developmental changes in the perception of facial expressions. Previous studies have shown that adults’ perceptions of ambiguous facial expressions are biased following adaptation to intense expressions. These expression aftereffects are strong when the adapting and probe expressions share the same facial identity but are mitigated when they are posed by different identities. We extended these findings by comparing expression aftereffects and categorical boundaries in adults versus 5- to 9-year-olds (n = 20/group). Children displayed adult-like aftereffects and categorical boundaries for happy/sad by 7 years of age and for fear/anger by 9 years of age. These findings suggest that both children and adults perceive expressions according to malleable dimensions in which representations of facial expression are partially integrated with facial identity.     

儿童移情与道德发展关系研究综述

移情是人际交往中情感的相互作用,是对他人情绪的觉察而导致自己情绪唤起的一种情感体验。培养儿童的移情对儿童的道德发展具有重要作用。本文从移情的概念入手,介绍和探讨儿童移情与道德发展的关系研究状况,并对儿童的移情培养提出建议。     

Psychophysiological reactivity to sleep-related emotional stimuli in primary insomnia

The present study examined psychophysiological reactivity to emotional stimuli related and non-related to sleep in people with primary insomnia (PPI) and in good sleepers (GS). Twenty-one PPI and 18 GS were presented with five blocks of neutral, negative, positive, sleep-related negative and sleep-related positive pictures. During the presentation of the pictures, facial electromyography (EMG) of the corrugator and the zygomatic muscles, heart rate (HR) and cardiac vagal tone (CVT) were recorded. Subjective ratings of the stimuli were also collected. We found that only PPI exhibited greater inhibition of the corrugator activity in response to sleep-related positive stimuli compared to the other blocks of stimuli. Furthermore, PPI rated the sleep-related negative stimuli as more unpleasant and arousing and showed higher CVT in response to all stimuli as compared to GS. Results were interpreted as indicating that PPI exhibit craving for sleep-related positive stimuli, and also hyper-arousability in response to sleep-related negative stimuli, as compared to GS. Our results suggest that psychological treatment of insomnia could benefit by the inclusion of strategies dealing with emotional processes linked with sleep processes.