Neural Representations of Emotions in Visual, Auditory, and Modality‐Independent Regions Reflect Idiosyncratic Conceptual Knowledge

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 45; no. 14; pp. e70040 - n/a
• Main Authors: Gao, Chuanji, Oh, Sewon, Yang, Xuan, Stanley, Jacob M., Shinkareva, Svetlana V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-10-2024
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Perception - physiology; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Concept Formation - physiology; conceptual knowledge; emotion; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Experiments; Facial Expression; facial expressions; Facial Recognition - physiology; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Hearing; Humans; Information processing; Knowledge; Knowledge representation; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; modality‐independent; Neuroimaging; Sensory integration; Superior temporal gyrus; Superior temporal sulcus; Temporal gyrus; Visual effects; Visual perception; Visual Perception - physiology; vocal expressions; Young Adult; United States > US; South Carolina; vocal expressions; emotion; conceptual knowledge; facial expressions; modality‐independent
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.70040

ABSTRACT
Growing evidence suggests that conceptual knowledge influences emotion perception, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not fully understood. Recent studies have shown that brain representations of facial emotion categories in visual‐perceptual areas are predicted by conceptual knowledge, but it remains to be seen if auditory regions are similarly affected. Moreover, it is not fully clear whether these conceptual influences operate at a modality‐independent level. To address these questions, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study presenting participants with both facial and vocal emotional stimuli. This dual‐modality approach allowed us to investigate effects on both modality‐specific and modality‐independent brain regions. Using univariate and representational similarity analyses, we found that brain representations in both visual (middle and lateral occipital cortices) and auditory (superior temporal gyrus) regions were predicted by conceptual understanding of emotions for faces and voices, respectively. Additionally, we discovered that conceptual knowledge also influenced supra‐modal representations in the superior temporal sulcus. Dynamic causal modeling revealed a brain network showing both bottom‐up and top‐down flows, suggesting a complex interplay of modality‐specific and modality‐independent regions in emotional processing. These findings collectively indicate that the neural representations of emotions in both sensory‐perceptual and modality‐independent regions are likely shaped by each individual's conceptual knowledge.
We found that brain representations of emotions in both visual and auditory cortices, as well as in modality‐independent regions, are shaped by the conceptual understanding of emotions. These modality‐specific and modality‐independent brain regions are interconnected through both bottom‐up and top‐down information flows.