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Study on recognition of ambiguous facial expression and gender using fMRI
NeuroImage
13, Number
6, 2001,
Part 2 of 2 Parts 10
EMOTION
E kl”
& COGNITION
Study on recognition of ambiguous facial expression and gender using fMR1 Michio Nomura*, Tetsuya Iidakat, Kazuhiko Kakehi*, Takashi Tsukiura$, Takehiro Hasegawag, Yasuhiro Maedaq, Katsuhiko Matsue’ *Graduate School of Human Znfomatics, Nagoya University tSchoo1 of Znfonnatics and Sciences, Nagoya University $Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University $Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University ‘Kansei Fukushi Researcher center, Tohoku Fukushi University The aim of this study was to examine the neural substrates involved in recognition of ambiguous facial expressions and gender in event-related paradigm with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Motley and Camden (1988) indicates that the facial expressions seen in daily life are usually ambiguous expressions. For not only clear expressed emotions but also ambiguous ones, we can judge the emotional valence of its expressions rapidly. Several imaging studies have examined recognition of facial expressions that are regarded as high-intensity and typical exemplar of each emotion. However, neural substrates on the recognition of ambiguous emotion expressed by face remain unclear. In addition, no imaging studies have yet examined the neural substrates for face recognition of gender that is difficult to judge. Eight subjects performed two tasks, the emotion task was to label the positive or negative emotion expressed by face. The gender task was to label the faces as male or female. Each task was forced choice one for the set of two categories, the ambiguity level of the facial images was controlled with morphing techniques by CG. Each trial lasted 12 s with 2 s of presentation, followed by a 10 s interval in which the scrambled face was presented. Experimental design was 2 (emotion vs gender) x 2 (ambiguous vs clear) factorial design. Before the experiment all subjects gave written informed consent. Functional images of the whole brain were acquired by using 1.5 Tesla MRI system (SIEMENS, Germany) equipped with single shot EPI (TE=2s, TE=3Oms, Flip Angle= 90, 64 x 64 matrix and 16 slices, 8 mm thickness). The images were realigned to the first images by SPM99 and normalized to the standard space of Talairach and Toumoux (1988). Statistical analysis was conducted according to the random effect model to make inferences at a population level. It was found that both ambiguous emotion stimulus and gender stimulus activated the anterior cingulate gyms, which has been demonstrated by previous studies using stroop task (Bush et al, 2000). This indicates that the anterior cingulate gyrus plays important role in the processing accompanied with certain mental effort in both word and face recognition. It was also demonstrated that the right inferior frontal gyrus underlies the specific role in the processing of ambiguity of facial expression, whereas left inferior frontal gyrus plays a specific role in the processing of gender ambiguity. The current evidence indicates the differential neural substrates to assess the ambiguity of emotion and gender. In labeling the expressions of emotion, left inferior frontal gyms palys a role in verbal processing in cooperation with right inferior frontal gyms. These findings therefore suggest that the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyms support important role in the processing of communicative information derived from face. Neural network of these regions underlie the evaluating system that enables us to judge the gender and facial expressions rapidly in daily life.
s454
13, Number
6, 2001,
Part 2 of 2 Parts 10
EMOTION
E kl”
& COGNITION
Study on recognition of ambiguous facial expression and gender using fMR1 Michio Nomura*, Tetsuya Iidakat, Kazuhiko Kakehi*, Takashi Tsukiura$, Takehiro Hasegawag, Yasuhiro Maedaq, Katsuhiko Matsue’ *Graduate School of Human Znfomatics, Nagoya University tSchoo1 of Znfonnatics and Sciences, Nagoya University $Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University $Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University ‘Kansei Fukushi Researcher center, Tohoku Fukushi University The aim of this study was to examine the neural substrates involved in recognition of ambiguous facial expressions and gender in event-related paradigm with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Motley and Camden (1988) indicates that the facial expressions seen in daily life are usually ambiguous expressions. For not only clear expressed emotions but also ambiguous ones, we can judge the emotional valence of its expressions rapidly. Several imaging studies have examined recognition of facial expressions that are regarded as high-intensity and typical exemplar of each emotion. However, neural substrates on the recognition of ambiguous emotion expressed by face remain unclear. In addition, no imaging studies have yet examined the neural substrates for face recognition of gender that is difficult to judge. Eight subjects performed two tasks, the emotion task was to label the positive or negative emotion expressed by face. The gender task was to label the faces as male or female. Each task was forced choice one for the set of two categories, the ambiguity level of the facial images was controlled with morphing techniques by CG. Each trial lasted 12 s with 2 s of presentation, followed by a 10 s interval in which the scrambled face was presented. Experimental design was 2 (emotion vs gender) x 2 (ambiguous vs clear) factorial design. Before the experiment all subjects gave written informed consent. Functional images of the whole brain were acquired by using 1.5 Tesla MRI system (SIEMENS, Germany) equipped with single shot EPI (TE=2s, TE=3Oms, Flip Angle= 90, 64 x 64 matrix and 16 slices, 8 mm thickness). The images were realigned to the first images by SPM99 and normalized to the standard space of Talairach and Toumoux (1988). Statistical analysis was conducted according to the random effect model to make inferences at a population level. It was found that both ambiguous emotion stimulus and gender stimulus activated the anterior cingulate gyms, which has been demonstrated by previous studies using stroop task (Bush et al, 2000). This indicates that the anterior cingulate gyrus plays important role in the processing accompanied with certain mental effort in both word and face recognition. It was also demonstrated that the right inferior frontal gyrus underlies the specific role in the processing of ambiguity of facial expression, whereas left inferior frontal gyrus plays a specific role in the processing of gender ambiguity. The current evidence indicates the differential neural substrates to assess the ambiguity of emotion and gender. In labeling the expressions of emotion, left inferior frontal gyms palys a role in verbal processing in cooperation with right inferior frontal gyms. These findings therefore suggest that the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyms support important role in the processing of communicative information derived from face. Neural network of these regions underlie the evaluating system that enables us to judge the gender and facial expressions rapidly in daily life.
s454