Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2022 Apr;22(2):291-303. doi: 10.3758/s13415-021-00961-2. Epub 2021 Nov 22.
Sensorimotor brain areas have been implicated in the recognition of emotion expressed on the face and through nonverbal vocalizations. However, no previous study has assessed whether sensorimotor cortices are recruited during the perception of emotion in speech-a signal that includes both audio (speech sounds) and visual (facial speech movements) components. To address this gap in the literature, we recruited 24 participants to listen to speech clips produced in a way that was either happy, sad, or neutral in expression. These stimuli also were presented in one of three modalities: audio-only (hearing the voice but not seeing the face), video-only (seeing the face but not hearing the voice), or audiovisual. Brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography, subjected to independent component analysis, and source-localized. We found that the left presupplementary motor area was more active in response to happy and sad stimuli than neutral stimuli, as indexed by greater mu event-related desynchronization. This effect did not differ by the sensory modality of the stimuli. Activity levels in other sensorimotor brain areas did not differ by emotion, although they were greatest in response to visual-only and audiovisual stimuli. One possible explanation for the pre-SMA result is that this brain area may actively support speech emotion recognition by using our extensive experience expressing emotion to generate sensory predictions that in turn guide our perception.
感觉运动脑区与面部表情和非言语发声的情绪识别有关。然而，之前的研究尚未评估感觉运动皮质是否会在言语情绪感知过程中被招募，而这种信号同时包含音频（言语声音）和视觉（面部言语运动）成分。为了解决文献中的这一空白，我们招募了 24 名参与者，让他们听以快乐、悲伤或中性表情表达的言语片段。这些刺激也以三种模态呈现：仅音频（仅听到声音而看不到面部）、仅视频（仅看到面部而听不到声音）或视听。使用脑电图记录大脑活动，进行独立成分分析和源定位。我们发现，左侧预备运动区在对快乐和悲伤刺激的反应中比中性刺激更活跃，表现为更大的 mu 事件相关去同步化。这种效果不受刺激的感觉模态的影响。其他感觉运动脑区的活动水平与情绪无关，但在仅视觉和视听刺激下最大。前 SMA 结果的一个可能解释是，这个脑区可能通过利用我们表达情绪的丰富经验来主动支持言语情绪识别，从而产生感官预测，进而指导我们的感知。
