School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, 2001 McGill College - Rm. 850, Montréal, QC, H3A 1G1, Canada.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2023 Feb;23(1):17-29. doi: 10.3758/s13415-022-01030-y. Epub 2022 Aug 9.
Recent advances in neuroimaging research on vocal emotion perception have revealed voice-sensitive areas specialized in processing affect. Experimental data on this subject is varied, investigating a wide range of emotions through different vocal signals and task demands. The present meta-analysis was designed to disentangle this diversity of results by summarizing neuroimaging data in the vocal emotion perception literature. Data from 44 experiments contrasting emotional and neutral voices was analyzed to assess brain areas involved in vocal affect perception in general, as well as depending on the type of voice signal (speech prosody or vocalizations), the task demands (implicit or explicit attention to emotions), and the specific emotion perceived. Results reassessed a consistent bilateral network of Emotional Voices Areas consisting of the superior temporal cortex and primary auditory regions. Specific activations and lateralization of these regions, as well as additional areas (insula, middle temporal gyrus) were further modulated by signal type and task demands. Exploring the sparser data on single emotions also suggested the recruitment of other regions (insula, inferior frontal gyrus, frontal operculum) for specific aspects of each emotion. These novel meta-analytic results suggest that while the bulk of vocal affect processing is localized in the STC, the complexity and variety of such vocal signals entails functional specificities in complex and varied cortical (and potentially subcortical) response pathways.
神经影像学研究在嗓音情绪感知方面的最新进展揭示了专门用于处理情感的与声音相关的区域。关于这个主题的实验数据各不相同，通过不同的嗓音信号和任务需求来研究广泛的情绪。本荟萃分析旨在通过总结嗓音情绪感知文献中的神经影像学数据来梳理这种多样性的结果。对 44 个对比情感和中性嗓音的实验进行数据分析，以评估一般嗓音情感感知所涉及的大脑区域，以及取决于嗓音信号类型（言语韵律或发声）、任务需求（对情感的内隐或外显注意）以及感知到的特定情绪。结果重新评估了一个由颞上回和初级听觉区域组成的一致的双侧情感声音区域网络。这些区域的特定激活和侧化，以及其他区域（脑岛、颞中回），进一步受到信号类型和任务需求的调节。对单一情绪的更稀疏数据的探索也表明，对于每种情绪的特定方面，其他区域（脑岛、额下回、额前回）也被招募进来。这些新的荟萃分析结果表明，虽然大部分嗓音情感处理都定位于 STC，但这些嗓音信号的复杂性和多样性需要在复杂和多样的皮质（和潜在的皮质下）反应途径中具有功能特异性。
