Emotional modulation of visual and motor areas by dynamic body expressions of anger

Abstract

The ability to detect emotional meaning in others’ behavior constitutes a central component of social competence. Expressions of anger in particular present salient signals that play a major role in the regulation of social interactions. Investigations of human anger signals have to date used still pictures of facial expressions but so far the neurobiological basis of bodily communication of anger remains largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study investigated the neural bases involved in perceiving anger signals emanating from the whole body. Our study also investigates what the presence of dynamic information adds to the perception of body expressions of anger. Participants were scanned while viewing stimuli (stills or videos) of angry and neutral whole-body expressions. Whole-body expressions of anger elicit activity in regions including the amygdala and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, which play a role in the affective evaluation of the stimuli. Importantly, the perception of dynamic body expressions of anger additionally engages the hypothalamus, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the temporal pole and the premotor cortex, brain regions that are coupled with autonomic reactions and motor responses related to defensive behaviors.

Acknowledgements

SP, BdG and JG were partly supported by Human Frontier Science Program HFSP—RGP0054/2004-C and by EC-contract number FP6-NEST-2005-Path-IMP-043403. BdG was also supported by a grant from NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research).

We are grateful to D. A. Hopkins for comments on the manuscript, to W. van de Riet for recruiting the subjects, P. Gaalman and F. Maloumian for technical assistance.