The Language, Tone and Prosody of Emotions: Neural Substrates and Dynamics of Spoken-Word Emotion Perception

fMRI Reveals a Novel Region for Evaluating Acoustic Information for Mate Choice in a Female Songbird

Selection of sexual partners is among the most critical decisions that individuals make and is therefore strongly shaped by evolution. In social species, where communication signals can convey substantial information about the identity, state, or quality of the signaler, accurate interpretation of communication signals for mate choice is crucial. Despite the importance of social information processing, to date, relatively little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to sexual decision making and preferences. In this study, we used a combination of whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), immediate early gene expression, and behavior tests to identify the circuits that are important for the perception and evaluation of courtship songs in a female songbird, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Female zebra finches are sensitive to subtle differences in male song performance and strongly prefer the longer, faster, and more stereotyped courtship songs to non-courtship renditions. Using BOLD fMRI and EGR1 expression assays, we uncovered a novel region involved in auditory perceptual decision making located in a sensory integrative region of the avian central nidopallium outside the traditionally studied auditory forebrain pathways. Changes in activity in this region in response to acoustically similar but categorically divergent stimuli showed stronger parallels to behavioral responses than an auditory sensory region. These data highlight a potential role for the caudocentral nidopallium (NCC) as a novel node in the avian circuitry underlying the evaluation of acoustic signals and their use in mate choice.

Speech Prosodies of Different Emotional Categories Activate Different Brain Regions in Adult Cortex: an fNIRS Study

Emotional expressions of others embedded in speech prosodies are important for social interactions. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate how speech prosodies of different emotional categories are processed in the cortex. The results demonstrated several cerebral areas critical for emotional prosody processing. We confirmed that the superior temporal cortex, especially the right middle and posterior parts of superior temporal gyrus (BA 22/42), primarily works to discriminate between emotional and neutral prosodies. Furthermore, the results suggested that categorization of emotions occurs within a high-level brain region–the frontal cortex, since the brain activation patterns were distinct when positive (happy) were contrasted to negative (fearful and angry) prosody in the left middle part of inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45) and the frontal eye field (BA8), and when angry were contrasted to neutral prosody in bilateral orbital frontal regions (BA 10/11). These findings verified and extended previous fMRI findings in adult brain and also provided a “developed version” of brain activation for our following neonatal study.

Altered emotional recognition and expression in patients with Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibit deficits in emotional recognition and expression abilities, including emotional faces and voices. The aim of this study was to explore emotional processing in pre-deep brain stimulation (pre-DBS) PD patients using two sensory modalities (visual and auditory).

METHODS

Fifteen PD patients who needed DBS surgery and 15 healthy, age- and gender-matched controls were recruited as participants. All participants were assessed by the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database 50 Faces Recognition test. Vocal recognition was evaluated by the Montreal Affective Voices database 50 Voices Recognition test. For emotional facial expression, the participants were asked to imitate five basic emotions (neutral, happiness, anger, fear, and sadness). The subjects were required to express nonverbal vocalizations of the five basic emotions. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were recruited as decoders. We recorded the accuracy of the responses, reaction time, and confidence level.

RESULTS

For emotional recognition and expression, the PD group scored lower on both facial and vocal emotional processing than did the healthy control group. There were significant differences between the two groups in both reaction time and confidence level. A significant relationship was also found between emotional recognition and emotional expression when considering all participants between the two groups together.

CONCLUSION

The PD group exhibited poorer performance on both the recognition and expression tasks. Facial emotion deficits and vocal emotion abnormalities were associated with each other. In addition, our data allow us to speculate that emotional recognition and expression may share a common system.

Altered emotional prosody processing in patients with Parkinson's disease after subthalamic nucleus stimulation

BACKGROUND

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit deficits in recognizing and expressing vocal emotional prosody. The aim of this study was to explore emotional prosody processing in patients with PD shortly after subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS).

METHODS

Two groups of patients with PD (pre-DBS and post-DBS) and one healthy control (HC) group were recruited as participants. All participants (PD and HC) were assessed using the Montreal Affective Voices database 50 Voices Recognition test. All participants were asked to nonverbally express five basic emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, and neutral) to test emotional prosody expression. Fifteen native Chinese speakers were recruited as raters. We recorded the accuracy rate, reaction time, confidence level, and two acoustic parameters (mean pitch and mean intensity).

RESULTS

The PD groups scored lower than the HC group in recognizing and expressing emotional prosody. STN DBS had no significant effect on the recognition of emotional prosody but had a significant effect on fear prosody expression. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed significant correlations between performance on emotional prosody recognition tests and performance on emotional prosody expression tests in both the pre-DBS PD and post-DBS PD groups.

CONCLUSION

Shortly after STN DBS, the ability to recognize emotional prosody was not altered, but fear expression was impaired. We identified associations between abnormalities in emotional prosody recognition and expression deficits both before and after STN DBS, indicating that the processes involved in recognizing and expressing emotional prosody may share a common system.