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Schobert AK, Corradi-Dell’Acqua C, Frühholz S, van der Zwaag W, Vuilleumier P. Functional organization of face processing in the human superior temporal sulcus: a 7T high-resolution fMRI study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 13:102-113. [PMID: 29140527 PMCID: PMC5793830 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2016] [Accepted: 10/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is a major component of the human face perception network, implicated in processing dynamic changeable aspects of faces. However, it remains unknown whether STS holds functionally segregated subdivisions for different categories of facial movements. We used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 7T in 16 volunteers to compare STS activation with faces displaying angry or happy expressions, eye-gaze shifts and lip-speech movements. Combining univariate and multivariate analyses, we show a systematic topological organization within STS, with gaze-related activity predominating in the most posterior and superior sector, speech-related activity in the anterior sector and emotional expressions represented in the intermediate middle STS. Right STS appeared to hold a finer functional segregation between all four types of facial movements, and best discriminative abilities within the face-selective posterior STS (pSTS). Conversely, left STS showed greater overlap between conditions, with a lack of distinction between mouth movements associated to speech or happy expression and better discriminative abilities (for gaze and speech vs emotion conditions) outside pSTS. Differential sensitivity to upper (eye) or lower (mouth) facial features may contribute to, but does not appear to fully account for, these response patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Kathrin Schobert
- Department of Neurosciences and Clinic of Neurology, University Medical Center, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences
| | - Corrado Corradi-Dell’Acqua
- Department of Neurosciences and Clinic of Neurology, University Medical Center, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences
- Department of Psychology, FPSE, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Sascha Frühholz
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Wietske van der Zwaag
- CIBM, EPFL, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Department of Neurosciences and Clinic of Neurology, University Medical Center, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences
- Correspondence should be addressed to Patrik Vuilleumier, Laboratory for Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neurosciences, 1 rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. E-mail:
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Frühholz S, van der Zwaag W, Saenz M, Belin P, Schobert AK, Vuilleumier P, Grandjean D. Neural decoding of discriminative auditory object features depends on their socio-affective valence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1638-49. [PMID: 27217117 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2015] [Accepted: 05/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Human voices consist of specific patterns of acoustic features that are considerably enhanced during affective vocalizations. These acoustic features are presumably used by listeners to accurately discriminate between acoustically or emotionally similar vocalizations. Here we used high-field 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging in human listeners together with a so-called experimental 'feature elimination approach' to investigate neural decoding of three important voice features of two affective valence categories (i.e. aggressive and joyful vocalizations). We found a valence-dependent sensitivity to vocal pitch (f0) dynamics and to spectral high-frequency cues already at the level of the auditory thalamus. Furthermore, pitch dynamics and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) showed overlapping, but again valence-dependent sensitivity in tonotopic cortical fields during the neural decoding of aggressive and joyful vocalizations, respectively. For joyful vocalizations we also revealed sensitivity in the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) to the HNR and pitch dynamics. The data thus indicate that several auditory regions were sensitive to multiple, rather than single, discriminative voice features. Furthermore, some regions partly showed a valence-dependent hypersensitivity to certain features, such as pitch dynamic sensitivity in core auditory regions and in the IFC for aggressive vocalizations, and sensitivity to high-frequency cues in auditory belt and parabelt regions for joyful vocalizations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sascha Frühholz
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Wietske van der Zwaag
- Center for Biomedical Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Melissa Saenz
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, CHUV, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Pascal Belin
- Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
| | - Anne-Kathrin Schobert
- Laboratory for Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neurology and Department Neuroscience, Medical School, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Laboratory for Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neurology and Department Neuroscience, Medical School, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Didier Grandjean
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Neuroscience of Emotion and Affective Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
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Schobert AK, Caramazza A, Schwarzbach JV. Spreading attention is not the same as idling. Neuroimage 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/s1053-8119(09)70364-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
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