Emotions promote social interaction by synchronizing brain activity across individuals.
Lauri Nummenmaa,Enrico Glerean,Mikko Viinikainen,Iiro P. Jääskeläinen,Riitta Hari,Mikko Sams +5 more
TL;DR: It is proposed that negative valence synchronizes individuals' brain areas supporting emotional sensations and understanding of another’s actions, whereas high arousal directs individuals’ attention to similar features of the environment.
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Abstract: Sharing others’ emotional states may facilitate understanding their intentions and actions. Here we show that networks of brain areas “tick together” in participants who are viewing similar emotional events in a movie. Participants’ brain activity was measured with functional MRI while they watched movies depicting unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant emotions. After scanning, participants watched the movies again and continuously rated their experience of pleasantness–unpleasantness (i.e., valence) and of arousal–calmness. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to derive multisubject voxelwise similarity measures [intersubject correlations (ISCs)] of functional MRI data. Valence and arousal time series were used to predict the moment-to-moment ISCs computed using a 17-s moving average. During movie viewing, participants' brain activity was synchronized in lower- and higher-order sensory areas and in corticolimbic emotion circuits. Negative valence was associated with increased ISC in the emotion-processing network (thalamus, ventral striatum, insula) and in the default-mode network (precuneus, temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus). High arousal was associated with increased ISC in the somatosensory cortices and visual and dorsal attention networks comprising the visual cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulci, and frontal eye fields. Seed-voxel–based correlation analysis confirmed that these sets of regions constitute dissociable, functional networks. We propose that negative valence synchronizes individuals’ brain areas supporting emotional sensations and understanding of another’s actions, whereas high arousal directs individuals’ attention to similar features of the environment. By enhancing the synchrony of brain activity across individuals, emotions may promote social interaction and facilitate interpersonal understanding.
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Citations
Bodily maps of emotions
TL;DR: It is proposed that emotions are represented in the somatosensory system as culturally universal categorical somatotopic maps, and maps of bodily sensations associated with different emotions using a unique topographical self-report method.
Brain-to-Brain Synchrony Tracks Real-World Dynamic Group Interactions in the Classroom
Suzanne Dikker,Suzanne Dikker,Lu Wan,Ido Davidesco,Lisa Kaggen,Matthias Oostrik,James M. McClintock,Jess Rowland,Georgios Michalareas,Jay J. Van Bavel,Mingzhou Ding,David Poeppel,David Poeppel +12 more
TL;DR: A novel analysis technique to assess group-based neural coherence demonstrates that the extent to which brain activity is synchronized across students predicts both student class engagement and social dynamics, suggesting that brain-to-brain synchrony is a possible neural marker for dynamic social interactions.
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Using second-person neuroscience to elucidate the mechanisms of social interaction
TL;DR: Progress in ‘second-person’ neuroscience is described and the insights into the brain mechanisms of social behaviour that have been gained are discussed and a role of the so-called ‘mentalizing network’ is highlighted.
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TL;DR: Whether cognitive neuroscience has delivered on its promise to deliver new insights into brain function is critically appraised and the challenges, technological innovations, and clinical opportunities that are required should this field meet its full potential are highlighted.
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Discrete Neural Signatures of Basic Emotions
Heini Saarimäki,Athanasios Gotsopoulos,Iiro P. Jääskeläinen,Jouko Lampinen,Patrik Vuilleumier,Riitta Hari,Mikko Sams,Lauri Nummenmaa +7 more
TL;DR: Brain regions contributing most to the classification accuracy included medial and inferior lateral prefrontal cortices, frontal pole, precentral and postcentral gyri, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex, suggesting a direct link between activity in these brain regions and the subjective emotional experience.
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References
Attention and emotion: Does rating emotion alter neural responses to amusing and sad films?
Cendri A. Hutcherson,Philip R Goldin,Kevin N. Ochsner,John D. E. Gabrieli,L. Feldman Barrett,James J. Gross +5 more
TL;DR: The results support the use of continuous emotion measures and emotionally engaging films to study the dynamics of emotional responding and suggest that there may be some contexts in which the attention to emotion induced by reporting emotion experience does not disrupt emotional responding either behaviorally or neurally.