Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on May 5, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(1):104-113; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm035
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/1/104    most recent
bhm035v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lee, T.-W.
Right arrow Articles by Critchley, H. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lee, T.-W.
Right arrow Articles by Critchley, H. D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Controlling Emotional Expression: Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Nonimitative Emotional Responses

Tien-Wen Lee1, Raymond J. Dolan1 and Hugo D. Critchley1,2,3,4

1 Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK, 2 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, UK, 3 Autonomic Unit, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospital Trust and Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, UK, 4 Department of Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), University of Sussex, Falmer Campus, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9PX, UK

Address correspondence to Dr Tien-Wen Lee, Functional Imaging Laboratory, Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Email: dwlee_ibru{at}yahoo.com.tw.

Emotional facial expressions can engender similar expressions in others. However, adaptive social and motivational behavior can require individuals to suppress, conceal, or override prepotent imitative responses. We predicted, in line with a theory of "emotion contagion," that when viewing a facial expression, expressing a different emotion would manifest as behavioral conflict and interference. We employed facial electromyography (EMG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain activity related to this emotion expression interference (EEI) effect, where the expressed response was either concordant or discordant with the observed emotion. The Simon task was included as a nonemotional comparison for the fMRI study. Facilitation and interference effects were observed in the latency of facial EMG responses. Neuroimaging revealed activation of distributed brain regions including anterior right inferior frontal gyrus (brain area [BA] 47), supplementary motor area (facial area), posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), and right anterior insula during emotion expression–associated interference. In contrast, nonemotional response conflict (Simon task) engaged a distinct frontostriatal network. Individual differences in empathy and emotion regulatory tendency predicted the magnitude of EEI-evoked regional activity with BA 47 and STS. Our findings point to these regions as providing a putative neural substrate underpinning a crucial adaptive aspect of social/emotional behavior.

Key Words: emotion • facial expression • functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) • interference


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Soc Cogn Affect NeurosciHome page
K. Roelofs, A. Minelli, R. B. Mars, J. van Peer, and I. Toni
On the neural control of social emotional behavior
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, March 1, 2009; 4(1): 50 - 58.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.