Bodies, features and visual awareness: behavioral, physiological and neural correlates of body expression perception

Emotions can be transmitted in a myriad of ways, such as through the voice, the face, the body and even the eye gaze. Correctly interpreting these signals is undoubtedly crucial for navigating our social lives. This thesis investigates how we perceive emotional body expressions at a behavioral, physiological and neural level using various approaches and perspectives. The first part of this thesis investigates how body expressions impact the perception of facial expressions, even when unattended and particularly when the body expression conveys danger. The second part focuses on identifying the critical characteristics of body movement and posture for emotion recognition as well as on investigating the brain regions involved in processing these characteristics. Lastly, this thesis also examines how body expressions are processed at different levels of perceptual awareness, studying their effects on behavior, physiology, and neural activity.