The representational dynamics of perceived voice emotions evolve from categories to dimensions

Bruno L Giordano*, Caroline Whiting, Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, Sonja A. Kotz, Joachim Gross*, Pascal Belin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Long-standing affective science theories conceive the perception of emotional stimuli either as discrete categories (for example, an angry voice) or continuous dimensional attributes (for example, an intense and negative vocal emotion). Which position provides a better account is still widely debated. Here we contrast the positions to account for acoustics-independent perceptual and cerebral representational geometry of perceived voice emotions. We combined multimodal imaging of the cerebral response to heard vocal stimuli (using functional magnetic resonance imaging and magneto-encephalography) with post-scanning behavioural assessment of voice emotion perception. By using representational similarity analysis, we find that categories prevail in perceptual and early (less than 200 ms) frontotemporal cerebral representational geometries and that dimensions impinge predominantly on a later limbic-temporal network (at 240 ms and after 500 ms). These results reconcile the two opposing views by reframing the perception of emotions as the interplay of cerebral networks with different representational dynamics that emphasize either categories or dimensions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1203-1213
Number of pages15
JournalNature human behaviour
Volume5
Issue number9
Early online date11 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021

Keywords

  • DISCRETE
  • RECOGNITION
  • INFERENCE
  • FMRI
  • TIME
  • EEG
  • MEG

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