The invisible body: the neural mechanisms of non-conscious and conscious processing of emotional bodies

Minye Zhan

Research output: ThesisDoctoral ThesisInternal

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Abstract

How do we process emotions expressed by bodies when we don’t realize we are looking at them? This research made body postures invisible for participants by using the “continuous flash suppression” method. It turned out that processing bodily emotions is very different from processing faces, and is different across emotions (e.g. neutral, fearful, angry), both when participants consciously see them and when they see them outside their awareness. The research also looked in detail at the brain activity with the 7T MRI scanner, and found that understanding bodily actions involves a large network across the brain. This research provides insights in the way we understand actions and emotions.
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Maastricht University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • de Gelder, Bea, Supervisor
  • Goebel, Rainer, Supervisor
Award date16 May 2018
Place of PublicationMaastricht
Publisher
Print ISBNs9789402810424
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • processing emotional bodies
  • continuous flash suppression
  • understanding actions and emotions
  • consciousness
  • 3T and 7T fMRI

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