Abstract

PEREIRA, Telmo; OLIVEIRA, Armando  and  FONSECA, Isabel B. Brain Activation Follows Adding-Type Integration Laws: Brain and Rating Responses in an Integration Task with pairs of Emotional Faces. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2016, vol.15, n.3, pp.1-18. ISSN 1657-9267.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy15-3.bafa.

This study was designed to investigate the relation between rating responses and the patterns of cortical activation in an integration task using pairs of emotional faces. Participants judged on a graphic rating scale the overall affective intensity conveyed by two emotional faces, each presented to one of the two hemispheres via a Divided Visual Field technique (DVF). While they performed the task, EEG was recorded from 6 scalp locations. Three discrete emotions were considered (Joy, Fear, and Anger) and varied across three levels of expression intensity. Some face pairs portrayed the same emotion (same-emotion pairs), others two different emotions (distinct-emotions pairs). The patterns of integration of the two sources of information were examined both at the level of the ratings and of the brain response (event-related-α-desynchronization: ERD) recorded at each EEG lead. Adding-type rules were found for the ratings of both same-emotion and different-emotions pairs. Adding-type integration was also commonly found when α-ERD was taken as a response. Outcomes are discussed with a link to the lateralization of emotional processing and the relations between the observable R (e.g., ratings) and possible implementational aspects of the implicit r posited by Information Integration Theory (IIT).

Keywords : divided visual field; facial expressions of emotion; functional measurement; cerebral organization.

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