ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the neural underpinnings and the time course of emoji recognition through the recording of event-related potentials in 51 participants engaged in a categorization task involving an emotional word paradigm. Forty-eight happy, sad, surprised, disgusted, fearful, angry emojis, and as many facial expressions, were used as stimuli. Behavioural data showed that emojis were recognized faster and more accurately (92.7%) than facial expressions displaying the same emotions (87.35%). Participants were better at recognizing happy, disgusted, and sad emojis, and happy and angry faces. Fear was difficult to recognize in both faces and emojis. The N400 response was larger to incongruently primed emojis and faces, while the opposite was observed for the P300 component. However, both N400 and P300 were considerably later in response to faces than emojis. The emoji-related N170 component (150-190 ms) discriminated stimulus affective content, similar to face-related N170, but its neural generators did not include the face fusiform area but the occipital face area (OFA) for processing face details, and object-related areas. Both faces and emojis activated the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex supporting anthropomorphization. The schematic nature of emojis might determine an easier classification of their emotional content.

摘要

本研究的目的是通过记录 51 名参与涉及情感词范式的分类任务的参与者的事件相关电位来研究表情符号识别的神经基础和时间过程。48 个快乐、悲伤、惊讶、厌恶、恐惧、愤怒的表情符号，以及同样多的面部表情，被用作刺激物。行为数据表明，与表达相同情绪的面部表情 (87.35%) 相比，表情符号的识别速度更快、更准确 (92.7%)。参与者更善于识别快乐、厌恶和悲伤的表情符号，以及快乐和愤怒的面孔。在面孔和表情符号中都很难辨认出恐惧。N400 对不一致的表情符号和面孔的反应更大，而 P300 成分则相反。然而，N400 和 P300 对人脸的反应都比表情符号晚得多。emoji 相关的 N170 成分（150-190 ms）区分刺激情感内容，类似于面部相关的 N170，但其神经发生器不包括面部梭形区域，而是用于处理面部细节的枕骨面部区域（OFA），以及对象-相关领域。面孔和表情符号都激活了支持拟人化的边缘系统和眶额皮质。表情符号的示意性质可能决定了对其情感内容的更容易分类。和对象相关的区域。面孔和表情符号都激活了支持拟人化的边缘系统和眶额皮质。表情符号的示意性质可能决定了对其情感内容的更容易分类。和对象相关的区域。面孔和表情符号都激活了支持拟人化的边缘系统和眶额皮质。表情符号的示意性质可能决定了对其情感内容的更容易分类。