Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published September 2004 | Published
Journal Article Open

Cortical Regions for Judgments of Emotions and Personality Traits from Point-light Walkers

Abstract

Humans are able to use nonverbal behavior to make fast, reliable judgments of both emotional states and personality traits. Whereas a sizeable body of research has identified neural structures critical for emotion recognition, the neural substrates of personality trait attribution have not been explored in detail. In the present study, we investigated the neural systems involved in emotion and personality trait judgments. We used a type of visual stimulus that is known to convey both emotion and personality information, namely, point-light walkers. We compared the emotion and personality trait judgments made by subjects with brain damage to those made by neurologically normal subjects and then conducted a lesion overlap analysis to identify neural regions critical for these two tasks. Impairments on the two tasks dissociated: Some subjects were impaired at emotion recognition, but judged personality normally; other subjects were impaired on the personality task, but normal at emotion recognition. Moreover, these dissociations in performance were associated with damage to specific neural regions: Right somatosensory cortices were a primary focus of lesion overlap in subjects impaired on the emotion task, whereas left frontal opercular cortices were a primary focus of lesion overlap in subjects impaired on the personality task. These findings suggest that attributions of emotional states and personality traits are accomplished by partially dissociable neural systems.

Additional Information

© 2004 The MIT Press. Supported by NINDS Program Project Grant NS19632. ASH was supported by NIH T32-NS07413 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia during preparation of the final manuscript. We are grateful to Josh Greene, Lavanya Vijayaraghavan, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, to Sepideh Ravahi, Melissa McGivern, and Matt Karafin for help with testing subjects, to Denise Krutzfeld and Ruth Henson for help in scheduling their visits, and to the people who kindly volunteered to participate in our study.

Attached Files

Published - HEBjcn04.pdf

Files

HEBjcn04.pdf
Files (617.0 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:4c6716b800c22b2d08c94fac7f8b8735
617.0 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 16, 2023