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Jastrzab LE, Chaudhury B, Ashley SA, Koldewyn K, Cross ES. Beyond human-likeness: Socialness is more influential when attributing mental states to robots. iScience 2024; 27:110070. [PMID: 38947497 PMCID: PMC11214418 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
We sought to replicate and expand previous work showing that the more human-like a robot appears, the more willing people are to attribute mind-like capabilities and socially engage with it. Forty-two participants played games against a human, a humanoid robot, a mechanoid robot, and a computer algorithm while undergoing functional neuroimaging. We confirmed that the more human-like the agent, the more participants attributed a mind to them. However, exploratory analyses revealed that the perceived socialness of an agent appeared to be as, if not more, important for mind attribution. Our findings suggest top-down knowledge cues may be equally or possibly more influential than bottom-up stimulus cues when exploring mind attribution in non-human agents. While further work is now required to test this hypothesis directly, these preliminary findings hold important implications for robotic design and to understand and test the flexibility of human social cognition when people engage with artificial agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura E. Jastrzab
- Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Human and Behavioural Science, Bangor University, Wales, UK
- Institute for Neuroscience and Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Bishakha Chaudhury
- Institute for Neuroscience and Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Sarah A. Ashley
- Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Human and Behavioural Science, Bangor University, Wales, UK
- Division of Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health, University College London, London, UK
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Human and Behavioural Science, Bangor University, Wales, UK
| | - Emily S. Cross
- Institute for Neuroscience and Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
- Chair for Social Brain Sciences, Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETHZ, Zürich, Switzerland
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Dino MJS, Davidson PM, Dion KW, Szanton SL, Ong IL. Nursing and human-computer interaction in healthcare robots for older people: An integrative review. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING STUDIES ADVANCES 2022; 4:100072. [PMID: 38745638 PMCID: PMC11080351 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnsa.2022.100072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives This study examined the published works related to healthcare robotics for older people using the attributes of health, nursing, and the human-computer interaction framework. Design An integrative literature review. Methods A search strategy captured 55 eligible articles from databases (CINAHL, Embase, IEEE Xplore, and PubMed) and hand-searching approaches. Bibliometric and content analyses grounded on the health and nursing attributes and human-computer interaction framework were performed using MAXQDA. Finally, results were verified using critical friend feedback by a second reviewer. Results Most articles were from multiple authorship, published in non-nursing journals, and originating from developed economies. They primarily focused on applying healthcare robots in practice settings, physical health, and communication tasks. Using the human-computer interaction framework, it was found that older adults frequently served as the primary users while nurses, healthcare providers, and researchers functioned as secondary users and operators. Research articles focused on the usability, functionality, and acceptability of robotic systems. At the same time, theoretical papers explored the frameworks and the value of empathy and emotion in robots, human-computer interaction and nursing models and theories supporting healthcare practice, and gerontechnology. Current robotic systems are less anthropomorphic, operated through real-time direct and supervisory inputs, and mainly equipped with visual and auditory sensors and actuators with limited capability in performing health assessments. Conclusion Results communicate the need for technological competency among nurses, advancements in increasing healthcare robot humanness, and the importance of conscientious efforts from an interdisciplinary research team in improving robotic system usability and utility for the care of older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Joseph S. Dino
- School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Our Lady of Fatima University, 120 McArthur Highway, Marulas, Valenzuela City 1440, Philippines
| | - Patricia M. Davidson
- School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- University of Wollongong, The Vice-Chancellor's Unit Building 36, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
| | - Kenneth W. Dion
- School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Sarah L. Szanton
- School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Irvin L. Ong
- School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Our Lady of Fatima University, 120 McArthur Highway, Marulas, Valenzuela City 1440, Philippines
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Sato W, Namba S, Yang D, Nishida S, Ishi C, Minato T. An Android for Emotional Interaction: Spatiotemporal Validation of Its Facial Expressions. Front Psychol 2022; 12:800657. [PMID: 35185697 PMCID: PMC8855677 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.800657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Android robots capable of emotional interactions with humans have considerable potential for application to research. While several studies developed androids that can exhibit human-like emotional facial expressions, few have empirically validated androids' facial expressions. To investigate this issue, we developed an android head called Nikola based on human psychology and conducted three studies to test the validity of its facial expressions. In Study 1, Nikola produced single facial actions, which were evaluated in accordance with the Facial Action Coding System. The results showed that 17 action units were appropriately produced. In Study 2, Nikola produced the prototypical facial expressions for six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), and naïve participants labeled photographs of the expressions. The recognition accuracy of all emotions was higher than chance level. In Study 3, Nikola produced dynamic facial expressions for six basic emotions at four different speeds, and naïve participants evaluated the naturalness of the speed of each expression. The effect of speed differed across emotions, as in previous studies of human expressions. These data validate the spatial and temporal patterns of Nikola's emotional facial expressions, and suggest that it may be useful for future psychological studies and real-life applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wataru Sato
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Shushi Namba
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Dongsheng Yang
- Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Shin’ya Nishida
- Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
- NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Atsugi, Japan
| | - Carlos Ishi
- Interactive Robot Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Takashi Minato
- Interactive Robot Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan
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More than appearance: the uncanny valley effect changes with a robot’s mental capacity. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-02298-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Holbrook C. Cues of Violent Intergroup Conflict Diminish Perceptions of Robotic Personhood. ACM T INTERACT INTEL 2018. [DOI: 10.1145/3181674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Convergent lines of evidence indicate that anthropomorphic robots are represented using neurocognitive mechanisms typically employed in social reasoning about other people. Relatedly, a growing literature documents that contexts of threat can exacerbate coalitional biases in social perceptions. Integrating these research programs, the present studies test whether cues of violent intergroup conflict modulate perceptions of the intelligence, emotional experience, or overall personhood of robots. In Studies 1 and 2, participants evaluated a large, bipedal all-terrain robot; in Study 3, participants evaluated a small, social robot with humanlike facial and vocal characteristics. Across all studies, cues of violent conflict caused significant decreases in perceived robotic personhood, and these shifts were mediated by parallel reductions in emotional connection with the robot (with no significant effects of threat on attributions of intelligence/skill). In addition, in Study 2, participants in the conflict condition estimated the large bipedal robot to be less effective in military combat, and this difference was mediated by the reduction in perceived robotic personhood. These results are discussed as they motivate future investigation into the links among threat, coalitional bias and human–robot interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Broadbent
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand;
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Removal of proprioception by BCI raises a stronger body ownership illusion in control of a humanlike robot. Sci Rep 2016; 6:33514. [PMID: 27654174 PMCID: PMC5031977 DOI: 10.1038/srep33514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2016] [Accepted: 08/30/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Body ownership illusions provide evidence that our sense of self is not coherent and can be extended to non-body objects. Studying about these illusions gives us practical tools to understand the brain mechanisms that underlie body recognition and the experience of self. We previously introduced an illusion of body ownership transfer (BOT) for operators of a very humanlike robot. This sensation of owning the robot’s body was confirmed when operators controlled the robot either by performing the desired motion with their body (motion-control) or by employing a brain-computer interface (BCI) that translated motor imagery commands to robot movement (BCI-control). The interesting observation during BCI-control was that the illusion could be induced even with a noticeable delay in the BCI system. Temporal discrepancy has always shown critical weakening effects on body ownership illusions. However the delay-robustness of BOT during BCI-control raised a question about the interaction between the proprioceptive inputs and delayed visual feedback in agency-driven illusions. In this work, we compared the intensity of BOT illusion for operators in two conditions; motion-control and BCI-control. Our results revealed a significantly stronger BOT illusion for the case of BCI-control. This finding highlights BCI’s potential in inducing stronger agency-driven illusions by building a direct communication between the brain and controlled body, and therefore removing awareness from the subject’s own body.
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Co-constructing intersubjectivity with artificial conversational agents: People are more likely to initiate repairs of misunderstandings with agents represented as human. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.12.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Silva P. Human, machines, and the interpretation of formal systems. AI & SOCIETY 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00146-015-0637-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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‘It looks like a human!’ The interrelation of social presence, interaction and agency ascription: a case study about the effects of an android robot on social agency ascription. AI & SOCIETY 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s00146-015-0632-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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12
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Parmiggiani A, Randazzo M, Maggiali M, Metta G, Elisei F, Bailly G. Design and Validation of a Talking Face for the iCub. INT J HUM ROBOT 2015. [DOI: 10.1142/s0219843615500267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Recent developments in human–robot interaction show how the ability to communicate with people in a natural way is of great importance for artificial agents. The implementation of facial expressions has been found to significantly increase the interaction capabilities of humanoid robots. For speech, displaying a correct articulation with sound is mandatory to avoid audiovisual illusions like the McGurk effect (leading to comprehension errors) as well as to enhance the intelligibility in noisy conditions. This work describes the design, construction and testing of an animatronic talking face developed for the iCub robot. This talking head has an articulated jaw and four independent lip movements actuated by five motors. It is covered by a specially designed elastic tissue cover whose hemlines at the lips are attached to the motors via connecting linkages. The mechanical design and the control scheme have been evaluated by speech intelligibility in noise (SPIN) perceptual tests that demonstrate an absolute 10% intelligibility gain provided by the jaw and lip movements over the audio-only display.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Parmiggiani
- iCub Facility, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30 16163, Genoa, Italy
| | - Marco Randazzo
- iCub Facility, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30 16163, Genoa, Italy
| | - Marco Maggiali
- iCub Facility, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30 16163, Genoa, Italy
| | - Giorgio Metta
- iCub Facility, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30 16163, Genoa, Italy
| | - Frederic Elisei
- GISPA Lab, Speech & Cognition Dpt., CNRS/Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
| | - Gerard Bailly
- GISPA Lab, Speech & Cognition Dpt., CNRS/Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
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Krumhuber EG, Swiderska A, Tsankova E, Kamble SV, Kappas A. Real or Artificial? Intergroup Biases in Mind Perception in a Cross-Cultural Perspective. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0137840. [PMID: 26360588 PMCID: PMC4567265 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2014] [Accepted: 08/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research suggests that attributions of aliveness and mental capacities to faces are influenced by social group membership. In this article, we investigated group related biases in mind perception in participants from a Western and Eastern culture, employing faces of varying ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Caucasian faces that ranged on a continuum from real to artificial were evaluated by participants in the UK (in-group) and in India (out-group) on animacy, abilities to plan and to feel pain, and having a mind. Human features were found to be assigned to a greater extent to faces when these belonged to in-group members, whereas out-group faces had to appear more realistic in order to be perceived as human. When participants in India evaluated South Asian (in-group) and Caucasian (out-group) faces in Experiment 2, the results closely mirrored those of the first experiment. For both studies, ratings of out-group faces were significantly predicted by participants’ levels of ethnocultural empathy. The findings highlight the role of intergroup processes (i.e., in-group favoritism, out-group dehumanization) in the perception of human and mental qualities and point to ethnocultural empathy as an important factor in responses to out-groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva G. Krumhuber
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Elena Tsankova
- Department of Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | | | - Arvid Kappas
- Department of Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
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Corti K, Gillespie A. A truly human interface: interacting face-to-face with someone whose words are determined by a computer program. Front Psychol 2015; 6:634. [PMID: 26042066 PMCID: PMC4434916 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2015] [Accepted: 04/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We use speech shadowing to create situations wherein people converse in person with a human whose words are determined by a conversational agent computer program. Speech shadowing involves a person (the shadower) repeating vocal stimuli originating from a separate communication source in real-time. Humans shadowing for conversational agent sources (e.g., chat bots) become hybrid agents (“echoborgs”) capable of face-to-face interlocution. We report three studies that investigated people’s experiences interacting with echoborgs and the extent to which echoborgs pass as autonomous humans. First, participants in a Turing Test spoke with a chat bot via either a text interface or an echoborg. Human shadowing did not improve the chat bot’s chance of passing but did increase interrogators’ ratings of how human-like the chat bot seemed. In our second study, participants had to decide whether their interlocutor produced words generated by a chat bot or simply pretended to be one. Compared to those who engaged a text interface, participants who engaged an echoborg were more likely to perceive their interlocutor as pretending to be a chat bot. In our third study, participants were naïve to the fact that their interlocutor produced words generated by a chat bot. Unlike those who engaged a text interface, the vast majority of participants who engaged an echoborg did not sense a robotic interaction. These findings have implications for android science, the Turing Test paradigm, and human–computer interaction. The human body, as the delivery mechanism of communication, fundamentally alters the social psychological dynamics of interactions with machine intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Corti
- Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science , London, UK
| | - Alex Gillespie
- Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science , London, UK
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Humans are Well Tuned to Detecting Agents Among Non-agents: Examining the Sensitivity of Human Perception to Behavioral Characteristics of Intentional Systems. Int J Soc Robot 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s12369-015-0299-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Saldien J, Vanderborght B, Goris K, Van Damme M, Lefeber D. A Motion System for Social and Animated Robots. INT J ADV ROBOT SYST 2014. [DOI: 10.5772/58402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper presents an innovative motion system that is used to control the motions and animations of a social robot. The social robot Probo is used to study Human-Robot Interactions (HRI), with a special focus on Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT). When used for therapy it is important that a social robot is able to create an “illusion of life” so as to become a believable character that can communicate with humans. The design of the motion system in this paper is based on insights from the animation industry. It combines operator-controlled animations with low-level autonomous reactions such as attention and emotional state. The motion system has a Combination Engine, which combines motion commands that are triggered by a human operator with motions that originate from different units of the cognitive control architecture of the robot. This results in an interactive robot that seems alive and has a certain degree of “likeability”. The Godspeed Questionnaire Series is used to evaluate the animacy and likeability of the robot in China, Romania and Belgium.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jelle Saldien
- Department of Industrial System and Product Design, Ghent University, Kortrijk, Belgium
| | - Bram Vanderborght
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kristof Goris
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Michael Van Damme
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Dirk Lefeber
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
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Silvera Tawil D, Rye D, Velonaki M. Interpretation of the modality of touch on an artificial arm covered with an EIT-based sensitive skin. Int J Rob Res 2012. [DOI: 10.1177/0278364912455441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
During social interaction humans extract important information from tactile stimuli that can improve their understanding of the interaction. The development of a similar capability in a robot will contribute to the future success of intuitive human–robot interaction. This paper presents a thin, flexible and stretchable artificial skin for robotics based on the principle of electrical impedance tomography. This skin, which can be used to extract information such as location, duration and intensity of touch, was used to cover the forearm and upper arm of a full-size mannequin. A classifier based on the ‘LogitBoost’ algorithm was used to classify the modality of eight different types of touch applied by humans to the mannequin arm. Experiments showed that the modality of touch was correctly classified in approximately 71% of the trials. This was shown to be comparable to the accuracy of humans when identifying touch. The classification accuracies obtained represent significant improvements over previous classification algorithms applied to artificial sensitive skins. It is shown that features based on touch duration and intensity are sufficient to provide a good classification of touch modality. Gender and cultural background were examined and found to have no statistically significant effect on the classification results.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Silvera Tawil
- Centre for Social Robotics/Australian Centre for Field Robotics, The University of Sydney, Australia
| | - David Rye
- Centre for Social Robotics/Australian Centre for Field Robotics, The University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Mari Velonaki
- Centre for Social Robotics/Australian Centre for Field Robotics, The University of Sydney, Australia
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Tawil DS, Rye D, Velonaki M. Improved Image Reconstruction for an EIT-Based Sensitive Skin With Multiple Internal Electrodes. IEEE T ROBOT 2011. [DOI: 10.1109/tro.2011.2125310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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NISHIO SHUICHI, ISHIGURO HIROSHI. ATTITUDE CHANGE INDUCED BY DIFFERENT APPEARANCES OF INTERACTION AGENTS. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011. [DOI: 10.1142/s1793843011000637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Chaminade T, Zecca M, Blakemore SJ, Takanishi A, Frith CD, Micera S, Dario P, Rizzolatti G, Gallese V, Umiltà MA. Brain response to a humanoid robot in areas implicated in the perception of human emotional gestures. PLoS One 2010; 5:e11577. [PMID: 20657777 PMCID: PMC2908128 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2010] [Accepted: 06/07/2010] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The humanoid robot WE4-RII was designed to express human emotions in order to improve human-robot interaction. We can read the emotions depicted in its gestures, yet might utilize different neural processes than those used for reading the emotions in human agents. Methodology Here, fMRI was used to assess how brain areas activated by the perception of human basic emotions (facial expression of Anger, Joy, Disgust) and silent speech respond to a humanoid robot impersonating the same emotions, while participants were instructed to attend either to the emotion or to the motion depicted. Principal Findings Increased responses to robot compared to human stimuli in the occipital and posterior temporal cortices suggest additional visual processing when perceiving a mechanical anthropomorphic agent. In contrast, activity in cortical areas endowed with mirror properties, like left Broca's area for the perception of speech, and in the processing of emotions like the left anterior insula for the perception of disgust and the orbitofrontal cortex for the perception of anger, is reduced for robot stimuli, suggesting lesser resonance with the mechanical agent. Finally, instructions to explicitly attend to the emotion significantly increased response to robot, but not human facial expressions in the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, a neural marker of motor resonance. Conclusions Motor resonance towards a humanoid robot, but not a human, display of facial emotion is increased when attention is directed towards judging emotions. Significance Artificial agents can be used to assess how factors like anthropomorphism affect neural response to the perception of human actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thierry Chaminade
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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