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Roberti E, Turati C, Actis-Grosso R. Single point motion kinematics convey emotional signals in children and adults. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0301896. [PMID: 38598520 PMCID: PMC11006184 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301896] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024] Open
Abstract
This study investigates whether humans recognize different emotions conveyed only by the kinematics of a single moving geometrical shape and how this competence unfolds during development, from childhood to adulthood. To this aim, animations in which a shape moved according to happy, fearful, or neutral cartoons were shown, in a forced-choice paradigm, to 7- and 10-year-old children and adults. Accuracy and response times were recorded, and the movement of the mouse while the participants selected a response was tracked. Results showed that 10-year-old children and adults recognize happiness and fear when conveyed solely by different kinematics, with an advantage for fearful stimuli. Fearful stimuli were also accurately identified at 7-year-olds, together with neutral stimuli, while, at this age, the accuracy for happiness was not significantly different than chance. Overall, results demonstrates that emotions can be identified by a single point motion alone during both childhood and adulthood. Moreover, motion contributes in various measures to the comprehension of emotions, with fear recognized earlier in development and more readily even later on, when all emotions are accurately labeled.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Roberti
- Psychology Department, University of Milano–Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Neuromi, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Psychology Department, University of Milano–Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Neuromi, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - Rossana Actis-Grosso
- Psychology Department, University of Milano–Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Neuromi, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
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Quadrelli E, Mermier J, Nazzari S, Bulf H, Turati C. You can't play with us: First-person ostracism affects infants' behavioral reactivity. Child Dev 2023; 94:e403-e412. [PMID: 37424333 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2022] [Revised: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/11/2023]
Abstract
Ostracism negatively affects fundamental psychological needs, induces physiological and behavioral changes, and modulates the processing of social information in adults. Yet little is known about children and preverbal infants' responses to first-person experiences of ostracism. The current study aimed to explore the efficacy of a triadic ball-tossing game in manipulating social inclusion and ostracism with 13-month-old infants (N = 84; 44% males; mostly White; tested from 2019 to 2022) by developing an observational coding system. Infants' behaviors were recorded while participating in a ball-tossing game where they were either included or ostracized from the game. Ostracized, but not included, infants showed an increase in negative emotionality and involvement behaviors, thus suggesting that behavioral responses to being ostracized emerge early in life.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - J Mermier
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - S Nazzari
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - H Bulf
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - C Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
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Mermier J, Quadrelli E, Bulf H, Turati C. Ostracism modulates children's recognition of emotional facial expressions. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0287106. [PMID: 37319141 PMCID: PMC10270353 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Ostracism has been shown to induce considerable physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes in adults. Previous research demonstrated its effects on children's cognitive and behavioral abilities, but less is known about its impact on their capacity to recognize subtle variations in social cues. The present study aimed at investigating whether social manipulations of inclusion and ostracism modulate emotion recognition abilities in children, and whether this modulation varies across childhood. To do so, 5- and 10-year-old children participated in a computer-based ball tossing game called Cyberball during which they were either included or ostracized. Then, they completed a facial emotion recognition task in which they were required to identify neutral facial expressions, or varying levels of intensity of angry and fearful facial expressions. Results indicated lower misidentification rates for children who were previously ostracized as compared to children who were previously included, both at 5 and 10 years of age. Moreover, when looking at children's accuracy and sensitivity to facial expressions, 5-year-olds' decoding abilities were affected by the social manipulation, while no difference between included and ostracized participants was observed for 10-year-olds. In particular, included and ostracized 10-year-old children as well as ostracized 5-year-olds showed higher accuracy and sensitivity for expressions of fear as compared to anger, while no such difference was observed for included 5-year-olds. Overall, the current study presents evidence that Cyberball-induced inclusion and ostracism modulate children's recognition of emotional faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Mermier
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - Hermann Bulf
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
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Poncet F, Leleu A, Rekow D, Damon F, Dzhelyova MP, Schaal B, Durand K, Faivre L, Rossion B, Baudouin JY. A neural marker of rapid discrimination of facial expression in 3.5- and 7-month-old infants. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:901013. [PMID: 36061610 PMCID: PMC9434348 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.901013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Infants’ ability to discriminate facial expressions has been widely explored, but little is known about the rapid and automatic ability to discriminate a given expression against many others in a single experiment. Here we investigated the development of facial expression discrimination in infancy with fast periodic visual stimulation coupled with scalp electroencephalography (EEG). EEG was recorded in eighteen 3.5- and eighteen 7-month-old infants presented with a female face expressing disgust, happiness, or a neutral emotion (in different stimulation sequences) at a base stimulation frequency of 6 Hz. Pictures of the same individual expressing other emotions (either anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, or neutrality, randomly and excluding the expression presented at the base frequency) were introduced every six stimuli (at 1 Hz). Frequency-domain analysis revealed an objective (i.e., at the predefined 1-Hz frequency and harmonics) expression-change brain response in both 3.5- and 7-month-olds, indicating the visual discrimination of various expressions from disgust, happiness and neutrality from these early ages. At 3.5 months, the responses to the discrimination from disgust and happiness expressions were located mainly on medial occipital sites, whereas a more lateral topography was found for the response to the discrimination from neutrality, suggesting that expression discrimination from an emotionally neutral face relies on distinct visual cues than discrimination from a disgust or happy face. Finally, expression discrimination from happiness was associated with a reduced activity over posterior areas and an additional response over central frontal scalp regions at 7 months as compared to 3.5 months. This result suggests developmental changes in the processing of happiness expressions as compared to negative/neutral ones within this age range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fanny Poncet
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
- Université Grenoble Alpes, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France
- *Correspondence: Fanny Poncet,
| | - Arnaud Leleu
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
| | - Diane Rekow
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
| | - Fabrice Damon
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
| | | | - Benoist Schaal
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
| | - Karine Durand
- Development of Olfactory Communication and Cognition Laboratory, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, CNRS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INRAE, Institut Agro, Dijon, France
| | - Laurence Faivre
- Inserm UMR 1231 GAD, Genetics of Developmental Disorders, and Centre de Référence Maladies Rares “Anomalies du Développement et Syndromes Malformatifs,” FHU TRANSLAD, CHU Dijon and Université de Bourgogne-Franche Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN–UMR 7039, Nancy, France
- Service de Neurologie, Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Nancy, France
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Laboratoire “Développement, Individu, Processus, Handicap, Éducation”, Département Psychologie du Développement, de l’Éducation et des Vulnérabilités, Institut de Psychologie, Université de Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France
- Jean-Yves Baudouin,
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Polver S, Quadrelli E, Turati C, Bulf H. Decoding functional brain networks through graph measures in infancy: The case of emotional faces. Biol Psychol 2022; 170:108292. [PMID: 35217132 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108292] [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: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Graph measures represent an optimal way to investigate neural networks' organization, yet their application is still limited in developmental samples. To uncover the organization of 7-month-old infants' functional brain networks during an emotional perception task, we combined a decoding technique (i.e., Principal Component Regression) to graph metrics computation. Nodes' Within Module Degree Z Score (WMDZ) was computed as a measure of modular organization, and we decoded networks' functional organizations across EEG alpha and theta bands in response to static and dynamic facial expressions of emotions. We found that infants' brain topological activity differentiates between static and dynamic emotional faces due to the involvement of visual streams and sensorimotor areas, as often observed in adults. Moreover, network invariances point toward an already present rudimental network structure tuned to face processing already at 7-months of age. Overall, our results affirm the fruitfulness of the application of graph measures in developmental samples, due to their flexibility and the wealth of information they provide over infants' networks functional organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Polver
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Hermann Bulf
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
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