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. 2011 Jan;6(1):90-7.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq019. Epub 2010 Mar 1.

Human brain spots emotion in non humanoid robots

Stéphanie Dubal  1 , Aurélie Foucher, Roland Jouvent, Jacqueline Nadel
Affiliations

Human brain spots emotion in non humanoid robots

Stéphanie Dubal et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

The computation by which our brain elaborates fast responses to emotional expressions is currently an active field of brain studies. Previous studies have focused on stimuli taken from everyday life. Here, we investigated event-related potentials in response to happy vs neutral stimuli of human and non-humanoid robots. At the behavioural level, emotion shortened reaction times similarly for robotic and human stimuli. Early P1 wave was enhanced in response to happy compared to neutral expressions for robotic as well as for human stimuli, suggesting that emotion from robots is encoded as early as human emotion expression. Congruent with their lower faceness properties compared to human stimuli, robots elicited a later and lower N170 component than human stimuli. These findings challenge the claim that robots need to present an anthropomorphic aspect to interact with humans. Taken together, such results suggest that the early brain processing of emotional expressions is not bounded to human-like arrangements embodying emotion.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of the emotional stimuli presented. Human and robotic pictures of happy (up) and neutral (bottom) expressions.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Temporal responses. Mean reaction times and mean latency values for the P1 and N170 peaks averaged across their analysed electrodes (ms ± S.E.M.). ns p > 0.5; *p < .01.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Emotion effect on the P1. (A) Back view of the grand average spline-interpolated topographical distribution of the ERP in the latency range of P1 according to media (human vs robot) and expression (happy vs neutral). (B) Grand averaged ERP response at PO4 for neutral (black) and happy (red) expressions of human (left) and robotic (right) displays.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Media effect on the N170. (A) Back view of the grand average spline-interpolated topographical distribution of the ERP in the latency range of N170 according to media (human vs robot) and emotion (happy vs neutral). (B) Grand averaged ERP responses at P8 for neutral human (grey), happy human (red), neutral robotic (blue) and happy robotic (pink) stimuli.
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