The constructive nature of affective vision: seeing fearful scenes activates extrastriate body area

Abstract

It is part of basic emotions like fear or anger that they prepare the brain to act adaptively. Hence scenes representing emotional events are normally associated with characteristic adaptive behavior. Normally, face and body representation areas in the brain are modulated by these emotions when presented in the face or body. Here, we provide neuroimaging evidence (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) that the extrastriate body area (EBA) is highly responsive when subjects observe isolated faces presented in emotional scenes. This response of EBA to threatening scenes in which no body is present gives rise to speculation about its function. We discuss the possibility that the brain reacts proactively to the emotional meaning of the scene.

Figure 1. 3×3 factorial design.

Neutral and fearful faces were overlaid centrally on a neutral or fearful scene. As controls, scrambled scenes and triangles instead of faces were used.

Figure 2. Overlap between experimentally found and functionally localized EBA.

EBA was experimentally found with contrast Fearful face in Fearful scene > Neutral face in Neutral scene on whole brain level (p<.005; purple cluster). The group activation was found for bodies > faces + tools + houses with the functional localizer (FDR (q)<.003; yellow/orange cluster).

Figure 3. Subject-specific region-of-interest (ROI)-based group analysis in right extrastriate body area (EBA).

There is an interaction between facial and scene emotion. The region shows more activation for fear presented in both contexts than to no emotion at all (FfFs >NfNs: p<.007). This effect is probably caused by the emotion from the scene (NfFs > NfNs: p<.011) and not by emotion from the face (FfNs > NfNs: n.s.), especially since threatening scenes without face also activate EBA (XfFs >XfNs: p<.000). N = neutral; F = fearful; f = face; s = scene; X = control (scrambled scene or no face).