The mirror neuron system (MNS) has been mooted as a crucial component underlying human social cognition. Initial evidence based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests that the MNS plays a role in emotion classification, but further confirmation and convergent evidence is needed. This study employed electroencephalography (EEG) to examine modulations in the mu rhythm associated with the inference of emotions from facial expressions. It was hypothesised that mu suppression would be associated with classifying the emotion portrayed by facial expressions. Nineteen participants viewed pictures of facial expressions or emotion words and were asked to either match the stimulus to an emotion word or to passively observe. Mu activity following stimulus presentation was localised using a 3-D distributed inverse solution, and compared between conditions. Subtractive logic was used to isolate the specific processes of interest. Comparisons of source localisation images between conditions revealed that there was mu suppression associated with recognising emotion from faces, thereby supporting our hypothesis. Further analyses confirmed that those effects were not due to activity associated with the motor response or the observation of facial expressions, offering further support for the hypotheses. This study provides important convergent evidence for the involvement of the MNS in the inference of emotion from facial expressions.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 December 2021.
All research outputs
#6,579,204
of 24,003,070 outputs
Outputs from Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
#285
of 974 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#95,722
of 315,002 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
#6
of 24 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,003,070 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 974 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 315,002 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 24 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
