Priming using human and chimpanzee expressions of emotion biases attention toward positive emotions

Matsulevits A(1)(2), Kret ME(3)(4).

Author information:
(1)Groupe d’Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Institut des Maladies
Neurodégénératives-UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux,
France.
(2)Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory, Sorbonne Universities, Paris,
France.
(3)Comparative Psychology and Affective Neuroscience Lab, Cognitive Psychology
Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
(4)Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden,
Netherlands.

Perceiving and correctly interpreting emotional expressions is one of the most
important abilities for social animals’ communication. It determines the
majority of social interactions, group dynamics, and cooperation – being highly
relevant for an individual’s survival. Core mechanisms of this ability have been
hypothesised to be shared across closely related species with phylogenetic
similarities. This study explored homologies in human processing of
species-specific facial expressions using eye-tracking. Introducing a
prime-target paradigm, we tested the influences on human attention elicited by
priming with differently valenced emotional stimuli depicting human and
chimpanzee faces. We demonstrated an attention shift towards the conspecific
(human) target picture that was congruent with the valence depicted in the
primer picture. We did not find this effect with heterospecific (chimpanzee)
primers and ruled out that this was due to participants interpreting them
incorrectly. Implications about the involvement of related emotion-processing
mechanisms for human and chimpanzee facial expressions are discussed. Systematic
cross-species-investigations of emotional expressions are needed to unravel how
emotion representation mechanisms can extend to process other species’ faces.
Through such studies, we can better understand the implications of humans’ and
apes’ shared evolutionary ancestry and better understand « Where our emotions
come from ».

 

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus