Multivoxel pattern analysis does not provide evidence to support the existence of basic emotions
Open accessAbstract
Saarimaki et al. (2015) published a paper claiming to find the neural "fingerprints" for anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise using multivariate pattern analysis. There are 2 ways in which Saarimaki et al.'s interpretation mischaracterizes their actual findings. The first is statistical: a pattern that successfully distinguishes the members of one category from the members of another (with an accuracy greater than that which might be expected by chance) is not a "fingerprint" (i.e., an essence); it is an abstract, statistical summary of a variable population of instances. The second way in which Saarimaki et al.'s interpretation mischaracterizes their results is conceptual: their findings do not actually meet the specific criteria for basic emotion theory. Instead, their findings are more consistent with a theory of constructed emotion. In our view, Saarimaki et al. is elegant in method and important in that it demonstrates empirical support for a theory of emotion that relies on population thinking; it is also an example of how essentialism-the belief that all instances of a category possesses necessary features that define what is, and what is not, a category member-contributes to a fundamental misunderstanding of the neural basis of emotion.
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Fear (or any other emotion) is a category populated with highly variable instances.
“My hypothesis, following Darwin’s insight, is that fear (or any other emotion) is a ‘category’ that is populated with highly variable instances”
From The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2016) · cites this paper as Clark-Polner et al., 2016
It is unlikely that all instances of an emotion category share a set of core features.
“it is unlikely that all instances of an emotion category share a set of core features (i.e. a single facial expression, autonomic pattern or set of neurons; see Clark-Polner et al., 2016).”
From The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2016) · cites this paper as Clark-Polner et al., 2016
Supposed prototypic brain biomarkers for a given emotion category vary substantially across studies and across subjects within a given study.
“Even the supposed prototypic brain 'biomarkers' for a given emotion category vary substantially across studies, 65,[72][73][74][75][76] and across subjects within a given study.34,55,63,65,69,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83]”
From A new science of emotion: implications for functional neurological disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [63]
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Emotional expressions reconsidered: Challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements
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“My hypothesis, following Darwin’s insight, is that fear (or any other emotion) is a ‘category’ that is populated with highly variable instances (Clark-Polner et al. , 2016; Clark-Polner, Johnson & Barrett, 2016; e.g. Wilson-Mendenhall et al. , 2011, 2015).”
Self-citationThe theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization
Barrett, L. F. (2017) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsx060 · Cited by 950 · see citing works
“Therefore, it is unlikely that all instances of an emotion category share a set of core features (i.e. a single facial expression, autonomic pattern or set of neurons; see Clark-Polner et al., 2016).”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Clark-Polner, E., Johnson, T. D., & Barrett, L. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Barrett, Lisa Feldman
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-02-29
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- bhw028
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- PMC
- PMC6093086
- OpenAlex
- W2290366356
- Cited by
- 97
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 8.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- US National Institute on Aging (R01AG030311)
- US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (W5J9CQ-12-C-0049, W5J9CQ-11-C-0046)
- US National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- basic emotions, multi-voxel pattern analysis, neural fingerprints, constructed emotion, essentialism, emotion classification, neural basis of emotion
- MeSH terms
- Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Humans, Thinking
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