Cortical Regions for Judgments of Emotions and Personality Traits from Point-light Walkers
Abstract
Humans are able to use nonverbal behavior to make fast, reliable judgments of both emotional states and personality traits. Whereas a sizeable body of research has identified neural structures critical for emotion recognition, the neural substrates of personality trait attribution have not been explored in detail. In the present study, we investigated the neural systems involved in emotion and personality trait judgments. We used a type of visual stimulus that is known to convey both emotion and personality information, namely, point-light walkers. We compared the emotion and personality trait judgments made by subjects with brain damage to those made by neurologically normal subjects and then conducted a lesion overlap analysis to identify neural regions critical for these two tasks. Impairments on the two tasks dissociated: Some subjects were impaired at emotion recognition, but judged personality normally; other subjects were impaired on the personality task, but normal at emotion recognition. Moreover, these dissociations in performance were associated with damage to specific neural regions: Right somatosensory cortices were a primary focus of lesion overlap in subjects impaired on the emotion task, whereas left frontal opercular cortices were a primary focus of lesion overlap in subjects impaired on the personality task. These findings suggest that attributions of emotional states and personality traits are accomplished by partially dissociable neural systems.
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People can spontaneously infer mental states even for targets without actual minds.
“People can spontaneously infer mental states even for targets without actual minds.”
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- Authors
- Heberlein, A. S., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Damasio, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Iowa (US)
- University of Iowa
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2004-09-01
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1143-1158
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2104227741
- Cited by
- 257
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 7.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (T32-NS07413, NS-19632, T32NS007413)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- emotion recognition, point-light walker, nonverbal behavior, somatosensory cortex, frontal operculum, brain damage, neural correlates, social cognition, facial expression perception
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Brain Damage, Chronic, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Emotions, Female, Humans, Judgment, Functional Laterality, Male, Middle Aged, Nonverbal Communication, Personality, Photic Stimulation, Reference Values, Recognition, Psychology
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