Enhanced expectation of external sensations of the chest regulates the emotional perception of fearful faces

Jung, Won-Mo; Lee, In-Seon; Lee, Ye-Seul; Ryu, Yeonhee; Park, Hi-Joon; Chae, Younbyoung

doi:10.3390/brainsci11070946

Cited by 2Face Recognition and PerceptionPsychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsTactile and Sensory Interactions

Enhanced expectation of external sensations of the chest regulates the emotional perception of fearful faces

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Jung, Won-Mo, Lee, In-Seon, Lee, Ye-Seul, Ryu, Yeonhee, Park, Hi-Joon, Chae, Younbyoung·2021·Brain Sciences

DOI 10.3390/brainsci11070946PMC PMC8306575

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Abstract

Emotional perception can be shaped by inferences about bodily states. Here, we investigated whether exteroceptive inferences about bodily sensations in the chest area influence the perception of fearful faces. Twenty-two participants received pseudo-electrical acupuncture stimulation at three different acupoints: CV17 (chest), CV23 (chin), and PC6 (left forearm). All stimuli were delivered with corresponding visual cues, and the control condition included visual cues that did not match the stimulated body sites. After the stimulation, the participants were shown images with one of five morphed facial expressions, ranging from 100% fear to 100% disgust, and asked to classify them as fearful or disgusted. Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the facial expression classification task. When the participants expected that they would receive stimulation of the chest (CV17), the ratio of fearful to non-fearful classifications decreased compared to the control condition, and brain activities within the periaqueductal gray and the default mode network decreased when they viewed fearful faces. Our findings suggest that bodily sensations around the chest, but not the other tested body parts, were selectively associated with fear perception and that altering external inferences inhibited the perception of fearful faces.

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Sensations localized to the chest, but not to other body regions, can inhibit the perception of fearful faces.
“In contrast, sensations localized to the chest, but not to other body regions, can inhibit the perception of fearful faces (Jung et al., 2021).”
From Listen to your inner body: embodied emotions in predictive neuroscience and traditional East Asian medicine (2026) · cites this paper as Jung et al., 2021

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Sorted by citations

Listen to your inner body: embodied emotions in predictive neuroscience and traditional East Asian medicine
Lee, S., Yoon, S.-I., Liao, H.-Y., Kim, J. W., Lee, I.-S., & Chae, Y. (2026) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1807034
“In contrast, sensations localized to the chest, but not to other body regions, can inhibit the perception of fearful faces (Jung et al., 2021).”
Self-citation

Authors: Jung, W.-M., Lee, I.-S., Lee, Y.-S., Ryu, Y., Park, H.-J., & Chae, Y.
Affiliations: Kyung Hee University (KR)
Jaseng Medical Foundation (KR)
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KR)
Corresponding author: Chae, Younbyoung
ORCID: Lee, In-Seon
Lee, Ye-Seul
Ryu, Yeonhee
Park, Hi-Joon
Chae, Younbyoung
Venue: Brain Sciences
Publisher: MDPI AG
Published: 2021-07-19
Volume: 11
Issue: 7
Pages: 946
ISSN: 2076-3425 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11070946
PMC: PMC8306575
OpenAlex: W3183466190
Cited by: 2
References: 16
Citations by year: 2026: 2
FWCI: 0.00
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: gold
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor)
Locations: Brain Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders: National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2021R1F1A1046705, No. 2020R1A4A1018598)
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (K18181)
Topics: Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
Keywords: fear perception, facial expression recognition, acupoint stimulation, periaqueductal gray, default mode network, disgust, emotion perception

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Enhanced expectation of external sensations of the chest regulates the emotional perception of fearful faces

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