RESUMO
Following theories of emotional embodiment, the facial feedback hypothesis suggests that individuals' subjective experiences of emotion are influenced by their facial expressions. However, evidence for this hypothesis has been mixed. We thus formed a global adversarial collaboration and carried out a preregistered, multicentre study designed to specify and test the conditions that should most reliably produce facial feedback effects. Data from n = 3,878 participants spanning 19 countries indicated that a facial mimicry and voluntary facial action task could both amplify and initiate feelings of happiness. However, evidence of facial feedback effects was less conclusive when facial feedback was manipulated unobtrusively via a pen-in-mouth task.
Assuntos
Emoções , Expressão Facial , Humanos , Retroalimentação , Felicidade , FaceRESUMO
Recent theories propose that abstract concepts, compared to concrete ones, might activate to a larger extent interoceptive, social and linguistic experiences. At the same time, recent research has underlined the importance of investigating how different sub-kinds of abstract concepts are represented. We report a pre-registered experiment, preceded by a pilot study, in which we asked participants to evaluate the difficulty of 3 kinds of concrete concepts (natural objects, tools, and food concepts) and abstract concepts (Philosophical and Spiritual concepts, PS, Physical Space Time and Quantity concepts, PSTQ, and Emotional, Mental State and Social concepts, EMSS). While rating the words, participants were assigned to different conditions designed to interfere with conceptual processing: they were required to squeeze a ball (hand motor system activation), to chew gum (mouth motor system activation), to self-estimate their heartbeats (interoception), and to perform a motor articulatory task (inner speech involvement). In a control condition they simply rated the difficulty of words. A possible interference should result in the increase of the difficulty ratings. Bayesian analyses reveal that, compared to concrete ones, abstract concepts are more grounded in interoceptive experience and concrete concepts less in linguistic experience (mouth motor system involvement), and that the experience on which different kinds of abstract and concrete concepts differs widely. For example, within abstract concepts interoception plays a major role for EMSS and PS concepts, while the ball squeezing condition interferes more for PSTQ concepts, confirming that PSTQ are the most concrete among abstract concepts, and tap into sensorimotor manual experience. Implications of the results for current theories of conceptual representation are discussed.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: The illusory ownership of a fake hand as part the body follows synchronous tactile stimulation over a visible rubber hand and a covered hand. Whether brain plasticity mechanisms after sensory and motor disconnection modulates this illusion remain unexplored. METHODS: We tested a tetraplegic man after synchronous and asynchronous stimulation of the hand and face. RESULTS: The illusory ownership of the fake hand was tested four times in separate days and always reported. To verify whether this ownership feeling generalized also to object not resembling the human body we tested this illusion with a plastic bottle and a rubber hand. The illusionary perception of owning an external object using the rubber hand paradigm showed that the temporally matched tactile stimulation on a fake hand and visual capture mechanism create the illusionary feeling that the rubber hand was part of his body. CONCLUSIONS: Despite lesions that dramatically disconnect the access to sensory inputs and motor outputs our data suggests a strong visual capture of a rubber hand and a possible remapping of hand-face representations after the spinal lesion. We suggest that vision and brain plasticity may represent a supportive tool for motor rehabilitation in patients with sensory deficits.