UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

TMS disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions.

Pitcher, D; Garrido, L; Walsh, V; Duchaine, B; (2008) TMS disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions. Journal of Neuroscience , 28 (36) 8929 - 8933. Green open access

[thumbnail of 8929.full.pdf]
Preview
PDF
8929.full.pdf

Download (272kB)

Abstract

Theories of embodied cognition propose that recognizing facial expressions requires processing in visual areas followed by simulation of the somatovisceral responses associated with the perceived expression. To test this proposal, we targeted the right occipital face area (rOFA) and the face region of right somatosensory cortex with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) while participants discriminated facial expressions. rTMS selectively impaired discrimination of facial expressions at both sites but had no effect on a matched face identity task. Site specificity within the right somatosensory cortex was then demonstrated by targeting rTMS at the face and finger regions while participants performed the expression discrimination task. rTMS targeted at the face region impaired task performance relative to rTMS targeted at the finger region. To establish the temporal course of visual and somatosensory contributions to expression processing, double pulse TMS was then delivered at different times to rOFA and right somatosensory cortex during expression discrimination. Accuracy dropped when pulses were delivered at 60-100ms at rOFA and at 100-140ms and 130-170ms at right somatosensory cortex. These sequential impairments at rOFA and right somatosensory cortex support embodied accounts of expression recognition as well as hierarchical models of face processing. The results also demonstrate that non-visual cortical areas contribute during early stages of expression processing.

Type: Article
Title: TMS disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions.
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The license allows you to copy, distribute, and transmit the work, as well as adapting it. However, you must attribute the work to the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work), and cannot use the work for commercial purposes without prior permission of the author. If you alter or build upon this work, you can distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/179016
Downloads since deposit
330Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item