Language access differentially alters functional connectivity during emotion perception across cultures

Introduction: Emotion perception is often assumed to be automatic and driven solely by facial muscle configurations, yet accumulating evidence suggests that perceivers’ conceptual knowledge—including that shaped by culture and accessed via emotion words—contributes to how facial movements are interpreted. Methods: To test cultural influence and concept accessibility, Chinese and White American participants underwent fMRI while viewing White American actors posing anger and disgust. Across four runs, participants were primed at the start of each run with an English emotion label ("anger" or "disgust") or control text ("XXXXXX"). Functional connectivity during emotion perception was assessed using gPPI between seeds (left inferior frontal gyrus [IFG] and bilateral amygdala) and regions implicated in semantic processing, visual perception, and social cognition. Results: Priming "disgust" (vs. control) before disgust faces led Chinese participants to show decreased functional connectivity between IFG and regions supporting semantic processing, visual perception, and social cognition; priming "anger" had no effect for Chinese participants, and priming had no effect for White American participants. Discussion: Findings provide preliminary evidence that access to emotion words differentially impacts neural connectivity during emotion perception as a function of cultural background.

Joseph Leshin, Maleah J. Carter, Cameron M. Doyle, Kristen A. Lindquist