TY - JOUR
T1 - A kiss is not a kiss
T2 - Visually evoked neuromagnetic fields reveal differential sensitivities to brief presentations of kissing couples
AU - Cogan, Gregory B.
AU - Kirshenbaum, Sheril R.
AU - Walker, Jeffrey
AU - Poeppel, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/9/7
Y1 - 2015/9/7
N2 - With a few exceptions, the literature on face recognition and its neural basis derives from the presentation of single faces. However, in many ecologically typical situations, we see more than one face, in different communicative contexts. One of the principal ways in which we interact using our faces is kissing. Although there is no obvious taxonomy of kissing, we kiss in various interpersonal situations (greeting, ceremony, sex), with different goals and partners. Here, we assess the visual cortical responses elicited by viewing different couples kissing with different intents. The study thus lies at the nexus of face recognition, action recognition, and social neuroscience. Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from nine participants in a passive viewing paradigm. We presented images of couples kissing, with the images differing along two dimensions, kiss type and couple type. We quantified event-related field amplitudes and latencies. In each participant, the canonical sequence of event-related fields was observed, including an M100, an M170, and a later M400 response. The earliest two responses were significantly modulated in latency (M100) or amplitude (M170) by the sex composition of the images (with male-male and female-female pairings yielding faster latency M100 and larger amplitude M170 responses). In contrast, kiss type showed no modulation of any brain response. The early cortical-evoked fields that we typically associate with the presentation and analysis of single faces are differentially sensitive to complex social and action information in face pairs that are kissing. The early responses, typically associated with perceptual analysis, exhibit a consistent grouping and suggest a high and rapid sensitivity to the composition of the kissing pairs.
AB - With a few exceptions, the literature on face recognition and its neural basis derives from the presentation of single faces. However, in many ecologically typical situations, we see more than one face, in different communicative contexts. One of the principal ways in which we interact using our faces is kissing. Although there is no obvious taxonomy of kissing, we kiss in various interpersonal situations (greeting, ceremony, sex), with different goals and partners. Here, we assess the visual cortical responses elicited by viewing different couples kissing with different intents. The study thus lies at the nexus of face recognition, action recognition, and social neuroscience. Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from nine participants in a passive viewing paradigm. We presented images of couples kissing, with the images differing along two dimensions, kiss type and couple type. We quantified event-related field amplitudes and latencies. In each participant, the canonical sequence of event-related fields was observed, including an M100, an M170, and a later M400 response. The earliest two responses were significantly modulated in latency (M100) or amplitude (M170) by the sex composition of the images (with male-male and female-female pairings yielding faster latency M100 and larger amplitude M170 responses). In contrast, kiss type showed no modulation of any brain response. The early cortical-evoked fields that we typically associate with the presentation and analysis of single faces are differentially sensitive to complex social and action information in face pairs that are kissing. The early responses, typically associated with perceptual analysis, exhibit a consistent grouping and suggest a high and rapid sensitivity to the composition of the kissing pairs.
KW - Action recognition
KW - Face recognition
KW - M170
KW - Magnetoencephalography
KW - N170
KW - N400
KW - Social neuroscience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940945798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84940945798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000435
DO - 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000435
M3 - Article
C2 - 26287497
AN - SCOPUS:84940945798
SN - 0959-4965
VL - 26
SP - 850
EP - 855
JO - NeuroReport
JF - NeuroReport
IS - 14
ER -