Computer-generated characters, so-called avatars, are widely used in advertising, entertainment, human-computer interaction or as research tools to investigate human emotion perception. However, brain responses to avatar and human faces have scarcely been studied to date. As such, it remains unclear whether dynamic facial expressions of avatars evoke different brain responses than dynamic facial expressions of humans. In this study, we designed anthropomorphic avatars animated with motion tracking and tested whether the human brain processes fearful and neutral expressions in human and avatar faces differently. Our fMRI results showed that fearful human expressions evoked stronger responses than fearful avatar expressions in the ventral anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus, the anterior insula, the anterior and posterior superior temporal sulcus, and the inferior frontal gyrus. Fearful expressions in human and avatar faces evoked similar responses in the amygdala. We did not find different responses to neutral human and avatar expressions. Our results highlight differences, but also similarities in the processing of fearful human expressions and fearful avatar expressions even if they are designed to be highly anthropomorphic and animated with motion tracking. This has important consequences for research using dynamic avatars, especially when processes are investigated that involve cortical and subcortical regions.

中文翻译：

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动态的人类和头像面部表情会引起不同的大脑反应。

计算机生成的角色，即所谓的化身，广泛用于广告，娱乐，人机交互或研究人类情感感知的研究工具。然而，迄今为止，很少研究大脑对化身和人脸的反应。因此，尚不清楚化身的动态面部表情是否会引起与人类的动态面部表情不同的大脑反应。在这项研究中，我们设计了具有运动跟踪动画的拟人化身，并测试了人脑在人脸和化身中处理恐惧表情和中性表情的方式是否不同。我们的fMRI结果显示，在腹侧前扣带回和后扣带回，前岛岛，颞上和后沟中，人类的恐惧表情比恐惧的表情表达出更强的反应，和额下回。人类和化身脸上可怕的表情在杏仁核中引起了类似的反应。我们没有发现对中性人类和化身表达的不同反应。我们的结果强调了在恐惧的人类表情和恐惧的化身表情的处理过程中的差异和相似之处，即使它们被设计为高度拟人化并具有运动跟踪动画效果。这对于使用动态化身的研究具有重要意义，特别是在研究涉及皮质和皮质下区域的过程时。而且在处理可怕的人类表情和可怕的化身表情时也有相似之处，即使它们被设计为高度拟人化并具有运动跟踪动画效果也是如此。这对于使用动态化身的研究具有重要意义，特别是在研究涉及皮质和皮质下区域的过程时。而且在处理可怕的人类表情和可怕的化身表情时也有相似之处，即使它们被设计为高度拟人化并具有运动跟踪动画效果也是如此。这对于使用动态化身的研究具有重要意义，特别是在研究涉及皮质和皮质下区域的过程时。