ABSTRACT

The perception of facial and vocal emotional expressions engages overlapping regions of the brain. However, at a behavioral level, the ability to recognize the intended emotion in both types of nonverbal cues follows a divergent developmental trajectory throughout childhood and adolescence. The current study a) identified regions of common neural activation to facial and vocal stimuli in 8- to 19-year-old typically-developing adolescents, and b) examined age-related changes in blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) response within these areas. Both modalities elicited activation in an overlapping network of subcortical regions (insula, thalamus, dorsal striatum), visual-motor association areas, prefrontal regions (inferior frontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), and the right superior temporal gyrus. Within these regions, increased age was associated with greater frontal activation to voices, but not faces. Results suggest that processing facial and vocal stimuli elicits activation in common areas of the brain in adolescents, but that age-related changes in response within these regions may vary by modality.

摘要

面部和声音情绪表达的感知涉及大脑的重叠区域。然而，在行为层面，在两种类型的非语言线索中识别预期情绪的能力在整个童年和青春期遵循不同的发展轨迹。目前的研究 a) 确定了 8 至 19 岁典型发育青少年的面部和声音刺激的常见神经激活区域，以及 b) 检查了与年龄相关的血氧水平依赖 (BOLD) 反应的变化。这些领域。两种方式都在皮层下区域（岛叶、丘脑、背侧纹状体）、视觉运动关联区域、前额叶区域（下额叶皮层、背内侧前额叶皮层）和右侧颞上回的重叠网络中引起激活。在这些区域内，年龄增加与声音的正面激活有关，但与面部无关。结果表明，处理面部和声音刺激会引起青少年大脑公共区域的激活，但这些区域内与年龄相关的反应变化可能因模式而异。