Emotions and the Body

Beatrice de Gelder

Systematically examines the role that bodies play in the expression and perception of emotions, and in human communication more broadly
Offers a new and innovative view on the relationship between emotion and action
Moves the study of emotion perception away from exisiting research, which traditionally casts the face as the gateway to understanding human cognition

Emotions and the Body

Beatrice de Gelder

Description

The face has long been considered the gateway to understanding human emotion and cognition. Body language is an equally powerful means of communication, however. Although faces and bodies can express themselves in many similar ways, examining their differences may be the best way to learn how bodies communicate. Exploring the body's role in perceiving and expressing emotion has opened broad new avenues for research in cognitive neuroscience.

Emotions and the Body discusses the neural basis and temporal processing signatures of emotional body language by drawing on state-of-the-art research in the neuropsychology of emotional face and body disorders. Beatrice de Gelder explores a range of fascinating questions such as: How do facial and bodily expressions interact? What role does emotional body language play in social interaction? If body language is perceived even with limited attention and reduced visual awareness, as studies with patients have shown, then what is the nature of emotional experience, and how is awareness affected? Are some cultures less expressive in their body language? And are there notable gender and cultural differences in emotional body language, as is the case for facial expressions?

Research on emotional body language shows that emotions are tools for adaptive action, and that they allow us to predict interactions with real, imagined, and virtual others. These data prompt de Gelder to consider virtual bodies as well as physical ones, including avatars and robots. The wide-ranging implications of her study will appeal especially to scholars and students of cognitive neuroscience, but also to those working in such related fields as information and communication technology, computer science, animation, and robotics.

Emotions and the Body

Beatrice de Gelder

Introduction
Chapter 1 Why Bodies?
Chapter 2 Face Perception and Its Context
Chapter 3 Emotions: Measuring the Impossible?
Chapter 4 Seeing Actions: Understanding Intentions and Feeling Emotions
Chapter 5 The Functional Brain Basis of Bodily Expressions
Chapter 6 Emotion Traffic: High Roads, Low Roads, and Multiple Roads to Unconscious Body Perception
Chapter 7 The Time Course of Emotional Body Perception
Chapter 8 Gender, Culture, and Context Differences in the Recognition of Bodily Expressions
Chapter 9 Body Consciousness, Body Perception Deficits, and Virtual Bodies
Chapter 10 Interactions, or Why It Takes More Than One to Tango
Bibliography
Index

Emotions and the Body

Beatrice de Gelder

Author Information

Beatrice de Gelder

Beatrice de Gelder is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Emotions and the Body

Beatrice de Gelder

Reviews and Awards

"Beatrice deGelder, in an impressive synthesis, illuminates the linkages between the modern social and affective neurosciences, enlivened by the complexities of our real-life social interactions that arise from our cognitive and cultural natures and nurtures. By grounding her multi-dimensional analysis of emotions in action dynamics, she brings an important old (Darwinian) view, much refreshed, to modern emotion studies. Her synthesis is nourished by the explicit gestural details and felt nuances of our "genuine affective social interactions". Her data and insights have the potential to bring different schools of emotion studies together, toward a scientifically substantive social-world-brain synthesis that the field desperately needs." - Jaak Panksepp, Professor of Neuroscience and Baily Endowed Chair in Animal Well-Being Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University

"It is very detailed and suitable as a good reference: it is particularly useful the presence of bibliography and references throughout the text. Given the wide-ranging implications of treated affective studies, the book audience targets especially students of cognitive neuroscience, needing to improve the background of their discipline, but also to those working in other related fields, as informatics and communication technology, computer science and robotics." - Central Nervous System Agents in Medicinal Chemistry Vol. 17, Issue No. 1, Laura Betti