CUBE LECTURE - Neural correlates of vocal emotion expression: Neuroimaging and patient evidence

Emotion expressions play a crucial part in human and non-human primate social interaction. Our understanding of the neural bases of emotion processing in general and vocal emotion expressions in particular has majorly advanced through clinical data as well as recent neuroimaging approaches such as fMRI and ERPs.

The picture that emerges substantiates a differentiated contribution of bilateral brain areas to a multi-step analysis of vocal emotion expressions. This calls into question a classical right hemisphere lateralization hypothesis.

The current talk will focus on both clinical, ERP, and fMRI evidence in support of a proposed multi-step model of vocal emotion processing (Schirmer & Kotz, 2006; Kotz & Paulmann, in press), will highlight the role of the human voice, and draw comparisons between human and non-human primate vocal emotion expressions.