Perceiving emotion in crowds: the role of dynamic body postures on the perception of emotion in crowded scenes

Comprehending the meaning of body postures is essential for social organisms such as humans. For example, it is important to understand at a glance whether two people seen at a distance are in a friendly or conflictual interaction. However, it is still unclear what fraction of the possible body configurations carry meaning, and what is the best way to characterize such meaning. Here, we address this by using stick figures as a low-dimensional, yet evocative, representation of body postures. We systematically scanned a set of 1,470 upper-body postures of stick figures in a dyad with a second stick figure with a neutral pose. We asked participants to rate the stick figure in terms of 20 emotion adjectives like sad or triumphant and in terms of eight active verbs that connote intent like to threaten and to comfort. The stick figure configuration space was dense with meaning: people strongly agreed on more than half of the configurations. The meaning was generally smooth in the sense that small changes in posture had a small effect on the meaning, but certain small changes had a large effect. Configurations carried meaning in both emotions and intent, but the intent verbs covered more configurations. The effectiveness of the intent verbs in describing body postures aligns with a theory, originating from the theater, called dramatic action theory. This suggests that, in addition to the well-studied role of emotional states in describing body language, much can be gained by using also dramatic action verbs which signal the effort to change the state of others. We provide a dictionary of stick figure configurations and their perceived meaning. This systematic scan of body configurations might be useful to teaching people and machines to decipher body postures in human interactions.

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Cerebellar contribution to emotional body language perception: a TMS study

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsz074 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Chiara Ferrari ◽

Andrea Ciricugno ◽

Cosimo Urgesi ◽

Zaira Cattaneo

Keyword(s):

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Body Postures ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Promising Tool ◽

Emotional Face Processing ◽

Affective Deficits ◽

Early Visual Cortex ◽

Emotional Face ◽

Healthy Participants

Abstract Consistent evidence suggests that the cerebellum contributes to the processing of emotional facial expressions. However, it is not yet known whether the cerebellum is recruited when emotions are expressed by body postures or movements, or whether it is recruited differently for positive and negative emotions. In this study, we asked healthy participants to discriminate between body postures (with masked face) expressing emotions of opposite valence (happiness vs anger, Experiment 1), or of the same valence (negative: anger vs sadness; positive: happiness vs surprise, Experiment 2). While performing the task, participants received online transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over a region of the posterior left cerebellum and over two control sites (early visual cortex and vertex). We found that TMS over the cerebellum affected participants’ ability to discriminate emotional body postures, but only when one of the emotions was negatively valenced (i.e. anger). These findings suggest that the cerebellar region we stimulated is involved in processing the emotional content conveyed by body postures and gestures. Our findings complement prior evidence on the role of the cerebellum in emotional face processing and have important implications from a clinical perspective, where non-invasive cerebellar stimulation is a promising tool for the treatment of motor, cognitive and affective deficits.

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Foraging postures are a potential communicative signal in female bonobos

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-72451-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Elisa Demuru ◽

François Pellegrino ◽

Dan Dediu ◽

Florence Levréro

Keyword(s):

Functional Role ◽

Pan Paniscus ◽

Social Relevance ◽

Body Postures ◽

Sexual Swellings ◽

Anogenital Region ◽

Males And Females ◽

Communicative Role ◽

Do So

Abstract Body postures are essential in animal behavioural repertoires and their communicative role has been assessed in a wide array of taxa and contexts. Some body postures function as amplifiers, a class of signals that increase the detection likelihood of other signals. While foraging on the ground, bonobos (Pan paniscus) can adopt different crouching postures exposing more or less of their genital area. To our knowledge, their potential functional role in the sociosexual life of bonobos has not been assessed yet. Here we show, by analysing more than 2,400 foraging events in 21 captive bonobos, that mature females adopt a rear-exposing posture (forelimb-crouch) and do so significantly more often when their anogenital region is swollen than during the non-swollen phase. In contrast, mature males almost completely avoid this posture. Moreover, this strong difference results from a diverging ontogeny between males and females since immature males and females adopt the forelimb-crouch at similar frequencies. Our findings suggest that the forelimb-crouch posture may play a communicative role of amplification by enhancing the visibility of female sexual swellings, a conspicuous signal that is very attractive for both males and females. Given the high social relevance of this sexual signal, our study emphasizes that postural signalling in primates probably deserves more attention, even outside of reproductive contexts.

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Role of Yogasana in Arsho Roga

Journal of Ayurveda and Integrated Medical Sciences (JAIMS) ◽

10.21760/jaims.v1i2.3662 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Dr. Aayeesha Mulla ◽

Chavan SG ◽

Prashanth AS

Keyword(s):

Chronic Constipation ◽

Digestive System ◽

Burning Sensation ◽

Body Postures ◽

The Gift ◽

Bowel Movements ◽

Bleeding Per Rectum ◽

Characteristic Features ◽

Healthy Body

A sound soul in a healthy body can achieve the over lasting and unabated peace and bliss, which is the ultimatum of each and every human being, so no gift surpass the gift of life. Arsha is the commonest anorectal condition seen in the practice of proctology. Recent statistics reveals that more than 60% of population suffers from this disease. This condition, even though seldom fatal, gives more trouble to the sufferer and poses greater difficulty for treatment. In modern Arshas can be correlated with hemorrhoids. Chronic constipation is a most common cause of hemorrhoids. Usually due to chronic constipation more pressure exerted on Haemorrhoidal veins as they have not contain any extra bony support hence it causes friction in the region which leads to varicosity of Haemorrhoidal veins which again due to chronic constipation yet strained and burst resulting in formation of haemorrhoidal mass. Bleeding per rectum, Pain, Constipation, Itching, Burning sensation are the characteristic features of Hemorrhoids. Yoga is a collection of body postures but total living an eternal source of scintillating health and happiness Yoga can help ease the pain and discomfort of digestive troubles like constipation. Yoga alleviates constipation. The way yoga benefits digestive system is through twisting poses, inversions, and forward folds. These poses massage to digestive organs, increase blood flow and oxygen delivery, aid the process of peristalsis, and encourage stools to move through digestive system. Doing yoga regularly can result in regular, healthy bowel movements with postures of different Yogasanas like Vajrasana, Halasana, Paschimottasana, Matsyasana, Sarvangasana, Bhujangasana.

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Effects of Gravity on Velopharyngeal Muscle Activity during Speech

The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal ◽

10.1597/1545-1569_1995_032_0371_eogovm_2.3.co_2 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 371-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Jerald B. Moon ◽

John W. Canady

Keyword(s):

Motor Control ◽

Muscle Activity ◽

Muscle Activation ◽

Body Position ◽

Significant Group ◽

Body Postures ◽

Levator Veli Palatini ◽

Gravity Effects ◽

Velopharyngeal Function

Assessment of the role of gravitational forces in the motor control of the velopharyngeal mechanism was the focus of this study. Specifically, the effect of gravity on activation levels of the levator veli palatini and palatoglossus muscles was assessed. Nineteen volunteers repeated a CV syllable in upright and supine body positions. Overall, lower peak activation levels of levator veli palatini were observed in the supine body position. The results suggest that less muscle activity was seen in the levator veli palatini in the supine body posture, where gravitational effects worked in the same direction (i.e., toward closure). No statistically significant group effects were seen in muscle activation levels of palatoglossus across the two body postures, although clear gravity effects were observed in some subjects. The implications of these findings from a speech motor control perspective are discussed in relation to normal and disordered velopharyngeal function.

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The Role of Body Postures in the Recognition of Emotions in Contextually Rich Scenarios

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction ◽

10.1080/10447318.2013.802200 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 52-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Stéphanie Buisine ◽

Matthieu Courgeon ◽

Aurélien Charles ◽

Céline Clavel ◽

Jean-Claude Martin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Postures ◽

Recognition Of Emotions

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Person or Puppet? The Role of Stimulus Realism in Attributing Emotion to Static Body Postures

Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-74889-2_8 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 83-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Marco Pasch ◽

Ronald Poppe

Keyword(s):

Body Postures ◽

Static Body

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Insights into cisplatin-induced neurotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction in Caenorhabditis elegans

10.1101/2021.06.03.445826 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Carmen Martinez-Fernandez ◽

Milana Bergamino ◽

David Brena ◽

Natascia Ventura ◽

Sebastian Honnen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽

Protective Role ◽

Automated System ◽

Dopamine Synthesis ◽

Physiological Level ◽

Body Postures ◽

C Elegans ◽

Mitochondrial Functions ◽

Dose Dependent

Cisplatin is the most common drug in first-line chemotherapy against solid tumors. We and others have previously used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to identify genetic factors influencing the sensitivity and resistance to cisplatin. In this study, we take advantage of C. elegans to explore cisplatin effects on mitochondrial functions and investigate cisplatin-induced neurotoxicity through a high-resolution semi-automated system for evaluating locomotion. Firstly, we report that a high-glucose diet sensitizes C. elegans to cisplatin at the physiological level and that mitochondrial CED-13 protects the cell from cisplatin-induced oxidative stress. Additionally, by assessing mitochondrial function with a Seahorse Analyzer, we observed a detrimental additive effect of cisplatin and glucose in mitochondrial respiration. Secondly, since we previously found that catechol-O-methyltransferases (involved in dopamine degradation) were upregulated upon cisplatin exposure, we studied the protective role of the FDA-approved drug dopamine against cisplatin-induced neurotoxicity. To implement the use of the Tierpsy Tracker system for measuring neurotoxicity in C. elegans, we showed that abnormal displacements and body postures in cat-2 mutants, which have the dopamine synthesis pathway disrupted, can be rescued by adding dopamine. Then, we used such a system to demonstrate that dopamine treatment protects from the dose-dependent neurotoxicity caused by cisplatin.

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