At the Neural Intersection Between Language and Emotion

Abstract

What role does language play in emotion? Behavioral research shows that emotion words such as "anger" and "fear" alter emotion experience, but questions still remain about mechanism. Here, we review the neuroscience literature to examine whether neural processes associated with semantics are also involved in emotion. Our review suggests that brain regions involved in the semantic processing of words: (i) are engaged during experiences of emotion, (ii) coordinate with brain regions involved in affect to create emotions, (iii) hold representational content for emotion, and (iv) may be necessary for constructing emotional experience. We relate these findings with respect to four theoretical relationships between language and emotion, which we refer to as "non-interactive," "interactive," "constitutive," and "deterministic." We conclude that findings are most consistent with the interactive and constitutive views with initial evidence suggestive of a constitutive view, in particular. We close with several future directions that may help test hypotheses of the constitutive view.

Approach‐avoidance responses and categorical perception of ambiguous facial expressions

“…For categorical perception in Experiment 2, there was no longer a difference in response time between facial expression conditions because of verbal load. This is consistent with the finding that linguistic interference delays the categorisation of facial expressions (Gendron et al, 2012;Satpute & Lindquist, 2021). Since the sorting of facial expressions into specific emotional categories is a linguistic process, the verbal load may have caused a delay in the categorisation of typical facial expressions.…”

“…Experiment 2 used a similar task with a verbal load to examine whether the approach-avoidance response was a nonverbal process. Previous studies have shown that linguistic interference can inhibit sorting facial expressions into specific emotion categories (Gendron et al, 2012;Satpute & Lindquist, 2021). However, Experiment 2 showed that linguistic loading inhibited sorting facial expressions into emotion categories but had no effect on the approach-avoidance response to typical angry and fearful facial expressions.…”

“…Moreover, visual interference does not affect these facial expressions, and only linguistic interference inhibits categorisation (Reed & Steed, 2015). This is likely because the sorting of facial expressions into emotion categories is a linguistic process (Barrett et al, 2007;Gendron et al, 2012;Satpute & Lindquist, 2021). Therefore, if the categorisation of emotions is a linguistic process and the approach-avoidance response is a non-linguistic process, it is expected that the latter would not be inhibited by verbal loading.…”

The Role of Interoceptive Sensibility and Emotional Conceptualization for the Experience of Emotions

“…In the TCE, Barrett and colleagues assume that at least four components may be involved in the construction and experience of emotions, namely, core affect, conceptualization, attention, and the verbalization of emotions ( Barrett and Lisa Feldman, 2006 , Barrett, 2017a , b ; Lindquist et al, 2012 ; MacCormack and Lindquist, 2017 ). In the current study, we focused on how potential correlates of core affect and conceptualization moderate the experience of emotions (for detailed reviews on attention and emotional verbalization see Barrett et al, 2004 ; Lindquist, 2017 ; Hoemann et al, 2019 ; Satpute and Lindquist, 2021 ).…”

Towards causal explanations of language mechanisms behind emotion development

“…An element for such a theory can be drawn from Gendron and Barrett's (2018) Theory of Constructed Emotion (TCE), which posits that people use language to co-construct emotions as they engage in dynamic interactions. Underpinned by neuroscientific evidence (for an updated review, see Satpute & Lindquist, 2021), TCE centres language as the main driver for the synchronised and nuanced conceptualisations of people's experiences and perceptions of emotion. Implicitly, language (e.g., words for mental states) serves as an efficient means for initiating predictions about an emotion by activating prior conceptual knowledge that is relevant to a certain situation (Gendron & Barrett, 2018).…”