Research Article

Association of trait emotional intelligence and individual fMRI-activation patterns during the perception of social signals from voice and face

  1. Benjamin Kreifelts1,*,
  2. Thomas Ethofer1,2,
  3. Elisabeth Huberle3,
  4. Wolfgang Grodd2,
  5. Dirk Wildgruber1,2

Article first published online: 23 NOV 2009

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20913

Issue

Human Brain Mapping

Human Brain Mapping

Volume 31, Issue 7, pages 979–991, July 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Kreifelts, B., Ethofer, T., Huberle, E., Grodd, W. and Wildgruber, D. (2010), Association of trait emotional intelligence and individual fMRI-activation patterns during the perception of social signals from voice and face. Human Brain Mapping, 31: 979–991. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20913

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

  2. 2

    Section of Experimental MR of the CNS, Department of Neuroradiology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

  3. 3

    Department of General Neurology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

*Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tuebingen, Osianderstrasse 24, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 11 JUN 2010
  2. Article first published online: 23 NOV 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 25 AUG 2009
  4. Manuscript Revised: 24 AUG 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 16 APR 2009

Funded by

  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Grant Number: SFB 550 B10
  • Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience

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Keywords:

  • crossmodal integration;
  • facial expression;
  • prosody;
  • social cognition;
  • STS

Abstract

Multimodal integration of nonverbal social signals is essential for successful social interaction. Previous studies have implicated the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the perception of social signals such as nonverbal emotional signals as well as in social cognitive functions like mentalizing/theory of mind. In the present study, we evaluated the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and fMRI activation patterns in individual subjects during the multimodal perception of nonverbal emotional signals from voice and face. Trait EI was linked to hemodynamic responses in the right pSTS, an area which also exhibits a distinct sensitivity to human voices and faces. Within all other regions known to subserve the perceptual audiovisual integration of human social signals (i.e., amygdala, fusiform gyrus, thalamus), no such linked responses were observed. This functional difference in the network for the audiovisual perception of human social signals indicates a specific contribution of the pSTS as a possible interface between the perception of social information and social cognition. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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