title: Role of orientation in perception of emotions.
abstract: Our study examined whether perception of novel emotions, as with perception of novel objects, elicits a cardiac orientation reaction. Using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, data from 11 adult subjects showed that orientation to both novel emotions and novel objects elicited a heart-rate deceleration. Results suggest that the orientation reaction may be an integral part of perception of emotion. Perception of emotions, therefore, is a complex, multistep process that includes an early orientation reaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK. E.Nagy@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Emese
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Loveland
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Molnar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual