title: Neural correlates of text-based emoticons: a preliminary fMRI study.
abstract: Like nonverbal cues in oral interactions, text-based emoticons, which are textual portrayals of a writer's facial expressions, are commonly used in electronic device-mediated communication. Little is known, however, about how text-based emoticons are processed in the human brain. With this study, we investigated whether the text-based emoticons are processed as face expressions using fMRI.
  
  
  
  During fMRI scan, subjects were asked to respond by pressing a button, indicating whether text-based emoticons represented positive or negative emotions. Voxel-wise analyses were performed to compare the responses and contrasted with emotional versus scrambled emoticons and among emoticons with different emotions. To explore processing strategies for text-based emoticons, brain activity in the bilateral occipital and fusiform face areas were compared.
  
  
  
  In the voxel-wise analysis, both emotional and scrambled emoticons were processed mainly in the bilateral fusiform gyri, inferior division of lateral occipital cortex, inferior frontal gyri, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and parietal cortex. In a percent signal change analysis, the right occipital and fusiform face areas showed significantly higher activation than left ones. In comparisons among emoticons, sad one showed significant BOLD signal decrease in the dACC, the left AIC, the bilateral thalamus, and the precuneus as compared with other conditions.
  
  
  
  The results of this study imply that people recognize text-based emoticons as pictures representing face expressions. Even though text-based emoticons contain emotional meaning, they are not associated with the amygdala while previous studies using emotional stimuli documented amygdala activation.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience and Development Laboratory Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Daejeon Korea; Department of Neurology Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine Seoul Korea.
authors.forename: Ko Woon
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience and Development Laboratory Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Daejeon Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine Daejeon Korea.
authors.forename: Jeewook
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry Eulji University Daejeon Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Min
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience and Development Laboratory Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Daejeon Korea.
authors.forename: Bumseok
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jeong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emoticon; emotion; fMRI; fusiform face area; occipital face area