Feature Characteristics of ERPs and Eye Movements in response to Facial Expressions

Abstract

The features of EEGs and eye movements were extracted to identify viewer’s emotional responses during the viewing of photos of facial expressions in order to understand the physiological reaction that occurs during the perception progress for emotions. Both EEGs and eye movements were measured using electro-oculograms (EOGs). Facial expressions from a photo database were classified into two groups according to the viewer’s subjective evaluation of whether the facial images where “Pleasant” or “Unpleasant”. The group that the photos of facial expressions belonged to was predicted using the extracted features, and the prediction performance was analysed. A correlation analysis of the frequency powers extracted from EEGs and eye movements was also conducted, and the differences in relationships between the emotional categories was discussed. The results provide evidence of the chronological process during the perception of visual emotion and of the mutual EEGs and eye movement activity that these reactions produce.