Biological Psychology 98 (2014) 70–81 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biological Psychology jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/biopsycho Coherence explored between emotion components: Evidence from event-related potentials and facial electromyography Kornelia Gentsch a,b,∗ , Didier Grandjean a,b , Klaus R. Scherer a a Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA), Campus Biotech, 9, Chemin des Mines, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland b Neuroscience of Emotion and Affective Dynamics Lab (NEAD), Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 40 bd du Pont d’Arve, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 July 2013 Accepted 23 November 2013 Available online 6 December 2013 Keywords: Synchronization Coherence Emotion components Event-related potentials Facial electromyography Principal component analysis a b s t r a c t Componential theories assume that emotion episodes consist of emergent and dynamic response changes to relevant events in different components, such as appraisal, physiology, motivation, expression, and subjective feeling. In particular, Scherer’s Component Process Model hypothesizes that subjective feeling emerges when the synchronization (or coherence) of appraisal-driven changes between emotion compo- nents has reached a critical threshold. We examined the prerequisite of this synchronization hypothesis for appraisal-driven response changes in facial expression. The appraisal process was manipulated by using feedback stimuli, presented in a gambling task. Participants’ responses to the feedback were inves- tigated in concurrently recorded brain activity related to appraisal (event-related potentials, ERP) and facial muscle activity (electromyography, EMG). Using principal component analysis, the prediction of appraisal-driven response changes in facial EMG was examined. Results support this prediction: early cognitive processes (related to the feedback-related negativity) seem to primarily affect the upper face, whereas processes that modulate P300 amplitudes tend to predominantly drive cheek region responses. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The concordance across emotion components, or, in more general terms, between activation parameters in central (e.g., brain activity) and peripheral response systems (e.g., facial muscle activity; autonomic physiology such as heart rate, respiration, or skin conductance) is one of the clas- sic issues in psychophysiology research (cf. Fahrenberg & Foerster, 1982). The large number of studies and critical reviews (e.g., Barrett & Russell, 1999; Burdick, 1978; Bush, Luu, & Posner, 2000; Engel, Fries, Konig, Brecht, & Singer, 1999; Grandjean, Sander, & Scherer, 2008; Hajcak, MacNamara, & Olvet, 2010; Harmon-Jones, 2003; Knyazev, 2007; LeDoux, 2012; Lewis, 2005; Morecraft, Stilwell-Morecraft, & Rossing, 2004; Olofsson, Nordin, Sequeira, & Polich, 2008; Scherer, 1988, 2000; Varela, Lachaux, Rodriguez, & Martinerie, 2001) underline the importance of research on this issue. Our aim ∗ Corresponding author at: NCCR Affective Sciences, University of Geneva – CISA, Campus Biotech, Uni Dufour, Rue Général Dufour 24, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 22 379 9827; fax: +41 22 379 9844. E-mail addresses: kornelia.gentsch@unige.ch, korneliagentsch@yahoo.de (K. Gentsch). in the present study was to investigate the prerequisite of the synchronization or coherence hypothesis between central and peripheral psychophysiological measures: we investigated the plausibility of the claim that appraisal results drive the response changes in the peripheral measures (e.g., Scherer, 2009). While participants played a gambling task, we recorded simultaneously the cortical brain activity (event-related potentials, ERPs) and facial electromyography (EMG; placed over frontalis, corrugator, and cheek regions). 1.1. Concordance from the perspective of componential emotion theory In componential emotion theory, the term ‘synchronization’ (Grandjean & Scherer, 2009) refers to the development of con- cordant, coherent, temporally correlated, or synchronized response changes in the emotion components (i.e., appraisal, facial expres- sions, physiological changes, action tendencies, and subjective feeling). Coherent response changes emerge despite the different response dynamics (i.e., latency, patterning, and intensity) in each emotion component during an emotional episode. We are using in this context the terms ‘synchronization’, ‘coherence’, and ‘con- cordance’ synonymously. One componential emotion theory—the Component Process Model (CPM; Scherer, 1984, 2009)—proposes 0301-0511/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.11.007