Using automated, integrated technology to study emotion and development via the Facility for Affective Neuroscience

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Humans confront emotionally evocative circumstances repeatedly on any given day, such that detecting and processing emotional information is a key part of human adaptation. It is therefore unsurprising that recent views on brain function highlight the intrinsic, interrelated networks shared by emotion processes and virtually all cognitive domains. However, scientific progress in understanding the development of emotion and its relations to other human behaviors and psychophysiology has been stymied by the measurement challenges associated with assessing emotion constructs across the lifespan. Objectively coded indices of observable emotion expressions (e.g., facial affect) have many benefits; they are generally isomorphic across age (and even species), facilitating studies of emotion over time, and are especially useful in the study of emotion in which self-reported emotion experience may be limited (e.g., children) or unavailable (e.g., unconscious emotion experience). However, human-coded facial affect, the standard historical approach, is tremendously time-consuming to implement and cannot be readily synced with other within-person processes (e.g., psychophysiological changes). Fortunately, relatively recent advances in technology have enabled the automated coding of facial affect. In addition to efficiency, this approach can be integrated with eye-tracking and other psychophysiological data to provide efficient, multi-level analysis of human emotion. As members of the Brain and Mind, an internationally recognized group for cognitive neuroscience, we have the very best tools at our disposal to study the neural correlates of emotion. Unfortunately, we currently lack the equipment needed to efficiently measure facial expressions of emotion contextualized within relevant psychophysiological processes. This methodological gap puts our group at a distinct disadvantage, constraining our research productivity relative to affective scientists who have this cutting-edge, highly efficient means of collecting emotion data. We seek to address this problem by establishing the Facility for Affective Neuroscience (i.e., the FAN), to be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment from Noldus, the leading company in innovation in coding human behavior. This equipment is uniquely capable of seamlessly integrating facial emotion expressions with other behavior and relevant psychophysiological processes.  Multiple investigators and trainees will access the FAN, accelerating ongoing emotion research, facilitating brand-new lines of research, and enhancing HQP training in Canada. The FAN will complement Western's significant extant neuroscience resources by facilitating the objective measurement of emotion and its psychophysiological correlates using the best available technology, permitting a rich characterization of the intrinsic interplay between the brain, emotion, and other behavioral domains.