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Emotions
I am interested in the neurological underpinnings of the perception of human emotions. I investigate this complex process by the use of several techniques ( fMRI, EMG, heartbeat variability and eye tracking). Whereas most previous studies in this field of research focused on static facial expressions, I additionally included bodily expressions, the influence of a social scene in which we naturally encounter one another, as well as dynamic information (videos). Moreover, when we observe someone, the emotion is not all that we see; we see a female versus a male and we notice it when this person is from a certain out-group, at which point stereotypes come into play. In my research I focus on individual differences in the healthy population (different personality traits such as social anxiety, but also sex differencesand negative attitudes towards an out-group)and beyond (violent offenders).
For investigating the why-question, I learned to also look at the human mind from an evolutionary perspective. For this purpose, I went to the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute where I worked as a post-doc and where I had the great chance to study a group of chimpanzees. Specifically, I investigated how chimpanzees perceive emotional cues of conspecifics and whether they synchronize with conspecifics as humans do. This line of research, in collaboration with my colleagues from Japan , will be continued next to the main research project where I work on at the University of Amsterdam.
Social psychology acknowledges the great when-question and stresses the importance of social context in which affective communication takes place. In my current position at the University of Amsterdam, I study in-group versus out-group preferential automatic synchronization processes (facial and bodily mimicry and pupillary contagion) and the influence of oxytocin. I believe that an approach that combines different experimental techniques, with their unique pros and cons, under different task instructions and by including a broad range of stimulus material in a wide-ranging group of individuals, comes closest to measuring real emotions in real life situations.
Publications
Kret, M.E. & de Gelder, B.(in press). Islamic headdress influences how emotion is recognized from the eyes. Frontiers in Emotion Science.
Kret, M.E. & de Gelder, B. (2012). A review on sex differences in processing emotions. Neuropsychologia, 50(7), 1211-1221.
Kret, M.E., Grèzes, J., Pichon, S. & de Gelder, B. (2011). Men fear other men most: Gender specific brain activations in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. An fMRI study. Frontiers in Emotion Science, 2(3) doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00003.
Kret , M.E. & de Gelder, B., Denollet, J. (2011). Individual differences in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies- an fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 49(5), 1187-1193.
Kret, M.E., Grèzes, J., Pichon, S. & de Gelder, B. (2011). Similarities and differences in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 54(2), 1755-1762.
Kret, M.E. & de Gelder, B. (2010). Perceiving bodies in a social context. Experimental Brain Research, 203, 169-180.
de Gelder, B., Van den Stock, J., Meeren, H.K.M., Sinke, C.B.A., Kret, M.E., Tamietto, M. (2009). Standing up for the body. Recent progress in uncovering the networks involved in processing bodies and bodily expressions, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 364 (1535), 3475-3484.
Kret, M.E., Sinke, C.B.A. & Gelder, B. de (2011). Emotion perception and health. In Nyclicek, I. , Vingerhoets, A.J.J.M. & Zeelenberg, M. (Eds.), Emotion regulation and well-being (pp.261-280). New York : Springer.
Sinke, C.B.A., Kret ,M.E. & de Gelder, B. (2010). Embodied perception of emotion. Psychology press. MINET: Measuring the impossible.
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Bekijk mijn lekenpraatje van 1 juni 2011
As the head-editor of 'de Psychonoom', the journal of 'De Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Psychonomie' (Dutch Psychonomic Society), I suggest to look at our website