Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness

J ODoherty; J Winston; H Critchley; David Ian Perrett; DM Burt; RJ Dolan

doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8

Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness

J ODoherty, J Winston, H Critchley, David Ian Perrett, DM Burt, RJ Dolan

School of Psychology and Neuroscience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value. Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting that the reward value of an attractive face as indexed by medial OFC activity is modulated by a perceiver directed smile. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	147-155
Number of pages	9
Journal	Neuropsychologia
Volume	41
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8
Publication status	Published - 2003

Keywords

facial attractiveness
face expression
reward
orbitofrontal cortex
fMRI
DISSOCIABLE NEURAL RESPONSES
FRONTAL-LOBE DAMAGE
TEMPORAL CORTEX
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
SEXUAL DIMORPHISM
VISUAL NEURONS
REWARD VALUE
FACES
MONKEY
BRAIN

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10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8

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title = "Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness",

abstract = "The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value. Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting that the reward value of an attractive face as indexed by medial OFC activity is modulated by a perceiver directed smile. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.",

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author = "J ODoherty and J Winston and H Critchley and Perrett, {David Ian} and DM Burt and RJ Dolan",

year = "2003",

doi = "10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8",

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T2 - the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness

AU - ODoherty, J

AU - Winston, J

AU - Critchley, H

AU - Perrett, David Ian

AU - Burt, DM

AU - Dolan, RJ

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value. Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting that the reward value of an attractive face as indexed by medial OFC activity is modulated by a perceiver directed smile. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

AB - The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value. Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting that the reward value of an attractive face as indexed by medial OFC activity is modulated by a perceiver directed smile. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

KW - facial attractiveness

KW - face expression

KW - reward

KW - orbitofrontal cortex

KW - fMRI

KW - DISSOCIABLE NEURAL RESPONSES

KW - FRONTAL-LOBE DAMAGE

KW - TEMPORAL CORTEX

KW - PREFRONTAL CORTEX

KW - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM

KW - VISUAL NEURONS

KW - REWARD VALUE

KW - FACES

KW - MONKEY

KW - BRAIN

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U2 - 10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8

DO - 10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8

M3 - Article

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VL - 41

SP - 147

EP - 155

JO - Neuropsychologia

JF - Neuropsychologia

IS - 2

ER -

Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness

Abstract

Keywords

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