Direct perception of affective valence from vision
Abstract Subjective feelings are thought to arise from conceptual and bodily states. We examine whether the valence of feelings may also be decoded directly from objective ecological statistics of the visual environment. We train a visual valence (VV) machine learning model of low-level image statis...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53668-6 |
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| _version_ | 1841559287849025536 |
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| author | Saeedeh Sadeghi Zijin Gu Eve De Rosa Amy Kuceyeski Adam K. Anderson |
| author_facet | Saeedeh Sadeghi Zijin Gu Eve De Rosa Amy Kuceyeski Adam K. Anderson |
| author_sort | Saeedeh Sadeghi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Subjective feelings are thought to arise from conceptual and bodily states. We examine whether the valence of feelings may also be decoded directly from objective ecological statistics of the visual environment. We train a visual valence (VV) machine learning model of low-level image statistics on nearly 8000 emotionally charged photographs. The VV model predicts human valence ratings of images and transfers even more robustly to abstract paintings. In human observers, limiting conceptual analysis of images enhances VV contributions to valence experience, increasing correspondence with machine perception of valence. In the brain, VV resides in lower to mid-level visual regions, where neural activity submitted to deep generative networks synthesizes new images containing positive versus negative VV. There are distinct modes of valence experience, one derived indirectly from meaning, and the other embedded in ecological statistics, affording direct perception of subjective valence as an apparent objective property of the external world. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-70620623a31240f18c34e018b9a533bb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-70620623a31240f18c34e018b9a533bb2025-01-05T12:36:28ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-12-0115111210.1038/s41467-024-53668-6Direct perception of affective valence from visionSaeedeh Sadeghi0Zijin Gu1Eve De Rosa2Amy Kuceyeski3Adam K. Anderson4Department of Psychology, Cornell UniversitySchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University and Cornell TechDepartment of Psychology, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Radiology, Weill Cornell MedicineDepartment of Psychology, Cornell UniversityAbstract Subjective feelings are thought to arise from conceptual and bodily states. We examine whether the valence of feelings may also be decoded directly from objective ecological statistics of the visual environment. We train a visual valence (VV) machine learning model of low-level image statistics on nearly 8000 emotionally charged photographs. The VV model predicts human valence ratings of images and transfers even more robustly to abstract paintings. In human observers, limiting conceptual analysis of images enhances VV contributions to valence experience, increasing correspondence with machine perception of valence. In the brain, VV resides in lower to mid-level visual regions, where neural activity submitted to deep generative networks synthesizes new images containing positive versus negative VV. There are distinct modes of valence experience, one derived indirectly from meaning, and the other embedded in ecological statistics, affording direct perception of subjective valence as an apparent objective property of the external world.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53668-6 |
| spellingShingle | Saeedeh Sadeghi Zijin Gu Eve De Rosa Amy Kuceyeski Adam K. Anderson Direct perception of affective valence from vision Nature Communications |
| title | Direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| title_full | Direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| title_fullStr | Direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| title_full_unstemmed | Direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| title_short | Direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| title_sort | direct perception of affective valence from vision |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53668-6 |
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