Figure 4.

Multimodal convergence of expressive signals in the brain. Beige color indicates the mixing of modalities which begins during early perceptual stages in the brainstem (Superior Colliculus, SC) and thalamus, and progresses at the level of the cerebrum, where physical cues (e.g., facial action units, vocal acoustics) are integrated and mapped onto existing emotion templates (i.e., emotional gestalt). At a late conceptual stage, individuals represent emotional meaning amodally. Higher-level representations can feed back and modulate lower-level representations.