Emotion constrains language comprehension

A wide range of literature points to a close, bi-directional link between language and emotions: language evokes emotions, and emotions influence language processing. An embodied constraint-satisfaction view of language comprehension is proposed to integrate this body of evidence. There are two central claim of the account: First, comprehension of emotional language involves a simulation using the same neural and bodily systems involved in initial emotional experience and second, that emotional states of the body constrain mental simulation of the actions and perceptions described in language, much as emotions constrain neural systems for taking adaptive actions. The claim is supported by considering three sources of evidence: recent evidence that comprehension of emotional language involves the same neural and bodily systems used in emotional experience; recent functional theories of emotion and emotion-cognition interactions; and two new empirical studies. Experiment 1 used facial electromyography to show that comprehending emotional sentences spontaneously caused distinct patterns of facial efference congruent with the emotionality of the sentence. Experiment 2 used botulinum toxin-A (Botox) to pharmacologically denervate the facial muscles used for frowning to show that blocking facial expressions of emotion selectively hinders emotional language comprehension. The findings support embodied theories of emotional language comprehension, provide new evidence for facial feedback theories of emotion, and suggest that the bi-directional link between language and emotion is mediated in part by moving the face.