3-D facial expressions modulate perception of emotive voices

Facial expressions and emotive voices are not processed independently, but interact implicitly. We investigated effects of facial expressions by 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) faces on perceived emotions of non-sense voices using psychophysical methods. We found that the perceived emotion of voices was facilitated with 3D faces, and was modulated in the direction of presented facial expressions. These results suggest that 3D facial expressions may be more effective to communicate cross-modal emotions than the 2D facial expressions.