Data from: The representational dynamics of perceived voice emotions evolve from categories to dimensions

Long-standing affective science theories conceive the perception of
emotional stimuli either as discrete categories (for example, an angry
voice) or continuous dimensional attributes (for example, an intense and
negative vocal emotion). Which position provides a better account is still
widely debated. Here we contrast the positions to account for
acoustics-independent perceptual and cerebral representational geometry of
perceived voice emotions. We combined multimodal imaging of the cerebral
response to heard vocal stimuli (using functional magnetic resonance
imaging and magneto-encephalography) with post-scanning behavioural
assessment of voice emotion perception. By using representational
similarity analysis, we find that categories prevail in perceptual and
early (less than 200 ms) fronto-temporal cerebral representational
geometries and that dimensions impinge predominantly on a later
limbic-–temporal network (at 240 ms and after 500 ms). These results
reconcile the two opposing views by reframing the perception of emotions
as the interplay of cerebral networks with different representational
dynamics that emphasize either categories or dimensions.