Abstract
BackgroundFacial mimicry is crucial in the recognition of others’ emotional state. Thus, the observation of others’ facial expressions activates the same neural representation of that affective state in the observer, along with related autonomic and somatic responses. What happens, therefore, when someone cannot mimic others’ facial expressions?MethodsWe investigated whether psychophysiological emotional responses to others’ facial expressions were impaired in 13 children (9 years) with Moebius syndrome (MBS), an extremely rare neurological disorder (1/250,000 live births) characterized by congenital facial paralysis. We inspected autonomic responses and vagal regulation through facial cutaneous thermal variations and by the computation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). These parameters provide measures of emotional arousal and show the autonomic adaptation to others’ social cues. Physiological responses in children with MBS were recorded during dynamic facial expression observation and were compared to those of a control group (16 non-affected children, 9 years).ResultsThere were significant group effects on thermal patterns and RSA, with lower values in children with MBS. We also observed a mild deficit in emotion recognition in these patients.ConclusionResults support “embodied” theory, whereby the congenital inability to produce facial expressions induces alterations in the processing of facial expression of emotions. Such alterations may constitute a risk for emotion dysregulation.
Highlights
Facial mimicry is crucial in the recognition of others’ emotional state
Neuroimaging investigations have shown that a number of cortical and subcortical areas that support first-person experience of a specific emotion become active during the observation of that emotion in others [24,25,26,27,28,29], the debate concerning the role of simulation processes in emotional recognition remains an open one in the literature
When the sphericity assumption was violated, Greenhouse–Geisser degrees of Results The Kruskal–Wallis test on Accuracy rate (RACC) between groups showed that scores were significantly lower for Moebius syndrome (MBS) than control group (CG)
Summary
Facial mimicry is crucial in the recognition of others’ emotional state. the observation of others’ facial expressions activates the same neural representation of that affective state in the observer, along with related autonomic and somatic responses. Artificially interfering with participants’ spontaneous facial muscular activation during observation of facial expressions significantly reduces emotion recognition performance [5,6,7]. This evidence indicates a close relationship between the ability to. Stefani et al Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (2019) 11:12 in the same way as if we were experiencing that action ourselves [14] This simulation mechanism is useful for understanding others’ actions and goals within a motor framework [15,16,17,18] and can be applied to the domain of language and emotional development [19,20,21,22,23]. Neuroimaging investigations have shown that a number of cortical and subcortical areas (involving the premotor cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the anterior insula) that support first-person experience of a specific emotion become active during the observation of that emotion in others [24,25,26,27,28,29], the debate concerning the role of simulation processes in emotional recognition remains an open one in the literature
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