Abstract
The primate play-face is homologous to the human facial display accompanying laughter. Through facial mimicry, the play-face evokes in the perceiver a similar positive emotional state. This sensorimotor and emotional sharing can be adaptive, as it allows individuals to fine-tune their own motor sequences accordingly thus increasing cooperation in play. It has been recently demonstrated that, not only humans and apes, but also geladas are able to mimic others' facial expressions. Here, we describe two forms of facial mimicry in Theropithecus gelada: rapid (RFM, within 1.0 s) and delayed (DFM, within 5.0 s). Play interactions characterized by the presence of RFM were longer than those with DFM thus suggesting that RFM is a good indicator of the quality of communicative exchanges and behavioral coordination. These findings agree with the proposal of a mirror mechanism operating during perception and imitation of facial expressions. In an evolutionary perspective, our findings suggest that RFM not only was already present in the common ancestor of cercopitecoids and hominoids, but also that there is a relationship between RFM and length and quality of playful interactions.
Highlights
Facial displays regulate many aspects of social life such as aggression, dominance-subordinate relationships, social affiliation, appeasement, and play [1,2,3,4,5]
Sessions characterized by the presence of PF/FPF without any response were longer than those sessions characterized by the absence of any facial expression (q = 4.02; p,0.01), but did not significantly differ from incongruent response sessions (q = 0.89; p.0.05) (Figure 1)
The playful interactions characterized by a higher frequency of facial mimicry had a longer duration
Summary
Facial displays regulate many aspects of social life such as aggression, dominance-subordinate relationships, social affiliation, appeasement, and play [1,2,3,4,5]. The play face perception often induces in the observer the activation of the same motor programs In humans, this phenomenon named facial mimicry, evokes in the perceiver a similar facial expression and the corresponding positive emotional state (emotional resonance) [10,11].The ability to instantly understand others’ emotional states allows an individual to foresee playmates’ intentions [6] and fine-tune its own motor sequences [11]. This phenomenon named facial mimicry, evokes in the perceiver a similar facial expression and the corresponding positive emotional state (emotional resonance) [10,11].The ability to instantly understand others’ emotional states allows an individual to foresee playmates’ intentions [6] and fine-tune its own motor sequences [11] In this view, such sensorimotor and emotional sharing is a prerequisite to avoid any misunderstanding, manage a playful interaction successfully, promote social affiliation, and increase cooperation levels [6,7,12,13,14]
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