Abstract
When we feel sad or depressed, our face invariably “drops”. Conversely, when we try to cheer someone up, we might tell them “keep your smile up”, so presupposing that modifying the configuration of their facial muscles will enhance their mood. A crucial assumption that underpins this hypothesis is that mental states are shaped by information originating from the peripheral neuromotor system — a view operationalised as the Facial Feedback Hypothesis. We used botulinum toxin (BoNT-A) injected over the frown area to temporarily paralyse muscles necessary to express anger. Using a pre-post treatment design, we presented participants with gradually changing videos of a face morphing from neutral to full-blown expressions of either anger or happiness and asked them to press a button as soon as they had detected any change in the display. Results indicate that while all participants (control and BoNT-A) improved their reaction times from pre-test to post-test, the BoNT-A group did not when detecting anger in the post-test. We surmise that frown paralysis disadvantaged participants in their ability to improve the detection of anger. Our finding suggests that facial feedback causally affects perceptual awareness of changes in emotion, as well as people’s ability to use perceptual information to learn.
Highlights
A key hypothesis about the mind-body relationship is that information coming from the periphery and the neuromotor system influences both behaviour and subjective experience[1]
When we try to cheer someone up, we might tell them to keep smiling, implying that modifying the configuration of the facial muscles will enhance their mood. These observations suggest a bidirectional relationship between emotional states and facial expressions where the body plays a central role in shaping subjective experience
Www.nature.com/scientificreports of the cartoons is affected by the configuration of their facial musculature, induced by the manner in which the pen is held: When holding a pen between the front teeth, the facial muscles are put in the configuration they have when one smiles; whereas holding a pen between the lips activates facial muscles whose activity is incompatible with smiling
Summary
A key hypothesis about the mind-body relationship is that information coming from the periphery and the neuromotor system influences both behaviour and subjective experience[1]. When we try to cheer someone up, we might tell them to keep smiling, implying that modifying the configuration of the facial muscles will enhance their mood These observations suggest a bidirectional relationship between emotional states and facial expressions where the body plays a central role in shaping subjective experience. The feedback generated by proprioception coming from muscles, joints, and skin, called “reafference”, is compared to an internal, expected signal, and constitutes an inferential process that guides awareness and subjective experience In keeping with this neurophysiological account of the perception-action relationship, the production of an emotional facial expression feeds back to the central nervous system (CNS), so contributing to modulate or initiate the subjective experience of emotion (for a review see ref.[1]). Do changes in our facial expression of emotion genuinely influence our processing of emotions? If so, how does feedback from the face influences the perception and the experience of emotion?
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