Abstract
Facial expression of emotions is a powerful vehicle for communicating information about others’ emotional states and it normally induces facial mimicry in the observers. The aim of this study was to investigate if early aversive experiences could interfere with emotion recognition, facial mimicry, and with the autonomic regulation of social behaviors. We conducted a facial emotion recognition task in a group of “street-boys” and in an age-matched control group. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG), a marker of facial mimicry, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the recruitment of autonomic system promoting social behaviors and predisposition, in response to the observation of facial expressions of emotions. Results showed an over-attribution of anger, and reduced EMG responses during the observation of both positive and negative expressions only among street-boys. Street-boys also showed lower RSA after observation of facial expressions and ineffective RSA suppression during presentation of non-threatening expressions. Our findings suggest that early aversive experiences alter not only emotion recognition but also facial mimicry of emotions. These deficits affect the autonomic regulation of social behaviors inducing lower social predisposition after the visualization of facial expressions and an ineffective recruitment of defensive behavior in response to non-threatening expressions.
Highlights
Adverse experiences disrupt emotional development since they may exert negative impact on affect recognition, social engagement and self-regulation
Behavioral studies showed that infant abuse [8,9,10,11], neglect [8], and trauma [12], all disrupt development of emotion recognition skills producing a perceptual bias for angry facial expressions to the exclusion of other negative emotions
Could early aversive experiences affect facial mimicry in response to the observation of the facial expression of emotions and the related autonomic regulation of social behavior? People exposed to pictures of negative and positive emotional facial expressions, spontaneously [16] and rapidly [17] produce distinct facial electromyographic (EMG) reactions in the same muscles involved in expressing identical positive and negative emotions
Summary
Adverse experiences disrupt emotional development since they may exert negative impact on affect recognition, social engagement and self-regulation. These competencies have rarely been measured among a) youth living in extreme poverty and neglect and b) by using objective behavioral and physiological measures which are invulnerable to self-report. The peculiarity of early aversive experiences is that they divert the resources normally dedicated to growth and development to support mere survival [3] In this way they prevent the complete and healthy development of secure attachment relationships, of a stable and integrated self-concept and of competence to self-regulate emotions and behaviors [4]. This phenomenon, called ‘‘facial mimicry’’, has been proposed to facilitate empathy, emotional reciprocity and recognition [18,19,20,21,22]
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