Interpretation Of Facial Expressions Research Articles

Reading the mind in the infant eyes: Paradoxical effects of oxytocin on neural activity and emotion recognition in watching pictures of infant faces

The neuropeptide oxytocin facilitates parental caregiving and is involved in the processing of infant vocal cues. In this randomized-controlled trial with functional magnetic resonance imaging we examined the influence of intranasally administered oxytocin on neural activity during emotion recognition in infant faces. Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) responses during emotion recognition were measured in 50 women who were administered 16 IU of oxytocin or a placebo. Participants performed an adapted version of the Infant Facial Expressions of Emotions from Looking at Pictures (IFEEL pictures), a task that has been developed to assess the perception and interpretation of infants' facial expressions. Experimentally induced oxytocin levels increased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and the superior temporal gyrus (STG). However, oxytocin decreased performance on the IFEEL picture task. Our findings suggest that oxytocin enhances processing of facial cues of the emotional state of infants on a neural level, but at the same time it may decrease the correct interpretation of infants' facial expressions on a behavior level.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Oxytocin and Social Behav.

Biased processing of neutral facial expressions is associated with depressive symptoms and suicide ideation in individuals at risk for major depression due to affective temperaments

BackgroundTo elucidate whether abnormal facial emotion processing represents a vulnerability factor for major depression, some studies have explored deficits in emotion processing in individuals at familial risk for depression. Nevertheless, these studies have provided mixed results. However, no studies on facial emotion processing have been conducted in at-risk samples with early or attenuated signs of depression, such as individuals with affective temperaments who are characterized by subclinical depressive moods, cognitions, and behaviors that resemble those that occur in patients with major depression. MethodsPresence and severity of depressive symptoms, affective temperaments, death wishes, suicidal ideation, and suicide planning were explored in 231 participants with a mean age 39.9years (SD=14.57). Participants also completed an emotion recognition task with 80 emotional face stimuli expressing fear, angry, sad, happy, and neutral facial expressions. ResultsParticipants with higher scores on affective temperamental dimensions containing a depressive component, compared to those with lower scores, reported more depressive symptoms, death wishes, suicide ideation and planning, and an increased tendency to interpret neutral facial expressions as emotional facial expressions; in particular, neutral facial expressions were interpreted more negatively, mostly as sad facial expressions. However, there were no group differences in identification and discrimination of facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. ConclusionsA negative bias in interpretation of neutral facial expressions, but not accuracy deficits in recognizing emotional facial expressions, may represent a vulnerability factor for major depression. However, further research is needed.

A negativity bias for ambiguous facial-expression valence during childhood: Converging evidence from behavior and facial corrugator muscle responses.

Interpretations of facial expressions with ambiguous valence, such as surprised (which can be perceived as having positive or negative valence), reveal individual differences in positivity-negativity biases. Negative interpretations are first and fast, but this initial negativity default can be overridden by regulatory control processes that result in positive interpretations. We tested the initial negativity hypothesis by examining positivity-negativity biases during development. We hypothesized that during childhood, the default negativity mode would be more evident than in adulthood and, as a group, children would show a negativity bias when processing ambiguous facial expressions. We examined ratings of two ambiguous expressions, surprised and neutral expressions, from childhood through adolescence and recorded facial corrugator muscle activity, a physiological index of negative appraisals. Surprised faces were rated as conveying clear negative affect by younger participants as indexed by fast RTs and negative ratings, and corrugator data showed a corresponding increase in activity to surprised faces. By adolescence, positive ratings of surprised faces became more frequent and RTs slowed, suggesting that surprised faces were perceived as having more ambiguous meaning. Accordingly, corrugator activity also decreased during adolescence. Neutral faces also produced negative ratings by children, but were also rated as conveying negative affect by older participants. Accordingly, neutral faces also elicited high corrugator activity that was similar to that elicited by negative expressions. These data show that early in life, ambiguous facial expressions are perceived as conveying negative meaning, adding support for an initial-negativity hypothesis.

Children’s Interpretation of Facial Expressions: The Long Path from Valence-Based to Specific Discrete Categories

According to a common sense theory, facial expressions signal specific emotions to people of all ages and therefore provide children easy access to the emotions of those around them. The evidence, however, does not support that account. Instead, children’s understanding of facial expressions is poor and changes qualitatively and slowly over the course of development. Initially, children divide facial expressions into two simple categories (feels good, feels bad). These broad categories are then gradually differentiated until an adult system of discrete categories is achieved, likely in the teen years. Children’s understanding of most specific emotions begins not with facial expressions, but with their understanding of the emotion’s antecedents and behavioral consequences.

Emotion perception across cultures: the role of cognitive mechanisms.

Despite consistently documented cultural differences in the perception of facial expressions of emotion, the role of culture in shaping cognitive mechanisms that are central to emotion perception has received relatively little attention in past research. We review recent developments in cross-cultural psychology that provide particular insights into the modulatory role of culture on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion through two distinct routes: display rules and cognitive styles. Investigations of emotion intensity perception have demonstrated that facial expressions with varying levels of intensity of positive affect are perceived and categorized differently across cultures. Specifically, recent findings indicating significant levels of differentiation between intensity levels of facial expressions among American participants, as well as deviations from clear categorization of high and low intensity expressions among Japanese and Russian participants, suggest that display rules shape mental representations of emotions, such as intensity levels of emotion prototypes. Furthermore, a series of recent studies using eye tracking as a proxy for overt attention during face perception have identified culture-specific cognitive styles, such as the propensity to attend to very specific features of the face. Together, these results suggest a cascade of cultural influences on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion, whereby cultures impart specific behavioral practices that shape the way individuals process information from the environment. These cultural influences lead to differences in cognitive styles due to culture-specific attentional biases and emotion prototypes, which partially account for the gradient of cultural agreements and disagreements obtained in past investigations of emotion perception.

Effects of emotional music on visual processes in inferior temporal area

To investigate the effects of emotional music on visual processes, we analyzed visual evoked magnetic fields (VEF) on listening to emotional music in 14 healthy subjects. Positive and negative pieces of music were delivered during VEF recording following stimulation by emotionally neutral pictures of faces and landscapes. VEF components at 100 (M100) and 150 (M170)ms after stimulus onset were analyzed, and the estimated current strength for M170 following face stimulation was enhanced with negative compared to positive music in the right hemisphere. The equivalent current dipole for M100 and M170 was estimated in the primary visual cortex (V1) and inferior temporal area (IT), respectively. The present results indicate that background music showed a top-down control of the visual processes in IT, which is a core site responsible for the interpretation of facial expression. The emotional contents of music could alter visual processes, especially those involving the face.

Developmental changes in emotion recognition from full-light and point-light displays of body movement.

To date, research on the development of emotion recognition has been dominated by studies on facial expression interpretation; very little is known about children's ability to recognize affective meaning from body movements. In the present study, we acquired simultaneous video and motion capture recordings of two actors portraying four basic emotions (Happiness Sadness, Fear and Anger). One hundred and seven primary and secondary school children (aged 4–17) and 14 adult volunteers participated in the study. Each participant viewed the full-light and point-light video clips and was asked to make a forced-choice as to which emotion was being portrayed. As a group, children performed worse than adults for both point-light and full-light conditions. Linear regression showed that both age and lighting condition were significant predictors of performance in children. Using piecewise regression, we found that a bilinear model with a steep improvement in performance until 8.5 years of age, followed by a much slower improvement rate through late childhood and adolescence best explained the data. These findings confirm that, like for facial expression, adolescents' recognition of basic emotions from body language is not fully mature and seems to follow a non-linear development. This is in line with observations of non-linear developmental trajectories for different aspects of human stimuli processing (voices and faces), perhaps suggesting a shift from one perceptual or cognitive strategy to another during adolescence. These results have important implications to understanding the maturation of social cognition.

All in My Head: How Mood Affects the Interpretation of Facial Expressions

All in My Head: How Mood Affects the Interpretation of Facial Expressions

Can an anger face also be scared? Malleability of facial expressions.

Do people always interpret a facial expression as communicating a single emotion (e.g., the anger face as only angry) or is that interpretation malleable? The current study investigated preschoolers' (N = 60; 3-4 years) and adults' (N = 20) categorization of facial expressions. On each of five trials, participants selected from an array of 10 facial expressions (an open-mouthed, high arousal expression and a closed-mouthed, low arousal expression each for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) all those that displayed the target emotion. Children's interpretation of facial expressions was malleable: 48% of children who selected the fear, anger, sadness, and disgust faces for the "correct" category also selected these same faces for another emotion category; 47% of adults did so for the sadness and disgust faces. The emotion children and adults attribute to facial expressions is influenced by the emotion category for which they are looking.

FILTWAM - A Framework for Online Affective Computing in Serious Games

This paper introduces a Framework for Improving Learning Through Webcams And Microphones (FILTWAM). It proposes an overarching framework comprising conceptual and technical frameworks for enhancing the online communication skills of lifelong learners. Our approach interprets the emotional state of people using webcams and microphones and combines relevant and timely feedback based upon learner's facial expressions and verbalizations (like sadness, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, surprise, and neutral). The feedback generated from the webcams is expected to enhance learner's awareness of their own behavior. Our research enhances flexibility and scalability in contrast with face- to-face trainings and better helps the interests of lifelong learners who prefer to study at their own pace, place and time. Our small-scale proof of concept study exemplifies the practical application of FILTWAM and provides first evaluation results on that. This study will guide future development of software, training materials, and research. It will validate the use of webcam data for a real-time and adequate interpretation of facial expressions into emotional states. Participants’ behaviour is recorded on videos so that videos will be replayed, rated, annotated and evaluated by expert observers and contrasted with participants’ own opinions in future research.

Easy acquisition and real‐time animation of facial wrinkles

AbstractFacial animation details like wrinkles or bulges are very useful for the analysis and the interpretation of facial emotions and expressions. However, outfitting a virtual face with expression details for real‐time applications is a difficult task. In this paper, we propose a mono‐camera acquisition technique of facial animation details and a technique which add a wrinkle map layer (fine‐scale animation) to a skinning layer (large‐scale animation) for real‐time rendering of a virtual 3D face. The acquisition is based on ratio image computed from two pictures of a same face, with and without expression. The real‐time dynamic wrinkles technique is based on a small set of reference poses. These two methods offer an easy and low‐cost way to capture facial animation details and use it for real‐time facial animation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The future of SIMS: Who embodies which smile and when?

AbstractThe set of 30 stimulating commentaries on our target article helps to define the areas of our initial position that should be reiterated or else made clearer and, more importantly, the ways in which moderators of and extensions to the SIMS can be imagined. In our response, we divide the areas of discussion into (1) a clarification of our meaning of “functional,” (2) a consideration of our proposed categories of smiles, (3) a reminder about the role of top-down processes in the interpretation of smile meaning in SIMS, (4) an evaluation of the role of eye contact in the interpretation of facial expression of emotion, and (5) an assessment of the possible moderators of the core SIMS model. We end with an appreciation of the proposed extensions to the model, and note that the future of research on the problem of the smile appears to us to be assured.

The Simulation of Smiles (SIMS) model: Embodied simulation and the meaning of facial expression

Recent application of theories of embodied or grounded cognition to the recognition and interpretation of facial expression of emotion has led to an explosion of research in psychology and the neurosciences. However, despite the accelerating number of reported findings, it remains unclear how the many component processes of emotion and their neural mechanisms actually support embodied simulation. Equally unclear is what triggers the use of embodied simulation versus perceptual or conceptual strategies in determining meaning. The present article integrates behavioral research from social psychology with recent research in neurosciences in order to provide coherence to the extant and future research on this topic. The roles of several of the brain's reward systems, and the amygdala, somatosensory cortices, and motor centers are examined. These are then linked to behavioral and brain research on facial mimicry and eye gaze. Articulation of the mediators and moderators of facial mimicry and gaze are particularly useful in guiding interpretation of relevant findings from neurosciences. Finally, a model of the processing of the smile, the most complex of the facial expressions, is presented as a means to illustrate how to advance the application of theories of embodied cognition in the study of facial expression of emotion.

Prosody and Syntax in Sign Languages.

Prosody and Syntax in Sign Languages.

Reduced GABA A receptors and benzodiazepine binding sites in the posterior cingulate cortex and fusiform gyrus in autism

Individuals with autism display deficits in the social domain including the proper recognition of faces and interpretations of facial expressions. There is an extensive network of brain regions involved in face processing including the fusiform gyrus (FFG) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Functional imaging studies have found that controls have increased activity in the PCC and FFG during face recognition tasks, and the FFG has differential responsiveness in autism when viewing faces. Multiple lines of evidence have suggested that the GABAergic system is disrupted in the brains of individuals with autism and it is likely that altered inhibition within the network influences the ability to perceive emotional expressions. On-the-slide ligand binding autoradiography was used to determine if there were alterations in GABA A and/or benzodiazepine binding sites in the brain in autism. Using 3H-muscimol and 3H-flunitrazepam we could determine whether the number (B max), binding affinity (K d), and/or distribution of GABA A receptors and benzodiazepine binding sites (BZD) differed from controls in the FFG and PCC. Significant reductions were found in the number of GABA A receptors and BZD binding sites in the superficial layers of the PCC and FFG, and in the number of BZD binding sites in the deep layers of the FFG. In addition, the autism group had a higher binding affinity in the superficial layers of the GABA A study. Taken together, these findings suggest that the disruption in inhibitory control in the cortex may contribute to the core disturbances of socio-emotional behaviors in autism.

Show and Tell: The Role of Language in Categorizing Facial Expression of Emotion

We review evidence that language is involved in the establishment and maintenance of adult categories of facial expressions of emotion. We argue that individual and group differences in facial expression interpretation are too great for a fully specified system of categories to be universal and hardwired. Variations in expression categorization, across individuals and groups, favor a model in which an initial “core” system recognizes only the grouping of positive versus negative emotional expressions. The subsequent development of a rich representational structure may require the integration of a verbal categorization system with a perceptual processing system that is category-agnostic. Such a model may reconcile many strands of apparently conflicting behavioral, physiological, and neuroscience evidence concerning our understanding of facial expressions of emotion.

Morphed emotional faces: Emotion detection and misinterpretation in social anxiety

The current study investigated detection and interpretation of emotional facial expressions in high socially anxious (HSA) individuals compared to non-anxious controls (NAC). A version of the morphed faces task was implemented to assess emotion onset perception, decoding accuracy and interpretation, either with time pressure (Restricted Viewing Task, RVT) or with unlimited viewing (Free Viewing Task, FVT). Twenty-seven HSA and 30 NAC viewed sequences of neutral faces slowly changing to full-intensity angry, happy, or disgust expressions. Participants were instructed to assign the expression as soon as possible to one of four given emotion categories (angry, contempt, disgust, or happy). While no group differences were found for emotion onset perception or decoding performance, the results suggest an interpretation bias in HSA. Under the RVT condition, HSA demonstrated a threat bias (disgust interpreted as contempt), contrasting the NAC’s positive bias (disgust interpreted as happy). No group differences were found in the FVT. We suggest that socially anxious individuals tend to misinterpret facial expressions as threatening when they must do so quickly and efficiently, as in real life.

Interpretation of infant facial expression in the context of maternal postnatal depression

Postnatal maternal depression is associated with difficulties in maternal responsiveness. As most signals arising from the infant come from facial expressions one possible explanation for these difficulties is that mothers with postnatal depression are differentially affected by particular infant facial expressions. Thus, this study investigates the effects of postnatal depression on mothers’ perceptions of infant facial expressions. Participants (15 controls, 15 depressed and 15 anxious mothers) were asked to rate a number of infant facial expressions, ranging from very positive to very negative. Each face was shown twice, for a short and for a longer period of time in random order. Results revealed that mothers used more extreme ratings when shown the infant faces (i.e. more negative or more positive) for a longer period of time. Mothers suffering from postnatal depression were more likely to rate negative infant faces shown for a longer period more negatively than controls. The differences were specific to depression rather than an effect of general postnatal psychopathology—as no differences were observed between anxious mothers and controls. There were no other significant differences in maternal ratings of infant faces showed for short periods or for positive or neutral valence faces of either length. The findings that mothers with postnatal depression rate negative infant faces more negatively indicate that appraisal bias might underlie some of the difficulties that these mothers have in responding to their own infants signals.

Motion contributes to the interpretation of emotional facial expressions

Most research on expression recognition uses still photographs of high emotional intensity expressions, whereas in real life expressions tend to be dynamic and of low emotional intensity. The present study uses photorealistic 3-D animated images of ecologically valid expressions (Spencer-Smith, et. al., 2000) in a seven-alternative forced choice task. We demonstrate that very low emotional intensity expressions are accurately identified when presented in a dynamic fashion, while accuracy with static displays are near chance. Additionally, sad expressions are identified either as sad or happy depending on the direction of presentation (increasing or decreasing emotional intensity). In two experiments, participants viewed pairs of images of low emotional intensity expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise) presented serially in three display conditions. In the first condition, stimuli were presented in the order lower intensity→lightly higher intensity, resulting in apparent motion in the direction of increasing emotional intensity. In the second condition, intervening noise resulted in the perception of two static images; in the third, the stimuli were presented in decreasing order. Accuracies in the first condition approached those found for high emotional intensity static images in previous studies, while in the remaining condition accuracies were near chance. Sad expressions presented in the reverse order were identified as happy.

Avatar culture: cross-cultural evaluations of avatar facial expressions

Avatars are increasingly used to express our emotions in our online communications. Such avatars are used based on the assumption that avatar expressions are interpreted universally among all cultures. This paper investigated cross-cultural evaluations of avatar expressions designed by Japanese and Western designers. The goals of the study were: (1) to investigate cultural differences in avatar expression evaluation and apply findings from psychological studies of human facial expression recognition, (2) to identify expressions and design features that cause cultural differences in avatar facial expression interpretation. The results of our study confirmed that (1) there are cultural differences in interpreting avatars’ facial expressions, and the psychological theory that suggests physical proximity affects facial expression recognition accuracy is also applicable to avatar facial expressions, (2) positive expressions have wider cultural variance in interpretation than negative ones, (3) use of gestures and gesture marks may sometimes cause counter-effects in recognizing avatar facial expressions.