Mimicry Of Facial Expressions Research Articles

Analysis and Recognition of Voluntary Facial Expression Mimicry Based on Depressed Patients.

Many clinical studies have shown that facial expression recognition and cognitive function are impaired in depressed patients. Different from spontaneous facial expression mimicry (SFEM), 164 subjects (82 in a case group and 82 in a control group) participated in our voluntary facial expression mimicry (VFEM) experiment using expressions of neutrality, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Our research is as follows. First, we collected a large amount of subject data for VFEM. Second, we extracted the geometric features of subject facial expression images for VFEM and used Spearman correlation analysis, a random forest, and logistic regression-based recursive feature elimination (LR-RFE) to perform feature selection. The features selected revealed the difference between the case group and the control group. Third, we combined geometric features with the original images and improved the advanced deep learning facial expression recognition (FER) algorithms in different systems. We propose the E-ViT and E-ResNet based on VFEM. The accuracies and F1 scores were higher than those of the baseline models, respectively. Our research proved that it is effective to use feature selection to screen geometric features and combine them with a deep learning model for depression facial expression recognition.

The association of negative mood with automatic and effortful facial expression mimicry.

The natural process of mimicking the facial expressions of others is well established, as are the deficits in this reflexive behavior for individuals with clinical disorders such as depression. This study examines the extent of this deficit in non-clinical individuals with high transient negative mood, and whether it extends to both automatic and effortful emotion expression behavior. One hundred and thirty-six participants were shown happy, sad, and neutral faces, while electromyography (EMG) recorded facial muscle responses. Automatic (reflexive) mimicry was assessed while participants simply viewed facially expressive photographs, while effortful mimicry was monitored when individuals were told to intentionally copy the expressions in the photographs. Results indicated that high levels of negative mood were primarily associated with deficits in effortful mimicry of happy expressions, although some similar evidence was found in automatic mimicry of happy faces. Surprisingly, there were also ties between negative moods and inaccuracies in effortful mimicry of sad expressions (but not automatic mimicry). Inaccurate automatic and effortful mimicry were also tied with lower self-reported social support and greater loneliness. These results indicate that even in healthy individuals, transient and minor changes in negative mood are tied to deficiencies in facial mimicry at both the automatic and effortful level.

Automatic Facial Expression Analysis as a Measure of User-Designer Empathy

Abstract In human-centered product design and development, understanding the users is essential. Empathizing with the user can help designers gain deeper insights into the user experience and their needs. However, a few studies have captured empathy real time during user interactions. Accordingly, the degree to which empathy occurs and enhances user understanding remains unclear. To narrow this gap, a study was performed exploring the use of video-based facial expression analysis during user interviews, as a means to capture empathy related to understanding vehicle driving experiences under challenging conditions. Mimicry and synchrony have been shown to be predictors of empathy in cognitive psychology. In this study, we adapted this method to study 46 user-designer interviews. The results show that the user and designer exhibited mimicry in their facial expressions, which thereby indicated that affective empathy can be captured via simple video facial recognition. However, we found that the user's facial expressions might not represent their actual emotional tone, which can mislead the designer, and they achieve false empathy. Further, we did not find a link between the observed mimicry of facial expressions and the understanding of mental contents, which indicated that the affective and some cognitive parts of user empathy may not be directly connected. Further studies are needed to understand how facial expression analysis can further be used to study and advance empathic design.

A method for diagnosing depression: Facial expression mimicry is evaluated by facial expression recognition

BackgroundConsiderable evidence has shown that facial expression mimicry is impaired in patients with depression. We aimed to evaluate voluntary expression mimicry by facial expression recognition for diagnosing depression. MethodsA total of 168 participants performed voluntary expression mimicry task, posing anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutrality, sadness, and surprise. 9 healthy raters performed facial expression recognition task through the observer scoring method, and evaluated seven expressions imitated by participants. Emotional scores were calculated to measure any differences between two groups of participants and provided a basis for clinical diagnosis of depression. ResultsCompared with the control group, the depression group had lower accuracy in imitating happiness. Compared with the control group, the depression group imitated a higher neutrality bias for sadness, surprise, happiness and disgust, while sadness and surprise had a lower happiness bias; for imitating happiness, the depression group showed higher anger, disgust, fear, neutrality, and surprise bias; for imitating neutrality, the depression group showed higher sadness bias, and lower happiness bias. Compared with the control group, the raters had a higher reaction time to recognize the happiness imitated by depression group, and it was positively correlated with severity of depression. The severity of depression was also negatively correlated with accuracy in imitating happiness, and positively correlated with neutrality bias of imitating surprise. LimitationsThe ecological effectiveness of static stimulus materials is lower than that of dynamic stimuli. Without synchronized functional imaging, there is no way to link brain activation patterns. ConclusionThe ability of patients with depression to voluntarily imitate facial expressions declines, which is mainly reflected in accuracy, bias and recognizability. Our experiment has discovered deficits in these aspects of patients with depression, which will be used as a method for diagnosising depression.

정서전염과 공감의 관계

Objectives The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between empathy and emotional contagion, and effect of facial expression mimicry treatment on enhancement of emotional contagion and/or empathy.
 Methods In order to supplement the limitations of measurement method, both self-reported questionnaire and experimental measurement were used. Emotional Contagion Scale(ECS) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index(IRI) were used in survey research, and Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding(BIDR) were used to control social desirability bias. In the experiment, participants watched interview video clips and responded how they empathized with the interviewee and how their mood had changed. The experimental group additionally proceed with a treatment that mimics the facial expression of the interviewee, and examined whether facial expression mimicry treatment could enhance emotional contagion and empathy in college students.
 Results Self-reported survey results indicated that sensitivity of emotional contagion has a significant positive influence on levels of empathy, even though control the social desirable responding. Also, emotional contagion accounted for 27.7% of variance in empathy. However, in the experiment, there was not a consistent significant correlation between emotional contagion and emotional empathy in the correlation analysis. Also, there were no differences on the level of emotional contagion and empathy between the groups.
 Conclusions The implications of the present study are to try to clarify the relationship between emotional contagion and empathy via both self-reported questionnaires and experiments.

The Pacified Face: Early Embodiment Processes and the Use of Dummies.

Few things affect us as much as facial expressions, as they inform us about others’ feelings and intentions, thereby influencing our own emotions and behaviors. A substantial body of literature links the critical abilities of recognizing and understanding emotion displays with facial mimicry, a sensorimotor process involving rapid imitation of perceived expressions. For example, blocking or altering facial mimicry in adults leads to disruptions in judgments in emotion recognition or emotional language processing. The present review focuses on pacifier use in infancy, a common practice that has the potential to interfere with infants’ facial movements in ways identical to laboratory paradigms designed to block facial mimicry. Despite this similarity and the widespread use of infant soothers, little is known about their long-term effects. Here we review studies exploring the psychological correlates and implications of pacifier use. In particular, we discuss how soothers may interfere with the development of social skills in infants and present evidence linking pacifier use with disrupted adults’ mimicry of facial expressions displayed by infants. Other preliminary findings reveal negative correlations between the use of soothers and children’s spontaneous facial mimicry as well as emotional competence of young adults. Such studies, although correlational, suggest that this widespread parenting practice may affect the development of social skills by influencing emotional coordination. We discuss the implications of these findings and propose avenues for future research that can provide insights into the role of embodied processes in the development of emotional competence and adult functioning.

The Effects of Facial Expression Mimicry on Emotional Empathy and Permissive Attitude toward Bullying in the Elementary School Students

The Effects of Facial Expression Mimicry on Emotional Empathy and Permissive Attitude toward Bullying in the Elementary School Students

Deficits in the Mimicry of Facial Expressions in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Humans spontaneously mimic the facial expressions of others, facilitating social interaction. This mimicking behavior may be impaired in individuals with Parkinson's disease, for whom the loss of facial movements is a clinical feature.Objective: To assess the presence of facial mimicry in patients with Parkinson's disease.Method: Twenty-seven non-depressed patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and 28 age-matched controls had their facial muscles recorded with electromyography while they observed presentations of calm, happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotions.Results: Patients exhibited reduced amplitude and delayed onset in the zygomaticus major muscle region (smiling response) following happy presentations (patients M = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.15 to 0.18, controls M = 0.26, CI 0.14 to 0.37, ANOVA, effect size [ES] = 0.18, p < 0.001). Although patients exhibited activation of the corrugator supercilii and medial frontalis (frowning response) following sad and fearful presentations, the frontalis response to sad presentations was attenuated relative to controls (patients M = 0.05, CI −0.08 to 0.18, controls M = 0.21, CI 0.09 to 0.34, ANOVA, ES = 0.07, p = 0.017). The amplitude of patients' zygomaticus activity in response to positive emotions was found to be negatively correlated with response times for ratings of emotional identification, suggesting a motor-behavioral link (r = –0.45, p = 0.02, two-tailed).Conclusions: Patients showed decreased mimicry overall, mimicking other peoples' frowns to some extent, but presenting with profoundly weakened and delayed smiles. These findings open a new avenue of inquiry into the “masked face” syndrome of PD.

Pacifiers Disrupt Adults’ Responses to Infants’ Emotions

Research shows that pacifiers disrupt infants' mimicry of facial expressions. This experiment examines whether pacifiers interfere with caretakers' ability to mimic infants' emotions. Adults saw photographs of infants with or without a pacifier. When infants had pacifiers, perceivers showed reduced EMG activity to infants' smiles. Smiles of infants using a pacifier were also rated as less happy than smiles depicted without a pacifier. The same pattern was observed for expressions of distress: adults rated infants presented with pacifiers as less sad than infants without pacifiers. We discuss deleterious effects of pacifier use for the perceiver's resonance with a child's emotions.

Right frontal cortical lesions disrupt anger mimicry

The current study investigates the neural substrates of facial expression mimicry by assessing individuals with right and left lateralised frontal cortical lesions. Electromyography was used to measure spontaneous changes in electrical activity over the corrugator supercilii (brow) and zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle regions in response to happy and angry facial expressions. Individuals with right (n=4) and left (n=5) frontal cortical lesions and demographically matched controls (n=9) were compared. It was shown that while all three groups mimic happy facial expressions, only controls and individuals with left frontal lesions mimic angry expressions. These data are consistent with evidence for right frontal cortical specialisation for the processing of anger.

Voluntary mimicry of facial expressions while judging facial expressions

Voluntary mimicry of facial expressions while judging facial expressions

Subconscious facial expression mimicry is preserved in older adulthood.

It has been suggested that despite explicit recognition difficulties, implicit processing of facial expressions may be preserved in older adulthood. To directly test this possibility, the authors used facial electromyography to assess older (N=40) and young (N=46) adults' mimicry responses to angry and happy facial expressions, which were presented subliminally via a backward masking technique. The results indicated that despite not consciously perceiving the facial emotion stimuli, both groups mimicked the angry and happy facial expressions. Implications for emotion recognition difficulties in late adulthood are discussed.

Reduced spontaneous facial mimicry in women with autistic traits

Deficits in empathizing and perspective taking are defining characteristics of autism-spectrum disorders. Converging evidence suggests that these socio-emotional abilities are rooted in basic mechanisms that subserve imitative behavior, and may vary with autistic traits across the population as a whole. We investigated this notion by assessing spontaneous and instructed mimicry of facial expressions in healthy male and female volunteers scoring extremely high or low on the autism-spectrum quotient questionnaire. Mimicry was recorded using electromyography of the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major. Results show that spontaneous mimicry in the corrugator supercilii was strongest in female participants with low AQ-scores. Mimicry in the zygomaticus major, and in the instructed facial mimicry condition, did not differ between groups. These findings indicate that the degree to which individuals exhibit spontaneous mimicry may vary as a function of both gender and autistic traits.

Testosterone administration reduces empathetic behavior: A facial mimicry study

Although high baseline testosterone levels correlate with low empathy, there is no causal evidence for this association in humans. The present study tested the causality of this relationship by manipulating testosterone levels in a double-blind placebo controlled crossover design. 20 healthy female participants received either a sublingual administration of a single dose of testosterone or placebo on 2 days and were tested 4 h after administration. Because research has shown that facial expression mimicry is a non-obtrusive index of empathy, facial electromyography was measured in response to dynamic facial expressions of happy and angry faces. Results showed that testosterone generally decreased facial mimicry. These findings are consistent with models that assign a critical role to mimicry in the ability to develop and communicate empathy towards conspecifics, and provide a potential causal mechanism of effects of testosterone on empathy.