Social Smile Research Articles

Interactive video-player to improve social smile in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and develop a live interaction-based video player system named LIV4Smile for the improvement of the social smile in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Design/methodology/approachThe proposed LIV4Smile intervention was a video player that operated by detecting smile using a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based algorithm. To maintain a live interaction, a CNN-based smile detector was configured and used in this system. The statistical test was also conducted to validate the performance of the system.FindingsThe significant improvement was observed in smile responses of individuals with ASD with the utilization of the proposed LIV4Smile system in a real-time environment.Research limitations/implicationsA small sample size and clinical utilizing for validation and initial training of ASD individuals for LIV4Smile could be considered under implications.Originality/valueThe main aim of this study was to address the inclusive practices for children with autism. The proposed CNN algorithm-based LIV4Smile intervention resulted in high accuracy in facial smile detection.

The Social and Communication Skills Difficulties among Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The purpose of this study is to investigate the social and communication skills difficulties among identified learners with ASD in the Philippines. Objectives of the study are to identify what are the social and communication characteristics of the children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to identify the effect of their social and communication difficulties in the learning process. The case study was conducted at Jose Fabella Memorial School (JFMS), Mandaluyong City, Philippines and participants were selected purposively involving six learners with ADS, their parents and their teachers. The data collection period is for five months. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and checklist analysis. The research instruments used were checklist, interview questions and field notes. Data were analyzed using descriptive methods. Inter-rater checklist results were used for document analysis. Thematic analysis was used to examine the collected data from the interviews, the observations, and the checklist. Findings showed that the six children with ASD demonstrated degrees of similarities and differences in their social and communication behaviors. Their social skills difficulties are in the aspects of showing interest in joining other children in games and other activities; showing interest in people; initiative to join others in games or other activities; choice of solitary activity over activity that involves interaction with others; saying or exhibiting socially inappropriate things like screaming and hurting others; and the inability to readily exchange social smile. Their communication skills difficulties are in the aspects of initiative in talking with others; asking question; taking turn in conversation; self-expression using oral language; clarity in speaking; showing eye contact; loudness of voice in speaking and showing facial expression. The social and communication skills difficulties of the learners with ASD have favorable effects on their learning process. The implication of the study showed that the learning experiences of the children with ASD are hampered and are not maximized due to their difficulties in social and communication skills. In conclusion, classroom learning environment must be improved and appropriate intervention be conducted to address their difficulties. Teachers can make the classroom activities more inclusive to develop a feeling of acceptance and belongingness to this group of learners. Differentiated instructions must be applied so as to address the needs of both the typical and atypical learners.

Facing exclusion and smiling through the pain: positive emotion expression during interpersonal ostracism.

Background: The present research compares smiling and emotion expression generally to other indicators of negative intra- and interpersonal reactions to ostracism, and in particular negative reactions towards the ostracizers.Methods: A total of N=143 participants (n=55 in Experiment 1 and n=88 in Experiment 2) were ostracized from a web-conference by two other individuals. Facial expressions of participants during the exclusion period were coded using EMFACS and compared to self-reported reactions to ostracism and the sources of the ostracism.Results: Ostracized individuals showed significant levels of both Duchenne (genuine) and non-Duchenne (social) smiling, despite finding ostracism highly aversive, reporting more negative attitudes towards the ostracizing confederates, and (in Experiment 2) higher levels of negative affect. Experiment 2 showed evidence of a self-regulation and display management function of smiling during ostracism in that participants who exhibited more Duchenne smiling during their exclusion also reported higher levels of positive emotion after the ostracism, and were also rated by a group of judges as experiencing more amusement at their exclusion.Conclusion: The web conferencing paradigm used in this study provides an ecologically valid method to study the management of expressive behavior during aversive interpersonal experiences, adding to the existing evidence of facial display management during other types of distressing experience.

Acceptability of the Transitional Wearable Companion "+me" in Typical Children: A Pilot Study.

This work presents the results of the first experimentation of +me-the first prototype of Transitional Wearable Companion–run on 15 typically developed (TD) children with ages between 8 and 34 months. +me is an interactive device that looks like a teddy bear that can be worn around the neck, has touch sensors, can emit appealing lights and sounds, and has input-output contingencies that can be regulated with a tablet via Bluetooth. The participants were engaged in social play activities involving both the device and an adult experimenter. +me was designed with the objective of exploiting its intrinsic allure as an attractive toy to stimulate social interactions (e.g., eye contact, turn taking, imitation, social smiles), an aspect potentially helpful in the therapy of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). The main purpose of this preliminary study is to evaluate the general acceptability of the toy by TD children, observing the elicited behaviors in preparation for future experiments involving children with ASD and other PDD. First observations, based on video recording and scoring, show that +me stimulates good social engagement in TD children, especially when their age is higher than 24 months.

Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation, not misperception of smile authenticity

ABSTRACTWe investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (N = 141) found perception of smile authenticity was unaffected, but that approach ratings, which are known to be reduced in social anxiety for happy faces, are more strongly reduced for genuine than polite smiles. Moreover, we found an independent contribution of social anxiety to approach ratings, over and above general negative affect (state/trait anxiety, depression), only for genuine smiles, and not for polite ones. We argue this pattern of results can be explained by genuine smilers signalling greater potential for interaction – and thus greater potential for the scrutiny that is feared in social anxiety – than polite smiles. Experiment 2 established that, relative to polite smilers, genuine smilers are indeed perceived as friendlier and likely to want to talk for longer if approached. Critically, the degree to which individual face items were perceived as wanting to interact correlated strongly with the amount that social anxiety reduced willingness to approach in Experiment 1. We conclude it is the potential for social evaluation and scrutiny signalled by happy expressions, rather than their positive valence, that is important in social anxiety.

Speech therapy intervention in a teenager with autism spectrum disorder: a case report

ABSTRACT Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects socio-communicative and behavioral abilities. In the language aspect, there is a greater impairment at the pragmatic level and in non-verbal aspects. The objective of this study was to characterize the severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder in an adolescent, pre-and post-speech-language therapy, and describe the process of speech-language intervention using Picture Exchange Communication System allied to the principles of behavioral analysis applied to language. The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist with the parents was applied. Then, a therapeutic program of 14 sessions of 50 minutes was developed, one per week, and then the questionnaire was reapplied. In the course of the therapeutic process, it was possible to observe an increase in the number of figure exchanges independently, an increase in the number of vocalizations with communicative intention or functional speech, longer time of visual contact and social smile, reduction of inappropriate behaviors with a significant improvement in the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score.

Mobile detection of autism through machine learning on home video: A development and prospective validation study.

BackgroundThe standard approaches to diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) evaluate between 20 and 100 behaviors and take several hours to complete. This has in part contributed to long wait times for a diagnosis and subsequent delays in access to therapy. We hypothesize that the use of machine learning analysis on home video can speed the diagnosis without compromising accuracy. We have analyzed item-level records from 2 standard diagnostic instruments to construct machine learning classifiers optimized for sparsity, interpretability, and accuracy. In the present study, we prospectively test whether the features from these optimized models can be extracted by blinded nonexpert raters from 3-minute home videos of children with and without ASD to arrive at a rapid and accurate machine learning autism classification.Methods and findingsWe created a mobile web portal for video raters to assess 30 behavioral features (e.g., eye contact, social smile) that are used by 8 independent machine learning models for identifying ASD, each with >94% accuracy in cross-validation testing and subsequent independent validation from previous work. We then collected 116 short home videos of children with autism (mean age = 4 years 10 months, SD = 2 years 3 months) and 46 videos of typically developing children (mean age = 2 years 11 months, SD = 1 year 2 months). Three raters blind to the diagnosis independently measured each of the 30 features from the 8 models, with a median time to completion of 4 minutes. Although several models (consisting of alternating decision trees, support vector machine [SVM], logistic regression (LR), radial kernel, and linear SVM) performed well, a sparse 5-feature LR classifier (LR5) yielded the highest accuracy (area under the curve [AUC]: 92% [95% CI 88%–97%]) across all ages tested. We used a prospectively collected independent validation set of 66 videos (33 ASD and 33 non-ASD) and 3 independent rater measurements to validate the outcome, achieving lower but comparable accuracy (AUC: 89% [95% CI 81%–95%]). Finally, we applied LR to the 162-video-feature matrix to construct an 8-feature model, which achieved 0.93 AUC (95% CI 0.90–0.97) on the held-out test set and 0.86 on the validation set of 66 videos. Validation on children with an existing diagnosis limited the ability to generalize the performance to undiagnosed populations.ConclusionsThese results support the hypothesis that feature tagging of home videos for machine learning classification of autism can yield accurate outcomes in short time frames, using mobile devices. Further work will be needed to confirm that this approach can accelerate autism diagnosis at scale.

Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders: Play behaviors with infant siblings and social responsiveness.

Mother-infant interactions are a proximal process in early development and may be especially salient for children who are at risk for social difficulties (i.e. infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder). To inform how indices of maternal behaviors may improve parent-mediated interventions designed to mitigate autism spectrum disorder risk, the present study explored maternal social responsiveness ratings and social behaviors during dyadic play interactions. Dyads were recruited from families with at least one older child with autism spectrum disorder (high-risk group, n = 90) or families with no history of autism spectrum disorder (low-risk group, n = 62). As part of a prospective study, interactions were coded when infant siblings were 6, 9, and 12 months of age, for gaze, affect, vocalizations, and multimodal bids or responses (i.e. social smiles). Maternal social responsiveness was indexed via the Social Responsiveness Scale. Mothers in both risk groups had comparable Social Responsiveness Scale scores and social behaviors during play. Two maternal behaviors emerged as positive correlates of infant social behaviors and are thus of high relevance to parent-mediated interventions. Specifically, more maternal positive affect and the use of multimodal bids or responses were associated with more infant positive affect, vocalizations, gaze to face, and multimodal bids or responses.

Spontaneous smiling and facial mimics in the neonate: A contribution to the functional role of paradoxical sleep during development

Objectives Sleeping newborns display facial mimics which give the impression of negative or positive affects. Smiling and frowning are the simplest and easily recognized. This study is an attempt to understand the neurophysiological meaning of these mimics and to define their connection with the functional role of REM sleep during ontogenesis. Methods Twelve healthy, full term neonates; 3 infants with brain malformations: two hydranencephalics and one with a left hemispherectomy were recorded, for a period of 3 hours during sleep, with the simultaneous use of a polygraphic and a video recording. It was determined during active sleep the frequency of smiling and frowning, their modality of occurrence their distribution within each active sleep. It was calculated for smiling their duration and laterality, their relationship with rapid eye movements and gross body movements. Results In the healthy neonates, 377 smiles and 1039 frownings were analyzed during active sleep. Spontaneous smiling is found to be similar to adult social smiling. Smiles were significantly more intensely expressed on the left side of the face (P Conclusion The data obtained in the healthy neonates and in the pathological infants are compared with the hypotheses of the functional role of paradoxical sleep during ontogenesis.

Evaluation of different smile parameters in the Turkish population

Aim: In the past, patients and dentists thought that the dental aesthetics could only be ensured with modifications on teeth. Together with the latest developments in the smile analysis and aesthetic design, researchers have identified the aesthetics based on facial, oral-facial, dentogingival, and dental components. The aim of this study is to evaluate the smile type (ST), smile line (SL), maxillary incisal line types (ML), and buccal corridor widths (BC) related to the smile aesthetics. Methodology: A total of 190 individuals (92 males and 98 females) aged between 18 and 25 years, living in different cities of Turkey and studying at Atatürk University, Faculty of Dentistry were included in the study. In the study, the smile types, smile lines, maxillary incisal curvatures and buccal corridor widths of the individuals were examined. Results: In the young Turkish population, the most common ST in both genders is the commissural smile, and the least common ST is the complex smile. The most common SL is the SL, and the least common SL is the high SL, and it varies by gender. While the most common ML is the convex line in both genders, the least common ML is the reverse incisal line. While the last visible maxillary tooth during the social smile is mostly the maxillary 2nd premolar tooth, it is the maxillary 2nd molar tooth at least. Conclusion: The incidence of some smile parameters in young Turkish population varies according to gender.

Development of a brief version of the Autism Detection in Early Childhood.

While autism spectrum disorder screening tools provide a useful resource for practitioners, the reality is they are underused. The justifications often provided include the time required for administration and the training involved. A brief tool with good psychometric properties that require minimal training is required. This study examined the development and the psychometric properties of a brief version of the Autism Detection in Early Childhood. The data showed the potential of the brief version of Autism Detection in Early Childhood for screening children age 12-36 months. Our dataset comprised 106 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition autism spectrum disorder, 86 non-typical development and 78 typical development participants age 12-36 months. Analyses comparing autism spectrum disorder and non-typical development groups supported the use of five critical items (i.e. response to name, social smiling, gaze switch, response to verbal command and use of gestures) to form the brief version Autism Detection in Early Childhood. The brief version of Autism Detection in Early Childhood's optimal cutoff score of 4 had sensitivity of 0.81, specificity of 0.78, positive predictive value of 0.81 and negative predictive value of 0.78. However, the results would need to be viewed as preliminary given the nature of the study sample and the findings might not be generalisable to samples with higher levels of cognitive functioning.

A Feasibility Study of Autism Behavioral Markers in Spontaneous Facial, Visual, and Hand Movement Response Data.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability with atypical traits in behavioral and physiological responses. These atypical traits in individuals with ASD may be too subtle and subjective to measure visually using tedious methods of scoring. Alternatively, the use of intrusive sensors in the measurement of psychophysical responses in individuals with ASD may likely cause inhibition and bias. This paper proposes a novel experimental protocol for non-intrusive sensing and analysis of facial expression, visual scanning, and eye-hand coordination to investigate behavioral markers for ASD. An institutional review board approved pilot study is conducted to collect the response data from two groups of subjects (ASD and control) while they engage in the tasks of visualization, recognition, and manipulation. For the first time in the ASD literature, the facial action coding system is used to classify spontaneous facial responses. Statistical analyses reveal significantly (p <0.01) higher prevalence of smile expression for the group with ASD with the eye-gaze significantly averted (p<0.05) from viewing the face in the visual stimuli. This uncontrolled manifestation of smile without proper visual engagement suggests impairment in reciprocal social communication, e.g., social smile. The group with ASD also reveals poor correlation in eye-gaze and hand movement data suggesting deficits in motor coordination while performing a dynamic manipulation task. The simultaneous sensing and analysis of multimodal response data may provide useful quantitative insights into ASD to facilitate early detection of symptoms for effective intervention planning.

Influence of Lip Height and Inciso Gingival Height in Relation to Smile Aesthetics in Orthodontically Treated Individuals

Aim: To study on the influence of lip height and inciso gingival height in relation to smile aesthetics in orthodontically treated individuals. Materials and method: The study was conducted in Saveetha Dental College, Chennai. The participants were informed and their consent were obtained for this study, in order to displayed and used their image in the study. The participants were previously having orthodontic treatment in relation to smile aesthetics and free from any other smile aesthetics treatment. Total of 30 participants photographed were used in this study for assessment of their smile. A total of 10 general practitioners,10 orthodontists and 10 lay people were asked to be the evaluators panel. The smile of each participants were then analysed by using visual analogue scale (VAS) and scored for each categories in the questionnaire. Data were then collected and analysed. Results: The study was compromised of 30 dental students of post graduates and undergraduates with age range from 19 to 26 years old. The mean age of the evaluators was 20.07. It shown that 40.7%, 27.3%, 20.0% and 12.0% of the subjects had good, fair, very good and excellent smiles respectively after undergone orthodontics treatment. There were no definite difference on the frequency distribution of the smiles. According to the data of the comparison of the inciso gingival height in social smile and spontaneous smile of the study models, Chi-square test shown no significant differences between the two types of smile according to the visibility of the maxillary central incisors. The frequency distribution of the upper lip height also shown the same. In addition to this, 73% of the evaluators chose social smile as the most attractive smile in general, followed by spontaneous smile (17%) and commissure smile (10%). Conclusion: Both social and spontaneous smile may exhibits difference variance, but it is not too significant. Thus this study prove that the upper lip height and inciso gingival height have no effect on rating of smiles in social as well as spontaneous smile of the orthodontically treated people.

Assessment of the Smile Characteristics in Different Dentoalveolar Malocclusion Cases

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the smile characteristics in different dentoalveolar malocclusion cases, by standardized photographic analysis. Subjects and methods: A sample of 132 subjects with age range from 18 to 24 years. The study groups were designed according to Angles Classification in to 4 groups. Standardized extraoral photographs at rest position, social smile, maximum smile and profile were taken for each subject. Smile analysis was done by identifying certain measurements digitally via software. Results: The upper and lower lip length showed significant change. The mouth width increased during smiling significantly. The smile area showed no significant different in social smile between all groups. The buccal corridors area showed significant increase. The incisal show had significant difference among allgroups in social smile. The smile arch depth showed no significant difference in social smile among all groups. The gingival exposure significantly increased during maximum smile. Conclusions: Control group showed moderate smile Class I with bimaxillary protrusion, spacing and openbite subgroups showed high smile. Class I with crowding and deepbite subgroups showed low smile. Class II Division 1 group showed high smile while Division 2 showed moderate smile. Class III group showed low smile.

Longitudinal study of external stimuli produced social smiling for infant

Longitudinal study of external stimuli produced social smiling for infant

Reduced preference for social rewards in a novel tablet based task in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Atypical responsivity to social rewards has been observed in young children with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These observations contributed to the hypothesis of reduced social motivation in ASD. In the current study we develop a novel task to test social reward preference using a tablet computer (iPad), where two differently coloured buttons were associated with a social and a nonsocial rewarding image respectively. 63 young children, aged 14–68 months, with and without a diagnosis of ASD took part in the study. The experimental sessions were also recorded on video, using an in-built webcam on the tablet as well as an external camera. Children with ASD were found to show a reduced relative preference for social rewards, indexed by a lower proportion of touches for the button associated with the social reward image. Greater social preference as measured using the tablet-based task was associated with increased use of social communicative behaviour such as eye contact with the experimenter and social smile in response to the social reward image. These results are consistent with earlier findings from eye-tracking studies, and provide novel empirical insights into atypical social reward responsivity in ASD.

Hypersociability in the Angelman syndrome mouse model

Deletions and reciprocal triplications of the human chromosomal 15q11-13 region cause two distinct neurodevelopmental disorders. Maternally-derived deletions or inactivating mutations of UBE3A, a 15q11-13 gene expressed exclusively from the maternal allele in neurons, cause Angelman syndrome, characterized by intellectual disability, motor deficits, seizures, and a characteristic increased social smiling, laughing, and eye contact. Conversely, maternally-derived triplications of 15q11-13 cause a behavioral disorder on the autism spectrum with clinical features that include decreased sociability that we recently reconstituted in mice with Ube3a alone. Based on the unique sociability features reported in Angelman syndrome and the repressed sociability observed when Ube3a gene dosage is increased, we hypothesized that mice with neuronal UBE3A loss that models Angelman syndrome would display evidence of hypersocial behavior. We report that mice with maternally-inherited Ube3a gene deletion (Ube3amKO) have a prolonged preference for, and interaction with, social stimuli in the three chamber social approach task. By contrast, interactions with a novel object are reduced. Further, ultrasonic vocalizations and physical contacts are increased in male and female Ube3amKO mice paired with an unfamiliar genotype-matched female. Single housing wild type mice increased these same social behavior parameters to levels observed in Ube3amKO mice where this effect was partially occluded. These results indicate sociability is repressed by social experience and the endogenous levels of UBE3A protein and suggest some social behavioral features observed in Angelman syndrome may reflect an increased social motivation.

Genetic and environmental contributions to the development of positive affect in infancy.

We studied developmental changes in infant positive affect from 6 to 12 months of age, a time marked by increasing use of positive vocalizations, laughter, and social smiles. We estimated the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on observed and parent reported infant positive affect across development. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal twin study of infancy and toddlerhood (N = 536 twin pairs). Mothers and fathers reported on infant temperament and infants were videotaped during 2 observational tasks assessing positive affect. Parents also reported on their own affect and emotional expression within the family. Biometric models examined genetic and environmental influences that contribute to the developmental continuity of positive affect. Infant positive affect was associated with increased parent positive affect and family expressions of positive affect although not with family expressions of negative affect. In addition, the shared environment accounted for a large portion of variation in infant positive affect and continuity over time. These findings highlight the importance of the family environment in relation to infant positive emotional development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Perception of Smile Esthetics by Orthodontists and Laypersons: Full Face and A Localized View of The Social and Spontaneous Smiles.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the parameters that might affect the esthetic perception of localized and full-face views of social and spontaneous smiles. Video records of 40 individuals were used. Further, 200 images of each individual were captured for social and spontaneous smiles with and without calibration glasses. Full-face images of social smile (SSF) and spontaneous smile (smile of joy) (JSF) were obtained. Furthermore, the mouth-area images of the same social (SSM) and spontaneous (JSM) smiles from each subject were acquired. Here 160 images were evaluated by orthodontists and laypersons using the Q-sort method. The data were analyzed with logistic regression and independent samples t-test. From the orthodontic perspective, upper lip thickness (p=0.004), lip curtain over incisors (p=0.016), maxillary incisor display (p=0.01), and buccal corridor ratio (p=0.006) were significant to determine attractive and unattractive images when viewing localized social smiles. Laypersons identified no particular parameter to explain the variation in preferences for all the image groups (p>0.05). Upper lip thickness and maxillary incisor display during smiling were found to be effective for distinguishing images as attractive and unattractive by orthodontists. No objective evaluations for the attractiveness were made by laypersons.

Visual perception of faces with unilateral and bilateral cleft lip and palate: An Eye-Tracking Study.

To test the hypotheses that there are differences between orthodontists, individuals with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and laypersons in the visual perception of faces with unilateral (UCLP) and bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP), the faces with UCLP and BCLP are visually perceived differently and the hierarchy of visual attention changes when viewing individuals with CLP. Department of Orthodontics and Experimental Psychology at Ege University, İzmir. Sixty images (faces with a social smile and at rest) of 30volunteers (unaffected controls, UCLP, BCLP) were viewed by 80 participants: orthodontists, individuals with CLP and laypersons. Eye fixations on four areas of interest were quantified: eyes, nose, upper lip and lower lip-chin. Time to first fixation, fixation before, fixation count and fixation duration parameters were analysed. Orthodontists fixated on the upper-lip area more often than laypersons or individuals with CLP (F2.144 =8.47, P=.00, η²=.19 in faces at rest). The upper-lip area received more fixations (F2.144 =21.93, P=.00, η²=.23) and longer fixation durations (F2.144 =28.86, P=.00, η²=.27) from all participants who gazed on faces with UCLP and a social smile. The hypotheses of the study were supported. Orthodontists and laypersons focused more attention on the upper lip and eyes in the resting position, respectively. The upper-lip area of the BCLP images captured more attention at rest.