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PubMed1999

Recognition of facial emotional expressions from moving and static displays by individuals with mental retardation.

Moving and static videotaped and photographic displays of posed emotional expressions were presented to 12 adults with mental retardation and 12 without mental retardation to investigate the role of movement in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion. Participants chose the corresponding emotion portrayed by the displays from among six written and pictorial labels of the emotions. Results indicated that individuals with mental retardation were significantly poorer at identifying anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. Both groups performed significantly better on the moving as opposed to the static videotaped displays of the emotions sad and angry. Visual-perceptual limitations are likely contributors to the poorer performance of the group with mental retardation in recognizing moving and static facial expressions of emotion.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Beyond the face: exploring rapid influences of context on face processing.

Humans optimize behavior by deriving context-based expectations. Contextual data that are important for survival are extracted rapidly, using coarse information, adaptive decision strategies, and dedicated neural infrastructure. In the field of object perception, the influence of a surrounding context has been a major research theme, and it has generated a large literature. That visual context, as typically provided by natural scenes, facilitates object recognition as has been convincingly demonstrated (Bar, M. (2004) Nat. Rev. Neurosci., 5: 617-629). Just like objects, faces are generally encountered as part of a natural scene. Thus far, the facial expression literature has neglected such context and treats facial expressions as if they stand on their own. This constitutes a major gap in our knowledge. Facial expressions tend to appear in a context of head and body orientations, body movements, posture changes, and other object-related actions with a similar or at least a closely related meaning. For instance, one would expect a frightened face when confronted to an external danger to be at least accompanied by withdrawal movements of head and shoulders. Furthermore, some cues provided by the environment or the context in which a facial expression appears may have a direct relation with the emotion displayed by the face. The brain may even fill in the natural scene context typically associated with the facial expression. Recognition of the facial expression may also profit from processing the vocal emotion as well as the emotional body language that normally accompany it. Here we review the emerging evidence on how the immediate visual and auditory contexts influence the recognition of facial expressions.

Electroencephalography↗
PubMed2006

X Chromosomal effects on social cognitive processing and emotion regulation: A study with Klinefelter men (47,XXY).

Studying Klinefelter syndrome (47,XXY), a genetically defined disorder characterized by the presence of an additional X chromosome, can reveal insights into genotype-phenotype associations. Increased vulnerability to psychiatric disorders characterized by difficulties in social interactions, such as schizophrenia and autism, has been reported for this population. The reported social difficulties in 47,XXY men may arise as a consequence of impairments in the processing of social and emotional information. The present study is the first investigation of social-emotional information processing in this X chromosomal disorder. 32 Klinefelter men and 26 men from the general population, with the groups matched for age, educational level and I.Q., participated in the study. Several tasks were included, reflecting aspects of social-emotional information processing on levels of perception, experience and expression: labeling of facial expressions of emotion, emotion-cognition interactions in decision making and emotion regulation, that refers to subjective experience and identification of emotional arousal as well as verbal expression of emotions. A discrepancy between cognitive appraisal of emotions and emotional arousal was observed in Klinefelter syndrome. Taken together, Klinefelter men seem less accurate in perception of socio-emotional cues such as angry facial expressions, they are less able to identify and verbalize their emotions, but experience increased levels of emotional arousal, in comparison to the general population. Besides describing the social-emotional phenotype of this X chromosomal disorder, the present data may prove to be an important contribution to the development of more general models describing pathways to neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social cognitive disturbances.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Hemispheric asymmetry in conditioning to facial emotional expressions.

In the present experiment, we report a right hemisphere advantage for autonomic conditioning to facial emotional expressions. Specifically, angry, but not happy, facial expressions showed significantly more resistance to extinction when presented initially to the right as compared to the left hemisphere. Slides of happy and angry faces were used as conditioned stimuli (CS+ and CS-) with shock as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Half of the subjects (n = 15) had the angry face as CS+ (and the happy face as CS-), the other half had the happy face as CS+ (and the angry face as CS-). During acquisition, the CSs were presented foveally. During extinction, using the Visual Half-Field (VHF) technique, half of the CS+ and CS- trials were randomly presented in the right visual half-field (initially to the left hemisphere), and half of the trials were presented in the left half-field (initially to the right hemisphere). Stimuli were presented for 210 ms during acquisition, and for 30 ms during extinction. Bilateral skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. The results showed effects of acquisition only for the angry CS+ group. During extinction, there was a significant Conditioning X Half-field interaction which was due to greater SCRs to the CS+ angry face when it was presented in the left half-field. It is concluded that the present results reveal hemisphere asymmetry effects in facial emotional conditioning.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Negative bias in the perception of others' facial emotional expressions in major depression: the role of depressive rumination.

Depressed individuals display a negative bias in the perception of others' facial emotional expressions. The extent of this selective processing, moreover, has proven predictive of a poor outcome in depression. However, to date, little is known about the possible mechanisms that may account for this bias. This study examined the hypothesis that rumination--an analytical type of self-focused attention--would be associated with higher levels of perception of negative facial emotions in major depression. Twenty-six depressed patients (17 women) completed the Perception of Facial Expressions Questionnaire, the Ruminative Response Scale, and other measures assessing depression-related constructs. Consistent with prediction, rumination was positively related to a negative bias in the judgment of facial expressions, even when controlling for other depression-related variables. Although the correlational design of the present study limits the extent to which conclusions can be drawn on the directionality of the observed relationship, the present study reveals self-focused rumination as a possibly important causal mechanism in explaining depressed persons' negative bias in the perception of others' facial emotions.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

A controlled study of facial mobility treatment in Parkinson's disease.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of orofacial physiotherapeutic treatment (OPT) on the facial mobility of Parkinson's disease (PD) sufferers. Sixteen participants with PD were allocated randomly to either the Treatment group or the Control group. A short interview between the physiotherapist and each subject was videotaped, and 10 random frames of the videotape were selected to be used in the facial expression assessment. The quantification of facial expressions was achieved by using an objective microcomputer-based measurement system, based on a mathematical model of the face (FACEM). A facial outline is obtained, as well as 12 facial measures, which represent distances between key facial landmarks. The facial assessment was performed on 3 separate occasions, that is, baseline (pretreatment), posttreatment, and follow-up (4 weeks later). A repeated measures analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect of Time and a significant interaction effect between Time and Group for the Mouth-Opening Measure, suggesting that after treatment, members of the Treatment group opened their mouths to a greater degree than members of the Control group. Within the Treatment group, significant differences between pretreatment and posttreatment scores (MANOVA) were found for Mouth-Opening Measure and Mid-Top-Lip Measure. Similarly, Mouth-Opening Measure, Mid-Top-Lip Measure, Lower-Lip Thickness Measure, Top Eyelid/Iris Intersect Measure and Lower Eyelid/Iris Intersect Measure were significant across time from baseline to follow-up in the Treatment group only. No significant differences were found on any of the facial measures during the same period for members of the Control group. These findings suggest that OPT can improve facial movement and that this benefit extends in time, beyond the period of OPT itself. Such an increase in facial mobility can be expected to modify the "Parkinsonian facies" and facilitate the display of facial expressions.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Proximal spacing to facial affect expressions in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenics (N = 40), depressives (N = 36), anxiety neurotics (N = 35), and nonpatient controls (N = 60) were asked to walk forward from a distance of 10 feet to a distance comfortable for possible interaction with facial expressions of six affects and a neutral state, depicted in life-sized images. Schizophrenics demanded significantly greater proximal space than other groups to interact with facial affect expressions, especially the nonaroused ones (happy, sad, neutral state). Multiple discriminant analysis of the "comfortable interaction distance" data revealed that schizophrenic persons may be discriminated with moderate accuracy (52.5%) from other groups.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The role of person familiarity in young infants' perception of emotional expressions.

This research investigated the role of person familiarity in the ability of 3.5-month-old infants to recognize emotional expressions. Infants (N = 72) were presented simultaneously with two filmed facial expressions, happy and sad, accompanied by a single vocal expression that was concordant with one of the two facial expressions. Infants' looking preferences and facial expressions were coded. Results indicated that when the emotional expressions were portrayed by each infant's own mother, infants looked significantly longer toward the facial expressions that were accompanied by affectively matching vocal expressions. Infants who were presented with emotional expressions of an unfamiliar woman did not. Even when a brief delay was inserted between the presentation of facial and vocal expressions, infants who were presented with emotional expressions of their own mothers looked longer at the facial expression that was sound specified, indicating that some factor other than temporal synchrony guided their looking preferences. When infants viewed the films of their own mothers, they were more interactive and expressed more positive and less negative affect. Moreover, infants produced a greater number of full and bright smiles when the sound-specified emotion was "happy," and particularly when they viewed the happy expressions of their own mothers. The average duration of negative affect was significantly longer for infants who observed the unfamiliar woman than for those who observed their own mothers. These results show that when more contextual information-that is, person familiarity-was available, infants as young as 3.5 months of age recognized happy and sad expressions. These findings suggest that in the early stages of development, infants are sensitive to contextual information that potentially facilitates some of the meaning of others' emotional expressions.

Affect↗
PubMed2006

Attention to facial emotion expressions in children with autism.

High-functioning children in the autism spectrum are frequently noted for their impaired attention to facial expressions of emotions. In this study, we examined whether attention to emotion cues in others could be enhanced in children with autism, by varying the relevance of children's attention to emotion expressions. Twenty-eight high-functioning boys with autism and 31 boys from a control group were asked to sort photos depicting smiling or frowning faces of adults. As found in earlier studies, in neutral conditions children with autism were less attentive to emotion expressions than children from a control group. This difference disappeared when children were explicitly asked to make a socially relevant decision. These findings suggest that the attention of children with autism to emotion expressions in others is influenced by situational factors. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Affect↗
PubMed1999

Postoperative pain expression in preschool children: validation of the child facial coding system.

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of the study were threefold: (a) to determine whether a measurement system based on facial expression would be useful in the assessment of post-operative pain in young children; (b) to examine construct validity in terms of structure, consistency, and dynamics of the facial display; and (c) to evaluate concurrent validity in terms of associations with global judgments of the children's pain. PATIENTS: One hundred children between the ages of 13 and 74 months were video-taped for a maximum of 1 hour after arrival in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) at British Columbia's Children's Hospital. OUTCOME MEASURES: Videotapes were edited into 20-second blocks, randomly selected from each 2-minute time period taped during the hour following surgery, and coded for the presence or absence of 13 facial actions in the Child Facial Coding System (CFCS). RESULTS: Facial expressions were characterized primarily by the following constellation of actions: open lips, lowered brows, a deepened nasolabial furrow, mouth stretched wide in both horizontal and vertical directions, eyes squeezed shut or squinted, and raised cheeks. A principal components analysis indicated that these actions comprised a single factor, accounting for 55% of the variance in CFCS actions. Facial action summary scores were correlated with a visual analog rating of global pain, confirming that the CFCS has convergent validity. Facial action summary scores, i.e., pain displays, were at their lowest immediately after admittance to the PACU and just before the child's release from the PACU. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that the CFCS serves as a valid measurement tool for persistent pain in children.

Child↗
PubMed2005

The face of pain--a pilot study to validate the measurement of facial pain expression with an improved electromyogram method.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this pilot study was to establish the validity of an improved facial electromyogram (EMG) method for the measurement of facial pain expression. BACKGROUND: Darwin defined pain in connection with fear as a simultaneous occurrence of eye staring, brow contraction and teeth chattering. Prkachin was the first to use the video-based Facial Action Coding System to measure facial expressions while using four different types of pain triggers, identifying a group of facial muscles around the eyes. METHOD: The activity of nine facial muscles in 10 healthy male subjects was analyzed. Pain was induced through a laser system with a randomized sequence of different intensities. Muscle activity was measured with a new, highly sensitive and selective facial EMG. RESULTS: The results indicate two groups of muscles as key for pain expression. These results are in concordance with Darwin's definition. As in Prkachin's findings, one muscle group is assembled around the orbicularis oculi muscle, initiating eye staring. The second group consists of the mentalis and depressor anguli oris muscles, which trigger mouth movements. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate the validity of the facial EMG method for measuring facial pain expression. Further studies with psychometric measurements, a larger sample size and a female test group should be conducted.

Electromyography↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Deliberate emotional expressions of socially anxious children and their mothers.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether socially anxious children show deficits in their deliberate facial expression of emotions. To test for potential mother-child transmission effects, the mothers' facial expressions were also assessed. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially nonanxious children (8-12 years) and their mothers participated in a facial expression posing task. The expressions produced were coded using Ekman and Friesen's (1978) Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In addition, naive raters rated their quality of emotion. FACS analyses indicated that socially anxious children show a reduced general facial activity, have a more restricted facial repertoire and differ qualitatively from controls in their facial expression of emotions. Similarly, the global ratings indicated that the socially anxious children's posed facial expressions are less accurate. For the mothers no differences between groups were found when global ratings were used. However, the FACS data demonstrate that the facial expressions of mothers of socially anxious children are less intense compared to controls. It is possible that the decreased intensity of the mothers' facial expressiveness makes it more difficult for the socially anxious children to learn adequate facial expressions.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The amygdala response to emotional stimuli: a comparison of faces and scenes.

As a central fear processor of the brain, the amygdala initiates a cascade of critical physiological and behavioral responses. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the human amygdala responds not only to fearful and angry facial expressions but also to fearful and threatening scenes such as attacks, explosions, and mutilations. Given the relative importance of facial expressions in adaptive social behavior, we hypothesized that the human amygdala would exhibit a stronger response to angry and fearful facial expressions in comparison to other fearful and threatening stimuli. Twelve subjects completed two tasks while undergoing fMRI: matching angry or fearful facial expressions, and matching scenes depicting fearful or threatening situations derived from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). While there was an amygdala response to both facial expressions and IAPS stimuli, direct comparison revealed that the amygdala response to facial expressions was significantly greater than that to IAPS stimuli. Autonomic reactivity, measured by skin conductance responses, was also greater to facial expressions. These results suggest that the human amygdala shows a stronger response to affective facial expressions than to scenes, a bias that should be considered in the design of experimental paradigms interested in probing amygdala function.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Facial feedback effects on impression formation.

Two experiments were conducted to examine effects of facial expressions upon social cognitive processes in which the impression of another person is formed. In each experiment, 30 female college students were induced to display or conceal their facial reactions to a hypothetical target person whose behaviors were mildly hostile (Exp. 1) or mildly friendly (Exp. 2), or their facial expressions were not manipulated. Displaying the facial expressions shifted the impression into the congruent directions with hedonic values corresponding to the facial expressions. Concealing the facial expressions, however, did not influence impression formation. Also, the positive-negative asymmetry was observed in the facial feedback effects, that is, the negative facial expression had a stronger effect on social cognition than the positive one.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Emotion understanding in postinstitutionalized Eastern European children.

To examine the effects of early emotional neglect on children's affective development, we assessed children who had experienced institutionalized care prior to adoption into family environments. One task required children to identify photographs of facial expressions of emotion. A second task required children to match facial expressions to an emotional situation. Internationally adopted, postinstitutionalized children had difficulty identifying facial expressions of emotion. In addition, postinstitutionalized children had significant difficulty matching appropriate facial expressions to happy, sad, and fearful scenarios. However, postinstitutionalized children performed as well as comparison children when asked to identify and match angry facial expressions. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of emotional input early in life on later developmental organization.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Emotional face expressions are differentiated with brain oscillations.

The differentiation of "facial expressions" is a process of higher mental activity, which has considerable applications in "psychology of moods and emotions". We applied the approach of event-related oscillations (EROs) to investigate the modulation of electrical manifestations related to emotional expression in EEG recordings of 20 healthy subjects. EROs of "neutral, angry and happy" faces in 13 electrical recordings sites (F(3), F(4), C(z), C(3), C(4), T(3), T(4), T(5), T(6), P(3), P(4), O(1), O(2)) were analyzed. Following the recording session, the subjects were asked to express the degree of their emotional involvement (valence and arousal) using the Self-Assessment Manikin ratings. Amplitude frequency characteristics (AFCs) were used to determine the frequencies of interest and the ranges for digital pass-band filtering applied accordingly. Consecutively, peak to peak amplitude measures of oscillatory responses were computed for the selected frequency bands and for the differentiation of the different stimuli. A differentiation between angry and happy facial expressions was observed especially in the alpha (9-13 Hz) and beta (15-24 Hz) frequencies, however, only when selecting stimuli with high mood involvement. Therefore, these frequency bands are the main focus of this report. The amplitudes of the alpha responses upon angry face stimulation were significantly higher than upon presentation of the happy faces at posterior locations. At F(3), C(z) and C(3), beta responses upon angry face stimulation were significantly higher in amplitude compared with the happy face stimulation. It is discussed that the frontal theta response is highly increased in comparison to all theta responses also encountered in studies of face recognition: During observation of facial expression, the occipital theta is much higher. We conclude and emphasize that the analysis of brain oscillatory responses distributed over the scalp in combination with subjective ratings of emotional impact of stimuli provide a good basis for analysing the influence of emotional information processing in the brain. In congruence with others, the results support the phylogenetical viewpoint suggesting that angry face stimulations are faster and more ample in responding. Furthermore, frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes seem to be involved in processing of facial expressions, as reflected in an ensemble of different frequency brain oscillatory responses distributed over the scalp.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Recognition of vocal and facial cues to affect in language-impaired and normally-developing preschoolers.

UNLABELLED: The current study was designed to investigate whether reported difficulties in language-impaired children's ability to identify vocal and facial cues to emotion could be explained at least partially by nonparalinguistic factors. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and control participants received an affect discrimination task, which consisted of the following cue situations: (1) facial expression and unfiltered speech; (2) lowpass-filtered speech only; (3) facial expression only; and (4) facial expression and filtered speech. The results of the study indicated that impaired and nonimpaired group performance differed only for the items including facial expression and nonfiltered speech. Developmental and investigative implications of this finding are addressed. LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to summarize the findings from existing research on affect comprehension in children with language impairments (LI). As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to discuss ways in which language impairment and difficulties in understanding emotion cues are associated and propose how these associations might influence social interactions.

Affect↗