Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “FACIAL EXPRESSION”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions.

Studies reveal that when people are exposed to emotional facial expressions, they spontaneously react with distinct facial electromyographic (EMG) reactions in emotion-relevant facial muscles. These reactions reflect, in part, a tendency to mimic the facial stimuli. We investigated whether corresponding facial reactions can be elicited when people are unconsciously exposed to happy and angry facial expressions. Through use of the backward-masking technique, the subjects were prevented from consciously perceiving 30-ms exposures of happy, neutral, and angry target faces, which immediately were followed and masked by neutral faces. Despite the fact that exposure to happy and angry faces was unconscious, the subjects reacted with distinct facial muscle reactions that corresponded to the happy and angry stimulus faces. Our results show that both positive and negative emotional reactions can be unconsciously evoked, and particularly that important aspects of emotional face-to-face communication can occur on an unconscious level.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Amygdala lesion in temporal lobe epilepsy subjects impairs associative learning of emotional facial expressions.

To investigate the role of unilateral amygdala lesions on processing emotions, 22 drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) subjects (12 with left-sided and ten with right-sided focus) were tested, after anterior temporal lobectomy or selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy on two associative learning tasks containing emotional and neutral facial expressions, respectively. Volumetric lesion analysis was performed on the basis of 3-D MR images. No effects of lesion side were found in TLE subjects. Taken the extent of amygdala damage into account, an interaction effect could be shown between task (learning of neutral facial expressions versus emotional facial expressions) and group (subjects with little versus considerable amygdala damage), indicating worse performance of subjects with considerable amygdala damage in learning emotional facial expressions. Subjects with considerable amygdala damage were also significantly impaired in learning emotional facial expressions when compared with control subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger.

Previous neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have investigated the neural substrates which mediate responses to fearful, disgusted and happy expressions. No previous studies have investigated the neural substrates which mediate responses to sad and angry expressions. Using functional neuroimaging, we tested two hypotheses. First, we tested whether the amygdala has a neural response to sad and/or angry facial expressions. Secondly, we tested whether the orbitofrontal cortex has a specific neural response to angry facial expressions. Volunteer subjects were scanned, using PET, while they performed a sex discrimination task involving static grey-scale images of faces expressing varying degrees of sadness and anger. We found that increasing intensity of sad facial expression was associated with enhanced activity in the left amygdala and right temporal pole. In addition, we found that increasing intensity of angry facial expression was associated with enhanced activity in the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex. We found no support for the suggestion that angry expressions generate a signal in the amygdala. The results provide evidence for dissociable, but interlocking, systems for the processing of distinct categories of negative facial expression.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Enhancing the ability of adults with mental retardation to recognize facial expressions of emotion.

The ability to recognize accurately and respond appropriately to facial expressions of emotion is essential for interpersonal interaction. Individuals with mental retardation typically are deficient in these skills. The ability of 7 adults, 1 with severe and 6 with moderate mental retardation, to recognize facial expressions of emotion correctly was assessed. Then, they were taught this skill using a combination of a discrimination training procedure for differentiating facial movements, directed rehearsal, and Ekman and Friesen's "flashing photograph" technique. Their average increase in accuracy over baseline was at least 30% during the course of the training and over 50% during the last 5 days of the training phase. Further, these individuals were able to generalize their skills from posed photographs to videotaped role plays and were able to maintain their enhanced skills during the 8 to 9 months following the termination of training. This is the first study to show that individuals with mental retardation can be taught skills that enhance their ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

[Effects of believes and expectations about self and others on emotional recognition of facial expressions: from the perspective of adult attachment].

This study aimed at examining how adult attachment styles as believes and expectations about self and others affected emotional recognition of facial expressions. In this study, hypotheses were framed based on the perspective of attachment dimensions. One hundred and sixty one undergraduates observed positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions as stimulus, and rated the extent to which each stimuli expressed several kinds of emotion. The main results were as follows. Generally, either anxious or avoidant individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion (happy) from facial expressions, and anxious and less avoidant individuals perceived other-oriented negative emotions (anger, disgust, and contempt). In addition, avoidant individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion from positive facial expressions. On the other hand, from negative facial expressions, anxious and less avoidant individuals were more likely to perceive other-oriented negative emotions, and anxious individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion. The results were discussed from the perspective of adult attachment theory.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Do facial expressions signal specific emotions? Judging emotion from the face in context.

Certain facial expressions have been theorized to be easily recognizable signals of specific emotions. If so, these expressions should override situationally based expectations used by a person in attributing an emotion to another. An alternative account is offered in which the face provides information relevant to emotion but does not signal a specific emotion. Therefore, in specified circumstances, situational rather than facial information was predicted to determine the judged emotion. This prediction was supported in 3 studies--indeed, in each of the 22 cases examined (e.g., a person in a frightening situation but displaying a reported "facial expression of anger" was judged as afraid). Situational information was especially influential when it suggested a nonbasic emotion (e.g., a person in a painful situation but displaying a "facial expression of fear" was judged as in pain).

Adult↗
PubMed2005

[A model of two-dimensional placement of the facial expressions of emotion].

It is a fundamental question whether facial expressions are processed categorically or continuously in the multidimensional space. According to Young, Rowland, Calder, Etcoff, Seth, and Perrett (1997), two-dimensional model predicts that: (i) transitions between expressions should be continuous, and (ii) at least some transitions between expressions should pass through a central neutral region or a region corresponding to a third emotion. We investigated this issue using schematic facial expressions which were used by Yamada (1993). We measured the difference between the neutral and each of six facial stimuli with basic expressions and created opposite faces with reference to the neutral face (100% (original, e.g. happy), 50%, 0% (neutral), -50%, -100% (opposite, e.g. unhappy), for each expression). Subjects rated the affective value of these stimuli. The configuration of four emotional stimuli showed that each stimulus (100%) passed through the neutral face and reached the opposite face (-100%) except for the disgust and fear. This result supports, at least partially, the two-dimensional model of face perception.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

[Perception of schizophrenic patients in classifying pictures of facial expression].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of schizophrenics in classifying pictures of various facial expressions. Schizophrenics were divided into five groups according to the duration of their hospitalization. In the first experiment, subjects were instructed to look at the pictures of three different kinds of facial expressions, anger, delight (laughing) and sadness (crying), and classify them into any categories they like. In comparison with normals, schizophrenics had a difficulty in recognizing the differences in the various facial expressions. In the second experiment, subjects were instructed to look at the same pictures and classify them into three groups of different facial expressions. In this case, schizophrenics were able to classify them almost as well as normals.

Emotions↗
PubMed2007

Human and computer recognition of facial expressions of emotion.

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence suggests that the human brain contains facial expression recognition detectors specialized for specific discrete emotions. However, some human behavioral data suggest that humans recognize expressions as similar and not discrete entities. This latter observation has been taken to indicate that internal representations of facial expressions may be best characterized as varying along continuous underlying dimensions. To examine the potential compatibility of these two views, the present study compared human and support vector machine (SVM) facial expression recognition performance. Separate SVMs were trained to develop fully automatic optimal recognition of one of six basic emotional expressions in real-time with no explicit training on expression similarity. Performance revealed high recognition accuracy for expression prototypes. Without explicit training of similarity detection, magnitude of activation across each emotion-specific SVM captured human judgments of expression similarity. This evidence suggests that combinations of expert classifiers from separate internal neural representations result in similarity judgments between expressions, supporting the appearance of a continuous underlying dimensionality. Further, these data suggest similarity in expression meaning is supported by superficial similarities in expression appearance.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1992

Recognition of facial expressions of emotion by persons with mental retardation. A matched comparison study.

Children and adults with mental retardation were tested on their ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. The sample consisted of 80 children and adults with mental retardation and a control group of 80 nonhandicapped children matched on mental age and gender. Ekman and Friesen's normed photographs of the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) were used in a recognition task of facial expressions. Subjects were individually read two-sentence stories identifying a specific emotion, presented with a randomized array of the six photographs of the basic facial expressions of emotion, and then asked to select the photograph that depicted the emotion identified in the story. This procedure was repeated with 24 different stories, with each of the six basic emotions being represented four times. Results showed that, as a group, individuals with mental retardation were not as proficient as their mental-age-matched nonhandicapped control subjects at recognizing facial expressions of emotion. Although adults with mild mental retardation were more proficient at this task than those with moderate mental retardation, this finding was not true for children. There was a modest difference between the children with moderate mental retardation and their nonhandicapped matched controls in their ability to recognize facial expression of disgust.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Feature-based detection of facial landmarks from neutral and expressive facial images.

Feature-based method for detecting landmarks from facial images was designed. The method was based on extracting oriented edges and constructing edge maps at two resolution levels. Edge regions with characteristic edge pattern formed landmark candidates. The method ensured invariance to expressions while detecting eyes. Nose and mouth detection was deteriorated by happiness and disgust.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2006

Genuine, suppressed and faked facial expressions of pain in children.

Children's efforts to hide or exaggerate facial expressions of pain were compared to their genuine expressions using the cold pressor task. Fifty healthy 8- to 12-year-olds (25 boys, 25 girls) submerged their hands in cold and warm water and were instructed about what to show on their faces. Cold 10 degrees C water was used for the genuine and suppressed conditions and warm 30 degrees C water was used for the faked condition. Facial activity was videotaped and coded using the Facial Action Coding System to provide objective, detailed accounts of facial expressions in each condition, as well as during a baseline condition. Parents were subsequently asked to correctly identify each of the four conditions by viewing each video clip twice. Faked expressions of pain in children were found to show more frequent and more intense facial actions compared to their genuine pain expression, indicating that children had some understanding but were not fully successful in faking expressions of pain. Children's suppressed expressions, however, showed no differences from baseline facial actions, indicating that they were able to successfully suppress their expressions of pain. Parents correctly identified the four conditions significantly more frequently than would be expected by chance. They were generally quite successful at detecting faked pain, but experienced difficulty differentiating among the other conditions. The results indicate that children are capable of controlling their facial expressions of pain when instructed to do so, but are better able to hide their pain than to fake it.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

A study of facially expressed emotions as a function of age, exposure time, and sex in children.

Facial expressions and body language constitute a major component of communication in the human population. There are no studies in the dental literature that have examined children's ability to recognize facial expressions. The purpose of this study was to determine children's accuracy and latency to respond to facial expressions (photographs) as a function of age and sex. Sixty children were recruited randomly and placed into three groups according to their age (3, 6, and 9 years) with 20 children per group. They were shown photographs of three different emotions (happiness, anger, and sadness) expressed by actors at three different exposure times (0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 sec), tachistoscopically. The children's responses (accuracy and latency) were recorded. The results indicated that three year olds were significantly less accurate and took longer to respond than the older children. Factors that may have influenced the results and clinical implications are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2001

Prefrontal cortex modulation of mood and emotionally induced facial expressions: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can serve as a tool to experimentally test hypotheses of prefrontal cortex (PFC) modulation of emotions. The present study used rTMS to test whether self-rated mood and emotionally induced facial expressions are hemispherically lateralized depending on their valence, as indicated by previous studies. Healthy volunteers underwent mood self-rating and computerized analysis of emotionally induced facial expressions before and after rTMS of left or right PFC. Facial expression analysis revealed lateralized changes of facial expressions after rTMS, whereas changes of subjective mood ratings did not show a hemispheric lateralization. On the basis of this study, the authors propose to combine rTMS and facial expression analysis for further studies of the cortical modulation of emotions in humans.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Muscles of facial expression in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): descriptive, comparative and phylogenetic contexts.

Facial expressions are a critical mode of non-vocal communication for many mammals, particularly non-human primates. Although chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have an elaborate repertoire of facial signals, little is known about the facial expression (i.e. mimetic) musculature underlying these movements, especially when compared with some other catarrhines. Here we present a detailed description of the facial muscles of the chimpanzee, framed in comparative and phylogenetic contexts, through the dissection of preserved faces using a novel approach. The arrangement and appearance of muscles were noted and compared with previous studies of chimpanzees and with prosimians, cercopithecoids and humans. The results showed 23 mimetic muscles in P. troglodytes, including a thin sphincter colli muscle, reported previously only in adult prosimians, a bi-layered zygomaticus major muscle and a distinct risorius muscle. The presence of these muscles in such definition supports previous studies that describe an elaborate and highly graded facial communication system in this species that remains qualitatively different from that reported for other non-human primate species. In addition, there are minimal anatomical differences between chimpanzees and humans, contrary to conclusions from previous studies. These results amplify the importance of understanding facial musculature in primate taxa, which may hold great taxonomic value.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed1991

Generalized discrimination of positive facial expression by seven- and ten-month-old infants.

The ability of 7- and 10-month-old infants to generalize their discrimination of facial expressions lacking featural consistency was investigated in a series of 4 experiments. Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise). They were then tested for their ability to recognize a positive expression on the face of a novel model and to discriminate positive and negative facial expressions. Only in Experiment 1, in which infants were familiarized to a mix of happy and surprised facial expressions, did 10-month-olds demonstrate generalized discrimination of positive affect. When positive blends or happy expressions alone served as familiarization stimuli, both 7- and 10-month-old infants failed to dishabituate to a change in affective tone. 7-month-olds, in particular, showed consistent recovery of looking to the introduction of novel models. The pattern of results suggests that it is not until sometime after 7 months of age that dependence on the presence of expression-specific features for affect recognition and discrimination diminishes. By 10 months of age, however, infants are beginning to recognize the affective similarity of familiar positive facial expressions.

Affect↗
PubMed1998

Judgment of facial expressions and depression persistence.

In research it has been demonstrated that cognitive and interpersonal processes play significant roles in depression development and persistence. The judgment of emotions displayed in facial expressions by depressed patients allows for a better understanding of these processes. In this study, 48 major depression outpatients and healthy control subjects, matched on the gender of the patients, judged facial expressions as to the emotions the expressions displayed. These judgments were conducted at the patients' outpatient admission (T1). The depression severity of the patients was measured at T1, 13 weeks later (T2) and at a 6-month follow-up (T3). It was found that the judgment of negative emotions in the facial expressions was related to both the depression severity at T1 and depression persistence (T2 and T3), whereas the judgment of positive emotions was not related to the patients' depression. The judgment of the emotion of sadness was the best predictor of the patients' depression persistence. Additionally, it was found that the patients judged significantly more sadness in the facial expressions than the control subjects. These findings are related to previous data of facial expression judgments of depressed patients and future research directions are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Viewing facial expressions of pain engages cortical areas involved in the direct experience of pain.

Recent neuroimaging and neuropsychological work has begun to shed light on how the brain responds to the viewing of facial expressions of emotion. However, one important category of facial expression that has not been studied on this level is the facial expression of pain. We investigated the neural response to pain expressions by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as subjects viewed short video sequences showing faces expressing either moderate pain or, for comparison, no pain. In alternate blocks, the same subjects received both painful and non-painful thermal stimulation. Facial expressions of pain were found to engage cortical areas also engaged by the first-hand experience of pain, including anterior cingulate cortex and insula. The reported findings corroborate other work in which the neural response to witnessed pain has been examined from other perspectives. In addition, they lend support to the idea that common neural substrates are involved in representing one's own and others' affective states.

Adult↗