Infants predict expressers' cooperative behavior through facial expressions.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kaneshige T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5627948 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:There is widespread acceptance that facial expressions are useful in social interactions, but empirical demonstration of their adaptive function has remained elusive. Here, we investigated whether macaques can use the facial expressions of others to predict the future outcomes of social interaction. Crested macaques (Macaca nigra) were shown an approach between two unknown individuals on a touchscreen and were required to choose between one of two potential social outcomes. The facial expressions of the actors were manipulated in the last frame of the video. One subject reached the experimental stage and accurately predicted different social outcomes depending on which facial expressions the actors displayed. The bared-teeth display (homologue of the human smile) was most strongly associated with predicted friendly outcomes. Contrary to our predictions, screams and threat faces were not associated more with conflict outcomes. Overall, therefore, the presence of any facial expression (compared to neutral) caused the subject to choose friendly outcomes more than negative outcomes. Facial expression in general, therefore, indicated a reduced likelihood of social conflict. The findings dispute traditional theories that view expressions only as indicators of present emotion and instead suggest that expressions form part of complex social interactions where individuals think beyond the present.
| S-EPMC4967087 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The present study investigated (1) how well humans can recognize facial expressions represented by a small set of landmarks, a commonly used technique in facial recognition in machine learning and (2) differences in conscious observational behaviors to recognized different types of expressions. Our video stimuli consisted of facial expression represented by 68 landmark points. Conscious observational behaviors were measured by movements of the mouse cursor where a small area around it was only visible to participants. We constructed Bayesian models to analyze how personality traits and observational behaviors influenced how participants recognized different facial expressions. We found that humans could recognize positive expressions with high accuracy, similar to machine learning, even when faces were represented by a small set of landmarks. Although humans fared better than machine learning, recognition of negative expressions was not as high as positives. Our results also showed that personality traits and conscious observational behaviors significantly influenced recognizing facial expressions. For example, people with high agreeableness could correctly recognize faces expressing happiness by observing several areas among faces without focusing on any specific part for very long. These results suggest a mechanism whereby personality traits lead to different conscious observational behaviors and recognitions of facial expressions are based on information obtained through those observational behaviors.
| S-EPMC10550163 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Deep learning techniques can use public data such as facial photographs to predict sensitive personal information, but little is known about what information contributes to the predictive success of these techniques. This lack of knowledge limits both the public's ability to protect against revealing unintended information as well as the scientific utility of deep learning results. We combine convolutional neural networks, heat maps, facial expression coding, and classification of identifiable features such as masculinity and attractiveness in our study of political ideology in 3323 Danes. Predictive accuracy from the neural network was 61% in each gender. Model-predicted ideology correlated with aspects of both facial expressions (happiness vs neutrality) and morphology (specifically, attractiveness in females). Heat maps highlighted the informativeness of areas both on and off the face, pointing to methodological refinements and the need for future research to better understand the significance of certain facial areas.
| S-EPMC10066183 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Experimental research examining emotional processes is typically based on the observation of images with affective content, including facial expressions. Future studies will benefit from databases with emotion-inducing stimuli in which characteristics of the stimuli potentially influencing results can be controlled. This study presents Portuguese normative data for the identification of seven facial expressions of emotions (plus a neutral face), on the Radboud Faces Database (RaFD). The effect of participants' gender and models' sex on emotion recognition was also examined. Participants (N = 1249) were exposed to 312 pictures of white adults displaying emotional and neutral faces with a frontal gaze. Recognition agreement between the displayed and participants' chosen expressions ranged from 69% (for anger) to 97% (for happiness). Recognition levels were significantly higher among women than among men only for anger and contempt. The emotion recognition was higher either in female models or in male models depending on the emotion. Overall, the results show high recognition levels of the facial expressions presented, indicating that the RaFD provides adequate stimuli for studies examining the recognition of facial expressions of emotion among college students. Participants' gender had a limited influence on emotion recognition, but the sex of the model requires additional consideration.
| S-EPMC7599941 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Observing others' emotions triggers physiological arousal in infants as well as in adults, reflected in dilated pupil sizes. This study is the first to examine parents' and infants' pupil responses to dynamic negative emotional facial expressions. Moreover, the links between pupil responses and negative emotional dispositions were explored among infants and parents. Infants' and one of their parent's pupil responses to negative versus neutral faces were measured via eye tracking in 222 infants (5- to 7-month-olds, n = 77, 11- to 13-month-olds, n = 78, and 17- to 19-month-olds, n = 67) and 229 parents. One parent contributed to the pupil data, whereas both parents were invited to fill in questionnaires on their own and their infant's negative emotional dispositions. Infants did not differentially respond to negative expressions, while parents showed stronger pupil responses to negative versus neutral expressions. There was a positive association between infants' and their parent's mean pupil responses and significant links between mothers' and fathers' stress levels and their infants' pupil responses. We conclude that a direct association between pupil responses in parents and offspring is observable already in infancy in typical development. Stress in parents is related to their infants' pupillary arousal to negative emotions.
| S-EPMC9291579 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Studies of the use of artificial agents and robots to solicit donations from people have suggested that the design of the agents must consider facial expressions. However, there has not been sufficient evidence to generalize the finding that the emotions conveyed by agents' facial expressions can induce donations. In the present study, we conducted an experiment with an animated character that has intermediate realism and a different appearance from those in previous studies to replicate the finding that facial expressions represented by changes in the shapes of the eyes and mouth cause people to become more prosocial and to test whether we can extend this finding to the emotional expressions presented by changes in the dynamic properties of eyes. In the experiment, participants ([Formula: see text]) played a hypothetical dictator game with an avatar that expressed its emotions by changing the shapes of its eyes, eyebrows and mouth and by changing the frequency of eye blinking. The results showed that the emotions expressed by changes in the shape of the facial parts contributed to eliciting a higher donation amount, consistent with previous studies. However, we could not find an additive effect of the emotional expression shown by eye blinking. The results suggest that, regardless of appearance, emotional expression is useful in the design of a virtual agent's face, but it might not be necessary to consider the dynamic properties of the eyes.
| S-EPMC8080783 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundNeural systems underlying conflict processing have been well studied in the cognitive realm, but the extent to which these overlap with those underlying emotional conflict processing remains unclear. A novel adaptation of the AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), a stimulus-response incompatibility paradigm, was examined that permits close comparison of emotional and cognitive conflict conditions, through the use of affectively-valenced facial expressions as the response modality.Methodology/principal findingsBrain activity was monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of the emotional AX-CPT. Emotional conflict was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis, by requiring contextually pre-cued facial expressions to emotional probe stimuli (IAPS images) that were either affectively compatible (low-conflict) or incompatible (high-conflict). The emotion condition was contrasted against a matched cognitive condition that was identical in all respects, except that probe stimuli were emotionally neutral. Components of the brain cognitive control network, including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), showed conflict-related activation increases in both conditions, but with higher activity during emotion conditions. In contrast, emotion conflict effects were not found in regions associated with affective processing, such as rostral ACC.Conclusions/significanceThese activation patterns provide evidence for a domain-general neural system that is active for both emotional and cognitive conflict processing. In line with previous behavioural evidence, greatest activity in these brain regions occurred when both emotional and cognitive influences additively combined to produce increased interference.
| S-EPMC3052361 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe present study used the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to analyse changes in facial activities in individuals with migraine during resting conditions to determine the potential of facial expressions to convey information about pain during headache episodes.MethodsFacial activity was recorded in calm and resting conditions by using a camera for both healthy controls (HC) and patients with episodic migraine (EM) and chronic migraine (CM). The FACS was employed to analyse the collected facial images, and intensity scores for each of the 20 action units (AUs) representing expressions were generated. The groups and headache pain conditions were then examined for each AU.ResultsThe study involved 304 participants, that is, 46 HCs, 174 patients with EM, and 84 patients with CM. Elevated headache pain levels were associated with increased lid tightener activity and reduced mouth stretch. In the CM group, moderate to severe headache attacks exhibited decreased activation in the mouth stretch, alongside increased activation in the lid tightener, nose wrinkle, and cheek raiser, compared to mild headache attacks (all corrected p < 0.05). Notably, lid tightener activation was positively correlated with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) level of headache (p = 0.012). Moreover, the lip corner depressor was identified to be indicative of emotional depression severity (p < 0.001).ConclusionFacial expressions, particularly lid tightener actions, served as inherent indicators of headache intensity in individuals with migraine, even during resting conditions. This indicates that the proposed approach holds promise for providing a subjective evaluation of headaches, offering the benefits of real-time assessment and convenience for patients with migraine.
| S-EPMC10926654 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Understanding the different categories of facial expressions of emotion regularly used by us is essential to gain insights into human cognition and affect as well as for the design of computational models and perceptual interfaces. Past research on facial expressions of emotion has focused on the study of six basic categories--happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. However, many more facial expressions of emotion exist and are used regularly by humans. This paper describes an important group of expressions, which we call compound emotion categories. Compound emotions are those that can be constructed by combining basic component categories to create new ones. For instance, happily surprised and angrily surprised are two distinct compound emotion categories. The present work defines 21 distinct emotion categories. Sample images of their facial expressions were collected from 230 human subjects. A Facial Action Coding System analysis shows the production of these 21 categories is different but consistent with the subordinate categories they represent (e.g., a happily surprised expression combines muscle movements observed in happiness and surprised). We show that these differences are sufficient to distinguish between the 21 defined categories. We then use a computational model of face perception to demonstrate that most of these categories are also visually discriminable from one another.
| S-EPMC3992629 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Facial mimicry is commonly defined as the tendency to imitate-at a sub-threshold level-facial expressions of other individuals. Numerous studies support a role of facial mimicry in recognizing others' emotions. However, the underlying functional mechanism is unclear. A prominent hypothesis considers facial mimicry as based on an action-perception loop, leading to the prediction that facial mimicry should be observed only when processing others' facial expressions. Nevertheless, previous studies have also detected facial mimicry during observation of emotional bodily expressions. An emergent alternative hypothesis is that facial mimicry overtly reflects the simulation of an "emotion", rather than the reproduction of a specific observed motor pattern. In the present study, we tested whether blocking mimicry ("Bite") on the lower face disrupted recognition of happy expressions conveyed by either facial or body expressions. In Experiment 1, we tested participants' ability to identify happy, fearful and neutral expressions in the Bite condition and in two control conditions. In Experiment 2, to ensure that such a manipulation selectively affects emotion recognition, we tested participants' ability to recognize emotional expressions, as well as the actors' gender, under the Bite condition and a control condition. Finally, we investigated the relationship between dispositional empathy and emotion recognition under the condition of blocked mimicry. Our findings demonstrated that blocking mimicry on the lower face hindered recognition of happy facial and body expressions, while the recognition of neutral and fearful expressions was not affected by the mimicry manipulation. The mimicry manipulation did not affect the gender discrimination task. Furthermore, the impairment of happy expression recognition correlated with empathic traits. These results support the role of facial mimicry in emotion recognition and suggest that facial mimicry reflects a global sensorimotor simulation of others' emotions rather than a muscle-specific reproduction of an observed motor expression.
| S-EPMC7032686 | biostudies-literature