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Relationships among facial mimicry, emotional experience, and emotion recognition.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The relationships between facial mimicry and subsequent psychological processes remain unclear. We hypothesized that the congruent facial muscle activity would elicit emotional experiences and that the experienced emotion would induce emotion recognition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To test this hypothesis, we re-analyzed data collected in two previous studies. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG) from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major and obtained ratings on scales of valence and arousal for experienced emotions (Study 1) and for experienced and recognized emotions (Study 2) while participants viewed dynamic and static facial expressions of negative and positive emotions. Path analyses showed that the facial EMG activity consistently predicted the valence ratings for the emotions experienced in response to dynamic facial expressions. The experienced valence ratings in turn predicted the recognized valence ratings in Study 2. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that facial mimicry influences the sharing and recognition of emotional valence in response to others' dynamic facial expressions.

SUBMITTER: Sato W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3607589 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Relationships among facial mimicry, emotional experience, and emotion recognition.

Sato Wataru W Fujimura Tomomi T Kochiyama Takanori T Suzuki Naoto N

PloS one 20130325 3

<h4>Background</h4>The relationships between facial mimicry and subsequent psychological processes remain unclear. We hypothesized that the congruent facial muscle activity would elicit emotional experiences and that the experienced emotion would induce emotion recognition.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>To test this hypothesis, we re-analyzed data collected in two previous studies. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG) from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major and obtained r ...[more]

PMID: 23536774

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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.

Dataset Information

Relationships among facial mimicry, emotional experience, and emotion recognition.

Publications

Relationships among facial mimicry, emotional experience, and emotion recognition.

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