The Human Face as a Dynamic Tool for Social Communication

Asymmetries in event-related potentials part 1: A systematic review of face processing studies

The human brain shows distinct lateralized activation patterns for a range of cognitive processes. One such function, which is thought to be lateralized to the right hemisphere (RH), is human face processing. Its importance for social communication and interaction has led to a plethora of studies investigating face processing in health and disease. Temporally highly resolved methods, like event-related potentials (ERPs), allow for a detailed characterization of different processing stages and their specific lateralization patterns. This systematic review aimed at disentangling some of the contradictory findings regarding the RH specialization in face processing focusing on ERP research in healthy participants. Two databases were searched for studies that investigated left and right electrodes while participants viewed (mostly neutral) facial stimuli. The included studies used a variety of different tasks, which ranged from passive viewing to memorizing faces. The final data selection highlights, that strongest lateralization to the RH was found for the N170, especially for right-handed young male participants. Left-handed, female, and older participants showed less consistent lateralization patterns. Other ERP components like the P1, P2, N2, P3, and the N400 were overall less clearly lateralized. The current review highlights that many of the assumed lateralization patterns are less clear than previously thought and that the variety of stimuli, tasks, and EEG setups used, might contribute to the ambiguous findings.

Other ethnicity effects in ensemble coding of facial expressions

Cultural difference in ensemble emotion perception is an important research question, providing insights into the complexity of human cognition and social interaction. Here, we conducted two experiments to investigate how emotion perception would be affected by other ethnicity effects and ensemble coding. In Experiment 1, two groups of Asian and Caucasian participants were tasked with assessing the average emotion of faces from their ethnic group, other ethnic group, and mixed ethnicity groups. Results revealed that participants exhibited relatively accurate yet amplified emotion perception of their group faces, with a tendency to overestimate the weight of the faces from the other ethnic group. In Experiment 2, Asian participants were instructed to discern the emotion of a target face surrounded by faces from Caucasian and Asian faces. Results corroborated earlier findings, indicating that while participants accurately perceived emotions in faces of their ethnicity, their perception of Caucasian faces was noticeably influenced by the presence of surrounding Asian faces. These findings collectively support the notion that the other ethnicity effect stems from differential emotional amplification inherent in ensemble coding of emotion perception.

Normative data of the Italian Famous Face Test

The faces we see in daily life exist on a continuum of familiarity, ranging from personally familiar to famous to unfamiliar faces. Thus, when assessing face recognition abilities, adequate evaluation measures should be employed to discriminate between each of these processes and their relative impairments. We here developed the Italian Famous Face Test (IT-FFT), a novel assessment tool for famous face recognition in typical and clinical populations. Normative data on a large sample (N = 436) of Italian individuals were collected, assessing both familiarity (d') and recognition accuracy. Furthermore, this study explored whether individuals possess insights into their overall face recognition skills by correlating the Prosopagnosia Index-20 (PI-20) with the IT-FFT; a negative correlation between these measures suggests that people have a moderate insight into their face recognition skills. Overall, our study provides the first online-based Italian test for famous faces (IT-FFT), a test that could be used alongside other standard tests of face recognition because it complements them by evaluating real-world face familiarity, providing a more comprehensive assessment of face recognition abilities. Testing different aspects of face recognition is crucial for understanding both typical and atypical face recognition.

Observers predict actions from facial emotional expressions during real-time social interactions

In face-to-face social interactions, emotional expressions provide insights into the mental state of an interactive partner. This information can be crucial to infer action intentions and react towards another person's actions. Here we investigate how facial emotional expressions impact subjective experience and physiological and behavioral responses to social actions during real-time interactions. Thirty-two participants interacted with virtual agents while fully immersed in Virtual Reality. Agents displayed an angry or happy facial expression before they directed an appetitive (fist bump) or aversive (punch) social action towards the participant. Participants responded to these actions, either by reciprocating the fist bump or by defending the punch. For all interactions, subjective experience was measured using ratings. In addition, physiological responses (electrodermal activity, electrocardiogram) and participants' response times were recorded. Aversive actions were judged to be more arousing and less pleasant relative to appetitive actions. In addition, angry expressions increased heart rate relative to happy expressions. Crucially, interaction effects between facial emotional expression and action were observed. Angry expressions reduced pleasantness stronger for appetitive compared to aversive actions. Furthermore, skin conductance responses to aversive actions were increased for happy compared to angry expressions and reaction times were faster to aversive compared to appetitive actions when agents showed an angry expression. These results indicate that observers used facial emotional expression to generate expectations for particular actions. Consequently, the present study demonstrates that observers integrate information from facial emotional expressions with actions during social interactions.

Facial mimicry interference reduces working memory accuracy for facial emotion expressions

Facial mimicry, the tendency to imitate facial expressions of other individuals, has been shown to play a critical role in the processing of emotion expressions. At the same time, there is evidence suggesting that its role might change when the cognitive demands of the situation increase. In such situations, understanding another person is dependent on working memory. However, whether facial mimicry influences working memory representations for facial emotion expressions is not fully understood. In the present study, we experimentally interfered with facial mimicry by using established behavioral procedures, and investigated how this interference influenced working memory recall for facial emotion expressions. Healthy, young adults (N = 36) performed an emotion expression n-back paradigm with two levels of working memory load, low (1-back) and high (2-back), and three levels of mimicry interference: high, low, and no interference. Results showed that, after controlling for block order and individual differences in the perceived valence and arousal of the stimuli, the high level of mimicry interference impaired accuracy when working memory load was low (1-back) but, unexpectedly, not when load was high (2-back). Working memory load had a detrimental effect on performance in all three mimicry conditions. We conclude that facial mimicry might support working memory for emotion expressions when task load is low, but that the supporting effect possibly is reduced when the task becomes more cognitively challenging.

Investigating the impact of motion visual synchrony on self face recognition using real time morphing

Face recognition is a crucial aspect of self-image and social interactions. Previous studies have focused on static images to explore the boundary of self-face recognition. Our research, however, investigates the dynamics of face recognition in contexts involving motor-visual synchrony. We first validated our morphing face metrics for self-face recognition. We then conducted an experiment using state-of-the-art video processing techniques for real-time face identity morphing during facial movement. We examined self-face recognition boundaries under three conditions: synchronous, asynchronous, and static facial movements. Our findings revealed that participants recognized a narrower self-face boundary with moving facial images compared to static ones, with no significant differences between synchronous and asynchronous movements. The direction of morphing consistently biased the recognized self-face boundary. These results suggest that while motor information of the face is vital for self-face recognition, it does not rely on movement synchronization, and the sense of agency over facial movements does not affect facial identity judgment. Our methodology offers a new approach to exploring the 'self-face boundary in action', allowing for an independent examination of motion and identity.

Can deepfakes be used to study emotion perception? A comparison of dynamic face stimuli

Video recordings accurately capture facial expression movements; however, they are difficult for face perception researchers to standardise and manipulate. For this reason, dynamic morphs of photographs are often used, despite their lack of naturalistic facial motion. This study aimed to investigate how humans perceive emotions from faces using real videos and two different approaches to artificially generating dynamic expressions - dynamic morphs, and AI-synthesised deepfakes. Our participants perceived dynamic morphed expressions as less intense when compared with videos (all emotions) and deepfakes (fearful, happy, sad). Videos and deepfakes were perceived similarly. Additionally, they perceived morphed happiness and sadness, but not morphed anger or fear, as less genuine than other formats. Our findings support previous research indicating that social responses to morphed emotions are not representative of those to video recordings. The findings also suggest that deepfakes may offer a more suitable standardized stimulus type compared to morphs. Additionally, qualitative data were collected from participants and analysed using ChatGPT, a large language model. ChatGPT successfully identified themes in the data consistent with those identified by an independent human researcher. According to this analysis, our participants perceived dynamic morphs as less natural compared with videos and deepfakes. That participants perceived deepfakes and videos similarly suggests that deepfakes effectively replicate natural facial movements, making them a promising alternative for face perception research. The study contributes to the growing body of research exploring the usefulness of generative artificial intelligence for advancing the study of human perception.

A systematic review of visual processing in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)

To understand the visual preponderance of perceived flaws in appearance in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), the study of visual processing has been growing. Studies have focused on facial and other basic visual stimuli. The current literature does not provide evidence of consistent behavioural patterns, lacking an overarching body of work describing visual processing in BDD. This systematic review aims to characterise behavioural outcomes of visual processing anomalies and/or deficits in BDD. Articles were collected through online databases MEDLINE and PubMed, and were included if they comprised a clinical BDD group, and were published after 1990. Results indicate that individuals with BDD demonstrate deficits in emotional face processing, a possible overreliance on detail processing, aberrant eye-scanning behaviours, and a tendency to overvalue attractiveness. While findings consistently signal towards visual deficits in BDD, there is lack of clarity as to the type. This inconsistency may be attributed to heterogeneity within BDD samples and differences in experimental design (i.e., stimuli, tasks, conditions). There are difficulties distinguishing between BDD-associated deficits and those associated with OCD or eating disorders. A coherent framework, including sample characterisation and task design will seek to generate clear and consistent behavioural patterns to guide future treatments.

A prospective study of psychological adjustment during and after forehead flap nasal reconstruction

The psychological effects of staged nasal reconstruction with a forehead flap were prospectively investigated. Thirty-three patients underwent nasal reconstruction with forehead flaps between March 2017 and July 2020. Three questionnaires were used to assess psychosocial functioning before surgery (time 1), 1 week after forehead flap transfer (time 2), 1 week after forehead flap division (time 3), and after refinement procedures (time 4). The patients were categorized into three groups according to the severity of nasal defects. Between- and within-group comparisons were conducted. All patients reported increased satisfaction with their appearance during nasal reconstruction. For most patients, levels of distress and social avoidance were highest before reconstruction (time 1). Both levels decreased as reconstruction advanced, and were significantly improved by times 3 and 4. The stage of reconstruction had a greater effect on these levels than did severity of nasal defect. Nasal reconstruction with forehead flap is beneficial physically and psychologically. Psychological evaluation before and after surgery facilitates patient-surgeon interactions and further enhances outcomes.

Congenital Anosmia and Facial Emotion Recognition

Major functions of the olfactory system include guiding ingestion and avoidance of environmental hazards. People with anosmia report reliance on others, for example to check the edibility of food, as their primary coping strategy. Facial expressions are a major source of non-verbal social information that can be used to guide approach and avoidance behaviour. Thus, it is of interest to explore whether a life-long absence of the sense of smell heightens sensitivity to others' facial emotions, particularly those depicting threat. In the present, online study 28 people with congenital anosmia (mean age 43.46) and 24 people reporting no olfactory dysfunction (mean age 42.75) completed a facial emotion recognition task whereby emotionally neutral faces (6 different identities) morphed, over 40 stages, to express one of 5 basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, or sadness. Results showed that, while the groups did not differ in their ability to identify the final, full-strength emotional expressions, nor in the accuracy of their first response, the congenital anosmia group successfully identified the emotions at significantly lower intensity (i.e. an earlier stage of the morph) than the control group. Exploratory analysis showed this main effect was primarily driven by an advantage in detecting anger and disgust. These findings indicate the absence of a functioning sense of smell during development leads to compensatory changes in visual, social cognition. Future work should explore the neural and behavioural basis for this advantage.

Synchrony or asynchrony: development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence based on large-scale evidence

The development of facial expression recognition ability in children is crucial for their emotional cognition and social interactions. In this study, 510 children aged between 6 and 15 participated in a two forced-choice task of facial expression recognition. The findings supported that recognition of the six basic facial expressions reached a relatively stable mature level around 8-9 years old. Additionally, model fitting results indicated that children showed the most significant improvement in recognizing expressions of disgust, closely followed by fear. Conversely, recognition of expressions of happiness and sadness showed slower improvement across different age groups. Regarding gender differences, girls exhibited a more pronounced advantage. Further model fitting revealed that boys showed more pronounced improvements in recognizing expressions of disgust, fear, and anger, while girls showed more pronounced improvements in recognizing expressions of surprise, sadness, and happiness. These clear findings suggested the synchronous developmental trajectory of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence, likely influenced by socialization processes and interactions related to brain maturation.

Raising an Eye at Facial Muscle Morphology in Canids

The evolution of facial muscles in dogs has been linked to human preferential selection of dogs whose faces appear to communicate information and emotion. Dogs who convey, especially with their eyes, a sense of perceived helplessness can elicit a caregiving response from humans. However, the facial muscles used to generate such expressions may not be uniquely present in all dogs, but rather specifically cultivated among various taxa and individuals. In a preliminary, qualitative gross anatomical evaluation of 10 canid specimens of various species, we find that the presence of two facial muscles previously implicated in human-directed canine communication, the levator anguli occuli medialis (LAOM) and the retractor anguli occuli lateralis (RAOL), was not unique to domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris). Our results suggest that these aspects of facial musculature do not necessarily reflect selection via human domestication and breeding. In addition to quantitatively evaluating more and other members of the Canidae family, future directions should include analyses of the impact of superficial facial features on canine communication and interspecies communication between dogs and humans.

Independence Threat or Interdependence Threat? The Focusing Effect on Social or Physical Threat Modulates Brain Activity

OBJECTIVE

The neural basis of threat perception has mostly been examined separately for social or physical threats. However, most of the threats encountered in everyday life are complex. The features of interactions between social and physiological threats under different attentional conditions are unclear.

METHOD

The present study explores this issue using an attention-guided paradigm based on ERP techniques. The screen displays social threats (face threats) and physical threats (action threats), instructing participants to concentrate on only one type of threat, thereby exploring brain activation characteristics.

RESULTS

It was found that action threats did not affect the processing of face threats in the face-attention condition, and electrophysiological evidence from the brain suggests a comparable situation to that when processing face threats alone, with higher amplitudes of the N170 and EPN (Early Posterior Negativity) components of anger than neutral emotions. However, when focusing on the action-attention condition, the brain was affected by face threats, as evidenced by a greater N190 elicited by stimuli containing threatening emotions, regardless of whether the action was threatening or not. This trend was also reflected in EPN.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study reveals important similarities and differences between physical and social threats, suggesting that the brain has a greater processing advantage for social threats.

Fourteen-Year Experience in Burn Eyelid Reconstruction and Complications Recurrence: A Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Loss of vision and other ocular defects are a concern with eyelid burn sequelae. This most commonly progresses from eyelid contracture to cicatricial ectropion and lagophthalmos. When left untreated, these may lead to exposure keratitis, ulceration, infection, perforation, and loss of vision. In the case of full-thickness eyelid burns, release and grafting are required. However, there is a paucity of studies on outcomes in eyelid burn surgery treatment, despite concern for permanent ocular damage or loss of vision. The aim of the study is to describe the complication rates in burn eyelid reconstruction at a single center for 14 years.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study was performed of all patients who had sustained eyelid burns and required reconstruction between April 2009 and February 2023. Medical records were obtained from patients' charts. Collected data include demographics, medical history, type of injury, indication for surgery, procedure performed, and complications.

RESULTS

A total of 14 patients and 25 eyelids underwent eyelid reconstruction of the 901 total patients with burn-related injuries requiring plastic surgery reconstruction. These patients underwent 54 eyelid surgeries with a mean follow-up time of 13.1 ± 17.1 months. Patients were 71% men and 29% women, with a mean age of 45.1 ± 15.6 years. In 53.7% (n = 29) of the cases, the simultaneous reconstruction of both the upper and lower eyelids was necessary. The reconstruction of the upper and lower eyelid alone represented a smaller percentage (25.9% and 20.4%, respectively). On average, the patients received 3.9 ± 3.5 eyelid surgeries. The overall complication rate was 53.7% (n = 29). The most common complication was ectropion (42.6%, n = 23). Other complications included eye injury (25.9%, n = 14), lagophthalmos (24.1%, n = 13), local infection (7.4%, n = 4), and graft loss (5.6%, n = 3).

CONCLUSION

Periorbital burns represent a major challenge that may require complex surgical intervention. Full-thickness skin graft remains the standard of care for patients with eyelid burns. However, there is a high incidence of ectropion that may require reoperation. Further studies examining the conditions of successful eyelid burn procedures may provide guidance on when patients may benefit from eyelid reconstruction during their burn treatment.

Perception and memory-based representations of facial emotions: Associations with personality functioning, affective states and recognition abilities

Personality traits and affective states are associated with biases in facial emotion perception. However, the precise personality impairments and affective states that underlie these biases remain largely unknown. To investigate how relevant factors influence facial emotion perception and recollection, Experiment 1 employed an image reconstruction approach in which community-dwelling adults (N = 89) rated the similarity of pairs of facial expressions, including those recalled from memory. Subsequently, perception- and memory-based expression representations derived from such ratings were assessed across participants and related to measures of personality impairment, state affect, and visual recognition abilities. Impairment in self-direction and level of positive affect accounted for the largest components of individual variability in perception and memory representations, respectively. Additionally, individual differences in these representations were impacted by face recognition ability. In Experiment 2, adult participants (N = 81) rated facial image reconstructions derived in Experiment 1, revealing that individual variability was associated with specific visual face properties, such as expressiveness, representation accuracy, and positivity/negativity. These findings highlight and clarify the influence of personality, affective state, and recognition abilities on individual differences in the perception and recollection of facial expressions.

Alexithymia modulates emotion concept activation during facial expression processing

Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in emotional information processing. However, the underlying reasons for emotional processing deficits in alexithymia are not fully understood. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying emotional deficits in alexithymia. Using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, we recruited college students with high alexithymia (n = 24) or low alexithymia (n = 24) in this study. Participants judged the emotional consistency of facial expressions and contextual sentences while recording their event-related potentials. Behaviorally, the high alexithymia group showed longer response times versus the low alexithymia group in processing facial expressions. The event-related potential results showed that the high alexithymia group had more negative-going N400 amplitudes compared with the low alexithymia group in the incongruent condition. More negative N400 amplitudes are also associated with slower responses to facial expressions. Furthermore, machine learning analyses based on N400 amplitudes could distinguish the high alexithymia group from the low alexithymia group in the incongruent condition. Overall, these findings suggest worse facial emotion perception for the high alexithymia group, potentially due to difficulty in spontaneously activating emotion concepts. Our findings have important implications for the affective science and clinical intervention of alexithymia-related affective disorders.

Facial trustworthiness dampens own-gender bias in emotion recognition

Previous research suggests that emotion recognition is influenced by social categories derived by invariant facial features such as gender and inferences of trustworthiness from facial appearance. The current study sought to replicate and extend these findings by examining the intersection of these social categories on recognition of emotional facial expressions. We used a dynamic emotion recognition task to assess accuracy and response times in the happiness and anger categorization displayed by female and male faces that differed in the degree of facial trustworthiness (i.e., trustworthy- vs. untrustworthy-looking faces). We found that facial trustworthiness was able to modulate the own-gender bias on emotion recognition, as responses to untrustworthy-looking faces revealed a bias towards ingroup members. Conversely, when faces look trustworthy, no differences on emotion recognition between female and male faces were found. In addition, positive inferences of trustworthiness lead to faster recognition of happiness in females and anger in males, showing that facial appearance was able to influence also the intersection between social categories and specific emotional expressions. Together, these results suggest that facial appearance, probably due to the activation of approach or avoidance motivational systems, is able to modulate the own-gender bias on emotion recognition.

Validation of the Edited Tromsø Infant Faces Database (E-TIF): A study on differences in the processing of children's emotional expressions

Images of emotional facial expressions are often used in emotion research, which has promoted the development of different databases. However, most of these standardized sets of images do not include images from infants under 2 years of age, which is relevant for psychology research, especially for perinatal psychology. The present study aims to validate the edited version of the Tromsø Infant Faces Database (E-TIF) in a large sample of participants. The original set of 119 pictures was edited. The pictures were cropped to remove nonrelevant information, fitted in an oval window, and converted to grayscale. Four hundred and eighty participants (72.9% women) took part in the study, rating the images on five dimensions: depicted emotion, clarity, intensity, valence, and genuineness. Valence scores were useful for discriminating between positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions. Results revealed that women were more accurate at recognizing emotions in children. Regarding parental status, parents, in comparison with nonparents, rated neutral expressions as more intense and genuine. They also rated sad, angry, disgusted, and fearful faces as less negative, and happy expressions as less positive. The editing and validation of the E-TIF database offers a useful tool for basic and experimental research in psychology.

Cultural facial expressions dynamically convey emotion category and intensity information

Communicating emotional intensity plays a vital ecological role because it provides valuable information about the nature and likelihood of the sender's behavior.1,2,3 For example, attack often follows signals of intense aggression if receivers fail to retreat.4,5 Humans regularly use facial expressions to communicate such information.6,7,8,9,10,11 Yet how this complex signaling task is achieved remains unknown. We addressed this question using a perception-based, data-driven method to mathematically model the specific facial movements that receivers use to classify the six basic emotions-"happy," "surprise," "fear," "disgust," "anger," and "sad"-and judge their intensity in two distinct cultures (East Asian, Western European; total n = 120). In both cultures, receivers expected facial expressions to dynamically represent emotion category and intensity information over time, using a multi-component compositional signaling structure. Specifically, emotion intensifiers peaked earlier or later than emotion classifiers and represented intensity using amplitude variations. Emotion intensifiers are also more similar across emotions than classifiers are, suggesting a latent broad-plus-specific signaling structure. Cross-cultural analysis further revealed similarities and differences in expectations that could impact cross-cultural communication. Specifically, East Asian and Western European receivers have similar expectations about which facial movements represent high intensity for threat-related emotions, such as "anger," "disgust," and "fear," but differ on those that represent low threat emotions, such as happiness and sadness. Together, our results provide new insights into the intricate processes by which facial expressions can achieve complex dynamic signaling tasks by revealing the rich information embedded in facial expressions.

The Relationship Between the Ability to Infer Another's Pain and the Expectations Regarding the Appearance of Pain Facial Expressions: Investigation of the Role of Visual Perception

Although pain is a commonly experienced and observed affective state, it is frequently misinterpreted, which leads to inadequate caregiving. Studies show the ability at estimating pain in others (estimation bias) and detecting its subtle variations (sensitivity) could emerge from independent mechanisms. While estimation bias is modulated by variables such as empathy level, pain catastrophizing tendency, and overexposure to pain, sensitivity remains unimpacted. The present study verifies if these 2 types of inaccuracies are partly explained by perceptual factors. Using reverse correlation, we measured their association with participants' mental representation of pain, or more simply put, with their expectations of what the face of a person in pain should look like. Experiment 1 shows that both parameters are associated with variations in expectations of this expression. More specifically, the estimation bias is linked with expectations characterized by salient changes in the middle face region, whereas sensitivity is associated with salient changes in the eyebrow region. Experiment 2 reveals that bias and sensitivity yield differences in emotional representations. Expectations of individuals with a lower underestimation tendency are qualitatively rated as expressing more pain and sadness, and those of individuals with a higher level of sensitivity as expressing more pain, anger, and disgust. Together, these results provide evidence for a perceptual contribution in pain inferencing that is independent of other psychosocial variables and its link to observers' expectations. PERSPECTIVE: This article reinforces the contribution of perceptual mechanisms in pain assessment. Moreover, strategies aimed to improve the reliability of individuals' expectations regarding the appearance of facial expressions of pain could potentially be developed, and contribute to decrease inaccuracies found in pain assessment and the confusion between pain and other affective states.

Infection detection in faces: Children's development of pathogen avoidance

This study examined the development of children's avoidance and recognition of sickness using face photos from people with natural, acute, contagious illness. In a U.S. sample of fifty-seven 4- to 5-year-olds (46% male, 70% White), fifty-two 8- to 9-year-olds (26% male, 62% White), and 51 adults (59% male, 61% White), children and adults avoided and recognized sick faces (ds ranged from 0.38 to 2.26). Both avoidance and recognition improved with age. Interestingly, 4- to 5-year-olds' avoidance of sick faces positively correlated with their recognition, suggesting stable individual differences in these emerging skills. Together, these findings are consistent with a hypothesized immature but functioning and flexible behavioral immune system emerging early in development. Characterizing children's sickness perception may help design interventions to improve health.

Visual neuroscience: A specialised neural pathway for social perception

Humans are an intensely social species. Our daily lives depend on understanding the behaviour and intentions of the people around us. A new study identifies a neural pathway specialised for interpreting the physical actions that we use to understand others.

Null effect of anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on own- and other-race face recognition

Successful face recognition is important for social interactions and public security. Although some preliminary evidence suggests that anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) might modulate own- and other-race face identification, respectively, the findings are largely inconsistent. Hence, we examined the effect of both anodal and cathodal tDCS on the recognition of own- and other-race faces. Ninety participants first completed own- and other-race Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) as baseline measurements. Next, they received either anodal tDCS, cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation and finally they completed alternative versions of the own- and other-race CFMT. No difference in performance, in terms of accuracy and reaction time, for own- and other-race face recognition between anodal tDCS, cathodal tDCS and sham stimulation was found. Our findings cast doubt upon the efficacy of tDCS to modulate performance in face identification tasks.

Infrequent facial expressions of emotion do not bias attention

Despite the obvious importance of facial expressions of emotion, most studies have found that they do not bias attention. A critical limitation, however, is that these studies generally present face distractors on all trials of the experiment. For other kinds of emotional stimuli, such as emotional scenes, infrequently presented stimuli elicit greater attentional bias than frequently presented stimuli, perhaps due to suppression or habituation. The goal of the current study then was to test whether such modulation of attentional bias by distractor frequency generalizes to facial expressions of emotion. In Experiment 1, both angry and happy faces were unable to bias attention, despite being infrequently presented. Even when the location of these face cues were more unpredictable-presented in one of two possible locations-still no attentional bias was observed (Experiment 2). Moreover, there was no bottom-up influence for angry and happy faces shown under high or low perceptual load (Experiment 3). We conclude that task-irrelevant posed facial expressions of emotion cannot bias attention even when presented infrequently.

Dynamic Emotion Recognition and Social Inference Ability in Traumatic Brain Injury: An Eye-Tracking Comparison Study

Emotion recognition and social inference impairments are well-documented features of post-traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet the mechanisms underpinning these are not fully understood. We examined dynamic emotion recognition, social inference abilities, and eye fixation patterns between adults with and without TBI. Eighteen individuals with TBI and 18 matched non-TBI participants were recruited and underwent all three components of The Assessment of Social Inference Test (TASIT). The TBI group were less accurate in identifying emotions compared to the non-TBI group. Individuals with TBI also scored lower when distinguishing sincere and sarcastic conversations, but scored similarly to those without TBI during lie vignettes. Finally, those with TBI also had difficulty understanding the actor's intentions, feelings, and beliefs compared to participants without TBI. No group differences were found for eye fixation patterns, and there were no associations between fixations and behavioural accuracy scores. This conflicts with previous studies, and might be related to an important distinction between static and dynamic stimuli. Visual strategies appeared goal- and stimulus-driven, with attention being distributed to the most diagnostic area of the face for each emotion. These findings suggest that low-level visual deficits may not be modulating emotion recognition and social inference disturbances post-TBI.

Beyond facial expressions: A systematic review on effects of emotional relevance of faces on the N170

The N170 is the most prominent electrophysiological signature of face processing. While facial expressions reliably modulate the N170, there is considerable variance in N170 modulations by other sources of emotional relevance. Therefore, we systematically review and discuss this research area using different methods to manipulate the emotional relevance of inherently neutral faces. These methods were categorized into (1) existing pre-experimental affective person knowledge (e.g., negative attitudes towards outgroup faces), (2) experimentally instructed affective person knowledge (e.g., negative person information), (3) contingency-based affective learning (e.g., fear-conditioning), or (4) the immediate affective context (e.g., emotional information directly preceding the face presentation). For all categories except the immediate affective context category, the majority of studies reported significantly increased N170 amplitudes depending on the emotional relevance of faces. Furthermore, the potentiated N170 was observed across different attention conditions, supporting the role of the emotional relevance of faces on the early prioritized processing of configural facial information, regardless of low-level differences. However, we identified several open research questions and suggest venues for further research.

Financial Fraud and Deception in Aging

Financial exploitation among older adults is a significant concern with often devastating consequences for individuals and society. Deception plays a critical role in financial exploitation, and detecting deception is challenging, especially for older adults. Susceptibility to deception in older adults is heightened by age-related changes in cognition, such as declines in processing speed and working memory, as well as socioemotional factors, including positive affect and social isolation. Additionally, neurobiological changes with age, such as reduced cortical volume and altered functional connectivity, are associated with declining deception detection and increased risk for financial exploitation among older adults. Furthermore, characteristics of deceptive messages, such as personal relevance and framing, as well as visual cues such as faces, can influence deception detection. Understanding the multifaceted factors that contribute to deception risk in aging is crucial for developing interventions and strategies to protect older adults from financial exploitation. Tailored approaches, including age-specific warnings and harmonizing artificial intelligence as well as human-centered approaches, can help mitigate the risks and protect older adults from fraud.

The Sabancı University Dynamic Face Database (SUDFace): Development and validation of an audiovisual stimulus set of recited and free speeches with neutral facial expressions

Faces convey a wide range of information, including one's identity, and emotional and mental states. Face perception is a major research topic in many research fields, such as cognitive science, social psychology, and neuroscience. Frequently, stimuli are selected from a range of available face databases. However, even though faces are highly dynamic, most databases consist of static face stimuli. Here, we introduce the Sabancı University Dynamic Face (SUDFace) database. The SUDFace database consists of 150 high-resolution audiovisual videos acquired in a controlled lab environment and stored with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels at a frame rate of 60 Hz. The multimodal database consists of three videos of each human model in frontal view in three different conditions: vocalizing two scripted texts (conditions 1 and 2) and one Free Speech (condition 3). The main focus of the SUDFace database is to provide a large set of dynamic faces with neutral facial expressions and natural speech articulation. Variables such as face orientation, illumination, and accessories (piercings, earrings, facial hair, etc.) were kept constant across all stimuli. We provide detailed stimulus information, including facial features (pixel-wise calculations of face length, eye width, etc.) and speeches (e.g., duration of speech and repetitions). In two validation experiments, a total number of 227 participants rated each video on several psychological dimensions (e.g., neutralness and naturalness of expressions, valence, and the perceived mental states of the models) using Likert scales. The database is freely accessible for research purposes.

Unsupervised anomaly appraisal of cleft faces using a StyleGAN2-based model adaptation technique

A novel machine learning framework that is able to consistently detect, localize, and measure the severity of human congenital cleft lip anomalies is introduced. The ultimate goal is to fill an important clinical void: to provide an objective and clinically feasible method of gauging baseline facial deformity and the change obtained through reconstructive surgical intervention. The proposed method first employs the StyleGAN2 generative adversarial network with model adaptation to produce a normalized transformation of 125 faces, and then uses a pixel-wise subtraction approach to assess the difference between all baseline images and their normalized counterparts (a proxy for severity of deformity). The pipeline of the proposed framework consists of the following steps: image preprocessing, face normalization, color transformation, heat-map generation, morphological erosion, and abnormality scoring. Heatmaps that finely discern anatomic anomalies visually corroborate the generated scores. The proposed framework is validated through computer simulations as well as by comparison of machine-generated versus human ratings of facial images. The anomaly scores yielded by the proposed computer model correlate closely with human ratings, with a calculated Pearson's r score of 0.89. The proposed pixel-wise measurement technique is shown to more closely mirror human ratings of cleft faces than two other existing, state-of-the-art image quality metrics (Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity and Structural Similarity Index). The proposed model may represent a new standard for objective, automated, and real-time clinical measurement of faces affected by congenital cleft deformity.

Padova Emotional Dataset of Facial Expressions (PEDFE): A unique dataset of genuine and posed emotional facial expressions

Facial expressions are among the most powerful signals for human beings to convey their emotional states. Indeed, emotional facial datasets represent the most effective and controlled method of examining humans' interpretation of and reaction to various emotions. However, scientific research on emotion mainly relied on static pictures of facial expressions posed (i.e., simulated) by actors, creating a significant bias in emotion literature. This dataset tries to fill this gap, providing a considerable amount (N = 1458) of dynamic genuine (N = 707) and posed (N = 751) clips of the six universal emotions from 56 participants. The dataset is available in two versions: original clips, including participants' body and background, and modified clips, where only the face of participants is visible. Notably, the original dataset has been validated by 122 human raters, while the modified dataset has been validated by 280 human raters. Hit rates for emotion and genuineness, as well as the mean, standard deviation of genuineness, and intensity perception, are provided for each clip to allow future users to select the most appropriate clips needed to answer their scientific questions.

Non-autistic adults can recognize posed autistic facial expressions: Implications for internal representations of emotion

Autistic people report that their emotional expressions are sometimes misunderstood by non-autistic people. One explanation for these misunderstandings could be that the two neurotypes have different internal representations of emotion: Perhaps they have different expectations about what a facial expression showing a particular emotion looks like. In three well-powered studies with non-autistic college students in the United States (total N = 632), we investigated this possibility. In Study 1, participants recognized most facial expressions posed by autistic individuals more accurately than those posed by non-autistic individuals. Study 2 showed that one reason the autistic expressions were recognized more accurately was because they were better and more intense examples of the intended expressions than the non-autistic expressions. In Study 3, we used a set of expressions created by autistic and non-autistic individuals who could see their faces as they made the expressions, which could allow them to explicitly match the expression they produced with their internal representation of that emotional expression. Here, neither autistic expressions nor non-autistic expressions were consistently recognized more accurately. In short, these findings suggest that differences in internal representations of what emotional expressions look like are unlikely to play a major role in explaining why non-autistic people sometimes misunderstand the emotions autistic people are experiencing.

Differences Between East Asians and Westerners in the Mental Representations and Visual Information Extraction Involved in the Decoding of Pain Facial Expression Intensity

Effectively communicating pain is crucial for human beings. Facial expressions are one of the most specific forms of behavior associated with pain, but the way culture shapes expectations about the intensity with which pain is typically facially conveyed, and the visual strategies deployed to decode pain intensity in facial expressions, is poorly understood. The present study used a data-driven approach to compare two cultures, namely East Asians and Westerners, with respect to their mental representations of pain facial expressions (experiment 1, N=60; experiment 2, N=74) and their visual information utilization during the discrimination of facial expressions of pain of different intensities (experiment 3; N=60). Results reveal that compared to Westerners, East Asians expect more intense pain expressions (experiments 1 and 2), need more signal, and do not rely as much as Westerners on core facial features of pain expressions to discriminate between pain intensities (experiment 3). Together, those findings suggest that cultural norms regarding socially accepted pain behaviors shape the expectations about pain facial expressions and decoding visual strategies. Furthermore, they highlight the complexity of emotional facial expressions and the importance of studying pain communication in multicultural settings.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00186-1.

Familiarity Facilitates Detection of Angry Expressions

Personal familiarity facilitates rapid and optimized detection of faces. In this study, we investigated whether familiarity associated with faces can also facilitate the detection of facial expressions. Models of face processing propose that face identity and face expression detection are mediated by distinct pathways. We used a visual search paradigm to assess if facial expressions of emotion (anger and happiness) were detected more rapidly when produced by familiar as compared to unfamiliar faces. We found that participants detected an angry expression 11% more accurately and 135 ms faster when produced by familiar as compared to unfamiliar faces while happy expressions were detected with equivalent accuracies and at equivalent speeds for familiar and unfamiliar faces. These results suggest that detectors in the visual system dedicated to processing features of angry expressions are optimized for familiar faces.

Behavioral and physiological sensitivity to natural sick faces

The capacity to rapidly detect and avoid sick people may be adaptive. Given that faces are reliably available, as well as rapidly detected and processed, they may provide health information that influences social interaction. Prior studies used faces that were manipulated to appear sick (e.g., editing photos, inducing inflammatory response); however, responses to naturally sick faces remain largely unexplored. We tested whether adults detected subtle cues of genuine, acute, potentially contagious illness in face photos compared to the same individuals when healthy. We tracked illness symptoms and severity with the Sickness Questionnaire and Common Cold Questionnaire. We also checked that sick and healthy photos were matched on low-level features. We found that participants (N = 109) rated sick faces, compared to healthy faces, as sicker, more dangerous, and eliciting more unpleasant feelings. Participants (N = 90) rated sick faces as more likely to be avoided, more tired, and more negative in expression than healthy faces. In a passive-viewing eye-tracking task, participants (N = 50) looked longer at healthy than sick faces, especially the eye region, suggesting people may be more drawn to healthy conspecifics. When making approach-avoidance decisions, participants (N = 112) had greater pupil dilation to sick than healthy faces, and more pupil dilation was associated with greater avoidance, suggesting elevated arousal to threat. Across all experiments, participants' behaviors correlated with the degree of sickness, as reported by the face donors, suggesting a nuanced, fine-tuned sensitivity. Together, these findings suggest that humans may detect subtle threats of contagion from sick faces, which may facilitate illness avoidance. By better understanding how humans naturally avoid illness in conspecifics, we may identify what information is used and ultimately improve public health.

Visual perception of emotion cues in dogs: a critical review of methodologies

Comparative studies of human-dog cognition have grown exponentially since the 2000's, but the focus on how dogs look at us (as well as other dogs) as social partners is a more recent phenomenon despite its importance to human-dog interactions. Here, we briefly summarise the current state of research in visual perception of emotion cues in dogs and why this area is important; we then critically review its most commonly used methods, by discussing conceptual and methodological challenges and associated limitations in depth; finally, we suggest some possible solutions and recommend best practice for future research. Typically, most studies in this field have concentrated on facial emotional cues, with full body information rarely considered. There are many challenges in the way studies are conceptually designed (e.g., use of non-naturalistic stimuli) and the way researchers incorporate biases (e.g., anthropomorphism) into experimental designs, which may lead to problematic conclusions. However, technological and scientific advances offer the opportunity to gather much more valid, objective, and systematic data in this rapidly expanding field of study. Solving conceptual and methodological challenges in the field of emotion perception research in dogs will not only be beneficial in improving research in dog-human interactions, but also within the comparative psychology area, in which dogs are an important model species to study evolutionary processes.

Examination of the COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Mental Health From Three Perspectives: Global, Social, and Individual

The extent of the deleterious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health is recognized ubiquitously. However, these effects are subject to many modulatory factors from a plethora of domains of examination. It is important to understand the intersection of societal and individual levels for global stressors compared with local phenomena and physical-health outcomes. Here, we consider three perspectives: international/cultural, social, and individual. Both the enduring threat of COVID-19 infection and the protective measures to contain contagion have important consequences on individual mental health. These consequences, together with possible remedial interventions, are the focus of this article. We hope this work will stimulate more research and will suggest factors that need to be considered in the coordination of responses to a global threat, allowing for better preparation in the future.

Testing, explaining, and exploring models of facial expressions of emotions

Models are the hallmark of mature scientific inquiry. In psychology, this maturity has been reached in a pervasive question-what models best represent facial expressions of emotion? Several hypotheses propose different combinations of facial movements [action units (AUs)] as best representing the six basic emotions and four conversational signals across cultures. We developed a new framework to formalize such hypotheses as predictive models, compare their ability to predict human emotion categorizations in Western and East Asian cultures, explain the causal role of individual AUs, and explore updated, culture-accented models that improve performance by reducing a prevalent Western bias. Our predictive models also provide a noise ceiling to inform the explanatory power and limitations of different factors (e.g., AUs and individual differences). Thus, our framework provides a new approach to test models of social signals, explain their predictive power, and explore their optimization, with direct implications for theory development.

The importance of awareness in face processing: A critical review of interocular suppression studies

Human faces convey essential information for understanding others' mental states and intentions. The importance of faces in social interaction has prompted suggestions that some relevant facial features such as configural information, emotional expression, and gaze direction may promote preferential access to awareness. This evidence has predominantly come from interocular suppression studies, with the most common method being the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (bCFS) procedure, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. However, the procedures employed in such studies suffer from multiple methodological limitations. For example, they are unable to disentangle detection from identification processes, their results may be confounded by participants' response bias and decision criteria, they typically use small stimulus sets, and some of their results attributed to detecting high-level facial features (e.g., emotional expression) may be confounded by differences in low-level visual features (e.g., contrast, spatial frequency). In this article, we review the evidence from the bCFS procedure on whether relevant facial features promote access to awareness, discuss the main limitations of this very popular method, and propose strategies to address these issues.

Burden of visible [face and hands] skin diseases: Results from a large international survey

BACKGROUND

While numerous surveys over the last decade have evaluated the burden of skin diseases, none have focused on the specific impact of disease-location on the hands and face.

AIM

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the burden of 8 skin diseases on the multidimensional aspects of subjects' daily lives in respect to their location on visible body areas (face or hands) versus non-visible areas.

METHODS

This was a population-based study in a representative sample of the Canadian, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, German and French populations, aged over 18 years using the proportional quota sampling method. All participants were asked (i) to complete a specific questionnaire including socio-demographic characteristics, (ii) to declare if they had a skin disease. All respondents with a skin disease were asked (iii) to specify the respective disease locations (hands, face, body) and (iv) to complete the DLQI questionnaire. Respondents with 8 selected skin diseases were asked (v) to complete a questionnaire evaluating the impact of the skin disease on their daily life, including their professional activity, social relations, emotional and intimate life, leisure, sports activities and perceived stigma.

RESULTS

A total of 13,138 adult participants responded to the questionnaire, of whom 26.2 % (n = 3,450) had skin diseases, and 23.4 % (n = 3,072) reported having one of the 8 selected skin diseases. Fifty-three percent were women and the mean age was 39.6 ± 15.5 years. The QoL was mostly impaired when the visible localization was solely on the hands as compared with the face (38 % had a DLQI > 10 versus 22 % respectively). More subjects with a visible localization on the hands reported felt-stigma, having difficulty falling asleep and felt that their sex life had been affected.

CONCLUSION

Special attention should be given to patients with skin disease on the hands and face as they are at higher risk of social exclusion and lower quality of life.

Virtual Reality for Vision Science

Virtual reality (VR) allows us to create visual stimuli that are both immersive and reactive. VR provides many new opportunities in vision science. In particular, it allows us to present wide field-of-view, immersive visual stimuli; for observers to actively explore the environments that we create; and for us to understand how visual information is used in the control of behaviour. In contrast with traditional psychophysical experiments, VR provides much greater flexibility in creating environments and tasks that are more closely aligned with our everyday experience. These benefits of VR are of particular value in developing our theories of the behavioural goals of the visual system and explaining how visual information is processed to achieve these goals. The use of VR in vision science presents a number of technical challenges, relating to how the available software and hardware limit our ability to accurately specify the visual information that defines our virtual environments and the interpretation of data gathered in experiments with a freely moving observer in a responsive environment.

Face mediated human–robot interaction for remote medical examination

Realtime visual feedback from consequences of actions is useful for future safety-critical human–robot interaction applications such as remote physical examination of patients. Given multiple formats to present visual feedback, using face as feedback for mediating human–robot interaction in remote examination remains understudied. Here we describe a face mediated human–robot interaction approach for remote palpation. It builds upon a robodoctor–robopatient platform where user can palpate on the robopatient to remotely control the robodoctor to diagnose a patient. A tactile sensor array mounted on the end effector of the robodoctor measures the haptic response of the patient under diagnosis and transfers it to the robopatient to render pain facial expressions in response to palpation forces. We compare this approach against a direct presentation of tactile sensor data in a visual tactile map. As feedback, the former has the advantage of recruiting advanced human capabilities to decode expressions on a human face whereas the later has the advantage of being able to present details such as intensity and spatial information of palpation. In a user study, we compare these two approaches in a teleoperated palpation task to find the hard nodule embedded in the remote abdominal phantom. We show that the face mediated human–robot interaction approach leads to statistically significant improvements in localizing the hard nodule without compromising the nodule position estimation time. We highlight the inherent power of facial expressions as communicative signals to enhance the utility and effectiveness of human–robot interaction in remote medical examinations.

Impact of body and orofacial appearance on life satisfaction among Brazilian adults

AIMS

1. to elaborate a general model of physical appearance taking into account body image (BI) and orofacial appearance (OA) components; and 2. to evaluate the impact of BI and OA on life satisfaction among Brazilian adults.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional observational study. The cognitive, behavioral, affective, and satisfaction/dissatisfaction aspects of BI, the satisfaction and psychosocial impact of OA, and life satisfaction were evaluated by self-reported psychometric scales. Principal Component Analysis and Parallel Analysis were performed. Structural equation models were elaborated to estimate the impact of BI and OA on life satisfaction. The fit of the models was verified and the significance of the path estimates (β) was evaluated using z-tests (α = 5%).

RESULTS

A total of 1,940 individuals participated in the study (age: mean = 24.8, standard deviation = 5.7 years; females = 70.1%). In the male sample, three physical appearance factors were retained (OA, cognitive and behavioral components of BI, and affective and satisfaction/dissatisfaction components of BI). In the female sample, two factors were retained (OA and all components of BI). All factors had significant impact on life satisfaction (β = |0.26|-|0.48|, p<0.001) in both samples. Individuals dissatisfied with BI and OA had lower levels of life satisfaction. For men, the affective and satisfaction components of BI had a greater impact on life satisfaction (β = 0.48, p<0.001) than the other factors (β =] -0.30;-0.25[, p<0.001). For women, both BI and OA had a similar impact (BI: β = -0.30, p<0.001; OA: β = -0.32, p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

BI and OA formed distinct clusters in the physical appearance evaluation. Physical appearance was perceived differently by men and women, fostering discussion about the sociocultural construction of the body. BI and OA had a significant impact on life satisfaction and should be considered in assessment and treatment protocols.

Emotional body postures affect inhibitory control only when task-relevant

A classical theoretical frame to interpret motor reactions to emotional stimuli is that such stimuli, particularly those threat-related, are processed preferentially, i.e., they are capable of capturing and grabbing attention automatically. Research has recently challenged this view, showing that the task relevance of emotional stimuli is crucial to having a reliable behavioral effect. Such evidence indicated that emotional facial expressions do not automatically influence motor responses in healthy young adults, but they do so only when intrinsically pertinent to the ongoing subject's goals. Given the theoretical relevance of these findings, it is essential to assess their generalizability to different, socially relevant emotional stimuli such as emotional body postures. To address this issue, we compared the performance of 36 right-handed participants in two different versions of a Go/No-go task. In the Emotional Discrimination task, participants were required to withhold their responses at the display of emotional body postures (fearful or happy) and to move at the presentation of neutral postures. Differently, in the control task, the same images were shown, but participants had to respond according to the color of the actor/actress' t-shirt, disregarding the emotional content. Results showed that participants made more commission errors (instances in which they moved even though the No-go signal was presented) for happy than fearful body postures in the Emotional Discrimination task. However, this difference disappeared in the control task. Such evidence indicates that, like facial emotion, emotional body expressions do not influence motor control automatically, but only when they are task-relevant.

Emotional expression in human odour

Recent work has demonstrated that human body odour alters with changing emotional state and that emotionally laden odours can affect the physiology and behaviour of people exposed to them. Here we review these discoveries, which we believe add to a growing recognition that the human sense of smell and its potential role in social interactions have been underappreciated. However, we also critically evaluate the current evidence, with a particular focus on methodology and the interpretation of emotional odour studies. We argue that while the evidence convincingly indicates that humans retain a capacity for olfactory communication of emotion, the extent to which this occurs in ordinary social interaction remains an open question. Future studies should place fewer restrictions on participant selection and lifestyle and adopt more realistic experimental designs. We also need to devote more consideration to underlying mechanisms and to recognise the constraints that these may place on effective communication. Finally, we outline some promising approaches to address these issues, and raise some broader theoretical questions that such approaches may help us to answer.

Emotion recognition and eye tracking of static and dynamic facial affect: Acomparison of individuals with and without traumatic brain injury

Diminished social functioning is often seen after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Mechanisms contributing to these deficits are poorly understood but thought to relate to impaired ability to recognize facial expressions. Static stimuli are often used to investigate ability post-TBI, and there is less evidence using more real-life dynamic stimuli. In addition, most studies rely on behavioral responses alone. The present study investigated the performance of a TBI group and matched non-TBI group on static and dynamic tasks using eye-tracking technology alongside behavioral measures. This is the first study to use eye tracking methodology alongside behavioral measures in emotion recognition tasks in people with brain injury. Eighteen individuals with heterogeneous TBI and 18 matched non-TBI participants were recruited. Stimuli representing six core emotions (Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happy, Sad, and Surprise faces) were selected from the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES). Participants were instructed to identify the emotion displayed correctly whilst eye movement metrics were recorded.

RESULTS

Results of analyses showed that TBI patients had First Fixation to nose for all emotion stimuli, shorter Fixation Duration and lower Fixation Count to eyes, were generally slower to classify stimuli, and less accurate than non-TBI group for the static task. Those with TBI were also less accurate at identifying Angry, Disgust, and Fear stimulus faces compared to the non-TBI group during the dynamic unfolding of an emotion.

CONCLUSION

In the present study, those with TBI had atypical eye scan patterns during emotion identification in the static emotion recognition task compared to the non-TBI group and were associated with lower identification accuracy on behavioral measures in both static and dynamic tasks. Findings suggest potential disruption to oculomotor systems vital for first stage perceptual processing. Arguably, these impairments may contribute to diminished social functioning.

Comunicación no verbal de emociones: variables sociodemográficas y ventaja endogrupal

En el campo de la comunicación no verbal de las emociones aún existe un debate en torno a la universalidad de las expresiones de emoción y el efecto que tiene la cultura en ellas. Actualmente existen dos teorías que tratan de explicar este fenómeno, la teoría neurocultural y la teoría de los dialectos. Ambas se enfocan en explicar la comunicación no verbal de emociones, pero la primera se centra en los aspectos universales, mientras que la segunda lo hace en la cultura. El objetivo del presente estudio fue indagar la ventaja endogrupal al interior de una cultura. Se diseñó un cuasiexperimento en el que se solicitó a 107 participantes que indicaran la emoción expresada en 42 estímulos en tres formatos de presentación distintos.  Los resultados indican la existencia de dicha ventaja en las mujeres y jóvenes. Los presentes resultados ilustran los efectos de la cultura en este fenómeno.

Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy Combined with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing on Psychological Problems and Life Quality in Patients' Postfacial Trauma

Objective

To investigate the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) combined with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) on the esteem, anxiety, depression, posttrauma stress disorder (PTSD), and posttraumatic growth in patients with facial trauma.

Methods

A total of 92 facial trauma patients in Wenzhou People's Hospital from January 2017 to December 2019 were enrolled in this study. The patients were randomly divided into control group (n = 46) and intervention group (n = 46). Both of the control group and the intervention group received routine treatment, while the intervention group further received CBT combined with EMDR. Questionnaires were used to explore and record the general patient information. The Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Self-Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Depression Scale (SDS), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Civilian Version (PCL-C), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and World Health Organization Quality of Life-brief (WHOQOL-BREF) scores between the two groups were compared.

Results

After CBT combined with EMDR intervention, the SDS and SAS scores in the intervention group were significantly decreased compared with the scores before intervention with statistically significance (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the PCL-C score in the intervention group showed significant decrease in comparison with the control group (P < 0.001), while the PTGI score in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.001). The WHOQOL-BREF scores were increased after treatment in the two groups compared with the scores before treatment, and the scores in the intervention group were higher than those in the control group after treatment (P < 0.01).

Conclusion

Psychological intervention therapy can effectively alleviate the anxiety, depression, and PTSD and improve the life quality and the recovery of facial trauma patients.