Emotional Empathy and Facial Mimicry for Static and Dynamic Facial Expressions of Fear and Disgust

Impact of Bell's palsy in facial emotion recognition: a prospective observational study of 60 patients

PURPOSE

Patients with Bell's palsy suffer from functional deficits and cannot convey their emotions through the face as well as they used to. According to embodied cognition, automatic mimicry and facial feedback modulate emotion perception. The aim of our study was to determine the impact of Bell's palsy on facial emotion perception. Facial motor skills, the use of botulinum toxin injections, and anxiety were studied.

METHODS

60 patients completed Emotest-VA, an assessment tool of facial emotion perception, facial motor assessment and affective questionnaires. Facial perception scores of patients were compared to the normative data provided by Emotest-VA. Relationships between facial motor skills, anxiety and perceptual abilities were carried out with Pearson's correlations.

RESULTS

Perception accuracy scores were abnormal in 12% of patients. Patients were more ambiguous than normative population to perceive emotion (t(23) = 4.14, p < .001). Happiness arousal was negatively correlated to smile asymmetry (n = 60, r=-.294 p = .022). Patients who received botulinum toxin were more accurate to perceive disgust (Z = 3.60, p < .001). State anxiety decreased when patients could improve their horizontal smile (r = - 440, p < .001).

CONCLUSION

Bell's palsy impaired sensorimotor simulation, thereby reducing emotional contagion. Smile measures could indicate patients' recovery and patients' anxiety. It could also predict patient's perceptual abilities. These results provide new directions in the management of Bell's palsy. Additionally to physical therapy, it is relevant to improve emotional contagion both in its productive and perceptive aspects through facial feedback.

Empathy enhances decoding accuracy of human neurophysiological responses to emotional facial expressions of humans and dogs

Despite the growing interest in the nonhuman animal emotionality, we currently know little about the human brain processing of nonconspecific emotional expressions. Here, we characterized the millisecond-scale temporal dynamics of human brain responses to conspecific human and nonconspecific canine emotional facial expressions. Our results revealed generally similar cortical responses to human and dog facial expressions in the occipital cortex during the first 500 ms, temporal cortex at 100-500 ms and parietal cortex at 150-350 ms from the stimulus onset. Responses to dog faces were pronounced at the latencies in temporal cortices corresponding to the time windows of early posterior negativity and late posterior positivity, suggesting attentional engagement to emotionally salient stimuli. We also utilized support vector machine-based classifiers to discriminate between the brain responses to different images. The subject trait-level empathy correlated with the accuracy of classifying the brain responses of aggressive from happy dog faces and happy from neutral human faces. This result likely reflects the attentional enhancement provoked by the subjective ecological salience of the stimuli.

Lower empathy for face mask wearers is not explained by observer's reduced facial mimicry

Facial occlusion alters social processes that rely on face visibility, including spontaneous mimicry of emotions. Given that facial mimicry of emotions is theorized to play an important role in how we empathize or share emotions with others, here we investigated if empathy was reduced for faces wearing masks because masks may reduce the ability to mimic facial expressions. In two preregistered experiments, participants rated their empathy for faces displaying happy or neutral emotions and wearing masks or no masks. We manipulated mimicry by either blocking mimicry with observers holding a pen in between their teeth (Experiment 1) or by producing a state of constant congruent mimicry by instructing observers to smile (Experiment 2). Results showed reduced empathy ratings for masked faces. Mimicry overall facilitated empathy, with reduced empathy ratings when mimicry was blocked and higher empathy ratings when it was instructed. However, this effect of mimicry did not vary with mask condition. Thus, while observers were impaired in sharing emotions with masked faces, this impairment did not seem to be explained by a reduction in facial mimicry. These results show that mimicry is an important process for sharing emotions, but that occluding faces with masks reduces emotion sharing via a different mechanism.

Happy facial emotional congruence in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND

Emotion categorization has often been studied in the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis (RR-MS), suggesting an impairment in the recognition of emotions. The production of facial emotional expressions in RR-MS has not been considered, despite their importance in non-verbal communication.

METHOD

Twenty-five RR-MS patients and twenty-five matched controls completed a task of emotional categorization during which their faces were filmed. The stimuli were dynamic (sound or visual), expressed by adults (women or men), and expressing happy (laughing or smiling) or negative emotion. Two independent blinded raters quantified the happy facial expressions produced. The categorization task was used as a proxy for emotional categorization, while the happy facial expressions produced assessed the production of emotions.

RESULTS

The main analysis indicated impaired categorization of RR-MS for happy stimuli selectively, whereas their happy facial expressions were not statistically different from those of the control group. More specifically, this group effect was found for smiles (and not laughter) and for happy stimuli produced by men. Analysis of individual patient profiles suggested that 77% of patients with impaired judgments produced normal facial expressions, suggesting a high prevalence of this dissociation. Only 8% of our samples showed reverse dissociation, with happy facial expressions significantly different from those of the control group and normal emotional judgments.

CONCLUSION

These results corroborated the high prevalence of emotional categorization impairment in RR-MS but not for negative stimuli, which can probably be explained by the methodological specificities of the present work. The unusual impairment found for happy stimuli (for both emotional categorization and facial congruence) may be linked to the intensity of the perceived happy expressions but not to the emotional valence. Our results also indicated a mainly preserved production of facial emotions, which may be used in the future sociocognitive care of RR-MS patients with impaired emotional judgments.

Correlation of 3D Morphometric Changes, Kinematics, and Muscle Activity During Smile

OBJECTIVE

Knowing the morphological, kinematic, and electrophysiological parameters of the smile in healthy individuals may contribute to evaluating, planning, and monitoring the smile reanimation. This study aimed to determine the correlation between 3D morphometric changes, movement kinematics, and muscle activity in the facial soft tissue of healthy individuals.

METHOD

In this cohort study, 20 volunteers were selected from healthy individuals with no facial disorders. During smiling, three-dimensional face scanning, facial motion capture, and surface electromyography (sEMG) were performed. The average displacement, velocity, and acceleration during facial movements were measured. The mean change in 3D surface morphometry and activation of the zygomaticus major were determined.

RESULTS

The volunteers, comprising 10 males and 10 females, had a mean age of 24 ± 10 years; for female, mean age was 23 ± 5 years and for men 26 ± 13 years. Significant correlations were found between kinematic and morphometric data (r = 0.51, p < 0.001), sEMG and morphometric (r = 0.50, p < 0.001) data, and sEMG and kinematic data (r = 0.49, p < 0.002). The maximum acceleration occurred during approximately 65% of the muscle activation time and 64% of the peak muscle activation value. Additionally, the maximum velocity was reached at around 73% of the muscle activation time and 67% of the peak muscle activation value. Furthermore, the maximum displacement values were observed at approximately 88% of the muscle activation time and 76% of the peak muscle activation value.

CONCLUSION

The findings may provide insights into the smile's functional parameters, contribute to understanding facial muscle-related disorders, and aid in improving the diagnosis and treatment of the smile.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

NA Laryngoscope, 134:3112-3119, 2024.

Mood congruency affects physiological synchrony but not empathic accuracy in a naturalistic empathy task

Empathy is a crucial aspect of our daily lives, as it enhances our wellbeing and is a proxy for prosocial behavior. It encompasses two related but partially distinct components: cognitive and affective empathy. Both are susceptible to context, biases and an individual's physiological state. Few studies have explored the effects of a person's mood on these empathy components, and results are mixed. The current study takes advantage of an ecological, naturalistic empathy task - the empathic accuracy (EA) task - in combination with physiological measurements to examine and differentiate between the effects of one's mood on both empathy components. Participants were induced with positive or negative mood and presented videos of targets narrating autobiographical negative stories, selected from a Chinese empathy dataset that we developed (now publicly available). The stories were conveyed in audio-only, visual-only and full-video formats. Participants rated the target's emotional state while watching or listening to their stories, and physiological measures were taken throughout the process. Importantly, similar measures were taken from the targets when they narrated the stories, allowing a comparison between participants' and targets' measures. We found that in audio-only and visual-only conditions, participants whose moods were congruent with the target showed higher physiological synchrony than those with incongruent mood, implying a mood-congruency effect on affective empathy. However, there was no mood effect on empathic accuracy (reflecting cognitive empathy), suggesting a different influence of mood on the two empathy components.

Behavioral and neural underpinnings of empathic characteristics in a Humanitude-care expert

Background

Humanitude approaches have shown positive effects in elderly care. However, the behavioral and neural underpinnings of empathic characteristics in Humanitude-care experts remain unknown.

Methods

We investigated the empathic characteristics of a Humanitude-care expert (YG) and those of age-, sex-, and race-matched controls (n = 13). In a behavioral study, we measured subjective valence and arousal ratings and facial electromyography (EMG) of the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major muscles while participants passively observed dynamic facial expressions associated with anger and happiness and their randomized mosaic patterns. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, we measured brain activity while participants passively observed the same dynamic facial expressions and mosaics. In a structural MRI study, we acquired structural MRI data and analyzed gray matter volume.

Results

Our behavioral data showed that YG experienced higher subjective arousal and showed stronger facial EMG activity congruent with stimulus facial expressions compared with controls. The functional MRI data demonstrated that YG showed stronger activity in the ventral premotor cortex (PMv; covering the precentral gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus) and posterior middle temporal gyrus in the right hemisphere in response to dynamic facial expressions versus dynamic mosaics compared with controls. The structural MRI data revealed higher regional gray matter volume in the right PMv in YG than in controls.

Conclusion

These results suggest that Humanitude-care experts have behavioral and neural characteristics associated with empathic social interactions.

Empathy development from adolescence to adulthood and its consistency across targets

This research was conducted with two main goals-to contribute to knowledge on the development of empathy from early adolescence to adulthood, including its contribution to decoding emotion expression, and to improve the understanding of the nature of empathy by simultaneously assessing empathy toward two different targets-humans and animals. It unfolded into two cross-sectional studies: One (S1) obtaining measures of empathy toward humans and animals as targets across five age groups (from pre-adolescents to adults); and another (S2) where a subset of the adolescents who participated in S1 were assessed in emotion expression decoding and subjective and physiological responses to emotional video clips. The results of S1 showed that empathy toward animals and most dimensions of empathy toward humans increase toward adulthood, with important gender differences in empathy to animals and humans, and empathy levels in girls starting off in the age trajectory at higher levels, A moderate correlation between empathy toward human and toward animal targets was also found. S2 showed that the expression of positive emotion is better recognized than that of negative emotion, surprise, or neutral expression, and that the measure of human-directed empathy predicts successful decoding of negative emotion, whereas skin conductance responses (SCRs) and subjective valence ratings predicted successful identification of positive emotion. Gender differences emerged but not across all age groups nor all subscales. Results yield keys to the developmental "pace" and trajectory of the various dimensions of empathy and to how empathy relates to emotion decoding.

Restricting movements of lower face leaves recognition of emotional vocalizations intact but introduces a valence positivity bias

Blocking facial mimicry can disrupt recognition of emotion stimuli. Many previous studies have focused on facial expressions, and it remains unclear whether this generalises to other types of emotional expressions. Furthermore, by emphasizing categorical recognition judgments, previous studies neglected the role of mimicry in other processing stages, including dimensional (valence and arousal) evaluations. In the study presented herein, we addressed both issues by asking participants to listen to brief non-verbal vocalizations of four emotion categories (anger, disgust, fear, happiness) and neutral sounds under two conditions. One of the conditions included blocking facial mimicry by creating constant tension on the lower face muscles, in the other condition facial muscles remained relaxed. After each stimulus presentation, participants evaluated sounds' category, valence, and arousal. Although the blocking manipulation did not influence emotion recognition, it led to higher valence ratings in a non-category-specific manner, including neutral sounds. Our findings suggest that somatosensory and motor feedback play a role in the evaluation of affect vocalizations, perhaps introducing a directional bias. This distinction between stimulus recognition, stimulus categorization, and stimulus evaluation is important for understanding what cognitive and emotional processing stages involve somatosensory and motor processes.

The mystery of emotional mimicry: multiple functions and processing levels in expression imitation

Mimicry of appearance or of facial, vocal, or gestural expressions emerges frequently among members of different species. When such mimicry directly relates to affective aspects of an interaction, researchers talk about "emotional mimicry". Emotional mimicry has been amply documented but its functionality is still debated. Why and when do people mimic the expressions of others, who benefits, the mimicker or the mimicked, and how do they benefit? Which processes underlie emotional mimicry? Is it completely automatic and unconscious or can it be deliberate and conscious? The current Theory Section addresses these questions from different theoretical perspectives. The invited article by Hess and Fischer focused on the role of mimicry in social regulation and social bonding. The invited comment by Krets and Akyüz highlights information gathering and prediction in social interaction. The invited comment by Bernhold and Giles emphasizes vocal communication and its role in interpersonal accommodation. In this editorial, I propose the different theoretical perspectives may be integrated by assuming a multilevel appraisal and response generation mechanism. I also suggest that emotional mimicry research may be broadened by including social learning, vocal imitation, interspecies comparisons, and affective computing approaches.

Investigating the Relationship between Facial Mimicry and Empathy

Facial expressions play a key role in interpersonal communication when it comes to negotiating our emotions and intentions, as well as interpreting those of others. Research has shown that we can connect to other people better when we exhibit signs of empathy and facial mimicry. However, the relationship between empathy and facial mimicry is still debated. Among the factors contributing to the difference in results across existing studies is the use of different instruments for measuring both empathy and facial mimicry, as well as often ignoring the differences across various demographic groups. This study first looks at the differences in the empathetic abilities of people across different demographic groups based on gender, ethnicity and age. The empathetic ability is measured based on the Empathy Quotient, capturing a balanced representation of both emotional and cognitive empathy. Using statistical and machine learning methods, this study then investigates the correlation between the empathetic ability and facial mimicry of subjects in response to images portraying different emotions displayed on a computer screen. Unlike the existing studies measuring facial mimicry using electromyography, this study employs a technology detecting facial expressions based on video capture and deep learning. This choice was made in the context of increased online communication during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study confirm the previously reported difference in the empathetic ability between females and males. However, no significant difference in empathetic ability was found across different age and ethnic groups. Furthermore, no strong correlation was found between empathy and facial reactions to faces portraying different emotions shown on a computer screen. Overall, the results of this study can be used to inform the design of online communication technologies and tools for training empathy team leaders, educators, social and healthcare providers.

Transparent masks reduce the negative impact of opaque masks on understanding emotional states but not on sharing them

While face masks provide necessary protection against disease spread, they occlude the lower face parts (chin, mouth, nose) and consequently impair the ability to accurately perceive facial emotions. Here we examined how wearing face masks impacted making inferences about emotional states of others (i.e., affective theory of mind; Experiment 1) and sharing of emotions with others (i.e., affective empathy; Experiment 2). We also investigated whether wearing transparent masks ameliorated the occlusion impact of opaque masks. Participants viewed emotional faces presented within matching positive (happy), negative (sad), or neutral contexts. The faces wore opaque masks, transparent masks, or no masks. In Experiment 1, participants rated the protagonists’ emotional valence and intensity. In Experiment 2, they indicated their empathy for the protagonist and the valence of their emotion. Wearing opaque masks impacted both affective theory of mind and affective empathy ratings. Compared to no masks, wearing opaque masks resulted in assumptions that the protagonist was feeling less intense and more neutral emotions. Wearing opaque masks also reduced positive empathy for the protagonist and resulted in more neutral shared valence ratings. Wearing transparent masks restored the affective theory of mind ratings but did not restore empathy ratings. Thus, wearing face masks impairs nonverbal social communication, with transparent masks able to restore some of the negative effects brought about by opaque masks. Implications for the theoretical understanding of socioemotional processing as well as for educational and professional settings are discussed.

Trait Empathy Modulates Patterns of Personal and Social Emotions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused profound consequences on people's personal and social feelings worldwide. However, little is known about whether individual differences in empathy, a prosocial trait, may affect the emotional feelings under such threat. To address this, we measured 345 Chinese participants' personal emotions (e.g., active, nervous), social emotions (i.e., fearful and empathetic feelings about various social groups), and their empathy traits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the representational similarity analysis (RSA), we calculated the pattern similarity of personal emotions and found the similarity between the positive and negative emotions was less in the high vs. low empathy groups. In addition, people with high (vs. low) empathy traits were more likely to have fearful and sympathetic feelings about the disease-related people (i.e., depression patients, suspected COVID-19 patients, COVID-19 patients, flu patients, SARS patients, AIDS patients, schizophrenic patients) and showed more pattern dissimilarity in the two social feelings toward the disease-related people. These findings suggest a prominent role of trait empathy in modulating emotions across different domains, strengthening the polarization of personal emotions as well as enlarging social feelings toward a set of stigmatized groups when facing a pandemic threat.

Experiential, expressive, and physiological effects of positive and negative emotion regulation goals while reappraising amusing stimuli

We examined whether positive and negative emotion regulation (ER) goals while cognitively reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engage positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) systems. Forty-eight women watched 20-30s amusing film clips. They were instructed to either respond naturally (no ER goal) or emphasize the film clips' positive (positive ER goal) or negative (negative ER goal) aspects in their interpretation. We measured PA and NA system activity on experiential, expressive, and physiological response channels through self-reported amusement and disgust, electromyography of zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii, and autonomic nervous system reactivity from respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and pre-ejection period (PEP). Natural viewing (no ER goal) of amusing clips increased self-reported amusement (and to a lesser degree disgust), zygomaticus reactivity, and RSA. Compared to no and negative ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a positive ER goal decreased corrugator reactivity, decreasing negative emotional expression. Compared to no and positive ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a negative ER goal decreased self-reported amusement and zygomaticus reactivity and increased self-reported disgust and corrugator reactivity, decreasing positive and increasing negative emotional experience and expression. We conclude that positive and negative ER goals while reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engaged PA and NA systems: The positive ER goal engaged withdrawal of the expressive NA system, whereas the negative ER goal engaged reciprocal NA-PA system activation on experiential and expressive response channels.

Computational Process of Sharing Emotion: An Authentic Information Perspective

Although results of many psychology studies have shown that sharing emotion achieves dyadic interaction, no report has explained a study of the transmission of authentic information from emotional expressions that can strengthen perceivers. For this study, we used computational modeling, which is a multinomial processing tree, for formal quantification of the process of sharing emotion that emphasizes the perception of authentic information for expressers’ feeling states from facial expressions. Results indicated that the ability to perceive authentic information of feeling states from a happy expression has a higher probability than the probability of judging authentic information from anger expressions. Next, happy facial expressions can activate both emotional elicitation and sharing emotion in perceivers, where emotional elicitation alone is working rather than sharing emotion for angry facial expressions. Third, parameters to detect anger experiences were found to be correlated positively with those of happiness. No robust correlation was found between the parameters extracted from this experiment task and questionnaire-measured emotional contagion, empathy, and social anxiety. Results of this study revealed the possibility that a new computational approach contributes to description of emotion sharing processes.

Collective Rhythm as an Emergent Property During Human Social Coordination

The literature on social interactions has shown that participants coordinate not only at the behavioral but also at the physiological and neural levels, and that this coordination gives a temporal structure to the individual and social dynamics. However, it has not been fully explored whether such temporal patterns emerge during interpersonal coordination beyond dyads, whether this phenomenon arises from complex cognitive mechanisms or from relatively simple rules of behavior, or which are the sociocultural processes that underlie this phenomenon. We review the evidence for the existence of group-level rhythmic patterns that result from social interactions and argue that the complexity of group dynamics can lead to temporal regularities that cannot be predicted from the individual periodicities: an emergent collective rhythm. Moreover, we use this interpretation of the literature to discuss how taking into account the sociocultural niche in which individuals develop can help explain the seemingly divergent results that have been reported on the social influences and consequences of interpersonal coordination. We make recommendations on further research to test these arguments and their relationship to the feeling of belonging and assimilation experienced during group dynamics.

People with High Empathy Show Increased Cortical Activity around the Left Medial Parieto-Occipital Sulcus after Watching Social Interaction of On-Screen Characters

People with high empathy interpret others’ mental states in daily social interactions. To investigate their characteristics of social cognitive processing, we compared neuromagnetic activities between 20 males with high empathy and 23 males with low empathy while watching social interactions between two characters. Twenty stories of four-panel comic strips were presented; the first three panels described social interactions, and the last panel described empathic/nonempathic behaviors. People with high empathy exhibited increased cortical activity in the right occipital region, medial part of the bilateral superior frontal gyri, and right posterior insula while watching social interaction scenes, which suggests that they paid attention to others’ faces and bodies, and inferred others’ mental states. They also exhibited increased cortical activity in the left superior frontal gyrus while watching empathic behaviors. Moreover, they exhibited increased cortical activity in the region around the left medial parieto-occipital sulcus, which is related to self-projection, while passively watching both empathic and nonempathic endings. Taken together, these results suggest that people with high empathy pay attention to others and actively infer others’ mental states while watching social interactions and that they reconstruct others’ mental states and intentions through self-projection after watching a sequence of others’ behaviors.

The Effect of Facial Self-Resemblance on Emotional Mimicry

Social resemblance, like group membership or similar attitudes, increases the mimicry of the observed emotional facial display. In this study, we investigate whether facial self-resemblance (manipulated by computer morphing) modulates emotional mimicry in a similar manner. Participants watched dynamic expressions of faces that either did or did not resemble their own, while their facial muscle activity was measured using EMG. Additionally, after each presentation, respondents completed social evaluations of the faces they saw. The results show that self-resemblance evokes convergent facial reactions. More specifically, participants mimicked the happiness and, to a lesser extent, the anger of self-resembling faces. In turn, the happiness of non-resembling faces was less likely mimicked than in the case of self-resembling faces, while anger evoked a more divergent, smile-like response. Finally, we found that social evaluations were in general increased by happiness displays, but not influenced by resemblance. Overall, the study demonstrates an interesting and novel phenomenon, particularly that mimicry can be modified by relatively subtle cues of physical resemblance.

The Borderline Bias in Explicit Emotion Interpretation

Atypical emotion interpretation has been widely reported in individuals with borderline personality disorder (iBPD); however, empirical studies reported mixed results so far. We suggest that discrepancies in observations of emotion interpretation by iBPD can be explained by biases related to their fear of rejection and abandonment, i.e., the three moral emotions of anger, disgust, and contempt. In this study, we hypothesized that iBPD would show a higher tendency to correctly interpret these three displays of social rejection and attribute more negative valence. A total of 28 inpatient iBPDs and 28 healthy controls were asked to judge static and dynamic facial expressions in terms of emotions, valence, and self-reported arousal evoked by the observed faces. Our results partially confirmed our expectations. The iBPD correctly interpreted the three unambiguous moral emotions. Contempt, a complex emotion with a difficulty in recognizing facial expressions, was recognized better by iBPD than by healthy controls. All negative emotions were judged more negatively by iBPD than by controls, but no difference was observed in the neutral or positive emotion. Alexithymia and anxiety trait and state levels were controlled in all analyses.

Light makeup decreases receivers' negative emotional experience

Makeup is widely used in modern society and has a positive effect on perceived attractiveness. However, little is known about the other possible outcomes of makeup use. In this study, we investigated whether makeup enhances a receiver's emotional experience. Dynamic faces with or without makeup are presented in Experiments 1 and 2. Participants were asked to imagine themselves video chatting with a target person (expresser) with different expressions: neutral, angry, sad, or happy, and then to appraise their own subjective emotional experience. Emotional valence, arousal, and willingness to communicate were also assessed in Experiment 2. The results showed that makeup improved perceived facial attractiveness and increased the willingness to communicate. More importantly, it revealed that wearing makeup could weaken receivers' negative experiences arising from the angry and sad conditions, which is not the case for the non-makeup condition, but could not affect the happy contagion. Furthermore, incremental changes in the amount of makeup were not accompanied by incremental changes in emotional appraisal (valence and arousal). Overall, we found that makeup may affect emotional contagion and interpersonal communication. Whether the alleviated negative experience due to makeup is adaptive may need further discussion.

Subnormal short-latency facial mimicry responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions in male adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders and callous-unemotional traits

Using still pictures of emotional facial expressions as experimental stimuli, reduced amygdala responses or impaired recognition of basic emotions were repeatedly found in people with psychopathic traits. The amygdala also plays an important role in short‐latency facial mimicry responses. Since dynamic emotional facial expressions may have higher ecological validity than still pictures, we compared short‐latency facial mimicry responses to dynamic and static emotional expressions between adolescents with psychopathic traits and normal controls. Facial EMG responses to videos or still pictures of emotional expressions (happiness, anger, sadness, fear) were measured. Responses to 500‐ms dynamic expressions in videos, as well as the subsequent 1500‐ms phase of maximal (i.e., static) expression, were compared between male adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders and high (n = 14) or low (n = 17) callous‐unemotional (CU) traits, and normal control subjects (n = 32). Responses to still pictures were also compared between groups. EMG responses to dynamic expressions were generally significantly smaller in the high‐CU group than in the other two groups, which generally did not differ. These group differences gradually emerged during the 500‐ms stimulus presentation period but in general they were already seen a few hundred milliseconds after stimulus onset. Group differences were absent during the 1500‐ms phase of maximal expression and during exposure to still pictures. Subnormal short‐latency mimicry responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions in the high‐CU group might have negative consequences for understanding emotional facial expressions of others during daily life when human facial interactions are primarily dynamic.

During human interactions, short‐latency facial mimicry responses occur to dynamic emotional facial expressions of others. These are preconscious, automatic responses which cannot be voluntarily controlled. They may be important for emotional understanding of others and appear to be subnormal in male adolescents with psychopathic traits.

Event-related EEG oscillatory responses elicited by dynamic facial expression

BACKGROUND

Recognition of facial expressions (FEs) plays a crucial role in social interactions. Most studies on FE recognition use static (image) stimuli, even though real-life FEs are dynamic. FE processing is complex and multifaceted, and its neural correlates remain unclear. Transitioning from static to dynamic FE stimuli might help disentangle the neural oscillatory mechanisms underlying face processing and recognition of emotion expression. To our knowledge, we here present the first time-frequency exploration of oscillatory brain mechanisms underlying the processing of dynamic FEs.

RESULTS

Videos of joyful, fearful, and neutral dynamic facial expressions were presented to 18 included healthy young adults. We analyzed event-related activity in electroencephalography (EEG) data, focusing on the delta, theta, and alpha-band oscillations. Since the videos involved a transition from neutral to emotional expressions (onset around 500 ms), we identified time windows that might correspond to face perception initially (time window 1; first TW), and emotion expression recognition subsequently (around 1000 ms; second TW). First TW showed increased power and phase-locking values for all frequency bands. In the first TW, power and phase-locking values were higher in the delta and theta bands for emotional FEs as compared to neutral FEs, thus potentially serving as a marker for emotion recognition in dynamic face processing.

CONCLUSIONS

Our time-frequency exploration revealed consistent oscillatory responses to complex, dynamic, ecologically meaningful FE stimuli. We conclude that while dynamic FE processing involves complex network dynamics, dynamic FEs were successfully used to reveal temporally separate oscillation responses related to face processing and subsequently emotion expression recognition.

Probing the role of the right inferior frontal gyrus during Pain-Related empathy processing: Evidence from fMRI and TMS

Recent studies have suggested that the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) may be involved in pain-related empathy. To verify the role of the rIFG, we performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to replicate previous research and further designed a noninvasive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) experiment to probe the causal role of the rIFG in pain-related empathy processing. We assigned 74 volunteers (37 females) to three groups. Group 1 (n = 26) performed a task in which participants were required to perceive pain in others (task of pain: TP) and we used fMRI to observe the activity of the rIFG during pain-related empathy processing. Then, we applied online rTMS to the rIFG and the vertex site (as reference site) to observe the performance of Group 2 (n = 24; performing TP) and Group 3 (n = 24; performing a control task of identifying body parts; task of body: TB). fMRI experiment demonstrated stronger activation in the rIFG than in the vertex during the perception of pain in others (p < .0001, Bonferroni-corrected). rTMS experiment indicated that when the rIFG was temporarily disrupted, participants perceived pain in others significantly more slowly (p < .0001, Bonferroni-corrected) than when the vertex was disrupted. Our results provide evidence that the rIFG is involved in pain-related empathy processing, which yields insights into how the brain perceives pain in others.

Facial mimicry is independent of stimulus format: Evidence for facial mimicry of stick figures and photographs

The present research investigated facial mimicry of the basic emotions joy, anger, and sadness in response to stimuli in different formats. Specifically, in an electromyography study, 120 participants rated the expressions of joyful, angry, and sad faces presented as photographs or stick figures while facial muscle activity was measured. Using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches to hypothesis testing, we found strong support for a facial mimicry effect: Participants showed higher zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi activity (smiling) towards joyful faces, while they showed higher corrugator supercilii activity (frowning) towards angry and sad faces. Although participants rated the stick figures as more abstract and less interesting stimuli, the mimicry effect was equally strong and independent of the format in which the faces were presented (photographs or stick figures). Additionally, participants showed enhanced emotion recognition for stick figures compared to photographs, which, however, was unrelated to mimicry. The findings suggest that facial mimicry occurs in response to stimuli varying in their abstractness and might be more robust to social-cognitive influences than previously assumed.

Electromyographic evidence of reduced emotion mimicry in individuals with a history of non-suicidal self-injury

Engaging in facial emotion mimicry during social interactions encourages empathy and functions as a catalyst for interpersonal bonding. Decreased reflexive mirroring of facial expressions has been observed in individuals with different non-psychotic disorders, relative to healthy controls. Given reports of interpersonal relationship difficulties experienced by those who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), it is of interest to explore facial emotion mimicry in individuals with a history of this behaviour (HNSSI). Among other things, this will enable us to better understand their emotion regulation and social interaction challenges. Surface facial electromyography (fEMG) was used to record the reflexive facial mimicry of 30 HNSSI and 30 controls while they passively observed a series of dynamic facial stimuli showing various facial expressions of emotion. Beginning with a neutral expression, the stimuli quickly morphed to one of 6 prototypic emotional expressions (anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, or sadness). Mimicry was assessed by affixing surface electrodes to facial muscles known to exhibit a high degree of electrical activity in response to positive and negative emotions: the corrugator supercilii and the zygomaticus major. HNSSI participants, relative to controls, exhibited significantly less electrical activity in the corrugator muscle in response to viewing angry stimuli, and significantly less of an expected relaxation in muscle activity in response to viewing happy stimuli. Mirroring these results, greater endorsement of social influence as a motivator for engaging in NSSI was associated with less mimicry, and greater endorsement of emotion regulation as a motivator was associated with greater incongruent muscle response when viewing happy faces. These findings lend support to the theory that social interaction difficulties in HNSSI might be related to implicit violations of expected social rules exhibited through facial mimicry nonconformity.

Vagal Tone Differences in Empathy Level Elicited by Different Emotions and a Co-Viewer

Empathy can bring different benefits depending on what kind of emotions people empathize with. For example, empathy with negative emotions can raise donations to charity while empathy with positive emotions can increase participation during remote education. However, few studies have focused on the physiological differences depending on what kind of emotions people empathize with. Furthermore, co-viewer can influence the elicitation of different levels of empathy, but this has been less discussed. Therefore, this study investigated vagal response differences according to each empathy factor level elicited by different emotions and co-viewer. Fifty-nine participants were asked to watch 4 videos and to evaluate subjective valence, arousal scores, and undertake an empathy questionnaire, which included cognitive, affective and identification empathy. Half of the participants watched the videos alone and the other half watched the videos with a co-viewer. Valence and arousal scores were categorized into three levels to figure out what kind of emotions they empathized with. Empathy level (high vs. low) was determined based on the self-report scores. Two-way MANOVA revealed an interaction effect of empathy level and emotions. High affective empathy level is associated with higher vagal response regardless of what kind of emotions they empathized with. However, vagal response differences in other empathy factor level showed a different pattern depending on what kind of emotions that participant empathized with. A high cognitive empathy level showed lower vagal responses when participants felt negative or positive valence. High identification level also showed increased cognitive burden when participants empathized with negative and neutral valence. The results implied that emotions and types of empathy should be considered when measuring empathic responses using vagal tone. Two-way MANOVA revealed empathic response differences between co-viewer condition and emotion. Participants with a co-viewer felt higher vagal responses and self-reporting empathy scores only when participants empathized with arousal. This implied that the effect of a co-viewer may impact on empathic responses only when participants felt higher emotional intensity.

Perception of Discrete Emotions in Others: Evidence for Distinct Facial Mimicry Patterns

Covert facial mimicry involves subtle facial muscle activation in observers when they perceive the facial emotional expressions of others. It remains uncertain whether prototypical facial features in emotional expressions are being covertly mimicked and also whether covert facial mimicry involves distinct facial muscle activation patterns across muscles per emotion category, or simply distinguishes positive versus negative valence in observed facial emotions. To test whether covert facial mimicry is emotion-specific, we measured facial electromyography (EMG) from five muscle sites (corrugator supercilii, levator labii, frontalis lateralis, depressor anguli oris, zygomaticus major) whilst participants watched videos of people expressing 9 different basic and complex emotions and a neutral expression. This study builds upon previous research by including a greater number of facial muscle measures and emotional expressions. It is the first study to investigate activation patterns across muscles during facial mimicry and to provide evidence for distinct patterns of facial muscle activation when viewing individual emotion categories, suggesting that facial mimicry is emotion-specific, rather than just valence-based.

Towards the automatic detection of social biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: introducing the simulated interaction task (SIT)

Social interaction deficits are evident in many psychiatric conditions and specifically in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but hard to assess objectively. We present a digital tool to automatically quantify biomarkers of social interaction deficits: the simulated interaction task (SIT), which entails a standardized 7-min simulated dialog via video and the automated analysis of facial expressions, gaze behavior, and voice characteristics. In a study with 37 adults with ASD without intellectual disability and 43 healthy controls, we show the potential of the tool as a diagnostic instrument and for better description of ASD-associated social phenotypes. Using machine-learning tools, we detected individuals with ASD with an accuracy of 73%, sensitivity of 67%, and specificity of 79%, based on their facial expressions and vocal characteristics alone. Especially reduced social smiling and facial mimicry as well as a higher voice fundamental frequency and harmony-to-noise-ratio were characteristic for individuals with ASD. The time-effective and cost-effective computer-based analysis outperformed a majority vote and performed equal to clinical expert ratings.

Objective assessment of blinking and facial expressions in Parkinson's disease using a vertical electro-oculogram and facial surface electromyography

OBJECTIVE

Hypomimia is a common and early symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD), which reduces the ability of PD patients to manifest emotions. Currently, it is visually evaluated by the neurologist during neurological examinations for PD diagnosis, as described in task 3.2 of the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). Since such an evaluation is semi-quantitative and affected by inter-variability, this paper aims to measure the physiological parameters related to eye blink and facial expressions extracted from a vertical electro-oculogram (VEOG) and facial surface electromyography (fsEMG) to differentiate PD patients from healthy control subjects (HCs).

APPROACH

The spontaneous eye blink rate-minute (sEBR), its maximum amplitude (BMP), and facial cutaneous muscle activity were measured in 24 PD patients and 24 HCs while the subjects looked at a visual-tester composed of three main parts: static vision, dynamic vision and reading silently. Specificity and sensitivity for each parameter were calculated.

MAIN RESULTS

The VEOG and the fsEMG allowed the identification of some parameters related to eye blink and facial expressions (i.e. sEBR, BMP, frontal and peribuccal muscular activities), being able to distinguish between PD patients and HCs with high sensitivity and specificity.

SIGNIFICANCE

The demonstration that the combination of parameters related to eye blink and facial expressions can discriminate (with high accuracy) between PD patients versus HCs, thus resulting in a useful tool to support the neurologist in objective assessment of hypomimia for improving PD diagnosis.

Widespread and lateralized social brain activity for processing dynamic facial expressions

Dynamic facial expressions of emotions constitute natural and powerful means of social communication in daily life. A number of previous neuroimaging studies have explored the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of dynamic facial expressions, and indicated the activation of certain social brain regions (e.g., the amygdala) during such tasks. However, the activated brain regions were inconsistent across studies, and their laterality was rarely evaluated. To investigate these issues, we measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging in a relatively large sample (n = 51) during the observation of dynamic facial expressions of anger and happiness and their corresponding dynamic mosaic images. The observation of dynamic facial expressions, compared with dynamic mosaics, elicited stronger activity in the bilateral posterior cortices, including the inferior occipital gyri, fusiform gyri, and superior temporal sulci. The dynamic facial expressions also activated bilateral limbic regions, including the amygdalae and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, more strongly versus mosaics. In the same manner, activation was found in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left cerebellum. Laterality analyses comparing original and flipped images revealed right hemispheric dominance in the superior temporal sulcus and IFG and left hemispheric dominance in the cerebellum. These results indicated that the neural mechanisms underlying processing of dynamic facial expressions include widespread social brain regions associated with perceptual, emotional, and motor functions, and include a clearly lateralized (right cortical and left cerebellar) network like that involved in language processing.

Empathic Responses for Pain in Facial Muscles Are Modulated by Actor's Attractiveness and Gender, and Perspective Taken by Observer

Although empathy for pain is an often studied phenomenon, only few studies employing electromyography (EMG) have investigated either emotional responses to the pain of others or factors that modulate these responses. The present study investigated whether the sex and attractiveness of persons experiencing pain affected muscle activity associated with empathy for pain, the corrugator supercili (CS) and orbicularis oculi (OO) muscles, in male and female participants in two conditions: adopting a perspective of “the other” or “the self.” Fifty one participants (27 females) watched movies showing situations that included the expression of pain, with female and male and more and less attractive actors under both conditions, while the CS and OO EMG were recorded. Perspective did not affect CS muscle activity, but OO muscle activity tended to be higher in women than men under the imagine-self condition. CS muscle activity, but not OO muscle activity, was modulated by the actors’ gender and attractiveness. CS muscle activity was stronger in response to the pain of less attractive than more attractive actors, and to the pain of female actors compared to male actors. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between empathic concern, as a trait, and CS muscle activity, but only in the imagine-self condition.

Empathy in Facial Mimicry of Fear and Disgust: Simultaneous EMG-fMRI Recordings During Observation of Static and Dynamic Facial Expressions

Real-life faces are dynamic by nature, particularly when expressing emotion. Increasing evidence suggests that the perception of dynamic displays enhances facial mimicry and induces activation in widespread brain structures considered to be part of the mirror neuron system, a neuronal network linked to empathy. The present study is the first to investigate the relations among facial muscle responses, brain activity, and empathy traits while participants observed static and dynamic (videos) facial expressions of fear and disgust. During display presentation, blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal as well as muscle reactions of the corrugator supercilii and levator labii were recorded simultaneously from 46 healthy individuals (21 females). It was shown that both fear and disgust faces caused activity in the corrugator supercilii muscle, while perception of disgust produced facial activity additionally in the levator labii muscle, supporting a specific pattern of facial mimicry for these emotions. Moreover, individuals with higher, compared to individuals with lower, empathy traits showed greater activity in the corrugator supercilii and levator labii muscles; however, these responses were not differentiable between static and dynamic mode. Conversely, neuroimaging data revealed motion and emotional-related brain structures in response to dynamic rather than static stimuli among high empathy individuals. In line with this, there was a correlation between electromyography (EMG) responses and brain activity suggesting that the Mirror Neuron System, the anterior insula and the amygdala might constitute the neural correlates of automatic facial mimicry for fear and disgust. These results revealed that the dynamic property of (emotional) stimuli facilitates the emotional-related processing of facial expressions, especially among whose with high trait empathy.

Broadening the Perspective on Emotional Contagion and Emotional Mimicry: The Correction Hypothesis

Emotional contagion has long been conceptualized as the automatic transfer of affective states between people, similar to the spread of diseases. New evidence, however, has challenged this view by demonstrating that emotions, contrary to diseases, spread selectively rather than blindly because their transfer is controlled by social factors. Here, we take a closer look at this top-down social control of emotional contagion. We review literature on the moderating role of social factors in emotional contagion and emotional mimicry, a process often considered a basic mechanism of emotional contagion. We argue that top-down social processes controlling emotional mimicry may be explained by the correction hypothesis formulated to account for contrast effects in priming research. We also analyze whether similar corrective processes may be involved in less automatic mechanisms of emotional contagion, such as social appraisal. Finally, we propose that the modulating effects of social factors on emotional contagion and its mechanisms, similar to priming effects, may be interpreted within the framework of dual-process theories.

Adults' facial reaction to affective facial expressions of children and adults

Facial mimicry, the unconscious imitation of others' affective facial expressions, serves as an important basis for interpersonal communication. Although there are many studies dealing with this phenomenon regarding the interaction between adults, only few experiments have explored facial mimicry in response to affective facial expressions of children. In the following study affect-prototypical video clips of children's and adults' faces were presented to 44 adults while the activity of corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus muscles was electromyographically measured. A discrete mimic reaction was detected in response to each basic affect (fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise and anger). The activity of corrugator supercilii muscle was significantly lower when affective facial expressions of children were presented in contrast to those of adults. In addition, negative correlations between alexithymia and the averaged facial EMG activity were detected.

A role for affectivity in rapid facial mimicry: An electromyographic study

Emotional expressions evoke rapid facial reactions in the perceiver that are consistent with the valence of the observed expression. We aimed to investigate whether this robust facial reaction is purely a motor matching response or instead represents underlying affective processes. Participants' (N = 60) corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscle activity was quantified using facial electromyography (EMG) while they viewed three sets of images; (i) upright happy and angry facial expressions, (ii) inverted happy and angry facial expressions, and (iii) sad and happy eyes and mouth expressions. Participants displayed patterns of EMG responding that were consistent with the affective valence of the emotional expression, as opposed to merely matching the observed stimuli (i.e. a motor matching response). Using a novel methodological approach, these findings provide evidence for the contention that affective processing underlies rapid facial mimicry reactions.

Alexithymia Is Related to the Need for More Emotional Intensity to Identify Static Fearful Facial Expressions

Individuals with high levels of alexithymia, a personality trait marked by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and an externally oriented style of thinking, appear to require more time to accurately recognize intense emotional facial expressions (EFEs). However, in everyday life, EFEs are displayed at different levels of intensity and individuals with high alexithymia may also need more emotional intensity to identify EFEs. Nevertheless, the impact of alexithymia on the identification of EFEs, which vary in emotional intensity, has largely been neglected. To address this, two experiments were conducted in which participants with low (LA) and high (HA) levels of alexithymia were assessed in their ability to identify static (Experiment 1) and dynamic (Experiment 2) morphed faces ranging from neutral to intense EFEs. Results showed that HA needed more emotional intensity than LA to identify static fearful – but not happy or disgusted – faces. On the contrary, no evidence was found that alexithymia affected the identification of dynamic EFEs. These results extend current literature suggesting that alexithymia is related to the need for more perceptual information to identify static fearful EFEs.

Recognition of emotional facial expressions in benzodiazepine dependence and detoxification

INTRODUCTION

The study investigates how benzodiazepine (BZD) use and detoxification affects empathy and the recognition and intensity rating of emotional facial expressions. The sample comprised 43 participants in three groups: (1) during detoxification (N = 13), (2) after detoxification (N = 15), (3) a matched control group (N = 15). Clinical subjects were recruited from in-patients of an addiction treatment unit.

METHODS

Empathy levels were tested with the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short). Recognition accuracy and emotion intensity rating were based on a computerised task displaying static and dynamic facial expressions of joy, anger, sadness, and fear.

RESULTS

The controls proved more accurate than both experimental groups in identifying facial expressions of negative emotions. Joy recognition proved most accurate overall. Among the clinical subjects, women in particular exhibited an impaired ability to correctly identify negative emotions from facial expressions. Dynamic stimuli were better recognised than static ones albeit only in the experimental groups. No significant differences were found for emotion intensity ratings and EQ scores.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that the impaired facial emotion recognition accuracy is not caused by deficits in empathy. No improvement was recorded post-detoxification which may indicate impaired interpersonal functioning among BZD users. Further research is warranted in light of this study's limitations.

Empathic Understanding: Benefits of Perspective-Taking and Facial Mimicry Instructions are Mediated by Self-Other Overlap

The current study sought to better understand the utility of two strategies - perspective-taking and facial mimicry - proposed to increase empathic responding. Thirty-seven female participants were presented an interpersonal situation (a betrayal) that would elicit the use of empathic responding to achieve conflict resolution between friends. Each participant was given instructions to partake in either perspective-taking, facial mimicry, or to remain neutral (control condition). The results demonstrated that individuals who engaged in perspective-taking reported significantly higher state empathy than the control condition, but there was no significant difference in state empathy between the mimicry and control condition. Also, those who engaged in either strategy reported significantly higher self-other overlap relative to those not instructed to engage in a particular strategy. Importantly, self-other overlap mediated the association between the instructional sets and state empathy. Both strategies are arguably means of enhancing interpersonal understanding.

The Emotional Modulation of Facial Mimicry: A Kinematic Study

It is well-established that the observation of emotional facial expression induces facial mimicry responses in the observers. However, how the interaction between emotional and motor components of facial expressions can modulate the motor behavior of the perceiver is still unknown. We have developed a kinematic experiment to evaluate the effect of different oro-facial expressions on perceiver's face movements. Participants were asked to perform two movements, i.e., lip stretching and lip protrusion, in response to the observation of four meaningful (i.e., smile, angry-mouth, kiss, and spit) and two meaningless mouth gestures. All the stimuli were characterized by different motor patterns (mouth aperture or mouth closure). Response Times and kinematics parameters of the movements (amplitude, duration, and mean velocity) were recorded and analyzed. Results evidenced a dissociated effect on reaction times and movement kinematics. We found shorter reaction time when a mouth movement was preceded by the observation of a meaningful and motorically congruent oro-facial gesture, in line with facial mimicry effect. On the contrary, during execution, the perception of smile was associated with the facilitation, in terms of shorter duration and higher velocity of the incongruent movement, i.e., lip protrusion. The same effect resulted in response to kiss and spit that significantly facilitated the execution of lip stretching. We called this phenomenon facial mimicry reversal effect, intended as the overturning of the effect normally observed during facial mimicry. In general, the findings show that both motor features and types of emotional oro-facial gestures (conveying positive or negative valence) affect the kinematics of subsequent mouth movements at different levels: while congruent motor features facilitate a general motor response, motor execution could be speeded by gestures that are motorically incongruent with the observed one. Moreover, valence effect depends on the specific movement required. Results are discussed in relation to the Basic Emotion Theory and embodied cognition framework.

Effects of Social Anxiety on Emotional Mimicry and Contagion: Feeling Negative, but Smiling Politely

Socially anxiety may be related to a different pattern of facial mimicry and contagion of others' emotions. We report two studies in which participants with different levels of social anxiety reacted to others' emotional displays, either shown on a computer screen (Study 1) or in an actual social interaction (Study 2). Study 1 examined facial mimicry and emotional contagion in response to displays of happiness, anger, fear, and contempt. Participants mimicked negative and positive emotions to some extent, but we found no relation between mimicry and the social anxiety level of the participants. Furthermore, socially anxious individuals were more prone to experience negative emotions and felt more irritated in response to negative emotion displays. In Study 2, we found that social anxiety was related to enhanced mimicry of smiling, but this was only the case for polite smiles and not for enjoyment smiles. These results suggest that socially anxious individuals tend to catch negative emotions from others, but suppress their expression by mimicking positive displays. This may be explained by the tendency of socially anxious individuals to avoid conflict or rejection.

What Is Art Good For? The Socio-Epistemic Value of Art

Scientists, humanists, and art lovers alike value art not just for its beauty, but also for its social and epistemic importance; that is, for its communicative nature, its capacity to increase one's self-knowledge and encourage personal growth, and its ability to challenge our schemas and preconceptions. However, empirical research tends to discount the importance of such social and epistemic outcomes of art engagement, instead focusing on individuals' preferences, judgments of beauty, pleasure, or other emotional appraisals as the primary outcomes of art appreciation. Here, we argue that a systematic neuroscientific study of art appreciation must move beyond understanding aesthetics alone, and toward investigating the social importance of art appreciation. We make our argument for such a shift in focus first, by situating art appreciation as an active social practice. We follow by reviewing the available psychological and cognitive neuroscientific evidence that art appreciation cultivates socio-epistemic skills such as self- and other-understanding, and discuss philosophical frameworks which suggest a more comprehensive empirical investigation. Finally, we argue that focusing on the socio-epistemic values of art engagement highlights the important role art plays in our lives. Empirical research on art appreciation can thus be used to show that engagement with art has specific social and personal value, the cultivation of which is important to us as individuals, and as communities.

Effects of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain: a randomized controlled experiment

Emotional mimicry and empathy are mechanisms underlying social interaction. Benzodiazepines have been proposed to inhibit empathy and promote antisocial behaviour. First, we aimed to investigate the effects of oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain, and second, we aimed to investigate the association of personality traits to emotional mimicry and empathy. Participants (n=76) were randomized to 25 mg oxazepam or placebo. Emotional mimicry was examined using video clips with emotional expressions. Empathy was investigated by pain stimulating the participant and a confederate. We recorded self-rated experience, activity in major zygomatic and superciliary corrugator muscles, skin conductance, and heart rate. In the mimicry experiment, oxazepam inhibited corrugator activity. In the empathy experiment, oxazepam caused increased self-rated unpleasantness and skin conductance. However, oxazepam specifically inhibited neither emotional mimicry nor empathy for pain. Responses in both experiments were associated with self-rated empathic, psychopathic and alexithymic traits. The present results do not support a specific effect of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry or empathy.

Effects of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain: a randomized controlled experiment

Emotional mimicry and empathy are mechanisms underlying social interaction. Benzodiazepines have been proposed to inhibit empathy and promote antisocial behaviour. First, we aimed to investigate the effects of oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain, and second, we aimed to investigate the association of personality traits to emotional mimicry and empathy. Participants (n=76) were randomized to 25 mg oxazepam or placebo. Emotional mimicry was examined using video clips with emotional expressions. Empathy was investigated by pain stimulating the participant and a confederate. We recorded self-rated experience, activity in major zygomatic and superciliary corrugator muscles, skin conductance, and heart rate. In the mimicry experiment, oxazepam inhibited corrugator activity. In the empathy experiment, oxazepam caused increased self-rated unpleasantness and skin conductance. However, oxazepam specifically inhibited neither emotional mimicry nor empathy for pain. Responses in both experiments were associated with self-rated empathic, psychopathic and alexithymic traits. The present results do not support a specific effect of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry or empathy.