Although facial expressions of emotion are universal, individual differences create a facial expression ''signature'' for each person; but, is there a unique family facial expression signature? Only a few family studies on the heredity of facial expressions have been performed, none of which compared the gestalt of movements in various emotional states; they compared only a few movements in one or two emotional states. No studies, to our knowledge, have compared movements of congenitally blind subjects with their relatives to our knowledge. Using two types of analyses, we show a correlation between movements of congenitally blind subjects with those of their relatives in think-concentrate, sadness, anger, disgust, joy, and surprise and provide evidence for a unique family facial expression signature. In the analysis ''in-out family test,'' a particular movement was compared each time across subjects. Results show that the frequency of occurrence of a movement of a congenitally blind subject in his family is significantly higher than that outside of his family in think-concentrate, sadness, and anger. In the analysis ''the classification test,'' in which congenitally blind subjects were classified to their families according to the gestalt of movements, results show 80% correct classification over the entire interview and 75% in anger. Analysis of the movements' frequencies in anger revealed a correlation between the movements' frequencies of congenitally blind individuals and those of their relatives. This study anticipates discovering genes that influence facial expressions, understanding their evolutionary significance, and elucidating repair mechanisms for syndromes lacking facial expression, such as autism.facial movements ͉ genetics ͉ congenitally blind ͉ gestalt ͉ individual differences
Most of the studies comparing facial expressions of born blind and sighted persons that have been carried out up until now have involved children as subjects. Various studies claimed that the quantity and quality of facial expressions of congenitally blind persons deteriorate with increasing age. Here, we compared facial expressions of born blind and sighted individuals using adults predominantly. Facial expressions were documented in an individual interview inducing such emotions as think-concentrate, sadness, anger, disgust, joy, and surprise.Common characteristics found amongst studied individuals were: similar repertoires*of movements over the entire interview, high-frequency and high-repertoire proportion of facial movements in concentration, sadness, and anger relative to those in disgust, joy, and surprise, similar distributions of a cumulative repertoire proportion of facial movements, and also common behavioral profiles of frequencies of facial movements in the emotional states discussed. Similar displays of eyebrow movements were found as well in concentration, sadness, and anger.Our study indicates that most tested characteristics of facial movements are common to born blind and sighted subjects, except for different cumulative mean frequencies in different emotional states, which is possibly related to the lack of visual feedback in born blind persons.Our study substantiates the hypothesis that facial expressions are innate and have important cues in the evolution of social communication.
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