Analysis of the Coupling Between the Brain and Facial Muscle Responses to Auditory Stimulation

Abstract

Our facial muscles react due to exposure to various stimuli. For example, when we sniff an odor, our facial muscles react. Since the brain controls the activities of muscles, therefore, a coupling should exist between their activities. This paper studies the coupling between the activations of the brain and facial muscles in auditory stimulation by the complexity-based analysis of Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electromyogram (EMG) signals. Three pieces of music were chosen according to the differences in their complexities. We calculated the fractal dimension and sample entropy of EEG and EMG signals for 13 subjects in rest and response to different music. The results showed strong couplings among the alterations of the complexities of these signals and music, which indicate the correlation between brain and facial muscle activities. This complexity-based analysis could be further extended to the case of other physiological signals to decode the correlation between the responses of different organs and the brain.