Facial color is an efficient mechanism to visually transmit emotion

Benitez-Quiroz, C. Fabian; Srinivasan, Ramprakash; Martı́nez, Aleix M.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1716084115

Cited by 88 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Although not studied here, transient changes in facial coloration such as blushing and pallor could comprise a key component of the facial behavior produced during pain and orgasm and thus contribute to the perception of these intense affective states in others (e.g., see refs. 44 and 45 ). We anticipate that such questions will soon be addressed in future research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct facial expressions represent pain and pleasure across cultures

Chen

Crivelli

Garrod

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

104

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SignificanceHumans often use facial expressions to communicate social messages. However, observational studies report that people experiencing pain or orgasm produce facial expressions that are indistinguishable, which questions their role as an effective tool for communication. Here, we investigate this counterintuitive finding using a new data-driven approach to model the mental representations of facial expressions of pain and orgasm in individuals from two different cultures. Using complementary analyses, we show that representations of pain and orgasm are distinct in each culture. We also show that pain is represented with similar face movements across cultures, whereas orgasm shows differences. Our findings therefore inform understanding of the possible communicative role of facial expressions of pain and orgasm, and how culture could shape their representation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct facial expressions represent pain and pleasure across cultures

Chen

Crivelli

Garrod

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Just as thermal imaging captures these facial blood flow changes, some of this information is also available to human vision. Indeed, emotion dependent facial blood flow changes were visually interpreted by observers and have also been found to convey information partially independent from that conveyed by facial expressions (Benitez-Quiroz, Srinivasan, & Martinez, 2018). In some facial thermal imaging studies, facial movements and expression may confound the thermal signal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-driven analysis of facial thermal responses to an emotional movie reveals consistent stimulus-locked physiological changes

Sonkusare

Breakspear

Pang

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Facial infra-red imaging (IRI) is a contact-free technique complimenting the traditional psychophysiological measures to characterize physiological profile. However, its full potential in affective research is arguably unmet due to the analytical challenges it poses. Here we acquired facial IRI data, facial expressions and traditional physiological recordings (heart rate and skin conductance) from healthy human subjects whilst they viewed a 20-minute-long unedited emotional movie. We present a novel application of motion correction and the results of spatial independent component analysis of the thermal data. Three distinct spatial components are recovered associated with the nose, the cheeks and a respiratory component. We first benchmark this methodology against a traditional region-of-interest based technique. We then show significant correlation of all the physiological responses across subjects, including the thermal signals, suggesting common dynamic shifts in emotional state induced by the movie. Finally, we show that thermal responses were significantly anti-correlated with the positive emotional content of the movie thus an index of emotionally-driven physiological response. In sum, this study introduces an innovative approach to analyse facial IRI data and highlights the potential of thermal imaging to robustly capture emotion-related changes in ecological contexts.

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“…Critically, the visual features uncovered here can account for the decline of face identification in older adults. For instance, the recognition of facial identity, gender, emotion and even animacy rely on visual information from the eye area (Balas & Horski, 2012;Nestor, Vettel, & Tarr, 2008;Schyns, Bonnar, & Gosselin, 2002;Sekuler, Gaspar, Gold, & Bennett, 2004;Smith, Cottrell, Gosselin, & Schyns, 2005) as well as on facial color (Benitez-Quiroz, Srinivasan, & Martinez, 2018;Dupuis-Roy, Fiset, Dufresne, Caplette, & Gosselin, 2014;Nestor, Plaut, & Behrmann, 2013). Thus, a decrease in the fidelity of corresponding representations is higly likely to impact multiple types of recognition including identification.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Image Reconstruction Reveals the Impact of Aging on Face Perception

Chang

Nemrodov

Drobotenko

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Extensive work has demonstrated a decline in face recognition abilities associated with healthy aging. To date, however, there has been limited insight into the nature and the extent of agingrelated alterations in internal face representations. Here, we sought to address these issues by using an image reconstruction approach that capitalizes on the structure of behavioral data to reveal the pictorial content of visual representations. To this end, healthy young and older adults provided similarity judgments with pairs of face images. Facial shape and surface features were subsequently derived from the structure of the data for each participant and combined into image reconstructions of facial appearance. Our findings revealed that image reconstruction was successful for every participant, irrespective of age. However, reconstruction accuracies of shape and surface information were lower for older individuals than young individuals. Specifically, facial features diagnostic for face perception, such as eye shape and skin tone, were reconstructed poorly in older adults relative to young adults. At the same time, we found that age-related effects only accounted for a relatively small proportion of individual variability in face representations. Thus, our results provide novel insight into age-related changes in visual perception, they account for the decline in facial recognition occurring with age and they demonstrate the utility of image reconstruction to uncovering internal representations across a variety of populations.

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Facial color is an efficient mechanism to visually transmit emotion

Cited by 88 publications

References 40 publications

Distinct facial expressions represent pain and pleasure across cultures

Distinct facial expressions represent pain and pleasure across cultures

Data-driven analysis of facial thermal responses to an emotional movie reveals consistent stimulus-locked physiological changes

Image Reconstruction Reveals the Impact of Aging on Face Perception

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