Overt congruent facial reaction to dynamic emotional expressions in 9–10-month-old infants

Hashiya, Kazuhide; Meng, Xianwei; Uto, Yusuke; Tajiri, Kana

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.12.002

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Recent studies collecting surface electromyography (sEMG) data from a wide range of age groups reported that observing facial gestures or emotional expressions elicits specific muscular activation patterns (e.g., [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]). For example, it was shown that 3-year-old children exhibited increased zygomaticus major activity (i.e., the primary muscle involved in smiling) in response to happy faces, while angry faces generated an increased electromyographic activation of the frontalis muscle, which is typically involved in expressing fear [ 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensorimotor Activity and Network Connectivity to Dynamic and Static Emotional Faces in 7-Month-Old Infants

et al. 2021

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The present study investigated whether, as in adults, 7-month-old infants’ sensorimotor brain areas are recruited in response to the observation of emotional facial expressions. Activity of the sensorimotor cortex, as indexed by µ rhythm suppression, was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) while infants observed neutral, angry, and happy facial expressions either in a static (N = 19) or dynamic (N = 19) condition. Graph theory analysis was used to investigate to which extent neural activity was functionally localized in specific cortical areas. Happy facial expressions elicited greater sensorimotor activation compared to angry faces in the dynamic experimental condition, while no difference was found between the three expressions in the static condition. Results also revealed that happy but not angry nor neutral expressions elicited a significant right-lateralized activation in the dynamic condition. Furthermore, dynamic emotional faces generated more efficient processing as they elicited higher global efficiency and lower networks’ diameter compared to static faces. Overall, current results suggest that, contrarily to neutral and angry faces, happy expressions elicit sensorimotor activity at 7 months and dynamic emotional faces are more efficiently processed by functional brain networks. Finally, current data provide evidence of the existence of a right-lateralized activity for the processing of happy facial expressions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensorimotor Activity and Network Connectivity to Dynamic and Static Emotional Faces in 7-Month-Old Infants

et al. 2021

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“…However, the present results suggest that mirror neurons are widely distributed in the brain, even in low‐level regions such as the facial nerve nucleus. This may explain why infants, whose neocortical regions might not be fully developed, show facial mimicry in response to dynamic facial expressions (Hashiya et al, 2019 ; Isomura & Nakano, 2016 ; Kaiser et al, 2017 ; Soussignan, 2018 ). One method for testing this hypothesis may be to investigate the facial mimicry ability of anencephalic patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The widespread action observation/execution matching system for facial expression processing

Sato

Kochiyama²,

Yoshikawa

2023

Human Brain Mapping

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Observing and understanding others' emotional facial expressions, possibly through motor synchronization, plays a primary role in face‐to‐face communication. To understand the underlying neural mechanisms, previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigated brain regions that are involved in both the observation/execution of emotional facial expressions and found that the neocortical motor regions constituting the action observation/execution matching system or mirror neuron system were active. However, it remains unclear (1) whether other brain regions in the limbic, cerebellum, and brainstem regions could be also involved in the observation/execution matching system for processing facial expressions, and (2) if so, whether these regions could constitute a functional network. To investigate these issues, we performed fMRI while participants observed dynamic facial expressions of anger and happiness and while they executed facial muscle activity associated with angry and happy facial expressions. Conjunction analyses revealed that, in addition to neocortical regions (i.e., the right ventral premotor cortex and right supplementary motor area), bilateral amygdala, right basal ganglia, bilateral cerebellum, and right facial nerve nucleus were activated during both the observation/execution tasks. Group independent component analysis revealed that a functional network component involving the aforementioned regions were activated during both observation/execution tasks. The data suggest that the motor synchronization of emotional facial expressions involves a widespread observation/execution matching network encompassing the neocortex, limbic system, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and brainstem.

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“…There is the suggestion, however, that these RFRs are merely infants showing appropriate emotion responses to the stimuli rather than mimicking the facial expression observed. In slightly older infants (9-10 month olds), Hashiya et al (2019) showed that infants' facial responses increased with repeated observation of dynamic morphed faces. This suggests that infants of that age at least are not performing this task based on a purely mimicking mechanism of action matching, but rather may support a more complex affect recognition system (Hess and Fischer, 2014).…”

Section: Evidence Of Motor Matching In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 96%

Expanding Simulation Models of Emotional Understanding: The Case for Different Modalities, Body-State Simulation Prominence, and Developmental Trajectories

Ross

Atkinson

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Recent models of emotion recognition suggest that when people perceive an emotional expression, they partially activate the respective emotion in themselves, providing a basis for the recognition of that emotion. Much of the focus of these models and of their evidential basis has been on sensorimotor simulation as a basis for facial expression recognition-the idea, in short, that coming to know what another feels involves simulating in your brain the motor plans and associated sensory representations engaged by the other person's brain in producing the facial expression that you see. In this review article, we argue that simulation accounts of emotion recognition would benefit from three key extensions. First, that fuller consideration be given to simulation of bodily and vocal expressions, given that the body and voice are also important expressive channels for providing cues to another's emotional state. Second, that simulation of other aspects of the perceived emotional state, such as changes in the autonomic nervous system and viscera, might have a more prominent role in underpinning emotion recognition than is typically proposed. Sensorimotor simulation models tend to relegate such body-state simulation to a subsidiary role, despite the plausibility of body-state simulation being able to underpin emotion recognition in the absence of typical sensorimotor simulation. Third, that simulation models of emotion recognition be extended to address how embodied processes and emotion recognition abilities develop through the lifespan. It is not currently clear how this system of sensorimotor and body-state simulation develops and in particular how this affects the development of emotion recognition ability. We review recent findings from the emotional body recognition literature and integrate recent evidence regarding the development of mimicry and interoception to significantly expand simulation models of emotion recognition.

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Overt congruent facial reaction to dynamic emotional expressions in 9–10-month-old infants

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Sensorimotor Activity and Network Connectivity to Dynamic and Static Emotional Faces in 7-Month-Old Infants

Sensorimotor Activity and Network Connectivity to Dynamic and Static Emotional Faces in 7-Month-Old Infants

The widespread action observation/execution matching system for facial expression processing

Expanding Simulation Models of Emotional Understanding: The Case for Different Modalities, Body-State Simulation Prominence, and Developmental Trajectories

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