The are a complex issue, we know that many things can affect the way it works, such as a or even you .
To understand this research, we must first know two facts. The first is that scientific research has shown that when we look at the facial expressions of others, we tend to imperceptibly and subconsciously imitate them through a process known as facial mimicry. It is hypothesized that this behavior helps us understand the emotions we are looking at.
The second fact is that our expressions, like our faces, are asymmetrical: they are more pronounced and begin earlier (facial expression is a dynamic process) on one half of the face. This asymmetry is thought to give the face a special “flavor”: those that start and are more pronounced on the left side, for example, are judged as more authentic.
What happens if we combine these two premises? According to Sebastian Korb, lead author of the What we will discuss today, if we consider a person who cannot move half of his face (due to some pathology, for example), it could happen that said person would have difficulties correctly perceiving the emotions of other people.
Korb worked with a sample of patients affected by facial paralysis of the left and right sides of the face. In the experiments, patients viewed a series of computer-generated avatar faces (three-dimensional human faces) that dynamically displayed expressions of happiness or anger. This method allowed the scientists to control all aspects of the stimulus, from the length of the expression to its asymmetry.
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As mentioned above, the literature shows that expressions that begin on the left side of the face are perceived as more authentic than those that begin on the right side. According to the theory of embodied cognition, whereby interpretations of emotions are facilitated if we reproduce muscle contraction patterns in our own body (for example, through facial mimicry), this should have an effect on people affected by hemiparesis, who are not able to correctly reproduce the expression with the paralyzed half of their face.
Korb explains that his “(…) discoveries show that this difference clearly exists in people affected by left hemiparesis.” This statement follows from their observations that patients with paralysis on the right side of the face did not differ many from healthy subjects both in judging the authenticity of the avatar’s expression and in their response times when asked to identify an emotion as quickly as possible. Both groups perceived expressions that began on the right side of the face as more authentic than those that began on the left, and both responded faster to the latter expression.
In contrast, patients with paralysis of the left side of the face exhibited more complex behavior. They did not show significant differences with respect to anger, but the situation changed when interpreting expressions of happiness, which were judged as less authentic by starting on the left side of the face, it also took them longer to identify the emotion.
According to the research team, this can mean two things: on the one hand, that facial imitation is, at least in part, lateralized (that is, it copies the expression it observes) and, on the other hand, that it is anatomically asymmetrical rather than asymmetrical. mirror. That is to say that when we imitate a facial expression that begins on the left side of the face, we also do it with the left side of our face and not with the right as if we were in front of a mirror.
As the authors of the study highlight, their results not only allow us to learn a little more about human emotions but also showed us that those people affected by disorders that block the movements of facial muscles can also experience difficulties of other types, in This case in the interpretation of emotions, which can lead to difficulties at a social level by perhaps affecting our capacity for empathy.
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