Rapid Facial Reactions in Response to Facial Expressions of Emotion Displayed by Real Versus Virtual Faces

Facial expressions of emotion provide relevant cues for understanding social interactions and the affective processes involved in emotion perception. Virtual human faces are useful for conducting controlled experiments. However, little is known regarding the possible differences between physiological responses elicited by virtual versus real human facial expressions. The aim of the current study was to determine if virtual and real emotional faces elicit the same rapid facial reactions for the perception of facial expressions of joy, anger, and sadness. Facial electromyography (corrugator supercilii, zygomaticus major, and depressor anguli) was recorded in 30 participants during the presentation of dynamic or static and virtual or real faces. For the perception of dynamic facial expressions of joy and anger, analyses of electromyography data revealed that rapid facial reactions were stronger when participants were presented with real faces compared with virtual faces. These results suggest that the processes underlying the perception of virtual versus real emotional faces might differ.

[1]  L. Anllo-Vento,et al.  Affective Processing of Loved Familiar Faces: Contributions from Electromyography , 2012 .

[2]  Ulf Dimberg,et al.  Fear of snakes and facial reactions : A case of rapid emotional responding , 1998 .

[3]  J. Grèzes,et al.  Self-relevance appraisal of gaze direction and dynamic facial expressions: effects on facial electromyographic and autonomic reactions. , 2013, Emotion.

[4]  E. Naito,et al.  Enhanced neural activity in response to dynamic facial expressions of emotion: an fMRI study. , 2004, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[5]  Paul Pauli,et al.  Electromyographic responses to static and dynamic avatar emotional facial expressions. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[6]  Sakiko Yoshikawa,et al.  Amygdala integrates emotional expression and gaze direction in response to dynamic facial expressions , 2010, NeuroImage.

[7]  P. Pauli,et al.  Processes underlying congruent and incongruent facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. , 2011, Emotion.

[8]  P. Ekman,et al.  Facial action coding system: a technique for the measurement of facial movement , 1978 .

[9]  Cezary Biele,et al.  EMG activity in response to static and dynamic facial expressions. , 2011, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[10]  Kai Vogeley,et al.  The effects of self-involvement on attention, arousal, and facial expression during social interaction with virtual others: A psychophysiological study , 2006, Social neuroscience.

[11]  Paul Pauli,et al.  Early cortical processing of natural and artificial emotional faces differs between lower and higher socially anxious persons , 2009, Journal of Neural Transmission.

[12]  [Recognition of dynamic facial expressions in peripheral and central vision]. , 2010, Shinrigaku kenkyu : The Japanese journal of psychology.

[13]  B. Balas,et al.  You Can Take the Eyes Out of the Doll, But… , 2012, Perception.

[14]  D. McIntosh,et al.  More than mere mimicry? The influence of emotion on rapid facial reactions to faces. , 2007, Emotion.

[15]  U. Dimberg,et al.  Facial reactions to emotional stimuli: Automatically controlled emotional responses , 2002 .

[16]  Ewald Moser,et al.  Amygdala activation at 3T in response to human and avatar facial expressions of emotions , 2007, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[17]  Christian Rauh,et al.  The Influence of the Avatar on Online Perceptions of Anthropomorphism, Androgyny, Credibility, Homophily, and Attraction , 2005, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[18]  Margot J. Taylor,et al.  Converging Evidence for the Advantage of Dynamic Facial Expressions , 2011, Brain Topography.

[19]  U. Dimberg.  Facial reactions to facial expressions. , 1982, Psychophysiology.

[20]  D. Cicchetti.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1993 .

[21]  Benjamin Balas,et al.  Face Animacy is Not All in the Eyes: Evidence from Contrast Chimeras , 2014, Perception.

[22]  Skyler T. Hawk,et al.  Presentation and validation of the Radboud Faces Database , 2010 .

[23]  Eva G Krumhuber,et al.  FACSGen 2.0 animation software: generating three-dimensional FACS-valid facial expressions for emotion research. , 2012, Emotion.

[24]  Sakiko Yoshikawa,et al.  Enhanced perceptual, emotional, and motor processing in response to dynamic facial expressions of emotion1 , 2006 .

[25]  W. Sato,et al.  Spontaneous facial mimicry in response to dynamic facial expressions , 2005, Cognition.

[26]  Patrice Renaud,et al.  Virtual Faces Expressing Emotions: An Initial Concomitant and Construct Validity Study , 2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[27]  N. T. Alves.  Recognition of static and dynamic facial expressions: a study review , 2013 .

[28]  J. Cohn,et al.  Deciphering the Enigmatic Face , 2005, Psychological science.

[29]  K. Scherer,et al.  FACSGen: A Tool to Synthesize Emotional Facial Expressions Through Systematic Manipulation of Facial Action Units , 2011 .

[30]  Sven-Thomas Graupner,et al.  Virtual friend or threat? The effects of facial expression and gaze interaction on psychophysiological responses and emotional experience. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[31]  U. Hess,et al.  The impact of social context on mimicry , 2008, Biological Psychology.

[32]  Paul Pauli,et al.  Modulation of facial mimicry by attitudes , 2008 .

[33]  W. Sato,et al.  Enhanced facial EMG activity in response to dynamic facial expressions. , 2008, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[34]  U. Hess,et al.  Modulation of facial reactions to avatar emotional faces by nonconscious competition priming. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[35]  Mikko Sams,et al.  The effect of dynamics on identifying basic emotions from synthetic and natural faces , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[36]  Mel Slater,et al.  The impact of avatar realism and eye gaze control on perceived quality of communication in a shared immersive virtual environment , 2003, CHI '03.

[37]  A. J. Fridlund,et al.  Guidelines for human electromyographic research. , 1986, Psychophysiology.

[38]  U. Dimberg,et al.  Unconscious Facial Reactions to Emotional Facial Expressions , 2000, Psychological science.

[39]  U. Dimberg,et al.  Facial electromyography and the experience of emotion. , 1988 .

[40]  U. Hess,et al.  Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulation , 2013, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[41]  P. Viviani,et al.  Is there a dynamic advantage for facial expressions? , 2011, Journal of vision.

[42]  Klaus Mathiak,et al.  Recognition Profile of Emotions in Natural and Virtual Faces , 2008, PloS one.

[43]  B. Balas.  Biological sex determines whether faces look real , 2013, Visual cognition.

[44]  Skyler T. Hawk,et al.  Moving faces, looking places: validation of the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES). , 2011, Emotion.

[45]  Guillermo Recio,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of perceiving and evaluating static and dynamic facial emotional expressions , 2011, Brain Research.