Department of Psychology, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières , Trois-Rivières, QC , Canada ; Research Center, Philippe-Pinel Institute of Montreal , Montreal, QC , Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières , Trois-Rivières, QC , Canada.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Sep 30;8:787. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00787. eCollection 2014.
Facial expressions of emotions represent classic stimuli for the study of social cognition. Developing virtual dynamic facial expressions of emotions, however, would open-up possibilities, both for fundamental and clinical research. For instance, virtual faces allow real-time Human-Computer retroactions between physiological measures and the virtual agent.
The goal of this study was to initially assess concomitants and construct validity of a newly developed set of virtual faces expressing six fundamental emotions (happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust). Recognition rates, facial electromyography (zygomatic major and corrugator supercilii muscles), and regional gaze fixation latencies (eyes and mouth regions) were compared in 41 adult volunteers (20 ♂, 21 ♀) during the presentation of video clips depicting real vs. virtual adults expressing emotions.
Emotions expressed by each set of stimuli were similarly recognized, both by men and women. Accordingly, both sets of stimuli elicited similar activation of facial muscles and similar ocular fixation times in eye regions from man and woman participants.
Further validation studies can be performed with these virtual faces among clinical populations known to present social cognition difficulties. Brain-Computer Interface studies with feedback-feedforward interactions based on facial emotion expressions can also be conducted with these stimuli.
面部表情是研究社会认知的经典刺激物。然而，开发虚拟动态面部表情将为基础研究和临床研究开辟可能性。例如，虚拟面孔允许生理测量值与虚拟代理之间进行实时人机反向反应。
本研究的目的是初步评估一套新开发的表达六种基本情绪（快乐、惊讶、愤怒、悲伤、恐惧和厌恶）的虚拟面孔的伴随和结构效度。在呈现描绘真实和虚拟成年人表达情绪的视频剪辑时，比较了 41 名成年志愿者（20 名男性，21 名女性）的识别率、面部肌电图（颧大肌和皱眉肌）和区域注视潜伏期（眼睛和嘴巴区域）。
男性和女性对每组刺激物表达的情绪都有类似的识别。因此，两组刺激物都引起了男性和女性参与者眼部区域相似的面部肌肉激活和相似的眼球注视时间。
可以在已知存在社会认知困难的临床人群中对这些虚拟面孔进行进一步的验证研究。也可以使用这些刺激物进行基于面部表情的反馈-前馈交互的脑-机接口研究。
