Department of Psychology, Sapienza, University of Rome, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza, University of Rome, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
Cortex. 2020 Feb;123:113-123. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.10.001. Epub 2019 Oct 25.
Facial mimicry, the automatic imitation of another person's emotion, is a mechanism underlying emotion recognition and emotional contagion, a phylogenetically conserved form of empathy that precedes later developing empathic skills. We tested the possibility to increase facial mimicry by blurring self-other distinction via the enfacement illusion. To do so we delivered synchronous, versus asynchronous, visuo-tactile interpersonal multisensory stimulation on the observer and expresser's faces and then recorded surface facial EMG while participants observed videos of happy and sad facial expressions displayed by the expresser. Our results show that synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation can indeed enhance facial mimicry and that this depends on participants' baseline tendency to mimic.. Our findings could set the basis for developing novel interventions for conditions characterized by reduced empathic and emotion recognition skills, including autism and schizophrenia.
面部模仿，即自动模仿他人的情绪，是情绪识别和情绪感染的基础机制，也是同理心的一种在进化上保守的形式，它先于后来发展的同理心技能。我们通过面部融合错觉来模糊自我与他人的区分，以此来检验是否可以增加面部模仿。为此，我们在观察者和表达者的面部同步提供视觉触觉的人际多感官刺激，然后在参与者观察表达者展示的快乐和悲伤面部表情的视频时记录表面面部 EMG。我们的结果表明，同步的视觉触觉刺激确实可以增强面部模仿，而这取决于参与者的基线模仿倾向。我们的发现可以为开发针对同理心和情绪识别技能降低的条件的新型干预措施奠定基础，包括自闭症和精神分裂症。
