Centre for Applied Autism Research, Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 13;10(1):4692. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61563-5.
Covert facial mimicry involves subtle facial muscle activation in observers when they perceive the facial emotional expressions of others. It remains uncertain whether prototypical facial features in emotional expressions are being covertly mimicked and also whether covert facial mimicry involves distinct facial muscle activation patterns across muscles per emotion category, or simply distinguishes positive versus negative valence in observed facial emotions. To test whether covert facial mimicry is emotion-specific, we measured facial electromyography (EMG) from five muscle sites (corrugator supercilii, levator labii, frontalis lateralis, depressor anguli oris, zygomaticus major) whilst participants watched videos of people expressing 9 different basic and complex emotions and a neutral expression. This study builds upon previous research by including a greater number of facial muscle measures and emotional expressions. It is the first study to investigate activation patterns across muscles during facial mimicry and to provide evidence for distinct patterns of facial muscle activation when viewing individual emotion categories, suggesting that facial mimicry is emotion-specific, rather than just valence-based.
隐性面部模仿是指观察者在感知他人的面部表情时，会出现微妙的面部肌肉活动。目前还不确定是否在隐性模仿中模仿了情绪表达中的典型面部特征，以及隐性面部模仿是否涉及到每个情绪类别中不同的肌肉激活模式，或者只是区分了观察到的面部情绪中的积极与消极效价。为了测试隐性面部模仿是否具有情绪特异性，我们在参与者观看 9 种不同的基本和复杂情绪以及中性表情的视频时，从五个肌肉部位（皱眉肌、提上唇肌、额肌外侧部、口角降肌、颧大肌）测量了面部肌电图（EMG）。这项研究通过包括更多的面部肌肉测量和情绪表达，在前人的基础上进行了扩展。这是第一项研究肌肉在面部模仿过程中的激活模式，并为观看个别情绪类别时的面部肌肉激活模式提供了证据，表明面部模仿是具有情绪特异性的，而不仅仅是基于效价。
