Blasberg Jost U, Gallistl Mathilde, Degering Magdalena, Baierlein Felicitas, Engert Veronika
Institute of Psychosocial Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Research Group Social Stress and Family Health, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2023 Jun 4;15:100187. doi: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2023.100187. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Quality and quantity of the human stress response are highly individual. Not only are there differences in terms of psychological and physiological stress reactivity, but also with regard to facial muscle stress reactivity. In a first correlative pilot study to decipher the signature of stress as it presents in the physiognomy of a stressed individual, we investigated how stress-induced muscle movement activity in the face is associated with stress marker activation during a standardized laboratory stress test. Female and male participants (N = 62) completed the Trier Social Stress Test and provided multiple measurements of salivary cortisol, subjective experience, heart rate, and high-frequency heart rate variability. In addition, participants were filmed during stress induction to derive the activation of 13 individual muscles or muscle groups, also termed action units (AU). Mean AU intensity and occurrence rates were measured using the opensource software OpenDBM. We found that facial AU activity correlated with different aspects of the psychosocial stress response. Higher stress-induced cortisol release was associated with more frequent upper eyelid raiser (AU05) and upper lip raiser (AU10) occurrences, while more lip corner pulling (AU12) went along with lower cortisol reactivity. More frequent eyelid tightener (AU07) occurrences were linked to higher subjective stress reactivity but decreased heart rate and HF-HRV reactivity. Last, women showed greater stress-induced smiling intensity and occurrence rates than men. We conclude that psychosocial stress reactivity is systematically linked to facial muscle activity, with distinct facial stress profiles emerging for different stress markers. From all the AUs studied, eyelid tightening (AU07) seems to provide the strongest potential for future attempts of diagnosing phases of acute stress via facial activity.
人类应激反应的质量和数量具有高度个体差异。不仅在心理和生理应激反应性方面存在差异，在面部肌肉应激反应性方面也有不同。在第一项旨在解读应激个体面相中应激特征的相关性初步研究中，我们调查了在标准化实验室应激测试期间，应激诱导的面部肌肉运动活动如何与应激标志物激活相关联。男性和女性参与者（N = 62）完成了特里尔社会应激测试，并提供了唾液皮质醇、主观体验、心率和高频心率变异性的多次测量值。此外，在应激诱导过程中对参与者进行拍摄，以得出13块个体肌肉或肌肉群（也称为动作单元，AU）的激活情况。使用开源软件OpenDBM测量平均AU强度和发生率。我们发现面部AU活动与心理社会应激反应的不同方面相关。较高的应激诱导皮质醇释放与上睑提肌（AU05）和上唇提肌（AU10）更频繁出现有关，而更多的唇角牵拉（AU12）则与较低的皮质醇反应性相关。更频繁的眼轮匝肌收缩（AU07）出现与较高的主观应激反应性相关，但心率和高频心率变异性反应降低。最后，女性表现出比男性更大的应激诱导微笑强度和发生率。我们得出结论，心理社会应激反应性与面部肌肉活动系统相关，不同的应激标志物会出现不同的面部应激特征。在所研究的所有AU中，眼轮匝肌收缩（AU07）似乎为未来通过面部活动诊断急性应激阶段的尝试提供了最强的潜力。
