When the social mirror breaks: deficits in automatic, but not voluntary, mimicry of emotional facial expressions in autism

International audience In this article, we propose an architecture of a socio-affective Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA). The different computational models of the architecture enable an ECA to express emotions and social attitudes during an interaction with a user. Based on corpora of actors expressing emotions, models have been defined to compute the emotional facial expressions of an ECA and the characteristics of its corporal movements. A user-perceptive approach has been used to design models to define how an ECA should adapt its non-verbal behavior according to the social attitude the ECA wants to display and the behavior of its interlocutor. The emotions and the social attitudes to express are computed by cognitive models presented in this article. Dans cet article, nous proposons une architecture d'un Agent Conversationnel Animé (ACA) socio-affectif. Les différents modèles computationnels sous-jacents à cette architecture, permettant de donner la capacité à un ACA d'exprimer des émotions et des attitudes sociales durant son interaction avec l'utilisateur, sont présentés. A partir de corpus d'individus exprimant des émotions, des modèles permettant de calculer l'expression faciale émotionnelle d'un ACA ainsi que les caractéristiques de ses mouvements du corps ont été définis. Fondés sur une approche centrée sur la perception de l'utilisateur, des modèles permettant de calculer comment un ACA doit adapter son comportement non-verbal suivant l'attitude sociale qu'il souhaite exprimer et suivant le comportement de son interlocuteur ont été construits. Le calcul des émotions et des attitudes sociales à exprimer est réalisé par des modèles cognitifs présentés dans cet article.

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Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students

Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1177/0253717620936783 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 025371762093678

Author(s):

Alapan Bandyopadhyay ◽

Sarbari Sarkar ◽

Abhijit Mukherjee ◽

Sharmistha Bhattacherjee ◽

Soumya Basu

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Medical Students ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Expression ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Medical Training ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Mental Illnesses ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

The Social

Background: Successful identification of emotional expression in patients is of considerable importance in the diagnosis of diseases and while developing rapport between physicians and patients. Despite the importance of such skills, this aspect remains grossly overlooked in conventional medical training in India. This study aims to explore the extent to which medical students can identify emotions by observing photographs of male and female subjects expressing different facial expressions. Methods: A total of 106 medical students aged 18–25, without any diagnosed mental illnesses, were shown images of the six universal facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, happiness, disgust, and surprise) at 100% intensity with an exposure time of 2 seconds for each image. The participants marked their responses after each image was shown. Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: Participants could identify 76.54% of the emotions on average, with higher accuracy for positive emotions (95.6% for happiness) and lower for negative emotions (46% for fear). There were no significant variations in identification with respect to sex of the observers. However, it was seen that participants could identify emotions better from male faces than those from female faces, a finding that was statistically significant. Negative emotions were identified more accurately from male faces, while positive emotions were identified better from female ones. Conclusions: Male participants identified emotions better from male faces, while females identified positive emotions better from female faces and negative ones from male faces.

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Supplemental Material for Eye Avoidance in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Is Modulated by Emotional Facial Expressions

Journal of Abnormal Psychology ◽

10.1037/abn0000372.supp ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Young Children ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Young Children With Autism

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Determining Saliency Levels of Emotional Facial Expressions by Using Instructed-Lying Paradigm

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e636952013-582 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Aysegul Aydinlik ◽

Seda Dural

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions

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Exploring an Emotional Basis of Cognitive Control in the Flanker Task

10.31234/osf.io/nkjy6 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Motonori Yamaguchi ◽

Jack Dylan Moore ◽

Sarah Hendry ◽

Felicity Wolohan

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Mood Induction ◽

Flanker Task ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Flanker Effect ◽

Sequential Modulation ◽

Emotional Basis ◽

Negative Stimuli

The emotional basis of cognitive control has been investigated in the flanker task with various procedures and materials across different studies. The present study examined the issue with the same flanker task but with different types of emotional stimuli and design. In seven experiments, the flanker effect and its sequential modulation according to the preceding trial type were assessed. Experiments 1 and 2 used affective pictures and emotional facial expressions as emotional stimuli, and positive and negative stimuli were intermixed. There was little evidence that emotional stimuli influenced cognitive control. Experiments 3 and 4 used the same affective pictures and facial expressions, but positive and negative stimuli were separated between different participant groups. Emotional stimuli reduced the flanker effect as well as its sequential modulation regardless of valence. Experiments 5 and 6 used affective pictures but manipulated arousal and valence of stimuli orthogonally The results did not replicate the reduced flanker effect or sequential modulation by valence, nor did they show consistent effects of arousal. Experiment 7 used a mood induction technique and showed that sequential modulation was positively correlated with valence rating (the higher the more positive) but was negatively correlated with arousal rating. These results are inconsistent with several previous findings and are difficult to reconcile within a single theoretical framework, confirming an elusive nature of the emotional basis of cognitive control in the flanker task.

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The effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions in young adults with and without ADHD

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-93641-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ami Cohen ◽

Kfir Asraf ◽

Ivgeny Saveliev ◽

Orrie Dan ◽

Iris Haimov

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Sleep Deprivation ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Interactive Effect ◽

Control Group ◽

Experimental Session ◽

Poor Sleep ◽

Adhd Group ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Oddball Task

AbstractThe ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions is essential to the development of complex social cognition behaviors, and impairments in this ability are associated with poor social competence. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions and nonfacial stimuli in young adults with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thirty-five men (mean age 25.4) with (n = 19) and without (n = 16) ADHD participated in the study. During the five days preceding the experimental session, the participants were required to sleep at least seven hours per night (23:00/24:00–7:00/9:00) and their sleep was monitored via actigraphy. On the morning of the experimental session, the participants completed a 4-stimulus visual oddball task combining facial and nonfacial stimuli, and repeated it after 25 h of sustained wakefulness. At baseline, both study groups had poorer performance in response to facial rather than non-facial target stimuli on all indices of the oddball task, with no differences between the groups. Following sleep deprivation, rates of omission errors, commission errors and reaction time variability increased significantly in the ADHD group but not in the control group. Time and target type (face/non-face) did not have an interactive effect on any indices of the oddball task. Young adults with ADHD are more sensitive to the negative effects of sleep deprivation on attentional processes, including those related to the processing of emotional facial expressions. As poor sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are common in individuals with ADHD, it is feasible that poor sleep quality and quantity play an important role in cognitive functioning deficits, including the processing of emotional facial expressions that are associated with ADHD.

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The face of future: Face expressions during future thinking

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021821992991 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174702182199299

Author(s):

Mohamad El Haj ◽

Emin Altintas ◽

Ahmed A Moustafa ◽

Abdel Halim Boudoukha

Keyword(s):

Facial Expression ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Experience ◽

Future Scenarios ◽

Future Thinking ◽

Analysis Software ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Facial Analysis ◽

The Face ◽

Face Expressions

Future thinking, which is the ability to project oneself forward in time to pre-experience an event, is intimately associated with emotions. We investigated whether emotional future thinking can activate emotional facial expressions. We invited 43 participants to imagine future scenarios, cued by the words “happy,” “sad,” and “city.” Future thinking was video recorded and analysed with a facial analysis software to classify whether facial expressions (i.e., happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and neutral facial expression) of participants were neutral or emotional. Analysis demonstrated higher levels of happy facial expressions during future thinking cued by the word “happy” than “sad” or “city.” In contrast, higher levels of sad facial expressions were observed during future thinking cued by the word “sad” than “happy” or “city.” Higher levels of neutral facial expressions were observed during future thinking cued by the word “city” than “happy” or “sad.” In the three conditions, the neutral facial expressions were high compared with happy and sad facial expressions. Together, emotional future thinking, at least for future scenarios cued by “happy” and “sad,” seems to trigger the corresponding facial expression. Our study provides an original physiological window into the subjective emotional experience during future thinking.

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Children’s sustained attention to emotional facial expressions and their autonomic nervous system reactivity during parent-child interactions

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.01.005 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 142 ◽

pp. 37-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mary L. Woody ◽

Kiera James ◽

Claire E. Foster ◽

Max Owens ◽

Cope Feurer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Autonomic Nervous System ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Sustained Attention ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Autonomic Nervous ◽

Parent Child Interactions ◽

Parent Child

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Effects of early institutionalization on emotion processing in 12-year-old youth

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417001377 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 1749-1761 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Johanna Bick ◽

Rhiannon Luyster ◽

Nathan A. Fox ◽

Charles H. Zeanah ◽

Charles A. Nelson

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Developmental Trajectories ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Institutional Care ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Fearful Faces

AbstractWe examined facial emotion recognition in 12-year-olds in a longitudinally followed sample of children with and without exposure to early life psychosocial deprivation (institutional care). Half of the institutionally reared children were randomized into foster care homes during the first years of life. Facial emotion recognition was examined in a behavioral task using morphed images. This same task had been administered when children were 8 years old. Neutral facial expressions were morphed with happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotional facial expressions, and children were asked to identify the emotion of each face, which varied in intensity. Consistent with our previous report, we show that some areas of emotion processing, involving the recognition of happy and fearful faces, are affected by early deprivation, whereas other areas, involving the recognition of sad and angry faces, appear to be unaffected. We also show that early intervention can have a lasting positive impact, normalizing developmental trajectories of processing negative emotions (fear) into the late childhood/preadolescent period.

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