scholarly journals Foveal processing of emotion-informative facial features

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0260814
Author(s):  
Nazire Duran ◽  
Anthony P. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Initial Fixation ◽  
Gaze Behaviour

Certain facial features provide useful information for recognition of facial expressions. In two experiments, we investigated whether foveating informative features of briefly presented expressions improves recognition accuracy and whether these features are targeted reflexively when not foveated. Angry, fearful, surprised, and sad or disgusted expressions were presented briefly at locations which would ensure foveation of specific features. Foveating the mouth of fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions improved emotion recognition compared to foveating an eye or cheek or the central brow. Foveating the brow led to equivocal results in anger recognition across the two experiments, which might be due to the different combination of emotions used. There was no consistent evidence suggesting that reflexive first saccades targeted emotion-relevant features; instead, they targeted the closest feature to initial fixation. In a third experiment, angry, fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions were presented for 5 seconds. Duration of task-related fixations in the eyes, brow, nose and mouth regions was modulated by the presented expression. Moreover, longer fixation at the mouth positively correlated with anger and disgust accuracy both when these expressions were freely viewed (Experiment 2b) and when briefly presented at the mouth (Experiment 2a). Finally, an overall preference to fixate the mouth across all expressions correlated positively with anger and disgust accuracy. These findings suggest that foveal processing of informative features is functional/contributory to emotion recognition, but they are not automatically sought out when not foveated, and that facial emotion recognition performance is related to idiosyncratic gaze behaviour.

scholarly journals Foveal processing of emotion-informative facial features

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazire Duran ◽  
ANTHONY P. ATKINSON
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Initial Fixation ◽  
Gaze Behaviour

Certain facial features provide useful information for recognition of facial expressions. In two experiments, we investigated whether foveating informative features of briefly presented expressions improves recognition accuracy and whether these features are targeted reflexively when not foveated. Angry, fearful, surprised, and sad or disgusted expressions were presented briefly at locations which would ensure foveation of specific features. Foveating the mouth of fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions improved emotion recognition compared to foveating an eye or cheek or the central brow. Foveating the brow lead to equivocal results in anger recognition across the two experiments, which might be due to the different combination of emotions used. There was no consistent evidence suggesting that reflexive first saccades targeted emotion-relevant features; instead, they targeted the closest feature to initial fixation. In a third experiment, angry, fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions were presented for 5 seconds. Duration of task-related fixations in the eyes, brow, nose and mouth regions was modulated by the presented expression. Moreover, longer fixation at the mouth positively correlated with anger and disgust accuracy both when these expressions were freely viewed (Experiment 3) and when briefly presented at the mouth (Experiment 2). Finally, an overall preference to fixate the mouth across all expressions correlated positively with anger and disgust accuracy. These findings suggest that foveal processing of informative features is functional/contributory to emotion recognition, but they are not automatically sought out when not foveated, and that facial emotion recognition performance is related to idiosyncratic gaze behaviour.

scholarly journals Endogenous oxytocin levels are associated with facial emotion recognition accuracy but not gaze behavior in individuals with schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Spilka ◽  
William R. Keller ◽  
Robert W. Buchanan ◽  
james gold ◽  
James I. Koenig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Antipsychotic Treatment ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Gaze Behavior

Objective: Difficulties in social cognition are common in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and are not ameliorated by antipsychotic treatment. Intranasal oxytocin (OT) administration has been explored as a potential intervention to improve social cognition; however, results are inconsistent, suggesting potential individual difference variables that may influence treatment response. Less is known about the relationship between endogenous OT and social cognition in SZ, knowledge of which may improve the development of OT-focused therapies. We examined plasma OT in relationship to facial emotion recognition and visual attention to salient facial features in SZ and controls. Methods: Forty-two individuals with SZ and 23 healthy controls viewed photographs of facial expressions of varying emotional intensity and identified the emotional expression displayed. Participants’ gaze behavior during the task was recorded via eye tracking. Plasma oxytocin concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay. Results: SZ were less accurate than controls at identifying high intensity fearful facial expressions and low intensity sad expressions. Lower facial emotion recognition accuracy was associated with lower plasma OT levels in SZ but not controls. SZ had reduced visual attention to the nose region compared to controls; however, OT was not associated with gaze behavior. Conclusion: Individual differences in endogenous OT predict facial emotion recognition ability in SZ but are not associated with visual attention to salient facial features. Increased understanding of the association between endogenous OT and social cognitive abilities in SZ may help improve the design and interpretation of OT-focused clinical trials in SZ.

Facial Affect Recognition in Myasthenia Gravis

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Lázaro ◽  
Imanol Amayra ◽  
Juan Francisco López-Paz ◽  
Amaia Jometón ◽  
Natalia Martín ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Clinical Neurological Examination

AbstractThe assessment of facial expression is an important aspect of a clinical neurological examination, both as an indicator of a mood disorder and as a sign of neurological damage. To date, although studies have been conducted on certain psychosocial aspects of myasthenia, such as quality of life and anxiety, and on neuropsychological aspects such as memory, no studies have directly assessed facial emotion recognition accuracy. The aim of this study was to assess the facial emotion recognition accuracy (fear, surprise, sadness, happiness, anger, and disgust), empathy, and reaction time of patients with myasthenia. Thirty-five patients with myasthenia and 36 healthy controls were tested for their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions. Participants were matched with respect to age, gender, and education level. Their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions was evaluated using the computer-based program Feel Test. The data showed that myasthenic patients scored significantly lower (p < 0.05) than healthy controls in the total Feel score, fear, surprise, and higher reaction time. The findings suggest that the ability to recognize facial affect may be reduced in individuals with myasthenia.

Facial and Bodily Emotion Recognition in Multiple Sclerosis: The Role of Alexithymia and Other Characteristics of the Disease

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1004-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Cecchetto ◽  
Marilena Aiello ◽  
Delia D’Amico ◽  
Daniela Cutuli ◽  
Daniela Cargnelutti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Facial Emotions ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions

AbstractMultiple sclerosis (MS) may be associated with impaired perception of facial emotions. However, emotion recognition mediated by bodily postures has never been examined in these patients. Moreover, several studies have suggested a relation between emotion recognition impairments and alexithymia. This is in line with the idea that the ability to recognize emotions requires the individuals to be able to understand their own emotions. Despite a deficit in emotion recognition has been observed in MS patients, the association between impaired emotion recognition and alexithymia has received little attention. The aim of this study was, first, to investigate MS patient’s abilities to recognize emotions mediated by both facial and bodily expressions and, second, to examine whether any observed deficits in emotions recognition could be explained by the presence of alexithymia. Thirty patients with MS and 30 healthy matched controls performed experimental tasks assessing emotion discrimination and recognition of facial expressions and bodily postures. Moreover, they completed questionnaires evaluating alexithymia, depression, and fatigue. First, facial emotion recognition and, to a lesser extent, bodily emotion recognition can be impaired in MS patients. In particular, patients with higher disability showed an impairment in emotion recognition compared with patients with lower disability and controls. Second, their deficit in emotion recognition was not predicted by alexithymia. Instead, the disease’s characteristics and the performance on some cognitive tasks significantly correlated with emotion recognition. Impaired facial emotion recognition is a cognitive signature of MS that is not dependent on alexithymia. (JINS, 2014, 19, 1–11)

scholarly journals Facial emotion recognition using Min-Max similarity classifier

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Krestinskaya ◽  
Alex Pappachen James
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Template Matching ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Recognition Algorithm ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Matching Techniques

Recognition of human emotions from the imaging templates is useful in a wide variety of human-computer interaction and intelligent systems applications. However, the automatic recognition of facial expressions using image template matching techniques suffer from the natural variability with facial features and recording conditions. In spite of the progress achieved in facial emotion recognition in recent years, the effective and computationally simple feature selection and classification technique for emotion recognition is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose an efficient and straightforward facial emotion recognition algorithm to reduce the problem of inter-class pixel mismatch during classification. The proposed method includes the application of pixel normalization to remove intensity offsets followed-up with a Min-Max metric in a nearest neighbor classifier that is capable of suppressing feature outliers. The results indicate an improvement of recognition performance from 92.85% to 98.57% for the proposed Min-Max classification method when tested on JAFFE database. The proposed emotion recognition technique outperforms the existing template matching methods.

scholarly journals Facial emotion recognition using Min-Max similarity classifier

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Krestinskaya ◽  
Alex Pappachen James
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Template Matching ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Recognition Algorithm ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Matching Techniques

Recognition of human emotions from the imaging templates is useful in a wide variety of human-computer interaction and intelligent systems applications. However, the automatic recognition of facial expressions using image template matching techniques suffer from the natural variability with facial features and recording conditions. In spite of the progress achieved in facial emotion recognition in recent years, the effective and computationally simple feature selection and classification technique for emotion recognition is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose an efficient and straightforward facial emotion recognition algorithm to reduce the problem of inter-class pixel mismatch during classification. The proposed method includes the application of pixel normalization to remove intensity offsets followed-up with a Min-Max metric in a nearest neighbor classifier that is capable of suppressing feature outliers. The results indicate an improvement of recognition performance from 92.85% to 98.57% for the proposed Min-Max classification method when tested on JAFFE database. The proposed emotion recognition technique outperforms the existing template matching methods.

scholarly journals Oxytocin Reduces Face Processing Time but Leaves Recognition Accuracy and Eye-Gaze Unaffected

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Hubble ◽  
Katie Daughters ◽  
Antony S.R. Manstead ◽  
Aled Rees ◽  
Anita Thapar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Processing Time ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Eye Region

AbstractObjectives: Previous studies have found that oxytocin (OXT) can improve the recognition of emotional facial expressions; it has been proposed that this effect is mediated by an increase in attention to the eye-region of faces. Nevertheless, evidence in support of this claim is inconsistent, and few studies have directly tested the effect of oxytocin on emotion recognition via altered eye-gaze Methods: In a double-blind, within-subjects, randomized control experiment, 40 healthy male participants received 24 IU intranasal OXT and placebo in two identical experimental sessions separated by a 2-week interval. Visual attention to the eye-region was assessed on both occasions while participants completed a static facial emotion recognition task using medium intensity facial expressions. Results: Although OXT had no effect on emotion recognition accuracy, recognition performance was improved because face processing was faster across emotions under the influence of OXT. This effect was marginally significant (p<.06). Consistent with a previous study using dynamic stimuli, OXT had no effect on eye-gaze patterns when viewing static emotional faces and this was not related to recognition accuracy or face processing time. Conclusions: These findings suggest that OXT-induced enhanced facial emotion recognition is not necessarily mediated by an increase in attention to the eye-region of faces, as previously assumed. We discuss several methodological issues which may explain discrepant findings and suggest the effect of OXT on visual attention may differ depending on task requirements. (JINS, 2017, 23, 23–33)

Emotion Recognition of Facial Expressions Presented in Profile

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110184
Author(s):  
Paola Surcinelli ◽  
Federica Andrei ◽  
Ornella Montebarocci ◽  
Silvana Grandi
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Profile View ◽  
The Face ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Affective Information

Aim of the research The literature on emotion recognition from facial expressions shows significant differences in recognition ability depending on the proposed stimulus. Indeed, affective information is not distributed uniformly in the face and recent studies showed the importance of the mouth and the eye regions for a correct recognition. However, previous studies used mainly facial expressions presented frontally and studies which used facial expressions in profile view used a between-subjects design or children faces as stimuli. The present research aims to investigate differences in emotion recognition between faces presented in frontal and in profile views by using a within subjects experimental design. Method The sample comprised 132 Italian university students (88 female, Mage = 24.27 years, SD = 5.89). Face stimuli displayed both frontally and in profile were selected from the KDEF set. Two emotion-specific recognition accuracy scores, viz., frontal and in profile, were computed from the average of correct responses for each emotional expression. In addition, viewing times and response times (RT) were registered. Results Frontally presented facial expressions of fear, anger, and sadness were significantly better recognized than facial expressions of the same emotions in profile while no differences were found in the recognition of the other emotions. Longer viewing times were also found when faces expressing fear and anger were presented in profile. In the present study, an impairment in recognition accuracy was observed only for those emotions which rely mostly on the eye regions.

scholarly journals Negative parental emotional environment increases the association between childhood behavioral problems and impaired recognition of negative facial expressions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Daniel T. Burley ◽  
Christopher W. Hobson ◽  
Dolapo Adegboye ◽  
Katherine H. Shelton ◽  
Stephanie H.M. van Goozen
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Expressed Emotion ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Emotional Environment ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
Child Behavioral Problems

Abstract Impaired facial emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. Childhood behavioral difficulties and parental emotional environment have been independently associated with impaired emotion recognition; however, no study has examined the contribution of these factors in conjunction. We measured recognition of negative (sad, fear, anger), neutral, and happy facial expressions in 135 children aged 5–7 years referred by their teachers for behavioral problems. Parental emotional environment was assessed for parental expressed emotion (EE) – characterized by negative comments, reduced positive comments, low warmth, and negativity towards their child – using the 5-minute speech sample. Child behavioral problems were measured using the teacher-informant Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Child behavioral problems and parental EE were independently associated with impaired recognition of negative facial expressions specifically. An interactive effect revealed that the combination of both factors was associated with the greatest risk for impaired recognition of negative faces, and in particular sad facial expressions. No relationships emerged for the identification of happy facial expressions. This study furthers our understanding of multidimensional processes associated with the development of facial emotion recognition and supports the importance of early interventions that target this domain.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document