scholarly journals Are You “Gazing” at Me? How Others' Gaze Direction and Facial Expression Influence Gaze Perception and Postural Control

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angélique Lebert ◽  
Laurence Chaby ◽  
Amandine Guillin ◽  
Samuel Chekroun ◽  
Dorine Vergilino-Perez

In everyday life, interactions between humans are generally modulated by the value attributed to the situation, which partly relies on the partner's behavior. A pleasant or cooperating partner may trigger an approach behavior in the observer, while an unpleasant or threatening partner may trigger an avoidance behavior. In this context, the correct interpretation of other's intentions is crucial to achieve satisfying social interactions. Social cues such as gaze direction and facial expression are both fundamental and interrelated. Typically, whenever gaze direction and facial expression of others communicate the same intention, it enhances both the interlocutor's gaze direction and the perception of facial expressions (i.e., shared signal hypothesis). For instance, an angry face with a direct gaze is perceived as more intense since it represents a threat to the observer. In this study, we propose to examine how the combination of others' gaze direction (direct or deviated) and emotional facial expressions (i.e., happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and neutrality) influence the observer's gaze perception and postural control. Gaze perception was indexed by the cone of direct gaze (CoDG) referring to the width over which an observer feels someone's gaze is directed at them. A wider CoDG indicates that the observer perceived the face as looking at them over a wider range of gaze directions. Conversely, a narrower CoDG indicates a decrease in the range of gaze directions perceived as direct. Postural control was examined through the center of pressure displacements reflecting postural stability and approach-avoidance tendencies. We also investigated how both gaze perception and postural control may vary according to participants' personality traits and emotional states (e.g., openness, anxiety, etc.). Our results confirmed that gaze perception is influenced by emotional faces: a wider CoDGs was observed with angry and disgusted faces while a narrower CoDG was observed for fearful faces. Furthermore, facial expressions combined with gaze direction influence participants' postural stability but not approach-avoidance behaviors. Results are discussed in the light of the approach-avoidance model, by considering how some personality traits modulate the relation between emotion and posture.

2022 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-59
Author(s):  
Joni Salminen ◽  
Sercan Şengün ◽  
João M. Santos ◽  
Soon-Gyo Jung ◽  
Bernard Jansen

There has been little research into whether a persona's picture should portray a happy or unhappy individual. We report a user experiment with 235 participants, testing the effects of happy and unhappy image styles on user perceptions, engagement, and personality traits attributed to personas using a mixed-methods analysis. Results indicate that the participant's perceptions of the persona's realism and pain point severity increase with the use of unhappy pictures. In contrast, personas with happy pictures are perceived as more extroverted, agreeable, open, conscientious, and emotionally stable. The participants’ proposed design ideas for the personas scored more lexical empathy scores for happy personas. There were also significant perception changes along with the gender and ethnic lines regarding both empathy and perceptions of pain points. Implications are the facial expression in the persona profile can affect the perceptions of those employing the personas. Therefore, persona designers should align facial expressions with the task for which the personas will be employed. Generally, unhappy images emphasize realism and pain point severity, and happy images invoke positive perceptions.


Author(s):  
Marinella Coco ◽  
Andrea Buscemi ◽  
Emanuele Pennisi ◽  
Paolo Cavallari ◽  
Giacomo Papotto ◽  
...  

Background: It has recently been noticed that the quantity of stress affects postural stability in young women. The study was conducted with the goal of investigating whether increased stress may damagingly effect posture control in 90 young men (71 right-handed and 19 left-handed) while maintaining an upright bipedal posture, while keeping their eyes open or closed. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was administered and changes in free cortisol levels were monitored (Cortisol Awakening Response, CAR) in order to evaluate the amount of stress present during awakening, while the Profile of Mood States (POMS) was used to estimate distress on the whole. Posture control was evaluated with the use of a force platform, which, while computing a confidence ellipse area of 95%, was engaged by the Center of Pressure through five stability stations and was sustained for a minimum of 52 s, with and without visual input. Another goal of the experiment was to find out whether or not cortisol increases in CAR were linked with rises of blood lactate levels. Results: CAR, PSS and POMS were found to be extensively related. Furthermore, it has been observed that increases in salivary cortisol in CAR are associated with small but significant increases in blood lactate levels. As expected, stress levels did affect postural stability. Conclusions: The results of the present study confirm that the level of stress can influence postural stability, and that this influence is principally obvious when visual information is not used in postural control.


Author(s):  
Bożena Wojciechowska-Maszkowska ◽  
Dorota Borzucka

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of additional load on postural-stability control in young women. To evaluate postural control in the 34 women in this study (mean age, 20.8 years), we measured postural sway (center of pressure, COP) in a neutral stance (with eyes open) in three trials of 30 s each. Three load conditions were used in the study: 0, 14, and 30 kg. In analysis, we used three COP parameters, variability (linear), mean sway velocity (linear), and entropy (nonlinear). Results suggested that a considerable load on a young woman’s body (approximately 48% of body weight) had significant influence on stability. Specifically, heavy loads triggered random movements, increased the dynamics of postural-stability control, and required more attention to control standing posture. The results of our study indicate that inferior postural control mainly results from insufficient experience in lifting such a load.


Author(s):  
Peggy Mason

Tracts descending from motor control centers in the brainstem and cortex target motor interneurons and in select cases motoneurons. The mechanisms and constraints of postural control are elaborated and the effect of body mass on posture discussed. Feed-forward reflexes that maintain posture during standing and other conditions of self-motion are described. The role of descending tracts in postural control and the pathological posturing is described. Pyramidal (corticospinal and corticobulbar) and extrapyramidal control of body and face movements is contrasted. Special emphasis is placed on cortical regions and tracts involved in deliberate control of facial expression; these pathways are contrasted with mechanisms for generating emotional facial expressions. The signs associated with lesions of either motoneurons or motor control centers are clearly detailed. The mechanisms and presentation of cerebral palsy are described. Finally, understanding how pre-motor cortical regions generate actions is used to introduce apraxia, a disorder of action.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 943-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroki Ozono ◽  
Motoki Watabe ◽  
Sakiko Yoshikawa

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 418-427
Author(s):  
Yücel Makaracı ◽  
Recep Soslu ◽  
Ömer Özer ◽  
Abdullah Uysal

In sports such as basketball and volleyball, loss of balance due to the inability to maintain body stability and lack of postural control adversely affect athletic performance. Deaf athletes appear to struggle with balance and postural stability problems. The purpose of this study was to examine postural sway values in parallel and single leg stance of Olympic deaf basketball and volleyball players and reveal differences between the branches. Twenty-three male athletes from the Turkish national deaf basketball (n= 11) and volleyball (n= 12) teams participated in the study. After anthropometric measurements, the subjects completed postural sway (PS) tests in parallel/single leg stances with open eyes and closed eyes on a force plate. PS parameters (sway path, velocity, and area) obtained from the device software were used for the statistical analysis. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare differences in PS parameters between basketball and volleyball players, and the alpha value was accepted as 0.05. Volleyball players had significantly better results in parallel stance and dominant leg PS values than basketball players (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the groups in nondominant leg PS values (P>0.05). We think that proprioceptive and vestibular system enhancing training practices to be performed with stability exercises will be beneficial in terms of both promoting functional stability and interlimb coordination. Trainers and strength coaches should be aware of differences in the postural control mechanism of deaf athletes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harish Chander ◽  
Sachini N. K. Kodithuwakku Arachchige ◽  
Christopher M. Hill ◽  
Alana J. Turner ◽  
Shuchisnigdha Deb ◽  
...  

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a widespread tool in rehabilitation, especially for postural stability. However, the impact of using VR in a “moving wall paradigm” (visual perturbation), specifically without and with anticipation of the perturbation, is unknown. Methods: Nineteen healthy subjects performed three trials of static balance testing on a force plate under three different conditions: baseline (no perturbation), unexpected VR perturbation, and expected VR perturbation. The statistical analysis consisted of a 1 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVA to test for differences in the center of pressure (COP) displacement, 95% ellipsoid area, and COP sway velocity. Results: The expected perturbation rendered significantly lower (p < 0.05) COP displacements and 95% ellipsoid area compared to the unexpected condition. A significantly higher (p < 0.05) sway velocity was also observed in the expected condition compared to the unexpected condition. Conclusions: Postural stability was lowered during unexpected visual perturbations compared to both during baseline and during expected visual perturbations, suggesting that conflicting visual feedback induced postural instability due to compensatory postural responses. However, during expected visual perturbations, significantly lowered postural sway displacement and area were achieved by increasing the sway velocity, suggesting the occurrence of postural behavior due to anticipatory postural responses. Finally, the study also concluded that VR could be used to induce different postural responses by providing visual perturbations to the postural control system, which can subsequently be used as an effective and low-cost tool for postural stability training and rehabilitation.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Dupré ◽  
Nicole Andelic ◽  
Anna Zajac ◽  
Gawain Morrison ◽  
Gary John McKeown

Sharing personal information is an important way of communicating on social media. Among the information possibly shared, new sensors and tools allow people to share emotion information via facial emotion recognition. This paper questions whether people are prepared to share personal information such as their own emotion on social media. In the current study we examined how factors such as felt emotion, motivation for sharing on social media as well as personality affected participants’ willingness to share self-reported emotion or facial expression online. By carrying out a GLMM analysis, this study found that participants’ willingness to share self-reported emotion and facial expressions was influenced by their personality traits and the motivation for sharing their emotion information that they were given. From our results we can conclude that the estimated level of privacy for certain emotional information, such as facial expression, is influenced by the motivation for sharing the information online.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Seyed Abolfazl Tohidast ◽  
Rasool Bagheri ◽  
Ziaeddin Safavi-Farokhi ◽  
Mohammad Khaleghi Hashemian ◽  
Cyrus Taghizadeh Delkhosh

Context: Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is a common problem associated with impaired postural stability. Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been developed to improve muscle function and reportedly improves postural stability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 12 sessions of WBV on postural control during standing postural task in participants with CAI. Design: A controlled clinical trial study. Methods: Sixteen participants with CAI and 16 healthy participants aged between 20 and 40 years included in this study. They received WBV (30-Hz frequency, 3 series of four 45-s exercises with a 45-s rest) for a total of 12 sessions, 2 session per week for 6 weeks. Postural control was assessed by center of pressure (COP) parameters, including mean and SD in the anterior–posterior and medial–lateral displacement during single-leg standing. Assessments were done before and immediately after the first session and after the 12th session of WBV, with opened and closed eyes associated with easy and difficult cognitive tasks. Results: The results showed that the SD of COP displacement in the x-axis was significant in eyes opened and SD of COP displacement in the x- and y-axes were significant between groups in the eyes-opened, and eyes-closed conditions (P < .05). Analysis of variance indicated that the effect of WBV training was significant for the mean of COP displacement in the y-axis. Post hoc indicated that the effect of 12 sessions of WBV on the mean of COP displacement was significant in the CAI group (P < .05). However, the acute effect of WBV was not significant on the COP displacement in all axes (P > .05). Conclusion: Higher postural sway associated with postural cognitive interactions might be considered in the rehabilitation of CAI. Twelve sessions of WBV might induce some improvement in postural control with the method of WBV used in this study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (03) ◽  
pp. 1650020
Author(s):  
Chun-Ju Chang ◽  
Jen-Suh Chern ◽  
Tsui-Fen Yang ◽  
Sai-Wei Yang

The degeneration of sensory and motor systems due to aging could affect the elderly’s posture and increase the risk of falling. The strategies applied to maintain postural stability might be different between ages, especially in the condition requiring both proprioception and vision sensorimotor coupling. This study proposed a novel sensorimotor assessment protocol to evaluate the postural control ability across the aging process, by using the computerized dynamic posturography and the virtual reality (VR) system. Ten young and 20 elderly healthy adults without fall experience were recruited, and were assessed on a continuous-perturbed platform with or without the VR-based visual interference in a random sequence. Measured variables of the center of pressure as well as the weight-bearing ratio were analyzed and compared. Results showed that the postural sway was significantly larger in all subjects under the VR condition, but the young subjects could rapidly adjust the body to regain postural stability in a rhythmic and symmetric manner; whereas, the elderly adults performed less effectively in postural response. We suggested that the application of the multiple sensation disturbances with VR could effectively evaluate the postural control ability among the healthy elderly. The proposed assessing protocol is also recommended for training the sensorimotor integration to improve the dynamic postural control ability.


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