Spontaneous Facial Expressions and Micro-expressions Coding: From Brain to Face

Facial expressions are a vital way for humans to show their perceived emotions. It is convenient for detecting and recognizing expressions or micro-expressions by annotating a lot of data in deep learning. However, the study of video-based expressions or micro-expressions requires that coders have professional knowledge and be familiar with action unit (AU) coding, leading to considerable difficulties. This paper aims to alleviate this situation. We deconstruct facial muscle movements from the motor cortex and systematically sort out the relationship among facial muscles, AU, and emotion to make more people understand coding from the basic principles: We derived the relationship between AU and emotion based on a data-driven analysis of 5,000 images from the RAF-AU database, along with the experience of professional coders.We discussed the complex facial motor cortical network system that generates facial movement properties, detailing the facial nucleus and the motor system associated with facial expressions.The supporting physiological theory for AU labeling of emotions is obtained by adding facial muscle movements patterns.We present the detailed process of emotion labeling and the detection and recognition of AU.Based on the above research, the video's coding of spontaneous expressions and micro-expressions is concluded and prospected.

‘The Opium-Eater Boasteth Himself to be a Philosopher’: Bodily Subjection and Intellectual Self-fashioning in De Quincey's 1821 ‘Confessions’

De Quincey's assertion in the 1821 ‘Confessions’ that the effects of opium were ‘always, and in the highest degree, to excite and stimulate the system’, establishes him in contemporary medical discourse as a follower of Brunonianism. Yet, against this indubitably pharmacological and bodily strain, the ‘Confessions’ also insists upon an intellectual aspect to the opium-eater's dreaming, his ability to dream imaginatively. This essay seeks to relate these discursive tensions in De Quincey, rooted in Enlightenment ideas of the human nervous system held in equilibrium, to his self-presentation as an addict and a philosopher in his autobiographical writings, and to his critical thinking. As I argue, the physiological theory of Brunonianism in the ‘Confessions’ is complemented by an equal emphasis on moral and intellectual development embedded in the ideas of Hartleian psychology which provide a balancing view of body and (embodied) mind in De Quincey's thinking.

Neural pathways underlying the interplay between emotional experience and behavior, from old theories to modern insight

Emotions are specific psychological states brought about by neurophysiological changes associated with feelings, thoughts and behavioral responses. Emotions were considered as irrational experiences beyond the domain of logical perception because of their intertwinement with mood, temperament, creativity, motivation and personality. Through the centuries, emotions have been the focus of research among great classical philosophers, doctors, neuropsychologists, neuroscientists, neurologists and psychiatrists. The neurophysiological basis of behavior, such as emotional facial expression, and autonomic events in the physiological theory of William James and James-Lange and modified by Cannon-Bard, was followed by the two-factor theory of emotions of Schachter-Singer and Lazarus? higher-order cognitive evaluation. Four components that influence each other represent the concept of emotions and complete the overall emotional experience, and these are: autonomous (increase in heart rate, blood pressure); somatic (body language, facial expressions); cognitive (control, management), and subjective feeling (emotion, individual experience). The interplay between emotions and cognition has been the subject of research. Emotions can be evoked reflexively by simple physical stimuli (bottom-up), but can also be complex reactions involving cognitive, physiological and behavioral reactions (top-down). The amygdala, the ?alert" or ?neural alarm? structure, is responsible for conditioning fear, while the medial prefrontal cortex participates in emotion self-regulation and decision making.

From Romance to Vision: The Life of Breath in Medieval Literary Texts

Breath and breathlessness are flashpoints in medieval literary texts. Medieval medical theories, rooted in classical thought, emphasise the bodily spirits and in particular, the ways that motions of the ‘vital spirit’—closely connected with breath—cause powerful physical responses that write emotions on the body in sighs, swoons, and even death. Physiological theory was complemented by theological notions of pneuma, the Spirit of divinity and life. The movement of breath plays a key role in depictions of emotion from love to grief, and in visionary or mystical experience. This essay explores breath and breathlessness in a range of English secular and devotional literary texts: popular romance writing, the medically alert fictions of Chaucer, and visionary works including the Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich and the spiritual autobiography of Margery Kempe. In all these works, concepts of the vital spirits and the role of breath in emotion are central. The play of breath underpins and shapes depictions of romantic love, explorations of the boundary between life and death, and ideas of spiritual revelation, creating narratives of profoundly embodied, affective experience.

Thérèse Raquin d’Émile Zola : la notion de tempérament entre l’héritage antique et l’apport de la physiologie du XIXe siècle

Therese Raquin, Zola’s first important work, is based on the modern version of the old physiological theory of “temperaments”, e.g. the combination of four cardinal “humours” that determine a man’s physical and mental constitution. Through the story of two murderers, an adulterous woman and her lover who kill the woman’s husband, the author shows the mutual influence of two temperaments considered in the 19th century as more important than all the others: sanguine and melancholic (or nervous). The novel intends to “verify” a theory dealing with the consequences of each type of temperament for people’s behaviour, their relationships and their internal life.

Les maladies de l’âme

One of Plato’s principal innovations is the notion of psychic illness. He discusses this topic in different dialogues: in the Timaeus the discussion is based on a physiological theory and is set in a cosmological framework. The article focuses on this account of the diseases of the soul and explains the ‘diagnostic’ part of it, as well as the ‘therapeutic’ one. It raises three main problems: first, the natural determinism of psychic illness, which is the outcome of bodily defectiveness; second, the interactionist dualism between body and soul, their mutual influence that determines both insanity and health; third, the intellectual moralism, because we should not be held responsible for our mental disabilities.

Sympathetic holding and parasympathetic release: Vagal tone and beta, alpha and theta in bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy

This article will be of interest to somatic movement dance therapists who work with people suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. Anyone suffering from sympathetic neural expression (fear and anxiety) might find this article useful. Within this article I detail information and practice that supports participants moving from a sympathetic state into parasympathetic release. Two of my students have provided practice-based enactments of the physiological theory they study on the programme ‘bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy’. The article is divided into five parts. Each part provides theory about the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the vagus nerve and the practice of bio-somatic dance movement naturotherapy. The first part is called ‘The intelligence of the autonomic nervous system’. The second part is called ‘The vagus nerve'. The third part is called ‘The geography of the autonomic nervous system’. The fourth part is called ‘The New Vagus’. The fifth part is called ‘Beta, alpha and theta’. The article provides essential information on embodied healing, offered to enhance our understanding about the scientific underpinnings of practice. Another area covered is the relationship between the parasympathetic and beta, alpha and theta.

PROBLEM-BASED APPROACH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The paper considers the task approach to artificial intelligence. It is shown that, on the one hand, it generalizes such approaches as the agent-based approach and general artificial intelligence, and, on the other hand, accurately reflects the cognitive processes and purposeful behavior described in the physiological theory of functional brain systems.

Hippocratic medicine

The Hippocratic corpus is a disparate group of texts relating primarily to medical matters composed between c.450 and c.250 bc and dealing with physiology, therapy, surgery, clinical practice, gynaecology and obstetrics, among other topics. The treatises are (for the most part) notable for their sober naturalism in physiological theory, their rejection of supernatural explanations for disease, and their insistence on the importance of careful observation. Although embodying a variety of different physiological schemes, they are the origin of the enormously influential paradigm of humoral pathology. In antiquity, the authorship of the entire corpus was mistakenly ascribed to the semi-legendary doctor Hippocrates of Cos (fl. c.450 bc).