Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Facial Movements Reveals the Left Side of a Posed Smile

Elisa Straulino
* ORCID logo ,
Cristina Scarpazza
ORCID logo ,
Andrea Spoto
ORCID logo ,
Sonia Betti
,
Beatriz Chozas Barrientos
ORCID logo ,
Luisa Sartori
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 19 July 2023 / Approved: 20 July 2023 / Online: 21 July 2023 (10:16:59 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Straulino, E.; Scarpazza, C.; Spoto, A.; Betti, S.; Chozas Barrientos, B.; Sartori, L. The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Facial Movements Reveals the Left Side of a Posed Smile. Biology 2023, 12, 1160. Straulino, E.; Scarpazza, C.; Spoto, A.; Betti, S.; Chozas Barrientos, B.; Sartori, L. The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Facial Movements Reveals the Left Side of a Posed Smile. Biology 2023, 12, 1160.

Abstract

Humans can recombine thousands of different facial expressions. This variability is due to the ability to voluntarily or involuntarily modulate emotional expressions, which, in turn, depends on the existence of two anatomically separate pathways. The Voluntary (VP) and Involuntary (IP) pathways mediate the production of posed and spontaneous facial expressions, respectively, and might also affect the left and right sides of the face differently. This is a neglected aspect in the emotion literature, where posed expressions instead of genuine expressions are often used as stimuli. Two experiments with different induction methods were specifically designed to inves-tigate the unfolding of spontaneous and posed facial expressions of happiness along the facial vertical axis (left, right) with a high-definition 3D optoelectronic system. The results showed that spontaneous expressions were distinguished from posed facial movements as revealed by relia-ble spatial and speed key kinematic patterns in both experiments. Moreover, VP activation pro-duced a lateralization effect: compared with the felt smile, the posed smile involved an initial acceleration of the left corner of the mouth, while an early deceleration of the right corner oc-curred in the second phase of the movement, after the velocity peak.

Keywords

emotion expressions; kinematics; lateralization; happiness; emotional induction; motor contagion; voluntary mimicry; dynamic patterns

Subject

Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download PDF Download Supplementary

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0
Get PDF Supplementary Files Cite Share 0
Bookmark BibSonomy Mendeley Reddit Delicious
×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.