Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits
Abstract Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others’ emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35773-6 |
| _version_ | 1797801458171641856 |
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| author | Julia Folz Rüya Akdağ Milica Nikolić Henk van Steenbergen Mariska E. Kret |
| author_facet | Julia Folz Rüya Akdağ Milica Nikolić Henk van Steenbergen Mariska E. Kret |
| author_sort | Julia Folz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others’ emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of others’ emotions in individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder and individuals on the autism spectrum. Using a non-clinical sample (N = 57), we examined the role of social anxiety and autistic traits in the link between facial mimicry, or confidence in one’s performance, and emotion recognition. While participants were presented with videos of spontaneous emotional facial expressions, we measured their facial muscle activity, asked them to label the expressions and indicate their confidence in accurately labelling the expressions. Our results showed that confidence in emotion recognition was lower with higher social anxiety traits even though actual recognition was not related to social anxiety traits. Higher autistic traits, in contrast, were associated with worse recognition, and a weakened link between facial mimicry and performance. Consequently, high social anxiety traits might not affect emotion recognition itself, but the top-down evaluation of own abilities in emotion recognition contexts. High autistic traits, in contrast, may be related to lower integration of sensorimotor simulations, which promote emotion recognition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:50:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-af2b6b2a4ce24490bbc8c57bdfc0516e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:50:46Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-af2b6b2a4ce24490bbc8c57bdfc0516e2023-06-18T11:13:12ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-06-0113111710.1038/s41598-023-35773-6Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traitsJulia Folz0Rüya Akdağ1Milica Nikolić2Henk van Steenbergen3Mariska E. Kret4Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityDepartment of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityDepartment of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityDepartment of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityDepartment of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityAbstract Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others’ emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of others’ emotions in individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder and individuals on the autism spectrum. Using a non-clinical sample (N = 57), we examined the role of social anxiety and autistic traits in the link between facial mimicry, or confidence in one’s performance, and emotion recognition. While participants were presented with videos of spontaneous emotional facial expressions, we measured their facial muscle activity, asked them to label the expressions and indicate their confidence in accurately labelling the expressions. Our results showed that confidence in emotion recognition was lower with higher social anxiety traits even though actual recognition was not related to social anxiety traits. Higher autistic traits, in contrast, were associated with worse recognition, and a weakened link between facial mimicry and performance. Consequently, high social anxiety traits might not affect emotion recognition itself, but the top-down evaluation of own abilities in emotion recognition contexts. High autistic traits, in contrast, may be related to lower integration of sensorimotor simulations, which promote emotion recognition.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35773-6 |
| spellingShingle | Julia Folz Rüya Akdağ Milica Nikolić Henk van Steenbergen Mariska E. Kret Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits Scientific Reports |
| title | Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| title_full | Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| title_fullStr | Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| title_full_unstemmed | Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| title_short | Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| title_sort | facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35773-6 |
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