Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke
Social cognition is the innate human ability to interpret the emotional state of others from contextual verbal and non-verbal information, and to self-regulate accordingly. Facial expressions are one of the most relevant sources of non-verbal communication, and their interpretation has been extensiv...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2019.01415/full |
| _version_ | 1818912357490884608 |
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| author | Anny Maza Belén Moliner Joan Ferri Roberto Llorens Roberto Llorens |
| author_facet | Anny Maza Belén Moliner Joan Ferri Roberto Llorens Roberto Llorens |
| author_sort | Anny Maza |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Social cognition is the innate human ability to interpret the emotional state of others from contextual verbal and non-verbal information, and to self-regulate accordingly. Facial expressions are one of the most relevant sources of non-verbal communication, and their interpretation has been extensively investigated in the literature, using both behavioral and physiological measures, such as those derived from visual activity and visual responses. The decoding of facial expressions of emotion is performed by conscious and unconscious cognitive processes that involve a complex brain network that can be damaged after cerebrovascular accidents. A diminished ability to identify facial expressions of emotion has been reported after stroke, which has traditionally been attributed to impaired emotional processing. While this can be true, an alteration in visual behavior after brain injury could also negatively contribute to this ability. This study investigated the accuracy, distribution of responses, visual behavior, and pupil dilation of individuals with stroke while identifying emotional facial expressions. Our results corroborated impaired performance after stroke and exhibited decreased attention to the eyes, evidenced by a diminished time and number of fixations made in this area in comparison to healthy subjects and comparable pupil dilation. The differences in visual behavior reached statistical significance in some emotions when comparing individuals with stroke with impaired performance with healthy subjects, but not when individuals post-stroke with comparable performance were considered. The performance dependence of visual behavior, although not determinant, might indicate that altered visual behavior could be a negatively contributing factor for emotion recognition from facial expressions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:13:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f2055ce96ee540faad419c3b2c8f5895 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:13:19Z |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f2055ce96ee540faad419c3b2c8f58952022-12-21T20:02:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952020-02-011010.3389/fneur.2019.01415484567Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After StrokeAnny Maza0Belén Moliner1Joan Ferri2Roberto Llorens3Roberto Llorens4Neurorehabilitation and Brain Research Group, Instituto de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, SpainNEURORHB, Servicio de Neurorrehabilitación de Hospitales Vithas, Valencia, SpainNEURORHB, Servicio de Neurorrehabilitación de Hospitales Vithas, Valencia, SpainNeurorehabilitation and Brain Research Group, Instituto de Investigación e Innovación en Bioingeniería, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, SpainNEURORHB, Servicio de Neurorrehabilitación de Hospitales Vithas, Valencia, SpainSocial cognition is the innate human ability to interpret the emotional state of others from contextual verbal and non-verbal information, and to self-regulate accordingly. Facial expressions are one of the most relevant sources of non-verbal communication, and their interpretation has been extensively investigated in the literature, using both behavioral and physiological measures, such as those derived from visual activity and visual responses. The decoding of facial expressions of emotion is performed by conscious and unconscious cognitive processes that involve a complex brain network that can be damaged after cerebrovascular accidents. A diminished ability to identify facial expressions of emotion has been reported after stroke, which has traditionally been attributed to impaired emotional processing. While this can be true, an alteration in visual behavior after brain injury could also negatively contribute to this ability. This study investigated the accuracy, distribution of responses, visual behavior, and pupil dilation of individuals with stroke while identifying emotional facial expressions. Our results corroborated impaired performance after stroke and exhibited decreased attention to the eyes, evidenced by a diminished time and number of fixations made in this area in comparison to healthy subjects and comparable pupil dilation. The differences in visual behavior reached statistical significance in some emotions when comparing individuals with stroke with impaired performance with healthy subjects, but not when individuals post-stroke with comparable performance were considered. The performance dependence of visual behavior, although not determinant, might indicate that altered visual behavior could be a negatively contributing factor for emotion recognition from facial expressions.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2019.01415/fullsocial cognitiontheory of mindfacial expressionsemotionvisual behaviorgaze |
| spellingShingle | Anny Maza Belén Moliner Joan Ferri Roberto Llorens Roberto Llorens Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke Frontiers in Neurology social cognition theory of mind facial expressions emotion visual behavior gaze |
| title | Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke |
| title_full | Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke |
| title_fullStr | Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke |
| title_short | Visual Behavior, Pupil Dilation, and Ability to Identify Emotions From Facial Expressions After Stroke |
| title_sort | visual behavior pupil dilation and ability to identify emotions from facial expressions after stroke |
| topic | social cognition theory of mind facial expressions emotion visual behavior gaze |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2019.01415/full |
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