TY - JOUR A1 - Trilla, Irene A1 - Drimalla, Hanna A1 - Bajbouj, Malek A1 - Dziobek, Isabel T1 - The influence of reward on facial mimicry BT - no evidence for a significant effect of oxytocin JF - Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience N2 - Recent findings suggest a role of oxytocin on the tendency to spontaneously mimic the emotional facial expressions of others. Oxytocin-related increases of facial mimicry, however, seem to be dependent on contextual factors. Given previous literature showing that people preferentially mimic emotional expressions of individuals associated with high (vs. low) rewards, we examined whether the reward value of the mimicked agent is one factor influencing the oxytocin effects on facial mimicry. To test this hypothesis, 60 male adults received 24 IU of either intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a double-blind, between-subject experiment. Next, the value of male neutral faces was manipulated using an associative learning task with monetary rewards. After the reward associations were learned, participants watched videos of the same faces displaying happy and angry expressions. Facial reactions to the emotional expressions were measured with electromyography. We found that participants judged as more pleasant the face identities associated with high reward values than with low reward values. However, happy expressions by low rewarding faces were more spontaneously mimicked than high rewarding faces. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find a significant direct effect of intranasal oxytocin on facial mimicry, nor on the reward-driven modulation of mimicry. Our results support the notion that mimicry is a complex process that depends on contextual factors, but failed to provide conclusive evidence of a role of oxytocin on the modulation of facial mimicry. KW - oxytocin KW - facial mimicry KW - reward KW - EMG KW - social modulation KW - null results Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00088 SN - 1662-5153 VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schneider, Jan Niklas A1 - Brick, Timothy R. A1 - Dziobek, Isabel T1 - Distance to the neutral face predicts arousal ratings of dynamic facial expressions in individuals with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Arousal is one of the dimensions of core affect and frequently used to describe experienced or observed emotional states. While arousal ratings of facial expressions are collected in many studies it is not well understood how arousal is displayed in or interpreted from facial expressions. In the context of socioemotional disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, this poses the question of a differential use of facial information for arousal perception. In this study, we demonstrate how automated face-tracking tools can be used to extract predictors of arousal judgments. We find moderate to strong correlations among all measures of static information on one hand and all measures of dynamic information on the other. Based on these results, we tested two measures, average distance to the neutral face and average facial movement speed, within and between neurotypical individuals (N = 401) and individuals with autism (N = 19). Distance to the neutral face was predictive of arousal in both groups. Lower mean arousal ratings were found for the autistic group, but no difference in correlation of the measures and arousal ratings could be found between groups. Results were replicated in an high autistic traits group. The findings suggest a qualitatively similar perception of arousal for individuals with and without autism. No correlations between valence ratings and any of the measures could be found, emphasizing the specificity of our tested measures. Distance and speed predictors share variability and thus speed should not be discarded as a predictor of arousal ratings. KW - arousal KW - face tracking KW - facial expression KW - autism KW - perception KW - perception differences KW - measure development Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577494 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koenig, Julian A1 - Abler, Birgit A1 - Agartz, Ingrid A1 - akerstedt, Torbjorn A1 - Andreassen, Ole A. A1 - Anthony, Mia A1 - Baer, Karl-Juergen A1 - Bertsch, Katja A1 - Brown, Rebecca C. A1 - Brunner, Romuald A1 - Carnevali, Luca A1 - Critchley, Hugo D. A1 - Cullen, Kathryn R. A1 - de Geus, Eco J. C. A1 - de la Cruz, Feliberto A1 - Dziobek, Isabel A1 - Ferger, Marc D. A1 - Fischer, Hakan A1 - Flor, Herta A1 - Gaebler, Michael A1 - Gianaros, Peter J. A1 - Giummarra, Melita J. A1 - Greening, Steven G. A1 - Guendelman, Simon A1 - Heathers, James A. J. A1 - Herpertz, Sabine C. A1 - Hu, Mandy X. A1 - Jentschke, Sebastian A1 - Kaess, Michael A1 - Kaufmann, Tobias A1 - Klimes-Dougan, Bonnie A1 - Koelsch, Stefan A1 - Krauch, Marlene A1 - Kumral, Deniz A1 - Lamers, Femke A1 - Lee, Tae-Ho A1 - Lekander, Mats A1 - Lin, Feng A1 - Lotze, Martin A1 - Makovac, Elena A1 - Mancini, Matteo A1 - Mancke, Falk A1 - Mansson, Kristoffer N. T. A1 - Manuck, Stephen B. A1 - Mather, Mara A1 - Meeten, Frances A1 - Min, Jungwon A1 - Mueller, Bryon A1 - Muench, Vera A1 - Nees, Frauke A1 - Nga, Lin A1 - Nilsonne, Gustav A1 - Ordonez Acuna, Daniela A1 - Osnes, Berge A1 - Ottaviani, Cristina A1 - Penninx, Brenda W. J. H. A1 - Ponzio, Allison A1 - Poudel, Govinda R. A1 - Reinelt, Janis A1 - Ren, Ping A1 - Sakaki, Michiko A1 - Schumann, Andy A1 - Sorensen, Lin A1 - Specht, Karsten A1 - Straub, Joana A1 - Tamm, Sandra A1 - Thai, Michelle A1 - Thayer, Julian F. A1 - Ubani, Benjamin A1 - van Der Mee, Denise J. A1 - van Velzen, Laura S. A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Villringer, Arno A1 - Watson, David R. A1 - Wei, Luqing A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Schreiner, Melinda Westlund A1 - Westlye, Lars T. A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Winkelmann, Tobias A1 - Wu, Guo-Rong A1 - Yoo, Hyun Joo A1 - Quintana, Daniel S. T1 - Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan BT - a cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12-87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS-or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between CT and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research. KW - aging KW - autonomic nervous system KW - cortical thickness KW - heart rate KW - heart KW - rate variability KW - sex Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13688 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 58 IS - 7 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drimalla, Hanna A1 - Landwehr, Niels A1 - Hess, Ursula A1 - Dziobek, Isabel T1 - From face to face BT - the contribution of facial mimicry to cognitive and emotional empathy JF - Cognition and Emotion N2 - Despite advances in the conceptualisation of facial mimicry, its role in the processing of social information is a matter of debate. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between mimicry and cognitive and emotional empathy. To assess mimicry, facial electromyography was recorded for 70 participants while they completed the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which presents complex context-embedded emotional expressions. As predicted, inter-individual differences in emotional and cognitive empathy were associated with the level of facial mimicry. For positive emotions, the intensity of the mimicry response scaled with the level of state emotional empathy. Mimicry was stronger for the emotional empathy task compared to the cognitive empathy task. The specific empathy condition could be successfully detected from facial muscle activity at the level of single individuals using machine learning techniques. These results support the view that mimicry occurs depending on the social context as a tool to affiliate and it is involved in cognitive as well as emotional empathy. KW - Facial mimicry KW - empathy KW - emotional KW - cognitive KW - complex emotions Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1596068 SN - 0269-9931 SN - 1464-0600 VL - 33 IS - 8 SP - 1672 EP - 1686 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER -