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Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation

What mechanisms underlie facial expression recognition? A popular hypothesis holds that efficient facial expression recognition cannot be achieved by visual analysis alone but additionally requires a mechanism of motor simulation — an unconscious, covert imitation of the observed facial postures and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vannuscorps, Gilles, Andres, Michael, Caramazza, Alfonso
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217693/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32364498
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54687
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author Vannuscorps, Gilles
Andres, Michael
Caramazza, Alfonso
author_facet Vannuscorps, Gilles
Andres, Michael
Caramazza, Alfonso
author_sort Vannuscorps, Gilles
collection PubMed
description What mechanisms underlie facial expression recognition? A popular hypothesis holds that efficient facial expression recognition cannot be achieved by visual analysis alone but additionally requires a mechanism of motor simulation — an unconscious, covert imitation of the observed facial postures and movements. Here, we first discuss why this hypothesis does not necessarily follow from extant empirical evidence. Next, we report experimental evidence against the central premise of this view: we demonstrate that individuals can achieve normotypical efficient facial expression recognition despite a congenital absence of relevant facial motor representations and, therefore, unaided by motor simulation. This underscores the need to reconsider the role of motor simulation in facial expression recognition.
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spelling pubmed-72176932020-05-13 Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation Vannuscorps, Gilles Andres, Michael Caramazza, Alfonso eLife Neuroscience What mechanisms underlie facial expression recognition? A popular hypothesis holds that efficient facial expression recognition cannot be achieved by visual analysis alone but additionally requires a mechanism of motor simulation — an unconscious, covert imitation of the observed facial postures and movements. Here, we first discuss why this hypothesis does not necessarily follow from extant empirical evidence. Next, we report experimental evidence against the central premise of this view: we demonstrate that individuals can achieve normotypical efficient facial expression recognition despite a congenital absence of relevant facial motor representations and, therefore, unaided by motor simulation. This underscores the need to reconsider the role of motor simulation in facial expression recognition. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7217693/ /pubmed/32364498 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54687 Text en © 2020, Vannuscorps et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Vannuscorps, Gilles
Andres, Michael
Caramazza, Alfonso
Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title_full Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title_fullStr Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title_full_unstemmed Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title_short Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
title_sort efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217693/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32364498
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54687
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