A neural marker of rapid discrimination of facial expression in 3.5- and 7-month-old infants.

Infants' ability to discriminate facial expressions has been widely explored, but little is known about the rapid and automatic ability to discriminate a given expression against many others in a single experiment. Here we investigated the development of facial expression discrimination in infancy with fast periodic visual stimulation coupled with scalp electroencephalography (EEG). EEG was recorded in eighteen 3.5- and eighteen 7-month-old infants presented with a female face expressing disgust, happiness, or a neutral emotion (in different stimulation sequences) at a base stimulation frequency of 6 Hz. Pictures of the same individual expressing other emotions (either anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, or neutrality, randomly and excluding the expression presented at the base frequency) were introduced every six stimuli (at 1 Hz). Frequency-domain analysis revealed an objective (i.e., at the predefined 1-Hz frequency and harmonics) expression-change brain response in both 3.5- and 7-month-olds, indicating the visual discrimination of various expressions from disgust, happiness and neutrality from these early ages. At 3.5 months, the responses to the discrimination from disgust and happiness expressions were located mainly on medial occipital sites, whereas a more lateral topography was found for the response to the discrimination from neutrality, suggesting that expression discrimination from an emotionally neutral face relies on distinct visual cues than discrimination from a disgust or happy face. Finally, expression discrimination from happiness was associated with a reduced activity over posterior areas and an additional response over central frontal scalp regions at 7 months as compared to 3.5 months. This result suggests developmental changes in the processing of happiness expressions as compared to negative/neutral ones within this age range.

Expressão facial de emoções de crianças com deficiência visual e videntes: diferentes procedimentos de evocação, registro e avaliação obtidos em uma intervenção / Facial emotions expression in visual impairment and seers children: differents evocation, registration and evaluation procedures obtained in an intervention / La expresión facial de las emociones de los niños con discapacidad visual y videntes: diferentes procedimientos de evocación, registro y evaluación obtenidos en una intervención

Considerando os procedimentos para evocação, registro e julgamento das expressões faciais de emoções, bem como a carência de pesquisas que avaliem essas diferentes metodologias, o presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar a sensibilidade diferencial dos procedimentos de evocação e registro das expressões faciais de emoções (EFE) de crianças com deficiência visual e videntes obtidas antes, durante e após um programa de intervenção que visou ensinar e aperfeiçoar o repertório de EFE na interface com as habilidades sociais. Participaram da pesquisa, que adotou um delineamento pré e pós-teste com sujeito único, com múltiplas sondagens e replicações intra e entre sujeitos, e intervenção com 21 sessões, três crianças cegas, três com baixa visão e três videntes, assim como os pais, professores e um juiz, que avaliaram as expressões faciais de emoções das crianças em diferentes momentos, evocadas e avaliadas de formas diversas, além de serem registradas por fotografias e filmagens. Os resultados mostraram que na sondagem que ocorreu após a intervenção a porcentagem de acertos das expressões faciais de emoções de todas as crianças foi maior, seja no registro por fotografia ou por filmagem. Além disso, o repertório de expressão facial de emoções de todos os participantes, avaliado pelos pais, professoras e juiz, foi aprimorado e mantido após o programa de intervenção, assim como a qualidade da expressividade de emoções pela face.(AU)

Considering the evocation, registration and judgment procedures of facial emotions expressions, and the lack of researches to evaluate these different methodologies, this study aimed to analyze the differential sensitivity of the evocation and registration procedures of facial emotions expressions (FEE) of visual impairment and seers children obtained before, during and after an intervention program that aimed to teaching and improving the repertoire of FEE at interface with social skills. Participated in the research, which adopted a pre-and post-test design with single subject, with multiple polls and replications within and between subjects, and intervention with 21 sessions, three visually impaired children, three with low vision and three seers, as parents, teachers and a judge, which evaluated the facial emotions expressions of children at different moments, evoked and evaluated various ways, besides being recorded by photographs and footages. The results indicated in the poll that after intervention the percentage of corrects about the all children facial emotions expressions was higher. In addition, the facial emotions repertoire of all participants, evaluated by parents, teachers and judge, was improved and maintained after the intervention program, as well as the face emotions expressiveness quality.(AU)

Considerándose los procedimientos de evocación, registro y juzgamiento de las expresiones faciales de las emociones, así como la falta de investigación que evalúen estas diferentes metodologías, el presente estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar la sensibilidad diferencial de los procedimientos de evocación y registro de las expresiones faciales de las emociones (EFE) de los niños con discapacidad visual y videntes antes, durante y después de un programa de intervención que propuso enseñar y perfeccionar el repertorio de EFE en interfaz con las habilidades sociales. Participaron de la investigación, que utilizó un diseño pre y post test con único sujeto, con múltiples sondeos y replicaciones intra- y entre los sujetos, e intervención con 21 sesiones, tres niños ciegos, tres con baja visión y tres videntes, así como los padres, los maestros y un juez, que evaluaron las expresiones faciales de las emociones de los niños en diferentes momentos, evocados y evaluados de diversas maneras, además de haber sido registradas por medio de fotografías y filmación. Los resultados mostraron que en el sondeo, que se llevó a cabo después de la intervención, el porcentaje de aciertos de las expresiones faciales de las emociones de todos los niños fue superior, tanto en el registro en la fotografía como en la filmación. Además, el repertorio de la expresión facial de las emociones de todos los participantes, evaluados por los padres, maestros y juez, fue perfeccionado y mantenido después del programa de intervención, así como la calidad de la expresividad de las emociones por la cara.(AU)

Fixation to features and neural processing of facial expressions in a gender discrimination task.

Early face encoding, as reflected by the N170 ERP component, is sensitive to fixation to the eyes. Whether this sensitivity varies with facial expressions of emotion and can also be seen on other ERP components such as P1 and EPN, was investigated. Using eye-tracking to manipulate fixation on facial features, we found the N170 to be the only eye-sensitive component and this was true for fearful, happy and neutral faces. A different effect of fixation to features was seen for the earlier P1 that likely reflected general sensitivity to face position. An early effect of emotion (∼120 ms) for happy faces was seen at occipital sites and was sustained until ∼350 ms post-stimulus. For fearful faces, an early effect was seen around 80 ms followed by a later effect appearing at ∼150 ms until ∼300 ms at lateral posterior sites. Results suggests that in this emotion-irrelevant gender discrimination task, processing of fearful and happy expressions occurred early and largely independently of the eye-sensitivity indexed by the N170. Processing of the two emotions involved different underlying brain networks active at different times.

Programa de expressividade facial de emoções e habilidades sociais de crianças deficientes visuais e videntes / Facial expression of emotions and social skills of visually impaired and sighted children

A expressividade facial de emoções (EFE), tanto em termos topográficos como funcionais, é componente indispensável no desempenho de habilidades sociais (HS). O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar um programa de intervenção sobre a EFE e o repertório de habilidades sociais de três crianças cegas, três com baixa visão e três videntes, conforme autoavaliação e avaliação de juiz, pais e professores. Com um delineamento pré e pós-teste com sujeito único, com múltiplas sondagens e replicações intra e entre sujeitos com diferentes graus de comprometimento visual, a intervenção foi realizada ao longo de 21 sessões. Os resultados mostraram mudanças relevantes em termos de melhoria da EFE, bem como seu impacto sobre as classes de habilidades sociais...

The Facial Expression of Emotions (FEE), in its functional and topographic properties, is an essential component of social skills (SS) performance. This study aimed to evaluate a program intervention focused on the FEE of nine children (three blind, three with low vision and three sighted). The intervention impact on children's FEE and their social skills were evaluated by parents, teachers and the children themselves. The intervention was conducted along 21 single-subject sessions, with pre and post evaluation, as well as intra and inter probes and replications among subjects comparing different degrees of visual impairment. Results showed important changes in terms of improving FEE as well as its impact on social skills performance...

Programa de expressividade facial de emoções e habilidades sociais de crianças deficientes visuais e videntes / Facial expression of emotions and social skills of visually impaired and sighted children

A expressividade facial de emoções (EFE), tanto em termos topográficos como funcionais, é componente indispensável no desempenho de habilidades sociais (HS). O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar um programa de intervenção sobre a EFE e o repertório de habilidades sociais de três crianças cegas, três com baixa visão e três videntes, conforme autoavaliação e avaliação de juiz, pais e professores. Com um delineamento pré e pós-teste com sujeito único, com múltiplas sondagens e replicações intra e entre sujeitos com diferentes graus de comprometimento visual, a intervenção foi realizada ao longo de 21 sessões. Os resultados mostraram mudanças relevantes em termos de melhoria da EFE, bem como seu impacto sobre as classes de habilidades sociais.(AU)

The Facial Expression of Emotions (FEE), in its functional and topographic properties, is an essential component of social skills (SS) performance. This study aimed to evaluate a program intervention focused on the FEE of nine children (three blind, three with low vision and three sighted). The intervention impact on children's FEE and their social skills were evaluated by parents, teachers and the children themselves. The intervention was conducted along 21 single-subject sessions, with pre and post evaluation, as well as intra and inter probes and replications among subjects comparing different degrees of visual impairment. Results showed important changes in terms of improving FEE as well as its impact on social skills performance.(AU)