[nfb-talk] Study Finds Facial Expressions are Inherited

[dmgina]

When I was at wall mart, a little child was saying my eyes were closed.
and why would a dog want to guide me.
I let mama handle it all.
there are times that the plastic of the eye is better with your eyes closed.
then dirt doesn't get on them.

--Dar
www.mypowermall.com/biz/home/5779
Every saint has a past
every sinner has a future

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim" <jp100 at earthlink.net>
To: <mabullis at hotmail.com>; "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Study Finds Facial Expressions are Inherited


> Hmmm, this is very interesting.
> I'm totally blind and really never thought about this issue before.
> However, something was said to me the other day that blew my mind.
> My closest friends told me that when it came to reading me, it was hard to
> do because I show no real facial expressions.  Oh, they can tell when I am
> grinning wide that I like something, but I guess in many ways, I'm pretty
> stoic in general, and my face goes with it.
> Now, my coworkers, on the other hand, say that I would never have a poker
> face because it is very obvious to tell if I like or agree with something 
> by
> my face (perhaps my mood or temper as well, <grin>).
>
> I wonder if never having seen facial expressions has anything to do with 
> how
> people read the limited facial expressions that I do have.
> Hmmm.  Interesting.
>
> Jim
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Michael Bullis
> Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 7:41 AM
> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
> Subject: [nfb-talk] Study Finds Facial Expressions are Inherited
>
> Study finds facial expressions are inherited
>
>
>
> Scientists have found that family members share a facial expression
> "signature"-a unique form of the universal facial expressions encountered
> worldwide.
>
> In a rare study taking into account blind subjects, Gili Peleg, et al. 
> have
> discovered that family members were identified by their facial expressions
>
> 80% of the time, giving scientific support to the observation that a child
> "has her Daddy's smile."
>
>
>
> "Before our study, it was clear that there is a component of imitation 
> that
> influences facial expressions, but there was no study that compared the
> gestalt
>
> of facial movements of relatives in several emotions," Peleg told
> PhysOrg.com. Peleg is a PhD student supervised by Professors Eviatar Nevo
> and Gadi Katzir
>
> at the International Graduate Center of Evolution at the Institute of
> Evolution, part of the University of Haifa in Israel.
>
> In the 1970s-contrary to some views of the time but in accordance with
> Darwin-psychologists Paul Ekman and Eibl Eibesfeldt showed that facial
> expressions
>
> are universal: people from different parts of the world smile when happy 
> and
> frown when sad, etc. Scientists also know that individuals have unique
> facial
>
> expression signatures. Due to the existence of different nerves and 
> muscles,
> some people will have, for example, dimples, "Duchenne" smiles (with 
> circles
>
> under the eyes) and the ability to lift one eyebrow.
>
> Wanting to know if there might be a heritable basis for these individual
> signatures, Peleg et al. studied the gestalt of facial movements, seen in
> details
>
> such as the intensity and frequency of expressions.
>
> "Facial expressions are non-verbal communication phenotypes, meaning they
> are composed from genetics and
>
> environmental
>
> conditions," said Peleg. "We decided to investigate a population of
> born-blind persons in order to eliminate the social influence and the
> effects of imitation."
>
> In the study, the scientists video-taped 51 subjects-21 who were blind, 
> and
> a total of 30 of their family members-when provoked to exhibit six 
> emotional
>
> states: concentration, sadness, anger, disgust, joy and surprise. Next, 
> the
> researchers used a classification tool to assign values (e.g. for types of
>
> movements, frequencies) to each of the subject's expressions. After 
> defining
> the values, another classification tool determined which subjects were
> family
>
> members.
>
> Quite convincingly, 80% of the classifications correctly identified family
> members when taking into account all six emotional expressions. The single
> emotion
>
> that received correct classification of family members when tested alone 
> was
> anger at 75%. In a test comparing the family members with each other, the
>
> scientists also found that related subjects showed similar frequencies of
> facial expressions for the emotions of concentration, sadness and anger, 
> but
>
> not the others.
>
>
>
> "The hereditary influence that appeared in think-concentrate, sadness, and
> anger may relate to the induction of the high diversity of facial 
> movements
> by
>
> these emotions, as we found in a previous study," said Peleg. "We believe
> that if our study population was larger, we could get significant results
> even
>
> in the other three emotional states: disgust, joy and surprise."
>
> Peleg et al. hope that finding a heritable basis for facial expression
> signatures may lead to discovering genes responsible for facial 
> expressions.
> If so,
>
> it might be possible to develop repair mechanisms for people lacking 
> facial
> expressions, such as people with autism. Much information can be
> communicated
>
> through a person's facial expressions, and the scientists also wonder 
> about
> their evolutionary significance.
>
> "Communication abilities have an evolutionary advantage; therefore facial
> expression phenotypes should be conserved," said Peleg. "Facial 
> expressions
> are
>
> important in inter-individual and hierarchical interactions of people 
> within
> our own species; between different human races; between different tribes;
>
> and in animals between different species. The relationships of
> mother-babies; bonding of pairs; aggression interactions between 
> individuals
> and so on should
>
> be very important in hierarchical situations in human and animal 
> societies.
> Likewise, facial expressions should be of great importance as pre-mating
> isolating
>
> mechanisms between species.
>
> "The genetic basis of facial expressions is probably composed of an array 
> of
> gene coding for muscle structure, bone structure and muscle innervations,"
>
> Peleg continued. "However, our results also demonstrate kinship sequences 
> of
> facial expression. This could indicate genetic
>
> conservation
>
> and the existence of brain regions that control facial expressions."
>
> Citation: Peleg, Gili, Katzir, Gadi, Peleg, Ofer, Kamara, Michal, Brodsky,
> Leonid, Hel-Or, Hagit, Keren, Daniel, and Nevo, Eviatar. "Hereditary 
> family
> signature
>
> of facial expression." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
> October 24, 2006. Vol. 103 No. 43. 15921-15926.
>
> http://www.physorg.com/news82125637.html
>
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