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Signal characteristics of spontaneous facial expressions: Automatic movement in solitary and social smiles
K. Schmidt, J. Cohn, and Y. Tian
Biological Psychology, Vol. 65, October, 2003, pp. 49 - 66.

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The assumption that the smile is an evolved facial display suggests that there may be universal features of smiling in addition to the basic facial configuration. We show that smiles include not only a stable configuration of features, but also temporally consistent movement patterns. In spontaneous smiles from two social contexts, duration of lip corner movement during the onset phase was independent of social context and the presence of other facial movements, including dampening. These additional movements produced variation in both peak and offset duration. Both onsets and offsets had dynamic properties similar to automatically controlled movements, with a consistent relation between maximum velocity and amplitude of lip corner movement in smiles from two distinct contexts. Despite the effects of individual and social factors on facial expression timing overall, consistency in onset and offset phases suggests that portions of the smile display are relatively stereotyped and may be automatically produced.

Associated center: VASC
Associated labs/groups: Face Group and Human Sensing
Associated project: Facial Expression Analysis

Number of pages: 21

Note: to appear

K. Schmidt, J. Cohn, and Y. Tian, "Signal characteristics of spontaneous facial expressions: Automatic movement in solitary and social smiles," Biological Psychology, Vol. 65, October, 2003, pp. 49 - 66.

@article{Schmidt_2003_4503,
   author = "Karen Schmidt and Jeffrey Cohn and Ying-Li Tian",
   title = "Signal characteristics of spontaneous facial expressions: Automatic movement in solitary and social smiles",
   journal = "Biological Psychology",
   month = "October",
   year = "2003",
   volume = "65",
   pages = "49 - 66",
   note = "to appear"
}