Micro expressions
People often have brief emotions expressed on their face and noting these expressions may be quite
valuable when looking for how people get along with each other.
www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60232,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microexpression
In the 1960s, William Condon pioneered the study of interactions at the fraction-of-a-second level. In his
most[verification needed] famous research project, he scrutinized a four-and-a-half-second film segment
frame by frame, where each frame represented 1/45th second. After studying this film segment for a
year and a half, he discerned interactional “micromovements”, such as the wife moving her shoulder
exactly as the husband's hands came up, which combined yielded “microrhythms”.
American psychologist John Gottman began video-recording living relationships, microsecond to
microsecond, to study how couples interact. By studying these micro-movements, Gottman was able to
predict which relationships would hold and which would dissolve.
To note, most people do not seem to perceive microexpressions in themselves or others. In the
Diogenes Project, for example, researcher Paul Ekman found that these tiny movements often can
expose lying, and that a very, very small percentage of those he studied had a preternatural knack for
detecting them. He now claims that anyone can be trained to see such microexpressions relatively easily.
Models in the mind, actions which trigger micro expressions and ones which don't
From a perspective of neurology, it is perhaps described by mirror neurons in the brain. Compare two
descriptions:
1. Human X eats a raisin and then somehow stores the information in her brain as a memory. When
Human X sees Human Y eating a raisin in a similar manner, the brain feeds both pieces of information
(the memory and the current event) to a comparator and asks for a judgement as to how closely these
two acts compare with each other. The comparator, located in a third part of the brain, should be seen
to be active using fMRI scans, if this theory is correct.
2. Human X eats a raisin and their Ventral Premotor Cortex (F5) shows activity in region R. Human X
watches Human Y eat a raisin and the same area of the brain reacts to the stimulus. The closer the act
of eating by X is to X's perception of eating by Y, the larger and more similar the response at region R in
F5 will be. This is due to mirror neurons described in an April 1996 issue of Brain, whose url and
abstract follow:
Action recognition in the premotor cortex
Vittorio Gallese, Luciano Fadiga, Leonardo Fogassi and Giacomo Rizzolatti
Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Parma Italy
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/119/2/593
We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two
macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed
hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons
(‘mirror neurons’, n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action
and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be
visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight
of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and
the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating
mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear
relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In 30% of
mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions
corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action
was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for
matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in
action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca’s region, we posit
that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in
recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.
- - - - - - - -
It appears that, for common acts such as eating, the brain has areas which are designated for automatic
recognition. We might say that the model I have of myself while eating a raisin will be stimulated if I see
you eating a raisin.
My model of you is based on my model of myself and when I see you do something common, I will
automatically see you as being like me. My subconscious F5 region will tell me that you are like me and
I will "identify with you." If I play a lot of golf and I see you playing golf, a portion of my F5 area will
automatically recognize the similarity of your playing golf and my playing golf without using a separate
comparator function.
I have noticed dogs recognizing dogs for some time. If, for example, you walk down the street with a
dog, the dog will easily and (it seems to me) automatically pick out other dogs. Dogs react more to other
dogs than a person at the same distance. If someone else is walking their dog and comes toward us,
the dogs are the first ones to concern themselves about each other and their hierarchical relationship. I
suppose I might react sooner if the human coming toward me had a police uniform and was carrying a
gun. Their relation to It does this in spite of the fact that other dogs have different fur colors, and are of
quite different sizes and shapes. The owner might remark that the dog is an Airedale or Husky, but the
dog simply sees another dog. The dog thinks of two main things.
1. Whose territory is it? If it is mine, then I will defend it vigorously.
2. Is the other dog bigger or smaller than me? Will I win a fight?
Dogs may also recognize human mouths and when I eat something the dog's F5 might light up because
food is an important survival item.
Index
Next
People often have brief emotions expressed on their face and noting these expressions may be quite
valuable when looking for how people get along with each other.
www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60232,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microexpression
In the 1960s, William Condon pioneered the study of interactions at the fraction-of-a-second level. In his
most[verification needed] famous research project, he scrutinized a four-and-a-half-second film segment
frame by frame, where each frame represented 1/45th second. After studying this film segment for a
year and a half, he discerned interactional “micromovements”, such as the wife moving her shoulder
exactly as the husband's hands came up, which combined yielded “microrhythms”.
American psychologist John Gottman began video-recording living relationships, microsecond to
microsecond, to study how couples interact. By studying these micro-movements, Gottman was able to
predict which relationships would hold and which would dissolve.
To note, most people do not seem to perceive microexpressions in themselves or others. In the
Diogenes Project, for example, researcher Paul Ekman found that these tiny movements often can
expose lying, and that a very, very small percentage of those he studied had a preternatural knack for
detecting them. He now claims that anyone can be trained to see such microexpressions relatively easily.
Models in the mind, actions which trigger micro expressions and ones which don't
From a perspective of neurology, it is perhaps described by mirror neurons in the brain. Compare two
descriptions:
1. Human X eats a raisin and then somehow stores the information in her brain as a memory. When
Human X sees Human Y eating a raisin in a similar manner, the brain feeds both pieces of information
(the memory and the current event) to a comparator and asks for a judgement as to how closely these
two acts compare with each other. The comparator, located in a third part of the brain, should be seen
to be active using fMRI scans, if this theory is correct.
2. Human X eats a raisin and their Ventral Premotor Cortex (F5) shows activity in region R. Human X
watches Human Y eat a raisin and the same area of the brain reacts to the stimulus. The closer the act
of eating by X is to X's perception of eating by Y, the larger and more similar the response at region R in
F5 will be. This is due to mirror neurons described in an April 1996 issue of Brain, whose url and
abstract follow:
Action recognition in the premotor cortex
Vittorio Gallese, Luciano Fadiga, Leonardo Fogassi and Giacomo Rizzolatti
Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Parma Italy
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/119/2/593
We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two
macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed
hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons
(‘mirror neurons’, n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action
and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be
visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight
of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and
the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating
mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear
relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In 30% of
mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions
corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action
was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for
matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in
action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca’s region, we posit
that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in
recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.
- - - - - - - -
It appears that, for common acts such as eating, the brain has areas which are designated for automatic
recognition. We might say that the model I have of myself while eating a raisin will be stimulated if I see
you eating a raisin.
My model of you is based on my model of myself and when I see you do something common, I will
automatically see you as being like me. My subconscious F5 region will tell me that you are like me and
I will "identify with you." If I play a lot of golf and I see you playing golf, a portion of my F5 area will
automatically recognize the similarity of your playing golf and my playing golf without using a separate
comparator function.
I have noticed dogs recognizing dogs for some time. If, for example, you walk down the street with a
dog, the dog will easily and (it seems to me) automatically pick out other dogs. Dogs react more to other
dogs than a person at the same distance. If someone else is walking their dog and comes toward us,
the dogs are the first ones to concern themselves about each other and their hierarchical relationship. I
suppose I might react sooner if the human coming toward me had a police uniform and was carrying a
gun. Their relation to It does this in spite of the fact that other dogs have different fur colors, and are of
quite different sizes and shapes. The owner might remark that the dog is an Airedale or Husky, but the
dog simply sees another dog. The dog thinks of two main things.
1. Whose territory is it? If it is mine, then I will defend it vigorously.
2. Is the other dog bigger or smaller than me? Will I win a fight?
Dogs may also recognize human mouths and when I eat something the dog's F5 might light up because
food is an important survival item.
Index
Next
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