Page 93 - Demo

Facial Mimicry and Metacognition in Facial Emotion Recognition914The expression %u201cher face says it all%u201d exemplifies the fundamental contribution of nonverbal signals and cues in the communication of inner states (Frith, 2009; Tracy et al., 2015). According to social-functional approaches, emotional expressions are crucial in guiding social interactions by informing about others%u2019 states, evoking coordinated emotional responses, and incentivizing social behaviour (Keltner & Kring, 1998; van Kleef & C%u00f4t%u00e9, 2021). The accurate identification of an observed emotional expression is a key component in the interpretation of an expresser%u2019s emotional state, yet links between emotion recognition and other processes underlying emotion perception are still not well described. Facial mimicry, that is the mirroring of an observed expression, is one process that has been suggested to promote the recognition of others%u2019 emotions (Buck, 1980; K%u00fcnecke et al., 2014) (see Facial mimicry paragraph for further details). In contrast to this bottom-up information channel, the top-down assessment of one%u2019s recognition performance, a metacognitive process, might also provide relevant feedback about emotion processing (Kelly & Metcalfe, 2011)(see Metacognition paragraph for further details). Importantly, alterations in the processing of others%u2019 emotions, as well as in mimicry and metacognition (Davies et al., 2016; Rouault et al., 2018) have been reported for various mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, such as Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Research in both clinical populations has further revealed a link between alterations in processing other%u2019s emotional expressions and social interaction difficulties (Gilboa-Schechtman & Shachar-Lavie, 2013; D. A. Trevisan & Birmingham, 2016). The current study examines the putative associations between facial mimicry and confidence in emotion recognition abilities (i.e., a metacognitive judgment) with actual emotion recognition performance, as well as their potential alterations associated with social anxiety and autistic traits. Mimicry and Emotion RecognitionWhen observing an individual expressing an affective state via the face, people tend to automatically mirror the observed facial expression%u2014a phenomenon called facial mimicry (Dimberg, 1982). Distinct changes in activity over two muscle regions, the Zygomaticus Major and the Corrugator Supercilii (for simplicity referred to as %u201czygomaticus%u201d and %u201ccorrugator%u201d hereinafter) have been consistently reported in response to videos of emotional displays: Strongest evidence has been found for an increase in zygomaticus activity when happy facial expressions were viewed, together with a decrease in corrugator activity (Dijk, Fischer, et al., 2018;