The relevant resting-state brain activity of ecological microexpression recognition test (EMERT)

PLoS One. 2020 Dec 22;15(12):e0241681. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241681. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Zhang, et al. (2017) established the ecological microexpression recognition test (EMERT), but it only used white models' expressions as microexpressions and backgrounds, and there was no research detecting its relevant brain activity. The current study used white, black and yellow models' expressions as microexpressions and backgrounds to improve the materials ecological validity of EMERT, and it used eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-state fMRI to detect relevant brain activity of EMERT for the first time. The results showed: (1) Two new recapitulative indexes of EMERT were adopted, such as microexpression M and microexpression SD. The participants could effectively identify almost all the microexpressions, and each microexpression type had a significantly background effect. The EMERT had good retest reliability and calibration validity. (2) ALFFs (Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations) in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and ALFFs-difference could predict microexpression M. The relevant brain areas of microexpression M were some frontal lobes, insula, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, parietal lobe, caudate nucleus, thalamus, amygdala, occipital lobe, fusiform, temporal lobe, cerebellum and vermis. (3) ALFFs in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and ALFFs-difference could predict microexpression SD, and the ALFFs-difference was more predictive. The relevant brain areas of microexpression SD were some frontal lobes, insula, cingulate cortex, cuneus, amygdala, fusiform, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, precuneus, caudate lobe, putamen lobe, thalamus, temporal lobe, cerebellum and vermis. (4) There were many similarities and some differences in the relevant brain areas between microexpression M and SD. All these brain areas can be trained to enhance ecological microexpression recognition ability.

Publication types

  • Observational Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Asian People
  • Black People
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology
  • Emotions
  • Facial Expression*
  • Facial Recognition / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Psychological Tests*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Rest / physiology*
  • Time Factors
  • White People
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” of China (JUSRP11983, JZ, http://kjc.jiangnan.edu.cn/), the Top-notch Academic Programs Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PPZY2015A003, MY, http://jyt.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2015/6/1/art_38765_3245491.html), the Mentoring Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (2016): 2016SJD190004 (MY, http://jyt.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2016/6/28/art_58391_7507970.html) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271084, DL, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/). JZ provided main research ideas and financial support, and was responsible for research design, data collection and analysis, and article writing. MY provided part of research ideas and financial support, and was responsible for research design, data analysis, and article writing. DS was responsible for experiment rogramming with E-Prime and supporting experiment implementation. DL was responsible for guiding the design, implementation, data analysis and article writing of the whole research, and provided financial support.