Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013:3:1527.
doi: 10.1038/srep01527.

Rapid facial mimicry in geladas

Giada Mancini  1 , Pier Francesco Ferrari, Elisabetta Palagi
Affiliations

Rapid facial mimicry in geladas

Giada Mancini et al. Sci Rep. 2013.

Abstract

Rapid facial mimicry (RFM) is an automatic response, in which individuals mimic others' expressions. RFM, only demonstrated in humans and apes, is grounded in the automatic perception-action coupling of sensorimotor information occurring in the mirror neuron system. In humans, RFM seems to reflect the capacity of individuals to empathize with others. Here, we demonstrated that, during play, RFM is also present in a cercopithecoid species (Theropithecus gelada). Mother-infant play sessions were not only characterized by the highest levels of RFM, but also by the fastest responses. Our findings suggest that RFM in humans have homologous not only in apes, but also in cercopitecoids. Moreover, data point to similarities in the modality in which mother-infant synchronous behaviours are expressed among primates, suggesting a common evolutionary root in the basic elements of mother-infant affective exchanges.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Rapid facial mimicry in adult and immature individuals (PF and FPF as stimuli) - RFM events per number of trigger stimuli, when the observer was an adult (on the left) and an immature individual (on the right).
Thick horizontal lines indicate medians; height of the boxes corresponds to inter-quartile range; thin horizontal lines indicate range of observed values.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Rapid facial mimicry in adult and immature individuals (LS as stimulus) - RFM events per number of trigger stimuli, when the observer was an adult (on the left) and an immature individual (on the right).
Thick horizontal lines indicate medians; height of the boxes corresponds to inter-quartile range; thin horizontal lines indicate range of observed values.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Rapid facial mimicry: infant-mother dyads vs infant-unrelated adult dyads - Frequency of the congruent responses (RFM event per number of PF and FPF perceived) exchanged between infants and their mothers and between infants and other unrelated group-members.
Thick horizontal lines indicate medians; height of the boxes corresponds to inter-quartile range; thin horizontal lines indicate range of observed values.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Time latency of congruent response: infant-mother dyads vs infant-unrelated adult dyads - Time latency (10 msec) of the congruent responses exchanged between infants and their mothers and between infants and other unrelated group-members.
Thick horizontal lines indicate medians; height of the boxes corresponds to inter-quartile range; thin horizontal lines indicate range of observed values.
Figure 5
Figure 5. An example of congruent response in RFM - RFM during a play session between an adult (left) and an immature individual (right).
The immature mimics the adult's full play face (FPF). (Photo by P.F. Ferrari).
Figure 6
Figure 6. An example of incongruent response - Infant's incongruent response (right) to the facial expression of an unrelated female (left).
Infant is performing a play face (PF) and adult female lip smacking (LS). (Photo by P.F. Ferrari).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dimberg U., Thunberg M. & Grunedal S. Facial reactions to emotional stimuli: automatically controlled emotional responses. Cognition Emotion 16, 449–471 (2002).
    1. Iacoboni M. Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 60, 653–670 (2009). - PubMed
    1. Dimberg U., Thunberg M. & Elmehed K. Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. Psychol. Sci. 11, 86–89 (2000). - PubMed
    1. Beall P. M., Moody E. J., McIntosh D. N., Hepburn S. L. & Reed C. L. Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 101, 206–223 (2008). - PubMed
    1. Jones S. S. The development of imitation in infancy. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 364, 2325–2335 (2009). - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources