Description du projet
Étudier l’évolution et la fonction de l’expression faciale humaine
Nous utilisons les expressions du visage pour communiquer. Ce type de langage relativement simple joue un rôle important dans notre vie sociale. Il peut toutefois varier considérablement d’une personne à l’autre. L’expression faciale peut également être affectée par des troubles médicaux ou psychologiques spécifiques. Il reste cependant beaucoup de choses à apprendre sur la fonction sociale, l’anatomie et l’évolution de ces différences individuelles dans les expressions faciales. Le projet FACEDIFF, financé par l’UE, lancera la première étude interdisciplinaire sur la cause de la différenciation de l’expression faciale et sur la manière dont celle-ci se traduit par des avantages ou des inconvénients dans l’engagement social d’un individu. FACEDIFF utilisera diverses méthodes (psychologiques, anatomiques et interspécifiques) pour mesurer les différences dans la production et la perception individuelles des expressions faciales, en retraçant leurs déterminants évolutifs.
Objectif
Communicating with others via the face is crucial for navigating our social world. Deficits in facial expression production can have debilitating effects on social interaction, characterising several clinical conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about individual differences in facial expressivity in the typical population, what causes these differences and whether such differences impact on individual lives. In part, this could be due to an historical focus on the universal nature of facial expression, assigning individual difference to random ‘noise’, rather than an evolutionarily relevant characteristic. The FACEDIFF project will diverge from this classic approach and test the novel hypothesis that individual differences in facial expressivity equip individuals’ differentially to engage with their social environment: expressivity has a benefit (social engagement) but also a cost (over-exposure and thus risk of being cheated by others) and is related to the size and quality of an individual’s social network. FACEDIFF will combine psychological, anatomical and cross-species methods to provide the first thorough interdisciplinary investigation of individual differences. First, individual variation in production and perception of facial expressions will be measured via laboratory experiments and in relation to social network size and quality. Second, variation in human facial musculature will be documented through cadaveric dissection and existing MRI databases. Third, facial expressivity will be examined in a primate model to determine whether patterns are unique to humans. This project will be the first to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective on individual differences in facial expression and will stimulate new theories on the function and evolution of individual differences in humans.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineanatomy and morphology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologyparkinson
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepsychiatryschizophrenia
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
NG1 4FQ Nottingham
Royaume-Uni