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Expressing fear enhances sensory acquisition

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 843–850 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

It has been proposed that facial expression production originates in sensory regulation. Here we demonstrate that facial expressions of fear are configured to enhance sensory acquisition. A statistical model of expression appearance revealed that fear and disgust expressions have opposite shape and surface reflectance features. We hypothesized that this reflects a fundamental antagonism serving to augment versus diminish sensory exposure. In keeping with this hypothesis, when subjects posed expressions of fear, they had a subjectively larger visual field, faster eye movements during target localization and an increase in nasal volume and air velocity during inspiration. The opposite pattern was found for disgust. Fear may therefore work to enhance perception, whereas disgust dampens it. These convergent results provide support for the Darwinian hypothesis that facial expressions are not arbitrary configurations for social communication, but rather, expressions may have originated in altering the sensory interface with the physical world.

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Figure 1: Fear, disgust and their associated antiprototypes defined in a multidimensional face space.
Figure 2: Opposition in facial actions between fear and disgust expressions.
Figure 3: Subjective visual-field changes for participants posing fear and disgust expressions.
Figure 4: Saccadic eye movements for participants posing fear, disgust and neutral expressions.
Figure 5: Measurement of nasal inspiratory capacity during expressions of disgust and fear.
Figure 6: Effects of fear and disgust expressions on internal nasal anatomy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Pratt for comments on the eye-tracking data, F. Tam for technical assistance acquiring structural MRI scans and N. Sobel for comments on a prior draft. This work was supported by the Canada Research Chairs program and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant to A.K.A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, M5S 3G3, Ontario, Canada

    Joshua M Susskind, Daniel H Lee, Andrée Cusi, Roman Feiman, Wojtek Grabski & Adam K Anderson

  2. Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, M6A 2E1, Ontario, Canada

    Adam K Anderson

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  1. Joshua M Susskind
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  2. Daniel H Lee
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Contributions

J.M.S. and A.K.A. contributed equally to this work. J.M.S. created and analyzed the facial appearance model and associated behavioral data. J.M.S. and A.K.A. collected and analyzed the structural MRI data. A.C. and W.G. collected and analyzed the respiration and visual-field data and wrote parts of the corresponding Methods sections. D.H.L. and R.F. collected and analyzed the objective perimetry data, and J.M.S. and R.F. collected and analyzedthe eye-tracking data. J.M.S. and A.K.A. created the figures and wrote the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joshua M Susskind or Adam K Anderson.

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Susskind, J., Lee, D., Cusi, A. et al. Expressing fear enhances sensory acquisition. Nat Neurosci 11, 843–850 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2138

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