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facial expressions

This shows a person walking away from an oversized face.

·October 14, 2025·5 min read

Moving Away Makes Faces Seem Angrier

New research shows that our own physical movements can alter how we perceive emotions on others’ faces. In a virtual reality experiment, participants were more likely to judge a face as angry when they actively moved away from it, compared to when the face moved away from them.

This shows a woman pulling different facial expressions.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 20, 2025·4 min read

Facial Expressions Reveal Hidden Cognitive States

New research shows that facial expressions can reveal internal cognitive states, accurately predicting task performance across both macaques and mice. By analyzing facial features during a foraging task in a virtual reality setup, researchers identified patterns linked to motivation, focus, and responsiveness.

Featured Neuroscience Pain Psychology

·December 6, 2024·4 min read

Facial Expressions of Pain Are Linked to Distinct Brain Activity

Facial expressions triggered by pain are deeply tied to brain activity, revealing distinct neural mechanisms compared to verbal pain reports. Researchers developed a neurobiological model, using MRI and machine learning, to predict pain-induced facial expressions.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 14, 2024·4 min read

Facial Expressions Key to Strong Social Bonds

Humans may have evolved complex facial expressions to enhance social bonding. By analyzing over 1,500 natural conversations, the study found that expressive individuals were more liked and better at achieving social goals. Expressive participants were easier to read and more successful in conflict negotiations. This suggests facial expressivity plays a crucial role in human social interactions and relationship building.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 13, 2024·5 min read

Illusory Faces Trigger Same Biases as Real Faces

Our brains assign the same biases to faces seen in inanimate objects as they do to human faces. Known as face pareidolia, this phenomenon includes seeing faces in objects like the moon or toast. The study found that feminine-looking illusory faces are perceived as happy faster, while masculine-looking ones are seen as angry quicker. These findings suggest that face-like patterns activate similar socio-cognitive processes as real faces.

This shows a face covered in different colored paints.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·June 13, 2024·6 min read

Facial Expressions Alter Memory of Color

Facial expressions influence memory color effect, with angry and fearful faces more strongly affected than neutral faces. Participants perceived achromatic angry and fearful faces as red-yellow, indicating that expression impacts color memory. This research highlights how emotions and memory color are interconnected. Future studies aim to explore attention toward different facial expressions and colors.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 29, 2024·5 min read

How Politicians’ Smiles Can Swing Voter Support

The type of smile displayed by political leaders can significantly sway voter preferences and support for their political agendas. The study distinguished between 'reward' and 'affiliative' smiles, analyzing their effects on voter reactions to leaders from the 2019 UK general election.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·February 13, 2023·4 min read

Even the Best Models for Reading Facial Expressions May Be Partly Subjective

Even the best models for recognizing facial emotions fall short of real human judgment. Additionally, individual differences mean different people read different emotions from the same face, making it harder to ascertain exactly which facial movements are systematically linked to different emotional states.

Image shows a man with a chopstick in his mouth and a drawing of the man

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 15, 2022·4 min read

Inhibiting Imitation of Others Can Increase Understanding of Others

Inhibiting imitation of others increases empathy and allows people to recognize the facial expression of others, regardless of their situation.

This shows a woman surrounded by different images of her face

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 31, 2022·2 min read

Different People Interpret Facial Impressions Very Differently

The same facial expression can mean different things to different people.

This shows a sad woman sitting at a window

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 8, 2022·3 min read

Antibiotic Treatments May Make Us More Susceptible to Negative Emotions

Recent antibiotic use impacts the way in which people pay attention to negative facial expressions. Findings shed light on how antibiotic use can increase the risks of depression.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 5, 2022·3 min read

Women Seen as Happy and Men as Angry Despite Real Emotions

Researchers say sex influences emotional interpretation of faces and voices. Faces and voices are judged to be male when they are angry and female when they are happy.