Facial mimicry is not modulated by dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

According to theories of embodied cognition, facial mimicry - the spontaneous, low-intensity imitation of a perceived emotional facial expression - is first an automatic motor response, whose accompanying proprioceptive feedback contributes to emotion recognition. Alternative theoretical accounts, however, view facial mimicry as an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, and/or an affiliative signal, and thus reject the view of an automatic motor copy.

Objectives

To contribute to this debate and further investigate the neural basis of facial mimicry, as well as its relation to reward processing, we measured facial reactions to dynamic happy and angry faces after pharmacologically manipulating the opioid and dopamine systems - respectively, thought to subserve '

SUBMITTER: Korb S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10506945 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature