Electrical stimulation of smiling muscles reduces visual processing load and enhances happiness perception in neutral faces.

ABSTRACT: Theories of embodied cognition suggest that after an initial visual processing stage, emotional faces elicit spontaneous facial mimicry and that the accompanying change in proprioceptive facial feedback contributes to facial emotion recognition. However, this temporal sequence has not yet been properly tested, given the lack of methods allowing to manipulate or interfere with facial muscle activity at specific time points. The current study (N = 52, 28 women) investigated this key question using EEG and facial neuromuscular electrical stimulation (fNMES)-a technique offering superior control over which facial muscles are activated and when. Participants categorised neutral, happy and sad avatar faces as either happy or sad and received fNMES (except in the control condition) to bilateral z

SUBMITTER: Baker J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12222020 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature