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

Autor(en)

Sebastian Korb, Alasdair Clarke, Claudia Massaccesi, Matthäus Willeit, Giorgia Silani

Abstrakt

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 'liking' and 'wanting' of rewards.

METHODS: In a placebo-controlled, double-blind experiment, 130 volunteers received in a between-subjects design 50 mg of the opioidergic antagonist naltrexone, 400 mg of the dopaminergic antagonist amisulpride, or placebo.

RESULTS: Clear occurrence of facial mimicry, measured 4 h after drug intake with electromyography (EMG) of the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles, was found. However, facial mimicry was not affected by either compound, as shown with both frequentist statistics, and a Bayesian asymptotic regression model.

CONCLUSIONS: This null finding does not support the hypothesis that facial mimicry (of happiness) reflects an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, leaving open the possibility of facial mimicry being an automatic motor copy. The results are relevant to the discussion about the psychological nature and the neural basis of facial mimicry, although they should be considered preliminary, given the challenges of interpreting null findings when targeting a novel effect of unknown size.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie, Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Essex, Medizinische Universität Wien

Journal

Psychopharmacology

Band

240

Seiten

2081-2091

Anzahl der Seiten

ISSN

0033-3158

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06426-3

Publikationsdatum

10-2023

Peer-reviewed

ÖFOS 2012

106025 Neurobiologie, 501011 Kognitionspsychologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Pharmacology

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/d1c7387e-655c-410d-94c4-82811c047c3f