Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States; Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Michael Andres
Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Alfonso Caramazza
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States; Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, Università degli Studi di Trento, Mattarello, Italy
What mechanisms underlie facial expression recognition? A popular hypothesis holds that efficient facial expression recognition cannot be achieved by visual analysis alone but additionally requires a mechanism of motor simulation — an unconscious, covert imitation of the observed facial postures and movements. Here, we first discuss why this hypothesis does not necessarily follow from extant empirical evidence. Next, we report experimental evidence against the central premise of this view: we demonstrate that individuals can achieve normotypical efficient facial expression recognition despite a congenital absence of relevant facial motor representations and, therefore, unaided by motor simulation. This underscores the need to reconsider the role of motor simulation in facial expression recognition.
