Joy, sadness, fear, attraction or rejection. Feelings, from the most primary to the highest, are transmitted and displayed from our deepest interior through the expression of our face.
Facial expression; what a high physiological function! How much has been written, for example, about the deep beauty and very delicate expression of Michelangelo's face of Pietà. The great sculptor knew how to perfectly carve the stone and reflect even the smallest detail of the deep pain and emotional tear of the Virgin Mary when picking up the newly crucified in her womb. And what about Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa? Rivers of ink have been written to try to answer a colossal question. Do you laugh or don't you laugh?
In short, facial expression faithfully transmits the mood, feelings, and state of the soul.
What elements make up facial expression? We will try to answer this very pertinent and difficult question.
Feelings are generated in the brain. In its modulation, the cerebral cortex and various nuclei of the base that integrate and participate in their generation intervene. It is certainly a superior function. The facial nerve transmits the impulses generated in the brain and conducts them to the superficial muscles of the face. 24 pairs of small muscles whose almost infinite combination of contraction and relaxation results in facial expression.
Raising the eyebrows, closing the eyes, contracting the lips... all these movements that make up the expression of a face are transmitted in this way. We receive a surprise, our receptor organs of the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell collect external stimuli and transmit them to the brain. There they are processed and made us aware.
Let's think we went home and unexpectedly there is a friend there that we didn't see years ago and whom we sincerely missed. Our eyes see him, our ears pick up his characteristic voice. This information reaches the brain. There it is processed, it becomes conscious. Indeed, he is our dear friend, he has undoubtedly come unexpectedly to see us. The brain reacts, generates a response. What a surprise! The facial nerve, at lightning speed, sends stimuli to certain muscles of the face. Our eyebrows rise, our mouth widens and our eyes almost go out of their orbits. The expression of surprise. One of the most recognizable and universal that exist.
We have some questions about facial expressions; how many expressions are there? Are facial expressions universal? That is, do they coincide in any culture and anywhere in the world?
Paul Ekman, one of the world's leading experts in nonverbal communication, has spent more than 40 years researching facial gestures and human emotions, and has managed to answer some of those questions.
Its conclusions are clear: the expressions of JOY, SADNESS, ANGER, SURPRISE, DISGUST, FEAR and CONTEMPT are universal, regardless of the society or culture to which you belong. An Eskimo from the North Pole or an African Maasai warrior would exhibit similar facies if they are suddenly surprised, for example and respectively, by a polar bear or a hungry lioness. Very curious The rest of the gestures are learned. For example, the movement we make with our heads from top to bottom to indicate Yes, means NO in countries like Bulgaria. In India there are several head movements to indicate yes, no or can be. And they don't match ours either. They are definitely learned gestures.
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