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Home > Reading Topics A-Z > Reading Faces: Brain Research and Social Behavior

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Reading Faces: Brain Research and Social Behavior

Before a single word leaves a person's lips you can gain important information about them, including their emotional state, by reading their face. Recently researchers have started to untangle the brain mechanisms that underlie this crucial skill, which affects our interactions with other people. The new research provides a better understanding of the biology of social behavior and may lead to new ways to treat people with social problems.

The man approaches. His clothes tell you that he splurges on designer suits, but little else. For more important insights, you look to the face.

A quick read of a person's facial expression reveals key information, such as their emotional state. You can tell, for instance, if someone feels happy, sad, surprised, scared, angry, or disgusted. In turn, these insights influence your behavior and interaction with the individual. A sad face may trigger you to offer comfort. An angry scowl could prompt you to cross the street and avoid contact.

Once a mystery, researchers now are uncovering how the brain participates in this process. Some of the findings indicate that a small brain area, the amygdala (uh-mig-dah-la), is one major player. In particular, evidence suggests that it may act as the brain's pessimist, perpetually on the lookout for facial cues that signal danger and helping a person form judgments about whether to trust people.

The discoveries are leading to:

• A better understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie social interaction and how they sometimes falter.
• New ways to treat people who have trouble relating to others.

In the past, animal research indicated that the amygdala helps process fear in general. More recently, studies reveal that in humans it's also involved in the advanced function of detecting emotion in facial expressions. Researchers used brain imaging technology, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to observe healthy brains in action. They found that the amygdala is especially active during the viewing of fearful faces. In addition, the response appears automatic, occurring even when a person is unaware that they viewed a picture of a fearful face. The importance of the amygdala in reading fear in faces also became evident from studies of a patient with a rare condition that damaged her amygdala, but left the rest of her brain intact. This patient can recognize a person's identity, but has trouble detecting fear in their facial expression.

In a broad sense, the findings may mean that signs of fear in a person's face, and perhaps more complex facial cues, raise an instant red flag of potential danger to the very wary amygdala. Further analysis of the situation by the rest of the brain may determine that the person is a threat. As a result, you avoid them.

This theory agrees with recent evidence that normally the amygdala helps gauge a person's trustworthiness. For example, amygdala activity increases when healthy people view untrustworthy faces, according to a study. Researchers also discovered that patients with amygdala damage judged faces of unfamiliar individuals to be more trustworthy and approachable than did other types of brain-damaged patients.

Studies of individuals with social impairments also suggest that the amygdala plays an important role in reading faces and social behavior. For example, researchers examined groups of people with autism, who typically have trouble relating to others. People tested in one study had problems detecting fearful facial expressions. Further analysis revealed abnormalities in the structure of their amygdala. A different group of individuals with autism described unfamiliar faces as being more approachable and trustworthy than normal. Scientists also examined the brain activity of people with social phobia, a disorder characterized by an intense, irrational fear of social situations. Pictures of neutral faces create activity in the amygdala of people with the phobia, but not healthy individuals.

Together the insights are starting to guide the development of new treatments. Currently researchers are testing ways to normalize amygdala activity and potentially improve face reading and social behavior in patients who suffer from impairments in this area.