Neurological Correlates

Yet another review of a book I haven’t read. From excerpts and other reviews, it looks great  – mostly because it’s written in a way that takes ordinary observations about human behavior and does the 360º.

This book, “Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique,” examines what makes humans different from animals — after all, a cell is a cell, whether in a fruit fly or a human.  So it’s a big topic.  Sounds good.

I stopped reading these “science for the masses” books because they are usually outdated by the time they hit the stacks. Or, sometimes they are a little too “gee-whiz-new-science”.  I’m too jaded for that. But, reading technical journals is living death to me. Is techno-jargon a price support system for scientists? A barrier to entry limiting knowledge to only those who know the secret words? If the SEC can require plain English, the peer-review journals can also make that happen. (OK, rant over).

So this book seems like something I’d be interested in — it de-jargons the research, organizes it, puts it in context,  gives practical examples, and sets out thoughtful analysis. Here’s a link to the index.  Here is an excerpt from the Dana Foundation — I’ll quote a little bit which discusses cheaters and deception:

 

How Do We Tell If Someone Is Lying?

While gossiping and determining if we think the information we are getting is true, we also read facial expressions. Face perception is probably the most developed visual skill in humans and obviously plays a major role in social interactions. It has long been thought that face perception is mediated by a specialized system in the human brain, and we now know that different parts of the brain mediate different types of face perception. The pathways that perceive identity are different from those that perceive movement and expressions.

Beginning soon after birth, babies prefer to look at faces rather than other objects.¹³ After the age of seven months, we begin to respond appropriately to specific expressions.¹⁴ Thereafter, face perception provides tons of information that greases social interaction. From the visual appearance of faces, one can access information about another person’s identity, background, age, gender, mood, interest level, and intentions. We can notice what they are looking at and check it out too, and also understand their speech better by lip- reading.¹⁵

We are not alone in the ability to recognize individual faces. Chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys are also able to do so.¹⁵ Contrary to what has previously been observed, recent dissection has shown that chimpanzees and humans have a nearly identical facial anatomy¹⁶ and a full range of facial expressions. Lisa Parr at Emory University has done some studies that demonstrate the ability of chimps to match photographic facial expressions with emotional scenes in videos.¹⁷ So we share with the chimps two components of gossiping and social exchange—recognizing with whom we are dealing and being able to read emotions from facial expressions—but will that help us in recognizing liars? Well, there is a whole range of facial and body movements that are associated with deception, which brings us back to our man Machiavelli.

Paul Ekman, at the University of California, San Francisco, has done more for the study of facial expression than anyone else. It was a lonely business when he started his studies, because everyone else—except Darwin, of course, and an eighteenth- century French neurologist named Duchenne de Boulogne—had avoided the topic. Ekman, through years of research, has established that facial expressions are universal¹⁸ and that there are specific expressions for specific emotions. When an individual is lying, the higher the stakes are, the more emotions (such as anxiety or fear) he is feeling.¹⁹ These emotions are leaked to the face²⁰ and voice tone.²¹ And here is one of the benefits of true self-deception: If you don’t know you are lying, your facial expressions won’t give you away.

Ekman has studied people’s ability to detect liars, and it is pretty pathetic. Most people aren’t very good at it, even though they may think they are (once again deceiving themselves). They perform at the same rate as chance guessing. However, he has found some professionals to be good at it: Secret Service agents are the best, and next best are some psychotherapists. Out of twelve thousand people whom he has tested, he found only twenty who were naturally excellent lie detectors!²² One problem inherent in reading facial expressions is that one reads the emotion but does not necessarily understand the reason for the emotion and so misinterprets it. We will learn more about this in later chapters. You may realize that a person is scared and think it is because he is lying to you and is frightened that you will figure that out, but it could be that he is scared because he didn’t lie and is being falsely accused and he thinks that you won’t believe him.

Now, I like this style — deconstructing human behavior: You take a behavior pattern, and reduce it to its least complex constituents. Then you analyze those one by one. (I try to do that here in this blog, and it’s tough to even think about, never mind put in writing).

This passage neatly ties up all the loose ends of social behavior and deception, and puts it in a sort of DIY form.  I mean, if you read the research journals in this area, you know the information — in dribs and drabs. So for me, it’s not that it’s new information, it’s in the presentation.  Nothing earthshaking, but if you want earthshaking, you’ll slog through the techno-jargon in early on-line journals.

(Having just written how much I appreciate the clarity of the excerpt, I just went back and read the “Acknowledgments“, where the author says he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and was assisted in writing by his sister. I haven’t read any of the author’s previous books, but perhaps he should give his sister a raise.)

If you want to read a book about human behavior that’s not in the science aisle, the other choice is in the “self-help” aisle. Like,  “He’s Just Not That Into You.” (Note, there is a movie coming out, based on the book, starring a woman who is well known for being dumped.)  I’m not against these books. But you really need to understand the biology. After all, if he doesn’t ask you out until after the gym on Friday, is he not that into you or is he slightly autistic spectrum ? Does that matter?

My turn for book club is coming up  — the last book I picked was The Sociopath Next Door , which everyone really thought was great. I’ll read this and post reviews after book club.

And so, what makes humans human? Hm. It would help if I read the book.

My initial thought is that it’s flexibility: the ability to adapt to wide variety of circumstances. After all, there is the aquatic ape theory.

Flexibility in social behavior is also an advantage: animals don’t have frenemies. Facial expression analysis is one way we decode social/affiliative cues. It’s a shortcut – don’t wait for the actions, just look at the face.

Just to elaborate on our humanity, here are some on-line tests, relating to microexpression analysis:

• Unmasking the Face
• BBC Spot the Fake Smile test

From Neurodiversity Weblog,  here are key facial emotion microexpressions-anatomical components (adapted from Paul Ekman, at the University of California, San Francisco, the noted original and expert the anatomical correlates of facial emotion expression).

Emotions & Characteristic Facial Expressions
	Happiness: Corners of the lips are drawn back and up. The mouth may or may not be parted, with teeth exposed or not. A wrinkle (the naso-labial fold) runs down from the nose to the outer edge beyond the lip corners. The cheeks are raised. The lower eyelid shows wrinkles below it, and may be raised but not tense. Crow’s-feet wrinkles go outward from the outer corners of the eyes (but may be covered by hair). There may also be a sparkle in the eyes, a glistening.
	Sadness: The inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn up. The skin below the eyebrow is traingulated, with the inner corner up.The upper eyelid inner corner is raised. The corners of the lips are down or the lip is trembling.
	Anger: The brows are lowered and drawn together. Vertical lines appear between the brows. The lower lid is tensed and may or may not be raised. The upper lid is tensed and may or may not be lowered by the action of the brow. The eyes have a hard stare and may have a bulging appearance. The lips are in either of two basic positions: pressed firmly together with the corners straight or down; or open, tensed in a squarish shape as if shouting. The nostrils may be dilated, but this is not essential to the anger facial expression and may also occur in sadness. There is ambiguity unless anger is registered in all three facial areas.
	Surprise: The brows are raised, so that they are curved and high. The skin below the brow is stretched Horizontal wrinkles go across the forehead The eyelids are opened, the upper lid raised and the lower lid drawn down; the white of the eye (the sclera) shows above the iris, and often below as well. The jaw drops open so that the lips and teeth are parted, but there is no tension or stretching of the mouth.
	Disgust: The upper lip is raised. The lower lip is also raised and pushed up to the upper lip, or is lowered and slightly protruding. The nose is wrinkled. The cheeks are raised. Lines show below the lower lid, and the lid is pushed up but not tense. The brow is lowered, lowering the upper lid.
	Contempt: Slight pressing of the lips and a raising of the corners on one side.
	Fear: The brows are raised and drawn together. The wrinkles in the forehead are in the center, not across the entire forehead. The upper eyelid is raised, explosing sclera (whites of the eyes), and the lower eyelid is tensed and drawn up. The mouth is open and the lips are either tensed slightly and drawn back or stretched and drawn back.