Impaired Conscious Recognition of Negative Facial Expressions in Patients with Locked-in Syndrome

The involvement of facial mimicry in different aspects of human emotional processing is widely debated. However, little is known about

relationships between voluntary activation of facial musculature and conscious recognition of facial expressions. To address this issue,

we assessed severely motor-disabled patients with complete paralysis of voluntary facial movements due to lesions of the ventral pons

[locked-in syndrome (LIS)]. Patients were required to recognize others’ facial expressions and to rate their own emotional responses to

presentation of affective scenes.LISpatientswere selectivelyimpairedin recognition of negativefacial expressions,thusdemonstratingthatthe

voluntary activation of mimicry represents a high-level simulation mechanism crucially involved in explicit attribution of emotions.