Psychosomatic Medicine Faster Service from Outside North America
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schwartz, G. E.
Right arrow Articles by Klerman, G. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schwartz, G. E.
Right arrow Articles by Klerman, G. L.

Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 38, Issue 5 337-347, Copyright © 1976 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Facial expression and imagery in depression: an electromyographic study

GE Schwartz, PL Fair, P Salt, MR Mandel and GL Klerman

When subjects are instructed to self-generate happy, sad, and angry imagery, discrete patterns of facial muscle activity can be detected using electromyographic (EMG) procedures. Prior research from this laboratory suggests that depressed subjects show attenuated facial EMG patterns during imagery conditions, particularly during happy imagery. In the present experiment, 12 depressed subjects and 12 matched normals were requested to generate happy and sad imagery, first with the instruction to simply "think" about the imagery, and then to self-regulate the affective state by "reexperiencing the feelings" associated with the imagery. Continuous recordings of facial EMG were obtained from the corrugator, zygomatic major, depressor anguli oris, and mentalis muscle regions. It was hypothesized that (a) these muscle sites would reliably differentiate between happy and sad imagery. (b) the instruction to self-generate the affective feeling state would produce greater EMG differences than the "think" instructions, and (c) the "think" instructions would be a more sensitive indicator of the difference between depressed and nondepressed subjects, especially for happy imagery. All three hypotheses were confirmed. The application of facial electromyography to the assessment of normal and clinical mood states, and the role of facial muscle patterning in the subjective experience of emotion, are discussed.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol BullHome page
J. J. Gross, O. P. John, and J. M. Richards
The Dissociation of Emotion Expression from Emotion Experience: A Personality Perspective
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, August 1, 2000; 26(6): 712 - 726.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Social Science InformationHome page
G. E. Schwartz
Psychophysiological patterning and emotion from a systems perspective
Social Science Information, November 1, 1982; 21(6): 781 - 817.



HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1976 by the American Psychosomatic Society