Electromyographic evidence for age-related differences in the mimicry of anger

Phoebe E. Bailey, Julie D. Henry, Matthew R. Nangle

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    38 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Although older adults have difficulty recognizing all facial emotions, they have particular difficulty decoding expressions of anger. Since disruption of facial mimicry impairs emotion recognition, electromyography of the corrugator supercilii (i.e., brow) muscle region was used to test whether there are age differences in anger mimicry. Associations between mimicry and emotion recognition were also assessed. The results indicated that although there were no age differences in anger mimicry, older (but not young) adults' corrugator responses to angry expressions were associated with reduced anger recognition. Implications for understanding emotion recognition difficulties in older adulthood are discussed.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)224-229
    Number of pages6
    JournalPsychology and Aging
    Volume24
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

    Keywords

    • anger
    • face perception

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