Facial Actions During Face-to-Face Interaction Between Mother and Infant

by Nadia Denis

 Abstract

 Facial interaction between mother and infant three months of age were observed to evaluate facial actions during various situations. It is during a ten minute procedure that we observed this interaction and used the Baby Facial Action Coding System , a version of the Facial Action Coding System to code an infants facial expression. In this coding system, certain requirements were needed in order to categorize a code. Care was taken in order to be as accurate as possible. Two infants were observed for this research. Both were exposed to the same kinds of situations. Both infants were recorded and then later used for coding. In this research, it was found that a neutral code ( this was coded when no visible facial action fell into any of the categories) appeared the most frequent and longest in duration in both infants. Variations were seen in the other codes.

 Introduction

The purpose of the research that I am presently conducting is to assess infant facial actions. The participants of this research were two infants who were four months of age, their mothers, and a stranger. Throughout my research, I observed the facial actions of both infants during face-to-face interactions with first the mother and then with a stranger. During my observations, the infants were exposed to various situations where they recorded and observed for their reactions and these reactions were later used for coding. The role of both the infant and the mother are important in the quality of the parent-child interaction during face-to-face interaction.

Examples used in facial coding expressions

Methods

During the face-to-face interaction, the mother and stranger are asked to do several things. This whole ten minute procedure involved six steps. It began with the mother first entering a room in which her baby was set up in a high chair. Next, the mother began by interacting with the infant as she would do normally in her home. The third step, she turned away from the baby and faces the wall so that her back was to the baby. Then the mother was asked to face the baby and resume interaction. The still face is the fifth step and during this period the mother faced the infants, but held an expressionless face and had no kind of interaction with the infant. Finally, the mother turned away from the baby once more, then resumes play for the last time. After this whole procedure was completed, the mother exited the room and the stranger entered and sat facing away from the baby. The stranger also played with the baby before finally exiting the room. This whole process is recorded and later observed for facial coding using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS).

The Baby Facial Action Coding System, which is a version of FACS, is a system used to code an infant’s facial expression caused by various muscle actions of the face. There are several codes which are used in identifying the different movements of the face. We began with a neutral code (or no other code ) signifying no visible facial action that can be placed into any of the other categories. The next three codes involved lip corner raising at three ascending levels of intensity. The first is a lip corner raising at the lowest intensity (x). The lip corner raise is caused by the movement of the zygomatic major muscle which rised from the zygomatic arch in the cheekbones and joins to the lip corners. When one is coding for this, they would look for a few requirements needed to classify this as a lip corner raise (x). Due to the action of the lip corner being pulled up in an oblique way, the nasolabial furrow deepens and the infraorbital triangle raised (as the infraorbital triangle raised the cheeks also became more evident) producing a distinctive appearance of a smile. The more intense these characteristics became, lip corner raise y and lip corner raises z were recorded ( x being the lowest intensity and z being the highest intensity). In this study, the intensity discussion was collapsed to yield the frequency and duration of all lip corner raises.

BrowDown is a code used to indicate the lowering of the eyebrows caused by joint action of three muscles. The depressor supercilli (this lowered the brows), the depressor glabella (this pulled the central part of the brows down), and the corrugator supercilli (this brought the eyebrows down and together ). This lowering may be the lowering of the inner, central, or whole portion of the eyebrows. As the brow was lowered, the eyebrows were pulled closer together. Deep wrinkles were produced between the eyebrows and the eye cover folds were pushed downward causing the eye opening to become narrow.

The Negative code consists of three other codes (BrowOpen, BrowClos, BrowTight, and ChinRaise) incorporated in one category. BrowOpen includes the lowering of the brows, a sideways lip stretch and / or raising of the upper lip, and mouth open (dropped or stretched jaw). BrowClos is also a brow lowering and sideways lip stretch and /or raising of the upper lip, but the lips were parted or closed. BrowTight is another brow lowering and the tightening or pressing of the lips together. A ChinRaise which was produced by the mentalis muscle (this muscle lies below the lower lip and joins the tissue in the boss) and could be seen when the infant’s chin produced dimples and bulges due to the subcutaneous fat in the chin boss. The lower lip was also pushed outward resembling the pouting motion.

Finally, Can’t See was used in coding when the infant’s face could not be properly coded due to an object blocking the coder’s view of the face.

Results

Infant 1

For the first baby, a neutral code was the most frequently observed ( this code had a duration of 561 seconds and was seen 23 times ),and the least seen codes was the Negative (which includes BrowDownBrowOpen, BrowClos, BrowTight, and ChinRaise were seen 5 times and lasted for 6 seconds), a Smile code (seen 9 times and lasted for ten seconds) throughout the whole ten minute procedure. These results are shown in figures one and two.

Two types of graphs are displayed for each baby. The first graph for each participant diplays the frequency of each code during the whole procedure and the second graph shows the total duration appeared during the face-to-face interaction.

Figure 1a.	Figure 1b.
Figure 2a.	Figure 2b.

Throughout the majority of the interaction, as I observed, the infant one spend most of the time interested in the high chair seat belt. It was during the still face that I observed the lowering of the brows. At times, I had the impression that the baby was curious, but the BrowDown slowly led into a BrowOpen (described previously). It seemed as if the infant is about to commence crying, but once again it comforted itself by focusing its attention on the seat belt. When playful interaction resumed with its mother, the infant focused its attention on the mother, periodically glancing away. It was during this interaction that small smiles were seen. During my observations of the baby, it was my impression that a neutral code was usually coded when the infant was observing its other’s facial actions as if to memorize her face and /or listen to her voice. a neutral code was also seen during infant stranger interaction. The infant acknowledged a person aside from its mother and just observed.

I also noticed during this interaction, the infant vocalized with its mother and the stranger as well. Despite their efforts of talking, singing, and clapping their hands, the infant just observed periodically looking away and played with the seat belt on the high chair. The infant did not engage in any type of playful interaction with either its mother or the stranger. Instead, the infants tended to look away at times and busily played with itself by putting its hand in the mouth, lifting its feet, or vocalizing. With its mother, the infant looked away more than with the stranger who exhibited more playful interaction.

Infant 2

The second infant displayed similar data, but some differences were seen. Here a neutral code was more frequently seen (55 times which lasted for 334 seconds), the Smile code (seen 49 times which lasted for 90 seconds)and the BrowDown code (seen 25 times which lasted for 204 seconds) were the less frequently seen codes. These results are shown in figures three and four. For this infant, as soon as there was a loss of attention, the infant immediately began crying and the crying did not stop until the stranger was present. My opinion as I mentioned previously was that the baby enjoyed the playful interaction with its mother but once it stopped, this elicits crying and the attention of the infant was focused elsewhere. For this baby, I believe it was a change in the voices that caused the baby to slowly stop crying and gaze at the stranger’s face. The high pitched, playful tone of the stranger was almost like a signal for the infant to begin the playful interaction once again because the baby did resume smiling and playful interaction. In the infant-mother interaction, although the mother attempted to resume playful interaction with her infant by calling the infant’s name and clapping her hands, her attempts were not successful.

The results of this graph can show that infant one (14144) exhibited more Neutral codes (no other code), less Browdowns, and Smiles, while infant two (14178) showed more Smiles and BrowDowns. Infant two showed similar data , but the loss of attention caused the infant to become frustrated and angry. The infant demonstrated behaviors such as jerky hand and leg movements, brow lowering, restlessness, and crying. The infant continues to cry and never stopped until the stranger was present and exhibited playful interaction and exaggerated vocalizations that interested the infant.

Discussion

Smiling is a pleasant reaction that an infant can show to express joy, high spirits, tender feelings, or love. Smiling is usually interpreted as a pleasurable sensation whether it was a result of gazing at the mother or a game the mother may play with the infant. At times, the infant may fix its gaze and smile at it mother simultaneously as an outcome of a social interaction. Smiling during face-to-face interaction was seen in both mother-infant and stranger-infant situations. It was during a playful atmosphere that smiling was seen. In a playful atmosphere, the mother or stranger may clap their hands, use playful tones with their voices, or use fun type movements (such as taking the infant’s hands and moving around with them).

Distress can result in grimacing or crying due to any kind of unpleasant sensation such as discomfort or pain. Crying is a distinctive expression that can be due to a variety of reasons or conditions. When an infant begins to cry, one immediately speculates the baby being unhappy, uncomfortable, and so on. Emotions of distress were often seen during infant-stranger interaction. For each baby, distress was seen. The infant would begin crying and sometimes they became frustrated. Distress seemed to be seen when the infant’s exhibit facial actions such as brow lowering (this appeared to occur with crying).

The diversity of an infant’s behavior is dependent upon the variability of the stimuli (the mother or stranger ) and subject (the infant ) surrounding. This would make if difficult to categorize or even classify a baby’s facial expressions with emotions. In other words, the baby’s facial expression could either be random muscle actions or a simple response from a direct stimulus ( the mother ). For example, the infant may smile after its mother smiles. It may be that this response to the direct stimulus is not any particular emotion related to the facial action.

Between the infant-mother interaction, socialization occurred between the two in the form of expression , an exchange of emotions, and an exchange of facial actions. From the babies I have observed, socialization was heightened when the mother and infant were interacting, but it was during still face or when the mother’s back was turned to the infant , that the infant seemed to look less frequently toward it mother and engage with itself as in playing with its hand or feet or focusing on an object. Some infants may even begin to cry or exhibit some frustration from such a sudden lack of attention. The different facial movements seen in face-to-face interaction, seen in both infant and mother can be an expression of an emotion. It is these expressions of facial actions that is important to each partner observed in an interaction.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to express a special thanks to the following people who made this research project: The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Dr. Gaines, and Dr. Daniel Messinger.

References:

Eckman, P. and Fresen, W. (1978). The Facial Action Coding System. Palo Alto; Consulting Psychologist Press.