The Holidays are near, which for many means the bubbly will be making it’s annual appearance.  But, according to new research, that could be a good thing!

A recent study suggests that alcohol can have a positive affect on a person’s ability to recognize the universal facial expressions of disgust and contempt. The full text can be found in Kingston University London Research Repository.

You must be a member to receive access to the full text of the study but this can be good news and can come in handy at holiday office parties.

A relevant article from the The Times of India: Health & Fitness reveals that new information on how we process facial expressions and the role of facial mimicry from deciphering an unclear smile to establishing relationships.

Mimicry activates muscles that control both smiles and frowns, and evoke their corresponding emotions, positive and negative.  The studies reveal new roles of facial mimicry and some of its underlying brain circuitry.

An interesting fact, reported on by The Times of India, is that social status and self-perceptions of power seem affect facial mimicry.  Powerful individuals were shown to suppress their smile mimicry towards other high-status people, while powerless individuals seem to mimic everyone’s smile.

 ”Today’s findings highlight the role of facial expressions in communication and social behaviour,” said press conference moderator Ruben Gur, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania.

These findings were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.  Gur goes on to state, “Brain circuits that interpret the face appear ever more specialized, from primate ‘eye cells,’ to brain feedback that enables us to discern meaning through facial mimicry.”

 Have you had many interesting experiences with facial expressions?  How about with a new baby mimicking your facial expressions?  

The real secret to success is about understanding and knowing how to address people and situations appropriately!

Humintell’s emotion recognition training can help you do just that and is perfect for every individual and skill level.

What are Microexpressions?

Microexpressions are concealed facial expressions of emotion, which people elicit in high stakes situations when they have something substantial to lose or gain.

They are characterized by the speed at which they flash on and off the face (as fast as 1/16th a second).

Why Humintell’s Trainings?

Our courses are the ONLY scientifically validated emotion recognition training tools on the market.

Humintell also offers trainings that teach you to detect facial expressions of emotion from multiple angles (frontal view, profile view and 3/4 side view of the face), a feature that is unique to our company.

 How Can Learning Microexpressions Help People?

Many of us know that being able to recognize microexpressions can aid in detection deception; therefore, it is a technique that is being more widely used in government organizations and law enforcement.  However, microexpressions can be beneficial in a wide variety of fields such as education, global business traveling, studying abroad, the health industry and much more.

A microexpression training tool, like MiX, can also be a non-pharmacological intervention technique to treat individuals who are affected by certain disorders such as schizophrenia as well as treating social disabilities.

There has been much emotion training literature that has been focused on training people with developmental or social disabilities, including individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome (e.g., Barnhill, Cook, Tebbenkamp, & Myles, 2002), Autism (Bolte, Hubl, Feineis-Matthews, Prvulovic, Dierks, & Poustka, 2006; Solomon, Goodlin-Jones, & Anders, 2004), mental retardation (McAlpine, Singh, Ellis, & Kendall, 1992; Stewart & Singh, 1995), to individuals with acquired brain injury (Guercio, Podolska-Schroeder, & Rehfeldt, 2004).

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TEDTalks is a video podcast of the best talks and performances from TED conferences.  They feature the world’s leading thinkers and doers who give talks on their lives, their work, their revolutionary ideas & concepts in roughly 5 -20 minutes.

TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at the TED Conference with the world. Under the slogan “ideas worth spreading,” talks were released online beginning in June 2006.  They rapidly attracted a global audience in the millions.  In April 2007, the entire TED website was re-engineered around TEDTalks, with the goal of giving everyone on-demand access to the world’s most inspiring voices.

Below is one such Talk, featuring Marco Tempest a renowned magician, who uses three iPods like magical props and  spins a clever, surprisingly heartfelt meditation on truth and lies, art and emotion.

 ”One of my favorite magicians is Carl Jermaine.  When asked about deception he said this, ‘magic is the only Honest profession.  A magician promises to deceive you and he does.’ ”  He goes on to state that Deception is a fundamental part of life. “We deceive to gain advantage and hide our weaknesses.  Art is a deception that creates real emotion.”  

Click here to view the embedded video.