Investigating the building blocks of empathy in early childhood: an examination of the rapid facial mimicry response

Certain forms of empathy, including emotion sharing (i.e. affective empathy), are assumed to be present from birth; however, our present understanding of early empathy development is limited. This thesis makes a substantive contribution to the developmental empathy literature by investigating a physiological response thought to underlie affective empathy responding in early life: rapid facial mimicry (RFM). Measured via facial electromyography, RFM refers the human tendency to mimic facial expressions; activation of cheek muscles when we see someone smile and brow muscles when we see someone frown. Study 1 investigated if 3-and 7-month-old infants produce RFM to adult happy and angry faces. Seven-month olds mimicked happy faces only, and 3-month olds did not mimic either expression. This finding suggests that RFM is not innate, and experience with facial expressions might be necessary for production of RFM. Studies 2 to 4 investigated whether RFM is present in the preschool period, and is associated with affective empathy function. Study 2 found preschoolers mimicked adults displaying happy but not angry facial expressions; RFM was not correlated with parent-rated affective empathy. Study 3 used a broader range of facial expression stimuli and found RFM to happy and sad faces depended on stimulus age (child vs adult faces), and RFM to fearful faces depended on participant gender and stimulus age. There was no evidence of RFM to angry faces. Again, a significant RFM-affective empathy correlation was not found. Study 4 found that RFM occurred to dynamic happy, fear and sad adult faces but not to angry faces. Studies 2 to 4 demonstrated that RFM to angry expressions is not present in early development, variables such as stimulus age and dynamicity influence RFM elicitation, and RFM is not associated with affective empathy as it is in adulthood. Study 5 investigated rapid facial responses to photographs of fear-relevant (e.g. snakes) and fear-irrelevant (e.g. flowers) non-facial stimuli. Preschoolers produced facial responses to fear-irrelevant stimuli only, indicating that young children may not be hardwired to produce rapid facial responses to fear-relevant stimuli. Together, these studies challenge classic assumptions about the RFM response as a hardwired, reflexive, and biologically predisposed response, and demonstrate that RFM in early development presents differently to RFM in adulthood. Implications for RFM as an affective empathy response are discussed

Rapid facial reactions in response to happy and angry expressions in 7-month-old infants

Humans rapidly and spontaneously activate muscles in the face when viewing emotional facial expressions in others. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs) are thought to reflect low-level, bottom-up processes, and are theorized to assist an observer to experience and share the affect of another individual. It has been assumed that RFRs are present from birth; however to date, no study has investigated this response in children younger than 3 years of age. In the present study, we used facial electromyography (EMG) to measure corrugator supercilii (brow) and zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle activity in 7-month-old infants while they viewed happy and angry facial expressions. The results showed that 7-month olds exhibited greater zygomaticus activity in response to happy expressions than angry expressions, however, we found no evidence of differential corrugator muscle activity

Adapting Internet-Delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to Treat Co-Occurring Disruptive Behavior and Callous-Unemotional Traits: A Case Study

Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) are highly prevalent, emerge in early childhood, exhibit considerable stability across time, and are associated with profound disability. When DBD co-occur with callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of empathy/guilt), the risk of early-onset, stable, and severe disruptive behavior is even higher, relative to DBD alone. Early intervention is critical, and there is robust empirical support for the efficacy of parent management training (PMT) for reducing disruptive behavior in young children. However, broad access to these interventions is hindered by numerous systemic barriers, including geographic disparities in availability of services. To overcome these barriers and enhance access and quality of care to underserved communities, several PMT programs have been adapted to online delivery formats, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). PCIT is an evidence-supported treatment that attempts to reduce disruptive child behavior by improving the parent–child relationship and implementing consistent and effective discipline strategies. Comer and colleagues proposed an online adaptation of PCIT (I-PCIT) that is delivered using video teleconferencing (VTC). I-PCIT was implemented with the family of a 5-year-old Australian boy presenting with clinically significant disruptive behavior and CU traits living in a rural community. Findings from this case report (a) document an improvement in disruptive behavior that was maintained to follow-up and (b) provide preliminary support for adapting PCIT to online delivery formats to enhance accessibility of services and improve child and parent outcomes. </jats:p