Compensatory Expressive Behavior for Social Functioning with Facial Paralysis

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然面瘫（FP）是一种相对常见的疾病，每年影响127，000名美国人，但对这种社交障碍患者的社会功能的理解存在严重差距。我的长期目标是开发干预措施，以改善FP患者的社会功能。这个项目的总体目标，这是实现我的长期目标的下一步，是识别FP患者用于交流的补偿性表达行为（即手势和韵律），以及其他人如何解释这些行为，以形成对他们情绪和其他属性的印象。我的核心假设是，FP患者可以通过使用其他表达渠道（身体和声音）进行补偿，感知者可以通过关注FP患者的身体和声音来提高他们对FP患者印象的准确性。所提出的研究的基本原理是，一旦确定了补偿性表达行为，并测试了感知器训练，这些可以用来开发干预措施，以改善社会功能。本研究的具体目标是：1）识别FP患者用于交流其情绪和属性的表达行为; 2）确定感知者对FP患者情绪和属性的印象的准确性，并检查不同渠道对准确性的相对贡献。3)检查是否训练知觉者注意到面部以外的渠道，提高印象的准确性。本研究包括三个社会认知研究。在研究1中，患有各种类型FP（目标）的成年人，包括先天性和后天性条件，在接受采访时记录他们与FP一起生活的经历。训练有素的研究助理将评估目标的表达行为和瘫痪的严重程度。在研究2-3中，没有FP（感知者）的参与者将观看研究1目标的1分钟片段，并对他们对目标情绪和属性的印象进行评级。在研究2中，知觉者将被给予一个或多个表达通道来观察：只有声音，只有身体，只有脸，身体和声音，或所有通道。在测试训练干预以提高准确性的研究3中，一些参与者将接受训练，在用FP对目标的印象进行评级时注意身体和声音，而其他人将不接受训练。这项研究意义重大，因为它有望纵向推进对FP患者如何使用补偿性表达行为以及感知者如何根据这种行为形成印象的理解。最终，这些知识将为制定干预措施提供信息，这些干预措施将改善FP患者的社会功能。 公共卫生相关性：这项拟议的研究与公共卫生有关，因为它将改善FP患者和其他面部表情减少的人的社会功能-包括半面矮小症，抑郁症，精神分裂症，自闭症和帕金森病患者-通过奠定基础来开发以下两条干预措施：1）对FP患者进行社会功能干预，鼓励使用补偿性表达行为，以及2）对健康护理从业者和患有FP的人的家庭成员进行干预，训练他们关注面部以外的渠道，以提高他们印象的准确性。该项目将通过阐明慢性颅面疾病影响患者社会功能的机制来推进NIDCR的目标，并通过阐明面部信号质量较差时不同表达渠道对准确性的相对贡献来推进NIMH的目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although facial paralysis (FP) is a relatively common condition, affecting 127,000 Americans each year, there is a serious gap in understanding social functioning for people with this socially disabling disorder. My long- term goal is to develop interventions to improve social functioning for people with FP. The overall objective of this project, which is the next step toward attainment of my long-term goal, is to identify the compensatory expressive behaviors (i.e. gestures and prosody) that people with FP use to communicate and how other people interpret these behaviors to form impressions about their emotions and other attributes. My central hypothesis is that people with FP can compensate by using other expressive channels (body and voice) and that perceivers can improve the accuracy of their impressions of people with FP by focusing on their bodies and voices. The rationale that underlies the proposed research is that once compensatory expressive behaviors are identified and a perceiver training is tested, these can be used to develop interventions to improve social functioning. The specific aims of the proposed research project are to: 1) Identify the expressive behaviors that people with FP use to communicate their emotions and attributes; 2) Determine the accuracy of perceivers' impressions of the emotions and attributes of people with FP and examine the relative contribution of different channels to accuracy. 3) Examine whether training perceivers to attend to channels other than the face improves accuracy of impressions. The proposed research consists of three social perception studies. In Study 1, adults with various types of FP (targets), including both congenital and acquired conditions are videotaped while being interviewed about their experiences living with FP. Trained research assistants will rate the expressive behaviors and severity of paralysis of the targets. In Studies 2-3, participants without FP (perceivers) will view 1 minute clips of the Study 1 targets and rate their impressions of the targets' emotions and attributes. In Study 2, perceivers will be given one or more expressive channels to observe: voice only, body only, face only, body and voice, or all channels. In Study 3, which tests a training intervention to improve accuracy, some participants will be trained to attend to the body and voice when rating their impressions of targets with FP, and others will not receive training. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to vertically advance understanding of how people with FP can use compensatory expressive behavior and how perceivers can form impressions based on this behavior. Ultimately, such knowledge will inform development of interventions that will improve social functioning for people with FP. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is relevant to public health because it will improve social functioning for people with FP and other people with reduced facial expressivity-including people with hemifacial microsomia, depression, schizophrenia, autism, and Parkinson's disease-by laying the groundwork to develop the following two lines of interventions: 1) a social functioning intervention for people with FP that encourages the use of compensatory expressive behaviors, and 2) an intervention for healthcare practitioners and family members of people with FP that trains them to attend to channels other than the face to improve the accuracy of their impressions. This project will advance the goals of NIDCR by clarifying the mechanisms by which chronic craniofacial conditions affect patient social functioning and advance the goals of NIMH by elucidating the relative contribution of different expressive channels to accuracy when the signal quality of the face is poor.