Compensatory Expressive Behavior for Social Functioning with Facial Paralysis

描述(申请人提供)：尽管面瘫(FP)是一种相对常见的疾病，每年影响12.7万美国人，但对于患有这种社交障碍的人来说，在理解社会功能方面存在严重差距。我的长期目标是开发干预措施，改善FP患者的社会功能。这个项目的总体目标是识别患有FP的人用来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来形成对他们情绪和其他属性的印象。我的中心假设是，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他们的身体和声音来提高他们对FP患者印象的准确性。这项拟议研究的基本原理是，一旦确定了补偿性表达行为，并测试了接受者的训练，这些行为就可以用来制定干预措施，以改善社会功能。该研究项目的具体目的是：1)确定FP患者用来交流情绪和属性的表达行为；2)确定认知者对FP患者的情绪和属性印象的准确性，并检验不同渠道对准确性的相对贡献。3)考察训练感知者注意脸部以外的其他渠道是否能提高印象的准确性。这项拟议的研究包括三项社会认知研究。在研究1中，患有不同类型FP(靶标)的成年人，包括先天性和后天性疾病，在接受采访时被拍摄下来，讲述他们与FP一起生活的经历。训练有素的研究助理将对目标的表达行为和瘫痪的严重程度进行评级。在研究2-3中，没有FP(感知器)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，接受者将被给予一个或多个表达渠道进行观察：仅限语音、仅限身体、仅限面部、身体和声音，或所有渠道。在研究3中，测试了一种提高准确性的训练干预，一些参与者将接受训练，在评估他们对FP目标的印象时注意身体和声音，而另一些参与者将不接受培训。这项拟议的研究意义重大，因为它有望垂直推进对FP患者如何使用补偿性表达行为以及接受者如何基于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：拟议的研究与公共健康相关，因为它将改善FP患者和其他面部表情减少的人-包括面容矮小、抑郁症、精神分裂症、自闭症和帕金森病患者-的社会功能，为开发以下两条干预措施奠定基础：1)针对FP患者的社会功能干预，鼓励使用补偿性表达行为，以及2)针对医护人员和FP患者的家人的干预，培训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部疾病影响患者社会功能的机制来推进NIDCR的目标，并通过阐明当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促进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.