PhD Public Defense of Ricardo Vilaverde

Ricardo Vilaverde, a PhD candidate in the Doctoral Program in Psychology, will defend the thesis titled "Examining the role of facial mimicry in the processing of emotional vocalizations". The public defense is scheduled for June 29, 2026, 13:30 at Sala de Provas, B327 (Building 4) of Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Information about online participation and any updates should be consulted at Iscte's website.

Abstract:

The idea that sensorimotor mechanisms contribute to emotion recognition has gained traction in affective neuroscience and psychology. Most evidence comes from the visual domain, where face perception engages sensorimotor systems, often resulting in the imitation of the observed movements (facial mimicry). While some studies link this activation to improved emotion recognition, findings remain inconsistent. Moreover hand, the role of sensorimotor processes in auditory emotion recognition remains underexplored. Research on speech perception shows sensorimotor involvement in verbal comprehension, but its function in processing emotional vocal cues like laughter and crying is less well understood. This thesis examined the role of facial mimicry in the perception of laughter and crying. The focus was on emotional authenticity – the ability to distinguish whether the vocalizations reflect a genuine emotion or not; and emotional contagion – the tendency to resonate other people’s emotions. Through three studies, participants listened to genuine and posed laughs and cries in two conditions: while freely moving their faces or while holding a pen between their lips and teeth to inhibit orofacial movements. In Study 1 (conducted online), mimicry inhibition impaired authenticity judgments but it did not affect emotional contagion ratings. In Study 2 (lab-based), the same experimental design was used, and facial electromyography (EMG) measurements were added. EMG confirmed expected muscle activity (e.g., zygomaticus for laughter, corrugator for crying) and the effectiveness of the interference manipulation. However, mimicry inhibition had no impact on authenticity and contagion responses. In Study 3, the same experimental design was again implemented, and trial-by-trial difficulty ratings were collected. Despite EMG patterns being as expected, neither mimicry interference influenced authenticity judgments, nor associations were found with difficulty ratings. Together, these findings document sensorimotor responses to emotional vocalizations, but the contribution of these responses to authenticity recognition is not replicated consistently. The small and inconsistent effects suggest that the role of mimicry is context-dependent and may be compensated by other cognitive or perceptual mechanisms when sensorimotor ones are not available.

Members of the jury:

• President: Rita Isabel Jerónimo (Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)

• Nadine Lavan (Queen Mary University of London)

• Andrey Anikin (Lund University)

• Margarida Vaz Garrido (Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)

• César Lima (Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)