Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character

Abstract Virtual reality platforms producing interactive and highly realistic characters are being used more and more as a research tool in social and affective neuroscience to better capture both the dynamics of emotion communication and the unintentional and automatic nature of emotional processes...

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Autores principales:	Thomas Treal, Philip L. Jackson, Jean Jeuvrey, Nicolas Vignais, Aurore Meugnot
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b4f22c8adbc14dc3827d38f6c555700a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b4f22c8adbc14dc3827d38f6c555700a2021-12-02T17:23:26ZNatural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character10.1038/s41598-021-91710-52045-2322https://doaj.org/article/b4f22c8adbc14dc3827d38f6c555700a2021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91710-5https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Virtual reality platforms producing interactive and highly realistic characters are being used more and more as a research tool in social and affective neuroscience to better capture both the dynamics of emotion communication and the unintentional and automatic nature of emotional processes. While idle motion (i.e., non-communicative movements) is commonly used to create behavioural realism, its use to enhance the perception of emotion expressed by a virtual character is critically lacking. This study examined the influence of naturalistic (i.e., based on human motion capture) idle motion on two aspects (the perception of other’s pain and affective reaction) of an empathic response towards pain expressed by a virtual character. In two experiments, 32 and 34 healthy young adults were presented video clips of a virtual character displaying a facial expression of pain while its body was either static (still condition) or animated with natural postural oscillations (idle condition). The participants in Experiment 1 rated the facial pain expression of the virtual human as more intense, and those in Experiment 2 reported being more touched by its pain expression in the idle condition compared to the still condition, indicating a greater empathic response towards the virtual human’s pain in the presence of natural postural oscillations. These findings are discussed in relation to the models of empathy and biological motion processing. Future investigations will help determine to what extent such naturalistic idle motion could be a key ingredient in enhancing the anthropomorphism of a virtual human and making its emotion appear more genuine.Thomas TrealPhilip L. JacksonJean JeuvreyNicolas VignaisAurore MeugnotNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Thomas Treal Philip L. Jackson Jean Jeuvrey Nicolas Vignais Aurore Meugnot Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
description	Abstract Virtual reality platforms producing interactive and highly realistic characters are being used more and more as a research tool in social and affective neuroscience to better capture both the dynamics of emotion communication and the unintentional and automatic nature of emotional processes. While idle motion (i.e., non-communicative movements) is commonly used to create behavioural realism, its use to enhance the perception of emotion expressed by a virtual character is critically lacking. This study examined the influence of naturalistic (i.e., based on human motion capture) idle motion on two aspects (the perception of other’s pain and affective reaction) of an empathic response towards pain expressed by a virtual character. In two experiments, 32 and 34 healthy young adults were presented video clips of a virtual character displaying a facial expression of pain while its body was either static (still condition) or animated with natural postural oscillations (idle condition). The participants in Experiment 1 rated the facial pain expression of the virtual human as more intense, and those in Experiment 2 reported being more touched by its pain expression in the idle condition compared to the still condition, indicating a greater empathic response towards the virtual human’s pain in the presence of natural postural oscillations. These findings are discussed in relation to the models of empathy and biological motion processing. Future investigations will help determine to what extent such naturalistic idle motion could be a key ingredient in enhancing the anthropomorphism of a virtual human and making its emotion appear more genuine.
format	article
author	Thomas Treal Philip L. Jackson Jean Jeuvrey Nicolas Vignais Aurore Meugnot
author_facet	Thomas Treal Philip L. Jackson Jean Jeuvrey Nicolas Vignais Aurore Meugnot
author_sort	Thomas Treal
title	Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
title_short	Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
title_full	Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
title_fullStr	Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
title_full_unstemmed	Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
title_sort	natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b4f22c8adbc14dc3827d38f6c555700a
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Natural human postural oscillations enhance the empathic response to a facial pain expression in a virtual character

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