The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that facial
expressions are either necessary or sufficient to produce emotional
experience. Researchers have noted that the ideal test of the
necessity aspect of this hypothesis would be an evaluation of
emotional experience in a patient suffering from a bilateral
facial paralysis; however, this condition is rare and no such
report has been documented. We examined the role of facial
expressions in the determination of emotion by studying a patient
(F.P.) suffering from a bilateral facial paralysis. Despite
her inability to convey emotions through facial expressions,
F.P. reported normal emotional experience. When F.P. viewed
emotionally evocative slides her reactions were not dampened
relative to the normative sample. F.P. retained her ability
to detect, discriminate, and image emotional expressions. These
findings are not consistent with theories stating that feedback
from an active face is necessary to experience emotion, or to
process emotional facial expressions. (JINS, 2002,
8, 130–135.)
