Biopsychosocial effects of training in recognition, emotional facial reproduction and relaxation: a pilot study

In particular, the PT suggests three levels of physiological activation: 1) Immobilization, which keeps energy expenditure to a minimum for survival, including a distancing from social contact, and in particular, a decrease in emotional facial expression, between other effects; 2) Fight/flight, in which the organism prepares the physiological resources to face the stressor, and whose facial expression appears and accompanies the emotion that the individual experiences (fear or angry, for example); 3) Social Engagement, in which physiological activation is low, facilitating social interaction behaviors, promoting emotional facial gesticulation of serenity. Some neurological diseases (Gola et al., 2017; Ricciardi et al., 2017) and psychiatric, such people with anxious spectrum and mood disorders (depression) (Berg et al., 2016; Shiroma, Thuras, Johns, & Lim, 2016) affect performance to recognize emotions and have difficulty regulating their autonomic affective functioning and social involvement behaviors (emotional facial expression and control of striated muscles of the face and head reduced) (Porges, 2003). The recognition of facial expression is a social skill that can be trained through simulation (voluntary and sustained behavior of facial behavior) and mentalization (the cognitive process of inferring the mental and affective state of other people from their behaviors, gestures, expressions and body postures and/or vocal intonations of verbal discourse under a particular social context, to decode the intentions of other people and adapt or modify one's behavior) (Conson et al., 2013). The present pre-clinical study had the following objectives: 1) To assess the effect of training on emotional facial recognition and reproduction and relaxation on ability in recognition in emotional facial expression valued by the number of mistakes made in an emotional facial recognition test. 2) To assess the biopsychosocial effects associated with pre-post intervention stress on somatic response and inflammatory activity, the selfreport of anxiety, depression, social support, alexithymia, and emotional regulation.