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Everything about Microexpression
Innate result of emotional responses
A microexpression is a facial expression with very short duration. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another. It occurs when the amygdala responds appropriately to the stimuli that the individual experiences and wishes to conceal this specific emotion. This results in briefly displaying their true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: MicroexpressionA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Diverse local facial behaviors learning from enhanced expression flow for microexpression recognitionInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Manipulation and Dark PsychologyThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Microexpression Identification and Categorization Using a Facial Dynamics MapCited 246 times
- Go sideways: Non-verbal leakageA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Mark G. FrankA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun A fleeting, involuntary facial expression that may reveal private thoughts or emotions.
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Microexpression Identification and Categorization Using a Facial Dynamics Map
AffectiveNet: Affective-Motion Feature Learning for Microexpression Recognition
Review of Automatic Microexpression Recognition in the Past Decade
Empathy, emotion dysregulation, and enhanced microexpression recognition ability
SFTNet: A microexpression-based method for depression detection
The role of facial microexpression state ( FMES ) change in the process of conceptual conflict
AutoMER: Spatiotemporal Neural Architecture Search for Microexpression Recognition
A Magnitude and Angle Combined Optical Flow Feature for Microexpression Spotting
🆕 Influential since 2022
Diverse local facial behaviors learning from enhanced expression flow for microexpression recognition
Motion magnification multi-feature relation network for facial microexpression recognition
A Dual-Branch Fusion Model for Deepfake Detection Using Video Frames and Microexpression Features
Convolutional Attention Based Mechanism for Facial Microexpression Recognition
A Hierarchical Separation and Classification Network for Dynamic Microexpression Classification
📚 Books worth reading
- 📕Manipulation and Dark PsychologyRobert Filip · 2019
Without saying a wordKasia Wezowski · 2018- 📕JOLLYOLOGY Vol 1Knowbody The Cosmic Comic · 2023
- 📕How to Analyze PeopleRobert Filip · 2019
- 📕Body LanguageJoe Sorense · 2020
Micro-ExpressionsDylan Clearfield · 2017- 📕Microexpression MasterVaibhav Hadkar · 2022
- 📕Microexpressions ManualDanilo H. Gomes, Neil Teixeira · 2020
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
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- Mark G. Frank Mark G. Frank (bonrn 1961) is an American communication professor and department chair, and an expert on human nonverbal communication, emotion, and deception…
- Paul Ekman Paul Ekman (February 15, 1934 – November 17, 2025) was an American psychologist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who was a…
- Interpersonal deception theory Interpersonal deception theory (IDT) is one of a number of theories that attempts to explain how individuals handle actual (or perceived) deception at…
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- Motivation impairment effect Motivation impairment effect (MIE) is a hypothesised behavioral effect relating to the communication of deception. The MIE posits that people who are highly…
- Facial expression Facial expression is a motion and positioning of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual…
- Othello error Othello error occurs when a suspicious observer discounts cues of truthfulness. Essentially the Othello error occurs, Paul Ekman states, "when the lie…