Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness

J O'Doherty, J Winston, H Critchley, D Perrett, DM Burt…�- Neuropsychologia, 2003 - Elsevier
Neuropsychologia, 2003Elsevier
The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and
other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested
either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of
medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value.
Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting�…
The attractiveness of a face is a highly salient social signal, influencing mate choice and other social judgements. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions that respond to attractive faces which manifested either a neutral or mildly happy face expression. Attractive faces produced activation of medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a region involved in representing stimulus-reward value. Responses in this region were further enhanced by a smiling facial expression, suggesting that the reward value of an attractive face as indexed by medial OFC activity is modulated by a perceiver directed smile.
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