ArticleScientific reports2023
Horses (Equus caballus) facial micro-expressions: insight into discreet social information.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Artificial Intelligence-Based Decoding of Animal Micro-Expressions: A Review of Methodological Advances and Translational Applications.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Social enrichment mitigates facial expressions and physiological indicators of short-term stress in horses.PloS one · 2026Article
- Cracking the Valence Code: Patterned Facial Kinematics and Neural Signatures of Emotional Expressions in Mice.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Exploring the induction and measurement of positive affective state in equines through a personality-centred lens.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Auditory enrichment on facial and physiological responses of Pantaneiro geldings and mares under short-term stress.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Spontaneous eye blinks in horses (Equus caballus) are modulated by attention.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Rat Grimace Scale as a Method to Evaluate Animal Welfare, Nociception, and Quality of the Euthanasia Method of Wistar Rats.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Facial micro-expressions are facial expressions expressed briefly (less than 500 ms) and involuntarily. Described only in humans, we investigated whether micro-expressions could also be expressed by non-human animal species. Using the Equine Facial action coding system (EquiFACS), an objective tool based on facial muscles actions, we demonstrated that a non-human species, Equus caballus, is expressing facial micro-expressions in a social context. The AU17, AD38 and AD1 were selectively modulated as micro-expression-but not as standard facial expression (all durations included)-in presence of a human experimenter. As standard facial expressions, they have been associated with pain or stress but our results didn't support this association for micro-expressions which may convey other information. Like in humans, neural mechanisms underlying the exhibit of micro-expressions may differ from those of standard facial expressions. We found that some micro-expressions could be related to attention and involved in the multisensory processing of the 'fixed attention' observed in horses' high attentional state. The micro-expressions could be used by horses as social information in an interspecies relationship. We hypothesize that facial micro-expressions could be a window on transient internal states of the animal and may provide subtle and discreet social signals.
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