The Role of Facial Action Units in Investigating Facial Movements During Speech.

Aliya A Newby, Ambika Bhatta, Charles Kirkland, Nicole Arnold, Lara A Thompson

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Electronics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Facial Expression Annotation and Analytics for Dysarthria Severity Classification.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Aliya A NewbyBiomedical Engineering Program, Center for Biomechanical & Rehabilitation Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Ambika BhattaBiomedical Engineering Program, Center for Biomechanical & Rehabilitation Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Charles KirklandBiomedical Engineering Program, Center for Biomechanical & Rehabilitation Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Nicole ArnoldBiomedical Engineering Program, Center for Biomechanical & Rehabilitation Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Lara A ThompsonBiomedical Engineering Program, Center for Biomechanical & Rehabilitation Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Funding

NIA MSTEM: Advancing Diversity in Aging Research through Undergraduate Education at the University of the District of ColumbiaR25AG067896 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA · PI THOMPSON, LARA A · 2020 to 2024

$1.5M

NIA NIH HHS R25 AG067896

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Investigating how facial movements can be used to characterize and quantify speech is important, in particular, to aid those suffering from motor control speech disorders. Here, we sought to investigate how facial action units (AUs), previously used to classify human expressions and emotion, could be used to quantify and understand unimpaired human speech. Fourteen (14) adult participants (30.1 ± 7.9 years old), fluent in English, with no speech impairments, were examined. Within each data collection session, 6 video trials per participant per phoneme were acquired (i.e., 102 trials total/phoneme). The participants were asked to vocalize the vowels /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, and /ʊ/; the consonants /b/, /n/, /m/, /p/, /h/, /w/, and /d/; and the diphthongs /eI/, /ʌɪ/, /i/, /a:/, and /u:/. Through the use of Python Py-Feat, our analysis displayed the AU contributions for each phoneme. The important implication of our methodological findings is that AUs could be used to quantify speech in populations with no speech disability; this has the potential to be broadened toward providing feedback and characterization of speech changes and improvements in impaired populations. This would be of interest to persons with speech disorders, speech language pathologists, engineers, and physicians.

Indexed as

apraxia of speechfacial action unitsspeechspeech sound disorders

Identifiers

PMID42238022

DOI10.3390/electronics14102066

PMCPMC13229553

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.