Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

The smile in anencephalic infants.

W Luyendijk¹, P D Treffers

¹Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery

|January 1, 1992

Summary

Newborns with mero-anencephaly, a severe birth defect, exhibited smiling responses to stimuli. This suggests the neural smile mechanisms may be located in the brainstem's pontine tegmentum.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Separation anxiety and overanxious disorders: relations to age and level of psychosocial maturity.

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry·1999

Same author

The persistence of borderline personality disorder in adolescence.

Journal of personality disorders·1998

Same author

Autism and the immune system.

Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines·1997

Same author

Measuring children's self-concept with a Dutch version of the "self-perception profile for children": factorial validity and invariance across a nonclinic and a clinic group.

Journal of personality assessment·1996

Same author

Hereditary cerebral haemorrhage with amyloidosis, Dutch type (HCHWA-D): clinicopathological studies.

Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry·1995

Same author

Handedness and progressive hydrocephalus in spina bifida patients.

Developmental medicine and child neurology·1993

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Biology
Pediatrics

Background:

Mero-anencephaly is a severe congenital condition characterized by the absence of a large part of the brain and skull.
Survival beyond the neonatal period is rare but allows for observation of neurological responses.

Observation:

Twelve newborns with mero-anencephaly surviving over 24 hours were studied.
Tactile or electrical stimulation of specific facial areas in four infants elicited a distinct facial expression.
This expression was consistently perceived as smiling or laughing by observers.

Findings:

A high percentage (78%) of observers identified the facial expression as a smile, laugh, or grin.
Neuroanatomical examination revealed a largely intact pontine tegmentum in these infants.
The pontine tegmentum is the most rostral identifiable structure within the brainstem.

Implications:

The study hypothesizes that the neural mechanisms controlling smiling are localized within the pontine tegmentum.
This finding offers insights into the localization of complex facial expressions in the developing brain.
Further research can explore the role of the brainstem in emotional expression in infants with congenital anomalies.

Related Experiment Videos