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Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
Published on: March 15, 2019
Emotional facial expression and perioral motor functions of the human auditory cortex
Ravindra Arya1, Brian Ervin2, Hansel M Greiner3
1Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Division of Neurology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Objective:
We investigated the role of transverse temporal gyrus and adjacent cortex (TTG+) in facial expressions and perioral movements.
Methods:
In 31 patients undergoing stereo-electroencephalography monitoring, we describe behavioral responses elicited by electrical stimulation within the TTG+. Task-induced high-gamma modulation (HGM), auditory evoked responses, and resting-state connectivity were used to investigate the cortical sites having different types of responses on electrical stimulation.
Results:
Changes in facial expressions and perioral movements were elicited on electrical stimulation within TTG+ in 9 (29%) and 10 (32%) patients, respectively, in addition to the more common language responses (naming interruptions, auditory hallucinations, paraphasic errors). All functional sites showed auditory task induced HGM and evoked responses validating their location within the auditory cortex, however, motor sites showed lower peak amplitudes and longer peak latencies compared to language sites. Significant first-degree connections for motor sites included precentral, anterior cingulate, parahippocampal, and anterior insular gyri, whereas those for language sites included posterior superior temporal, posterior middle temporal, inferior frontal, supramarginal, and angular gyri.
Conclusions:
Multimodal data suggests that TTG+ may participate in auditory-motor integration.
Significance:
TTG+ likely participates in facial expressions in response to emotional cues during an auditory discourse.
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