About the ontogenetic origins of human expression of emotions: the case of smiling

Of all the facial expressions of emotions, smiling has been studied empirically since the birth of psychology and has continued to be a central topic of this discipline until today. The reason of this long-standing interest probably derives from the fact that smiling appears to be one of the most complicated expressions in terms of the conditions that precipitate it, the functions it serves, and the developmental trajectories it depicts. Smiling is, in fact, an expressive behavior that, during development, changes in morphology, in timing, in eliciting contexts, and in function. Its global facial configuration, produced by the contraction of the zygomaticus major muscles, remains from the first months of life an essential component of nonverbal social communication although its underlying “emotions” or “meanings” undergo extensive developmental and cultural transformations (Bolzani, Messinger, Yale, & Dondi, 2002). Smiling can be observed as a stable pattern of facial movements present at birth, in term (Emde & Koenig, 1969a, 1969b; Korner, 1969; Wolff, 1959, 1963, 1966) and pre-term neonates (Emde, McCartney, & Harmon, 1971; Wolff, 1987). Unlike "social smiling", that emerges later (at about 2 months of age) and has been analyzed in several early (Ambrose, 1961; Gewirtz, 1965; Polak, Emde, & Spitz, 1964; Spitz, 1946; Spitz & Wolf, 1946) and more recent empirical contributions (Fogel, Nelson-Goens, Hsu, & Shapiro, 2000; Fox & Davidson, 1988; Messinger, Fogel, & Dickson, 1999, 2001), little is known about the significance of neonatal smiles or their developmental relevance for later smiling. Like other early spontaneous motor patterns exhibited during sleep, such as startles, mouthing, and reflexive sucks, neonatal smiling is considered to be a behavior which occurs in the absence of recognized external or internal (visceral) stimuli, for this reason is known in the literature as reflexive, spontaneous or endogenous smiling (Emde & Harmon, 1972; Fogel & Thelen, 1987; Sroufe, 1979, 1996; Wolff, 1987). The aim of the talk is to illustrate recent advances in the study of early development of smiling emphasizing the implications of these new findings on the study of emotional development. First, data regarding the unexpected presence of Duchenne smile in term (Messinger, Dondi, Nelson-Goens, Beghi, Fogel & Simion, 2001) and pre-term newborns (Dondi, Costabile, Rabissoni, Gianfranchi, Lombardi & Corchia, 2004; Dondi, Costabile, Vacca, Franchin, Agnoli, Lombardi, & Corchia, 2008) will be discussed on the ground of the developmental trajectories of smile depicted by authors such as Emde, Sroufe and Wolff. Then, data suggesting that this facial pattern begin very early, possibly since birth and possibly during active REM sleep, to show a progressive coordination with the other emotional “components” or “constituents” that specify emotions, will be presented (Dondi, Messinger, Colle, Tabasso, Simion, Dalla Barba, & Fogel, 2007).