Interaction between Afferent and Efferent Processing Streams in the Perception of Emotional Facial Expressions

We tested the relation between two processes that affect emotion perception: afferent processing (interoception--perception of bodily states) and efferent processing (facial mimicry). Individuals with higher interoceptive accuracy exhibited more facial mimicry when viewing emotional faces; magnitude of facial mimicry more strongly predicted perception in individuals with higher interoceptive accuracy.