Abstract
The face contains facial muscles whose movements create facial expressions. The purpose of this research is to clarify the facial expressions involved during stress in children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (hereafter, children with SMID) in whom facial expressions are not always easy to understand. At a particular point, we observed the daily life of children with SMID and collected the numerical data on heart rate alteration and facial muscle movement with sensor devices. Based on the fluctuation in the sympathetic nervous system, which was activated due to anxiety and distress, and an increase in heart rate, we focused on the variation in facial muscles and the attitude of the children, and statistically analyzed the observed data. We analyzed three scenes that were considered to be stress in one case (Oshima’s classification 1). The results of multiple regression analysis showed that movement of the facial muscles “Eyes Closed” was a common explanatory variable. When the stress was greater, I was able to explain the movement of the facial muscles to “Outer Brow Raiser”. We could visualize the changes in facial expression in children with SMID, which are subtle and difficult to see with the naked eye.
