{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T05:03:49Z","timestamp":1784783029036,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784764800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Facial expression recognition depends on both structural features (e.g., eye shape) and dynamic cues (e.g., muscle movements). However, the relative contribution of these information sources remains unclear, partly due to methodological challenges in isolating kinematic from configural information. Existing point-light display paradigms, while useful, typically employ numerous markers that still enable structural face recovery. Here, we introduce and validate the \u201cClepsydra\u201d model\u2014a minimal five-point configuration that captures the six basic emotions using markers on the eyebrows (\u00d72), mouth corners (\u00d72), and nose (\u00d71). Stimuli derived from authentic facial expressions were presented to 91 participants in both point-light display (PLD) and full light (FL) conditions. Results showed above-chance recognition for five emotions in the PLD condition: happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, and sadness, while fear remained at chance level. Confusion matrix analyses revealed emotion-specific patterns, reflecting the diagnostic value of specific facial muscle movements (i.e., Action Units, AUs, as defined by the Facial Action Coding System): fear was primarily confused with surprise (sharing upper-face Action Units), while anger and disgust showed reciprocal misclassifications. These findings demonstrate that extremely sparse dynamic information can support emotion recognition, though with marked emotion-specific differences reflecting the diagnostic value of specific Action Units. The Clepsydra model offers a promising tool for isolating kinematic contributions to facial expression processing, with implications for testing sensorimotor simulation accounts and designing future minimal display paradigms.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1813559","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T04:31:58Z","timestamp":1784781118000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Recognition of facial expressions from minimal five-point-light displays"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Sara","family":"Costa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine and Surgery, Universit\u00e0 di Parma","place":["Parma, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arianna","family":"Schiano Lomoriello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]},{"name":"Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisa","family":"Straulino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]},{"name":"Department of General Psychology, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sonia","family":"Betti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of General Psychology, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anita","family":"Ghislandi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Antonio","family":"Maffei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]},{"name":"Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fausto","family":"Caruana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council of Italy (CNR)","place":["Parma, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pier Francesco","family":"Ferrari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine and Surgery, Universit\u00e0 di Parma","place":["Parma, Italy"]},{"name":"Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS\/Universit\u00e9 Claude Bernard Lyon","place":["Bron, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luisa","family":"Sartori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]},{"name":"Department of General Psychology, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paola","family":"Sessa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]},{"name":"Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova","place":["Padova, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2683","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.20-07-02683.2000","article-title":"A role for somatosensory cortices in the visual recognition of emotion as revealed by three-dimensional lesion mapping","volume":"20","author":"Adolphs","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. 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