Artificial intelligence decodes the facial expressions of mice

Mice move their ears, cheeks and eyes to convey emotion.Credit: Getty Researchers have used a machine-learning algorithm to decipher the seemingly inscrutable facial expressions of laboratory mice. The work could have implications for pinpointing neurons in the human brain that encode particular expressions. Their study "is an important first step" in understanding some of the mysterious aspects of emotions and how they manifest in the brain, says neuroscientist David Anderson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Nearly 150 years ago, Charles Darwin proposed that facial expressions in animals might provide a window onto their emotions, as they do in humans. But researchers have only recently gained the tools -- such as powerful microscopes, cameras and genetic techniques -- to reliably capture and analyse facial movement, and investigate how emotions arise in the brain.