Welcome to Hillel Aviezer’s Lab!
From flirting smiles to angry scowls - Emotional expressions are part of our daily life. Most of us don’t give emotional expressions much thought, we simply express and recognize them in an effortless and rapid manner. However, following neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric disorders, emotion perception can break down with devastating consequences. How exactly do we accomplish the complex feat of emotional communication? In the Affective Neuropsychology Lab we approach this question in diverse lines of studies.
News
Real-life intense fear is communicated through context, not facial expressions
A new theory by Maya Lecker published on The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) challenges previous knowledge about how we recognize fear, using real life fearful reactions captured in videos, overcoming the difficulties of studying fear in lab settings. Finsings show that faces alone contribute but slightly to overall fear perception, and instead contextual cues offer more critical role in real life fear perception.
How do you read emotional cues?
a new paper by Noga Diammand published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, identified a novel style in interpreting emotional cues. The findings suggest that the way we interpret cues depends on who we are. While some individuals consistently rely on facial expressions, others give more weight to contextual information. This pattern can be viewed as a stable cognitive style or personality trait: some people are “face-centric,” whereas others are “context-centric.”
Harvest Day 2025 Conference at the Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
During the Harvest Day event, both Hillel and three of our students, Odaya, Chen and Zohar, have presented a talk and posters of their ongoing research. Moreover, congratulations to Zohar for winning second best poster of the event!
Emotions 2023 Conference at Tilburg University
Our PhD students participated in the Emotions 2023 Conference hosted by Tilburg University, contributing to discussions on the latest research and developments in emotion science. This conference serves as a leading platform for experts to share their insights and explore new directions in the study of emotions.
One question a day - do we know how to recognize an emotion?
In this podcast from 2022, Prof. Hillel Aviezer and Dror Gloverman delve into the fascinating question of whether it is possible to distinguish between shouts of joy and shouts of terror, while referring to research in the field of emotion perception
“The New York Times”: Can You Read the Face of Victory?
Prof. Hillel Aviezer is interviewed by Anahad O'Connor.
In this 2013 article, Prof. Aviezer shares his research on the human ability to identify intense emotions.
The science - recognizing expressions on the face
On the Hidan website in 2012, Prof. Hillel Aviezer is interviewed by Itai Nebo, editor of the Davidson Institute website. In this article, Prof. Aviezer shares his insights regarding the recognition of facial expressions and their effect on studies of emotions
National Public Radio: "Victory Or Defeat? Emotions Aren't All In The Face"
Prof. Hillel Aviezer is interviewed by Nell Greenfieldboyce. In this 2012 interview, Prof. Aviezer discusses his research on the complexities of emotion recognition, challenging the traditional focus on facial expressions.