Tiny Facial Twitches Reveal Mice’s Thought Processes, Raising Questions About Human โ”Intellectual Privacy”
Lisbon, Portugal – scientists at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon have made a groundbreaking discovery: subtle, unintentional facial muscle movements in mice can reveal their cognitive strategies with surprising accuracy, mirroring brain activity adn perhaps offering a non-invasive window โคinto thought processes. The research, publishedโ in Nature Neuroscience (Cazettes, โF. et al., 10.1038/s41593-025-02071-5, 2025), utilizes machine โขlearning to analyze facial expressions alongside neuron activity in โฃthe secondary motor cortex – an area previously identified as key to mouse decision-making.
The team filmed the faces of mice during experiments, finding that these minute facial expressions were โjust as indicative of their chosenโ strategy as direct recordings of brain activity. “As for the โdecision-making strategy, small, unintentional muscle movements in โthe mouse visionโฃ were just as revealingโ as the registered brain activity,” the study reports.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, the researchers โobserved consistency across individuals. “The resistanceโค of the โresults from Mouse to Mouseโ was evenโค more surprising: a certainโ facial expressions represented the same cognitiveโ strategy for various individuals,” explained co-author Davide Reato. โThis suggests a link between specific thinking patterns and corresponding facial expressions, echoing the established connection โbetween โfacial cues and emotions.
This non-invasive approach – relying solely on video recordingโ of facial expressions -โ has significant implications. โขThe researchers suggest the technology could potentially be adaptedโ for use with humans, given our well-known ability to “Read emotions on ourโข face.” Though, they also caution against the potential for misuse โof suchโ biometric technology, urging the growthโ of “effective legal requirements to protect human ‘intellectual privacy.'”
The study opens new avenues forโฃ understanding the neural basis of decision-making and raises critical ethical questions โabout โคthe futureโ of mind-reading technologies.
