Another Facial Expression Topic

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So this week I was at a week long event, at which there were many people who share my special interest - some of which I count as friends (though this might not be mutual), in particular one married couple.

At one point, the woman started talking to me and a few seconds later the man said to his wife "See, look! There's the smile..."

Apparently the man had noticed during the course of the week that when someone starts talking to me I get a completely blank look on my face for second or few (regardless of my expression beforehand), and then start to smile (irrespective of what is being talked about).

I *never* knew I did this!! !! I mean, I know that people tell me I look "dubious" or "serious" when I'm not, or they tell me to "smile" when in fact I am quite happy and content (which drives me nuts!). But I didn't know about this.

Anyway, I was wondering about this. I think the blank look might come from my brain needing to reboot itself into speech processing mode ... and that once it's rebooted I realise I need to acknowledge what is being said, so the smile comes.

What do you think?

Interestingly, the woman works with autistic children, and she has previously said that her husband has many autistic traits. They don't know about my probable autistic spectrum disorder (waiting for follow up with the psych but he was fairly sure), so I thought it was interesting that they should bring it up at this time.

I get this all the time, too! It's annoying.

The blank look might be because you're "looking" at the thoughts you're trying to convey during the conversation. The unintentional smiling, I do that too, more so when I write, e.g. right now. No clue why, and I didn't know this until it was pointed out to me. Apparently chimpanzees smile in interaction with other chimps so as to demonstrate they're not a threat, maybe this is an ancient behavior that was also displayed by the human-chimp common ancestor?

I am very self conscious of my expressions, even when I am not in control of them. I can get blank looks on my face as I try to process something or think about what to say; and generally I smile when other people do (I copy their expressions as the conversation goes along, even ones that don't last that long. I wonder if anyone notices that I am reflecting them), and I often smile when I shouldn't... When people are angry at me, or when I am nervous, I smile and giggle. I never understood why, but I knew it was NOT because I was happy or amused. Many people take this as a flippant attitude or not caring, but when I think about it, that 'demonstrating that you're not a threat' idea fits perfectly, at least for me.

I don't know if this is related, but I was once told that I sometimes give a 'reassuring' smile. I didn't even know that it was possible to smile in a reassuring way! I don't know why or when I do it, but I know that I get hassled if I don't smile.

One time, a nurse in the emergency ward at my hospital felt out the features of my face, while saying at the same time, "I can tell by your profile that you were diagnosed with both HFA and AS."

Good possibilities. I'm not sure the blank look is to do with the thoughts I want to convey though - the observation was that this happens when someone starts to talk to me, as in start a conversation with me, so I wouldn't know what thoughts I want to convey because I don't know yet what the conversation is about!



Really?!?! How strange ...