Mimicing facial expressions helps empathy

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Did anyone see the recent study about how people who have had facial botox have a small but statistically significant lower ability to empathize with the emotions of other people?

The theory is that we look at other people's facial expressions, and then make a similar micro-expression with our own face. The brain then reads the expression that our own face has made, and this helps it to interpret what the other person is feeling.

They said that couple's in successful long term relationships develop very similar facial expressions over time.

Could this mimicry be absent in people with Aspergers? Is it something that could be learnt, to help those who struggle to understand what someone else is feeling?

I'd love to know what people think...

Maggie x

Mirror neurons develop slower in people with a autism diagnosis as far as i've read(sadly a Dutch article - link), quite essential in mimicing body language.
From same article:


As far as learning this, you could try and imitate faces and get a sense.


As for me I mimic other people in my head when I talk to them, this is turn gives off a feeling for me, which in turn is cross-referenced with my knowledge and experiences to filter out my own feelings and prejudices. In the end this results in an educated guess what the person is feeling.
Note that I had a medical condition that suddenly made this possible, I'm not sure if it works for everybody.