MINI REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1716633
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Insights into Mammalian Facial SignalsView all articles
Faces of Time: A Historical Overview of Rapid Innovations in Coding Animal Facial Signals
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- 2Jonkoping University, Jönköping, Sweden
- 3Lyon College, Batesville, United States
- 4University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, Columbia, United States
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ABSTRACT: Since Charles Darwin's influential work on The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, there have been significant advancements in how animal behaviorists identify and describe the facial signals of animals, including humans. Most of these advancements are largely attributed to technological innovations in how data are recorded in addition to the establishment of computer programs that aid with behavioral coding and analysis. Consequently, various manual and automated approaches can be adopted, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. The goal of this overview is twofold. First, we provide an overview of the past and present techniques for coding animal facial signals. Second, we compare and contrast each method, offering multiple examples of how each technique has been used and can be applied in the study of animal facial signaling today. Our examples include studies that address empirical questions related to animal behavior, as well as studies aimed at generating applications for animal welfare. Instead of favoring or criticizing one approach over another, our aim is to foster appreciation for the advancements in animal facial signal coding and to inspire future innovations in this field.
Keywords: Facial signals, Facial Action Coding Systems, artificial intelligence, animal communication, Facial Expression
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 22 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lazebnik and Florkiewicz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Teddy Lazebnik, lazebnik.teddy@gmail.com
Brittany Nicole Florkiewicz, brittany.florkiewicz@lyon.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.