MASKED · Motor Health and Semiotic Function in the Kinesthetic Expressivity of Neurodegenerative Disease

Motor Health and Semiotic Function in the Kinesthetic Expressivity of Neurodegenerative Disease (MASKED) is a transdisciplinary applied research project grounded in cutting-edge biosemiotics. The aim is to address Parkinson’s Disease, its symptomatic hypomimia (“facial masking”), and the ever-increasing technological demand for early-indicating detection techniques. Through interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral secondments, researchers will train in world-leading measurement techniques, including the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the Neuropsychological Gesture Coding System (NEUROGES); world-leading measurement technologies, including iMotions’s Affectiva and Noldus’s FaceReader; and advanced computational statistics analysis, including Zipf’s and Menzerath-Altmann’s Laws. In this novel advancement of an applied semiotics that harnesses objective, quantitative methods, MASKED will apply the statistical analysis of empirical laws to scientific measurements of nonverbal behavior. To generate statistical models and interpret semiotic meanings, the project considers the medico-scientific ethics and multi-perspectival values behind the hypomimic sign and its signification across environmental contexts and lived experiences. Both correlational methods and conceptual models play equally critical roles. The objective of MASKED is to develop innovative solutions for noninvasive symptom assessment based on quantifiable differences between healthy and Parkinsonian faces, one face to another, and one face to itself over time. These solutions will have not only long-term applicability across diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic disease stages, but also wide-reaching utility across provider, caregiver, and patient treatment stakeholders. The hope with the MASKED project is to improve patient-health outcomes and mitigate socio-economic burdens among families, communities, and societies affected by PD and related chronic, progressive illnesses.