Seventeenth French founding-father of neurology and a revitalizing force for interest in the galvanic response and bioelectricity, which was dismissed by medical science in the intervening century as somewhat of a parlour-trick beforehand, Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne made many enduring contributions to the field but is probably best known for capturing the aesthetics of a genuine smile.
Duchenne is probably also due a nod for the advancement of photography for his studies emotional expressions (also to the development of the theory of evolution and the hazards of lead-poisoning as well), which enabled him to isolate and identify the subtleties (now recognizable) that distinguish a fake, sky-waitress smile from an authentically experienced one. I hope I don’t always present a robotic smile but it is never strained or contrived—not overmuch. He did try to electro-shock subjects out of a posed grimace or a grin, occasionally, as those were the tools of his trade, but Duchenne was also able through gentler means to coax and capture natural glimpses and outpourings of emotion. His resolve to decode the masks of sentiment and passion honoured him as terminology to separate the real from the phony.
