CrowdScience: Why Do We Pull Faces When We Concentrate?

Do you stick your tongue out or frown when you’re concentrating? Maybe, like one of our listeners, you screw up your face when you’re playing a musical instrument.

Why do we make these strange expressions: do they help us focus on the task in hand, or are they more about communicating our engrossed state to others?

In this edition of CrowdScience we tackle the science of face-pulling, along with several more burning questions sent in from listeners around the world. We explore why it’s almost impossible to talk without moving your hands and how gestures can give you away if you’re lying or if you don’t quite understand something.

And finally, if you know two or more languages, which one do you count in? We find out why numbers might make you revert to the first language you learnt, even if you speak another one the rest of the time.

• Presented by Anand Jagatia
• Produced by Cathy Edwards for the BBC World Service

Publicity contact: EM3