Maybe this helps (probably not): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_Action_Coding_System. It is called an 'inner brow raise'.

@Keepthesemind it's not what I need :( thank you for your time though, I appreciate it

Can you help us understand what specifically is wrong with "In the pictures the guys are raising the inner part of their brows"

"less complicated and more appealing version of it" - that is good information to go into your question, it will help others determine what you're looking for.

Are you a native English speaker? Would you recognize what is correct if you saw it? If so, why is 'furrowing your brow' not the right one?

@Mitch I am not a native speaker, but I grew up speaking predominantly English, why? I think I would recognize the right version if I saw one. "Furrowing one's brow" usually implies making more of a "v" shape rather than raising the eyebrows.

@dee 'furrowing ones brow' is actually pretty accurate, making furrows in ones brow, either vertical or horizontal or whatever, by whatever movement or emotion. If it is not 'furrowing ones brow' then I don't know what movement you are referring to. Did any of the images in my link look right, for your concept? Or did they all look wrong? Your picture of Loki is furrowing his brow. The first picture is entirely unremarkable to me with no particular facial movement noticeable.

@Mitch none of the images in your link look like what I'm looking for. Maybe I've chosen somewhat inaccurate pictures, but, as I mentioned, the reason I can't provide more is because I do not know what to search for. And also, unfortunately, picture results for a search containing "eyebrows" and "raise" are mostly about forehead surgeries and fillers😂

@dee then you need to give more words describing what's going on because you haven't yet distinguished your concept from 'brow furrowing' beyond saying 'no that's not it'. Are you just looking for a single word (on the tip of your tongue) for 'raising one's eyebrows'? Are there associated emotions (like surprise or anger or fear or happiness or what)?

@Mitch there's a wide range of emotions, like maybe an ''oh, so that's it" or "I'm so sorry" or "how did that happen?" or "oh, that's so cute". There's a single word (he ... his eyebrows ) and I can't remember it, but I've heard it.

For all those situations, 'He raised his eyebrows'. 'He furrowed his brow'. work. Also, this may well be a cultural thing. Lots of gestures are particular to each culture; you may be thinking about one you're more used to than those in the pictures. That said, eyebrow raising as recognition of another is considered a behavioral universal

@Mitch then would it be appropriate to say "he raised his eyebrows in (a) sorry"?

'in a sorry' or 'in sorry' are not English (none of those words go together that way). 'in sorrow' would be OK. But semantically, no one raises their eyebrows when they're sad. That would be weird (at least culturally for myself).

@Mitch thank you! I guess I've just got some things mixed up in my brain...😂

@dee I get it. Things are complicated. And all we have is language to discuss language. That's why I'm discussing with you. (we also have pictures, but those can be ambiguous too).

@dee also, I know for myself with the tip of the tongue situation, I can be told the 'correct' word that I knew, but somehow I don't recognize it or it looks 'off' when I see it. (but that still doesn't mean 'furrow your brow' is right).

@Mitch urgh, why does everything have to be so complicated? oh, and by the way, one last question: what if sorry is used with quotation marks? Like, his facial expression kind of shows what he wants to say, but he's not actually saying it? ("He raised his eyebrows in a (silent) "Sorry".")

Mitch has this habit of feigning misunderstanding the simplest of descriptions. The answer could be puppy eyes See Google images google.com/…

@dee Oh. Sure. Grammatically, yes, quoting changes a lot. "His face showed a silent 'Sorry' " as though he's speaking 'Sorry'. (but still raising ones eyebrows to show that one is sorry just doesn't sound right to me. it seems an unnatural gesture for sadness.

@Mari-LouA I'm not sure how you know something like that about me. Also, 'puppy eyes' doesn't sound like a set phrase for anything in my mind (it is evocative of some emotion, sure, but 'puppy eyes' is not the phrase I would think of). Also, I wouldn't associate the look of those puppies with any of the words or images the OP has used. So at least in this one instance I don't think I'm feigning misunderstanding; it's really quite sincere.

@Mitch you do it very often. Perhaps you're not aware of it. I quite like “puppy eyes”, maybe there's another way of saying it...lemme think Wikipedia says Puppy face the look is expressed when the head is tilted down and the eyes are looking up

@Mari-LouA If I understand what you're referring to, though I'm not particularly sure, I often ask questions for the OP to clarify because I am unsure what they are referring to. Is that what you're talking about? I don't think I do that very often, only in some circumstances, where it is not clear to me.

@Mari-LouA 'Puppy eyes' or 'puppy face' does seem to be a common trope nowadays for a cute sad pleading face, but I don't think any of that is related to the OP's description about eyebrows or forehead.