Abstract
Individuals with callous-unemotional (CU) traits show deficits in facial emotion recognition. According to preliminary research, this impairment may be due to attentional neglect to peoples’ eyes when evaluating emotionally expressive faces. However, it is unknown whether this atypical processing pattern is unique to established variants of CU traits or modifiable with intervention. This study examined facial affect recognition and gaze patterns among individuals (N = 80; M age = 19.95, SD = 1.01 years; 50% female) with primary vs secondary CU variants. These groups were identified based on repeated measurements of conduct problems, CU traits, and anxiety assessed in adolescence and adulthood. Accuracy and number of fixations on areas of interest (forehead, eyes, and mouth) while viewing six dynamic emotions were assessed. A visual probe was used to direct attention to various parts of the face. Individuals with primary and secondary CU traits were less accurate than controls in recognizing facial expressions across all emotions. Those identified in the low-anxious primary-CU group showed reduced overall fixations to fearful and painful facial expressions compared to those in the high-anxious secondary-CU group. This difference was not specific to a region of the face (i.e. eyes or mouth). Findings point to the importance of investigating both accuracy and eye gaze fixations, since individuals in the primary and secondary groups were only differentiated in the way they attended to specific facial expression. These findings have implications for differentiated interventions focused on improving facial emotion recognition with regard to attending and correctly identifying emotions.
Highlights
Processing emotional expressions is critical in everyday functioning and social interactions
The present study examines whether facial affect recognition and associated eye gaze patterns differentiate young adults identified with primary-low anxious and secondary-high anxious CU traits, and whether these patterns can be manipulated by re-directing attention to various parts of the face
The present study examined how individuals with stable primary and secondary CU traits, relative to each other and to controls, categorize and attend to facial expressions by examining their accuracy ratings and eye gaze fixations
Summary
Processing emotional expressions is critical in everyday functioning and social interactions. Deficits in facial affect recognition found in individuals with. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2020) 29:1441–1451 youth with CU traits [4, 5]. Despite the need to understand the developmental continuity of these problems, no prior work has investigated such processing deficits by monitoring participants’ stable CU traits and antisocial behavior across adolescence and young adulthood. Co-occurring anxiety levels phenotypically distinguish between emotionally distinct primary and secondary subtypes of psychopathy and CU traits [6, 7]. The present study examines whether facial affect recognition and associated eye gaze patterns differentiate young adults identified with primary-low anxious and secondary-high anxious CU traits, and whether these patterns can be manipulated by re-directing attention to various parts of the face
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
