The Emotional Toll of HIV: Exploring Facial and Auditory Emotion Recognition and Emotion Regulation in People Living With HIV

Abstract

Abstract People living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) have been reported to show poor facial emotion recognition. However, these studies presented participants with facial emotion photographs whereas in real life facial emotion recognition hardly involves inferring emotions from static faces. Moreover, emotion recognition from other sensory modalities, such as auditory, has hardly been explored. There’s also a dearth of studies examining emotion regulation difficulties in this group. The present study, thus, explored facial (using facial emotion videos) and auditory emotion recognition as well as difficulties in emotion regulation (using the Hindi version of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) in 60 PLHIV and 60 people without HIV (PWoHIV). Additionally, the association of HIV duration (duration since diagnosis of HIV), viral load, and Clusters of differentiation 4 (CD4) count with emotion recognition and regulation difficulties in PLHIV was explored. Findings from one-way ANCOVA (with education and socioeconomic status as covariates) revealed significantly impaired auditory emotion recognition (particularly for fear) among PLHIV than PWoHIV. The former also showed significantly poorer facial emotion recognition for surprise. PLHIV also self-reported significantly more emotion regulation difficulties than PWoHIV, specifically Nonacceptance of their response to negative emotions and limited access to emotion regulation Strategies. CD4 count was negatively correlated with emotion regulation difficulties, particularly for accomplishing goal-directed behaviour when experiencing negative emotions (Goals) and Strategies. Besides the novel addition to the literature regarding impaired auditory emotion recognition in PLHIV, these findings can help develop targeted interventions to improve emotion recognition and emotion regulation for PLHIV.