Recognition Of Negative Facial Expressions Research Articles

Associations between emotional and non-emotional cognition and subsequent mood episodes in recently diagnosed patients with bipolar disorder: A 16-month follow-up study

BackgroundBipolar disorder (BD) is associated with impairments in both emotional and non-emotional cognition. Recently, cognitive impairments have attracted increasing research interest as markers of prognosis and possible treatment targets in patients with BD. However, there is a paucity of studies investigating cognitive predictors of prognosis in BD. MethodsWe assessed 148 recently diagnosed, symptomatically stable patients with BD with a battery of emotional and non-emotional cognitive tests and followed them up over 16 months as part of an ongoing cohort study. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between cognitive performance at baseline and the recurrence and duration of (hypo)manic and depressive episodes, respectively, with adjustment for age, sex, subsyndromal symptoms and time between assessments. ResultsPoorer recognition of negative facial expressions and more negative emotions in neutral daily life scenarios were associated with greater frequency (ps ≤ .04) and longer duration (ps ≤ .03) of subsequent (hypo)manic episodes over the 16-month follow-up period. In addition, poorer global cognition, attention and psychomotor speed, and verbal fluency were associated with more (hypo)manic episodes (ps ≤ .04). Finally, more difficulty down-regulating emotion in negative social scenarios was associated with depressive relapse (p = .007).It was a limitation that patients had a delayed diagnosis of seven years from their first mood episode despite being recently diagnosed. ConclusionTrait-related cognitive impairments influence the early course in recently diagnosed patients with BD, particularly (hypo)manic relapse. Early prophylactic strategies targeting cognitive impairments may increase resilience and the course of illness in recently diagnosed patients with BD.

Negative parental emotional environment increases the association between childhood behavioral problems and impaired recognition of negative facial expressions.

Impaired facial emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. Childhood behavioral difficulties and parental emotional environment have been independently associated with impaired emotion recognition; however, no study has examined the contribution of these factors in conjunction. We measured recognition of negative (sad, fear, anger), neutral, and happy facial expressions in 135 children aged 5-7 years referred by their teachers for behavioral problems. Parental emotional environment was assessed for parental expressed emotion (EE) - characterized by negative comments, reduced positive comments, low warmth, and negativity towards their child - using the 5-minute speech sample. Child behavioral problems were measured using the teacher-informant Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Child behavioral problems and parental EE were independently associated with impaired recognition of negative facial expressions specifically. An interactive effect revealed that the combination of both factors was associated with the greatest risk for impaired recognition of negative faces, and in particular sad facial expressions. No relationships emerged for the identification of happy facial expressions. This study furthers our understanding of multidimensional processes associated with the development of facial emotion recognition and supports the importance of early interventions that target this domain.

Valence-dependent Disruption in Processing of Facial Expressions of Emotion in Early Visual Cortex—A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Our visual inputs are often entangled with affective meanings in natural vision, implying the existence of extensive interaction between visual and emotional processing. However, little is known about the neural mechanism underlying such interaction. This exploratory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study examined the possible involvement of the early visual cortex (EVC, Area V1/V2/V3) in perceiving facial expressions of different emotional valences. Across three experiments, single-pulse TMS was delivered at different time windows (50-150 msec) after a brief 10-msec onset of face images, and participants reported the visibility and perceived emotional valence of faces. Interestingly, earlier TMS at ∼90 msec only reduced the face visibility irrespective of displayed expressions, but later TMS at ∼120 msec selectively disrupted the recognition of negative facial expressions, indicating the involvement of EVC in the processing of negative expressions at a later time window, possibly beyond the initial processing of fed-forward facial structure information. The observed TMS effect was further modulated by individuals' anxiety level. TMS at ∼110-120 msec disrupted the recognition of anger significantly more for those scoring relatively low in trait anxiety than the high scorers, suggesting that cognitive bias influences the processing of facial expressions in EVC. Taken together, it seems that EVC is involved in structural encoding of (at least) negative facial emotional valence, such as fear and anger, possibly under modulation from higher cortical areas.

Facial Emotion Recognition in Maltreated Children: A Systematic Review

We systematically reviewed controlled studies published in the last 16 years about emotion recognition deficits in maltreated children. A bibliographical research of controlled studies, including only studies with samples larger than 10 participants, from 1998 to 2017, was conducted on Medline, Lilacs, PubMed and ISI. A total of 31 articles were included in this review. Abused children have a recognition bias for negative expressions, especially fear and anger. This increased perception tends to impair interpersonal relationships throughout their development. However, it appears as a matter of necessity, related to survival in a hostile environment. Moreover, neglected children have a shorter reaction time for recognition of negative facial expressions. Thus, the consequence of this deficit generates losses, such as the difficulty of ability to perceive a situation that puts them at risk. Children victims of severe domestic violence, as well as those who have been sexually abused and neglected, experience a learning situation regarding past experiences. The losses appear both in abnormal anatomical brain and physiological formations, as well as psychological and behavioral changes that impact the lives of these individuals. These changes are associated to changes mainly in circuits related to the prefrontal cortex and limbic regions, which are responsible for regulating the reaction to a threat. Future studies should develop programs, focusing not only in the prevention of adverse family environments and domestic violence, but also in helping these children improve psychosocial adaptation.

Facial mimicry, facial emotion recognition and alexithymia in post-traumatic stress disorder

Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) show abnormalities in higher-order emotional processes, including emotion regulation and recognition. However, automatic facial responses to observed facial emotion (facial mimicry) has not yet been investigated in PTSD. Furthermore, whereas deficits in facial emotion recognition have been reported, little is known about contributing factors. We thus investigated facial mimicry and potential effects of alexithymia and expressive suppression on facial emotion recognition in PTSD. Thirty-eight PTSD participants, 43 traumatized and 33 non-traumatized healthy controls completed questionnaires assessing alexithymia and expressive suppression. Facial electromyography was measured from the muscles zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii during a facial emotion recognition task. Corrugator activity was increased in response to negative emotional expressions compared to zygomaticus activity and vice versa for positive emotions, but no significant group differences emerged. Individuals with PTSD reported greater expressive suppression and alexithymia than controls, but only levels of alexithymia predicted lower recognition of negative facial expressions. While automatic facial responses to observed facial emotion seem to be intact in PTSD, alexithymia, but not expressive suppression, plays an important role in facial emotion recognition of negative emotions. If replicated, future research should evaluate whether successful interventions for alexithymia improve facial emotion recognition abilities.

Impaired Recognition of Negative Facial Expressions is Partly Related to Facial Perception Deficits in Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Accumulating studies have reported facial emotion recognition or facial perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To clarify the specificity of the emotion recognition impairment, this study examined the relationships between facial emotion recognition and facial perception abilities in ASD. Twenty-two adolescents with high-functioning ASD (20 males) and 22 typically developing (TD) adolescents (16 males) aged 11-18years undertook a facial emotion labeling task and a facial perception test. We found that adolescents with ASD had deficits in recognizing negative facial expressions, which correlated with both facial perception deficits and severity of social impairment. In addition, the emotion recognition deficits remained after adjusting for facial perception performance. Thus, our findings suggest an emotion-specific impairment in facial emotion recognition in ASD.

Degraded Impairment of Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Extends from Negative to Positive Emotions.

Because of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show impairment in the recognition of negative facial expressions. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether PD patients with more advanced motor problems would show a much greater deficit in recognition of emotional facial expressions than a control group and whether impairment of emotion recognition would extend to positive emotions. Twenty-nine PD patients and 29 age-matched healthy controls were recruited. Participants were asked to discriminate emotions in Experiment 1 and identify gender in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, PD patients demonstrated a recognition deficit for negative (sadness and anger) and positive faces. Further analysis showed that only PD patients with high motor dysfunction performed poorly in recognition of happy faces. In Experiment 2, PD patients showed an intact ability for gender identification, and the results eliminated possible abilities in the functions measured in Experiment 2 as alternative explanations for the results of Experiment 1. We concluded that patients' ability to recognize emotions deteriorated as the disease progressed. Recognition of negative emotions was impaired first, and then the impairment extended to positive emotions.

Younger and older users׳ recognition of virtual agent facial expressions

As technology advances, robots and virtual agents will be introduced into the home and healthcare settings to assist individuals, both young and old, with everyday living tasks. Understanding how users recognize an agent׳s social cues is therefore imperative, especially in social interactions. Facial expression, in particular, is one of the most common non-verbal cues used to display and communicate emotion in on-screen agents (Cassell et al., 2000). Age is important to consider because age-related differences in emotion recognition of human facial expression have been supported (Ruffman et al., 2008), with older adults showing a deficit for recognition of negative facial expressions. Previous work has shown that younger adults can effectively recognize facial emotions displayed by agents (Bartneck and Reichenbach, 2005; Courgeon et al., 2009, 2011; Breazeal, 2003); however, little research has compared in-depth younger and older adults’ ability to label a virtual agent׳s facial emotions, an import consideration because social agents will be required to interact with users of varying ages. If such age-related differences exist for recognition of virtual agent facial expressions, we aim to understand if those age-related differences are influenced by the intensity of the emotion, dynamic formation of emotion (i.e., a neutral expression developing into an expression of emotion through motion), or the type of virtual character differing by human-likeness. Study 1 investigated the relationship between age-related differences, the implication of dynamic formation of emotion, and the role of emotion intensity in emotion recognition of the facial expressions of a virtual agent (iCat). Study 2 examined age-related differences in recognition expressed by three types of virtual characters differing by human-likeness (non-humanoid iCat, synthetic human, and human). Study 2 also investigated the role of configural and featural processing as a possible explanation for age-related differences in emotion recognition. First, our findings show age-related differences in the recognition of emotions expressed by a virtual agent, with older adults showing lower recognition for the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral. These age-related difference might be explained by older adults having difficulty discriminating similarity in configural arrangement of facial features for certain emotions; for example, older adults often mislabeled the similar emotions of fear as surprise. Second, our results did not provide evidence for the dynamic formation improving emotion recognition; but, in general, the intensity of the emotion improved recognition. Lastly, we learned that emotion recognition, for older and younger adults, differed by character type, from best to worst: human, synthetic human, and then iCat. Our findings provide guidance for design, as well as the development of a framework of age-related differences in emotion recognition.

The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, early and recent life stress, and cognitive endophenotypes of depression

Studies associating interactions of 5-HTTLPR and life adversities with depression have yielded equivocal results. Studying endophenotypes may constitute a more powerful approach. In the current study, it was assessed whether interactions of 5-HTTLPR with childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and recent negative life events (RNLE) affect possible cognitive endophenotypes of depression, namely, attention-allocation bias and the ability to recognise others' mind states in 215 young adults of North-West European descent. The ability to classify others' negative mind states was found to be increased with increasing RNLE in carriers of low-expressing Serotonin Transporter Linked Polymorphic Region (5-HTTLPR) alleles. Carriers of two low-expressing alleles also preferentially oriented attention towards negative information. Gene-environment interactions were not observed for attention allocation bias. No effects involving CEA were observed. These results suggest that low-expressing 5-HTTLPR alleles may confer increased risk for depression through enhanced recognition of negative facial expressions following RNLE.

Reverse correlating trustworthy faces in young and older adults

Little is known about how older persons determine if someone deserves their trust or not based on their facial appearance, a process referred to as “facial trustworthiness.”In the past few years, Todorov and colleagues have argued that, in young adults, trustworthiness judgments are an extension of emotional judgments, and therefore, that trust judgments are made based on a continuum between anger and happiness (Todorov, 2008; Engell et al., 2010). Evidence from the literature on emotion processing suggest that older adults tend to be less efficient than younger adults in the recognition of negative facial expressions (Calder et al., 2003; Firestone et al., 2007; Ruffman et al., 2008; Chaby and Narme, 2009). Based on Todorov';s theory and the fact that older adults seem to be less efficient than younger adults in identifying emotional expressions, one could expect that older individuals would have different representations of trustworthy faces and that they would use different cues than younger adults in order to make such judgments. We verified this hypothesis using a variation of Mangini and Biederman's (2004) reverse correlation method in order to test and compare classification images resulting from trustworthiness (in the context of money investment), from happiness, and from anger judgments in two groups of participants: young adults and older healthy adults. Our results show that for elderly participants, both happy and angry representations are correlated with trustworthiness judgments. However, in young adults, trustworthiness judgments are mainly correlated with happiness representations. These results suggest that young and older adults differ in their way of judging trustworthiness.

Facial emotional processing in HIV infection: Relation to neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric status.

To examine facial emotional processing in HIV+ individuals and its relation to neurocognitive performance, neuropsychiatric symptomatology and immune status. Participants included 85 HIV+ individuals (83 males, 2 females) and 25 age-comparable HIV- individuals (22 males, 3 females). Participants underwent The University of Pennsylvania computerized neuropsychological facial emotion test battery, standardized neuropsychological testing, neurobehavioral questionnaires, a semistructured psychiatric interview, and an assessment of independence in activities of daily living. Relative to HIV- controls, HIV+ individuals showed a mild difference for recognition of sadness (p = .02, d = 0.43), discrimination of happiness (p = .02, d = 0.52), and speed of recognition for fear (p = .04, d = 0.37). HIV+ individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND; 20%) had abnormal emotional facial recognition (p = .04; d = .59), and slower recognition of negative facial expressions (p < .01; d = .63-.83), as well as poorer discrimination of happy facial expressions (p < .003, d = .83). Apathy, depression, reduced independence in activities of daily living, and HIV biomarkers were not associated with reduced facial emotion recognition in the HIV+ group. Clinically stable HIV+ individuals show a mild level of emotional processing reduction that is dissociated from neuropsychiatric complaints. Individuals with HAND showed moderate to large emotional processing abnormalities, particularly for the timely recognition of negative expressions (fear, sadness, and anger). These findings warrant a more comprehensive and dynamic evaluation of emotional processing in HIV infection and an investigation of the integrity of the fronto-basal-amygdala circuits.

Partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, hippocampal atrophy, and stable intellectual disability associated with Roifman syndrome

In 2006, we reported the cognitive and behavioral phenotype of the seventh case of Roifman syndrome (OMIM 300258). Aged 11 years 6 months, the patient displayed significant intellectual disability with proportionate impairments in attentional-executive, memory, and visuo-spatial abilities despite appearing socially "able." This discrepancy may be explained by good social-emotional skills masking his intellectual disability, by decline in cognitive abilities over time, or by unusual neuroradiological abnormalities not previously examined in Roifman syndrome. Here, we present results from a structural MRI scan, neurocognitive evaluations repeated 2 and 5 years post-baseline and assessments of face and emotional processing. The MRI revealed partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, bilateral hypoplastic hippocampi but bilaterally intact amygdala. No evidence was found for decline in the patient's neurocognitive profile. Emotional processing data indicated an age-appropriate pattern of reactivity to emotional stimuli and preserved facial identity recognition abilities, but impairments in recognition of negative facial expressions. The results confirmed a stable pattern of intellectual disability, and indicated that Roifman syndrome may be associated with major structural neuro-anatomical abnormalities. We suggest that the relative strengths in emotion and face processing are consistent with the patient's apparently able social behavior, and with intact amygdalar function.

Impaired Conscious Recognition of Negative Facial Expressions in Patients with Locked-in Syndrome

The involvement of facial mimicry in different aspects of human emotional processing is widely debated. However, little is known about relationships between voluntary activation of facial musculature and conscious recognition of facial expressions. To address this issue, we assessed severely motor-disabled patients with complete paralysis of voluntary facial movements due to lesions of the ventral pons [locked-in syndrome (LIS)]. Patients were required to recognize others' facial expressions and to rate their own emotional responses to presentation of affective scenes. LIS patients were selectively impaired in recognition of negative facial expressions, thus demonstrating that the voluntary activation of mimicry represents a high-level simulation mechanism crucially involved in explicit attribution of emotions.

The effects of experimentally lowered serotonin function on emotional information processing and memory in remitted depressed patients

It has been well documented that acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) induces symptoms in remitted depressed patients treated with an SSRI. ATD also has effects on cognition, both in patients and in healthy samples. The exact nature of ATD-induced cognitive changes in depression remains unclear. It is also unclear whether cognitive effects can be induced through partial ('low-dose') depletion. The aim of this study is to investigate the differential effects of low-dose and high-dose ATD on emotional information processing and mood in remitted depressed patients. Eighteen remitted depressed patients received high-dose and low-dose ATD in a randomized, double-blind, within-subjects crossover design. Mood was assessed before and after administration of the depletion drink. Five hours after administration, patients conducted tests measuring neutral and emotional information processing. High-dose ATD increased depressive symptoms and induced a temporary depressive 'relapse' in half of the patients. High-dose ATD also decreased the recognition of fear and impaired learning and memory retrieval. The impaired learning occurred only in mood-responders. Low-dose ATD had no effects on mood but speeded the recognition of facial expressions of disgust. Accurate recognition of sad faces at baseline was associated with mood response to ATD. High-dose ATD leads to changes in memory and in the recognition of negative facial expressions in SSRI-treated remitted depressed patients. The effect of low-dose ATD on mood and cognition seems to be quite limited. Emotional information processing at baseline predicts mood-response to ATD.

Emotional face processing deficit in schizophrenia: A replication study in a South African Xhosa population

Schizophrenia is associated with a deficit in the recognition of negative emotions from facial expressions. The present study examined the universality of this finding by studying facial expression recognition in African Xhosa population. Forty-four Xhosa patients with schizophrenia and forty healthy controls were tested with a computerized task requiring rapid perceptual discrimination of matched positive (i.e. happy), negative (i.e. angry), and neutral faces. Patients were equally accurate as controls in recognizing happy faces but showed a marked impairment in recognition of angry faces. The impairment was particularly pronounced for high-intensity (open-mouth) angry faces. Patients also exhibited more false happy and angry responses to neutral faces than controls. No correlation between level of education or illness duration and emotion recognition was found but the deficit in the recognition of negative emotions was more pronounced in familial compared to non-familial cases of schizophrenia. These findings suggest that the deficit in the recognition of negative facial expressions may constitute a universal neurocognitive marker of schizophrenia.