The effects of alexithymia in the recognition of dynamic emotional faces

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S370-S371
Author(s):  
M. Rocha ◽  
S. Soares ◽  
S. Silva ◽  
N. Madeira ◽  
C. Silva

IntroductionAlexithymia is a multifactorial personality trait observed in several mental disorders, especially those with poor social functioning. Although it has been proposed that difficulties in interpersonal interactions in highly alexithymic individuals may stem from their reduced ability to express and recognize facial expressions, this still remains controversial.AimIn everyday life, faces displaying emotions are dynamic, although most studies have relied on static stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate whether individuals with high levels of alexithymia differed from a control group in the categorization of emotional faces presented in a dynamic way. Given the highly dynamic nature of facial displays in real life, we used morphed videos depicting faces varying 1% from neutral to angry, disgust or happy faces, with a video presentation of 35 seconds.MethodSixty participants (27 males and 33 females) were divided into high (HA) and low levels of alexithymia (LA) by using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Participants were instructed to watch the face change from neutral to an emotion and to press a keyboard as soon as they could categorize an emotion expressed in the face.ResultsThe results revealed an interaction between alexithymia and emotion showing that HA, compared to LA, were more inaccurate at categorizing angry faces.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Michael P. O'Driscoll ◽  
Barry L. Richardson ◽  
Dianne B. Wuillemin

Thirty photographs depicting diverse emotional expressions were shown to a sample of Melanesian students who were assigned to either a face plus context or face alone condition. Significant differences between the two groups were obtained in a substantial proportion of cases on Schlosberg's Pleasant Unpleasant, and Attention – Rejection scales and the emotional expressions were judged to be appropriate to the context. These findings support the suggestion that the presence or absence of context is an important variable in the judgement of emotional expression and lend credence to the universal process theory.Research on perception of emotions has consistently illustrated that observers can accurately judge emotions in facial expressions (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972; Izard, 1971) and that the face conveys important information about emotions being experienced (Ekman & Oster, 1979). In recent years, however, a question of interest has been the relative contributions of facial cues and contextual information to observers' overall judgements. This issue is important for theoretical and methodological reasons. From a theoretical viewpoint, unravelling the determinants of emotion perception would enhance our understanding of the processes of person perception and impression formation and would provide a framework for research on interpersonal communication. On methodological grounds, the researcher's approach to the face versus context issue can influence the type of research procedures used to analyse emotion perception. Specifically, much research in this field has been criticized for use of posed emotional expressions as stimuli for observers to evaluate. Spignesi and Shor (1981) have noted that only one of approximately 25 experimental studies has utilized facial expressions occurring spontaneously in real-life situations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Sollfrank ◽  
Oona Kohnen ◽  
Peter Hilfiker ◽  
Lorena C. Kegel ◽  
Hennric Jokeit ◽  
...  

This study aimed to examine whether the cortical processing of emotional faces is modulated by the computerization of face stimuli (”avatars”) in a group of 25 healthy participants. Subjects were passively viewing 128 static and dynamic facial expressions of female and male actors and their respective avatars in neutral or fearful conditions. Event-related potentials (ERPs), as well as alpha and theta event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERD/ERS), were derived from the EEG that was recorded during the task. All ERP features, except for the very early N100, differed in their response to avatar and actor faces. Whereas the N170 showed differences only for the neutral avatar condition, later potentials (N300 and LPP) differed in both emotional conditions (neutral and fear) and the presented agents (actor and avatar). In addition, we found that the avatar faces elicited significantly stronger reactions than the actor face for theta and alpha oscillations. Especially theta EEG frequencies responded specifically to visual emotional stimulation and were revealed to be sensitive to the emotional content of the face, whereas alpha frequency was modulated by all the stimulus types. We can conclude that the computerized avatar faces affect both, ERP components and ERD/ERS and evoke neural effects that are different from the ones elicited by real faces. This was true, although the avatars were replicas of the human faces and contained similar characteristics in their expression.


Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 297-297
Author(s):  
Y Osada ◽  
Y Nagasaka ◽  
R Yamazaki

We recorded eye movements by the method of corneal reflection while ten subjects viewed schematic faces drawn by lines. Each subject viewed different emotional faces: happy, angry, sad, disgusted, interested, frightened, and surprised. We measured the subject's judgements in terms of percentage ‘correct’ and reaction time. Schematic faces were composed of the face outline contours and of the brow, eyes, nose, and mouth which could all be modified to produce particular expressions. By masking parts of the face, we examined which features would have the greatest effects on judgements of emotion. Subjects always gave a saccade to the eyes and fixated even when the eyes were not important for the judgement. They also gave a saccade to the centre of the face and fixated it even when only the mouth was presented. The presentation of only the brow decreased the correct rate on the expression of ‘surprise’ but played an important role in the ‘sad’ judgement. The ‘angry’ judgement depended significantly on the brow and mouth. The eyes contributed greatly to the ‘disgusted’ judgement. These results suggest that the judgement of facial expressions of emotion can be strongly affected by each part of the schematic face. The concentration of saccades on the centre of the face suggests that the ‘configuration balance’ of the face is also likely to be important.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 793-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt

Tests were performed to learn whether exposure to news about crimes committed by dark-skinned criminals increases impulsive facial-threat perceptions of meeting dark-skinned strangers in a subsequent situation (media-priming hypothesis), but only when the facial displays are ambiguous (ambiguity hypothesis). The assumption is that news stereotypes prime the “dark-skinned criminal” stereotype, which, in turn, influences subsequent face processing. An experiment with two groups was used to test this prediction. Participants allocated to the treatment group ( n = 53) read about crimes committed by dark-skinned criminals. In contrast, for the control group ( n = 52), cues indicating skin color were not mentioned at all. As predicted, the treatment increased the perceived facial threat of dark-skinned strangers, but only when the facial displays were ambiguous. Given the importance of the face in social interaction, I discuss important, real-world implications for recipients as well as for journalists and media organizations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 352-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard

Abstract. Research on terror management theory has found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to activated social norms and values. Recently, research has shown that mortality salience also increases adherence to the norm of reciprocity. Based on this, in the current paper we investigated the idea that mortality salience influences persuasion strategies that are based on the norm of reciprocity. We therefore assume that mortality salience should enhance compliance for a request when using the door-in-the-face technique – a persuasion strategy grounded in the norm of reciprocity. In a hypothetical scenario (Study 1), and in a field experiment (Study 2), applying the door-in-the-face technique enhanced compliance in the mortality salience condition compared to a control group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 3412-3417
Author(s):  
Ranjit S. Ambad ◽  
Rakesh Kumar Jha ◽  
Lata Kanyal Butola ◽  
Nandkishor Bankar ◽  
Brij Raj Singh ◽  
...  

Prediabetes is a glucose homeostasis condition characterized by decreased absorption to glucose or reduced fasting glucose. Both of these are reversible stages of intermediate hyperglycaemia providing an increased type II DM risk. Pre-diabetes can therefore be viewed as a significant reversible stage which could lead to type II DM, and early detection of prediabetes may contribute to type II DM prevention. Prediabetes patients are at high risk for potential type II diabetes, and 70 percent of them appear to develop Type II diabetes within 10 years. The present study includes total 200 subjects that include 100 Prediabetic patients, 50 T2DM patients and 50 healthy individual. Blood samples were collected from the subjects were obtained for FBS, PPBS, Uric acid and Creatinine estimation, from OPD and General Medicine Wards. Present study showed low levels of Serum Uric Acid in prediabetic and T2DM patients were decreased as compared to control group, while the level of creatinine in prediabetic and diabetic were elevated as compared to control group, were not statically significant. Serum Uric Acid was high in control group and low in prediabetic and diabetic patients. Serum creatinine was declined in control group and increased in prediabetic and diabetic patients with increasing Fasting blood glucose level.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Mathew Stone

A Review of: Gardois, P., Calabrese, R., Colombi, N., Lingua, C., Longo, F., Villanacci, M., Miniero, R., & Piga, A. (2011). Effectiveness of bibliographic searches performed by paediatric residents and interns assisted by librarian. A randomised controlled trial. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 28(4), 273-284. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2011.00957.x Objective – To establish whether the assistance of an experienced biomedical librarian delivers an improvement in the searching of bibliographic databases as performed by medical residents and interns. Design – Randomized controlled trial. Setting – The pediatrics department of a large Italian teaching hospital. Subjects – 18 pediatric residents and interns. Methods – 23 residents and interns from the pediatrics department of a large Italian teaching hospital were invited to participate in this study, of which 18 agreed. Subjects were then randomized into two groups and asked to spend between 30 and 90 minutes searching bibliographic databases for evidence to answer a real-life clinical question which was randomly allocated to them. Each member of the intervention group was provided with an experienced biomedical librarian to provide assistance throughout the search session. The control group received no assistance. The outcome of the search was then measured using an assessment tool adapted for the purpose of this study from the Fresno test of competence in evidence based medicine. This adapted assessment tool rated the “global success” of the search and included criteria such as appropriate question formulation, number of PICO terms translated into search terms, use of Boolean logic, use of subject headings, use of filters, use of limits, and the percentage of citations retrieved that matched a gold standard set of citations found in a prior search by two librarians (who were not involved in assisting the subjects) together with an expert clinician. Main Results – The intervention group scored a median average of 73.6 points out of a possible 100, compared with the control group which scored 50.4. The difference of 23.2 points in favour of the librarian assisted group was a statistically significant result (p value = 0.013) with a 95% confidence interval of between 4.8 and 33.2. Conclusion – This study presents credible evidence that assistance provided by an experienced biomedical librarian improves the quality of the bibliographic database searches performed by residents and interns using real-life clinical scenarios.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Cohen ◽  
Kfir Asraf ◽  
Ivgeny Saveliev ◽  
Orrie Dan ◽  
Iris Haimov

AbstractThe ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions is essential to the development of complex social cognition behaviors, and impairments in this ability are associated with poor social competence. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions and nonfacial stimuli in young adults with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thirty-five men (mean age 25.4) with (n = 19) and without (n = 16) ADHD participated in the study. During the five days preceding the experimental session, the participants were required to sleep at least seven hours per night (23:00/24:00–7:00/9:00) and their sleep was monitored via actigraphy. On the morning of the experimental session, the participants completed a 4-stimulus visual oddball task combining facial and nonfacial stimuli, and repeated it after 25 h of sustained wakefulness. At baseline, both study groups had poorer performance in response to facial rather than non-facial target stimuli on all indices of the oddball task, with no differences between the groups. Following sleep deprivation, rates of omission errors, commission errors and reaction time variability increased significantly in the ADHD group but not in the control group. Time and target type (face/non-face) did not have an interactive effect on any indices of the oddball task. Young adults with ADHD are more sensitive to the negative effects of sleep deprivation on attentional processes, including those related to the processing of emotional facial expressions. As poor sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are common in individuals with ADHD, it is feasible that poor sleep quality and quantity play an important role in cognitive functioning deficits, including the processing of emotional facial expressions that are associated with ADHD.


Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 030100662110270
Author(s):  
Kennon M. Sheldon ◽  
Ryan Goffredi ◽  
Mike Corcoran

Facial expressions of emotion have important communicative functions. It is likely that mask-wearing during pandemics disrupts these functions, especially for expressions defined by activity in the lower half of the face. We tested this by asking participants to rate both Duchenne smiles (DSs; defined by the mouth and eyes) and non-Duchenne or “social” smiles (SSs; defined by the mouth alone), within masked and unmasked target faces. As hypothesized, masked SSs were rated much lower in “a pleasant social smile” and much higher in “a merely neutral expression,” compared with unmasked SSs. Essentially, masked SSs became nonsmiles. Masked DSs were still rated as very happy and pleasant, although significantly less so than unmasked DSs. Masked DSs and SSs were both rated as displaying more disgust than the unmasked versions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3465
Author(s):  
Jordi Colomer ◽  
Dolors Cañabate ◽  
Brigita Stanikūnienė ◽  
Remigijus Bubnys

In the face of today’s global challenges, the practice and theory of contemporary education inevitably focuses on developing the competences that help individuals to find meaningfulness in their societal and professional life, to understand the impact of local actions on global processes and to enable them to solve real-life problems [...]


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