Facial emotion recognition and its correlation with executive functions in bipolar I patients and healthy controls

ABSTRACTBackground:Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been detected in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in PD patient groups with and without mild forms of cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy controls.Methods:Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of three groups of 97 PD patients was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 168 healthy controls. Patients were categorized into groups according to two well-established classifications of MCI according to Petersen's (cognitively intact vs. amnestic MCI, aMCI, vs. non-amnestic MCI, non-aMCI) and Litvan's (cognitively intact vs. single-domain MCI, sMCI, vs. multi-domain MCI, mMCI) criteria. Patients and controls underwent individual assessments using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna, NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).Results:Cognitively intact PD patients and patients with MCI in PD (PD-MCI) showed significantly worse emotion recognition performance when compared to healthy controls. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from 0.31 to 1.22). Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women, positively associated with premorbid IQ and negatively associated with age. Depressive symptoms were not related to FER.Conclusions:The present investigation yields further evidence for impaired FER in PD. Interestingly, our data suggest FER deficits even in cognitively intact PD patients indicating FER dysfunction prior to the development of overt cognitive dysfunction. Age showed a negative association whereas IQ showed a positive association with FER.

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Impaired Recognition of Negative Facial Emotions in Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617719000419 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (08) ◽

pp. 884-889 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sally A. Grace ◽

Wei Lin Toh ◽

Ben Buchanan ◽

David J. Castle ◽

Susan L. Rossell

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Face Processing ◽

Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Facial Emotions ◽

Healthy Control

Abstract Objectives: Patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) have difficulty in recognising facial emotions, and there is evidence to suggest that there is a specific deficit in identifying negative facial emotions, such as sadness and anger. Methods: This study investigated facial emotion recognition in 19 individuals with BDD compared with 21 healthy control participants who completed a facial emotion recognition task, in which they were asked to identify emotional expressions portrayed in neutral, happy, sad, fearful, or angry faces. Results: Compared to the healthy control participants, the BDD patients were generally less accurate in identifying all facial emotions but showed specific deficits for negative emotions. The BDD group made significantly more errors when identifying neutral, angry, and sad faces than healthy controls; and were significantly slower at identifying neutral, angry, and happy faces. Conclusions: These findings add to previous face-processing literature in BDD, suggesting deficits in identifying negative facial emotions. There are treatment implications as future interventions would do well to target such deficits.

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Facial Emotion Recognition and Executive Functions in Fibromyalgia

Pain Medicine ◽

10.1093/pm/pnab024 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cristina Muñoz Ladrón de Guevara ◽

Gustavo A Reyes del Paso ◽

María José Fernández-Serrano ◽

Stefan Duschek

Keyword(s):

Executive Function ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Cognitive Task ◽

Medication Use ◽

Human Interaction ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Control Mechanisms

Abstract Objective The ability to accurately identify facial expressions of emotions is crucial in human interaction. While a previous study suggested deficient emotional face recognition in patients with fibromyalgia, not much is known about the origin of this impairment. Against this background, this study investigated the role of executive functions. Executive functions refer to cognitive control mechanisms enabling implementation and coordination of basic mental operations. Deficits in this domain are prevalent in fibromyalgia. Methods Fifty-two fibromyalgia patients and thirty-two healthy individuals completed the Ekman-60 Faces Test, which requires classification of facial displays of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. They also completed eight tasks assessing the executive function components of shifting, updating and inhibition. Effects of comorbid depression and anxiety disorders, and medication use, were tested in stratified analyses of patient subgroups. Results Patients made more errors overall than controls in classifying the emotional expressions. Moreover, their recognition accuracy correlated positively with performance on most of the executive function tasks. Emotion recognition did not vary as a function of comorbid psychiatric disorders or medication use. Conclusions The study supports impaired facial emotion recognition in fibromyalgia, which may contribute to the interaction problems and poor social functioning characterizing this condition. Facial emotion recognition is regarded as a complex process, which may be particularly reliant on efficient coordination of various basic operations by executive functions. As such, the correlations between cognitive task performance and recognition accuracy suggest that deficits in higher cognitive functions underlie impaired emotional communication in fibromyalgia.

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Facial Affect Recognition in Myasthenia Gravis

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1017/sjp.2013.59 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Esther Lázaro ◽

Imanol Amayra ◽

Juan Francisco López-Paz ◽

Amaia Jometón ◽

Natalia Martín ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Facial Affect ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Clinical Neurological Examination

AbstractThe assessment of facial expression is an important aspect of a clinical neurological examination, both as an indicator of a mood disorder and as a sign of neurological damage. To date, although studies have been conducted on certain psychosocial aspects of myasthenia, such as quality of life and anxiety, and on neuropsychological aspects such as memory, no studies have directly assessed facial emotion recognition accuracy. The aim of this study was to assess the facial emotion recognition accuracy (fear, surprise, sadness, happiness, anger, and disgust), empathy, and reaction time of patients with myasthenia. Thirty-five patients with myasthenia and 36 healthy controls were tested for their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions. Participants were matched with respect to age, gender, and education level. Their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions was evaluated using the computer-based program Feel Test. The data showed that myasthenic patients scored significantly lower (p < 0.05) than healthy controls in the total Feel score, fear, surprise, and higher reaction time. The findings suggest that the ability to recognize facial affect may be reduced in individuals with myasthenia.

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The impact of limbic system morphology on facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder and healthy controls

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment ◽

10.2147/ndt.s41896 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 743

Author(s):

Marcio Soeiro-de-Souza ◽

Bio ◽

Maria Otaduy ◽

Moreno ◽

Rodrigo Machado-Vieira

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Limbic System ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Bipolar I Disorder ◽

The Impact

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Facial affect recognition: Electrophysiological findings in schizophrenia

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/s0924-9338(11)72131-9 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S2) ◽

pp. 424-424

Author(s):

S. Komlosi ◽

G. Csukly ◽

G. Stefanics ◽

I. Czigler ◽

P. Czobor

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Face Processing ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Affect Recognition ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Emotional Face Processing ◽

Facial Emotion Processing ◽

Emotional Face

IntroductionWhile deficits in facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia have consistently been shown, the underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unclear. Electrophysiological measures, such as event-related brain potentials related to facial emotion recognition yield insight into the time course of recognizing emotional faces.ObjectivesIn our study we aimed to delineate the neurophysiological correlates of facial emotion recognition and to investigate where, when, and what components in the course of emotional information processing show impairment in schizophrenia.MethodologyWe collected data using a 128-channel EEG recording system for testing an experimental facial emotion recognition paradigm with 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 matched healthy controls. Subjects were presented fearful and neutral emotional facial expressions on a monitor and asked to make decisions via a button press relating to either the gender or the emotion of the presented face.ResultsOur findings revealed that ERPs of pateints with schizophrenia significantly differed from those of matched healthy controls in several components and areas characteristic to facial emotion processing, showing differences in both early and late ERP components of emotional face processing. Significant main effects of task (gender vs emotion) and emotion (fear vs neutral) were also found.ConclusionThe finding that patients with schizophrenia, as compared to healthy controls, show differences in emotional face processing in several cortical areas and time intervals underlines the hypotheses that a deficit in affect recognition may originate from the impairment of a distributed facial emotion recognition network, including both early perceptual and later phases of facial emotion processing.

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Facial Emotion Recognition and Executive Functions in Insomnia Disorder: An Exploratory Study

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00502 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Katie Moraes de Almondes ◽

Francisco Wilson Nogueira Holanda Júnior ◽

Maria Emanuela Matos Leonardo ◽

Nelson Torro Alves

Keyword(s):

Executive Functions ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Insomnia Disorder

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Social cognition impairments in long-term opiate users in treatment

Journal of Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1177/0269881119875981 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 254-263

Author(s):

Gill Terrett ◽

Kimberly Mercuri ◽

Elizabeth Pizarro-Campagna ◽

Laila Hugrass ◽

H Valerie Curran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Facial Mimicry

Background: Long-term opiate users experience pervasive social difficulties, but there has been surprisingly limited research focused on social-cognitive functioning in this population. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate whether three important aspects of social cognition (facial emotion recognition, theory of mind (ToM) and rapid facial mimicry) differ between long-term opiate users and healthy controls. Methods: The participants were 25 long-term opiate users who were enrolled in opiate substitution programmes, and 25 healthy controls. Facial emotion recognition accuracy was indexed by responses to 60 photographs of faces depicting the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust). ToM was assessed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, which requires participants to infer mental states of others from partial facial cues. Rapid facial mimicry was assessed by recording activity in the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscle regions while participants passively viewed images of happy and angry facial expressions. Results: Relative to the control group, the opiate user group exhibited deficits in both facial emotion recognition and ToM. Moreover, only control participants exhibited typical rapid facial mimicry responses to happy facial expressions. Conclusions: These data indicate that long-term opiate users exhibit abnormalities in three distinct areas of social-cognitive processing, pointing to the need for additional work to establish how social-cognitive functioning relates to functional outcomes in this group. Such work may ultimately inform the development of interventions aimed at improving treatment outcomes for long-term opiate users.

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Facial emotion recognition in patients with subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610215001520 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 477-485 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

J. Pietschnig ◽

R. Aigner-Wöber ◽

N. Reischenböck ◽

I. Kryspin-Exner ◽

D. Moser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Cognitive Decline ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Test Battery ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽

Healthy Controls

ABSTRACTBackground:Deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been shown to substantially impair several aspects in everyday life of affected individuals (e.g. social functioning). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in three patient groups suffering from mild forms of cognitive impairment compared to healthy controls.Methods:Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of 68 patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 44 non-amnestic (non-aMCI), and 25 amnestic patients (aMCI) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 138 healthy controls all of which were recruited within the framework of the Vienna Conversion to Dementia Study. Additionally, patients and controls underwent individual assessment using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).Results:Type of diagnosis showed a significant effect on emotion recognition performance, indicating progressively deteriorating results as severity of diagnosis increased. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from −0.30 to −0.83) except for SCD versus controls. Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women and positively associated with premorbid IQ.Conclusions:Our findings indicate substantial effects of progressive neurological damage on emotion recognition in patients. Importantly, emotion recognition deficits were observable in non-amnestic patients as well, thus conceivably suggesting associations between decreased recognition performance and global cognitive decline. Premorbid IQ appears to act as protective factor yielding lesser deficits in patients showing higher IQs.

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M74. FACIAL EMOTION RECOGNITION ABILITY IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA AND OTHER PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS

Schizophrenia Bulletin ◽

10.1093/schbul/sbaa030.386 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S163-S163

Author(s):

Elin Kjellenberg ◽

Stefan Winblad

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Psychotic Disorders ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Psychotic Symptoms ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Facial Emotions ◽

Recognition Ability ◽

Healthy Control ◽

Emotion Recognition Ability

Abstract Background Psychotic disorders are associated with impaired facial emotion recognition (FER) and poor functional outcome. Most studies regarding facial emotion recognition have focused on schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to explore FER in patients with different psychotic disorders at psychiatric outpatient facilities. The intention was also to examine if patients diagnosed with schizophrenia differed from patients diagnosed with other psychotic disorders in the ability to recognize facial emotions. Methods FER was examined in forty outpatients, evenly divided between schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and 33 healthy control persons. The ability to recognize facial emotions was assessed with The Facially Expressed Emotion Labelling (FEEL). To assess the severity of psychotic symptoms in the patient group The Structured Clinical Interview for Symptoms of Remission (SCI-SR) was used. Results Patients performed significantly worse than healthy controls (p<.001, r =-.28) in recognizing facial emotions in general, including expressions of fear, disgust and sadness. Subjects with a schizophrenia diagnosis performed poorer than healthy controls when depicting fear (p<.01, r=.45) or anger (p=.026, r=.36). Compared to other psychotic disorders they were less accurate in recognizing anger (p=.036, r=-.040). We did not find any significant differences between patients with other psychotic disorders and healthy controls in FER. Furthermore, patients performed significantly slower on the FEEL test (p<.001, r=0.44), including both patients with a schizophrenia diagnosis and other psychotic disorders as compared to healthy controls. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia showed significantly more psychotic symptoms (p= .001, r= -.53). However, there were no significant differences between patients in remission (40 %) and patients with more severe psychotic symptoms regarding the FEEL measures. Discussion In this study, patients with psychotic disorders performed less accurately and slower on the FEEL task as compared to healthy control persons. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia tended to exhibit more difficulties. The results from this between-group comparison should however be interpreted with caution due to limited statistical power. Since no significant difference in FEEL score was demonstrated between patients in remission and patients suffering from more severe psychotic symptoms, it could be suggested that deficits in FER are independent of current psychotic symptoms. Impaired facial emotion recognition ability may negatively influence social interaction and functional outcome and the results from this study indicate that FER should be further explored in larger cohorts of outpatients with different psychotic disorders.

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