Can facial emotion recognition be rapidly improved in children with disruptive behavior? A targeted and preventative early intervention study

Abstract An impairment in recognizing distress is implicated in the development and severity of antisocial behavior. It has been hypothesized that a lack of attention to the eyes plays a role, but supporting evidence is limited. We developed a computerized training to improve emotion recognition in children and examined the role of eye gaze before and after training. Children referred into an intervention program to prevent antisocial outcomes completed an emotion recognition task with concurrent eye tracking. Those with emotion recognition impairments (n = 54, mean age: 8.72 years, 78% male) completed the training, while others (n = 38, mean age: 8.95 years, 84% male) continued with their usual interventions. Emotion recognition and eye gaze were reassessed in all children 8 weeks later. Impaired negative emotion recognition was significantly related to severity of behavioral problems at pretest. Children who completed the training significantly improved in emotion recognition; eye gaze did not contribute to impairment or improvement in emotion recognition. This study confirms the role of emotion recognition in severity of disruptive behavior and shows that a targeted intervention can quickly improve emotion impairments. The training works by improving children's ability to appraise emotional stimuli rather than by influencing their visual attention.

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Do You See What I See -- Exploring the Role of Personality in Emotion Recognition using a Priming Paradigm

10.31124/advance.13147811.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Parama Gupta ◽

Deepshikha Ray ◽

Sukanto Sarkar

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Healthy Participants

The current study explored the mediating role of Neuroticism and Psychoticism involving young adult healthy participants who performed a facial emotion recognition task.

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Toward Continuous Social Phenotyping: Analyzing Gaze Patterns in an Emotion Recognition Task for Children With Autism Through Wearable Smart Glasses

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/13810 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. e13810 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anish Nag ◽

Nick Haber ◽

Catalin Voss ◽

Serena Tamura ◽

Jena Daniels ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Facial Expression ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expression Recognition ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Expression Recognition ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

Gaze Tracking ◽

Smart Glasses

Background Several studies have shown that facial attention differs in children with autism. Measuring eye gaze and emotion recognition in children with autism is challenging, as standard clinical assessments must be delivered in clinical settings by a trained clinician. Wearable technologies may be able to bring eye gaze and emotion recognition into natural social interactions and settings. Objective This study aimed to test: (1) the feasibility of tracking gaze using wearable smart glasses during a facial expression recognition task and (2) the ability of these gaze-tracking data, together with facial expression recognition responses, to distinguish children with autism from neurotypical controls (NCs). Methods We compared the eye gaze and emotion recognition patterns of 16 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 17 children without ASD via wearable smart glasses fitted with a custom eye tracker. Children identified static facial expressions of images presented on a computer screen along with nonsocial distractors while wearing Google Glass and the eye tracker. Faces were presented in three trials, during one of which children received feedback in the form of the correct classification. We employed hybrid human-labeling and computer vision–enabled methods for pupil tracking and world–gaze translation calibration. We analyzed the impact of gaze and emotion recognition features in a prediction task aiming to distinguish children with ASD from NC participants. Results Gaze and emotion recognition patterns enabled the training of a classifier that distinguished ASD and NC groups. However, it was unable to significantly outperform other classifiers that used only age and gender features, suggesting that further work is necessary to disentangle these effects. Conclusions Although wearable smart glasses show promise in identifying subtle differences in gaze tracking and emotion recognition patterns in children with and without ASD, the present form factor and data do not allow for these differences to be reliably exploited by machine learning systems. Resolving these challenges will be an important step toward continuous tracking of the ASD phenotype.

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Educational Intervention Program for Coping with Youth Cyberbullying, Based on Bystanders' Involvement

International Journal of Education ◽

10.5296/ije.v11i2.14999 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 126

Author(s):

Dorit Olenik-Shemesh ◽

Tali Heiman ◽

Yael Zur

Keyword(s):

Educational Intervention ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Intervention Programs ◽

Cyber Victimization ◽

Before And After ◽

Current Article ◽

Homeroom Teachers ◽

And Control ◽

Further Development

The current article presents an intervention program for coping with cyberbullying, focused on the role of bystanders, as well as evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. While most intervention programs for coping with cyberbullying focus on deterring cyber-perpetrators or assisting cyber-victims, the program presented in this study focuses on the role of bystanders in coping with cyberbullying, providing assistance to victims and strengthening their circle of support. Based on the results of a previous study, a unique intervention program was developed, implemented, and evaluated. The program consisted of six instructional experiential meetings addressing the following topics: noticing the cyberbullying event, interpreting it as an emergency, identifying and emphasizing the abuse, taking responsibility for the event, gaining knowledge and discussing effective ways to intervene and report and more. The homeroom teachers presented the intervention program after receiving training. 418 adolescents participated, divided into experimental (N=215) and control (N=203) groups, 219 boys and 199 girls; average age: 13.2, SD: 0.43. Before and after the program, they completed a cyberbullying questionnaire, a self-efficacy scale, and an empathy scale.The results show a 12.4% decrease in students reporting of cyber- victimization and an increase in the percentage of bystanders who reported cyberbullying instances to teachers, an increase in students who ignored posts, and a decrease in the percentage of students sharing posts. Implications for further development of the intervention program and research are discussed.

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Exploring the Role of Race and Gender on Perceived Bystander Ability and Intent: Findings Before and After Exposure to an Online Training Program to Prevent Sexual Assault on Campus

Violence Against Women ◽

10.1177/1077801218807089 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (8) ◽

pp. 999-1017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Vicki L. Burns ◽

Asia A. Eaton ◽

Haiying Long ◽

Dan Zapp

Keyword(s):

Sexual Assault ◽

Intervention Program ◽

White Men ◽

Bystander Intervention ◽

Future Research ◽

Gain Scores ◽

Race And Gender ◽

Before And After ◽

And Gender

The current study explores the significance of race and gender on bystander attitudes before and after an online bystander intervention program to prevent sexual assault. A diverse sample of 750 college students participated in an online intervention and participants’ perceived bystander intervention ability and intent were assessed. The interaction of participant race and gender had a marginally significant impact on bystander ability and intent baseline scores. Furthermore, when analyzing gain scores from pre- to posttest, there was a significant race by gender interaction. Specifically, Latinx and Black men had higher preintervention scores, and White men had higher gains postintervention. Relevant cultural and social factors and directions for future research are discussed.

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Role of daily anal stimulation for intractable functional constipation in infants

World Journal of Pediatric Surgery ◽

10.1136/wjps-2020-000135 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. e000135

Author(s):

Tianqi Zhu ◽

Xiaoyi Sun ◽

Dan Zhu ◽

Qian You ◽

Xiaoting Wan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anorectal Manometry ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Functional Constipation ◽

Mean Amplitude ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Before And After ◽

Stool Form ◽

The Mean

ObjectiveFunctional constipation is one of the most common problems in pediatric gastroenterology. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of daily anal stimulation in infants with intractable functional constipation (IFC). Our evaluation was based on clinical improvement and on changes in manometric parameters through time.MethodsInfants with IFC treated between January 2018 and December 2019 were included in this retrospective study. Treatment processing included daily anal stimulation for infants and psychological counseling for parents. All cases underwent a complete intervention program and were evaluated for improvement in symptoms and for changes in anorectal manometry within 1 year of follow-up.ResultsA total of 161 patients were included in this study. Positive response was achieved in all patients. Frequency of defecation, change in stool form and decrease in the defecatory pain were significantly relieved in all infants after intervention. On anorectal manometry, no significant difference was found in the peristaltic frequency of distal rectum before and after treatment. There was a significant increase in the mean amplitude of peristalsis and improvement in the rhythm after intervention. In the 1 year of follow-up, three patients had recurrence of constipation requiring colectomy.ConclusionIn terms of the high clinical efficacy and limited side effects, daily anal stimulation may be included in the initial part of an intervention program for IFC in infants.

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Selective attention to emotional stimuli and emotion recognition in patients with major depression: The role of mineralocorticoid and glutamatergic NMDA receptors

Journal of Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1177/02698811211009797 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026988112110097

Author(s):

Jan Nowacki ◽

Katja Wingenfeld ◽

Michael Kaczmarczyk ◽

Woo Ri Chae ◽

Paula Salchow ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Glutamate Release ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Beneficial Effects ◽

Women And Education

Background: Mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) are highly expressed in limbic brain areas and prefrontal cortex, which are closely related to selective attention to emotional stimuli and emotion recognition. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show alterations in MR functioning and both cognitive processes. MR stimulation improves cognitive processes in MDD and leads to glutamate release that binds upon N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDA-R). Aims: We examined (1) whether MR stimulation has beneficial effects on selective attention to emotional stimuli and on emotion recognition and (2) whether these advantageous effects can be improved by simultaneous NMDA-R stimulation. Methods: We examined 116 MDD patients and 116 healthy controls matched for age ( M = 34 years), sex (78% women), and education in the following conditions: no pharmacological stimulation (placebo), MR stimulation (0.4 mg fludrocortisone + placebo), NMDA-R stimulation (placebo + 250 mg D-cycloserine (DCS)), MR + NMDA-R stimulation (fludrocortisone + DCS). An emotional dot probe task and a facial emotion recognition task were used to measure selective attention to emotional stimuli and emotion recognition. Results: Patients with MDD and healthy individuals did not differ in task performance. MR stimulation had no effect on both cognitive processes in both groups. Across groups, NMDA-R stimulation had no effect on selective attention but showed a small effect on emotion recognition by increasing accuracy to recognize angry faces. Conclusions: Relatively young unmedicated MDD patients showed no depression-related cognitive deficits compared with healthy controls. Separate MR and simultaneous MR and NMDA-R stimulation revealed no advantageous effects on cognition, but NMDA-R might be involved in emotion recognition.

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Do You See What I See -- Exploring the Role of Personality in Emotion Recognition using a Priming Paradigm

10.31124/advance.13147811 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Parama Gupta ◽

Deepshikha Ray ◽

Sukanto Sarkar

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Healthy Participants

The current study explored the mediating role of Neuroticism and Psychoticism involving young adult healthy participants who performed a facial emotion recognition task.

Download Full-text

Toward Continuous Social Phenotyping: Analyzing Gaze Patterns in an Emotion Recognition Task for Children With Autism Through Wearable Smart Glasses (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.13810 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Anish Nag ◽

Nick Haber ◽

Catalin Voss ◽

Serena Tamura ◽

Jena Daniels ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Facial Expression ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expression Recognition ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Expression Recognition ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

Gaze Tracking ◽

Smart Glasses

BACKGROUND Several studies have shown that facial attention differs in children with autism. Measuring eye gaze and emotion recognition in children with autism is challenging, as standard clinical assessments must be delivered in clinical settings by a trained clinician. Wearable technologies may be able to bring eye gaze and emotion recognition into natural social interactions and settings. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to test: (1) the feasibility of tracking gaze using wearable smart glasses during a facial expression recognition task and (2) the ability of these gaze-tracking data, together with facial expression recognition responses, to distinguish children with autism from neurotypical controls (NCs). METHODS We compared the eye gaze and emotion recognition patterns of 16 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 17 children without ASD via wearable smart glasses fitted with a custom eye tracker. Children identified static facial expressions of images presented on a computer screen along with nonsocial distractors while wearing Google Glass and the eye tracker. Faces were presented in three trials, during one of which children received feedback in the form of the correct classification. We employed hybrid human-labeling and computer vision–enabled methods for pupil tracking and world–gaze translation calibration. We analyzed the impact of gaze and emotion recognition features in a prediction task aiming to distinguish children with ASD from NC participants. RESULTS Gaze and emotion recognition patterns enabled the training of a classifier that distinguished ASD and NC groups. However, it was unable to significantly outperform other classifiers that used only age and gender features, suggesting that further work is necessary to disentangle these effects. CONCLUSIONS Although wearable smart glasses show promise in identifying subtle differences in gaze tracking and emotion recognition patterns in children with and without ASD, the present form factor and data do not allow for these differences to be reliably exploited by machine learning systems. Resolving these challenges will be an important step toward continuous tracking of the ASD phenotype.

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Complex facial emotion recognition and atypical gaze patterns in autistic adults

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361319856969 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 258-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Melissa H Black ◽

Nigel TM Chen ◽

Ottmar V Lipp ◽

Sven Bölte ◽

Sonya Girdler

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Visual Information ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Gaze Patterns ◽

Gaze Behaviour ◽

Autistic Adults

While altered gaze behaviour during facial emotion recognition has been observed in autistic individuals, there remains marked inconsistency in findings, with the majority of previous research focused towards the processing of basic emotional expressions. There is a need to examine whether atypical gaze during facial emotion recognition extends to more complex emotional expressions, which are experienced as part of everyday social functioning. The eye gaze of 20 autistic and 20 IQ-matched neurotypical adults was examined during a facial emotion recognition task of complex, dynamic emotion displays. Autistic adults fixated longer on the mouth region when viewing complex emotions compared to neurotypical adults, indicating that altered prioritization of visual information may contribute to facial emotion recognition impairment. Results confirm the need for more ecologically valid stimuli for the elucidation of the mechanisms underlying facial emotion recognition difficulty in autistic individuals.

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Salivary oxytocin after play with parents predicts behavioral problems in preschool children

10.21203/rs.3.rs-220873/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nuno Torres ◽

Daniel Martins ◽

Ligia Monteiro ◽

António J. Santos ◽

Brian E. Vaughn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Daily Routine ◽

Depression And Anxiety ◽

Potential Biomarker ◽

Before And After ◽

Teacher Report Form

Abstract Background: Oxytocin (OXT) has attracted research interest for its potential involvement in many of the behavioural problems observed in childhood. Due to its logistical advantages, saliva is an attractive fluid to quantify neuropeptides in children. Salivary OXT has been suggested as a potential biomarker for psychopathology during childhood. However, several questions still remain about the extent to which, and under what conditions, concentrations of OXT in saliva can be reliably measured and are related to behavioural problems in preschool age children.Methods: Seven samples of saliva from 30 preschool children (17 girls) were collected in five different days at their homes. Three of the samples were collected by the children's parents at baseline daily routine conditions, and four of the samples were collected by researchers during two home-visits: before and after two 15-minute dyadic play sessions (one with mothers and one fathers) between each individual parent and the child. Oxytocin concentrations were quantified by Radioimmunoassay with prior extraction. Children's behavioural problems were assessed by the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF) questionnaire, completed by the child's’ preschool teacher.Results: Salivary OXT measured in baseline samples collected by the parents could not predict any of the behavioural problems measured by the C-TRF. However, when collected by the researchers, salivary OXT before playing with parents correlated negatively with the C-TRF depression and anxiety subscales. Additionally there was a richer and stronger pattern of negative correlations between the salivary OXT measured after playing with parents and the depression, opposition, externalization and total problem scales of the C-TRF. Furthermore, salivary OXT was unlikely to be reliably measured using single sampling, but acceptable reliabilities were achieved when averaging several samples. Finally, the salivary OXT evoked after an episode of play with parents showed better reliabilities than collected at baseline.Conclusion: measurements of OXT evoked after positive affect interactions with parents seem to capture aspects of the OXT system in young children that are relevant for understanding the role of this system in children’s social behaviour.

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