Configural and Featural Face Processing Influences on Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

AbstractObjectives: Emotion recognition impairments have been demonstrated in schizophrenia (Sz), but are less consistent and lesser in magnitude in bipolar disorder (BD). This may be related to the extent to which different face processing strategies are engaged during emotion recognition in each of these disorders. We recently showed that Sz patients had impairments in the use of both featural and configural face processing strategies, whereas BD patients were impaired only in the use of the latter. Here we examine the influence that these impairments have on facial emotion recognition in these cohorts. Methods: Twenty-eight individuals with Sz, 28 individuals with BD, and 28 healthy controls completed a facial emotion labeling task with two conditions designed to separate the use of featural and configural face processing strategies; part-based and whole-face emotion recognition. Results: Sz patients performed worse than controls on both conditions, and worse than BD patients on the whole-face condition. BD patients performed worse than controls on the whole-face condition only. Conclusions: Configural processing deficits appear to influence the recognition of facial emotions in BD, whereas both configural and featural processing abnormalities impair emotion recognition in Sz. This may explain discrepancies in the profiles of emotion recognition between the disorders. (JINS, 2017, 23, 287–291)

Download Full-text

Taking It at “Face Value”: The Use of Face Processing Strategies in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617716000412 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 652-661 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Nicole Joshua ◽

Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen ◽

David J Castle ◽

Susan L. Rossell

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Face Processing ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Second Order ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Inversion Effect ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Configural Face Processing

AbstractObjectives: Use of appropriate face processing strategies is important for facial emotion recognition, which is known to be impaired in schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). There is preliminary evidence of abnormalities in the use of face processing strategies in the former, but there has been no explicit attempt to assess face processing in patients with BD. Methods: Twenty-eight BD I, 28 SZ, and 28 healthy control participants completed tasks assessing featural and configural face processing. The facial inversion effect was used as a proxy of second order configural face processing and compared to featural face processing performance (which is known to be relatively less affected by facial inversion). Results: Controls demonstrated the usual second-order inversion pattern. In the BD group, the absence of a second-order configural inversion effect in the presence of a disproportionate bias toward a featural inversion effect was evident. Despite reduced accuracy performance in the SZ group compared to controls, this group unexpectedly showed a normal second-order configural accuracy inversion pattern. This was in the context of a reverse inversion effect for response latency, suggesting a speed-versus-accuracy trade-off. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to explicitly examine and contrast face processing in BD and SZ. Our findings indicate a generalized impairment on face processing tasks in SZ, and the presence of a second-order configural face processing impairment in BD. It is possible that these face processing impairments represent a catalyst for the facial emotion recognition deficits that are commonly reported in the literature. (JINS, 2016, 22, 652–661)

Download Full-text

Configural Face Processing Develops more Slowly than Featural Face Processing

Perception ◽

10.1068/p3339 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 553-566 ◽

Cited By ~ 399

Author(s):

Catherine J Mondloch ◽

Richard Le Grand ◽

Daphne Maurer

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Inversion Effect ◽

Configural Processing ◽

External Contour ◽

Slow Development ◽

Single Face ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Adults And Children ◽

Configural Face Processing ◽

Featural Face Processing

Expertise in face processing takes many years to develop. To determine the contribution of different face-processing skills to this slow development, we altered a single face so as to create sets of faces designed to measure featural, configural, and contour processing. Within each set, faces differed only in the shape of the eyes and mouth (featural set), only in the spacing of the eyes and mouth (spacing set), or only in the shape of the external contour (contour set). We presented adults, and children aged 6, 8, and 10 years, with pairs of upright and inverted faces and instructed them to indicate whether the two faces were the same or different. Adults showed a larger inversion effect for the spacing set than for the featural and external contour sets, confirming that the spacing set taps configural processing. On the spacing set, all groups of children made more errors than adults. In contrast, on the external contour and featural sets, children at all ages were almost as accurate as adults, with no significant difference beginning at age 6 on the external contour set and beginning at age 10 on the featural set. Overall, the results indicate that adult expertise in configural processing is especially slow to develop.

Download Full-text

Characterization of facial emotion recognition in bipolar disorder: Focus on emotion mislabelling and neutral expressions

Journal of Neuropsychology ◽

10.1111/jnp.12267 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lisa S. Furlong ◽

Susan L. Rossell ◽

James A. Karantonis ◽

Vanessa L. Cropley ◽

Matthew Hughes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text

Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291710001571 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 (5) ◽

pp. 937-947 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

L. T. Germine ◽

C. I. Hooker

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Face Processing ◽

Normal Population ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Intermediate Phenotype ◽

Emotion Identification ◽

Psychosis Proneness ◽

The Relationship ◽

Face Emotion Recognition

BackgroundDeficits in face emotion recognition (FER) in schizophrenia are well documented, and have been proposed as a potential intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia liability. However, research on the relationship between psychosis vulnerability and FER has mixed findings and methodological limitations. Moreover, no study has yet characterized the relationship between FER ability and level of psychosis-proneness. If FER ability varies continuously with psychosis-proneness, this suggests a relationship between FER and polygenic risk factors.MethodWe tested two large internet samples to see whether psychometric psychosis-proneness, as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), is related to differences in face emotion identification and discrimination or other face processing abilities.ResultsExperiment 1 (n=2332) showed that psychosis-proneness predicts face emotion identification ability but not face gender identification ability. Experiment 2 (n=1514) demonstrated that psychosis-proneness also predicts performance on face emotion but not face identity discrimination. The tasks in Experiment 2 used identical stimuli and task parameters, differing only in emotion/identity judgment. Notably, the relationships demonstrated in Experiments 1 and 2 persisted even when individuals with the highest psychosis-proneness levels (the putative high-risk group) were excluded from analysis.ConclusionsOur data suggest that FER ability is related to individual differences in psychosis-like characteristics in the normal population, and that these differences cannot be accounted for by differences in face processing and/or visual perception. Our results suggest that FER may provide a useful candidate intermediate phenotype.

Download Full-text

Facial emotion recognition in first-episode schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis

Schizophrenia Research ◽

10.1016/j.schres.2014.01.009 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 153 (1-3) ◽

pp. 32-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Alexander R. Daros ◽

Anthony C. Ruocco ◽

James L. Reilly ◽

Margret S.H. Harris ◽

John A. Sweeney

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

First Episode ◽

First Episode Schizophrenia

Download Full-text

Facial emotion recognition deficits in patients with bipolar disorder and their healthy parents

General Hospital Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.04.008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 65 ◽

pp. 9-14

Author(s):

Selen Işık Ulusoy ◽

Şeref Abdurrahman Gülseren ◽

Nermin Özkan ◽

Cüneyt Bilen

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion

Download Full-text

Impaired recognition of happy facial expressions in bipolar disorder

Acta Neuropsychiatrica ◽

10.1017/neu.2014.6 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 253-259 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Linette Lawlor-Savage ◽

Scott R. Sponheim ◽

Vina M. Goghari

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Recognition Ability ◽

Recognition Condition ◽

Bipolar Patients

BackgroundThe ability to accurately judge facial expressions is important in social interactions. Individuals with bipolar disorder have been found to be impaired in emotion recognition; however, the specifics of the impairment are unclear. This study investigated whether facial emotion recognition difficulties in bipolar disorder reflect general cognitive, or emotion-specific, impairments. Impairment in the recognition of particular emotions and the role of processing speed in facial emotion recognition were also investigated.MethodsClinically stable bipolar patients (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 50) judged five facial expressions in two presentation types, time-limited and self-paced. An age recognition condition was used as an experimental control.ResultsBipolar patients’ overall facial recognition ability was unimpaired. However, patients’ specific ability to judge happy expressions under time constraints was impaired.ConclusionsFindings suggest a deficit in happy emotion recognition impacted by processing speed. Given the limited sample size, further investigation with a larger patient sample is warranted.

Download Full-text