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

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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Emotional face recognition and EEG measures

Neuropsychological Trends ◽

10.7358/neur-2007-001-mahl ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Walter Mahler ◽

Sandra Reder

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Frequency Band ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Stimulus Type ◽

Face Stimulus ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Relevant Stimulus ◽

Band Power ◽

Emotional Face

Twenty one adults looked at emotional (sad, happy, fearful) or neutral faces. EEG measures showed that emotional significance of face (stimulus type) modulated the amplitude of EEG, especially for theta and delta frequency band power. Also, emotional discrimination by theta was more distributed on the posterior sites of the scalp for the emotional stimuli. Thus, this frequency band variation could represent a complex set of cognitive processes whereby selective attention becomes focused on an emotional-relevant stimulus.

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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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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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A Short Empathy Paradigm to Assess Empathic Deficits in Schizophrenia

Behavioral Sciences ◽

10.3390/bs10020041 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 41

Author(s):

Foteini Peveretou ◽

Sina Radke ◽

Birgit Derntl ◽

Ute Habel

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Negative Symptoms ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Short Version ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Clinical Routine ◽

Dsm 5 ◽

Do So ◽

Affective Responsiveness

Empathy is important for successful social interaction and maintaining relationships. Several studies detected impairments in empathic abilities in schizophrenia, with some even indicating a broader deficit in several components, including emotion recognition, perspective taking, and affective responsiveness. The aim of our study was to validate a short version of the previous empathy paradigm as a reliable and easily applicable method to assess empathic deficits in patients with schizophrenia potentially within clinical routine. To do so, we applied the short version to 30 patients (14 females) diagnosed with schizophrenia meeting the DSM-5 criteria and 30 well-matched healthy controls (14 females). The data analysis indicates a significant empathic deficit in patients due to worse performance in all three domains. We managed to replicate most of the findings of our previous study. In contrary to the previous study, significant correlations between performance in the empathy tasks and psychopathology occurred: the severity of negative symptoms was negatively associated with performance in the emotion recognition task and the affective responsiveness task. Gender did not significantly affect performance in the empathy tasks. Regarding the results, our short empathy paradigm appears to be a valid method in assessing empathic impairments in schizophrenia that may be useful in clinical routine.

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The role of cognitive control mechanisms in selective attention towards emotional stimuli

Cognition & Emotion ◽

10.1080/02699931.2016.1233861 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 31 (7) ◽

pp. 1480-1492 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Manuel Petrucci ◽

Anna Pecchinenda

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Emotional Stimuli

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

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579420001091 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Laura M. Hunnikin ◽

Amy E. Wells ◽

Daniel P. Ash ◽

Stephanie H. M. van Goozen

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Disruptive Behavior ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Supporting Evidence ◽

Before And After

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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Evidence for selective attention biases towards negative emotional stimuli in IBS patients compared to healthy controls.

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/s1053-8119(09)71636-2 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. S156

Author(s):

J.S. Labus ◽

K Coveleskie ◽

E.P. Vianna ◽

J Jarcho ◽

J Beuller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Emotional Stimuli

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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.

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Sense of familiarity and face emotion recognition in schizophrenia

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/s0924-9338(11)73132-7 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S2) ◽

pp. 1427-1427

Author(s):

G. Lahera ◽

V. de los Ángeles ◽

C. Fernández ◽

M. Bardón ◽

S. Herrera ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Control Group ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Basic Emotions ◽

Schizophrenic Patients ◽

Affective Experiences ◽

Face Emotion Recognition ◽

Unfamiliar Faces

IntroductionPatients with schizophrenia show a deficit in emotion recognition through facial expression. Familiarity means the implicit memory of past affective experiences and it involves fast cognitive processes and it is triggered by certain signals.ObjectivesTo assess the emotion recognition in familiar and unfamiliar faces in a sample of schizophrenic patients and healthy controls.Methods18 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IVTR) and 18 healthy volunteers were assessed with the Ekman Test of emotion recognition in unfamiliar faces. In addition each subject was accompanied by 4 familiar people (parents, siblings or friends), which was photographed by expressing the 6 Ekman’s basic emotions.ResultsSchizophrenic patients recognize worse emotions in their relatives than in neutral faces, a greater extent than controls (Mann-Whitney U = 81, p = .01). The patient group showed a mean score on the Ekman test (neutral faces) lower than control group (16 (SD 2.38) versus 17.82 (2.13; U p = 0.03). Regarding familiar faces, the group patients showed a worse performance than the control group (13.22 (3.8) versus 17.18 (2.82); U p = 0.00). In both tests, the highest number of errors was with emotions of anger and fear. The patients group showed a lower level of familiarity and emotional valence to their families (U = 33, p < 0.01).ConclusionsThe sense of familiarity may be a factor involved in face emotion recognition and it may be disturbed in schizophrenia.

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