Left Anterior Insular Lesions Result in Impaired Recognition of Facial Expressions of Negative Emotions

Abstract Single case studies about patients with unilateral insular lesions reported deficits in emotion recognition from facial expressions. However, there is no consensus about both the actual extent of impairments and the role of lesion lateralization. To investigate associations of brain lesions and impairments in a facial emotion recognition task, we used voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) in a group of 29 stroke patients in the chronic stage, 16 with left and 13 with right hemispheric lesion. Recognition accuracy was impaired for fearful and angry expressions in patients with left hemispheric lesions compared to 14 matched healthy controls. VLSM analyses revealed that lesions centered around the left insula were associated with impaired recognition of emotional facial expressions. We here demonstrate a critical role for the left insula in decoding unpleasant emotions from facial expressions and therefore present further evidence for a broader role for the insular cortex not restricted to disgust processing.

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Differences Between Autistic and Non-autistic Adults in the Recognition of Anger From Dynamic Expressions Remain After Controlling for Alexithymia.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-88768/v3 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Connor Tom Keating ◽

Sophie L Sowden ◽

Dagmar S Fraser ◽

Jennifer L Cook

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Reasoning Ability ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Normal Speed ◽

Point Light ◽

And Control ◽

Autistic Population

Abstract A burgeoning literature suggests that alexithymia, and not autism, is responsible for the difficulties with static emotion recognition that are documented in the autistic population. Here we investigate whether alexithymia can also account for difficulties with dynamic facial expressions. Autistic and control adults (N=60) matched on age, gender, non-verbal reasoning ability and alexithymia, completed an emotion recognition task, which employed dynamic point light displays of emotional facial expressions that varied in speed and spatial exaggeration. The ASD group exhibited significantly lower recognition accuracy for angry, but not happy or sad, expressions with normal speed and spatial exaggeration. The level of autistic, and not alexithymic, traits was a significant predictor of accuracy for angry expressions with normal speed and spatial exaggeration.

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Schizotypy is associated with difficulties detecting emotional facial expressions

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.211322 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (11) ◽

Author(s):

Shota Uono ◽

Wataru Sato ◽

Reiko Sawada ◽

Sayaka Kawakami ◽

Sayaka Yoshimura ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Facial Expression ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Facial Expression Recognition ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Clinical Population ◽

Expression Recognition ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Visual Change ◽

Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽

Age And Sex

People with schizophrenia or subclinical schizotypal traits exhibit impaired recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether the detection of emotional facial expressions is impaired in people with schizophrenia or high levels of schizotypy. The present study examined whether the detection of emotional facial expressions would be associated with schizotypy in a non-clinical population after controlling for the effects of IQ, age, and sex. Participants were asked to respond to whether all faces were the same as quickly and as accurately as possible following the presentation of angry or happy faces or their anti-expressions among crowds of neutral faces. Anti-expressions contain a degree of visual change that is equivalent to that of normal emotional facial expressions relative to neutral facial expressions and are recognized as neutral expressions. Normal expressions of anger and happiness were detected more rapidly and accurately than their anti-expressions. Additionally, the degree of overall schizotypy was negatively correlated with the effectiveness of detecting normal expressions versus anti-expressions. An emotion–recognition task revealed that the degree of positive schizotypy was negatively correlated with the accuracy of facial expression recognition. These results suggest that people with high levels of schizotypy experienced difficulties detecting and recognizing emotional facial expressions.

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Differences Between Autistic and Non-autistic Adults in the Recognition of Anger From Dynamic Expressions Remain After Controlling for Alexithymia.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-88768/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Connor Tom Keating ◽

Sophie L Sowden ◽

Dagmar S Fraser ◽

Jennifer L Cook

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Reasoning Ability ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Normal Speed ◽

Point Light ◽

And Control ◽

Autistic Population

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Recognition of Facial Expressions of Different Emotional Intensities in Patients with Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2007/868431 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 31-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Roy P. C. Kessels ◽

Lotte Gerritsen ◽

Barbara Montagne ◽

Nibal Ackl ◽

Janine Diehl ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Confounding Factor ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Recognition Of Facial Expressions

Behavioural problems are a key feature of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Also, FTLD patients show impairments in emotion processing. Specifically, the perception of negative emotional facial expressions is affected. Generally, however, negative emotional expressions are regarded as more difficult to recognize than positive ones, which thus may have been a confounding factor in previous studies. Also, ceiling effects are often present on emotion recognition tasks using full-blown emotional facial expressions. In the present study with FTLD patients, we examined the perception of sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and disgust at different emotional intensities on morphed facial expressions to take task difficulty into account. Results showed that our FTLD patients were specifically impaired at the recognition of the emotion anger. Also, the patients performed worse than the controls on recognition of surprise, but performed at control levels on disgust, happiness, sadness and fear. These findings corroborate and extend previous results showing deficits in emotion perception in FTLD.

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Differences Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults in the Recognition of Anger from Facial Motion Remain after Controlling for Alexithymia

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders ◽

10.1007/s10803-021-05083-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Connor T. Keating ◽

Dagmar S. Fraser ◽

Sophie Sowden ◽

Jennifer L. Cook

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Reasoning Ability ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Motion Cues ◽

Facial Motion ◽

Lower Accuracy ◽

Autistic Adults ◽

Point Light

AbstractTo date, studies have not established whether autistic and non-autistic individuals differ in emotion recognition from facial motion cues when matched in terms of alexithymia. Here, autistic and non-autistic adults (N = 60) matched on age, gender, non-verbal reasoning ability and alexithymia, completed an emotion recognition task, which employed dynamic point light displays of emotional facial expressions manipulated in terms of speed and spatial exaggeration. Autistic participants exhibited significantly lower accuracy for angry, but not happy or sad, facial motion with unmanipulated speed and spatial exaggeration. Autistic, and not alexithymic, traits were predictive of accuracy for angry facial motion with unmanipulated speed and spatial exaggeration. Alexithymic traits, in contrast, were predictive of the magnitude of both correct and incorrect emotion ratings.

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Emotion Recognition of Facial Expressions Presented in Profile

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/00332941211018403 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003329412110184

Author(s):

Paola Surcinelli ◽

Federica Andrei ◽

Ornella Montebarocci ◽

Silvana Grandi

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Response Times ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽

Profile View ◽

The Face ◽

Within Subjects ◽

Face Stimuli ◽

Affective Information

Aim of the research The literature on emotion recognition from facial expressions shows significant differences in recognition ability depending on the proposed stimulus. Indeed, affective information is not distributed uniformly in the face and recent studies showed the importance of the mouth and the eye regions for a correct recognition. However, previous studies used mainly facial expressions presented frontally and studies which used facial expressions in profile view used a between-subjects design or children faces as stimuli. The present research aims to investigate differences in emotion recognition between faces presented in frontal and in profile views by using a within subjects experimental design. Method The sample comprised 132 Italian university students (88 female, Mage = 24.27 years, SD = 5.89). Face stimuli displayed both frontally and in profile were selected from the KDEF set. Two emotion-specific recognition accuracy scores, viz., frontal and in profile, were computed from the average of correct responses for each emotional expression. In addition, viewing times and response times (RT) were registered. Results Frontally presented facial expressions of fear, anger, and sadness were significantly better recognized than facial expressions of the same emotions in profile while no differences were found in the recognition of the other emotions. Longer viewing times were also found when faces expressing fear and anger were presented in profile. In the present study, an impairment in recognition accuracy was observed only for those emotions which rely mostly on the eye regions.

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Effects of early institutionalization on emotion processing in 12-year-old youth

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417001377 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 1749-1761 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Johanna Bick ◽

Rhiannon Luyster ◽

Nathan A. Fox ◽

Charles H. Zeanah ◽

Charles A. Nelson

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Developmental Trajectories ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Institutional Care ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Fearful Faces

AbstractWe examined facial emotion recognition in 12-year-olds in a longitudinally followed sample of children with and without exposure to early life psychosocial deprivation (institutional care). Half of the institutionally reared children were randomized into foster care homes during the first years of life. Facial emotion recognition was examined in a behavioral task using morphed images. This same task had been administered when children were 8 years old. Neutral facial expressions were morphed with happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotional facial expressions, and children were asked to identify the emotion of each face, which varied in intensity. Consistent with our previous report, we show that some areas of emotion processing, involving the recognition of happy and fearful faces, are affected by early deprivation, whereas other areas, involving the recognition of sad and angry faces, appear to be unaffected. We also show that early intervention can have a lasting positive impact, normalizing developmental trajectories of processing negative emotions (fear) into the late childhood/preadolescent period.

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Attention Dynamics During Emotion Recognition by Deaf and Hearing Individuals

The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education ◽

10.1093/deafed/enz036 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Izabela Krejtz ◽

Krzysztof Krejtz ◽

Katarzyna Wisiecka ◽

Marta Abramczyk ◽

Michał Olszanowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Affect Recognition ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Emotional Cues ◽

Focal Attention ◽

Visual Gaze ◽

Neutral Expression

Abstract The enhancement hypothesis suggests that deaf individuals are more vigilant to visual emotional cues than hearing individuals. The present eye-tracking study examined ambient–focal visual attention when encoding affect from dynamically changing emotional facial expressions. Deaf (n = 17) and hearing (n = 17) individuals watched emotional facial expressions that in 10-s animations morphed from a neutral expression to one of happiness, sadness, or anger. The task was to recognize emotion as quickly as possible. Deaf participants tended to be faster than hearing participants in affect recognition, but the groups did not differ in accuracy. In general, happy faces were more accurately and more quickly recognized than faces expressing anger or sadness. Both groups demonstrated longer average fixation duration when recognizing happiness in comparison to anger and sadness. Deaf individuals directed their first fixations less often to the mouth region than the hearing group. During the last stages of emotion recognition, deaf participants exhibited more focal viewing of happy faces than negative faces. This pattern was not observed among hearing individuals. The analysis of visual gaze dynamics, switching between ambient and focal attention, was useful in studying the depth of cognitive processing of emotional information among deaf and hearing individuals.

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Student Prize-Winning Abstracts 2010

Brain Impairment ◽

10.1375/brim.12.1.77 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 77-77

Author(s):

Sharpley Hsieh ◽

Olivier Piguet ◽

John R. Hodges

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Emotion Detection ◽

Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽

Patient Groups ◽

The Neural Networks ◽

Emotional Dimensions ◽

Recognition Of Emotions ◽

Valence And Arousal

AbstractIntroduction: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurode-generative brain disease characterised clinically by abnormalities in behaviour, cognition and language. Two subgroups, behavioural-variant FTD (bvFTD) and semantic dementia (SD), also show impaired emotion recognition particularly for negative emotions. This deficit has been demonstrated using visual stimuli such as facial expressions. Whether recognition of emotions conveyed through other modalities — for example, music — is also impaired has not been investigated. Methods: Patients with bvFTD, SD and Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as healthy age-matched controls, labeled tunes according to the emotion conveyed (happy, sad, peaceful or scary). In addition, each tune was also rated along two orthogonal emotional dimensions: valence (pleasant/unpleasant) and arousal (stimulating/relaxing). Participants also undertook a facial emotion recognition test and other cognitive tests. Integrity of basic music detection (tone, tempo) was also examined. Results: Patient groups were matched for disease severity. Overall, patients did not differ from controls with regard to basic music processing or for the recognition of facial expressions. Ratings of valence and arousal were similar across groups. In contrast, SD patients were selectively impaired at recognising music conveying negative emotions (sad and scary). Patients with bvFTD did not differ from controls. Conclusion: Recognition of emotions in music appears to be selectively affected in some FTD subgroups more than others, a disturbance of emotion detection which appears to be modality specific. This finding suggests dissociation in the neural networks necessary for the processing of emotions depending on modality.

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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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