Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test: Relationship with Neurocognition and Facial Emotion Recognition in Non-Clinical Youths

Objective The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is a common measure of the Theory of Mind. Previous studies found a correlation between RMET performance and neurocognition, especially reasoning by analogy; however, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. Additionally, neurocognition was shown to play a significant role in facial emotion recognition. This study is planned to examine the nature of relationship between neurocognition and RMET performance, as well as the mediating role of facial emotion recognition.Methods One hundred fifty non-clinical youths performed the RMET. Reasoning by analogy was tested by Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and facial emotion recognition was assessed by the Korean Facial Expressions of Emotion (KOFEE) test. The percentile bootstrap method was used to calculate the parameters of the mediating effects of facial emotion recognition on the relationship between SPM and RMET scores.Results SPM scores and KOFEE scores were both statistically significant predictors of RMET scores. KOFEE scores were found to partially mediate the impact of SPM scores on RMET scores.Conclusion These findings suggested that facial emotion recognition partially mediated the relationship between reasoning by analogy and social cognition. This study highlights the need for further research for individuals with serious mental illnesses.

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Facial Sadness Recognition is Modulated by Estrogen Receptor Gene Polymorphisms in Healthy Females

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci8120219 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 219 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mayra Gutiérrez-Muñoz ◽

Martha Fajardo-Araujo ◽

Erika González-Pérez ◽

Victor Aguirre-Arzola ◽

Silvia Solís-Ortiz

Keyword(s):

Estrogen Receptor ◽

Response Time ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Receptor Gene ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

The Impact

Polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor ESR1 and ESR2 genes have been linked with cognitive deficits and affective disorders. The effects of these genetic variants on emotional processing in females with low estrogen levels are not well known. The aim was to explore the impact of the ESR1 and ESR2 genes on the responses to the facial emotion recognition task in females. Postmenopausal healthy female volunteers were genotyped for the polymorphisms Xbal and PvuII of ESR1 and the polymorphism rs1256030 of ESR2. The effect of these polymorphisms on the response to the facial emotion recognition of the emotions happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, surprise, and fear was analyzed. Females carrying the P allele of the PvuII polymorphism or the X allele of the Xbal polymorphism of ESR1 easily recognized facial expressions of sadness that were more difficult for the women carrying the p allele or the x allele. They displayed higher accuracy, fast response time, more correct responses, and fewer omissions to complete the task, with a large effect size. Women carrying the ESR2 C allele of ESR2 showed a faster response time for recognizing facial expressions of anger. These findings link ESR1 and ESR2 polymorphisms in facial emotion recognition of negative emotions.

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Hypomimia May Influence the Facial Emotion Recognition Ability in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Journal of Parkinson s Disease ◽

10.3233/jpd-212830 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Yu-Han Chuang ◽

Chun-Hsiang Tan ◽

Hui-Chen Su ◽

Chung-Yao Chien ◽

Pi-Shan Sung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Social Functioning ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Social Function ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

The Social ◽

The Relationship

Background: Hypomimia is a clinical feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Based on the embodied simulation theory, the impairment of facial mimicry may worsen facial emotion recognition; however, the empirical results are inconclusive. Objective: We aimed to explore the worsening of emotion recognition by hypomimia. We further explored the relationship between the hypomimia, emotion recognition, and social functioning. Methods: A total of 114 participants were recruited. The patients with PD and normal controls (NCs) were matched for demographic characteristics. All the participants completed the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Chinese Multi-modalities Emotion Recognition Test. In addition to the above tests, the patients were assessed with the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale and Parkinson’s Disease Social Functioning Scale (PDSFS). Results: Patients with PD with hypomimia had worse recognition of disgust than NCs (p = 0.018). The severity of hypomimia was predictive of the recognition of disgust (β= –0.275, p = 0.028). Facial emotion recognition was predictive of the PDSFS score of PD patients (β= 0.433, p = 0.001). We also found that recognizing disgust could mediate the relationship between hypomimia and the PDSFS score (β= 0.264, p = 0.045). Conclusion: Patients with hypomimia had the worst disgust facial recognition. Hypomimia may affect the social function of PD patients, which is related to recognizing the expression of disgust. Emotion recognition training may improve the social function of patients with PD.

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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 emotion recognition in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences: a school-based sample from the general population

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291712000311 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 42 (10) ◽

pp. 2157-2166 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

S. Roddy ◽

L. Tiedt ◽

I. Kelleher ◽

M. C. Clarke ◽

J. Murphy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Self Report ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Psychotic Symptoms ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

School Based ◽

Schizophrenia Spectrum ◽

Increased Risk ◽

The Relationship

BackgroundPsychotic symptoms, also termed psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the absence of psychotic disorder, are common in adolescents and are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum illness in adulthood. At the same time, schizophrenia is associated with deficits in social cognition, with deficits particularly documented in facial emotion recognition (FER). However, little is known about the relationship between PLEs and FER abilities, with only one previous prospective study examining the association between these abilities in childhood and reported PLEs in adolescence. The current study was a cross-sectional investigation of the association between PLEs and FER in a sample of Irish adolescents.MethodThe Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS), a self-report measure of PLEs, and the Penn Emotion Recognition-40 Test (Penn ER-40), a measure of facial emotion recognition, were completed by 793 children aged 10–13 years.ResultsChildren who reported PLEs performed significantly more poorly on FER (β=−0.03, p=0.035). Recognition of sad faces was the major driver of effects, with children performing particularly poorly when identifying this expression (β=−0.08, p=0.032).ConclusionsThe current findings show that PLEs are associated with poorer FER. Further work is needed to elucidate causal relationships with implications for the design of future interventions for those at risk of developing psychosis.

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Your Face Mirrors Your Deepest Beliefs—Predicting Personality and Morals through Facial Emotion Recognition

Future Internet ◽

10.3390/fi14010005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 5

Author(s):

Peter A. Gloor ◽

Andrea Fronzetti Colladon ◽

Erkin Altuntas ◽

Cengiz Cetinkaya ◽

Maximilian F. Kaiser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Emotional Response ◽

Moral Values ◽

Learning System ◽

Personality Characteristics ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Moral Foundations ◽

Domain Specific ◽

The Mind

Can we really “read the mind in the eyes”? Moreover, can AI assist us in this task? This paper answers these two questions by introducing a machine learning system that predicts personality characteristics of individuals on the basis of their face. It does so by tracking the emotional response of the individual’s face through facial emotion recognition (FER) while watching a series of 15 short videos of different genres. To calibrate the system, we invited 85 people to watch the videos, while their emotional responses were analyzed through their facial expression. At the same time, these individuals also took four well-validated surveys of personality characteristics and moral values: the revised NEO FFI personality inventory, the Haidt moral foundations test, the Schwartz personal value system, and the domain-specific risk-taking scale (DOSPERT). We found that personality characteristics and moral values of an individual can be predicted through their emotional response to the videos as shown in their face, with an accuracy of up to 86% using gradient-boosted trees. We also found that different personality characteristics are better predicted by different videos, in other words, there is no single video that will provide accurate predictions for all personality characteristics, but it is the response to the mix of different videos that allows for accurate prediction.

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