scholarly journals Facial Emotion Recognition in Children and Adolescents with Specific Learning Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Francesca Felicia Operto ◽  
Grazia Maria Giovanna Pastorino ◽  
Maria Stellato ◽  
Lucia Morcaldi ◽  
Luigi Vetri ◽  
...  

Background: Some recent studies suggest that children and adolescents with different neurodevelopmental disorders perform worse in emotions recognition through facial expressions (ER) compared with typically developing peers. This impairment is also described in children with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), compromising their scholastic achievement, social functioning, and quality of life. The purpose of our study is to evaluate ER skills in children and adolescents with SLD compared to a control group without learning disorders, and correlate them with intelligence and executive functions. Materials and Methods: Our work is a cross-sectional observational study. Sixty-three children and adolescents aged between 8 and 16 years, diagnosed with SLD, and 32 sex/age-matched controls without learning disorders were recruited. All participants were administered standardized neuropsychological tests, evaluating facial emotion recognition (NEPSY-II), executive functions (EpiTrack Junior), and intelligence profile (WISC-IV). Results: Emotion recognition mean score was significantly lower in the SLD group than in the controls group on the Mann–Whitney U test for unpaired samples (p < 0.001). The SLD group performed significantly lower than the control group in their abilities to identify neutral expressions, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear compared to controls (p < 0.001). ER scores were positively correlated to the executive functions scores. There was no correlation with the Total Intelligence Quotient scores but there is a significant positive correlation with Working Memory Index and Processing Speed Index measured by WISC.IV. Conclusion: Our study showed that children and adolescents with Specific Learning Disorders have facial emotion recognition impairment when compared with a group of peers without learning disorders. ER abilities were independent of their global intelligence but potentially related to executive functions.

Author(s):  
Noreena Kausar ◽  
Nadia Farhat ◽  
Fauzia Maqsood ◽  
Hafsa Qurban ◽  
Admin

Abstract Objective: To examine the frequency of specific learning disorder (SLD) among primary school children of Sarai Alamgir, Pakistan. Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted from January to July 2018 in Sarai Alamgir. Multistage stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample from target population (N=914) of school children studying in 3rd and 4th class of six primary schoolsof Sarai Alamgir, Pakistan.Sample of n=837 children was selected through the Taro Yamane formula. Structured Clinical Diagnostic Interviews based on DSM-V (APA, 2013) diagnostic criteria of specific learning disorder were used to collect data. Children were approached in their classes. Screening tool was applied on all selected children to screen out the vulnerable cases. After screening the vulnerable cases, diagnostic criteria of different specific learning disorders were applied on all vulnerable cases. The frequencies and percentages were analyzed to see the frequency  of learning disorder among children. Results:Findings indicate that 174 (20.7%) children were vulnerable to specific learning disorders out of sample of 837 children. Total 13 (7.5%) children were diagnosed as suffering from different specific learning disorders from vulnerable participants. From vulnerable cases, 1(7.7%) childfulfilled the diagnostic criteria of reading impairment, 3 (23.1%) were diagnosed with mathematics impairment, 4 (30.8%) with multiple impairments in mathematics and writing, 1 (7.7%) with multiple impairments in mathematics and reading, 1 (7.7%) with multiple impairments in reading and writing, and 3 (23.1%) children were diagnosed as suffering from multiple impairments in mathematics, reading and writing. Continuous...


Pain Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Muñoz Ladrón de Guevara ◽  
Gustavo A Reyes del Paso ◽  
María José Fernández-Serrano ◽  
Stefan Duschek

Abstract Objective The ability to accurately identify facial expressions of emotions is crucial in human interaction. While a previous study suggested deficient emotional face recognition in patients with fibromyalgia, not much is known about the origin of this impairment. Against this background, this study investigated the role of executive functions. Executive functions refer to cognitive control mechanisms enabling implementation and coordination of basic mental operations. Deficits in this domain are prevalent in fibromyalgia. Methods Fifty-two fibromyalgia patients and thirty-two healthy individuals completed the Ekman-60 Faces Test, which requires classification of facial displays of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. They also completed eight tasks assessing the executive function components of shifting, updating and inhibition. Effects of comorbid depression and anxiety disorders, and medication use, were tested in stratified analyses of patient subgroups. Results Patients made more errors overall than controls in classifying the emotional expressions. Moreover, their recognition accuracy correlated positively with performance on most of the executive function tasks. Emotion recognition did not vary as a function of comorbid psychiatric disorders or medication use. Conclusions The study supports impaired facial emotion recognition in fibromyalgia, which may contribute to the interaction problems and poor social functioning characterizing this condition. Facial emotion recognition is regarded as a complex process, which may be particularly reliant on efficient coordination of various basic operations by executive functions. As such, the correlations between cognitive task performance and recognition accuracy suggest that deficits in higher cognitive functions underlie impaired emotional communication in fibromyalgia.


Author(s):  
Qi Zhao ◽  
Hui He ◽  
Huang Gu ◽  
Junfeng Zhao ◽  
Peilian Chi ◽  
...  

Existing behavioral studies have suggested that individuals with early life stress usually show abnormal emotional processing. However, limited event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evidence was available to explore the emotional processes in children orphaned by parental HIV/AIDS (“AIDS orphans”). The current study aims to investigate whether there are behavioral and neurological obstacles in the recognition of emotional faces in AIDS orphans and also to further explore the processing stage at which the difference in facial emotion recognition exists. A total of 81 AIDS orphans and 60 non-orphan children were recruited through the local communities and school systems in Henan, China. Participants completed a computer version of the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task while recording ERPs. Behavioral results showed that orphans displayed higher response accuracy and shorter reaction time than the control (ps < 0.05). As for the ERPs analysis, the attenuated amplitude of N170 (i.e., an early component sensitive to facial configuration) was observed in AIDS orphans compared to the non-orphan control with happy and neutral faces; P300 (i.e., an endogenous component for affective valence evaluation in emotional processing) also showed significant differences in parietal lobe between groups, the non-orphan control group produced larger P300 amplitudes than orphans (p < 0.05). The results suggested that compared to the control group, AIDS orphans showed impaired facial emotion recognition ability with reduced brain activation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 2157-2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Roddy ◽  
L. Tiedt ◽  
I. Kelleher ◽  
M. C. Clarke ◽  
J. Murphy ◽  
...  

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.


Salud Mental ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Johanna Vanessa Suárez-Salazar ◽  
Ana Fresán-Orellana ◽  
Ricardo Arturo Saracco-Álvarez

Introduction. There is evidence to suggest that individuals with schizophrenia have greater difficulty in recognizing facial emotions, which has been related to cognitive impairment and higher symptom severity in this disease and seems to lead to a worse functional prognosis. Objective. To determine the association between facial emotion recognition and symptom severity, functionality, and cognitive impairment in a sample of schizophrenic patients. Method. This is an observational, cross-sectional, and correlational study conducted on 72 patients. The following scales: PANSS, MOCA, ERI, and FACT-Sz were used to assess symptom severity in schizophrenia, cognitive functioning, facial emotion recognition, and functionality, respectively. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to measure the linear association between all variables. Results. Overall, moderate symptom severity and mild cognitive and functional disability were found. The most frequently recognized emotion was joy (70%) and the least frequently recognized one was anger. A positive association was also found between anger recognition and severity of the PANSS cognitive subscale (r = - .24, p = .03), sadness recognition and severity of the PANSS negative subscale (r = - .24, p = .03), and the FACT-Sz score and fear recognition (r = .31, p = .008). Discussion and conclusion. The present study yields preliminary results that provide a broader perspective on facial emotion recognition and, indirectly, social interaction and functionality in people with schizophrenia.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Arantes Oliveira ◽  
Aline Mansueto Mourão ◽  
Aline Silva de Miranda ◽  
Emanuelle Lamas Rocha ◽  
Ester Cristina Pascoal Gomes ◽  
...  

Background: Ischemic strokes (IS) patients usually present cognitive deficits and psychiatric disorders. Studies describe this coexistence in the chronic phase, although alterations may relate with acute damage to emotion and cognition circuits Objectives: Assess cognitive and psychiatric symptoms during the subacute phase of IS. Design and setting: A prospective study, screening patients admitted in the Stroke Unit of Hospital Municipal Odilon Behrens, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: Adults with acute IS and healthy controls were submitted to neuropsychological tests between 30 and 60 days after the event. Incidental, immediate and working memory, learning, late recall, recognition, phonemic verbal fluency, attention and facial emotion recognition were evaluated. Results: Eighteen patients were evaluated in the subacute phase, and twenty-one participants composed the control group, showing no socioeconomic differences between them. There was significant difference in immediate memory (p <0,01), late recall (p<0,05) and recognition (p<0,03) tests from the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery, and in the depression subscale from Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (p <0,04). Although there was no significant difference in Facial Emotion Recognition Test (p=0,745), the expression of sadness positively correlated with levels of anxiety (rho=0,587, p<0,05) and depression (rho=0,598, p<0,01), while the expression of fear negatively correlated with depressive symptoms (rho=0,481, p<0,05). Conclusion: Cognitive deficits and psychiatric symptoms in the subacute phase of IS are probably associated with memory impairments. Furthermore, depression and anxiety symptoms may influence the emotion recognition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Moraes de Almondes ◽  
Francisco Wilson Nogueira Holanda Júnior ◽  
Maria Emanuela Matos Leonardo ◽  
Nelson Torro Alves

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grazia Maria Giovanna Pastorino ◽  
Francesca Felicia Operto ◽  
Chiara Padovano ◽  
Valentina Vivenzio ◽  
Chiara Scuoppo ◽  
...  

Introduction: The purpose of our study was to perform a comparative analysis of social cognition in children and adolescents with epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disorder (SLD) and in typical development (TD) controls. The secondary aim was to relate social cognition to some clinical and demographic characteristics.Methods: Our work is a transversal observational study. The recruits were 179 children and adolescents aged between 6 and 18 years diagnosed with epilepsy, ASD, or SLD and 32 subjects with TD. All the participants underwent neuropsychological assessment of Emotion Recognition (ER) and Theory of Mind (ToM) skills.Results: All three clinical groups performed significantly worse than controls in ER and ToM. The ASD group achieved significantly lower performance than the other groups; however, the scores of SLD and epilepsy groups were comparable. The ER performances are related to non-verbal intelligence only in the group with epilepsy.Conclusion: Children and adolescents with focal epilepsy, SLD, or ASD may present a deficit of varying extent in emotion recognition and ToM, compared with TD peers. These difficulties are more pronounced in individuals with ASD, but impairment worthy of clinical attention also emerges in individuals with SLD and epilepsy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Gozde Gultekin ◽  
Zeliha Kincir ◽  
Merve Kurt ◽  
Yasir Catal ◽  
Asli Acil ◽  
...  

Purpose: Facial emotion recognition is a basic element in non-verbal communication. Although some researchers have shown that recognizing facial expressions may be important in the interaction between doctors and patients, there are no studies concerning facial emotion recognition in nurses. Here, we aimed to investigate facial emotion recognition ability in nurses and compare the abilities between nurses from psychiatry and other departments. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, sixty seven nurses were divided into two groups according to their departments: psychiatry (n=31); and, other departments (n=36). A Facial Emotion Recognition Test, constructed from a set of photographs from Ekman and Friesen's book “Pictures of Facial Affect”, was administered to all participants. Results: In whole group, the highest mean accuracy rate of recognizing facial emotion was the happy (99.14%) while the lowest accurately recognized facial expression was fear (47.71%). There were no significant differences between two groups among mean accuracy rates in recognizing happy, sad, fear, angry, surprised facial emotion expressions (for all, p>0.05). The ability of recognizing disgusted and neutral facial emotions tended to be better in other nurses than psychiatry nurses (p=0.052 and p=0.053, respectively) Conclusion: This study was the first that revealed indifference in the ability of FER between psychiatry nurses and non-psychiatry nurses. In medical education curricula throughout the world, no specific training program is scheduled for recognizing emotional cues of patients. We considered that improving the ability of recognizing facial emotion expression in medical stuff might be beneficial in reducing inappropriate patient-medical stuff interaction.


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