scholarly journals A Short Empathy Paradigm to Assess Empathic Deficits in Schizophrenia

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.

The neuronal correlates of empathy in autism spectrum disorders

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1467-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M. Michel ◽  
S. Herholz ◽  
A. Finkelmeier ◽  
F. Schneider ◽  
E. Brügmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Repetitive Behaviour ◽  
Emotional Cues ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Affective Responsiveness

IntroductionAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised by repetitive behaviour/interests, an impairment in reciprocal social interaction and communication. This implies the inadequate appreciation of socio-emotional cues and leads to a default in the responses to other people's emotions.ObjectivesDeficits in empathy have been described for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).AimsWe aim to investigate the described deficits in empathy in a group of people with ASD on a behavioural and a neuronal level.MethodsWe assessed neuronal activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during three different empathy tasks (“emotion-recognition”, “perspective-taking” and “affective-responsiveness”) of 12 adults with ASD and a matched group of healthy controls.ResultsSubjects with ASD did not have differences in affective responsiveness compared to healthy controls, but in emotion recognition and perspective taking. The reaction time was significantly longer in patients with ASD in all tasks. People with ASD showed a different pattern of brain activation in cortico-limbic areas during the empathy tasks compared to controlsConclusionOur findings of individuals with ASD having problems in emotions-recognition and in perspective taking are supported by previous results. These impairments are reflected by a different pattern of neuronal activation in several brain areas of individuals with ASD compared to controls. Although there are no differences in affective responsiveness in the ASD group a marked difference can be seen in the brain activation during this task. These findings might open up new avenues of intervention for individuals with ASD and their often described problems with empathy.

Impaired Recognition of Negative Facial Emotions in Body Dysmorphic Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (08) ◽  
pp. 884-889 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Apathy Associated With Impaired Recognition of Happy Facial Expressions in Huntington’s Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (05) ◽  
pp. 453-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Osborne-Crowley ◽  
Sophie C. Andrews ◽  
Izelle Labuschagne ◽  
Akshay Nair ◽  
Rachael Scahill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Disease Rating ◽  
Patient Groups

AbstractObjectives: Previous research has demonstrated an association between emotion recognition and apathy in several neurological conditions involving fronto-striatal pathology, including Parkinson’s disease and brain injury. In line with these findings, we aimed to determine whether apathetic participants with early Huntington’s disease (HD) were more impaired on an emotion recognition task compared to non-apathetic participants and healthy controls. Methods: We included 43 participants from the TRACK-HD study who reported apathy on the Problem Behaviours Assessment – short version (PBA-S), 67 participants who reported no apathy, and 107 controls matched for age, sex, and level of education. During their baseline TRACK-HD visit, participants completed a battery of cognitive and psychological tests including an emotion recognition task, the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) and were assessed on the PBA-S. Results: Compared to the non-apathetic group and the control group, the apathetic group were impaired on the recognition of happy facial expressions, after controlling for depression symptomology on the HADS and general disease progression (Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale total motor score). This was despite no difference between the apathetic and non-apathetic group on overall cognitive functioning assessed by a cognitive composite score. Conclusions: Impairment of the recognition of happy expressions may be part of the clinical picture of apathy in HD. While shared reliance on frontostriatal pathways may broadly explain associations between emotion recognition and apathy found across several patient groups, further work is needed to determine what relationships exist between recognition of specific emotions, distinct subtypes of apathy and underlying neuropathology. (JINS, 2019, 25, 453–461)

scholarly journals High Schizotypy Predicts Emotion Recognition Independently of Negative Affect

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Dawes ◽  
Claudia Danielmeier ◽  
Mark Haselgrove ◽  
Paula M. Moran
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Mood Disorder ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Positive Symptom ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Patient Status ◽  
Co Morbidity

Introduction: Deficits in Emotion Recognition (ER) contribute significantly to poorer functional outcomes in people with schizophrenia. However, rather than reflecting a core symptom of schizophrenia, reduced ER has been suggested to reflect increased mood disorder co-morbidity and confounds of patient status such as medication. We investigated whether ER deficits are replicable in psychometrically defined schizotypy, and whether this putative association is mediated by increased negative affect.Methods: Two hundred and nine participants between the ages of 18 and 69 (66% female) were recruited from online platforms: 80% held an undergraduate qualification or higher, 44% were current students, and 46% were in current employment. Participants were assessed on psychometric schizotypy using the O-LIFE which maps onto the same symptoms structure (positive, negative, and disorganised) as schizophrenia. Negative affect was assessed using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Emotion Recognition of both positive and negative emotions was assessed using the short version of the Geneva Emotion Recognition Task (GERT-S).Results: Negative schizotypy traits predicted poorer ER accuracy to negative emotions (β = −0.192, p = 0.002) as predicted. Unexpectedly, disorganised schizotypy traits predicted improved performance to negative emotions (β = 0.256, p = 0.007) (primarily disgust). Negative affect was found to be unrelated to ER performance of either valence (both p > 0.591). No measure predicted ER accuracy of positive emotions. Positive schizotypy traits were not found to predict either positive or negative ER accuracy. However, positive schizotypy predicted increased confidence in decisions and disorganised schizotypy predicted reduced confidence in decisions.Discussion: The replication of ER deficits in non-clinical negative schizotypy suggests that the association between negative symptoms and ER deficits in clinical samples may be independent of confounds of patient status (i.e., anti-psychotic medication). The finding that this association was independent of negative affect further suggests ER deficits in patients may also be independent of mood disorder co-morbidity. This association was not demonstrated for the positive symptom dimension of the O-LIFE, which may be due to low levels of this trait in the current sample.

scholarly journals Identifying Other People’s Perspective and their Facial Emotions – A Comparison between Patients on Long-term Second-generation Antipsychotic Treatment for Schizophrenia and Neurotypical Controls

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Helena de Andrade Conde ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Antipsychotic Treatment ◽  
On Line

Previous studies report that the inhibition of one’s own perspective in favour of acknowledging somebody else’s perspective relates to the neurotypical development of Theory of Mind (ToM) processes. ToM processing seems to be negatively affected in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (PwS). Different tasks, using different populations, have been used to examine ToM (e.g. Hinting, facial emotion recognition, on-line perspective-taking), making generalizations problematic. We investigated ToM processing, using different paradigms, in one patient group on long-term second-generation antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia and in neurotypical controls. Methods: Twenty-five patients on treatment with second-generation anti-psychotic medication for schizophrenia for more than ten years and neurotypical controls took part in a Hinting task, a facial emotion recognition task, and an on-line visual computational perspective-taking task. A battery of neuropsychological tests provided the input of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results: Patients performed significantly less effectively than controls on the Hinting Task, and even patients in remittance struggled more with the task. No significant differences in facial emotion recognition between groups were found. The on-line perspective-taking task results revealed that controls, but not patients, presented an intrusion of the other perspective when judging their own perspective (altercentric behaviour). Reaction time results revealed that patients were significantly slower than controls when evaluating the “Other” perspective. The results of the perspective-taking task were examined further by relating them to components from the PCA. Errors in perspective-taking appeared correlated mostly to difficulties in mentalizing and cognitive control (neurotypical participants) and to hinting comprehension skills (patients). Conclusions: Results suggest that mentalizing and cognitive control are relevant functions for perspective-taking and that even after long-term treatment with second-generation antipsychotics, patients still have more difficulties in judging the Other perspective. The facial emotion recognition task suggested that facial emotion recognition is a separate interpretation skill not directly related to ToM

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

2021 ◽  
pp. 026988112110097
Author(s):  
Jan Nowacki ◽  
Katja Wingenfeld ◽  
Michael Kaczmarczyk ◽  
Woo Ri Chae ◽  
Paula Salchow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Glutamate Release ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Women And Education

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.

scholarly journals Lighting for pedestrians: Does multi-tasking affect the performance of typical pedestrian tasks?

2021 ◽  
pp. 147715352110026
Author(s):  
Y Mao ◽  
S Fotios
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Lighting Conditions ◽  
Multiple Tasks ◽  
Visual Tasks

Obstacle detection and facial emotion recognition are two critical visual tasks for pedestrians. In previous studies, the effect of changes in lighting was tested for these as individual tasks, where the task to be performed next in a sequence was known. In natural situations, a pedestrian is required to attend to multiple tasks, perhaps simultaneously, or at least does not know which of several possible tasks would next require their attention. This multi-tasking might impair performance on any one task and affect evaluation of optimal lighting conditions. In two experiments, obstacle detection and facial emotion recognition tasks were performed in parallel under different illuminances. Comparison of these results with previous studies, where these same tasks were performed individually, suggests that multi-tasking impaired performance on the peripheral detection task but not the on-axis facial emotion recognition task.

Neurobehavioral correlates of impaired emotion recognition in pediatric PTSD

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sara A. Heyn ◽  
Collin Schmit ◽  
Taylor J. Keding ◽  
Richard Wolf ◽  
Ryan J. Herringa
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
Impaired Ability ◽  
Multimethod Approach ◽  
Threat Recognition ◽  
Neurological Substrates

Abstract Despite broad evidence suggesting that adversity-exposed youth experience an impaired ability to recognize emotion in others, the underlying biological mechanisms remains elusive. This study uses a multimethod approach to target the neurological substrates of this phenomenon in a well-phenotyped sample of youth meeting diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Twenty-one PTSD-afflicted youth and 23 typically developing (TD) controls completed clinical interview schedules, an emotion recognition task with eye-tracking, and an implicit emotion processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging )fMRI). PTSD was associated with decreased accuracy in identification of angry, disgust, and neutral faces as compared to TD youth. Of note, these impairments occurred despite the normal deployment of visual attention in youth with PTSD relative to TD youth. Correlation with a related fMRI task revealed a group by accuracy interaction for amygdala–hippocampus functional connectivity (FC) for angry expressions, where TD youth showed a positive relationship between anger accuracy and amygdala–hippocampus FC; this relationship was reversed in youth with PTSD. These findings are a novel characterization of impaired threat recognition within a well-phenotyped population of severe pediatric PTSD. Further, the differential amygdala–hippocampus FC identified in youth with PTSD may imply aberrant efficiency of emotional contextualization circuits.

scholarly journals State-dependent alteration in face emotion recognition in depression

2011 ◽  
Vol 198 (4) ◽  
pp. 302-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian M. Anderson ◽  
Clare Shippen ◽  
Gabriella Juhasz ◽  
Diana Chase ◽  
Emma Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Depressed Group ◽  
History Of ◽  
Remitted Depression ◽  
Face Emotion Recognition ◽  
History Of Depression

BackgroundNegative biases in emotional processing are well recognised in people who are currently depressed but are less well described in those with a history of depression, where such biases may contribute to vulnerability to relapse.AimsTo compare accuracy, discrimination and bias in face emotion recognition in those with current and remitted depression.MethodThe sample comprised a control group (n = 101), a currently depressed group (n = 30) and a remitted depression group (n = 99). Participants provided valid data after receiving a computerised face emotion recognition task following standardised assessment of diagnosis and mood symptoms.ResultsIn the control group women were more accurate in recognising emotions than men owing to greater discrimination. Among participants with depression, those in remission correctly identified more emotions than controls owing to increased response bias, whereas those currently depressed recognised fewer emotions owing to decreased discrimination. These effects were most marked for anger, fear and sadness but there was no significant emotion × group interaction, and a similar pattern tended to be seen for happiness although not for surprise or disgust. These differences were confined to participants who were antidepressant-free, with those taking antidepressants having similar results to the control group.ConclusionsAbnormalities in face emotion recognition differ between people with current depression and those in remission. Reduced discrimination in depressed participants may reflect withdrawal from the emotions of others, whereas the increased bias in those with a history of depression could contribute to vulnerability to relapse. The normal face emotion recognition seen in those taking medication may relate to the known effects of antidepressants on emotional processing and could contribute to their ability to protect against depressive relapse.

Facial emotion recognition and its relationship to cognition and depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1165-1179 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pietschnig ◽  
L. Schröder ◽  
I. Ratheiser ◽  
I. Kryspin-Exner ◽  
M. Pflüger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Cognitively Intact

ABSTRACTBackground:Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been detected in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in PD patient groups with and without mild forms of cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy controls.Methods:Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of three groups of 97 PD patients was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 168 healthy controls. Patients were categorized into groups according to two well-established classifications of MCI according to Petersen's (cognitively intact vs. amnestic MCI, aMCI, vs. non-amnestic MCI, non-aMCI) and Litvan's (cognitively intact vs. single-domain MCI, sMCI, vs. multi-domain MCI, mMCI) criteria. Patients and controls underwent individual assessments using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna, NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).Results:Cognitively intact PD patients and patients with MCI in PD (PD-MCI) showed significantly worse emotion recognition performance when compared to healthy controls. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from 0.31 to 1.22). Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women, positively associated with premorbid IQ and negatively associated with age. Depressive symptoms were not related to FER.Conclusions:The present investigation yields further evidence for impaired FER in PD. Interestingly, our data suggest FER deficits even in cognitively intact PD patients indicating FER dysfunction prior to the development of overt cognitive dysfunction. Age showed a negative association whereas IQ showed a positive association with FER.

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