Reconocimiento facial de expresión emocional: diferencias por licenciaturas / Facial affect recognition: Differences among university careers

Resumen El reconocimiento facial de la expresión emocional es la capacidad de todos los individuos de reconocer formas básicas de expresión afectiva, la cual aparece en los rostros de las personas. Investigaciones previas sugieren que existen diferencias en el reconocimiento facial de la expresión emocional entre carreras universitarias, sin embargo, hay pocos estudios en México, y es por ello que el objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar estas diferencias en estudiantes universitarios. Se utilizaron 70 imágenes del Facial Expressions of Emotion-Stimuli and Test. Para determinar las diferencias por carrera se llevó a cabo un análisis de varianza simple con pruebas post hoc de Tukey, obteniendo diferencias estadísticamente significativas en el reconocimiento facial de la tristeza, el asco y el enojo.

Abstract Facial affect recognition is the capacity of every person to recognize basic forms of affective expression, which appears at human faces. Previous research suggests that facial affect recognition differences between university careers exist. There are few studies at Mexico that assess these. The purpose of this study was to determine career differences among university studies. To assess the variable 70 images from the Facial Expression of Emotion- Stimuli and Test were used. To determine career differences a single factor analysis of variance with Tukey post hoc test was made, obtaining statistically significant differences at facial affect recognition of sadness, disgust and angry emotions.

Affective Flattening in Patients with Schizophrenia: Differential Association with Amygdala Response to Threat-Related Facial Expression under Automatic and Controlled Processing Conditions

OBJECTIVE: Early neuroimaging studies have demonstrated amygdala hypoactivation in schizophrenia but more recent research based on paradigms with minimal cognitive loads or examining automatic processing has observed amygdala hyperactivation. Hyperactivation was found to be related to affective flattening. In this study, amygdala responsivity to threat-related facial expression was investigated in patients as a function of automatic versus controlled processing and patients' flat affect. METHODS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure amygdala activation in 36 patients with schizophrenia and 42 healthy controls. During scanning, a viewing task with masked and unmasked fearful and neutral faces was presented. RESULTS: Patients exhibited increased amygdala response to unmasked fearful faces. With respect to masked fearful faces, no between-group differences emerged for the sample as a whole but a subsample of patients with flat affect showed heightened amygdala activation. The amygdala response to masked fearful faces was positively correlated with the degree of flat affect. Conversely, amygdala response to unmasked fearful faces was negatively correlated to the severity of affective flattening. In patients, amygdala responses to masked and unmasked fearful faces showed an inverse correlation. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that amygdala hyperresponsivity to unmasked fearful faces might be a functional characteristic of schizophrenia. Amygdala hyperresponsivity to masked fearful faces might be a specific characteristic of patients with affective flattening. A model of flat affect as a response mechanism to emotional overload is proposed.

Neural Mechanism of Inferring Person's Inner Attitude towards Another Person through Observing the Facial Affect in an Emotional Context

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to identify the brain mechanism involved in the attribution of person's attitude toward another person, using facial affective pictures and pictures displaying an affectively-loaded situation. METHODS: Twenty four right-handed healthy subjects volunteered for our study. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine brain activation during attitude attribution task as compared to gender matching tasks. RESULTS: We identified activation in the left inferior frontal cortex, left superior temporal sulcus, and left inferior parietal lobule during the attitude attribution task, compared to the gender matching task. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that mirror neuron system and ventrolateral inferior frontal cortex play a critical role in the attribution of a person's inner attitude towards another person in an emotional situation.

The Effect of Schizotypal Personality Trait on the Ability of Facial Affect Identification in Healthy Person

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the ability of facial affect perception is associated with schizotypal personality traits in healthy normal controls. METHODS: 241 normal subjects were recruited in this study. The age range of all subjects was from 19 to 63 years. The schizotypal personality questionnaire(SPQ) and facial affect identification test(FAIT), which were developed and standardized in Korea, were applied. Subjects from high 1 standard deviation(H group, N=40) and low 1 standard deviation(L group, N=26) on SPQ score were compared. RESULTS: We found that the H group showed significantly reduced ability on the correctness of sadness and neutral compared with the L group. But, no significant association between SPQ and intensity or reaction point was observed in all subjects. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the individuals with high schizotypal personality trait have impairments on the facial affect identification. Also, these findings may provide the reasonable explanation of social cognition deficit of schizotypal personality disorder.

Neurobiology of Facial Perception and Facial Affect Recognition / 신경정신의학

Recognition of face is an essential cognitive processing to communicate information directly each other. The electrophysiological data have demonstrated that the negative event-related potential (ERP) recorded at occipitotemporal leads, the N170 potential, is a very sensitive neural correlate for faces. The fusiform gyrus, located on the ventromedial surface of temporal and occipital lobes, has been demonstrated to be a key brain region for face perception. Because the face contains the emotional informations, study about face recognition includes emotional processing as well as structural processing of face. So as a essential part of social cognition, the face recognition and facial affects preception have been paid attentions by many researchers. In this article, we reviewed some important research data about face recognition and face affect perception.

Decreased Recognition of Facial Affects in Elderly / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether elderly and young adults differ in their recognition of facial expressions of emotion. METHODS: A total of 120 (elderly group 53, young group 67) subjects participated in this study. Korean facial expressions of emotion including happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise and neutral were used as stimuli for facial affect recognition test. Computerized facial affect recognition test that consists of facial affect discrimination test and facial affect intensity test was performed. RESULTS: For facial affect discrimination test, there was a significant difference between two groups (F=3.986, p<.01) after controlling the effect of education. Elderly participants showed significantly less correct recognition rate with sadness, anger and disgust (p<.05). For facial affect intensity test, there was no significant difference between the groups in recognition of emotional intensity. Chi-square test or t-test was done according to the clinical variables. Multivariate analysis of covariance was done to test group differences of correct recognition rate and emotional intensity. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of differential decrease of facial affect recognition in elderly using Korean facial expressions. This study suggests that the decrement of facial affect recognition maye be a part of normal aging process.