RESUMO
Objective:To explore the characteristics of attentional bias to emotional faces of depressed college students with alexithymia.Methods:Using self-rating depression scale (SDS) and the twenty-item Toronto alexithymia scale(TAS-20), 25 low alexithymic-currently depressed undergraduates (LA-CD group), 33 low alexithymic-non depressed undergraduates(LA-ND group) and 23 high alexithymic-currently depressed undergraduates(HA-CD group) were selected from 885 valid questionnaires.Using eye tracking system, emotional face pictures were selected as stimulus materials, and the relative gaze time(attention bias score) of experimental participants was analyzed by statistical methods such as covariance analysis and adjustment analysis to explore the attentional bias of depressed college students with alexithymia.Results:(1) Under the low level of alexithymia, there was significant difference in attentional bias between college students in depression group (-0.23±0.18) and non-depressed group (0.06±0.11) ( F=55.876, P<0.01). (2) There were significant differences in relative attention bias among LA-CD group (-0.234±0.150), HA-CD group(-0.070±0.153) and LA-ND group (0.064±0.149) ( F(2, 78)=27.685, P<0.01). According to Bonferroni test, compared to the LA-CD group, the HA-CD group and LA-ND group showed less negative attentional bias.(3) The interaction between total SDS score and total TAS-20 score showed significant difference.Alexithymia played a regulatory role between total SDS score and attentional bias( β=0.333, t=3.345, P<0.01). Conclusion:Both the depressed college students with high alexithymia and the non-depressed college students with low alexithymia show less negative attentional bias.Alexithymia plays a regulatory role between depression and attentional bias.
RESUMO
Objective:To investigate the gaze characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on dynamic threatening (fear, anger) and non-threatening emotional (sadness, happiness) faces, and to explore the correlation between their eye-tracking data and autism symptomatology scores to provide a basis for the treatment and rehabilitation of children with ASD.Methods:From November 2020 to June 2021, 26 children with ASD and 30 age-and sex-matched normally developing children (typical developmental, TD) who met the enrollment criteria were included, and children with ASD were assessed for symptoms by the childhood autism rating scale (CARS). The SMI-red portable eye-tracking recording system was used to record the eye-movement gaze characteristics of children in both groups during free viewing of dynamic threatening and non-threatening emotional face segments.Statistical processing was performed by SPSS 21.0 software.The independent sample t-test and chi square test were used for the data conforming to the normal distribution, and the non parametric test was used for the data not conforming to the normal distribution, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between eye-tracking data and symptomatology scores. Results:The total CARS score of the ASD group was (32.64±7.42). The eye tracking data for children with ASD showed gaze aversion characteristics.Children with ASD spent significantly less time gazing at the eye area of threatening emotional faces in fear (2.41(0.26, 10.65)s) and anger (2.17(0.13, 6.13)s) than children with TD (8.81(2.54, 12.11)s, 5.21(3.80, 12.49)s), with statistically significant differences (fear: Z=-2.252, P<0.05.anger: Z=-2.793, P<0.01). Children with ASD spent significantly less time gazing at the mouth area of all four emotional faces (sad: 3.56(0.44, 7.16)s, fear: 2.68(0.42, 4.78)s, anger: 2.13(0.35, 4.20)s, happiness: 2.93(0.46, 5.71)s) than children with TD (sad: 11.43(6.97, 14.22) s, fear: 6.73(3.65, 10.10)s, anger: 6.86(4.55, 12.33)s, happiness: 11.72(7.22, 14.39)s), with statistically significant differences (sad: Z=-4.502, P<0.01.fear: Z=-3.493, P<0.01.anger: Z=-4.025, P<0.01.happiness: Z=-4.699, P<0.01). Correlation analysis revealed that the time spent gazing at emotional faces in children with ASD was negatively correlated with the total CARS score ( r=-0.476, P<0.05), and further analysis of different emotional faces revealed that the time spent gazing at fearful faces in children with ASD was negatively correlated with the total CARS score ( r=-0.455, P<0.05). Conclusions:Eye tracking in children with ASD show a gaze profile with less gaze time to threatening emotional faces compared with TD children, and the more severe the symptoms in children with ASD, the less gaze time to fearful faces.
RESUMO
Objective:To explore the effect of visual processing patterns on emotional face processing in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).Methods:From June 2020 to August 2021, twenty-two AD patients (AD group) who met the conditions of this study were selected from the memory impairment clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, and demographically matched twenty-one elderly healthy people (control group) were selected from the patients' family members and community residents. The two groups of subjects performed emotional face visual scanning and facial recognition experiments after completing the evaluation of the cognitive scale and eye movement data were recorded in the emotional face visual scanning task. Statistical analysis of the obtained results was performed using SPSS 23.0 Windows version software. The data that conformed to the normal distribution were tested by independent samples t-test and variance analysis, and the data that did not conform to the normal distribution were tested by nonparametric test. Results:(1)In the emotional face recognition task, the total accuracy of facial emotion recognition of AD patients(0.52(0.42, 0.59)) was lower than that of the normal control group(0.67(0.64, 0.69)), and the difference was statistically significant( Z=-4.023, P<0.01), which was mainly manifested in recognizing complex facial emotion. (2) In the emotional face visual processing task, the saccade count ((1.96±0.97), (2.50±0.44)), fixation count ((3.93±2.58), (6.37±2.08))and fixation time ((1 205.89±727.32)s, (1 761.38±525.54)s)of AD patients were lower than those of the control group( t=-2.314, -3.402, -2.880, all P<0.05), and the surrounding facial fixation time (384.95 (276.51, 587.78)s, 276.06 (190.03, 384.55)s) was higher than that of the control group( Z=-2.478, P=0.013). Patients with AD had a lower fixation count than that in the control group on the eye area of surprise ((3.76±2.90), (6.25±2.19)), anger ((4.48±2.72), (7.06±2.55)) and disgust ((4.10±2.45), (6.67±2.45)), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=-3.164, -3.207, -3.436, all P<0.05). Patients with AD had a lower fixation time than those of the control group on the eye area of surprise ((1 150.26±753.22)s, (1 779.91±551.66)s), angry ((1 430.85±869.52)s, (1 944.51±612.63)s) and disgust ((1 266.14±765.67)s, (1 898.33±676.02)s), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=-3.115, -2.247, -2.865, all P<0.05). (3) Spearman correlation analysis showed that the accuracy of overall emotional face recognition was positively correlated with the fixation time in the eye area in AD patients ( r=0.429, P<0.05). Conclusion:The impaired visual processing of AD patients causes emotional face recognition disorders. Therefore, AD patients have different visual processing patterns in emotional face processing than age-matched normal controls, mainly manifested as the decreased fixation on the eye area.
RESUMO
Objective:To explore the relevant brain regions of face/non-face processing, and face processing under different emotional valence in patients with social anxiety disorder(SAD).Methods:PubMed, Medline, ScienceDirect, CNKI and other databases were retrieved, and 31 peer-reviewed emotional face studies of SAD patients were obtained (facial and non-facial processing: 13 literatures, 481 subjects, 161 foci; face processing with different emotional titers: 18 literatures, 586 subjects, 331 foci). Cluster-level family-wise error (FWE, P<0.05) based coordinates of Talairach space was adopted. Results:Face processing in SAD patients activated the left amygdala (x=-18, y=-8, z=-12), the right amygdala (x=26, y=0, z=-20), the entorhinal cortex (Brodmann area 28, x=16, y=-8, z=-10) and the medial prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 10, x=2, y=44, z=-8). In addition, when SAD patients processed negative faces, the left amygdala (x=-26, y=0, z=-16), the right amygdala (x=26, y=0, z=-12), the left medial globus pallidus (x=-20, y=-10, z=-6) and right medial globus pallidus (x=20, y=-10, z=-6) had strong activation, which fear faces activated bilateral amygdala (left: x=-28, y=0, z=-16, right: x=28, y=-2, z=-12) and angry faces activated the medial globus pallidus (x=20, y=-8, z=-6).Conclusion:There are specific neural mechanisms for face processing in patients with SAD.Bilateral amygdala, entorhinal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex are key brain regions for face processing.The amygdala and medial globus pallidus are important neural regions for face processing of negative emotions.
RESUMO
Objective To examine the attention bias of background color from different emotional faces. Methods The study adopt 2 (background colors: cool and warm) × 2 (emotional faces:positive and negative emotions) within experimental design to examine the subjects' attention from different background color by 26 participants of college students (26 participants were selected to conduct experiments random-ly),with the background color and emotional face as independent variables. Results (1) Compared with positive face,the response time of negative face was shorter((677. 31±138. 66) ms vs ( 637. 97± 121. 69) ms),indicating that the attention bias of different emotional faces was significantly different(P<0. 05). (2) The interaction between the background color and the emotional face is significant. The response time of neg-ative emotional faces in cool colors ((636. 57±146. 20) ms) was significantly lower than that in positive e-motions ((721. 23±180. 40) ms,P<0. 05). There was no significant difference in warm colors (P>0. 05). Conclusion The cool background color can stimulate more negative emotions of college students,thus af-fecting individual attention bias. Subjects showed attention bias ( especially negative information) on emo-tional face.
RESUMO
Objective To investigate whether there is exists optimal effective connections of prefrontal-amygdala in patients with major depressive disorder when they recognize dynamic positive face expressions with the technology of magnetoencephalograph (MEG),and discuss the possible aberrant mechanism of emotion processing.Methods Twenty major depressive patients and 20 well-matched healthy volunteer controls participated in the experiment.The regions of interested brain area included the primary visual cortex (V1),the precuneus (PQ),the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC),the amygdala (AMYG).After constructing three putative models,dynamic causal model was used to select an optimal model,then extracted all the effective connection parameters and conducted t-test under the overall optimal model between-group comparison.Results The bayesian model selection (BMS) indicated that model with top-down modulate connections between DLPFC-ACC,DLPFC-AMYG and ACC-AMYG was the most superior model,whose exceedance probability was 0.41.In the fight hemisphere of patient group,the endogenous connectivity from AMYG to ACC significantly decreased compared to healthy controls (t=-2.21,P=0.033),while the endogenous connectivity from ACC to DLPFC was enhanced significandy (t=2.50,P=0.017),which was the same with the endogenous connectivity from AMYG to DLPFC (t=2.10,P=0.040).Conclusion The effective connections of prefrontal-amygdala in major depressive disorder are exactly impaired,which may indicate that major depressive disorder have a bias toward negative.While depressed patients don' t show abnormality in the modulate connectivity under happy stimulus.
RESUMO
This study was performed to investigate differences between children who did and did not experience peer rejection in psychological state through surveys and in emotion processing during an interpersonal stress challenge task to reflect naturalistic interpersonal face-to-face relationships. A total of 20 right-handed children, 10 to 12 yr of age, completed self-rating questionnaires inquiring about peer rejection in school, depression, and anxiety. They then underwent an interpersonal stress challenge task simulating conditions of emotional stress, in reaction to positive, negative and neutral facial expression stimuli, using interpersonal feedbacks, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) for an analysis of neural correlates during the task. Ten were the peer-rejection group, whereas the remainder were the control group. Based on the behavioral results, the peer-rejection group exhibited elevated levels of depression, state anxiety, trait anxiety and social anxiety as compared to the control group. The FMRI results revealed that the peer-rejection group exhibited greater and remarkably more extensive activation of brain regions encompassing the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to negative feedback stimuli of emotional faces. The different brain reactivities characterizing emotion processing during interpersonal relationships may be present between children who do and do not experience peer rejection.