Online Assessment of Social Cognition in a Population of Gamers and Gamblers: Results of the eSMILE Study.

The purpose of the eSMILE study was to explore social cognition (SC) in the two behavioural addictions (BAs) included in international classifications: gaming disorder and gambling disorder. In these disorders, cognitive functioning is involved in the development and maintenance of addiction. Nevertheless, SC have received less attention than other cognitive functions. The eSMILE study was conducted online and included 105 participants (gamers and gamblers). This study included: the Penn emotion recognition task, the Condensed and Revised Multifaced Empathy Test, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Chicken Game, social metacognition questions, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. We analysed the relationships among SC measures, addiction levels, and behaviour frequency. For gamers, we showed that the higher their level of addiction was, the lower their self-confidence following the identification of basic emotions, although the more frequently they played, the better their performance on this task. Additionally, we found lower performance on the identification of more complex emotions by gamblers, which seems to be the result of their levels of addiction rather than the frequency of their gambling behaviour. This study contributes to our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying BAs. Additionally, working on SC abilities may be an additional management mode for BAs that could be added to existing treatments.

Facial emotion identification impairments in Chinese persons living with schizophrenia: A meta-analysis.

Background: Facial emotion identification (FEI) deficits are associated with impaired social functioning in persons living with schizophrenia (PLwS), but the research on emotion-specific FEI deficits remains inconclusive. Furthermore, existing studies on FEI deficits are limited by their small sample sizes. We performed a meta-analysis of studies comparing the FEI abilities between Chinese PLwS and healthy controls in terms of the six basic facial emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise), as well as contempt, calmness, and neutral facial expressions. Methods: Major Chinese- and English-language databases were searched to retrieve case-control studies that compared the FEI task performance between Chinese PLwS and healthy controls (HCs) and reported the emotion-specific correct identification scores for PLwS and HCs. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Case-control Studies ("JBI checklist," hereafter) was used to assess the risk of bias (RoB) of the included studies. Statistical analysis was performed using the "meta" package of R 4.1.2. Results: Twenty-three studies with a total of 28 case-control cohorts and 1,894 PLwS and 1,267 HCs were included. The RoB scores of the included studies ranged from two to seven. PLwS had statistically significantly lower FEI scores than HCs and the corresponding emotion-specific pooled standard mean differences (95% confidence intervals) were -0.69 (-0.88, -0.50) for happiness, -0.88 (-1.12, -0.63) for sadness, -1.44 (-1.83, -1.06) for fear, -1.18 (-1.60, -0.76) for disgust, -0.91 (-1.24, -0.57) for anger, -1.09 (-1.39, -0.78) for surprise, -0.26 (-0.51, -0.01) for contempt, -0.31 (-0.52, -0.09) for calmness, and -0.42 (-0.65, -0.18) for neutral. In the analyses of sources of heterogeneity, drug-naïve status, clinical setting, positive and negative psychotic symptoms, and RoB were significant moderators of the magnitudes of FEI deficits. Conclusions: Chinese PLwS have significant FEI impairments in terms of recognizing the six basic facial emotions, contempt, calmness, and neutral emotions, and the magnitude of impairment varies depending on the type of emotion, clinical characteristics, and the level of RoB of the study. It is necessary to consider the characteristics of FEI deficits and the clinical moderators in the FEI deficits to develop remediation strategies targeting FEI deficits in schizophrenia.

An investigation of the impact of facial affect recognition impairments in moderate to severe TBI on fatigue, depression, and quality of life.

Individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been shown to experience significant problems in facial affect recognition (FAR). However, it is not known how these impairments relate to overall functioning and quality of life (QoL) following TBI. The aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that worse performance on an FAR task would be associated with reduced QoL (related to social and emotional functioning), worse mood, and increased fatigue. Forty-seven individuals with TBI and 27 healthy controls (HCs) completed the facial emotion identification task (FEIT), as well as questionnaires assessing social and emotional QoL, mood, and fatigue. The TBI group performed significantly worse than HCs on the FEIT. A significant relationship between FAR and fatigue and QoL related to social and emotional functioning was documented, but in an unexpected direction: individuals who performed better on the FEIT reported poorer QoL and greater fatigue. Individuals who have better FAR may require increased effort to perform this task, and thus experience greater fatigue and poorer social and emotional QoL.

Lower Sensitivity to Happy and Angry Facial Emotions in Young Adults with Psychiatric Problems.

Many psychiatric problem domains have been associated with emotion-specific biases or general deficiencies in facial emotion identification. However, both within and between psychiatric problem domains, large variability exists in the types of emotion identification problems that were reported. Moreover, since the domain-specificity of the findings was often not addressed, it remains unclear whether patterns found for specific problem domains can be better explained by co-occurrence of other psychiatric problems or by more generic characteristics of psychopathology, for example, problem severity. In this study, we aimed to investigate associations between emotion identification biases and five psychiatric problem domains, and to determine the domain-specificity of these biases. Data were collected as part of the 'No Fun No Glory' study and involved 2,577 young adults. The study participants completed a dynamic facial emotion identification task involving happy, sad, angry, and fearful faces, and filled in the Adult Self-Report Questionnaire, of which we used the scales depressive problems, anxiety problems, avoidance problems, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) problems and antisocial problems. Our results suggest that participants with antisocial problems were significantly less sensitive to happy facial emotions, participants with ADHD problems were less sensitive to angry emotions, and participants with avoidance problems were less sensitive to both angry and happy emotions. These effects could not be fully explained by co-occurring psychiatric problems. Whereas this seems to indicate domain-specificity, inspection of the overall pattern of effect sizes regardless of statistical significance reveals generic patterns as well, in that for all psychiatric problem domains the effect sizes for happy and angry emotions were larger than the effect sizes for sad and fearful emotions. As happy and angry emotions are strongly associated with approach and avoidance mechanisms in social interaction, these mechanisms may hold the key to understanding the associations between facial emotion identification and a wide range of psychiatric problems.

Social cognition as an RDoC domain.

While the bulk of research into neural substrates of behavior and psychopathology has focused on cognitive, memory and executive functions, there has been a recent surge of interest in emotion processing and social cognition, manifested in designating Social Cognition as a major RDoC domain. We describe the origins of this field's influence on cognitive neuroscience and highlight the most salient findings leading to the characterization of the "social brain" and the establishments of parameters that quantify normative and aberrant behaviors. Such parameters of behavior and neurobiology are required for a potentially successful RDoC construct, especially if heritability is established, because of the need to link with genomic systems. We proceed to illustrate how a social cognition measure can be used within the RDoC framework by presenting a task of facial emotion identification. We show that performance is sensitive to normative individual differences related to age and sex and to deficits associated with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Neuroimaging studies with this task demonstrate that it recruits limbic and frontal regulatory activation in healthy samples as well as abnormalities in psychiatric populations. Evidence for its heritability was documented in genomic family studies and in patients with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Measures that meet such criteria can help build translational bridges between cellular molecular mechanisms and behavior that elucidate aberrations related to psychopathology. Such links will transcend current diagnostic classifications and ultimately lead to a mechanistically based diagnostic nomenclature. Establishing such bridges will provide the elements necessary for early detection and scientifically grounded intervention.

Korean facial emotion recognition tasks for schizophrenia research.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the fact that facial emotion recognition (FER) tasks using Western faces should be applied with caution to non-Western participants or patients, there are few psychometrically sound and validated FER tasks featuring Easterners' facial expressions for emotions. Thus, we aimed to develop and establish the psychometric properties of the Korean Facial Emotion Identification Task (K-FEIT) and the Korean Facial Emotion Discrimination Task (K-FEDT) for individuals with schizophrenia. METHODS: The K-FEIT and K-FEDT were administered to 42 Korean individuals with schizophrenia to evaluate their psychometric properties. To test the convergent and divergent validities, the Social Behavior Sequencing Task (SBST) and hinting task were administered as social-cognitive measures, and the Trail Making Test (TMT)-A and -B were administered as neurocognitive measures. RESULTS: Average accuracy on the K-FEIT and K-FEDT were 63% and 74%, respectively, and internal consistencies of the K-FEIT and K-FEDT were 0.82 and 0.95, respectively. The K-FEIT and K-FEDT were significantly correlated with SBST and Hinting Task, but not with TMT-A and B. CONCLUSION: Following replication studies in a larger sample, the K-FEIT and K-FEDT are expected to facilitate future studies targeting facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia in Korea. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Korean Facial Emotion Recognition Tasks for Schizophrenia Research

OBJECTIVE: Despite the fact that facial emotion recognition (FER) tasks using Western faces should be applied with caution to non-Western participants or patients, there are few psychometrically sound and validated FER tasks featuring Easterners' facial expressions for emotions. Thus, we aimed to develop and establish the psychometric properties of the Korean Facial Emotion Identification Task (K-FEIT) and the Korean Facial Emotion Discrimination Task (K-FEDT) for individuals with schizophrenia. METHODS: The K-FEIT and K-FEDT were administered to 42 Korean individuals with schizophrenia to evaluate their psychometric properties. To test the convergent and divergent validities, the Social Behavior Sequencing Task (SBST) and hinting task were administered as social-cognitive measures, and the Trail Making Test (TMT)-A and -B were administered as neurocognitive measures. RESULTS: Average accuracy on the K-FEIT and K-FEDT were 63% and 74%, respectively, and internal consistencies of the K-FEIT and K-FEDT were 0.82 and 0.95, respectively. The K-FEIT and K-FEDT were significantly correlated with SBST and Hinting Task, but not with TMT-A and B. CONCLUSION: Following replication studies in a larger sample, the K-FEIT and K-FEDT are expected to facilitate future studies targeting facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia in Korea. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.