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Processing of Facial Emotion in Bipolar Depression and Euthymia

Robinson, L.J.; Gray, J.M.; Burt, M.; Ferrier, I.N.; Gallagher, P.

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Authors

L.J. Robinson

J.M. Gray

I.N. Ferrier

P. Gallagher



Abstract

Previous studies of facial emotion processing in bipolar disorder (BD) have reported conflicting findings. In independently conducted studies, we investigate facial emotion labeling in euthymic and depressed BD patients using tasks with static and dynamically morphed images of different emotions displayed at different intensities. Study 1 included 38 euthymic BD patients and 28 controls. Participants completed two tasks: labeling of static images of basic facial emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happy, sad) shown at different expression intensities; the Eyes Test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001), which involves recognition of complex emotions using only the eye region of the face. Study 2 included 53 depressed BD patients and 47 controls. Participants completed two tasks: labeling of “dynamic” facial expressions of the same five basic emotions; the Emotional Hexagon test (Young, Perret, Calder, Sprengelmeyer, & Ekman, 2002). There were no significant group differences on any measures of emotion perception/labeling, compared to controls. A significant group by intensity interaction was observed in both emotion labeling tasks (euthymia and depression), although this effect did not survive the addition of measures of executive function/psychomotor speed as covariates. Only 2.6–15.8% of euthymic patients and 7.8–13.7% of depressed patients scored below the 10th percentile of the controls for total emotion recognition accuracy. There was no evidence of specific deficits in facial emotion labeling in euthymic or depressed BD patients. Methodological variations—including mood state, sample size, and the cognitive demands of the tasks—may contribute significantly to the variability in findings between studies. (JINS, 2015, 21, 709–721)

Citation

Robinson, L., Gray, J., Burt, M., Ferrier, I., & Gallagher, P. (2015). Processing of Facial Emotion in Bipolar Depression and Euthymia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 21(09), 709-721. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617715000909

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 4, 2015
Online Publication Date Oct 19, 2015
Publication Date Oct 19, 2015
Deposit Date Dec 10, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
Print ISSN 1355-6177
Electronic ISSN 1469-7661
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 21
Issue 09
Pages 709-721
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617715000909
Keywords Affective disorder, Facial emotion labeling, Eyes test, Facial expression recognition, Emotional hexagon, Mood.

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2015. This paper has been published in a revised form, subsequent to editorial input by Cambridge University Press, in 'Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society' (21: 09 (2015) 709-721) http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=INS





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