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PubMed1986

Taste-elicited changes in facial signs of emotion and the asymmetry of brain electrical activity in human newborns.

Recent evidence suggests that frontal brain electrical activity reveals asymmetries in activation in response to positive vs negative affective stimuli. This study was designed to evaluate whether this asymmetry is present at birth. Newborn infants were presented with water followed by a sucrose solution and then by a citric acid solution. Facial expression was videotaped during the presentation of the liquids and EEG was recorded from the frontal and parietal scalp regions on the left and right side. Usable EEG data were obtained from 16 newborn infants in response to these taste conditions. Videotaping of facial expression in response to these stimuli indicated the presence of disgust during both water (the first taste introduced) and citric acid. EEG was Fourier Transformed and power in the 1-3, 3-6 and 6-12 Hz bands was computed. The findings revealed that the water condition produced reductions in right-hemisphere power in the two higher frequency bands in both the scalp regions compared with the other two conditions. The sucrose condition produced greater relative left-sided activation in both regions compared with the water condition. These data, in conjunction with our previous findings of asymmetries in 10-month-old infants, indicate that stimulus-elicited affective asymmetries in brain electrical activity are present at birth.

Citrates↗
PubMed1985

Manual actions of nine- to fifteen-week-old human infants during face-to-face interaction with their mothers.

This paper presents evidence that the manual actions of infants as young as 9 weeks of age may occur in relation to their facial expression, gaze direction, and vocalization. 28 full-term, healthy infants were observed during a 2-min spontaneous face-to-face interaction with their mothers. Videotapes were coded in real time using the following categories of manual action: POINT, SPREAD, CURL, and GRASP. Facial expressions, gaze direction, and vocalizations also were coded for each infant. All of the infants displayed CURL, 20 infants displayed SPREAD, 18 POINTED, and 11 showed GRASP. Right/left differences appeared for the categories CURL, SPREAD, and GRASP, but not for POINT. Hand action was systematically organized into sequences with other infant action. POINT occurred before or after mouthing and vocalization, CURL during vocalization, and SPREAD when the baby was looking away from the mother. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for the ontogeny of nonverbal communicative gestures.

Child Language↗
PubMed1999

Some methodological issues in assessing attentional biases for threatening faces in anxiety: a replication study using a modified version of the probe detection task.

Various versions of the probe detection task have been developed to assess attentional biases in anxiety and there is debate about their relative merits in terms of reliability and sensitivity to such biases. The present study used a pictorial version of the probe detection task to examine attentional biases for emotional facial expressions. The main aims were (1) to see if our previous finding of greater vigilance for threatening faces in high than low trait anxiety could be replicated [Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., Falla, S. J., & Hamilton, L. R. (1998). Attentional bias for threatening facial expressions in anxiety: manipulation of stimulus duration. Cognition and Emotion, in press] and (2) to examine whether the same pattern of results and a similar effect size, would be obtained using a 'probe position' task (i.e. where is the probe?), rather than the 'probe classification' task (i.e. what is the type of the probe?) used by Bradley et al. (1998). The probe position task produced similar results to those obtained from the probe classification task, so providing further evidence of an anxiety-related attentional bias for threatening faces. Results also indicated that, for non-clinical participants, the probe position task yielded faster overall RTs, fewer errors and a similar effect size, compared with the probe classification task. Implications for the assessment of attentional biases in non-clinical and clinical samples are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Fear recognition deficits after focal brain damage: a cautionary note.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that fear recognition deficits in neurologic patients reflect damage to an emotion-specific neural network. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that the perception of fear in facial expressions is mediated by a specialized neural system that includes the amygdala and certain posterior right-hemisphere cortical regions. However, the neuropsychological findings in patients with amygdala damage are inconclusive, and the contribution of distinct cortical regions to fear perception has only been examined in one study. METHODS: We studied the recognition of six basic facial expressions by asking subjects to match these emotions with the appropriate verbal labels. RESULTS: Both normal control subjects (n = 80) and patients with focal brain damage (n = 63) performed significantly worse in recognizing fear than in recognizing any other facial emotion, with errors consisting primarily of mistaking fear for surprise. Although patients were impaired relative to control subjects in recognizing fear, we could not obtain convincing evidence that left, right, or bilateral lesions were associated with disproportionate impairments of fear perception once we adjusted for differences in overall recognition performance for the other five facial emotion categories. The proposed special role of the amygdala and posterior right-hemisphere cortical regions in fear perception was also not supported. CONCLUSIONS: Fear recognition deficits in neurologic patients may be attributable to task difficulty factors rather than damage to putative neural systems dedicated to fear perception.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The effects of depression on the emotional responses of Spanish-speaking Latinas.

Emotional responses (physiology, self-report, and facial expression) of 12 depressed and 10 nondepressed Spanish-speaking Latinas during sad and amusing film clips of human and animal content were compared. Depressed Latinas demonstrated less electrodermal reactivity across all the film clips and displayed fewer social smiles during the amusing-human film clip than nondepressed Latinas. No differences emerged for cardiovascular measures, reports of emotion, or facial expressions of happiness and negative emotion. Observed differences in electrodermal reactivity are similar to results from previous studies of Anglo Americans, suggesting that reduced electrodermal activity may be linked to depression across cultures. The findings also suggest that, for Latinas, depression may selectively alter expressions that serve interpersonal functions.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1999

Knowing no fear.

People with brain injuries involving the amygdala are often poor at recognizing facial expressions of fear, but the extent to which this impairment compromises other signals of the emotion of fear has not been clearly established. We investigated N.M., a person with bilateral amygdala damage and a left thalamic lesion, who was impaired at recognizing fear from facial expressions. N.M. showed an equivalent deficit affecting fear recognition from body postures and emotional sounds. His deficit of fear recognition was not linked to evidence of any problem in recognizing anger (a common feature in other reports), but for his everyday experience of emotion N.M. reported reduced anger and fear compared with neurologically normal controls. These findings show a specific deficit compromising the recognition of the emotion of fear from a wide range of social signals, and suggest a possible relationship of this type of impairment with alterations of emotional experience.

Amygdala↗
PubMed2005

Deficits in social cognition and response flexibility in pediatric bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about neuropsychological and social-cognitive function in patients with pediatric bipolar disorder. Identification of specific deficits and strengths that characterize pediatric bipolar disorder would facilitate advances in diagnosis, treatment, and research on pathophysiology. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that youths with bipolar disorder would perform more poorly than matched healthy comparison subjects on measures of social cognition, motor inhibition, and response flexibility. METHOD: Forty outpatients with pediatric bipolar disorder and 22 comparison subjects (no differences in age, gender, and IQ) completed measures of social cognition (the pragmatic judgment subtest of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language, facial expression recognition subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale, the oral expression subtest of the Test of Language Competence), inhibition and response flexibility (stop and stop-change tasks), and motor inhibition (continuous performance tasks). RESULTS: Pediatric bipolar disorder patients performed more poorly than comparison subjects on social-cognitive measures (pragmatic judgment of language, facial expression recognition) and on a task requiring response flexibility. These deficits were present in euthymic patients. Differences between patients and comparison subjects could not be attributed to comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of impaired social cognition and response flexibility in youths with pediatric bipolar disorder suggest continuity between pediatric bipolar disorder and adult bipolar disorder. These findings provide a foundation for neurocognitive research designed to identify the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Specific brain activation in Japanese and Caucasian people to fearful faces.

Different regions of brain activation, as measured by fMRI, were evident in Japanese and Caucasian individuals observing facial expressions categorized as fearful according to Ekman criteria. Activation was evident in the posterior cingulate, supplementary motor cortex and the amygdala in Caucasians, while activation was evident in the right inferior frontal, premotor cortex and left insula and in Japanese individuals. The results suggest that Caucasians respond to fearful faces in a more direct, emotional way, whereas Japanese do not attach an emotional valence to the faces and therefore activate a template matching system to identify facial expressions. The faces widely used as emotional stimuli therefore are not universally perceived, and cultural specificity should be taken into consideration in designing facial tasks.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An experimental, observational investigation of children's responses to peer provocation: developmental and gender differences in middle childhood.

The primary goal of this research was to use an experimental, observational method to study the development of anger expression during middle childhood. Eight-, 10-, and 12-year-old girls and boys (N = 382) were observed during a laboratory play session that was provoking in two ways: Participants lost a computer game they were playing for a desirable prize, and their play partner was a same-age, same-gender confederate actor who taunted them. Children's responses to the provoking play sessions--facial expressions, verbalizations, and gestures--were reliably coded. Overall, children in these age groups maintained a remarkable degree of composure. Girls made fewer negative comments than boys did, and fewer negative gestures. Older children maintained more neutral facial expressions, made fewer gestures, and were more likely to remain silent when provoked. When they spoke, older children made fewer negative comments, fewer remarks about the game, and fewer positive comments about themselves or the actor.

Anger↗
PubMed2006

A reversal of the normal pattern of parahippocampal response to neutral and fearful faces is associated with reality distortion in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate impaired recognition of facial expressions and may misattribute emotional salience to otherwise nonsalient stimuli. The neural mechanisms underlying this deficit and the relationship with different symptoms remain poorly understood. METHODS: We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses to neutral, mildly fearful, and prototypically fearful facial expressions. The sample included 15 medicated individuals with chronic schizophrenia (SZ) and 11 healthy control individuals (CON), matched for gender (all male), age, and years of education. RESULTS: A repeated measures 3 x 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant interaction between expression intensity and group in right parahippocampal gyrus (p < .01). Individuals with chronic schizophrenia demonstrated a decrease, whereas CON showed an increase, in right parahippocampal gyrus response to increasingly fearful expressions. Between-group comparison revealed greater activation in SZ than CON in right parahippocampal gyrus to neutral faces. The reality distortion dimension, but not neuroleptic medication dose, was positively associated with the right parahippocampal gyral and right amygdalar response to neutral faces in SZ. CONCLUSIONS: An abnormally increased parahippocampal response to neutral faces was positively associated with reality distortion in SZ. This may underlie the previously reported finding of a misattribution of emotional salience to nonsalient social stimuli in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Disturbed facial affect recognition in patients with schizophrenia associated with hypoactivity in distributed brain regions: a magnetoencephalographic study.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to identify brain mechanisms underlying the well-documented facial affect recognition deficit in patients with schizophrenia. Since this deficit is stable over the course of the illness and relatively specific for schizophrenic disorders, it was expected that knowledge about the related brain mechanisms would provide substantial information about the pathophysiology of the illness. METHOD: Fifteen partly remitted schizophrenic inpatients and 12 healthy volunteers categorized facial expressions of emotion and performed two control tasks while magnetoencephalographic recordings were done by means of a 148-channel whole head system, which revealed foci of high cerebral activity and their evolution in time. Anatomical sites were defined through coregistrated magnetic resonance images. RESULTS: The magnetoencephalography data recorded in response to facial expressions of emotion revealed that patients generated weaker activations (primary current density) in inferior prefrontal, temporal, occipital, and inferior parietal areas at circumscribed latencies. Group differences did not occur in basic visual areas during a first sensory-related activation between 60 and 120 msec. Behavioral performance was associated with strength of activation in inferior prefrontal areas, the right posterior fusiform gyrus region, right anterior temporal cortex, and the right inferior parietal cortex. CONCLUSIONS: Disturbed facial affect recognition in schizophrenic patients might be a result of hypoactivity in distributed brain regions, some of them previously related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenic disorders. These regions are probably working within a spatially and temporally defined circuitry.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Amygdala hyperreactivity in borderline personality disorder: implications for emotional dysregulation.

BACKGROUND: Disturbed interpersonal relations and emotional dysregulation are fundamental aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The amygdala plays important roles in modulating vigilance and generating negative emotional states and is often abnormally reactive in disorders of mood and emotion. The aim of this study was to assess amygdala reactivity in BPD patients relative to normal control subjects. We hypothesized that amygdala hyperreactivity contributes to hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, and disturbed interpersonal relations in BPD. METHODS: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined neural responses to 20-sec blocks of neutral, happy, sad, and fearful facial expression (or a fixation point) in 15 BPD and 15 normal control subjects. The DSM IV-diagnosed BPD patients and the normal control subjects were assessed by a clinical research team in a medical school psychiatry department. RESULTS: Borderline patients showed significantly greater left amygdala activation to the facial expressions of emotion (vs. a fixation point) compared with normal control subjects. Post-scan debriefing revealed that some borderline patients had difficulty disambiguating neutral faces or found them threatening. CONCLUSIONS: Pictures of human emotional expressions elicit robust differences in amygdala activation levels in borderline patients, compared with normal control subjects, and can be used as probes to study the neuropathophysiologic basis of borderline personality disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals in the recognition of and response to facial emotional cues.

The present study investigated the recognition of, and responses to, facial expressions of emotion. Participants were all women and consisted of the following groups: (a) Sixteen depressed college students; (b) 16 nondepressed college students; (c) 16 depressed psychiatric patients; and (d) 11 nondepressed psychiatric patients. Results suggest that both depressed groups, relative to the nondepressed college group, made more errors in recognizing the facial expressions and reported more freezing or tensing; higher fear and depression reactions; and less comfort with their own emotional reactions to these expressions and a stronger desire to change these reactions. Few differences were found between the depressed psychiatric patients and the psychiatric control subjects. It is concluded that inappropriate reactions to others' emotions may maintain or increase depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bedside assessment of heel lance pain in the hospitalized infant.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a method of pain assessment to be used for hospitalized infants requiring blood test by a heel lance procedure. DESIGN: Observational study evaluating pain measurement and interrater reliability of pain measurement in hospitalized infants. SETTING: A Level III neonatal unit and a cardiac surgical unit at a major pediatric teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: 20 infants whose gestational age ranged from 28 weeks to full-term. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Observations included behavioral measurements (facial expressions, body movements, and crying characteristics) and the physiologic measure of heart rate. Interrater reliability and the feasibility of using the procedural pain assessment method at the bedside were considered. RESULTS: The three behavioral measurements and heart rate were responsive to the heel lance. Interrater reliability was high for facial expressions and crying scores but was low for body movements. CONCLUSIONS: Modifications have been made to the method of procedural pain assessment to be used in a subsequent study. The modified method is expected to be a reliable measure of procedural pain caused by a heel lance and can easily be used at the bedside during the course of further research.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Potential of surface laser scanning to measure facial movement.

Linear and area measurements on the surface contour of the face have been recorded in a variety of chosen facial postures using surface laser scanning techniques on healthy volunteers. Subjects were scanned before and after active and voluntary (against resistance) movements. Quantitative measurements of changes in these lengths and areas were made by computer integration to provide an impression of the changes that accompany facial expression. Lip movements were found to be associated with dimensional changes at all facial locations tested, imposed by the action of the underlying muscles. The system has a potential value for dynamic monitoring of facial movement.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Dynamic rehabilitation of the paralyzed face: I. Electronic control of reinnervated muscles from intact facial musculature in the rabbit.

An entirely satisfactory solution to dynamic rehabilitation of the paralyzed facial musculature has not yet been found. Recent interest in selective reinnervation of the laryngeal musculature, synchronous with appropriate afferent information, has led us to propose that miniature strain gauges be placed on one or more muscles of facial expression on the intact side to channel electrical signals to the opposite corresponding facial musculature reinnervated via nerve-muscle pedicles. In order to avoid introducing extraneous factors related to facial motion, this principle was first studied on crossover ansa hypoglossi nerve-muscle pedicles in New Zealand white rabbits. Surgery was performed on a total of five animals that were under general anesthesia with xylazine and ketamine, through a midline neck incision. The animals were reexplored after 12 weeks, and after verification that reinnervation had taken place, a vertical incision was made under the external canthus, in order to expose the facial nerve. A miniature strain gauge was then sutured on the facial musculature and connected to a central modulating unit that was, in turn, linked to the nerve-muscle pedicle via a monopolar electrode. Facial wiggle that resulted from direct electrical facial nerve stimulation caused synchronous contraction of all reinnervated strap muscles under study; this was documented on film and through facial and strap muscle activity tracings. Our next step will be to extend this principle to paralyzed facial muscles. If successful, this system could be miniaturized for long-term implantation in human beings.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

5HT(3) antagonism abolishes the emotion potentiated startle effect in humans.

RATIONALE: The serotonergic system has been implicated in emotional processing in animals and humans. Although the contribution of different receptor subtypes has been hypothesised, there have been few direct tests of this in human subjects. OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to explore the involvement of the serotonin type 3 (5HT3) receptor subtype in a battery of emotional processing tasks previously found to be sensitive to SSRI administration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Healthy volunteers were randomised to receive the 5HT3 antagonist, ondansetron (12 mg, oral), or placebo in a double blind between groups design. Emotional processing was assessed using three tasks: affective modulation of the startle reflex, emotional categorisation and memory and facial expression recognition. Subjective state ratings, blood pressure and pulse were also collected before and after ondansetron and placebo. RESULTS: Ondansetron was well tolerated and did not affect subjective measures of mood, anxiety or well-being in these healthy volunteers. However, the emotion potentiated effect was abolished in the volunteers receiving ondansetron. Facial expression recognition and emotional memory were not significantly affected. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest an involvement of 5HT3 receptors in certain aspects of fear processing in humans. These effects are consistent with anxiolytic actions of 5HT3 antagonism in animal models and suggest that the 5HT3 receptor may play a role in the effects of serotonergic manipulations on fear and anxiety.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Preschool children's prosocial judgments and their reasoning in the empathic situations].

The purpose of this study was to examine preschool children's prosocial judgments and their reasoning for prosocial episodes. One hundred children were individually asked to do prosocial judgments and their reasoning for three prosocial episodes: helping, sharing, and comforting. In the episode there was a crying or a normal facial expression of a person in distress under the condition of high and low empathic situations. The results indicated that the crying face and high empathic situation increased the rate of prosocial judgment more than the normal face and low empathic situation, respectively, and older children (5-year-olds) did prosocial judgment than younger ones (4-year-olds). Furthermore, the crying face induced the empathic reasoning, especially in the high empathic situation. These results supported that preschool children were able to use the empathic reasoning reflected in the negative facial expression and the cause of distress of the victim.

Child Behavior↗