All-or-nothing thinking: The processing of emotional expressions in traumatized post-deployment soldiers

Gebhardt, Claudia; Alliger-Horn, Christina; Mitte, Kristin; Glaesmer, Heide

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2016.12.004

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…While LTS youth showed no difference, HTS youth responded faster once they had decided that a surprise face appeared positive (vs. negative) to them. Generally speaking, the main effect is consistent with the study by Gebhardt et al [21], who found a negative bias in soldiers post-deployment when evaluating ambiguous faces. However, the differential reaction time effect deserves further scrutiny and any conclusions are speculative at this stage.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In one classic study, Amir et al [20] presented homographs (words with two meanings, e.g., "arms" meaning either weapons or the part of your body) to people with and without PTSD and found delayed response times when individuals with PTSD had to inhibit the negative connotation word (e.g., weapon) to complete the task. Most similar to the present study, Gebhardt et al [21] documented a negative interpretation when participants had to evaluate emotional facial expressions in post-deployment soldiers with trauma (relative to controls). Focusing on the features that may drive such effects, Gutiérrez-García [22] examined eye movements and documented an interpretation bias that was linked to the parts of the face individuals focused on.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…In addition, given previous findings in maltreated women [27] and youths with PTSD [24], we expected that emotion would further modulate this performance. (2) With regard to interpretation bias, we predicted that HTS individuals would interpret ambiguous faces (surprise) as more negative than LTS individuals, given prior findings of a negative interpretation bias in soldiers with war-related trauma [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents

Mueller

Unal

Saretta

et al. 2020

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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The number of adolescent refugees around the world has been continuously increasing over the past few years trying to escape war and terror, among other things. Such experience not only increases the risk for mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but also may have implications for socio-cognitive development. This study tested cognitive-affective processing in refugee adolescents who had escaped armed conflict in Syria and now resided in Istanbul, Turkey. Adolescents were split into a high trauma (n = 31, 12 girls, mean age = 11.70 years, SD = 1.15 years) and low trauma (n = 27, 14 girls, mean age = 11.07 years, SD = 1.39 years) symptom group using median split, and performed a working memory task with emotional distraction to assess cognitive control and a surprise faces task to assess emotional interpretation bias. The results indicated that high (vs. low) trauma symptom youth were ~ 20% worse correctly remembering the spatial location of a cue, although both groups performed at very low levels. However, this finding was not modulated by emotion. In addition, although all youths also had a ~ 20% bias toward interpreting ambiguous (surprise) faces as more negative, the high (vs. low) symptom youth were faster when allocating such a face to the positive (vs. negative) emotion category. The findings suggest the impact of war-related trauma on cognitive-affective processes essential to healthy development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents

Mueller

Unal

Saretta

et al. 2020

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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“…Studies comparing combat-exposed soldiers (with and without PTSD) and non-exposed controls have reported that both combat-exposed groups showed greater accuracy for threat-related stimuli ( 15 ) and a negative interpretation bias to ambiguous stimuli ( 20 ). These studies both involved interpersonal trauma exposure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individuals with PTSD compared with combat-exposed controls have been found to have decreased accuracy and sensitivity of FER for fear, sadness ( 18 ) and anger ( 19 ). There have also been reports of ambiguous images being interpreted in a threatening way by combat-exposed soldiers (with PTSD or other trauma-related diagnoses) compared with non-exposed controls ( 20 ). These studies have all been in individuals exposed to combat where the use of FER may have represented a more specific trauma trigger, because the trauma in these cases related to interpersonal violence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earthquake Brain: Altered Recognition and Misclassification of Facial Expressions Are Related to Trauma Exposure but Not Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

et al. 2017

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ObjectivesThe study investigated facial expression recognition (FER) in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by exposure to earthquakes, and in particular whether people with this condition showed a bias toward interpreting facial expressions as threat-related emotions (i.e., as anger, fear, or disgust). The study included a trauma-exposed control group who had been similarly exposed to the earthquakes but had not developed PTSD. We hypothesized that individuals with PTSD would have increased sensitivity to threat-related facial emotions compared with the trauma-exposed control group. This would be shown by increased accuracy in recognition of threat-related emotions and the misinterpretation of neutral expressions to these emotions (i.e., misidentifying them as anger, fear, or disgust). The availability of a group of healthy controls from a previous study who had been tested on a similar task before the earthquakes allowed a further non-exposed comparison.MethodTwenty-eight individuals with PTSD (71% female, mean age 42.8 years) and 89 earthquake-exposed controls (66% female, mean age 50.1 years) completed an FER task, which featured six basic emotions. Further comparisons were made with 50 non-exposed controls (64% female, mean age 38.5 years) who had been tested before the earthquakes.ResultsThere was no difference in sensitivity to threat-related facial expressions (as measured by accuracy in recognition of threat-related facial expressions and the misinterpretation of neutral expressions as threatening) in individuals with PTSD compared with similarly earthquake-exposed controls. Supplementary comparison with an historical, non-exposed control group showed that both earthquake-exposed groups had increased accuracy for the identification of all facial emotions and showed a bias in the misclassification of neutral facial expressions to the threat-related emotions of anger and disgust.ConclusionThese findings suggest that it is exposure to earthquakes and repeated aftershocks, rather than the presence of PTSD that affects FER accuracy and misinterpretation. The importance of these biases in both PTSD and trauma-exposed controls needs further exploration and is an area for future research.

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Understanding military culture and working with Veterans

Kallin

Male

2023

Encyclopedia of Mental Health

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All-or-nothing thinking: The processing of emotional expressions in traumatized post-deployment soldiers

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents

Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents

Earthquake Brain: Altered Recognition and Misclassification of Facial Expressions Are Related to Trauma Exposure but Not Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Understanding military culture and working with Veterans

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