Associations between Facial Emotion Recognition and Mental Health in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Research shows that adolescents with mental illnesses have a bias for processing negative facial emotions, and this may play a role in impaired social functioning that often co-exists with a mental health diagnosis. This study examined associations between psychological and somatic problems and facial emotion recognition in early adolescence; as any processing biases in this age-group may be an early indicator of later mental illnesses. A community sample of 40 12-year-olds self-rated their symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization via two mental health screeners. They also completed a computerized emotion recognition task in which they identified photographs of 40 faces showing expressions of anger, fear, sadness, happiness, or neutral expression. Results showed that increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization were significantly associated with fewer correct responses to angry expressions. These symptoms were also associated with faster and more accurate recognition of fearful expressions. However, there was no association between mental health and recognition of sad affect. Finally, increased psychological and/or somatic symptomology was also associated with better identification of neutral expressions. In conclusion, youth with increased psychological and/or somatic problems exhibited a processing bias for negative anger and fear expressions, but not sadness. They showed better processing of neutral faces than youth with fewer psychological and/or somatic problems. Findings are discussed in relation to indicators of mental illnesses in early adolescence and the potential underpinning neural mechanisms associated with mental health and emotional facial recognition.

Psychological functioning in survivors of COVID-19: Evidence from recognition of fearful facial expressions

“…In this work, we investigated the processing of fearful facial expressions in individuals recovered in COVID-19 post-intensive care units, through a behavioral approach. As reported in previous studies (i.e., [9,10,28]), an altered recognition of facial emotion expressions represents a sign of mental health difficulties [18,19] and psychological distress [14]. We observed an alteration of this process in our sample: specifically, our participants reported difficulties in detecting and recognizing fearful expressions.…”

“…Moreover, fear and anxiety share the cerebral circuits (i.e., [14]). Altered recognition of facial emotion expressions has been suggested to be a sign of mental health difficulties [17][18][19] and psychological distress [14].…”

Parallel valence processing alterations associated with compulsive behavior in SAPAP3 knockout mice and human OCD

“…This association has been shown via increased accuracy of identification of fearful faces by individuals with high trait anxiety 64,65 (although other studies have failed to replicate this finding 66,67 ), and by increased accuracy of fearful face identification by healthy volunteers under threat of electrical shock, a condition that otherwise degrades accuracy of identification of neutral or happy faces 68 . A specific speeding of reaction time for identifying fearful faces has also been observed in adolescents with depressive and anxiety symptoms 69 .…”

Mental Health Monitoring System Using Facial Recognition, PEN Test and IQ Test

“…GabrielleSimcock [25] et al have done a study, which examined the associations between psychological and physical problems and facial recognition in early adolescence. The computerized emotion recognition task are completed where they identi ed images of 40 faces that show expressions of anger, fear, sadness, happiness, or a neutral expression.The results showed that increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization were signi cantly associated with fewer correct responses to angry expressions.These symptoms have also been associated with the rapid and more accurate recognition of expressions of fear.…”