Emotion recognition changes in a confinement situation due to COVID-19

Meléndez, Juan C.; Satorres, Encarnación; Reyes-Olmedo, Maria; Delhom, Iraida; Real, Elena; Lora, Yaiza

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101518

Cited by 48 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The findings clearly indicate the need for clarity and the consistency of communications around testing approaches, test outcomes and self-isolation, promotion of positive wellbeing, and support for mental health during self-isolation and more broadly. Experiences of confinement during a pandemic can negatively impact the psychological wellbeing of young adults, including those in the general population [ 20 ] and specifically, those in a higher education context [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. However, a one-size-fits-all approach to mental health support in this context is likely to be insufficient due to disparities in mental health outcomes of higher education students during the pandemic, with those in the health professions, younger and more affluent students faring better than other student groups [ 20 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Nottingham Pilot SARS-CoV-2 Asymptomatic Testing Service: A Mixed-Methods Study

Blake

Corner

Cirelli

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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We aimed to explore student and staff perceptions and experiences of a pilot SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic testing service (P-ATS) in a UK university campus setting. This was a mixed-method study comprised of an online survey, and thematic analysis of qualitative data from interviews and focus groups conducted at the mid-point and end of the 12-week P-ATS programme. Ninety-nine students (84.8% female, 70% first year; 93.9% P-ATS participants) completed an online survey, 41 individuals attended interviews or focus groups, including 31 students (21 first year; 10 final year) and 10 staff. All types of testing and logistics were highly acceptable (virus: swab, saliva; antibody: finger prick) and 94.9% would participate again. Reported adherence to weekly virus testing was high (92.4% completed ≥6 tests; 70.8% submitted all 10 swabs; 89.2% completed ≥1 saliva sample) and 76.9% submitted ≥3 blood samples. Students tested to “keep campus safe”, “contribute to national efforts to control COVID-19”, and “protect others”. In total, 31.3% had high anxiety as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) (27.1% of first year). Students with lower levels of anxiety and greater satisfaction with university communications around P-ATS were more likely to adhere to virus and antibody tests. Increased adherence to testing was associated with higher perceived risk of COVID-19 to self and others. Qualitative findings revealed 5 themes and 13 sub-themes: “emotional responses to COVID-19”, “university life during COVID-19”, “influences on testing participation”, “testing physical and logistical factors” and “testing effects on mental wellbeing”. Asymptomatic COVID-19 testing (SARS-CoV-2 virus/antibodies) is highly acceptable to students and staff in a university campus setting. Clear communications and strategies to reduce anxiety are likely to be important for testing uptake and adherence. Strategies are needed to facilitate social connections and mitigate the mental health impacts of COVID-19 and self-isolation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Nottingham Pilot SARS-CoV-2 Asymptomatic Testing Service: A Mixed-Methods Study

Blake

Corner

Cirelli

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…The pandemic has brought negative emotions such as anger and sadness caused by sickness, loss of close ones, and bereavement (Aslam et al, 2020 ; Meléndez et al, 2020 ; Pfefferbaum and North, 2020 ). The COVID-19 health and economic crisis has also brought a rise in people being unable to cope with their existing medical conditions and other issues such as domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Place Affect Interventions During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ramkissoon

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The COVID-19 health and economic crisis has also brought a rise in people being unable to cope with their existing medical conditions and other issues such as domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol among others. Suicidal tendencies have been on the rise. Feelings of isolation causing emotional distress in place-confined settings have put additional pressure on the healthcare systems demanding that we find additional and complementary means of support for those in need. This is important not only in the current pandemic but also in the post-pandemic world. The goal is to collectively contribute and address the recurring calls for actions to maintain global well-being and public health. An important discussion to bring on the table is the need to promote interventions for people to cope with the pandemic and to adjust to the post-pandemic world. Promoting affective attitudes toward place can foster well-being outcomes. This has important benefits and is of relevance to governments, policymakers, and healthcare professionals in delivering better healthcare equipping people with coping mechanisms both throughout the pandemic and in the long run. However, the key challenge is how to foster these place affect attitudes meeting the changing demands in the post-pandemic world. It is in the middle of a crisis that the conversation needs to start about how to strategically plan for the recovery.

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“…On the contrary, the lockdown had no effect on the processing of anger, fear, surprise nor disgust. As the same individuals expressed higher level of depressive mood following the confinement, authors interpreted their findings as a mooddependent effect, whereby individuals might be more sensitive to those facial cues that match their own current affective state (Meléndez et al, 2020). Finally, Scarpina (2020) engaged Italian participants during the lockdown in an online experiment testing early implicit coding of fearful faces, but she found no difference from data of an independent laboratory-based study run before the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For instance, Cao et al, (2020) documented how Chinese individuals exhibited lesser sensitivity to videos of people reacting to electric shocks following the lockdown, an effect that was paralleled by decreased empathic scores from validated questionnaires (Interpersonal Reactivity Index; Davis, 1980). Instead, Meléndez et al (2020) investigated the impact of lockdown on emotional facial recognition comparing the performance of Spanish individuals before and after the confinement. Authors found decreased recognition rates of happy expressions, and higher sensitivity to sad faces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Far from the eyes, far from the heart. COVID-19 confinement dampened sensitivity to painful facial features.

Antico¹,

Corradi‐Dell’Acqua²

2021

Preprint

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In the last two years, governments of many countries imposed heavy social restrictions to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, with consequent increase of bad mood, distress, or depression for the people involved. Few studies investigated the impact of these restrictive measures on individual social proficiency, and specifically the processing of emotional facial information, leading to mixed results. The present research aimed at investigating systematically whether, and to which extent, social isolation influences the processing of facial expressions. To this end, we manipulated the social exclusion experimentally through the well-known Cyberball game (within-subject factor), and we exploited the occurrence of the lockdown for the Swiss COVID-19 first wave by recruiting participants before and after being restricted at home (grouping factor). We then tested whether either form of social segregation influenced the processing of pain, disgust or neutral expressions, across multiple tasks probing access to different components of affective facial responses (state-specific, shared across states). We found that the lockdown (but not game-induced exclusion) affected negatively the processing of pain-specific information, without influencing other components of the affective facial response related to disgust or broad unpleasantness. In addition, participants recruited after the confinement reported lower scores in both empathy questionnaires and affective assessments of Cyberball co-players. These results suggest that social isolation affected negatively individual sensitivity to other people’s affect and, with specific reference to the processing of facial expressions, the processing of pain-diagnostic information.

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Emotion recognition changes in a confinement situation due to COVID-19

Cited by 48 publications

References 44 publications

Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Nottingham Pilot SARS-CoV-2 Asymptomatic Testing Service: A Mixed-Methods Study

Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Nottingham Pilot SARS-CoV-2 Asymptomatic Testing Service: A Mixed-Methods Study

Place Affect Interventions During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Far from the eyes, far from the heart. COVID-19 confinement dampened sensitivity to painful facial features.

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