Facial emotion recognition in adolescents with personality pathology

Abstract

It has been argued that a heightened emotional sensitivity interferes with the cognitive processing of facial emotion recognition and may explain the intensified emotional reactions to external emotional stimuli of adults with personality pathology, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study examines if and how deviations in facial emotion recognition also occur in adolescents with personality pathology. Forty-two adolescents with personality pathology, 111 healthy adolescents and 28 psychiatric adolescents without personality pathology completed the Emotion Recognition Task, measuring their accuracy and sensitivity in recognizing positive and negative emotion expressions presented in several, morphed, expression intensities. Adolescents with personality pathology showed an enhanced recognition accuracy of facial emotion expressions compared to healthy adolescents and clients with various Axis-I psychiatric diagnoses. They were also more sensitive to less intensive expressions of emotions than clients with various Axis-I psychiatric diagnoses, but not more than healthy adolescents. As has been shown in research on adults with BPD, adolescents with personality pathology show enhanced facial emotion recognition.

Behavioral and Neurobiological Correlates of Disturbed Emotion Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder

“…Another aspect which has rarely been studied is the developmental course of emotion processing deficits. Results remain inconclusive among adolescent patients with BPD with some authors reporting a similar negativity bias as in adult patients [24, 25], while others failed to find differences in emotion recognition [26] or even found an impaired sensitivity to facial emotions [27]. First data from our own group point to a reduced threat hypersensitivity in former patients with BPD, i.e., individuals who were diagnosed with BPD, but who did not fulfill more than 3 BPD criteria in the last 2 years [28].…”

Emotionality in Computer-Mediated Environments: Analyzing the Emotional Content of Psychotherapeutic Communication

“…This requires manipulating nonverbal information when using technology. These cues, in general can aid the counseling pairs in psychotherapy [56], and from a clinical perspective, they can intensify the emotional reactions in psychotherapeutic communication [57,58]. However, further research into the particular value of individual behavioral cues in CMP contexts is needed.…”

Cybertherapogy: A Conceptual Architecting of Presence for Counselling via Technology

“…It is well documented that facial expressions provides and regulates information for social interaction, empathy, emotional behaviours (Kleinke, 1986;Mathews, Fox, Yiend, & Calder, 2003;Newton, Burgoon, & Cahn, 1990). In addition to facial cues, voice intensifies reactions to emotional stimuli that become important functioning factors of interpersonal interaction and immediacy which has to be accounted with details in audio-based therapy (Berenschot et al, 2014;Minzenberg, Poole, & Vinogradov, 2006). Clients or counsellors can also behave gestures, give personal examples, address the other pair by his/her name, ask questions, discuss, encourage, feedback, and avoid tense body positions to promote immediacy.…”