How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

et al. 2019

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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Research indicates that the misinterpretation of other's emotions or intentions may lead to antisocial behaviour. This study investigated emotion and intention recognition in children with behavioural problems and examined their relationship and relations with behaviour problem severity. Participants were 7-11 year old children with behavioural problems (n = 93, mean age: 8.78, 82.8% male) who were taking part in an early intervention program and typically developing controls (n = 44, mean age: 9.82, 79.5% male). Participants completed emotion recognition and Theory of Mind tasks. Teachers and parents rated children's emotional and behavioural problems. Children with behavioural problems showed impaired emotion and intention recognition. Emotion recognition and intention recognition were positively related and inversely associated with behavioural problem severity and, independently of one another, predicted behavioural problems. This study is the first to show that children with behavioural problems are impaired in identifying others' emotions as well as intentions. These social cognitive processes were found to be related and inversely associated with severity of behavioural problems. This has important implications for intervention and prevention programmes for children with behavioural difficulties.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Children with Behavioural Problems Misinterpret the Emotions and Intentions of Others

et al. 2019

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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“…The findings from this research support the use of early interventions that improve emotion recognition and empathy development in these children [49]. A targeted early intervention approach is likely to be more effective and represents a better use of finances and resources [32,50].…”

Section: Conclusion and Clinical Implicationssupporting

confidence: 58%

“…The hyperactivity subscale of the SDQ was not chosen as a recruitment criterion, because recent studies have shown that emotion recognition impairments in ADHD are specific to those with comorbid CD [23]. Similarly, the emotion problem subscale was not used as this is related to internalising problems and emotion recognition impairments are more related to externalising problems [31,32]. Inclusion criteria for the DB group were, therefore, a referral from the Hub and showing an elevated or lowered score on the previously described SDQ subscales.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and extent of emotion recognition and empathy impairments in children showing disruptive behaviour referred into a crime prevention programme

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

et al. 2019

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Childhood disruptive behaviour has been linked to later antisocial and criminal behaviour. Emotion recognition and empathy impairments, thought to be caused by inattention to the eye region, are hypothesised to contribute to antisocial and criminal behaviour. This is the first study to simultaneously examine emotion recognition and empathy impairments, their relationship, and the mechanism behind these impairments, in children with disruptive behaviour. We hypothesised that children with disruptive behaviour would exhibit negative emotion recognition and cognitive and affective empathy impairments, but that these impairments would not be due to reduced attention to the eye region. We expected these emotion impairments to be driven by disruptive behaviour. We also expected a relationship between emotion recognition and cognitive empathy only. Ninety-two children with disruptive behaviour, who were participating in a police crime prevention programme and rated by their schoolteacher using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (DB; mean age 8.8 years, 80% male), took part. There was a comparison group of 58 typically developing children (TD; mean age 9.7 years, 78% male). All children completed emotion recognition and empathy tasks, both with concurrent eye tracking to assess social attention. Not only were DB children significantly impaired in negative emotion and neutral emotion recognition, and in cognitive and affective empathy compared to the TD children, but severity of disruptive behaviour also predicted intensity of emotion impairments. There were no differences in social attention to the eye region. Negative emotion recognition and empathy impairments are already present in an identifiable group of children displaying disruptive behaviour. These findings provide evidence to encourage the use of targeted interventions.

“…The CERT is a computerised emotion recognition training to improve the identification of facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fear and anger by directing attention to key facial features and providing assistance with the interpretation of these features [22] (https ://emoti onrec ognit ion.cardi ff.ac.uk/ index .php). In addition to improving emotion recognition ability, the CERT also aims to improve the ability to understand when and why certain emotions are shown and that people can show different emotions in the same situation.…”

Section: Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training (Cert)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving emotion recognition is associated with subsequent mental health and well-being in children with severe behavioural problems

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

et al. 2020

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Impaired emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. It has been argued that improving emotion recognition may lead to improvements in behaviour and mental health, but supportive evidence is limited. We assessed emotion recognition and mental health following a brief and targeted computerised emotion recognition training in children referred into an intervention program because of severe family adversity and behavioural problems (n = 62; aged 7–10). While all children continued to receive their usual interventions, only children impaired in emotion recognition (n = 40) received the emotion training. Teachers blind to whether or not children had received the training rated children’s mental health problems before and 6 months after the training. Participants who received the emotion training significantly improved their recognition of negative and neutral facial expressions. Although both groups showed improved behaviour at follow-up, the reduction in behavioural problems was only significant in children who received the emotion training. Post-training emotion recognition scores predicted mental health problems 6 months later independently of initial emotion recognition ability and severity of behavioural problems. The results are consistent with the view that targeting emotion recognition can improve longer term functioning in individuals with disruptive behaviour, although further research using fully randomised designs is needed before causal conclusions can be drawn with confidence.