Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on the Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotions

Abstract

The development of the explicit recognition of facial expressions of emotions can be affected by childhood maltreatment experiences. A previous study demonstrated the existence of an explicit recognition bias for angry facial expressions among a population of adolescent Sierra Leonean street-boys exposed to high levels of maltreatment. In the present study, the recognition bias for angry facial expressions was investigated in a younger population of street-children and age-matched controls. Participants performed a forced-choice facial expressions recognition task. Recognition bias was measured as participants’ tendency to over-attribute anger label to other negative facial expressions. Participants’ heart rate was assessed and related to their behavioral performance, as index of their stress-related physiological responses. Results demonstrated the presence of a recognition bias for angry facial expressions among street-children, also pinpointing a similar, although significantly less pronounced, tendency among controls. Participants’ performance was controlled for age, cognitive and educational levels and for naming skills. None of these variables influenced the recognition bias for angry facial expressions. Differently, a significant effect of heart rate on participants’ tendency to use anger label was evidenced. Taken together, these results suggest that childhood exposure to maltreatment experiences amplifies children’s “pre-existing bias” for anger labeling in forced-choice emotion recognition task. Moreover, they strengthen the thesis according to which the recognition bias for angry facial expressions is a manifestation of a functional adaptive mechanism that tunes victim’s perceptive and attentive focus on salient environmental social stimuli.

Effects of Early Neglect Experience on Recognition and Processing of Facial Expressions: A Systematic Review

“…The characteristics of neglect experience varied substantially and included children who lived or were currently living in orphanages [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ], children living on the streets [ 54 ], community children who experienced early neglect [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ] and adults with self-report of early neglect. Most of the samples included healthy individuals, but some included individuals with co-morbid mental disorders, such as depression [ 56 , 57 , 60 ], anxiety [ 57 ] and bipolar disorder [ 58 ].…”

“…We identified three overarching themes for face perception of emotions in individuals with early neglect: (a) accuracy in emotional face recognition—methods that evaluated the accuracy of identification facial emotion expressions; (b) neural aspects in processing emotional faces—methods that evaluated the underlying brain system; and (c) attentional aspects in processing emotional faces. Six studies investigated the accuracy of facial emotion recognition by using facial expression recognition tasks [ 48 , 54 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ]. Five studies employed specific methods to explore neurological aspects of perception of facial expressions [ 49 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 56 ] and three attentional aspects [ 50 , 51 , 57 ].…”

Less Empathic and More Reactive: The Different Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on Facial Mimicry and Vagal Regulation

“…The sampling was suspended when two sex-balanced groups of enough size were obtained. All participants took also part in a previous behavioral study [ 8 ] conducted in a separate session. The general purposes and procedures of the study were orally explained by local social-workers to volunteers, and their legal guardians.…”

“…Stimuli employed were 64 videos obtained by the Montreal Set of Facial Displays of Emotion [ 37 ] and already used in previous experiments conducted on African populations of different ages [ 7 , 8 , 38 ]. The stimuli were constructed by means of a face-morphing software (Squirlz Morph, http://www.xiberpix.net/SqirlzMorph.html ), using one neutral facial expression as start image, and one emotional facial expression of the same actor, as end image.…”

“…Underage victims of maltreatment preferentially recognize negative facial expressions of emotions, like fear and sadness, as anger [ 7 , 8 ]. Furthermore, angry facial expressions are also identified on the basis of less sensory inputs [ 9 , 10 ] and thanks to fewer expressive cues by physically abused children than controls [ 11 ].…”