State anxiety and emotional face recognition in healthy volunteers

Attwood, Angela; Easey, Kayleigh; Dalili, Michael N; Skinner, Andy; Woods, Andy; Crick, Lana; Ilett, Elizabeth; Penton-Voak, Ian S.; Munafò, Marcus R.

doi:10.1098/rsos.160855

Cited by 44 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Relatedly, a third aim was to examine whether levels of comorbid psychopathology were associated with emotion recognition performance. As well as including measures of alexithymia and ASD traits, we included depression, anxiety, and social anxiety due to their high co-occurrence with AN [8,32,45] and potential effects on social cognition [46][47][48][49][50][51]. We hypothesised that individuals with AN would be less accurate at recognising complex emotions compared to HCs, and that those recovered from AN would show intermediate levels of performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Recognition Abilities in Adults with Anorexia Nervosa are Associated with Autistic Traits

Kerr-Gaffney

Mason

Jones

et al. 2020

JCM

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Difficulties in socio-emotional functioning are proposed to contribute to the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). This study aimed to examine emotion recognition abilities in individuals in the acute and recovered stages of AN compared to healthy controls (HCs). A second aim was to examine whether attention to faces and comorbid psychopathology predicted emotion recognition abilities. The films expressions task was administered to 148 participants (46 AN, 51 recovered AN, 51 HC) to assess emotion recognition, during which attention to faces was recorded using eye-tracking. Comorbid psychopathology was assessed using self-report questionnaires and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule–2nd edition (ADOS-2). No significant differences in emotion recognition abilities or attention to faces were found between groups. However, individuals with a lifetime history of AN who scored above the clinical cut-off on the ADOS-2 displayed poorer emotion recognition performance than those scoring below cut-off and HCs. ADOS-2 scores significantly predicted emotion recognition abilities while controlling for group membership and intelligence. Difficulties in emotion recognition appear to be associated with high autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits, rather than a feature of AN. Whether individuals with AN and high ASD traits may require different treatment strategies or adaptations is a question for future research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Recognition Abilities in Adults with Anorexia Nervosa are Associated with Autistic Traits

Kerr-Gaffney

Mason

Jones

et al. 2020

JCM

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“…Previous research findings about the effects of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) on emotion perception been varied and even contradictory. While some studies have linked GAD with lower emotion identification ability (Attwood et al, 2017) and selective attention to threat relative to controls, other studies have shown people with generalized anxiety symptoms have a lower threshold for emotion identification, that is, they perceive target emotions more quickly than non-anxious groups (Bradley, Mogg, White, Groom, & de Bono, 1999;Bui et al, 2017;Plana, Lavoie, Battaglia, & Achim, 2014). High trait anxiety has been linked to better facial recognition of fear specifically (Surcinelli, Codispoti, Montebarocci, Rossi, & Baldaro, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion sensitivity and self‐reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder across the lifespan: A population‐based sample approach

et al. 2019

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Background Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms show deficits in emotion processing, but results of prior studies have been conflicting, and little is known about developmental trajectories of emotion processing over time. We examined the association between GAD symptoms and sensitivity to recognizing emotional facial expressions (emotion sensitivity: ES) for three emotions (happiness, anger, fear) in a large, diverse, population‐based sample. We hypothesized that higher anxiety scores would be associated with poorer performance, and expected that ES performance and anxiety scores would decline across the lifespan. Method Participants were 7,176 responders to a web‐based ES study (age range = 10–96 years old). Results Higher GAD‐7 scores were associated with poorer ES performance for all emotion categories (happiness, anger, fear). The relationship between GAD‐7 and ES scores remained significant after controlling for the effects of age and sex, and there was no significant interaction, indicating that the relationship does not change across age. Age significantly predicted ES and GAD‐7 scores across emotions, with older ages showing lower ES scores and lower anxiety. Conclusions In the largest study of its kind, GAD symptoms were associated with impaired ES performance across three emotion types. Future research should explore the connection between anxiety symptoms, cognitive processing, and social processing to better characterize the mechanisms of how GAD is linked with both social and non‐social information processing. Future work may also look at if ES is related over time to changes in anxiety, making it a promising target for intervention.

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“…Experimental research has shown reduced emotion recognition accuracy and increased interpretation bias when state anxiety was heightened (Attwood et al, 2017).…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is evidence to support that higher trait and state anxiety is associated with poorer emotion recognition (Blair et al, 2008;Attwood et al, 2017). Experimental research has shown reduced emotion recognition accuracy and increased interpretation bias when state anxiety was heightened (Attwood et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of emotion recognition training to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in adolescence

Rawdon

Murphy

Motyer

et al. 2018

Psychiatry Research

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This study aimed to examine the effect of emotion recognition training on social anxiety symptoms among adolescents, aged 15-18 years. The study included a screening session, which identified participants who scored above a cut-off on a self-report measure of social anxiety for enrolment into a randomized controlled trial (Clinical Trials ID: NCT02550379). Participants were randomized to an intervention condition designed to increase the perception of happiness over disgust in ambiguous facial expressions or a sham intervention control condition, and completed self-report measures of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, anxiety-related disorders, and depressive symptoms. The intervention group demonstrated a strong shift in the balance point at which they perceived happiness over disgust in ambiguous facial expressions. This increase in positive perception was not associated with any changes in the primary outcome of social anxiety; however, some evidence of improvement in symptomatology was observed on one of a number of secondary outcomes. Those in the intervention group had lower depression symptoms at 2-week follow-up, compared to those in the control group who received the sham intervention training. Potential reasons for why the shift in balance point measurement was not associated with a concurrent shift in symptoms of social anxiety are discussed.

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State anxiety and emotional face recognition in healthy volunteers

Cited by 44 publications

References 56 publications

Emotion Recognition Abilities in Adults with Anorexia Nervosa are Associated with Autistic Traits

Emotion Recognition Abilities in Adults with Anorexia Nervosa are Associated with Autistic Traits

Emotion sensitivity and self‐reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder across the lifespan: A population‐based sample approach

An investigation of emotion recognition training to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in adolescence

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