Rumination has been shown to be an influential part of the depressive experience, impacting on various cognitive processes including memory and attention. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the relationship between rumination and emotion recognition, deficits or biases in which have been closely linked to a depressive mood state. In Study 1, participants (N = 89) received either a rumination or distraction induction prior to completing three variants of an emotion recognition task assessing decoding accuracy or biases. Results demonstrated that greater levels of dysphoria were associated with poorer facial emotion recognition accuracy, but only when participants were induced to ruminate (as opposed to being induced to distract). The aim of Study 2 (N = 172) was to examine a possible mechanism, namely cognitive load, by which rumination affects emotion recognition. Results from this study indicated that participants endorsing greater levels of dysphoria were less accurate on an emotion recognition task when they received either a rumination induction or a cognitive load task compared to their counterparts who received a distraction induction. Importantly, the performance of those in the cognitive load and rumination conditions did not differ from each other. In summary, these findings suggest that the confluence of dysphoria and rumination can influence individuals’ accuracy in identifying emotional content portrayed in facial expressions. Furthermore, rumination, by definition an effortful process, might negatively impact emotion recognition via the strain it places on cognitive resources.

Rumination has been shown to be an influential part of the depressive experience, impacting on various cognitive processes including memory and attention. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the relationship between rumination and emotion recognition, deficits or biases in which have been closely linked to a depressive mood state. In Study 1, participants (N = 89) received either a rumination or distraction induction prior to completing three variants of an emotion recognition task assessing decoding accuracy or biases. Results demonstrated that greater levels of dysphoria were associated with poorer facial emotion recognition accuracy, but only when participants were induced to ruminate (as opposed to being induced to distract). The aim of Study 2 (N = 172) was to examine a possible mechanism, namely cognitive load, by which rumination affects emotion recognition. Results from this study indicated that participants endorsing greater levels of dysphoria were less accurate on an emotion recognition task when they received either a rumination induction or a cognitive load task compared to their counterparts who received a distraction induction. Importantly, the performance of those in the cognitive load and rumination conditions did not differ from each other. In summary, these findings suggest that the confluence of dysphoria and rumination can influence individuals’ accuracy in identifying emotional content portrayed in facial expressions. Furthermore, rumination, by definition an effortful process, might negatively impact emotion recognition via the strain it places on cognitive resources.

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Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by social dysfunction. People with schizophrenia misinterpret social information and it is suggested that this difficulty may result from visual processing deficits. As faces are one of the most important sources of social information it is hypothesized that people suffering from the disorder have impairments in the visual face processing system. It is unclear which mechanism of the face processing system is impaired but two types of deficits are most often proposed: a deficit in face perception in general (i.e., processing of facial features as such) and a deficit in facial emotion processing (i.e., recognition of emotional facial expressions). Due to the contradictory evidence from behavioural, electrophysiological as well as neuroimaging studies offering support for the involvement of one or the other deficit in schizophrenia it is early to make any conclusive statements as to the nature and level of impairment. Further studies are needed for a better understanding of the key mechanism and abnormalities underlying social dysfunction in schizophrenia.

<p>Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by social dysfunction. People with schizophrenia misinterpret social information and it is suggested that this difficulty may result from visual processing deficits. As faces are one of the most important sources of social information it is hypothesized that people suffering from the disorder have impairments in the visual face processing system. It is unclear which mechanism of the face processing system is impaired but two types of deficits are most often proposed: a deficit in face perception in general (i.e., processing of facial features as such) and a deficit in facial emotion processing (i.e., recognition of emotional facial expressions). Due to the contradictory evidence from behavioural, electrophysiological as well as neuroimaging studies offering support for the involvement of one or the other deficit in schizophrenia it is early to make any conclusive statements as to the nature and level of impairment. Further studies are needed for a better understanding of the key mechanism and abnormalities underlying social dysfunction in schizophrenia.</p>

Objectives: To examine the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) in delinquent youth and facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities, offending, behavioural difficulties, aggression, empathic sadness and parenting. Participants & Setting: Forty-eight delinquent youth, aged 14 to 19 years, recruited from Youth Offending Teams and Targeted Youth Support. Main Measures: A cross sectional case-control design compared individuals in a TBI versus a non-TBI group on a forced-choice, FER paradigm assessing recognition accuracy to six basic emotions. Self-reported measures of TBI, behavioural difficulties, experience of parenting, reactive and proactive aggression, and empathic sadness. Results: History of TBI was reported by 68.7% of the sample, with 94% including a loss of consciousness. No significant differences were found between TBI and non-TBI groups on FER accuracy. Participants in the TBI group self-reported significantly higher proactive and reactive aggression and lower levels of parental supervision as compared to the non-TBI group. Tendency to incorrectly give ‘anger’ as a response on the FER task was strongly positively associated with proactive and reactive aggression. Conclusions: Future research requires larger samples recruited across settings to further investigate the association between FER abilities and TBI in this population. Findings highlight the need for TBI to be appropriately assessed and managed in delinquent youth, and highlights important aggression differences.

No / With its numerous applications, automatic facial emotion recognition has recently become a very active area of research. Yet there has been little detailed study of the dynamic components of facial expressions. This article reviews research that shows gender is encoded in the dynamics of a smile, and how it may be possible to use the dynamic components of facial expressions as a form of biometric.

Facial expressions are considered to be the most revealing way of understanding the human psychological state during face-to-face communication. It is believed that a more natural interaction between humans and machines can be undertaken through the detailed understanding of the different facial expressions which imitate the manner by which humans communicate with each other. In this research, we study the different aspects of facial emotion detection, analysis and investigate possible hidden identity clues within the facial expressions. We study a deeper aspect of facial expressions whereby we try to identify gender and human identity - which can be considered as a form of emotional biometric - using only the dynamic characteristics of the smile expressions. Further, we present a statistical model for analysing the relationship between facial features and Duchenne (real) and non-Duchenne (posed) smiles. Thus, we identify that the expressions in the eyes contain discriminating features between Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. Our results indicate that facial expressions can be identified through facial movement analysis models where we get an accuracy rate of 86% for classifying the six universal facial expressions and 94% for classifying the common 18 facial action units. Further, we successfully identify the gender using only the dynamic characteristics of the smile expression whereby we obtain an 86% classification rate. Likewise, we present a framework to study the possibility of using the smile as a biometric whereby we show that the human smile is unique and stable. / Al-Zaytoonah University

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Prior studies have identified diminished attending to faces, and in particular the eye region, in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which may contribute to the impairments they experience with emotion recognition and expression. The current study evaluated the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of an attention modification intervention designed to attenuate deficits in facial emotion recognition and expression in children with ASD. During the 10-session experimental treatment, children watched videos of people expressing different emotions with the facial features highlighted to guide children's attention. Eight children with ASD completed the treatment, of nine who began. On average, the children and their parents rated the treatment to be acceptable and helpful. Although treatment efficacy, in terms of improved facial emotion recognition (FER), was not apparent on task-based measures, children and their parents reported slight improvements and most parents indicated decreased socioemotional problems following treatment. Results of this preliminary trial suggest that further clinical research on visual attention retraining for ASD, within an experimental therapeutic program, may be promising. / PHD / Previous studies have shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show lower looking at faces, especially the eyes, which may lead to the difficulties they show with ability to recognize other’s emotions and express their own emotions. This study looked at a new treatment designed to decrease the difficulties in emotion recognition and expression in children with ASD. The study looked at whether the treatment is possible, acceptable to children and their parents, and successful in decreasing the difficulty with emotion recognition. During the 10-session treatment, children watched videos of people making different expressions. The faces of the actors in the videos were highlighted to show the children the important area to look at. Eight children with ASD completed the treatment, of nine who started the treatment. On average, the children and their parents said that the treatment is acceptable and helpful. While the treatment was not successful in improving ability to recognize emotions on other’s faces on several tasks, children and their parents reported slight improvements. In addition, most parents reported less problems with social skills and emotion recognition and expression after the treatment. These results suggest that more clinical research may be needed to evaluate usefulness of such attention retraining for children with ASD.