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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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.

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.

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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.

The current research project aimed to investigate facial emotion processing from especially developed and validated video stimuli of facial emotional expressions including varying levels of intensity. Therefore, videos were developed showing real people expressing emotions in real time (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, contempt, embarrassment, contempt, and neutral) at different expression intensity levels (low, intermediate, high) called the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set – Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV). The ADFES-BIV was validated on all its emotion and intensity categories. Sex differences in facial emotion recognition were investigated and a female advantage in facial emotion recognition was found compared to males. This demonstrates that the ADFES-BIV is suitable for investigating group comparisons in facial emotion recognition in the general population. Facial emotion recognition from the ADFES-BIV was further investigated in a sample of individuals that is characterised by deficits in social functioning; individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A deficit in facial emotion recognition was found in ASD compared to controls and error analysis revealed emotion-specific deficits in detecting emotional content from faces (sensitivity) next to deficits in differentiating between emotions from faces (specificity). The ADFES-BIV was combined with face electromyogram (EMG) to investigate facial mimicry and the effects of proprioceptive feedback (from explicit imitation and blocked facial mimicry) on facial emotion recognition. Based on the reverse simulation model it was predicted that facial mimicry would be an active component of the facial emotion recognition process. Experimental manipulations of face movements did not reveal an advantage of facial mimicry compared to the blocked facial mimicry condition. Whereas no support was found for the reverse simulation model, enhanced proprioceptive feedback can facilitate or hinder recognition of facial emotions in line with embodied cognition accounts.

Objective: Research has demonstrated deficits in socio-emotional processing following childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI; Tonks et al., 2009a). However, it is not known whether a link exists between socio-emotional processing, TBI and offending. Drawing on Ochsner’s (2008) socio-emotional processing model, the current study aimed to investigate facial emotion recognition accuracy and bias in young offenders with TBI. Setting: Research was conducted across three youth offender services. Participants: Thirty seven participants completed the study. Thirteen participants reported a high dosage of TBI. Design: The study had a cross sectional within and between subjects design. Main Measures: Penton-Voak and Munafo’s (2012) emotional recognition task was completed. Results: The results indicated that young offenders with a TBI were not significantly worse at facial emotion recognition compared to those with no TBI. Both groups showed a bias towards positive emotions. No between group differences were found for emotion bias. Conclusion: The findings did not support the use of Ochsner’s (2008) socio-emotional processing model for this population. Due to the small sample size, inadequate power and lack of non-offender control groups, it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions from the results of this study. Future research should aim to investigate whether there are any links between TBI, socio-emotional processing and offending.

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