1
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Msika EF, Despres M, Piolino P, Narme P. Dynamic and/or multimodal assessments for social cognition in neuropsychology: Results from a systematic literature review. Clin Neuropsychol 2024; 38:922-962. [PMID: 37904259 DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2023.2266172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 11/01/2023]
Abstract
Objective: Despite the prevalence of socio-cognitive disturbances, and their important diagnostic/therapeutic implications, the assessment of these disturbances remains scarce. This systematic review aims to identify available social cognition tools for adult assessment that use multimodal and/or dynamic social cues, specifying their strengths and limitations (e.g. from a methodological, psychometric, ecological, and clinical perspective). Method: An electronic search was conducted in Pubmed, PsychINFO, Embase and Scopus databases for articles published up to the 3th of January 2023 and the first 200 Google Scholar results on the same date. The PRISMA methodology was applied, 3884 studies were screened based on title and abstract and 329 full texts were screened. Articles using pseudo-dynamic methodologies (e.g. morphing), reported only subjective or self-reported measures, or investigated only physiological or brain activity responses were excluded. Results: In total, 149 works were included in this review, representing 65 assessment tools (i.e. 48% studying emotion recognition (n = 31), 32% Theory of Mind (n = 21), 5% empathy (n = 3), 1.5% moral cognition/social reasoning (n = 1), and 14% being multimodal (n = 9)). For each study, the tool's main characteristics, psychometric properties, ecological validity indicators and available norms are reported. The tools are presented according to social-cognitive process assessed and communication channels used. Conclusions: This study highlights the lack of validated and standardized tools. A few tools appear to partially meet some clinical needs. The development of methodologies using a first-person paradigm and taking into account the multidimensional nature of social cognition seems a relevant research endeavour for greater ecological validity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva-Flore Msika
- Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau et Cognition, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Mathilde Despres
- Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau et Cognition, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Pascale Piolino
- Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau et Cognition, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Pauline Narme
- Laboratoire Mémoire, Cerveau et Cognition, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
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2
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Velthorst E, Socrates A, Alizadeh BZ, van Amelsvoort T, Bartels-Velthuis AA, Bruggeman R, Cahn W, de Haan L, Schirmbeck F, Simons CJP, van Os J, Fett AK. Age-Related Social Cognitive Performance in Individuals With Psychotic Disorders and Their First-Degree Relatives. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:1460-1469. [PMID: 37210736 PMCID: PMC10686369 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbad069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social cognitive impairment is a recognized feature of psychotic disorders. However, potential age-related differences in social cognitive impairment have rarely been studied. STUDY DESIGN Data came from 905 individuals with a psychotic disorder, 966 unaffected siblings, and 544 never-psychotic controls aged 18-55 who participated in the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study. Multilevel linear models were fitted to study group main effects and the interaction between group and age on emotion perception and processing (EPP; degraded facial affect recognition) and theory of mind (ToM; hinting task) performance. Age-related differences in the association between socio-demographic and clinical factors, and EPP and ToM were also explored. STUDY RESULTS Across groups, EPP performance was associated with age (β = -0.02, z = -7.60, 95% CI: -0.02, -0.01, P < .001), with older participants performing worse than younger ones. A significant group-by-age interaction on ToM (X2(2) = 13.15, P = .001) indicated that older patients performed better than younger ones, while no age-related difference in performance was apparent among siblings and controls. In patients, the association between negative symptoms and ToM was stronger for younger than older patients (z = 2.16, P = .03). CONCLUSIONS The findings point to different age-related performance patterns on tests of 2 key social cognitive domains. ToM performance was better in older individuals, although this effect was only observed for patients. EPP was less accurate in older compared with younger individuals. These findings have implications with respect to when social cognitive training should be offered to patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Velthorst
- Department of Research, Mental Health Organization “GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord,”Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands
| | - Adam Socrates
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Behrooz Z Alizadeh
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Therese van Amelsvoort
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Agna A Bartels-Velthuis
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Richard Bruggeman
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Wiepke Cahn
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Psychiatry, Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Altrecht, General Mental Health Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Lieuwe de Haan
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Arkin, Institute for Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Frederike Schirmbeck
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Arkin, Institute for Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Claudia J P Simons
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- GGzE Institute for Mental Health Care, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Jim van Os
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Psychiatry, Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, King’s Health Partners, London, UK
| | - Anne-Kathrin Fett
- Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London, UK
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
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3
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Karl V, Rohe T. Structural brain changes in emotion recognition across the adult lifespan. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:nsad052. [PMID: 37769357 PMCID: PMC10627307 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Emotion recognition (ER) declines with increasing age, yet little is known whether this observation is based on structural brain changes conveyed by differential atrophy. To investigate whether age-related ER decline correlates with reduced grey matter (GM) volume in emotion-related brain regions, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry analysis using data of the Human Connectome Project-Aging (N = 238, aged 36-87) in which facial ER was tested. We expected to find brain regions that show an additive or super-additive age-related change in GM volume indicating atrophic processes that reduce ER in older adults. The data did not support our hypotheses after correction for multiple comparisons. Exploratory analyses with a threshold of P < 0.001 (uncorrected), however, suggested that relationships between GM volume and age-related general ER may be widely distributed across the cortex. Yet, small effect sizes imply that only a small fraction of the decline of ER in older adults can be attributed to local GM volume changes in single voxels or their multivariate patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerie Karl
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91054, Germany
- NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo 0424, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway
| | - Tim Rohe
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91054, Germany
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4
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Orlando I, Ricci C, Griffanti L, Filippini N. Neural correlates of successful emotion recognition in healthy elderly: a multimodal imaging study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:nsad058. [PMID: 37837299 PMCID: PMC10612567 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 08/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The ageing process is associated with reduced emotional recognition (ER) performance. The ER ability is an essential part of non-verbal communication, and its role is crucial for proper social functioning. Here, using the 'Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort sample', we investigated when ER, measured using a facial emotion recognition test, begins to consistently decrease along the lifespan. Moreover, using structural and functional MRI data, we identified the neural correlates associated with ER maintenance in the age groups showing early signs of ER decline (N = 283; age range: 58-89 years). The ER performance was positively correlated with greater volume in the superior parietal lobule, higher white matter integrity in the corpus callosum and greater functional connectivity in the mid-cingulate area. Our results suggest that higher ER accuracy in older people is associated with preserved gray and white matter volumes in cognitive or interconnecting areas, subserving brain regions directly involved in emotional processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabella Orlando
- Department of Psychology, Salesian Pontifical University of Rome, Rome 00139, Italy
| | - Carlo Ricci
- Department of Psychology, Salesian Pontifical University of Rome, Rome 00139, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Walden Institute of Rome, Rome 00186, Italy
| | - Ludovica Griffanti
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
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5
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Hamlin N, Myers K, Taylor BK, Doucet GE. Role of Emotion Reactivity to Predict Facial Emotion Recognition Changes with Aging. Exp Aging Res 2023:1-18. [PMID: 37660356 PMCID: PMC10908871 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2023.2254658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Emotional intelligence includes an assortment of factors related to emotion function. Such factors involve emotion recognition (in this case via facial expression), emotion trait, reactivity, and regulation. We aimed to investigate how the subjective appraisals of emotional intelligence (i.e. trait, reactivity, and regulation) are associated with objective emotion recognition accuracy, and how these associations differ between young and older adults. Data were extracted from the CamCAN dataset (189 adults: 57 young/118 older) from assessments measuring these emotion constructs. Using linear regression models, we found that greater negative reactivity was associated with better emotion recognition accuracy among older adults, though the pattern was opposite for young adults with the greatest difference in disgust and surprise recognition. Positive reactivity and depression level predicted surprise recognition, with the associations significantly differing between the age groups. The present findings suggest the level to which older and young adults react to emotional stimuli differentially predicts their ability to correctly identify facial emotion expressions. Older adults with higher negative reactivity may be able to integrate their negative emotions effectively in order to recognize other's negative emotions more accurately. Alternatively, young adults may experience interference from negative reactivity, lowering their ability to recognize other's negative emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah Hamlin
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE
| | - Katrina Myers
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE
| | - Brittany K. Taylor
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE
- Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE
| | - Gaelle E. Doucet
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE
- Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE
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6
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Millett CE, Corrigan AA, Adamis A, Bonner CR, Lebovitz JG, Palm ST, Majd M, Gunning FM, Burdick KE. The effect of aging on facial emotion recognition in bipolar disorder. Psychiatry Res 2023; 327:115386. [PMID: 37544087 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Revised: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Convergent data point to an exaggerated negativity bias in bipolar disorder (BD), and little is known about whether people with BD experience the 'positivity effect' with increasing age. METHOD This is a cross sectional study of 202 participants with BD aged 18-65, and a sample (n = 53) of healthy controls (HCs). Participants completed the CANTAB Emotion Recognition Task (ERT). Using analysis of variance, we tested for a main effect of age, diagnosis, and an interaction of age x diagnosis on both negative and positive conditions. RESULTS We observed increased accuracy in identifying positive stimuli in the HC sample as a function of increasing age, a pattern that was not seen in participants with BD. Specifically, there was a significant diagnosis by age cohort interaction on ERT performance that was specific to the identification of happiness, where the Later Adulthood cohort of HCs was more accurate when identifying happy faces relative to the same cohort of BD patients. CONCLUSION Later life looks different for people with BD. With an aging population globally, gaining a clearer picture of the effects of recurrent mood dysregulation on the brain will be critical in guiding efforts to effectively optimize outcomes in older adults with BD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin E Millett
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Alexandra A Corrigan
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Alexandra Adamis
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States of America
| | - Candice Roquemore Bonner
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Julia G Lebovitz
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States of America
| | - Stephan T Palm
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Marzieh Majd
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Faith M Gunning
- Department of Psychiatry, Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York City, NY, United States of America
| | - Katherine E Burdick
- Mood and Psychosis Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America.
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7
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Grainger SA, Henry JD. Absence of age differences in emotion perception and gaze patterns using a contextually rich film-based assessment. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2023; 76:2017-2027. [PMID: 36376992 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221141644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Age differences in emotion perception are now well documented. However, a key limitation of many studies in this literature is the reliance on highly artificial tasks that lack context and consequently have poor ecological validity. This study reports two separate experiments that investigated age differences in emotion perception abilities using a highly contextualised film-based assessment along with a traditional emotion perception task. Experiment 2 additionally included a middle-aged sample and an assessment of eye-gaze patterns to the emotional films. The inclusion of eye-tracking in Experiment 2 was motivated by the fact that older adults consistently show visual biases to static emotion stimuli, yet it remains unclear whether biases also emerge in response to dynamic contextualised emotion stimuli. Experiment 1 identified age effects recognising displays of anger in the traditional emotion perception task but no age differences emerged on the film-based task. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 with significant group differences on the traditional emotion perception task but no age differences on the film-based task. Experiment 2 also showed that there were no age differences in gaze patterns to these stimuli, showing for the first time that age-related visual biases to emotion stimuli may be task dependent. These findings highlight the fact that task-related features play a key role in the evaluation of age effects in emotion perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah A Grainger
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Julie D Henry
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
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8
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Sinha P, Mehta UM, S.N. A, Srivastava P. Empathic Accuracy Task: Indian Adaptation and Validation. Indian J Psychol Med 2023; 45:486-495. [PMID: 37772149 PMCID: PMC10523519 DOI: 10.1177/02537176221141583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) is an objective measure to assess empathic accuracy. Due to the variability in the number and linked emotions of the narrated events, we adapted EAT for the Indian sociocultural setting as Indian EAT (I-EAT). Methods Eight videos were adapted in three languages (English, Hindi, and Kannada), narrating emotional events with a uniform representation of age groups, different emotions, and sex. The adapted I-EAT was then validated by cross-sectional comparison with different tests similar to EAT and those that assessed concepts different from or similar to empathy, in 29 healthy young adults, 23 healthy older adults (aged ≥60 years) along with clinical groups of 15 young people with depression, 15 older people with depression, and 15 young people with schizophrenia. Results We selected eight videos with good content validity and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73. We obtained satisfactory concurrent validity of the EAT scores with the self-reported empathic assessments using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Cognitive empathy score = 0.29, p = .034; Total score = 0.29, p = .035) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic concern score = 0.45, p = .001). Good divergent validity was revealed in the high inverse correlation recorded with the Apathy Evaluation Scale ( = -0.67, p < .001). I-EAT did not correlate significantly with measures of social cognition. Known-groups validity was adequate in young adults with the significantly lower EAT scores (Cohen's d: 0.77 to 1.15) in the Schizophrenia group and higher EAT-N scores (Cohen's d: 0.51) in the Depression group, compared to the Healthy group. The Healthy group of the geriatric population also achieved significantly higher EAT scores (Cohen's d: 0.71 to 0.85) than the Depression group. Conclusion With a good validity and internal consistency, I-EAT can be used in the Indian population to assess empathic accuracy without compromising performance of the original EAT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Preeti Sinha
- Dept. of Psychiatry, National
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka,
India
| | - Urvakhsh M. Mehta
- Dept. of Psychiatry, National
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka,
India
| | - Anuradha S.N.
- Dept. of Psychiatry, National
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka,
India
- Dept. of Psychiatry, SDM College of
Medical Sciences & Hospital, Dharwad, Karnataka, India
| | - Prerna Srivastava
- Dept. of Psychiatry, National
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka,
India
- Dept. of Clinical Psychology,
Institute of Psychiatry, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
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9
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Brown CL, Grimm KJ, Wells JL, Hua AY, Levenson RW. Empathic Accuracy and Shared Depressive Symptoms in Close Relationships. Clin Psychol Sci 2023; 11:509-525. [PMID: 37206479 PMCID: PMC10193708 DOI: 10.1177/21677026221141852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Empathic accuracy, the ability to accurately understand others' emotions, is typically viewed as beneficial for mental health. However, empathic accuracy may be problematic when a close relational partner is depressed because it promotes shared depression. Across two studies, we measured empathic accuracy using laboratory tasks that capture the ability to rate others' emotional valence accurately over time: first, in a sample of 156 neurotypical married couples (Study 1; Total N=312), and then in a sample of 102 informal caregivers of individuals with dementia (Study 2). Across both studies, the association between empathic accuracy and depressive symptoms varied as a function of a partner's level of depressive symptoms. Greater empathic accuracy was associated with (a) fewer depressive symptoms when a partner lacked depressive symptoms, but (b) more depressive symptoms when a partner had high levels of depressive symptoms. Accurately detecting changes in others' emotional valence may underpin shared depressive symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Casey L. Brown
- Department of Psychology, Georgetown University
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
| | | | - Jenna L. Wells
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
| | - Alice Y. Hua
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
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10
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Simonetti S, Davis C, Kim J. Older adults' emotion recognition: No auditory-visual benefit for less clear expressions. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0279822. [PMID: 36584136 PMCID: PMC9803091 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to recognise emotion from faces or voices appears to decline with advancing age. However, some studies have shown that emotion recognition of auditory-visual (AV) expressions is largely unaffected by age, i.e., older adults get a larger benefit from AV presentation than younger adults resulting in similar AV recognition levels. An issue with these studies is that they used well-recognised emotional expressions that are unlikely to generalise to real-life settings. To examine if an AV emotion recognition benefit generalizes across well and less well recognised stimuli, we conducted an emotion recognition study using expressions that had clear or unclear emotion information for both modalities, or clear visual, but unclear auditory information. Older (n = 30) and younger (n = 30) participants were tested on stimuli of anger, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust (expressed in spoken sentences) in auditory-only (AO), visual-only (VO), or AV format. Participants were required to respond by choosing one of 5 emotion options. Younger adults were more accurate in recognising emotions than older adults except for clear VO expressions. Younger adults showed an AV benefit even when unimodal recognition was poor. No such AV benefit was found for older adults; indeed, AV was worse than VO recognition when AO recognition was poor. Analyses of confusion responses indicated that older adults generated more confusion responses that were common between AO and VO conditions, than younger adults. We propose that older adults' poorer AV performance may be due to a combination of weak auditory emotion recognition and response uncertainty that resulted in a higher cognitive load.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Simonetti
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
- Brain and Mind Centre, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Chris Davis
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jeesun Kim
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
- * E-mail:
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11
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Gourlay C, Collin P, D'Auteuil C, Jacques M, Caron PO, Scherzer PB. Age differences in social-cognitive abilities across the stages of adulthood and path model investigation of adult social cognition. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2022; 29:1033-1067. [PMID: 34355998 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2021.1962789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Accumulating evidence points toward an association between older age and performance decrements in social cognition (SC). We explored age-related variations in four components of SC: emotion recognition, theory of mind, social judgment, and blame attributions. A total of 120 adults divided into three stages (18-34 years, 35-59 years, 60-85 years) completed a battery of SC. Between and within age-group differences in SC were investigated. Path analyses were used to identify relationships among the components. Emotion recognition and theory of mind showed differences beginning either in midlife, or after. Blame attributions and social judgment did not show a significant difference. However, social judgment varied significantly within groups. Path models revealed a relationship between emotion recognition and theory of mind. Findings highlight age-related differences in some components and a link between two components. Strategies promoting social functioning in aging might help to maintain or improve these abilities over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Gourlay
- Département De Psychologie, Université Du Québec À Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Pascal Collin
- Département De Psychologie, Université Du Québec À Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Camille D'Auteuil
- Département De Psychologie, Université Du Québec À Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Marie Jacques
- Département De Psychologie, Université Du Québec À Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | | | - Peter B Scherzer
- Département De Psychologie, Université Du Québec À Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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12
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Barbieri GF, Real E, Lopez J, García-Justicia JM, Satorres E, Meléndez JC. Comparison of Emotion Recognition in Young People, Healthy Older Adults, and Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:12757. [PMID: 36232057 PMCID: PMC9565174 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 10/01/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The basic discrete emotions, namely, happiness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise, and sadness, are present across different cultures and societies. Facial emotion recognition is crucial in social interactions, but normal and pathological aging seem to affect this ability. The present research aims to identify the differences in the capacity for recognition of the six basic discrete emotions between young and older healthy controls (HOC) and mildly cognitively impaired patients (MCI). METHOD The sample (N = 107) consisted of 47 young adults, 27 healthy older adults, and 33 MCI patients. Several neuropsychological scales were administered to assess the cognitive state of the participants, followed by the emotional labeling task on the Ekman 60 Faces test. RESULTS The MANOVA analysis was significant and revealed the presence of differences in the emotion recognition abilities of the groups. Compared to HOC, the MCI group obtained a significantly lower number of hits on fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise. The happiness emotion recognition rate did not differ significantly among the three groups. Surprisingly, young people and HOC did not show significant differences. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrated that MCI was associated with facial emotion recognition impairment, whereas normal aging did not seem to affect this ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Francesca Barbieri
- Department of Nervous System and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia (Italy), Piazza Botta 6, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Elena Real
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia (Spain), Av. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
| | - Jessica Lopez
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia (Spain), Av. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
| | - José Manuel García-Justicia
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia (Spain), Av. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
| | - Encarnación Satorres
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia (Spain), Av. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
| | - Juan C. Meléndez
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia (Spain), Av. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
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13
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Francisco HC, Bregola AG, Ottaviani AC, Luchesi BM, Orlandi FDS, Fraga FJ, Guarisco LPC, Pavarini SCI. The association between language and recognition of facial emotional expressions in elderly individuals. Codas 2022; 34:e20210052. [PMID: 35894306 PMCID: PMC9886300 DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20212021052pt] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/28/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE To check the association between a good performance of language and the recognition of facial emotional expressions in elderly individuals. METHODS Transversal study performed with 118 elderly individuals from the primary care services of health of a city in the state of São Paulo. Sociodemographic data were collected, regarding the performance of language through the domain of Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination - Revised and Recognition of Facial Emotional Expressions. The sample was divided in thirds according to the performance of language: T1 = the best, T2 = average, and T3 = the worst. The groups T1xT3 were compared regarding the performance of recognition of facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, and for the intensities of 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. The association of independent variables over the performance of language was analyzed through logistic regression. The multivariate model was built from the results of the univariate analyses and has included the continuous variables by emotion and by intensity. Age and schooling associated to the performance of language in the univariate model were included in the multivariate model in order to adjust association analyses. RESULTS The sample was mainly female (84.7%), with an average age of 70.5 years old, and 3.5 schooling years. The variables associated to the best performance of language in comparative analysis of T1 and T3 were: surprise (OR = 1.485, IC 95% 1.194 - 1.846), and disgust (OR = 1.143, IC 95% 1.005 - 1.300). CONCLUSION The recognition of facial emotional expressions of surprise and disgust were shown as important factors associated to the good performance of language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen Capeleto Francisco
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.
| | - Allan Gustavo Bregola
- School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia – UEA - Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom.
| | - Ana Carolina Ottaviani
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.
| | - Bruna Moretti Luchesi
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem. Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS - Campus de Três Lagoas - Três Lagoas (MS), Brasil.
| | - Fabiana de Souza Orlandi
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Gerontologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.
| | - Francisco José Fraga
- Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas – CECS, Universidade Federal do ABC – UFABC - Santo André (SP), Brasil.
| | - Letícia Pimenta Costa Guarisco
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Gerontologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.
| | - Sofia Cristina Iost Pavarini
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Gerontologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos – UFSCar - São Carlos (SP), Brasil.
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14
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Henke L, Guseva M, Wagemans K, Pischedda D, Haynes JD, Jahn G, Anders S. Surgical face masks do not impair the decoding of facial expressions of negative affect more severely in older than in younger adults. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:63. [PMID: 35841438 PMCID: PMC9287709 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00403-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Surgical face masks reduce the spread of airborne pathogens but also disturb the flow of information between individuals. The risk of getting seriously ill after infection with SARS-COV-2 during the present COVID-19 pandemic amplifies with age, suggesting that face masks should be worn especially during face-to-face contact with and between older people. However, the ability to accurately perceive and understand communication signals decreases with age, and it is currently unknown whether face masks impair facial communication more severely in older people. We compared the impact of surgical face masks on dynamic facial emotion recognition in younger (18–30 years) and older (65–85 years) adults (N = 96) in an online study. Participants watched short video clips of young women who facially expressed anger, fear, contempt or sadness. Faces of half of the women were covered by a digitally added surgical face mask. As expected, emotion recognition accuracy declined with age, and face masks reduced emotion recognition accuracy in both younger and older participants. Unexpectedly, the effect of face masks did not differ between age groups. Further analyses showed that masks also reduced the participants’ overall confidence in their emotion judgements, but not their performance awareness (the difference between their confidence ratings for correct and incorrect responses). Again, there were no mask-by-age interactions. Finally, data obtained with a newly developed questionnaire (attitudes towards face masks, atom) suggest that younger and older people do not differ in how much they feel impaired in their understanding of other people’s emotions by face masks or how useful they find face masks in confining the COVID-19 pandemic. In sum, these findings do not provide evidence that the impact of face masks on the decoding of facial signals is disproportionally larger in older people.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea Henke
- Department of Psychology, Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Maja Guseva
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Katja Wagemans
- Department of Neurology, Universität zu Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Doris Pischedda
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - John-Dylan Haynes
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Georg Jahn
- Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Silke Anders
- Department of Neurology, Universität zu Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, Lübeck, Germany. .,Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. .,Department of Psychology, Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
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15
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Hamilton LJ, Gourley AN, Krendl AC. They Cannot, They Will Not, or We Are Asking the Wrong Questions: Re-examining Age-Related Decline in Social Cognition. Front Psychol 2022; 13:894522. [PMID: 35645861 PMCID: PMC9131941 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.894522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social cognition is critical for successfully navigating social relationships. Current evidence suggests that older adults exhibit poorer performance in several core social-cognitive domains compared to younger adults. Neurocognitive decline is commonly discussed as one of the key arbiters of age-related decline in social-cognitive abilities. While evidence supports this notion, age effects are likely attributable to multiple factors. This paper aims to recontextualize past evidence by focusing issues of motivation, task design, and representative samples. In light of these issues, we identify directions for future research to aide our understanding of social-cognitive aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas J Hamilton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Amy N Gourley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Anne C Krendl
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
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16
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The age-related positivity effect in cognition: A review of key findings across different cognitive domains. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2022.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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17
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Francisco HC, Bregola AG, Ottaviani AC, Luchesi BM, Orlandi FDS, Fraga FJ, Costa-Guarisco LP, Pavarini SCI. The association between language and recognition of facial emotional expressions in elderly individuals. Codas 2022. [DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20212021052en] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
ABSTRACT Purpose To check the association between a good performance of language and the recognition of facial emotional expressions in elderly individuals. Methods Transversal study performed with 118 elderly individuals from the primary care services of health of a city in the state of São Paulo. Sociodemographic data were collected, regarding the performance of language through the domain of Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination – Revised and Recognition of Facial Emotional Expressions. The sample was divided in thirds according to the performance of language: T1 = the best, T2 = average, and T3 = the worst. The groups T1xT3 were compared regarding the performance of recognition of facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, and for the intensities of 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. The association of independent variables over the performance of language was analyzed through logistic regression. The multivariate model was built from the results of the univariate analyses and has included the continuous variables by emotion and by intensity. Age and schooling associated to the performance of language in the univariate model were included in the multivariate model in order to adjust association analyses. Results The sample was mainly female (84.7%), with an average age of 70.5 years old, and 3.5 schooling years. The variables associated to the best performance of language in comparative analysis of T1 and T3 were: surprise (OR = 1.485, IC 95% 1.194 – 1.846), and disgust (OR = 1.143, IC 95% 1.005 – 1.300). Conclusion The recognition of facial emotional expressions of surprise and disgust were shown as important factors associated to the good performance of language.
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18
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Stietz J, Pollerhoff L, Kurtz M, Li SC, Reiter AMF, Kanske P. The ageing of the social mind: replicating the preservation of socio-affective and the decline of socio-cognitive processes in old age. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:210641. [PMID: 34457343 PMCID: PMC8386516 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Anticipating population ageing to reach a historically unprecedented level in this century and considering the public goal of promoting well-being until old age, research in many fields has started to focus on processes and factors that contribute to healthy ageing. Since human interactions have a tremendous impact on our mental and physical well-being, scientists are increasingly investigating the basic processes that enable successful social interactions such as social affect (empathy, compassion) and social cognition (Theory of Mind). However, regarding the replication crisis in psychological science it is crucial to probe the reproducibility of findings revealed by each specific method. To this end, we aimed to replicate the effect of age on empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind observed in Reiter and colleagues' study (Reiter et al. 2017 Sci. Rep. 7, 11046 (doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10669-4)) by using the same ecologically valid paradigm in an independent sample with similar age ranges. We were able to replicate the previously observed results of a preservation or even enhancement in socio-affective processes, but a decline in socio-cognitive processes for older adults. Our findings add to the understanding of how social affect and cognition change across the adult lifespan and may suggest targets for intervention studies aiming to foster successful social interactions and well-being until advanced old age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Stietz
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Lena Pollerhoff
- Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Marcel Kurtz
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Shu-Chen Li
- Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andrea M. F. Reiter
- Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Philipp Kanske
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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19
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Development and validation of film stimuli to assess empathy in the work context. Behav Res Methods 2021; 54:75-93. [PMID: 34100203 PMCID: PMC8863710 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01594-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
A growing body of research suggests that empathy predicts important work outcomes, yet limitations in existing measures to assess empathy have been noted. Extending past work on the assessment of empathy, this study introduces a newly developed set of emotion-eliciting film clips that can be used to assess both cognitive (emotion perception) and affective (emotional congruence and sympathy) facets of empathy in vivo. Using the relived emotions paradigm, film protagonists were instructed to think aloud about an autobiographical, emotional event from working life and relive their emotions while being videotaped. Subsequently, protagonists were asked to provide self-reports of the intensity of their emotions during retelling their event. In a first study with 128 employees, who watched the film clips and rated their own as well as the protagonists’ emotions, we found that the film clips are effective in eliciting moderate levels of emotions as well as sympathy in the test taker and can be used to calculate reliable convergence scores of emotion perception and emotional congruence. Using a selected subset of six film clips, a second two-wave study with 99 employees revealed that all facet-specific measures of empathy had moderate-to-high internal consistencies and test–retest reliabilities, and correlated in expected ways with other self-report and test-based empathy tests, cognition, and demographic variables. With these films, we expand the choice of testing materials for empathy in organizational research to cover a larger array of research questions.
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20
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Does interpersonal emotion regulation ability change with age? HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT REVIEW 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2021.100847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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21
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Israelashvili J, Pauw LS, Sauter DA, Fischer AH. Emotion Recognition from Realistic Dynamic Emotional Expressions Cohere with Established Emotion Recognition Tests: A Proof-of-Concept Validation of the Emotional Accuracy Test. J Intell 2021; 9:25. [PMID: 34067013 PMCID: PMC8162550 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence9020025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2020] [Revised: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Individual differences in understanding other people's emotions have typically been studied with recognition tests using prototypical emotional expressions. These tests have been criticized for the use of posed, prototypical displays, raising the question of whether such tests tell us anything about the ability to understand spontaneous, non-prototypical emotional expressions. Here, we employ the Emotional Accuracy Test (EAT), which uses natural emotional expressions and defines the recognition as the match between the emotion ratings of a target and a perceiver. In two preregistered studies (Ntotal = 231), we compared the performance on the EAT with two well-established tests of emotion recognition ability: the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test (GERT) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). We found significant overlap (r > 0.20) between individuals' performance in recognizing spontaneous emotions in naturalistic settings (EAT) and posed (or enacted) non-verbal measures of emotion recognition (GERT, RMET), even when controlling for individual differences in verbal IQ. On average, however, participants reported enjoying the EAT more than the other tasks. Thus, the current research provides a proof-of-concept validation of the EAT as a useful measure for testing the understanding of others' emotions, a crucial feature of emotional intelligence. Further, our findings indicate that emotion recognition tests using prototypical expressions are valid proxies for measuring the understanding of others' emotions in more realistic everyday contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Israelashvili
- Psychology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
| | - Lisanne S. Pauw
- Department of Psychology, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany;
| | - Disa A. Sauter
- Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands; (D.A.S.); (A.H.F.)
| | - Agneta H. Fischer
- Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands; (D.A.S.); (A.H.F.)
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22
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Hua AY, Wells JL, Brown CL, Levenson RW. Emotional and Cognitive Empathy in Caregivers of Persons with Neurodegenerative Disease: Relationships with Caregiver Mental Health. Clin Psychol Sci 2021; 9:449-466. [PMID: 34194871 PMCID: PMC8240761 DOI: 10.1177/2167702620974368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Caregiving for a person with dementia or neurodegenerative disease (PWD) is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety. As the population ages and dementia prevalence increases worldwide, mental health problems related to dementia caregiving will become an even more pressing public health concern. The present study assessed emotional empathy (physiological, behavioral, and self-reported emotional responses to a film depicting others suffering) and two measures of cognitive empathy (identifying the primary emotion experienced by another person; providing continuous ratings of the valence of another person's changing emotions) in relation to mental health (standard questionnaires) in 78 caregivers of PWDs. Greater emotional empathy (self-reported emotional responses) was associated with worse mental health, even after accounting for known risk factors. Neither measure of cognitive empathy was associated with mental health. A relationship between high levels of emotional empathy and poor mental health in caregivers suggests possible risk indicators and intervention targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Y Hua
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
| | - Jenna L Wells
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
| | - Casey L Brown
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
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23
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Abo Foul Y, Eitan R, Mortillaro M, Aviezer H. Perceiving dynamic emotions expressed simultaneously in the face and body minimizes perceptual differences between young and older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 77:84-93. [PMID: 33842959 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbab064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES It is commonly argued that older adults show difficulties in standardized tasks of emotional expression perception, yet most previous works relied on classic sets of static, decontextualized, and stereotypical facial expressions. In real-life, facial expressions are dynamic and embedded in a rich context, two key factors that may aid emotion perception. Specifically, body language provides important affective cues that may disambiguate facial movements. METHOD We compared emotion perception of dynamic faces, bodies, and their combination, in a sample of older (age 60-83, n=126) and young (age 18-30, n=124) adults. We used the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals (GEMEP) set, which includes a full view of expressers' faces and bodies, displaying a diverse range of positive and negative emotions, portrayed dynamically and holistically in a non-stereotypical, unconstrained manner. Critically, we digitally manipulated the dynamic cue such that perceivers viewed isolated faces (without bodies), isolated bodies (without faces), or faces with bodies. RESULTS Older adults showed better perception of positive and negative dynamic facial expressions, while young adults showed better perception of positive isolated dynamic bodily expressions. Importantly, emotion perception of faces with bodies was comparable across ages. DISCUSSION Dynamic emotion perception in young and older adults may be more similar than previously assumed, especially when the task is more realistic and ecological. Our results emphasize the importance of contextualized and ecological tasks in emotion perception across ages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yasmin Abo Foul
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.,Department of Psychiatry, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem
| | - Renana Eitan
- Department of Psychiatry, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem.,Neuropsychiatry Unit, Jerusalem Mental Health Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.,Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston
| | | | - Hillel Aviezer
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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24
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Ziaei M, Arnold C, Ebner NC. Age-related Differences in Expression Recognition of Faces with Direct and Averted Gaze Using Dynamic Stimuli. Exp Aging Res 2021; 47:451-463. [PMID: 33775238 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2021.1902459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Background: It is still an open to what extent the ecological validity of face stimuli modulates age-related differences in the recognition of facial expression; and to what extent eye gaze direction may play a role in this process. The present study tested whether age effects in facial expression recognition, also as a function of eye gaze direction, would be less pronounced in dynamic than static face displays.Method: Healthy younger and older adults were asked to recognize emotional expressions of faces with direct or averted eye gaze presented in static and dynamic format.Results: While there were no differences between the age groups in facial expression recognition ability across emotions, when considering individual expressions, age-related differences in the recognition of angry facial expressions were attenuated for dynamic compared to static stimuli.Conclusion: Our findings suggest a moderation effect of dynamic vs. static stimulus format on age-related deficits in the identification of angry facial expressions, suggesting that older adults may be less disadvantaged when recognizing angry facial expressions in more naturalistic displays. Eye gaze direction did not further modulate this effect. Findings from this study qualify and extend previous research and theory on age-related differences in facial expression recognition and have practical impact on study design by supporting the use of dynamic faces in aging research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Ziaei
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Charlotte Arnold
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Natalie C Ebner
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Department of Aging and Geriatric Research, Institute on Aging, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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25
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Cortes DS, Tornberg C, Bänziger T, Elfenbein HA, Fischer H, Laukka P. Effects of aging on emotion recognition from dynamic multimodal expressions and vocalizations. Sci Rep 2021; 11:2647. [PMID: 33514829 PMCID: PMC7846600 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82135-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related differences in emotion recognition have predominantly been investigated using static pictures of facial expressions, and positive emotions beyond happiness have rarely been included. The current study instead used dynamic facial and vocal stimuli, and included a wider than usual range of positive emotions. In Task 1, younger and older adults were tested for their abilities to recognize 12 emotions from brief video recordings presented in visual, auditory, and multimodal blocks. Task 2 assessed recognition of 18 emotions conveyed by non-linguistic vocalizations (e.g., laughter, sobs, and sighs). Results from both tasks showed that younger adults had significantly higher overall recognition rates than older adults. In Task 1, significant group differences (younger > older) were only observed for the auditory block (across all emotions), and for expressions of anger, irritation, and relief (across all presentation blocks). In Task 2, significant group differences were observed for 6 out of 9 positive, and 8 out of 9 negative emotions. Overall, results indicate that recognition of both positive and negative emotions show age-related differences. This suggests that the age-related positivity effect in emotion recognition may become less evident when dynamic emotional stimuli are used and happiness is not the only positive emotion under study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana S Cortes
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | | | - Tanja Bänziger
- Department of Psychology, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden
| | | | - Håkan Fischer
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Petri Laukka
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
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26
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Ferreira BLC, Fabrício DDM, Chagas MHN. Are facial emotion recognition tasks adequate for assessing social cognition in older people? A review of the literature. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2020; 92:104277. [PMID: 33091714 DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2020.104277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2020] [Revised: 09/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Facial emotion recognition (FER) is a component of social cognition and important to interpersonal relations. Therefore, tasks have been developed to assess this skill in different population. Regarding older people, even healthy individuals have a poorer performance compared to rate of correct answers commonly used to assess such tasks. Perform a systematic review to analyze studies addressing the performance of healthy older adults on FER tasks compared to the 70% correct response rate commonly used for the creation of stimulus banks. MATERIAL AND METHODS Searches were conducted up to May 2019 in the Pubmed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and Scopus databases using the keywords ("faces" OR "facial") AND ("recognition" OR "expression" OR "emotional") AND ("elderly" OR "older adults"). RESULTS Twenty-seven articles were included in the present review. In 16 studies (59.2%), older people had correct response rates on FER lower than 70% on at least one of the emotions evaluated. Among the studies that evaluated each emotion specifically, 62.5% found correct response rates lower than 70% for the emotion fear, 50% for surprise, 50% for sadness, 37.5% for anger, 21.4% for disgust, and 5.9% for happiness. Moreover, the studies that evaluated the level of intensity of the emotions demonstrated a lower rate of correct responses when the intensity of the facial expression was low. CONCLUSION That studies employ methods and facial stimuli that may not be adequate for measuring this skill in older people. Thus, it is important to create adequate tasks for assessing the skill in this population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Letícia C Ferreira
- Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil; Research Group on Mental Health, Cognition and Aging, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
| | - Daiene de Morais Fabrício
- Research Group on Mental Health, Cognition and Aging, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil
| | - Marcos Hortes N Chagas
- Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil; Research Group on Mental Health, Cognition and Aging, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil; Bairral Institute of Psychiatry, Itapira, SP, Brazil
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Uchino BN, Rook KS. Emotions, relationships, health and illness into old age. Maturitas 2020; 139:42-48. [PMID: 32747039 PMCID: PMC7403529 DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2020.05.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2020] [Revised: 05/18/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
There is strong evidence linking relationships and emotions to physical health outcomes. What is critically missing is a more comprehensive understanding of how these important psychosocial factors influence disease over the lifespan. In this narrative review, existing lifespan models of social support and emotion regulation are reviewed and integrated into a general conceptual framework in the health domain. This integrated model takes into account bidirectional links between relationships and emotions, as well as health behaviors, biological pathways, and health. Evidence is consistent with the utility of an integrative model attempting to understand its links to health-relevant pathways and outcomes in older adults. Future work that examines multiple pathways using prospective designs will be necessary for this work to reach its full potential, including intervention and policy opportunities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bert N Uchino
- Department of Psychology and Health Psychology Program, University of Utah, United States.
| | - Karen S Rook
- Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, United States
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Brown CL, Hua AY, De Coster L, Sturm VE, Kramer JH, Rosen HJ, Miller BL, Levenson RW. Comparing two facets of emotion perception across multiple neurodegenerative diseases. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2020; 15:511-522. [PMID: 32363385 PMCID: PMC7328026 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2019] [Revised: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Deficits in emotion perception (the ability to infer others' emotions accurately) can occur as a result of neurodegeneration. It remains unclear how different neurodegenerative diseases affect different forms of emotion perception. The present study compares performance on a dynamic tracking task of emotion perception (where participants track the changing valence of a film character's emotions) with performance on an emotion category labeling task (where participants label specific emotions portrayed by film characters) across seven diagnostic groups (N = 178) including Alzheimer's disease (AD), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal syndrome and healthy controls. Consistent with hypotheses, compared to controls, the bvFTD group was impaired on both tasks. The svPPA group was impaired on the emotion labeling task, whereas the nfvPPA, PSP and AD groups were impaired on the dynamic tracking task. Smaller volumes in bilateral frontal and left insular regions were associated with worse labeling, whereas smaller volumes in bilateral medial frontal, temporal and right insular regions were associated with worse tracking. Findings suggest labeling and tracking facets of emotion perception are differentially affected across neurodegenerative diseases due to their unique neuroanatomical correlates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Casey L Brown
- Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Alice Y Hua
- Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA
| | - Lize De Coster
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Virginia E Sturm
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Joel H Kramer
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Howard J Rosen
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Bruce L Miller
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
| | - Robert W Levenson
- Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA
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Shah M, Kurth F, Luders E. The impact of aging on the subregions of the fusiform gyrus in healthy older adults. J Neurosci Res 2020; 99:263-270. [PMID: 32147882 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Revised: 12/23/2019] [Accepted: 01/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The fusiform gyrus is known to decrease in size with increasing age. However, reported findings are inconsistent and existing studies differ in terms of the cohorts examined and/or the methods applied. Here, we analyzed age-related links in four distinct subregions of the fusiform gyrus through integrating imaging-based intensity information with microscopically defined cytoarchitectonic probabilities. In addition to age effects we investigated sex effects as well as age-by-sex interactions in a relatively large sample of 468 healthy subjects (272 females/196 males) covering a broad age range (42-97 years). We observed significant negative correlations between age and all four subregions of the fusiform gyrus indicating volume decreases over time, albeit with subregion-specific trajectories. Additionally, we observed significant negative quadratic associations with age for some subregions, suggesting an accelerating volume loss over time. These findings may serve as a frame of reference for future cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies, not only for normative samples but also potentially for clinical conditions that present with abnormal atrophy of the fusiform gyrus. We did not detect any significant sex differences or sex-by-age interactions, suggesting that the size of the fusiform gyrus is similar in male and female brains and that age-related atrophy follows a similar trajectory in both men and women.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahima Shah
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Florian Kurth
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Eileen Luders
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Christensen JA, Sis J, Kulkarni AM, Chatterjee M. Effects of Age and Hearing Loss on the Recognition of Emotions in Speech. Ear Hear 2020; 40:1069-1083. [PMID: 30614835 PMCID: PMC6606405 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Emotional communication is a cornerstone of social cognition and informs human interaction. Previous studies have shown deficits in facial and vocal emotion recognition in older adults, particularly for negative emotions. However, few studies have examined combined effects of aging and hearing loss on vocal emotion recognition by adults. The objective of this study was to compare vocal emotion recognition in adults with hearing loss relative to age-matched peers with normal hearing. We hypothesized that age would play a role in emotion recognition and that listeners with hearing loss would show deficits across the age range. DESIGN Thirty-two adults (22 to 74 years of age) with mild to severe, symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss, amplified with bilateral hearing aids and 30 adults (21 to 75 years of age) with normal hearing, participated in the study. Stimuli consisted of sentences spoken by 2 talkers, 1 male, 1 female, in 5 emotions (angry, happy, neutral, sad, and scared) in an adult-directed manner. The task involved a single-interval, five-alternative forced-choice paradigm, in which the participants listened to individual sentences and indicated which of the five emotions was targeted in each sentence. Reaction time was recorded as an indirect measure of cognitive load. RESULTS Results showed significant effects of age. Older listeners had reduced accuracy, increased reaction times, and reduced d' values. Normal hearing listeners showed an Age by Talker interaction where older listeners had more difficulty identifying male vocal emotion. Listeners with hearing loss showed reduced accuracy, increased reaction times, and lower d' values compared with age-matched normal-hearing listeners. Within the group with hearing loss, age and talker effects were significant, and low-frequency pure-tone averages showed a marginally significant effect. Contrary to other studies, once hearing thresholds were taken into account, no effects of listener sex were observed, nor were there effects of individual emotions on accuracy. However, reaction times and d' values showed significant differences between individual emotions. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study confirm existing findings in the literature showing that older adults show significant deficits in voice emotion recognition compared with their normally hearing peers, and that among listeners with normal hearing, age-related changes in hearing do not predict this age-related deficit. The present results also add to the literature by showing that hearing impairment contributes additionally to deficits in vocal emotion recognition, separate from deficits related to age. These effects of age and hearing loss appear to be quite robust, being evident in reduced accuracy scores and d' measures, as well as in reaction time measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie A Christensen
- Auditory Prostheses and Perception Lab, Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, USA
| | - Jenni Sis
- Auditory Prostheses and Perception Lab, Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, USA
| | - Aditya M Kulkarni
- Auditory Prostheses and Perception Lab, Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, USA
| | - Monita Chatterjee
- Auditory Prostheses and Perception Lab, Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, USA
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Facets of Interpersonal Accuracy Across the Lifespan: Is There a Single Skill in Older Age? JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-019-00326-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
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32
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Neurocognitive determinants of theory of mind across the adult lifespan. Brain Cogn 2019; 136:103588. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.103588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2019] [Revised: 07/29/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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Abbruzzese L, Magnani N, Robertson IH, Mancuso M. Age and Gender Differences in Emotion Recognition. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2371. [PMID: 31708832 PMCID: PMC6819430 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2019] [Accepted: 10/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Existing literature suggests that age affects recognition of affective facial expressions. Eye-tracking studies highlighted that age-related differences in recognition of emotions could be explained by different face exploration patterns due to attentional impairment. Gender also seems to play a role in recognition of emotions. Unfortunately, little is known about the differences in emotion perception abilities across lifespans for men and women, even if females show more ability from infancy. Objective The present study aimed to examine the role of age and gender on facial emotion recognition in relation to neuropsychological functions and face exploration strategies. We also aimed to explore the associations between emotion recognition and quality of life. Methods 60 healthy people were consecutively enrolled in the study and divided into two groups: Younger Adults and Older Adults. Participants were assessed for: emotion recognition, attention abilities, frontal functioning, memory functioning and quality of life satisfaction. During the execution of the emotion recognition test using the Pictures of Facial Affects (PoFA) and a modified version of PoFA (M-PoFA), subject’s eye movements were recorded with an Eye Tracker. Results Significant differences between younger and older adults were detected for fear recognition when adjusted for cognitive functioning and eye-gaze fixations characteristics. Adjusted means of fear recognition were significantly higher in the younger group than in the older group. With regard to gender’s effects, old females recognized identical pairs of emotions better than old males. Considering the Satisfaction Profile (SAT-P) we detected negative correlations between some dimensions (Physical functioning, Sleep/feeding/free time) and emotion recognition (i.e., sadness, and disgust). Conclusion The current study provided novel insights into the specific mechanisms that may explain differences in emotion recognition, examining how age and gender differences can be outlined by cognitive functioning and face exploration strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nadia Magnani
- Adult Mental Health Service, NHS-USL Tuscany South-Est, Grosseto, Italy
| | - Ian H Robertson
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Mauro Mancuso
- Tuscany Rehabilitation Clinic, Montevarchi, Italy.,Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine Unit, NHS-USL Tuscany South-Est, Grosseto, Italy
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Vetter NC, Oosterman JM, Mühlbach J, Wolff S, Altgassen M. The impact of emotional congruent and emotional neutral context on recognizing complex emotions in older adults. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2019; 27:677-692. [PMID: 31621481 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2019.1665164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Adding context information has been shown to attenuate the age-related decline of emotion recognition. Specifically, older adults might benefit from emotional congruent context information due to their greater social knowledge. Contrary, emotional neutral context information might impair older adults' performance more due to their decline of inhibitory abilities. Our aim was to examine the age-related decline of complex emotion recognition across three context conditions (emotional congruent, emotional neutral and no context). We hypothesized that emotional congruent context will help older adults to perform at the same level as younger adults and expected worse performance of older adults in the emotional neutral and no context conditions. Twenty-eight older and 28 younger adults watched film clips with complex emotions preceded by a fixation cross (no context), emotional congruent context or emotional neutral context. Emotional neutral context affected older adults' performance more negatively than young adults', whereas emotional congruent improved performance of both young and older adults to a similar extent. Results suggest that emotional congruent context does not eliminate the overall age-related deficit in complex emotion recognition. In contrast, this deficit might be intensified by emotional neutral context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nora C Vetter
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität , Dresden, Germany
| | - Joukje M Oosterman
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University , Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Jasmin Mühlbach
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität , Dresden, Germany
| | - Sina Wolff
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität , Dresden, Germany
| | - Mareike Altgassen
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University , Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Byczewska-Konieczny K. Relation between cognitive and behavioral aspects of dysexecutive functioning in normal aging. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY-ADULT 2019; 27:334-344. [PMID: 30719930 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2018.1550409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between cognitive and behavioral symptoms of dysexecutive functioning, understood as two aspects of dysexecutive syndrome, in an elderly nonclinical sample. Most previous studies have concentrated on clinical population. However, nonclinical population of elderly adults is, in this context, a group of special interest due to a large body of evidence indicating that executive functions decrease pronouncedly in the course of normal aging. The data were collected from 40 participants aged 67-86 years. None presented symptoms of cognitive disorder or depression or reported psychiatric or neurological problems. The Dysexecutive Questionnaire was used as a measure of behavioral aspect of dysexecutive syndrome. Participants also performed experimental tasks referring to three cognitive aspects of executive functioning (i.e., updating, inhibition, and attentional shifting). Analysis resulted in weak and nonsignificant correlations between cognitive and behavioral aspects of dysexecutive syndrome. Results are discussed in the context of previous research and diagnostic criteria of dysexecutive syndrome.
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36
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Gurera JW, Isaacowitz DM. Emotion regulation and emotion perception in aging: A perspective on age-related differences and similarities. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2019; 247:329-351. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
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37
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Castro VL, Isaacowitz DM. The same with age: Evidence for age-related similarities in interpersonal accuracy. J Exp Psychol Gen 2018; 148:1517-1537. [PMID: 30550339 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Interpersonal accuracy refers to the ability to make accurate perceptions about others' social and emotional qualities. Despite this broad definition, the measurement of interpersonal accuracy remains narrow, as most studies focus on the accurate perception of others' emotional states. Moreover, previous research has relied primarily upon traditional tasks consisting of posed, prototypic expressions and behaviors as stimuli. These methodological limitations may constrain our understanding of how different interpersonal perception skills change in adulthood. The present study investigated the extent to which various interpersonal perception skills are worse, better, or remain the same with age using both traditional and nontraditional interpersonal accuracy tasks. One hundred fifty-one adults from 3 age groups (young, middle age, and older) completed a battery of interpersonal accuracy tasks that assessed eight different emotion perception skills and six different social perception skills. Analyses revealed age-related differences in accuracy for five interpersonal perception skills; differences were typically observed between younger and older adults on emotion perception accuracy and between younger and middle-age adults on social perception accuracy. In contrast, almost all remaining interpersonal perception skills-both emotional and social-revealed greater evidence for age-related similarities than differences in Bayesian analyses. Additional exploratory analyses indicated that the observed age differences in interpersonal accuracy may be attributable to individual differences in cognitive ability rather than age. Results provide a nuanced picture of how interpersonal perception skills change in adulthood and provide new methodological tools for a more complete and comprehensive assessment of interpersonal accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Byom L, Duff M, Mutlu B, Turkstra L. Facial emotion recognition of older adults with traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj 2018; 33:322-332. [PMID: 30526138 DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2018.1553066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to examine the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and age on facial emotion recognition abilities in adults. Age and TBI were expected to have negative effects on emotion recognition and a TBI by age interaction was hypothesized such that older adults with TBI would have the lowest emotion recognition scores. METHODS A prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were 26 adults with moderate-severe TBI (13 older and 13 younger) and 26 uninjured peers matched for age, sex, and education. Emotion recognition was measured using the Emotion Recognition Task, which is comprised of dynamically morphed facial expressions of the six basic emotions, presented at different intensity levels. RESULTS TBI and older age were associated with poorer recognition of both subtle and intense expressions, but only for expressions of anger and sadness. There was no interaction of age and TBI. CONCLUSIONS Results add to the growing evidence of emotion recognition impairments after TBI, particularly for select negative emotions, and extend this finding to adults over the age of 60. Further research is needed to better understand social cognitive effects of TBI across the adult lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey Byom
- a Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Department of Allied Health Sciences , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine , Chapel Hill , NC , USA.,b Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA
| | - Melissa Duff
- c Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences , Vanderbilt University, Nashville , TN , USA
| | - Bilge Mutlu
- d Department of Computer Sciences , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA
| | - Lyn Turkstra
- b Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA.,e School of Rehabilitation Science , McMaster University , Hamilton , Canada
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Richoz AR, Lao J, Pascalis O, Caldara R. Tracking the recognition of static and dynamic facial expressions of emotion across the life span. J Vis 2018; 18:5. [PMID: 30208425 DOI: 10.1167/18.9.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The effective transmission and decoding of dynamic facial expressions of emotion is omnipresent and critical for adapted social interactions in everyday life. Thus, common intuition would suggest an advantage for dynamic facial expression recognition (FER) over the static snapshots routinely used in most experiments. However, although many studies reported an advantage in the recognition of dynamic over static expressions in clinical populations, results obtained from healthy participants are contrasted. To clarify this issue, we conducted a large cross-sectional study to investigate FER across the life span in order to determine if age is a critical factor to account for such discrepancies. More than 400 observers (age range 5-96) performed recognition tasks of the six basic expressions in static, dynamic, and shuffled (temporally randomized frames) conditions, normalized for the amount of energy sampled over time. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical step-linear model to capture the nonlinear relationship between age and FER for the different viewing conditions. Although replicating the typical accuracy profiles of FER, we determined the age at which peak efficiency was reached for each expression and found greater accuracy for most dynamic expressions across the life span. This advantage in the elderly population was driven by a significant decrease in performance for static images, which was twice as large as for the young adults. Our data posit the use of dynamic stimuli as being critical in the assessment of FER in the elderly population, inviting caution when drawing conclusions from the sole use of static face images to this aim.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Raphaëlle Richoz
- Eye and Brain Mapping Laboratory (iBMLab), Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.,LPNC, University of Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
| | - Junpeng Lao
- Eye and Brain Mapping Laboratory (iBMLab), Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | | | - Roberto Caldara
- Eye and Brain Mapping Laboratory (iBMLab), Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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Guarnera M, Magnano P, Pellerone M, Cascio MI, Squatrito V, Buccheri SL. Facial expressions and the ability to recognize emotions from the eyes or mouth: A comparison among old adults, young adults, and children. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 2018; 179:297-310. [PMID: 30346916 DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2018.1509200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, and neutral emotions from facial information (whole face, eye region, mouth region). More specifically, the aim was to investigate older adults' performance in emotions recognition using the same tool used in the previous studies on children and adults' performance and verify if the pattern of emotions recognition show differences compared with the other two groups. Results showed that happiness is among the easiest emotions to recognize while the disgust is always among the most difficult emotions to recognize for older adults. The findings seem to indicate that is more easily recognizing emotions when pictures represent the whole face; compared with the specific region (eye and mouth regions), older participants seems to recognize more easily emotions when the mouth region is presented. In general, the results of the study did not detect a decay in the ability to recognize emotions from the face, eyes, or mouth. The performance of the old adults is statistically worse than the other two groups in only a few cases: in anger and disgust recognition from the whole face; in anger recognition from the eye region; and in disgust, fear, and neutral emotion recognition from mouth region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Guarnera
- a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore , Enna , Italy
| | | | - Monica Pellerone
- a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore , Enna , Italy
| | - Maura I Cascio
- a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore , Enna , Italy
| | - Valeria Squatrito
- a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore , Enna , Italy
| | - Stefania L Buccheri
- a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore , Enna , Italy
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Kunzmann U, Nowak J, Thomas S, Nestler S. Value Relativism and Perspective Taking are Two Distinct Facets of Wisdom-Related Knowledge. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2018; 73:1384-1392. [PMID: 29267970 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbx136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2017] [Accepted: 10/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives There has been mixed evidence for age differences in wisdom-related knowledge across the adult life span. This study investigated two potential moderators of the link between age and wisdom-related knowledge: the wisdom criteria and the wisdom tasks. Method To test these moderators, 40 younger and 40 older participants completed four wisdom tasks differing in context-richness. Independent trained raters coded the resulting think-aloud protocols in terms of value relativism, as defined in the Berlin wisdom paradigm, and perspective taking, as defined by Grossmann. Results The type of task did not show any main or interaction effects on the present two wisdom criteria. However, age differences in the two wisdom criteria were multidirectional: whereas perspective taking did not differ by age group, value relativism was lower in older than younger adults. In addition, value relativism, but not perspective taking, was related to measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence, whereas perspective taking, but not value relativism, was related to a measure of life investment. Discussion This study provides evidence for the idea that value relativism and perspective taking are two distinct facets of wisdom-related knowledge. Implications for future age-comparative research interested in wisdom are discussed.
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Dibben N, Coutinho E, Vilar JA, Estévez-Pérez G. Do Individual Differences Influence Moment-by-Moment Reports of Emotion Perceived in Music and Speech Prosody? Front Behav Neurosci 2018; 12:184. [PMID: 30210316 PMCID: PMC6119718 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparison of emotion perception in music and prosody has the potential to contribute to an understanding of their speculated shared evolutionary origin. Previous research suggests shared sensitivity to and processing of music and speech, but less is known about how emotion perception in the auditory domain might be influenced by individual differences. Personality, emotional intelligence, gender, musical training and age exert some influence on discrete, summative judgments of perceived emotion in music and speech stimuli. However, music and speech are temporal phenomena, and little is known about whether individual differences influence moment-by-moment perception of emotion in these domains. A behavioral study collected two main types of data: continuous ratings of perceived emotion while listening to extracts of music and speech, using a computer interface which modeled emotion on two dimensions (arousal and valence), and demographic information including measures of personality (TIPI) and emotional intelligence (TEIQue-SF). Functional analysis of variance on the time series data revealed a small number of statistically significant differences associated with Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, musical training and age. The results indicate that individual differences exert limited influence on continuous judgments of dynamic, naturalistic expressions. We suggest that this reflects a reliance on acoustic cues to emotion in moment-by-moment judgments of perceived emotions and is further evidence of the shared sensitivity to and processing of music and speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Dibben
- Department of Music, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Eduardo Coutinho
- Department of Music, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - José A. Vilar
- Department of Mathematics, University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain
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Kuehn E, Perez-Lopez MB, Diersch N, Döhler J, Wolbers T, Riemer M. Embodiment in the aging mind. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2018; 86:207-225. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.11.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2017] [Revised: 11/10/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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Mienaltowski A, Lemerise EA, Greer K, Burke L. Age-related differences in emotion matching are limited to low intensity expressions. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2018; 26:348-366. [PMID: 29471716 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2018.1441363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Multi-label tasks confound age differences in perceptual and cognitive processes. We examined age differences in emotion perception with a technique that did not require verbal labels. Participants matched the emotion expressed by a target to two comparison stimuli, one neutral and one emotional. Angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, and sad facial expressions of varying intensity were used. Although older adults took longer to respond than younger adults, younger adults only outmatched older adults for the lowest intensity disgust and fear expressions. Some participants also completed an identity matching task in which target stimuli were matched on personal identity instead of emotion. Although irrelevant to the judgment, expressed emotion still created interference. All participants were less accurate when the apparent difference in expressive intensity of the matched stimuli was large, suggesting that salient emotion cues increased difficulty of identity matching. Age differences in emotion perception were limited to very low intensity expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Mienaltowski
- a Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering , Western Kentucky University , Bowling Green , KY , USA
| | - Elizabeth A Lemerise
- a Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering , Western Kentucky University , Bowling Green , KY , USA
| | - Kaitlyn Greer
- a Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering , Western Kentucky University , Bowling Green , KY , USA
| | - Lindsey Burke
- a Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering , Western Kentucky University , Bowling Green , KY , USA
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Kunzmann U, Wieck C, Dietzel C. Empathic accuracy: age differences from adolescence into middle adulthood. Cogn Emot 2018; 32:1611-1624. [PMID: 29388472 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1433128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated age differences in empathic accuracy, the ability to correctly perceive others' emotions, in a sample of 151 boys and men from three age groups: adolescents (Mage = 16 years, SD = 1.04), young adults (Mage = 29 years, SD = 2.78), and middle-aged adults (Mage = 50 years, SD = 3.07). All participants viewed nine newly developed film clips, each depicting a boy or a man reliving one of three emotions (anger, sadness, or happiness), while talking about an autobiographical memory. Adolescents and middle-aged men were less accurate than young men, and these age differences were associated with parallel age differences in fluid-mechanical abilities. In addition, age differences in vocabulary, one indicator of crystallized-pragmatic intelligence, were associated with age differences in empathic accuracy in adolescent and young, but not middle-aged, men. Within the limitations of cross-sectional data, this study provides evidence for the idea that empathic accuracy is an effortful task that requires cognitive resources and, thus, may show a normative increase until young adulthood followed by periods of stability and decline in subsequent decades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ute Kunzmann
- a Institute of Psychology , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany
| | - Cornelia Wieck
- a Institute of Psychology , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany
| | - Cathrin Dietzel
- a Institute of Psychology , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany
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Kunzmann U, Isaacowitz D. Emotional Aging: Taking the Immediate Context Seriously. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/15427609.2017.1340048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Wacker R, Bölte S, Dziobek I. Women Know Better What Other Women Think and Feel: Gender Effects on Mindreading across the Adult Life Span. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1324. [PMID: 28824503 PMCID: PMC5539187 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2017] [Accepted: 07/19/2017] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Research recurrently shows that females perform better than males on various mindreading tasks. The present study contributes to this growing body of literature by being the first to demonstrate a female own-gender mindreading bias using a naturalistic social cognition paradigm including female and male targets. We found that women performed better at reading others’ minds, and that they were specifically more capable to read female targets, an own-gender target effect absent in men. Furthermore, a non-linear negative effect of perceiver age on mindreading performance was examined within a sample covering the age range of 17–70 years, as indicated by a stronger performance decrease setting on by the age of 30 years and continuing throughout middle and old age. These findings add to a more comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors influencing mindreading performance in typically developing adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata Wacker
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität BerlinBerlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinBerlin, Germany
| | - Sven Bölte
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska InstitutetStockholm, Sweden
| | - Isabel Dziobek
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinBerlin, Germany
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Faber A, Walter F. The Curvilinear Relationship between Age and Emotional Aperture: The Moderating Role of Agreeableness. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1200. [PMID: 28769843 PMCID: PMC5513926 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2017] [Accepted: 06/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The capability to correctly recognize collective emotion expressions [i.e., emotional aperture (EA)] is crucial for effective social and work-related interactions. Yet, little remains known about the antecedents of this ability. The present study therefore aims to shed new light onto key aspects that may promote or diminish an individual’s EA. We examine the role of age for this ability in an online sample of 181 participants (with an age range of 18–72 years, located in Germany), and we investigate agreeableness as a key contingency factor. Among individuals with lower agreeableness, on the one hand, our results indicate a curvilinear relationship between age and EA, such that EA remains at a relatively high level until these individuals’ middle adulthood (with a slight increase until their late 30s) and declines afterward. Individuals with higher agreeableness, on the other hand, exhibit relatively high EA irrespective of their age. Together, these findings offer new insights for the emerging literature on EA, illustrating that specific demographic and personality characteristics may jointly shape such collective emotion recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Faber
- Department of Organization and Human Resource Management, Justus Liebig University GiessenGiessen, Germany
| | - Frank Walter
- Department of Organization and Human Resource Management, Justus Liebig University GiessenGiessen, Germany
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Isaacowitz DM, Livingstone KM, Castro VL. Aging and emotions: experience, regulation, and perception. Curr Opin Psychol 2017; 17:79-83. [PMID: 28950978 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/25/2017] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Whereas some theories suggest that emotion-related processes become more positive with age, recent empirical findings on affective experience, emotion regulation, and emotion perception depict a more nuanced picture. Though there is some evidence for positive age trajectories in affective experience, results are mixed for emotion regulation and largely negative for emotion perception. Thus, current findings suggest that the effects of age on emotion vary across different affective domains; age patterns are also influenced by different moderators, including contextual factors and individual differences.
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Ferreira CD, Torro-Alves N. Reconhecimento de Emoções Faciais no Envelhecimento: Uma Revisão Sistemática. UNIVERSITAS PSYCHOLOGICA 2017. [DOI: 10.11144/javeriana.upsy15-5.refe] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
No processo de envelhecimento, alterações na percepção e na cognição podem gerar prejuízos no reconhecimento de emoções faciais. No presente trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática, de acordo com as diretrizes do PRISMA, de estudos recentes que avaliaram a percepção e o reconhecimento facial de emoções em idosos sem patologias. As bases eletrônicas de dados pesquisadas foram: MEDLINE, PsycoINFO e Web of Science, sendo selecionados 22 artigos publicados entre 2009 e 2016. De um modo geral, verificou-se que os idosos apresentaram um declínio no reconhecimento de emoções, principalmente para as emoções negativas. Tais resultados podem ser explicados tanto pela teoria estrutural, quanto pela teoria da seletividade socioemocional. Os resultados têm importantes implicações na medida em que sinalizam a relevância da avaliação cognitiva e do uso de estímulos mais ecológicos nas tarefas de reconhecimento emocional em idosos.
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