Age-related positivity effect of emotional attention: time and frequency domain

The associations of social isolation with depression and anxiety among adults aged 65 years and older in Ningbo, China

Social isolation was associated with emotional problems (depression and anxiety) among older adults, however, little is known in China. Thus, we conducted a cross-sectional study including 6,664 ≥ 65 years older adults in Ningbo, China. We collected data on social isolation, depression, and anxiety by specific scales. The relationship between social isolation and emotional problems was estimated by multivariate-adjusted logistic regression models. The population-attributable risk percentage (PAR%) was used to explore the contribution of social isolation to emotional problems. Overall, the percentage of participants who had experienced social isolation, depression, and anxiety was 12.67%, 4.83%, and 2.63%. Compared with the elderly without social isolation, the adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of depression and anxiety with social isolation were 1.77 (1.25-2.51) and 1.66 (1.05-2.63), respectively. The PAR analysis showed that 10.66% of depression and 9.03% of anxiety could be attributable to social isolation. In the gender subgroup, ORs and PAR% were only significantly observed in female participants. In Chinese older adults, social isolation has been linked to depression and anxiety, suggesting the importance of taking effective and feasible interventions to reduce social isolation and emotional problems, especially among females.

Abnormal ambiguous facial expression recognition in Chinese patients with schizophrenia

BACKGROUND

Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit difficulties deficits in recognizing facial expressions with unambiguous valence. However, only a limited number of studies have examined how these patients fare in interpreting facial expressions with ambiguous valence (for example, surprise). Thus, we aimed to explore the influence of emotional background information on the recognition of ambiguous facial expressions in SCZ.

METHODS

A 3 (emotion: negative, neutral, and positive) × 2 (group: healthy controls and SCZ) experimental design was adopted in the present study. The experimental materials consisted of 36 images of negative emotions, 36 images of neutral emotions, 36 images of positive emotions, and 36 images of surprised facial expressions. In each trial, a briefly presented surprised face was preceded by an affective image. Participants (36 SCZ and 36 healthy controls (HC)) were required to rate their emotional experience induced by the surprised facial expressions. Participants' emotional experience was measured using the 9-point rating scale. The experimental data have been analyzed by conducting analyses of variances (ANOVAs) and correlation analysis.

RESULTS

First, the SCZ group reported a more positive emotional experience under the positive cued condition compared to the negative cued condition. Meanwhile, the HC group reported the strongest positive emotional experience in the positive cued condition, a moderate experience in the neutral cued condition, and the weakest in the negative cue condition. Second, the SCZ (vs. HC) group showed longer reaction times (RTs) for recognizing surprised facial expressions. The severity of schizophrenia symptoms in the SCZ group was negatively correlated with their rating scores for emotional experience under neutral and positive cued condition.

CONCLUSIONS

Recognition of surprised facial expressions was influenced by background information in both SCZ and HC, and the negative symptoms in SCZ. The present study indicates that the role of background information should be fully considered when examining the ability of SCZ to recognize ambiguous facial expressions.

Age-related intrinsic functional connectivity underlying emotion utilization

Previous studies investigated the age-related positivity effect in terms of emotion perception and management, whereas little is known about whether the positivity effect is shown in emotion utilization (EU). If yes, the EU-related intrinsic functional connectivity and its age-associated alterations remain to be elucidated. In this study, we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 62 healthy older adults and 72 undergraduates as well as their self-ratings of EU. By using the connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) method, we constructed a predictive model of the positive relationship between EU self-ratings and resting-state functional connectivity. Lesion simulation analyses revealed that the medial-frontal network, default mode network, frontoparietal network, and subcortical regions played key roles in the EU-related CPM. Older subjects showed significantly higher EU self-ratings than undergraduates, which was associated with strengthened connectivity between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral frontal poles, and between the left frontal pole and thalamus. A mediation analysis indicated that the age-related EU network mediated the age effect on EU self-ratings. Our findings extend previous research on the age-related "positivity effect" to the EU domain, suggesting that the positivity effect on the self-evaluation of EU is probably associated with emotion knowledge which accumulates with age.