Comparing two facets of emotion perception across multiple neurodegenerative diseases.

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

The effects of context processing on social cognition impairments in adults with Aspergers syndrome

Social cognition—the basis of all communicative and otherwise interpersonal relationships—is embedded in specific contextual circumstances which shape intrinsic meanings. This domain is compromised in the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), including Asperger’s syndrome (AS) (DSM-V). However, the few available reports of social cognition skills in adults with AS have largely neglected the effects of contextual factors. Moreover, previous studies on this population have also failed to simultaneously (a) assess multiple social cognition domains, (b) examine executive functions, (c) follow strict sample selection criteria, and (d) acknowledge the cognitive heterogeneity typical of the disorder. The study presently reviewed (Baez et al., 2012), addressed all these aspects in order to establish the basis of social cognition deficits in adult AS patients. Specifically, we assessed the performance of AS adults in multiple social cognition tasks with different context-processing requirements. The results suggest that social cognition deficits in AS imply a reduced ability to implicitly encode and integrate contextual cues needed to access social meaning. Nevertheless, the patients’ performance was normal when explicit social information was presented or when the situation could be navigated with abstract rules. Here, we review the results of our study and other relevant data, and discuss their implications for the diagnosis and treatment of AS and other neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, frontotemporal dementia). Finally, we analyze previous results in the light of a current neurocognitive model of social-context processing.Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Australian Research Council; Australi

Empathic accuracy in adolescent girls with Turner Syndrome

Objective: Girls and women with Turner Syndrome (TS) demonstrate social challenges and difficulties identifying negative emotions, specifically fear. Previous studies suggest that social deficits in TS could be associated with theory of mind (TOM) difficulties or visual-spatial processing abnormalities. To further examine the potential mechanisms underlying social deficits in TS, we administered the empathic accuracy task, a naturalistic social cognition task. Method: The performance of 14 girls with TS was compared to 12 age-matched typically developing girls (ages 12 to 17) on an empathic accuracy task and a (control) visual-motor line-tracking task. Empathic accuracy was compared across positive and negative emotionally valanced videos. Results: We found that girls with TS differ from typically developing girls on empathic accuracy ratings for negative videos; no differences were detected for the positive videos. No between group differences were found on the control line tracking task. Conclusion: Our findings expand upon the previously detected affect recognition problems in TS to also include impaired detection of negatively valanced empathic interactions. Such difficulties for girls with TS could contribute to their social deficits and anxiety. Results from this study provide important information about gene-body-brain interactions and their influence on emotion processing and empathic accuracy during adolescence

Discrepancies between dimensions of interoception in autism: implications for emotion and anxiety

Emotions and affective feelings are influenced by one's internal state of bodily arousal via interoception. Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are associated with difficulties in recognising others' emotions, and in regulating own emotions. We tested the hypothesis that, in people with ASC, such affective differences may arise from abnormalities in interoceptive processing. We demonstrated that individuals with ASC have reduced interoceptive accuracy (quantified using heartbeat detection tests) and exaggerated interoceptive sensibility (subjective sensitivity to internal sensations on self-report questionnaires), reflecting an impaired ability to objectively detect bodily signals alongside an over-inflated subjective perception of bodily sensations. The divergence of these two interoceptive axes can be computed as a trait prediction error. This error correlated with deficits in emotion sensitivity and occurrence of anxiety symptoms. Our results indicate an origin of emotion deficits and affective symptoms in ASC at the interface between body and mind, specifically in expectancy-driven interpretation of interoceptive information

An observational measure of empathy for autism spectrum : a preliminary study of the development and reliability of the client emotional processing scale

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), can have difficulties in emotion processing, including recognising their own and others’ emotions, leading to problems in emotion regulation and interpersonal relating. This study reports the development and piloting of the Client Emotional Processing Scale-Autism Spectrum (CEPS-AS), a new observer measure of four interrelated aspects of emotional processing: emotion recognition, self- reflection, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy. Results showed good interrater reliability (alpha: .69–.91), while inter-dimension associations were high (r = .66– .82). The measure was able to detect significant differences on the four dimensions across a short-term humanistic– experiential group therapy. The CEPS-AS shows promise as a potential addition to current self-report instruments measuring empathy or emotion processes in individuals with ASD

You ≠ Me: Individual differences in the structure of social cognition

This study investigated the structure of social cognition, and how it is influenced by personality; specifically, how various socio-cognitive capabilities, and the pattern of inter-relationships and co-dependencies among them differ between divergent personality styles. To measure social cognition, a large non-clinical sample (n = 290) undertook an extensive battery of self-report and performance-based measures of visual perspective taking, imitative tendencies, affective empathy, interoceptive accuracy, emotion regulation, and state affectivity. These same individuals then completed the Personality Styles and Disorders Inventory. Latent Profile Analysis revealed two dissociable personality profiles that exhibited contrasting cognitive and affective dispositions, and multivariate analyses indicated further that these profiles differed on measures of social cognition; individuals characterised by a flexible and adaptive personality profile expressed higher action orientation (emotion regulation) compared to those showing more inflexible tendencies, along with better visual perspective taking, superior interoceptive accuracy, less imitative tendencies, and lower personal distress and negativity. These characteristics point towards more efficient self-other distinction, and to higher cognitive control more generally. Moreover, low-level cognitive mechanisms served to mediate other higher level socio-emotional capabilities. Together, these findings elucidate the cognitive and affective underpinnings of individual differences in social behaviour, providing a data-driven model that should guide future research in this area

Emotion Processing Deficits in Psychopathy: Does Cueing to Relevant Facial Features Increase Cognitive and Emotional Empathy?

Psychopathy is a multifaceted disorder characterized by a lack of cognitive and emotional empathy. The traditional model of psychopathy divides the disorder into two factors: Factor 1 consists of the interpersonal and affective traits of psychopathy while Factor 2 measures antisocial behaviors and lifestyle choices. The attention-to-the-eyes hypothesis argues that psychopathic individuals have impaired emotion recognition (specifically for fear) due to deficits in orienting attention to salient facial features like the eyes. Psychopathic individuals also display blunted autonomic responding to emotional stimuli, though whether this is due to attention-orienting deficits remains to be clarified. The present project investigated whether empathy-related deficits (poor emotion recognition and low levels of autonomic arousal) were the result of attention-based difficulties in young adults with psychopathic traits. Two different samples of Brooklyn College students participated in an emotion recognition study to see if varying levels of psychopathic traits affected autonomic arousal and the ability to successfully categorize emotional expressions. In both studies, participants completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised to assess self-reported levels of psychopathic traits. They also completed an emotion recognition task during continuous physiological recording (heart rate and skin conductance) and tracking of eye movements. There was a free gaze and cued-gaze condition; during the cued condition, participants directed their attention to either the eyes or the mouth of the emotional face. The principal aims of this project were to see if 1) psychopathic traits affected fixation to the eyes, emotion recognition accuracy, and autonomic arousal, and 2) whether cueing to the eyes, a threatening and salient facial feature, improved emotion recognition accuracy and increased arousal for participants with high levels of psychopathic traits. In Experiment 1, we found that Factor 2 psychopathic traits were related to reduced fixation duration to the eye region, partially supporting the attention-to-the-eyes hypothesis. However, when cued to the eye region, performance on the emotion recognition task decreased as Factor 2 traits increased. We did not replicate this finding in Experiment 2. Results across both studies revealed that there was no relationship between psychopathic traits and emotion recognition accuracy nor under-arousal during free gaze conditions. In fact, participants with high levels of Factor 1 traits showed a pattern of heightened engagement with the task that was reflected in elevated skin conductance responses during the free gaze condition and increases in heart rate during the cued condition. Participants with concurrently high levels of Factor 1 and Factor 2 traits did not show an increase in physiological responding when cued to specific facial features, suggesting alternate methods are necessary to boost emotional empathy in these individuals. Overall, this project reinforced the value of looking at the separate and interactive effects of psychopathy factors to understand the mechanisms that underlie physiological and behavioral responses to emotional content