Out of Context, Beyond the Face: Neuroanatomical Pathways of Emotional Face-Body Language Integration in Adolescent Offenders

Background: Adolescent offenders (AOs) are characterized by social-norm transgression and aggressive behaviors. Those traits have been associated with alterations in socio-cognitive processes, including facial emotion recognition. While this would suggest that AOs tend to interpret negative emotional cues as threatening information, most research has relied on context-free stimuli, thus failing to directly track integrative processes typical of everyday cognition.Methods: In this study, we assessed the impact of body language and surrounding context on facial emotion recognition in AOs and non-offenders (NOs). We recruited 35 AOs from a reform school for young male offenders and 30 NOs matched for age and sex with the former group. All participants completed a well-validated task aimed to determine how contextual cues (i.e., emotional body language and surrounding context) influence facial emotion recognition through the use of congruent and incongruent combinations of facial and bodily emotional information.Results: This study showed that AOs tend to overvalue bodily and contextual signals in emotion recognition, with poorer facial-emotion categorization and increased sensitivity to context information in incongruent face-body scenarios. This pattern was associated with executive dysfunctions and disruptive behaviors, as well as with gray matter (GM) of brain regions supporting body-face recognition [fusiform gyrus (FG)], emotion processing [cingulate cortex (CC), superior temporal gyrus (STG)], contextual integration (precuneus, STG), and motor resonance [cerebellum, supplementary motor area (SMA)].Discussion: Together, our results pave the way for a better understanding of the neurocognitive association between contextual emotion recognition, behavioral regulation, cognitive control, and externalized behaviors in AOs

Fuera de contexto, más allá de la cara: vías neuroanatómicas de la integración emocional del lenguaje cara-cuerpo en adolescentes infractores

Background: Adolescent offenders (AOs) are characterized by social-norm transgression and aggressive behaviors. Those traits have been associated with alterations in socio-cognitive processes, including facial emotion recognition. While this would suggest that AOs tend to interpret negative emotional cues as threatening information, most research has relied on context-free stimuli, thus failing to directly track integrative processes typical of everyday cognition. Methods: In this study, we assessed the impact of body language and surrounding context on facial emotion recognition in AOs and non-offenders (NOs). We recruited 35 AOs from a reform school for young male offenders and 30 NOs matched for age and sex with the former group. All participants completed a well-validated task aimed to determine how contextual cues (i.e., emotional body language and surrounding context) influence facial emotion recognition through the use of congruent and incongruent combinations of facial and bodily emotional information. Results: This study showed that AOs tend to overvalue bodily and contextual signals in emotion recognition, with poorer facial-emotion categorization and increased sensitivity to context information in incongruent face-body scenarios. This pattern was associated with executive dysfunctions and disruptive behaviors, as well as with gray matter (GM) of brain regions supporting body-face recognition [fusiform gyrus (FG)], emotion processing [cingulate cortex (CC), superior temporal gyrus (STG)], contextual integration (precuneus, STG), and motor resonance [cerebellum, supplementary motor area (SMA)]. Discussion: Together, our results pave the way for a better understanding of the neurocognitive association between contextual emotion recognition, behavioral regulation, cognitive control, and externalized behaviors in AOs.Antecedentes: los delincuentes adolescentes (AO) se caracterizan por la transgresión de las normas sociales y los comportamientos agresivos. Esos rasgos se han asociado con alteraciones en los procesos sociocognitivos, incluido el reconocimiento de emociones faciales. Si bien esto sugiere que los AO tienden a interpretar señales emocionales negativas como información amenazadora, la mayoría de las investigaciones se basan en estímulos sin contexto, por lo que no logran rastrear directamente los procesos de integración típicos de la cognición cotidiana. Métodos: en este estudio, evaluamos el impacto del lenguaje corporal y el contexto circundante en el reconocimiento de emociones faciales en AO y no delincuentes (NO). Reclutamos a 35 AO de una escuela de reforma para jóvenes infractores y 30 NO combinados por edad y sexo con el grupo anterior. Todos los participantes completaron una tarea bien validada dirigida a determinar cómo las señales contextuales (es decir, el lenguaje corporal emocional y el contexto circundante) influyen en el reconocimiento de la emoción facial mediante el uso de combinaciones congruentes e incongruentes de información emocional facial y corporal. Resultados: este estudio demostró que los AO tienden a sobrevalorar las señales corporales y contextuales en el reconocimiento de emociones, con una clasificación más pobre de la emoción facial y una mayor sensibilidad a la información de contexto en escenarios de rostro y cuerpo incongruentes. Este patrón se asoció con disfunciones ejecutivas y conductas disruptivas, así como con la materia gris (GM) de las regiones cerebrales que apoyan el reconocimiento cuerpo-cara [giro fusiforme (FG)], procesamiento de emociones [corteza cingulada (CC), giro temporal superior (STG) )], integración contextual (precuneus, STG) y resonancia motora [cerebelo, área motora suplementaria (SMA)]. Discusión: Juntos, nuestros resultados allanan el camino para una mejor comprensión de la asociación neurocognitiva entre el reconocimiento de la emoción contextual, la regulación del comportamiento, el control cognitivo y las conductas externalizadas en los AO