1
|
Doidy F, Desaunay P, Rebillard C, Clochon P, Lambrechts A, Wantzen P, Guénolé F, Baleyte JM, Eustache F, Bowler DM, Lebreton K, Guillery-Girard B. How scene encoding affects memory discrimination: Analysing eye movements data using data driven methods. VISUAL COGNITION 2023. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2023.2188335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- F. Doidy
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - P. Desaunay
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
- Service de Psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, CHU de Caen, Caen, France
| | - C. Rebillard
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - P. Clochon
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - A. Lambrechts
- Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London, UK
| | - P. Wantzen
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - F. Guénolé
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
- Service de Psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, CHU de Caen, Caen, France
| | - J. M. Baleyte
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
- Service de Psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, Centre Hospitalier Interuniversitaire de Créteil, Créteil, France
| | - F. Eustache
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - D. M. Bowler
- Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London, UK
| | - K. Lebreton
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - B. Guillery-Girard
- Normandie Université, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Ma X, Liu Y, Clariana R, Gu C, Li P. From eye movements to scanpath networks: A method for studying individual differences in expository text reading. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:730-750. [PMID: 35445941 PMCID: PMC10027820 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01842-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Eye movements have been examined as an index of attention and comprehension during reading in the literature for over 30 years. Although eye-movement measurements are acknowledged as reliable indicators of readers' comprehension skill, few studies have analyzed eye-movement patterns using network science. In this study, we offer a new approach to analyze eye-movement data. Specifically, we recorded visual scanpaths when participants were reading expository science text, and used these to construct scanpath networks that reflect readers' processing of the text. Results showed that low ability and high ability readers' scanpath networks exhibited distinctive properties, which are reflected in different network metrics including density, centrality, small-worldness, transitivity, and global efficiency. Such patterns provide a new way to show how skilled readers, as compared with less skilled readers, process information more efficiently. Implications of our analyses are discussed in light of current theories of reading comprehension.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiaochuan Ma
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
| | - Yikang Liu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Millennium Science Complex, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
| | - Roy Clariana
- Department of Learning and Performance Systems, Keller Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
| | - Chanyuan Gu
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| | - Ping Li
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Spilka MJ, Keller WR, Buchanan RW, Gold JM, Koenig JI, Strauss GP. Endogenous oxytocin levels are associated with facial emotion recognition accuracy but not gaze behavior in individuals with schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2022; 145:494-506. [PMID: 35243618 PMCID: PMC9007857 DOI: 10.1111/acps.13421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 02/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Difficulties in social cognition are common in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and are not ameliorated by antipsychotic treatment. Intranasal oxytocin (OT) administration has been explored as a potential intervention to improve social cognition; however, results are inconsistent, suggesting potential individual difference variables that may influence treatment response. Less is known about the relationship between endogenous OT and social cognition in SZ, knowledge of which may improve the development of OT-focused therapies. We examined plasma OT in relationship to facial emotion recognition and visual attention to salient facial features in SZ and controls. METHODS Forty-two individuals with SZ and 23 healthy controls viewed photographs of facial expressions of varying emotional intensity and identified the emotional expression displayed. Participants' gaze behavior during the task was recorded via eye tracking. Plasma oxytocin concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS SZ were less accurate than controls at identifying high-intensity fearful facial expressions and low-intensity sad expressions. Lower overall and high-intensity facial emotion recognition accuracy was associated with lower plasma OT levels in SZ but not controls. OT was not associated with visual attention to salient facial features; however, SZ had reduced visual attention to the nose region compared to controls. CONCLUSION Individual differences in endogenous OT predict facial emotion recognition ability in SZ but are not associated with visual attention to salient facial features. Increased understanding of the association between endogenous OT and social cognitive abilities in SZ may help improve the design and interpretation of OT-focused clinical trials in SZ.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - William R. Keller
- Dartmouth College, Geisel School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, USA
| | - Robert W. Buchanan
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, USA
| | - James M. Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, USA
| | - James I. Koenig
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
4
|
Mitzkovitz C, Dowd SM, Cothran T, Musil S. The Eyes Have It: Psychotherapy in the Era of Masks. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 2022; 29:886-897. [PMID: 35118604 PMCID: PMC8812949 DOI: 10.1007/s10880-022-09856-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Nonverbal communication is integral to the success of psychotherapy and facial expression is an important component of nonverbal communication. The SARS CoV-2 pandemic has caused alterations in how psychotherapy services are provided. In this paper, potential issues that may arise from conducting psychotherapy when both the patient and therapist are wearing masks are explored. These include higher likelihood of misidentifying facial expression, especially when expression is incongruent with body language, and when the lower face is more important for correct identification of emotion. These issues may be particularly problematic for patient populations for whom emotion recognition may be a problem at baseline, or for those more prone to biases in emotional recognition. Suggestions are made for therapists to consider when seeing patients in-person when masks are necessary.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cayla Mitzkovitz
- Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
| | - Sheila M Dowd
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Thomas Cothran
- Office of Neuropsychology, Community Care Network, Inc., Munster, IN, USA
| | - Suzanne Musil
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA. .,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, 1645 W. Jackson Blvd, Ste. 400, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Vogel F, Gensthaler A, Schwenck C. Frozen with Fear? Attentional Mechanisms in Children with Selective Mutism. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10608-021-10289-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Children with selective mutism (SM) are consistently unable to speak in certain social situations. Due to an overlap between SM and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in children, similar mechanisms could apply to both disorders. Especially biased attentional processing of threat and fear-induced reduced visual exploration (referred to as attentive freezing) appear promising in SM.
Methods
A total of N = 84 children (8–12 years, SM: n = 28, SAD: n = 28, typical development (TD): n = 28) participated in an eye-tracking paradigm with videos of a social counterpart expressing a question, a social evaluation or a neutral statement. We investigated gaze behavior towards the social counterpart’s eye-region and the extent of visual exploration (length of scanpath), across conditions.
Results
There were no group differences regarding gaze behavior on the eye region. Neither gaze behavior with respect to the eye region nor visual exploration were dependent on the video condition. Compared to children with TD, children with SM generally showed less visual exploration, however children with SAD did not.
Conclusion
Reduced visual exploration might be due to the mechanism of attentive freezing, which could be part of an extensive fear response in SM that might also affect speech-production. Interventions that counteract the state of freezing could be promising for the therapy of SM.
Collapse
|
6
|
Virtual reality facial emotion recognition in social environments: An eye-tracking study. Internet Interv 2021; 25:100432. [PMID: 34401391 PMCID: PMC8350588 DOI: 10.1016/j.invent.2021.100432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Revised: 06/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR. METHODS Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR. RESULTS Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences; disgust and happiness had lower accuracy rates in VR, and better accuracy was achieved for surprise and anger in VR compared to the video task. Participants spent more time identifying disgust, fear and sadness than surprise and happiness. In general, attention was directed longer to the eye and nose areas than the mouth. DISCUSSION Immersive VR tasks can be used for training and assessment of emotion recognition. VR enables easily controllable avatars within environments relevant for daily life. Validated emotional expressions and tasks will be of relevance for clinical applications.
Collapse
|
7
|
Velten J, Milani S, Margraf J, Brotto LA. Visual attention and sexual arousal in women with and without sexual dysfunction. Behav Res Ther 2021; 144:103915. [PMID: 34174705 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Revised: 05/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Attention to sexual stimuli is a prerequisite to process such stimuli as sexually-meaningful and is an important means to facilitate sexual arousal. Attending to sexual cues is crucial for healthy sexual functioning. Studies suggest that sexual dysfunction is associated with less attention towards sexual stimuli. The goal of this study was to use an eye-tracking-based free-viewing paradigm to investigate whether women with sexual dysfunction visually attend to the genital area in dynamic sexual stimuli (i.e., erotic videos) differently than women with subclinical sexual function or those with typical sexual functioning. A total of 69 women (Mage = 27.77, SD = 8.00) with clinical (n = 30), subclinical (n = 23), and typical (n = 16) levels of sexual functioning watched four 1-min video clips depicting heterosexual couples engaging in vaginal intercourse or cunnilingus while the total fixation duration on the genital area as well as their subjective and genital sexual arousal were recorded. As hypothesized, the clinical group fixated on the genital area less than women with typical sexual functioning. A longer total fixation duration on the genital area was followed by increases in subjective arousal and genital arousal. The relationship between attention and arousal was not moderated by sexual functioning group. This study provides first evidence of the role of sustained visual attention for facilitating sexual arousal in women with and without sexual dysfunction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julia Velten
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Sonia Milani
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
| | - Jürgen Margraf
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Lori A Brotto
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Zimmermann KM, Schmidt KD, Gronow F, Sommer J, Leweke F, Jansen A. Seeing things differently: Gaze shapes neural signal during mentalizing according to emotional awareness. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118223. [PMID: 34098065 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118223] [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: 03/11/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies on social cognition often use complex visual stimuli to asses neural processes attributed to abilities like "mentalizing" or "Theory of Mind" (ToM). During the processing of these stimuli, eye gaze, however, shapes neural signal patterns. Individual differences in neural operations on social cognition may therefore be obscured if individuals' gaze behavior differs systematically. These obstacles can be overcome by the combined analysis of neural signal and natural viewing behavior. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with eye-tracking to examine effects of unconstrained gaze on neural ToM processes in healthy individuals with differing levels of emotional awareness, i.e. alexithymia. First, as previously described for emotional tasks, people with higher alexithymia levels look less at eyes in both ToM and task-free viewing contexts. Further, we find that neural ToM processes are not affected by individual differences in alexithymia per se. Instead, depending on alexithymia levels, gaze on critical stimulus aspects reversely shapes the signal in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior temporoparietal junction (TPJ) as distinct nodes of the ToM system. These results emphasize that natural selective attention affects fMRI patterns well beyond the visual system. Our study implies that, whenever using a task with multiple degrees of freedom in scan paths, ignoring the latter might obscure important conclusions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kristin Marie Zimmermann
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Department of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, Hospital zum Heiligen Geist, Academic Teaching Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen.
| | - Kirsten Daniela Schmidt
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Franziska Gronow
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen
| | - Jens Sommer
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen; Core-Unit Brainimaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Frank Leweke
- Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Andreas Jansen
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen; Core-Unit Brainimaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Xie JQ, Rost DH, Wang FX, Wang JL, Monk RL. The association between excessive social media use and distraction: An eye movement tracking study. INFORMATION & MANAGEMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2020.103415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
|
10
|
Faghel-Soubeyrand S, Lecomte T, Bravo MA, Lepage M, Potvin S, Abdel-Baki A, Villeneuve M, Gosselin F. Abnormal visual representations associated with confusion of perceived facial expression in schizophrenia with social anxiety disorder. NPJ SCHIZOPHRENIA 2020; 6:28. [PMID: 33004809 PMCID: PMC7529755 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-020-00116-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2020] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Deficits in social functioning are especially severe amongst schizophrenia individuals with the prevalent comorbidity of social anxiety disorder (SZ&SAD). Yet, the mechanisms underlying the recognition of facial expression of emotions-a hallmark of social cognition-are practically unexplored in SZ&SAD. Here, we aim to reveal the visual representations SZ&SAD (n = 16) and controls (n = 14) rely on for facial expression recognition. We ran a total of 30,000 trials of a facial expression categorization task with Bubbles, a data-driven technique. Results showed that SZ&SAD's ability to categorize facial expression was impared compared to controls. More severe negative symptoms (flat affect, apathy, reduced social drive) was associated with more impaired emotion recognition ability, and with more biases in attributing neutral affect to faces. Higher social anxiety symptoms, on the other hand, was found to enhance the reaction speed to neutral and angry faces. Most importantly, Bubbles showed that these abnormalities could be explained by inefficient visual representations of emotions: compared to controls, SZ&SAD subjects relied less on fine facial cues (high spatial frequencies) and more on coarse facial cues (low spatial frequencies). SZ&SAD participants also never relied on the eye regions (only on the mouth) to categorize facial expressions. We discuss how possible interactions between early (low sensitivity to coarse information) and late stages of the visual system (overreliance on these coarse features) might disrupt SZ&SAD's recognition of facial expressions. Our findings offer perceptual mechanisms through which comorbid SZ&SAD impairs crucial aspects of social cognition, as well as functional psychopathology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Simon Faghel-Soubeyrand
- Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada. .,School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
| | - Tania Lecomte
- Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| | | | - Martin Lepage
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
| | - Stéphane Potvin
- Départment de Psychiatrie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| | - Amal Abdel-Baki
- Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal-Hôpital Notre-Dame, Montréal, Canada
| | - Marie Villeneuve
- Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| | - Frédéric Gosselin
- Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Nie L, Zhou S, Wang Z, Wang M, Wang Y, Zheng Y. Impaired perceptual processing of facial expression categorization in social anhedonia. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13682. [PMID: 32940368 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2019] [Revised: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
The current event-related potential study investigated the perceptual processing of the categorization advantage of happy over sad faces in social anhedonia with a nonclinical sample. A high social anhedonia (HSA, N = 25) group and a low social anhedonia (LSA, N = 27) group performed a facial expression categorization task during which they classified facial expressions (happy, neutral, sad), irrespective of face orientation (upright, upside-down). Behaviorally, happy faces were identified more quickly than sad ones in the upright but not inverted orientation. Electrophysiologically, the LSA group showed earlier N170 latencies for happy than for sad faces in the upright but not upside-down orientation, whereas the HSA group did not show any expression effect on N170 latencies. Moreover, N170 and P2 amplitude results revealed that HSA relative to LSA individuals showed delayed neural discrimination between happy and sad faces. These results suggest that social anhedonia is associated with a deficit of perceptual processing during facial expression categorization.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lu Nie
- Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Shiyu Zhou
- Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Zhao Wang
- Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Mengyao Wang
- Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Yun Wang
- Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Ya Zheng
- Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Li XB, Jiang WL, Wen YJ, Wang CM, Tian Q, Fan Y, Yang HB, Wang CY. The attenuated visual scanpaths of patients with schizophrenia whilst recognizing emotional facial expressions are worsened in natural social scenes. Schizophr Res 2020; 220:155-163. [PMID: 32265087 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Alteration of visual scanpaths under emotional facial expression in schizophrenia patients has been described in recent years; however, it is not clear whether such results are different when they transfer to faces in natural social scenes. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of emotional faces in natural social scenes on the gaze patterns of patients with schizophrenia, compared to gaze at isolated faces. A novel theme identification task was used where participants selected a positive, neutral or negative word to describe an emotional picture. Participants were 29 patients with schizophrenia and 31 healthy controls. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Scale of Social Function in Psychosis Inpatients (SSPI) were used to assess symptoms and social functioning. In total, patients with schizophrenia showed significantly fewer fixations, saccades numbers and decreased fixations in areas of interest. As expected, patients showed shorter scanpath length, but only in the pictures with social settings. Furthermore, the effect size of scanpaths parameters under social scene was all greater than isolated face. In addition, patients compared to controls showed more abnormal scanpath parameters processing negative and neutral faces than positive faces, especially in social scene. The present study suggests that scanpath length for social scene faces may be more sensitive than for isolated face pictures. Our findings further support restricted scanpath whilst recognizing emotional facial expressions in natural social scenes as a favorable topic for further investigation as a trait marker.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xian-Bin Li
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China
| | - Wen-Long Jiang
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China; Third People's Hospital of Daqing, Daqing 163712, China
| | - Yu-Jie Wen
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China
| | - Chang-Ming Wang
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China
| | - Qing Tian
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China
| | - Yu Fan
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China
| | - Hai-Bo Yang
- Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300074, China.
| | - Chuan-Yue Wang
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders & Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders Center of Schizophrenia & The Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100088, China.
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Bonensteffen F, Zebel S, Giebels E. Sincerity Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Using Eye Tracking to Understand How Victims Interpret an Offender's Apology in a Simulation of Victim-Offender Mediation. Front Psychol 2020; 11:835. [PMID: 32508705 PMCID: PMC7251183 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The objective of this study was to gain insights into how victims use their visual attention to determine the sincerity of an offender's apology during simulated victim-offender mediation. We hypothesized that the victims' visual attention (gaze fixation duration) would be focused more on the offender's upper (than lower) face area, especially the eyes and the eyebrows, to infer the degree to which the offender suffers, takes responsibility, and has empathy for the victim. In turn, we expected these inferences to positively predict the perceived sincerity of the apology. Additionally, we took into account the victims' a priori expectations regarding the sincerity of the apology and (positive) attitudes toward resocialization programs (ARPs). We expected both variables to enhance the above proposed process through which victims determine the sincerity of the apology. Fifty-eight students took the victim's role in a fictitious crime scenario and watched a video in which the offender offered a remorseful apology. We obtained eye tracking data to determine the participants' fixation and attention distribution. As expected, the participants' gaze fixated significantly longer on the upper face. The results also showed that their prior expectations, positive ARPs, and inferences of suffering and responsibility taking after the apology all positively predicted the perceived sincerity. However, unexpectedly, gaze duration was not directly associated with these inferences. The fixation duration on the upper face instead appeared to moderate how ARPs predicted inferences of responsibility taking. More concretely, the exploratory path model analyses revealed that when the participants had more positive a priori ARPs, the longer they focused on the offender's eyes and eyebrows and the more they concluded that he took responsibility for his actions (which in turn predicted more sincerity). However, for those with relatively negative ARPs, it was the other way around: the more they focused on the eyes and the eyebrows, the stronger they inferred that the offender did not take responsibility (which predicted less sincerity). Our findings demonstrate the vital role of the victims' a priori attitudes, expectations, and eye gaze behavior in understanding the reception and the evaluation of offenders' apologies. This study also suggests how novel technology can be used to investigate gaze behavior in the field of victim-offender mediation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bonensteffen
- Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| | - Sven Zebel
- Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| | - Ellen Giebels
- Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Bonfils KA, Ventura J, Subotnik KL, Nuechterlein KH. Affective prosody and facial emotion recognition in first-episode schizophrenia: Associations with functioning & symptoms. Schizophr Res Cogn 2019; 18:100153. [PMID: 31497511 PMCID: PMC6718049 DOI: 10.1016/j.scog.2019.100153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 05/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Studies indicate that people with schizophrenia experience deficits in their ability to accurately detect emotions, both through facial expressions and voice intonation (i.e., prosody), and that functioning and symptoms are associated with these deficits. This study aimed to examine how facial emotion and affective prosody recognition are related to functioning and symptoms in a first-episode schizophrenia sample. Further, in light of research suggesting variable emotion-specific performance in people with schizophrenia, this study explored emotion-specific performance. Participants were 49 people with a recent first episode of schizophrenia taking part in a larger RCT. Results revealed that affective prosody recognition was significantly correlated with both role and social functioning. Regarding associations with psychiatric symptoms, facial emotion recognition was significantly, negatively associated with all three positive symptom scales, whereas affective prosody recognition was significantly, negatively associated with disorganization only. Emotion-specific analyses revealed that for affective prosody, participants were most accurate in recognizing anger and least accurate for disgust. For facial emotion recognition, participants were most accurate in recognizing happiness and least accurate for fear. Taken together, results suggest that affective prosody recognition is important for social and role functioning in people with first-episode schizophrenia. Results also suggest that this group may struggle more to identify negative emotions, though additional work is needed to clarify this pattern in affective prosody and determine real-world impact on social interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kelsey A. Bonfils
- VISN 4 Mental Illness Research, Education, & Clinical Center (MIRECC), VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, 4100 Allequippa St., Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychiatry, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- Aftercare Research Program, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Joseph Ventura
- Aftercare Research Program, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Kenneth L. Subotnik
- Aftercare Research Program, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Keith H. Nuechterlein
- Aftercare Research Program, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Kim SJ, Hong YJ, Kim MW, Jung YH, Min SR, Kim JJ. Inflexible eye fixation pattern in schizophrenia affecting decision-making on daily life. Psychiatry Res 2019; 274:414-420. [PMID: 30870671 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.02.063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2018] [Revised: 02/25/2019] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia have difficulties in real life due to impairment in ability to make decisions. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the relationship between impaired decision-making processes with real life stimuli and abnormal eye gaze patterns in patients with schizophrenia. Each of 23 patients with schizophrenia and 23 healthy controls performed an apparel purchase decision task including the influencing factors such as preference, fit, and price, during which the eye gaze was traced. Fixation time and fixation time ratio on areas of interest, which were set for participant faces and clothing, were compared between the two groups. Compared with controls, patients made purchase decisions at a higher rate and showed significantly shorter fixation time on clothing in the preference, fit, and price phases and on faces in the purchase phase. Fixation time ratio of face over clothing did not change over purchase decisions in patients, whereas controls showed significantly higher fixation time ratio in not-to-buy decisions than in to-buy decisions. These results suggest that aberrant decision-making behaviors in patients with schizophrenia are closely related to inflexible visual information gathering patterns because they apportion the same amount of attention to objects regardless of purchase intention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Soo-Jeong Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yeon-Ju Hong
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Min-Woo Kim
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Young-Hoon Jung
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sa-Rang Min
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae-Jin Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Kerr-Gaffney J, Harrison A, Tchanturia K. Eye-tracking research in eating disorders: A systematic review. Int J Eat Disord 2018; 52:3-27. [PMID: 30582199 DOI: 10.1002/eat.22998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 10/18/2018] [Accepted: 11/11/2018] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Those with eating disorders (EDs) show attentional biases to disorder-relevant stimuli, such as food and body shape information. However, attentional bias research in EDs largely relies on reaction time based measures, which are limited in their ability to assess different components and the time course of attention. Eye-tracking paradigms have therefore been utilized to provide greater ecological validity, and directly capture the detailed sequence of processes in perception and attention. While numerous studies have examined eye movements in the mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders, there has been a lack of studies in EDs. The purpose of this qualitative review is to provide a summary of eye-tracking studies in clinical ED populations. METHOD The review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines. Electronic databases were systematically searched to identify studies examining gaze parameters in ED compared to healthy controls (HCs). Thirty-one studies met inclusion criteria. RESULTS Across ED diagnoses, there was evidence of attentional biases towards food and body stimuli. In addition, differential patterns of attention to social information, and differences in smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements were found in anorexia nervosa (AN). DISCUSSION Findings are discussed in relation to research in other psychiatric disorders, and recommendations for future studies using eye-tracking in EDs are given. The findings add to the wider literature on attentional biases in EDs, and provide potential avenues for treatment. IJED-18-0331.R1. Investigación de seguimiento ocular en trastornos de la conducta alimentaria: una revisión sistemática.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jess Kerr-Gaffney
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, Kings College London, London, UK
| | - Amy Harrison
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, University College London, London, UK
- South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, National Eating Disorders Service, Psychological Medicine Clinical Academic Group, London, UK
| | - Kate Tchanturia
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, Kings College London, London, UK
- South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, National Eating Disorders Service, Psychological Medicine Clinical Academic Group, London, UK
- Institute of Psychology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Reduced scanning of salient facial features mediates the association between paranoia and emotion recognition. Psychiatry Res 2018; 269:430-436. [PMID: 30195231 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.08.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2018] [Revised: 08/10/2018] [Accepted: 08/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The vigilance-avoidance hypothesis of paranoia states that in paranoia visual attention is shifted away from threat-related stimuli. This may be an explanation for reduced scanning of salient facial features in psychosis and subsequently impaired emotion recognition. Here, we explored whether higher levels of paranoia would predict reduced visual attention to salient facial features and impaired emotion recognition and whether reduced visual attention to salient facial features mediates the association between paranoia and errors in emotion recognition. Participants with schizophrenia (SZ, n = 22) and healthy controls (HC, n = 19) completed questionnaire assessments of paranoia and negative symptoms and conducted an emotion recognition task comprised of dynamic facial stimuli. Additionally, visual attention (number of fixations) to salient facial features was assessed using eye-tracking. SZ made more errors in affect recognition than HC. Visual attention to salient facial features did not differ between SZ and HC but significantly mediated the significant association between paranoia and errors in the emotion recognition task in the complete sample. Negative symptoms also predicted errors in emotion recognition but this association was not mediated by visual attention. Our findings are in line with the avoidance-assumption of a vigilance-avoidance hypothesis of paranoia, in which correct facial emotion recognition is prevented due to an avoidance of salient facial features.
Collapse
|
18
|
The reliability of eyetracking to assess attentional bias to threatening words in healthy individuals. Behav Res Methods 2017; 50:1778-1792. [DOI: 10.3758/s13428-017-0946-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
|
19
|
Careaga M, Murai T, Bauman MD. Maternal Immune Activation and Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Rodents to Nonhuman and Human Primates. Biol Psychiatry 2017; 81:391-401. [PMID: 28137374 PMCID: PMC5513502 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 229] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2016] [Revised: 10/20/2016] [Accepted: 10/20/2016] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
A subset of women who are exposed to infection during pregnancy have an increased risk of giving birth to a child who will later be diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorder. Although epidemiology studies have primarily focused on the association between maternal infection and an increased risk of offspring schizophrenia, mounting evidence indicates that maternal infection may also increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder. A number of factors, including genetic susceptibility, the intensity and timing of the infection, and exposure to additional aversive postnatal events, may influence the extent to which maternal infection alters fetal brain development and which disease phenotype (autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, other neurodevelopmental disorders) is expressed. Preclinical animal models provide a test bed to systematically evaluate the effects of maternal infection on fetal brain development, determine the relevance to human central nervous system disorders, and to evaluate novel preventive and therapeutic strategies. Maternal immune activation models in mice, rats, and nonhuman primates suggest that the maternal immune response is the critical link between exposure to infection during pregnancy and subsequent changes in brain and behavioral development of offspring. However, differences in the type, severity, and timing of prenatal immune challenge paired with inconsistencies in behavioral phenotyping approaches have hindered the translation of preclinical results to human studies. Here we highlight the promises and limitations of the maternal immune activation model as a preclinical tool to study prenatal risk factors for autism spectrum disorder, and suggest specific changes to improve reproducibility and maximize translational potential.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Milo Careaga
- UC Davis MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, California; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, California
| | - Takeshi Murai
- UC Davis MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, California; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California; Biomarker Group, Drug Development Research Laboratories, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan
| | - Melissa D Bauman
- UC Davis MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, California; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, California; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California.
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
McCord DM, Achee MC, Cannon EM, Harrop TM, Poynter WD. Using the Research Domain Criteria Framework to Explore Associations Between MMPI-2-RF Constructs and Physiological Variables Assessed by Eye-Tracker Technology. J Pers Assess 2016; 99:363-374. [PMID: 27715316 DOI: 10.1080/00223891.2016.1228067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The National Institute of Mental Health has proposed a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of psychopathology, abandoning the traditional categorical model in favor of one based on hierarchically organized dimensional constructs (Insel et al., 2010 ). One explicit goal of this initiative, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, is to facilitate the incorporation of newly available neurobiologic variables into research on psychopathology. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011 ) represents a similar paradigm shift, also adopting a hierarchical arrangement of dimensional constructs. This study examined associations between MMPI-2-RF measures of psychopathology and eye-movement metrics. Participants were college students (n = 270) who completed the MMPI-2-RF and then viewed a sequence of 30-s video clips. Results show a pattern of positive correlations between pupil size and emotional/internalizing dysfunction scales when viewing video eliciting negative emotional reactions, reflecting greater arousability in individuals with higher scores on these measures. In contrast, when viewing stimuli depicting angry, threatening material, a clear pattern of negative correlations was found between pupil size and behavioral/externalizing trait measures. These data add to the construct validity of the MMPI-2-RF and support the use of the RDoC matrix as a framework for research on psychopathology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David M McCord
- a Department of Psychology , Western Carolina University
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
21
|
Preserved implicit mentalizing in schizophrenia despite poor explicit performance: evidence from eye tracking. Sci Rep 2016; 6:34728. [PMID: 27703225 PMCID: PMC5050453 DOI: 10.1038/srep34728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2016] [Accepted: 09/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Schizophrenia has been characterized by an impaired mentalizing. It has been suggested that distinguishing implicit from explicit processes is crucial in social cognition, and only the latter might be affected in schizophrenia. Two other questions remain open: (1) Is schizophrenia characterized by an hypo- or hyper attribution of intentions? (2) Is it characterized by a deficit in the attribution of intention or of contingency? To test these three questions, spontaneous mentalizing was tested in 29 individuals with schizophrenia and 29 control subjects using the Frith-Happé animations, while eye movements were recorded. Explicit mentalizing was measured from participants’ verbal descriptions and was contrasted with implicit mentalizing measured through eye tracking. As a group, patients made less accurate and less intentional descriptions of the goal-directed and theory of mind animations. No group differences were found in the attribution of contingency. Eye tracking results revealed that patients and controls showed a similar modulation of eye movements in response to the mental states displayed in the Frith-Happé animations. To conclude, in this paradigm, participants with schizophrenia showed a dissociation between explicit and implicit mentalizing, with a decrease in the explicit attribution of intentions, whereas their eye movements suggested a preserved implicit perception of intentions.
Collapse
|
22
|
Restricted attention to social cues in schizophrenia patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2016; 266:649-61. [PMID: 27305925 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-016-0705-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2015] [Accepted: 06/02/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Deficits of psychosocial functioning are a robust finding in schizophrenia. Research on social cognition may open a new avenue for the development of effective interventions. As a correlate of social perceptive information processing deficits, schizophrenia patients (SZP) show deviant gaze behavior (GB) while viewing emotional faces. As understanding of a social environment requires gathering complex social information, our study aimed at investigating the gaze behavior of SZP related to social interactions and its impact on the level of social and role functioning. GB of 32 SZP and 37 healthy control individuals (HCI) was investigated with a high-resolution eye tracker during an unguided viewing of 12 complex pictures of social interaction scenes. Regarding whole pictures, SZP showed a shorter scanpath length, fewer fixations and a shorter mean distance between fixations. Furthermore, SZP exhibited fewer and shorter fixations on faces, but not on the socially informative bodies nor on the background, suggesting a cue-specific abnormality. Logistic regression with bootstrapping yielded a model including two GB parameters; a subsequent ROC curve analysis indicated an excellent ability of group discrimination (AUC .85). Face-related GB aberrations correlated with lower social and role functioning and with delusional thinking, but not with negative symptoms. Training of spontaneous integration of face-related social information seems promising to enable a holistic perception of social information, which may in turn improve social and role functioning. The observed ability to discriminate SZP from HCI warrants further research on the predictive validity of GB in psychosis risk prediction.
Collapse
|
23
|
Wenzlaff F, Briken P, Dekker A. Video-Based Eye Tracking in Sex Research: A Systematic Literature Review. JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH 2016; 53:1008-1019. [PMID: 26689496 DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2015.1107524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Although eye tracking has been used for decades, it has gained popularity in the area of sex research only recently. The aim of this article is to examine the potential merits of eye tracking for this field. We present a systematic review of the current use of video-based eye-tracking technology in this area, evaluate the findings, and identify future research opportunities. A total of 34 relevant studies published between 2006 and 2014 were identified for inclusion by means of online databases and other methods. We grouped them into three main areas of research: body perception and attractiveness, forensic research, and sexual orientation. Despite the methodological and theoretical differences across the studies, eye tracking has been shown to be a promising tool for sex research. The article suggests there is much potential for further studies to employ this technique because it is noninvasive and yet still allows for the assessment of both conscious and unconscious perceptional processes. Furthermore, eye tracking can be implemented in investigations of various theoretical backgrounds, ranging from biology to the social sciences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Frederike Wenzlaff
- a Institute for Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry , University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
| | - Peer Briken
- a Institute for Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry , University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
| | - Arne Dekker
- a Institute for Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry , University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Li M, Lu S, Wang G, Feng L, Fu B, Zhong N. Alleviated negative rather than positive attentional bias in patients with depression in remission: an eye-tracking study. J Int Med Res 2016; 44:1072-1086. [PMID: 27688684 PMCID: PMC5536561 DOI: 10.1177/0300060516662134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2016] [Accepted: 07/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective To investigate attentional bias toward happy and sad faces in remitted depressed (RD) patients compared with healthy control (HC) subjects. Methods This cross-sectional study enrolled RD patients and sex- and age-matched HC subjects. Eye movement data were acquired for all study participants while free viewing a 2 × 2 matrix of emotional faces. The attentional bias toward different emotional faces and whether the attention maintenance components generated attentional bias in the RD patients were analysed by comparing the attentional modes of the RD group with the HC group. Results A total of 27 RD patients and 27 HC subjects were analysed in this study. The RD and HC groups exhibited no significant differences toward first fixation location and initial attentional maintenance. In later attentional maintenance, the RD group showed significantly less attentional bias toward happy faces, but there were no significant differences in their attentional bias toward sad faces, compared with the HC group. Conclusions This present study showed that the negative attentional bias of RD patients was successfully eased, but their positive attentional bias was still insufficient.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mi Li
- The International Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC) Institute, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
- The Beijing International Collaboration Base on Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, Beijing, China
- The Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China
| | - Shengfu Lu
- The International Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC) Institute, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
- The Beijing International Collaboration Base on Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, Beijing, China
- The Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China
| | - Gang Wang
- Mood Disorders Centre & China Clinical Research Centre for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Centre of Depression, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China
| | - Lei Feng
- Mood Disorders Centre & China Clinical Research Centre for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Mental Disorders, Beijing, China
| | - Bingbing Fu
- Mood Disorders Centre & China Clinical Research Centre for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Ning Zhong
- The International Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC) Institute, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
- The Beijing International Collaboration Base on Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, Beijing, China
- The Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China
- Department of Life Science and Informatics, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Maebashi-City, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Chelnokova O, Laeng B, Løseth G, Eikemo M, Willoch F, Leknes S. The µ-opioid system promotes visual attention to faces and eyes. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1902-1909. [PMID: 27531386 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2016] [Revised: 07/17/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Paying attention to others' faces and eyes is a cornerstone of human social behavior. The µ-opioid receptor (MOR) system, central to social reward-processing in rodents and primates, has been proposed to mediate the capacity for affiliative reward in humans. We assessed the role of the human MOR system in visual exploration of faces and eyes of conspecifics. Thirty healthy males received a novel, bidirectional battery of psychopharmacological treatment (an MOR agonist, a non-selective opioid antagonist, or placebo, on three separate days). Eye-movements were recorded while participants viewed facial photographs. We predicted that the MOR system would promote visual exploration of faces, and hypothesized that MOR agonism would increase, whereas antagonism decrease overt attention to the information-rich eye region. The expected linear effect of MOR manipulation on visual attention to the stimuli was observed, such that MOR agonism increased while antagonism decreased visual exploration of faces and overt attention to the eyes. The observed effects suggest that the human MOR system promotes overt visual attention to socially significant cues, in line with theories linking reward value to gaze control and target selection. Enhanced attention to others' faces and eyes represents a putative behavioral mechanism through which the human MOR system promotes social interest.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Olga Chelnokova
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0317, Norway
| | - Bruno Laeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0317, Norway
| | - Guro Løseth
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0317, Norway
| | - Marie Eikemo
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0317, Norway.,Norwegian Center for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0318, Norway.,Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo N-0318, Norway
| | - Frode Willoch
- Department of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0316, Norway
| | - Siri Leknes
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0317, Norway.,Department of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0316, Norway.,The Intervention Centre, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo N-0424, Norway
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Damilou A, Apostolakis S, Thrapsanioti E, Theleritis C, Smyrnis N. Shared and distinct oculomotor function deficits in schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder. Psychophysiology 2016; 53:796-805. [PMID: 26914941 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.12630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2015] [Accepted: 01/11/2016] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Detailed analysis of oculomotor function phenotypes in antisaccade, smooth eye pursuit, and active fixation tasks was performed in a sample of 44 patients with schizophrenia, 34 patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and 45 matched healthy controls. A common pattern of performance deficits in both schizophrenia and OCD emerged including higher antisaccade error rate, increased latency for corrective antisaccades, as well as higher rates of unwanted saccades in smooth eye pursuit compared to healthy controls. This common pattern could be related to the dysfunction of a network of cognitive control that is present in both disorders, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the posterior parietal cortex, and the anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, only patients with schizophrenia showed a specific increase for correct antisaccade mean latency and the intrasubject variability of latency for error prosaccades as well as a decrease in the gain for smooth eye pursuit, suggesting a specific deficit in saccadic motor control and the frontal eye field in schizophrenia that is not present in OCD. A specific deficit in fixation stability (increased frequency of unwanted saccades during active fixation) was observed only for OCD patients pointing to a deficit in the frontostriatal network controlling fixation. This deficit was pronounced for OCD patients receiving additional antipsychotic medication. In conclusion, oculomotor function showed shared and distinct patterns of deviance for schizophrenia and OCD pointing toward shared and specific neurobiological substrates for these psychiatric disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angeliki Damilou
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Sotirios Apostolakis
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Eleftheria Thrapsanioti
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Christos Theleritis
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.,Department of Psychiatry, National University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Smyrnis
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Control, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.,Department of Psychiatry, National University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Michael G, Masson M, Robert E, Bacon E, Desert JF, Rhein F, Offerlin-Meyer I, Colliot P. Disturbances of selective attention in traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia: What is common and what is different? PSYCHOLOGIE FRANCAISE 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.psfr.2014.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
|
28
|
Facial affect recognition in body dysmorphic disorder versus obsessive-compulsive disorder: An eye-tracking study. J Anxiety Disord 2015; 35:49-59. [PMID: 26363226 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2014] [Revised: 08/12/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterised by repetitive behaviours and/or mental acts occurring in response to preoccupations with perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This study aimed to investigate facial affect recognition in BDD using an integrated eye-tracking paradigm. METHOD Participants were 21 BDD patients, 19 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and 21 healthy controls (HC), who were age-, sex-, and IQ-matched. Stimuli were from the Pictures of Facial Affect (Ekman & Friesen, 1975), and outcome measures were affect recognition accuracy as well as spatial and temporal scanpath parameters. RESULTS Relative to OCD and HC groups, BDD patients demonstrated significantly poorer facial affect perception and an angry recognition bias. An atypical scanning strategy encompassing significantly more blinks, fewer fixations of extended mean durations, higher mean saccade amplitudes, and less visual attention devoted to salient facial features was found. CONCLUSIONS Patients with BDD were substantially impaired in the scanning of faces, and unable to extract affect-related information, likely indicating deficits in basic perceptual operations.
Collapse
|
29
|
Stroth S, Kamp D, Drusch K, Frommann N, Wölwer W. Training of Affect Recognition impacts electrophysiological correlates of facial affect recognition in schizophrenia: Analyses of fixation-locked potentials. World J Biol Psychiatry 2015. [PMID: 26212691 DOI: 10.3109/15622975.2015.1051110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Training of Affect Recognition (TAR) is a useful approach to restoring cognitive function in schizophrenic patients. Along with improving visual exploration of faces and altering central information processing in relevant brain areas, TAR attenuates impairments in facial affect recognition. In the present study, we investigate the effects of TAR on early electrophysiological correlates of facial affect recognition in schizophrenia. METHODS The study population comprised 12 schizophrenic patients and 14 healthy controls. In each individual, we carried out EEG, concomitant measurements of scanning eye movements and fixation-based low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) analyses of brain electric activity. All analyses were performed at baseline and after participation in TAR. RESULTS In patients, brain activation patterns significantly changed after completing the TAR. Functional improvements were particularly pronounced in the superior parietal and inferior parietal lobes, where trained patients showed a larger increase in activation than untrained healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS The TAR activates compensatory brain processes involved in the perception, attention and evaluation of emotional stimuli. This may underlie the established behavioral effects of the TAR in schizophrenic patients, which include improvements in facial affect recognition and alterations of visual exploration strategies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sanna Stroth
- a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf , Germany
| | - Daniel Kamp
- a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf , Germany
| | - Katharina Drusch
- a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf , Germany
| | - Nicole Frommann
- a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf , Germany
| | - Wolfgang Wölwer
- a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf , Germany
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Hillmann TE, Kempkensteffen J, Lincoln TM. Visual Attention to Threat-Related Faces and Delusion-Proneness: An Eye Tracking Study Using Dynamic Stimuli. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s10608-015-9699-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
|
31
|
Hills PJ, Eaton E, Pake JM. Correlations between psychometric schizotypy, scan path length, fixations on the eyes and face recognition. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2015; 69:611-25. [PMID: 25835241 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1034143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Psychometric schizotypy in the general population correlates negatively with face recognition accuracy, potentially due to deficits in inhibition, social withdrawal, or eye-movement abnormalities. We report an eye-tracking face recognition study in which participants were required to match one of two faces (target and distractor) to a cue face presented immediately before. All faces could be presented with or without paraphernalia (e.g., hats, glasses, facial hair). Results showed that paraphernalia distracted participants, and that the most distracting condition was when the cue and the distractor face had paraphernalia but the target face did not, while there was no correlation between distractibility and participants' scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Schizotypy was negatively correlated with proportion of time fixating on the eyes and positively correlated with not fixating on a feature. It was negatively correlated with scan path length and this variable correlated with face recognition accuracy. These results are interpreted as schizotypal traits being associated with a restricted scan path leading to face recognition deficits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Peter J Hills
- a Department of Psychology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK
| | - Elizabeth Eaton
- b Department of Psychology , Anglia Ruskin University , Cambridge , UK
| | - J Michael Pake
- b Department of Psychology , Anglia Ruskin University , Cambridge , UK
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Machado CJ, Whitaker AM, Smith SE, Patterson PH, Bauman MD. Maternal immune activation in nonhuman primates alters social attention in juvenile offspring. Biol Psychiatry 2015; 77:823-32. [PMID: 25442006 PMCID: PMC7010413 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.07.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2014] [Revised: 07/04/2014] [Accepted: 07/24/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sickness during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of offspring neurodevelopmental disorders. Rodent models have played a critical role in establishing causal relationships and identifying mechanisms of altered brain and behavior development in pups prenatally exposed to maternal immune activation (MIA). We recently developed a novel nonhuman primate model to bridge the gap between human epidemiological studies and rodent models of prenatal immune challenge. Our initial results demonstrated that rhesus monkeys given the viral mimic synthetic double-stranded RNA (polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid stabilized with poly-l-lysine) during pregnancy produce offspring with abnormal repetitive behaviors, altered communication, and atypical social interactions. METHODS We utilized noninvasive infrared eye tracking to further evaluate social processing capabilities in a subset of the first trimester MIA-exposed offspring (n = 4) and control animals (n = 4) from our previous study. RESULTS As juveniles, the MIA offspring differed from control animals on several measures of social attention, particularly when viewing macaque faces depicting the fear grimace facial expression. Compared with control animals, MIA offspring had a longer latency before fixating on the eyes, had fewer fixations directed at the eyes, and spent less total time fixating on the eyes of the fear grimace images. CONCLUSIONS In the rhesus monkey model, exposure to MIA at the end of the first trimester results in abnormal gaze patterns to salient social information. The use of noninvasive eye tracking extends the findings from rodent MIA models to more human-like behaviors resembling those in both autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.
Collapse
|
33
|
Dissociation of explicit and implicit responses during a change blindness task in schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia 2015; 71:11-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2014] [Revised: 03/11/2015] [Accepted: 03/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
|
34
|
Litschel R, Majoor J, Tasman AJ. Effect of Protruding Ears on Visual Fixation Time and Perception of Personality. JAMA FACIAL PLAST SU 2015; 17:183-9. [DOI: 10.1001/jamafacial.2015.0078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ralph Litschel
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Cantonal Hospital, St Gallen, Switzerland
| | - Juleke Majoor
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Cantonal Hospital, St Gallen, Switzerland
| | - Abel-Jan Tasman
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Cantonal Hospital, St Gallen, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Roux P, Passerieux C, Ramus F. An eye-tracking investigation of intentional motion perception in patients with schizophrenia. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2015; 40:118-25. [PMID: 25247443 PMCID: PMC4354817 DOI: 10.1503/jpn.140065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia has been characterized by an impaired attribution of intentions in social interactions. However, it remains unclear to what extent poor performance may be due to low-level processes or to later, higher-level stages or to what extent the deficit reflects an over- (hypermentalization) or underattribution of intentions (hypomentalization). METHODS We evaluated intentional motion perception using a chasing detection paradigm in individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and in healthy controls while eye movements were recorded. Smooth pursuit was measured as a control task. Eye-tracking was used to dissociate ocular from cognitive stages of processing. RESULTS We included 27 patients with schizophrenia, 2 with schizoaffective disorder and 29 controls in our analysis. As a group, patients had lower sensitivity to the detection of chasing than controls, but showed no bias toward the chasing present response. Patients showed a slightly different visual exploration strategy, which affected their ocular sensitivity to chasing. They also showed a decreased cognitive sensitivity to chasing that was not explained by differences in smooth pursuit ability, in visual exploration strategy or in general cognitive abilities. LIMITATIONS It is not clear whether the deficit in intentional motion detection demonstrated in this study might be explained by a general deficit in motion perception in individuals with schizophrenia or whether it is specific to the social domain. CONCLUSION Participants with schizophrenia showed a hypomentalization deficit: they adopted suboptimal visual exploration strategies and had difficulties deciding whether a chase was present or not, even when their eye movement revealed that chasing information had been seen correctly.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Paul Roux
- Correspondence to: P. Roux, Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie d’adultes, Centre Hospitalier de Versailles, 177 rue de Versailles, 78157 Le Chesnay, France;
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
36
|
Chen NTM, Thomas LM, Clarke PJF, Hickie IB, Guastella AJ. Hyperscanning and avoidance in social anxiety disorder: the visual scanpath during public speaking. Psychiatry Res 2015; 225:667-72. [PMID: 25530414 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.11.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2014] [Revised: 09/15/2014] [Accepted: 11/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating mental illness which is thought to be maintained in part by the aberrant attentional processing of socially relevant information. Critically however, research has not assessed whether such aberrant attentional processing occurs during social-evaluative contexts characteristically feared in SAD. The current study presents a novel approach for the assessment of the visuocognitive biases operating in SAD during a social-evaluative stressor. For this task, clinically socially anxious participants and controls were required to give a brief impromptu speech in front of a pre-recorded audience who intermittently displayed socially positive or threatening gestures. Participant gaze at the audience display was recorded throughout the speech. Socially anxious participants exhibited a significantly longer visual scanpath, relative to controls. In addition, socially anxious participants spent relatively longer time fixating at the non-social regions in between and around the confederates. The findings of the present study suggest that SAD is associated with hyperscanning and the attentional avoidance of social stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nigel Teik Ming Chen
- Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, 100 Mallett St, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia; Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Laurenn Maree Thomas
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Patrick Joseph Fraser Clarke
- Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Ian Bernard Hickie
- Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, 100 Mallett St, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia
| | - Adam John Guastella
- Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, 100 Mallett St, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Schwab S, Jost M, Altorfer A. Impaired top-down modulation of saccadic latencies in patients with schizophrenia but not in first-degree relatives. Front Behav Neurosci 2015; 9:44. [PMID: 25759644 PMCID: PMC4338814 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2014] [Accepted: 02/06/2015] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Impaired eye movements have a long history in schizophrenia research and meet the criteria of a reliable biomarker. However, the effects of cognitive load and task difficulty on saccadic latencies (SL) are less understood. Recent studies showed that SL are strongly task dependent: SL are decreased in tasks with higher cognitive demand, and increased in tasks with lower cognitive demand. The present study investigates SL modulation in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives. A group of 13 patients suffering from ICD-10 schizophrenia, 10 first-degree relatives, and 24 control subjects performed two different types of visual tasks: a color task and a Landolt ring orientation task. We used video-based oculography to measure SL. We found that patients exhibited a similar unspecific SL pattern in the two different tasks, whereas controls and relatives exhibited 20–26% shorter average latencies in the orientation task (higher cognitive demand) compared to the color task (lower cognitive demand). Also, classification performance using support vector machines suggests that relatives should be assigned to the healthy controls and not to the patient group. Therefore, visual processing of different content does not modulate SL in patients with schizophrenia, but modulates SL in the relatives and healthy controls. The results reflect a specific oculomotor attentional dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia that is a potential state marker, possibly caused by impaired top-down disinhibition of the superior colliculus by frontal/prefrontal areas such as the frontal eye fields.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Simon Schwab
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern , Bern , Switzerland
| | - Miriam Jost
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern , Bern , Switzerland
| | - Andreas Altorfer
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern , Bern , Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Emotion recognition impairment in traumatic brain injury compared with schizophrenia spectrum: similar deficits with different origins. J Nerv Ment Dis 2015; 203:87-95. [PMID: 25602943 DOI: 10.1097/nmd.0000000000000245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The aim of our study was to identify the common and separate mechanisms that might underpin emotion recognition impairment in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and schizophrenia (Sz) compared with healthy controls (HCs). We recruited 21 Sz outpatients, 24 severe TBI outpatients, and 38 HCs, and we used eye-tracking to compare facial emotion processing performance. Both Sz and TBI patients were significantly poorer at recognizing facial emotions compared with HC. Sz patients showed a different way of exploring the Pictures of Facial Affects stimuli and were significantly worse in recognition of neutral expressions. Selective or sustained attention deficits in TBI may reduce efficient emotion recognition, whereas in Sz, there is a more strategic deficit underlying the observed problem. There would seem to be scope for adjustment of effective rehabilitative training focused on emotion recognition.
Collapse
|
39
|
Drusch K, Stroth S, Kamp D, Frommann N, Wölwer W. Effects of Training of Affect Recognition on the recognition and visual exploration of emotional faces in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2014; 159:485-90. [PMID: 25248938 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2014.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2014] [Revised: 08/12/2014] [Accepted: 09/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia patients have impairments in facial affect recognition and display scanpath abnormalities during the visual exploration of faces. These abnormalities are characterized by fewer fixations on salient feature areas and longer fixation durations. The present study investigated whether social-cognitive remediation not only improves performance in facial affect recognition but also normalizes patients' gaze behavior while looking at faces. METHODS Within a 2 × 2-design (group × time), 16 schizophrenia patients and 16 healthy controls performed a facial affect recognition task with concomitant infrared oculography at baseline (T0) and after six weeks (T1). Between the measurements, patients completed the Training of Affect Recognition (TAR) program. The influence of the training on facial affect recognition (percent of correct answers) and gaze behavior (number and mean duration of fixations into salient or non-salient facial areas) was assessed. RESULTS In line with former studies, at baseline patients showed poorer facial affect recognition than controls and aberrant scanpaths, and after TAR facial affect recognition was improved. Concomitant with improvements in performance, the number of fixations in feature areas ('mouth') increased while fixations in non-feature areas ('white space') decreased. However, the change in fixation behavior did not correlate with the improvement in performance. CONCLUSIONS After TAR, patients pay more attention to facial areas that contain information about a displayed emotion. Although this may contribute to the improved performance, the lack of a statistical correlation implies that this factor is not sufficient to explain the underlying mechanism of the treatment effect.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Drusch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany.
| | - Sanna Stroth
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Daniel Kamp
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Nicole Frommann
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Wölwer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Dickie EW, Tahmasebi A, French L, Kovacevic N, Banaschewski T, Barker GJ, Bokde A, Büchel C, Conrod P, Flor H, Garavan H, Gallinat J, Gowland P, Heinz A, Ittermann B, Lawrence C, Mann K, Martinot JL, Nees F, Nichols T, Lathrop M, Loth E, Pausova Z, Rietschel M, Smolka MN, Ströhle A, Toro R, Schumann G, Paus T. Global genetic variations predict brain response to faces. PLoS Genet 2014; 10:e1004523. [PMID: 25122193 PMCID: PMC4133042 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2013] [Accepted: 05/30/2014] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Face expressions are a rich source of social signals. Here we estimated the proportion of phenotypic variance in the brain response to facial expressions explained by common genetic variance captured by ∼500,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Using genomic-relationship-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML), we related this global genetic variance to that in the brain response to facial expressions, as assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a community-based sample of adolescents (n = 1,620). Brain response to facial expressions was measured in 25 regions constituting a face network, as defined previously. In 9 out of these 25 regions, common genetic variance explained a significant proportion of phenotypic variance (40–50%) in their response to ambiguous facial expressions; this was not the case for angry facial expressions. Across the network, the strength of the genotype-phenotype relationship varied as a function of the inter-individual variability in the number of functional connections possessed by a given region (R2 = 0.38, p<0.001). Furthermore, this variability showed an inverted U relationship with both the number of observed connections (R2 = 0.48, p<0.001) and the magnitude of brain response (R2 = 0.32, p<0.001). Thus, a significant proportion of the brain response to facial expressions is predicted by common genetic variance in a subset of regions constituting the face network. These regions show the highest inter-individual variability in the number of connections with other network nodes, suggesting that the genetic model captures variations across the adolescent brains in co-opting these regions into the face network. We measured brain response to facial expressions in a large sample of typically developing adolescents (n = 1,620) and assessed “heritability” of the response using common genetic variations across the genome. In a subset of brain regions, we explained 40–50% of phenotypic variance by genetic variance. These brain regions appear to differ from the rest of the face network in the degree of inter-individual variations in their functional connectivity. We propose that these regions, including the prefrontal and premotor cortex, represent “Optional” part of the network co-opted by its “Obligatory” members, including the posterior part of the superior temporal sulcus, fusiform face area and the lateral occipital cortex, concerned with processing complex visual stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Erin W. Dickie
- Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Amir Tahmasebi
- Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Philips Research North America, Briarcliff Manor, New York, United States of America
| | - Leon French
- Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Natasa Kovacevic
- Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tobias Banaschewski
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
- Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Gareth J. Barker
- Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Arun Bokde
- Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Patricia Conrod
- Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychiatry, Universite de Montreal, CHU Ste Justine Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Herta Flor
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
- Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Hugh Garavan
- Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America
| | - Juergen Gallinat
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Penny Gowland
- Sir Peter Mansfield MR Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kindom
| | - Andreas Heinz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Bernd Ittermann
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig und Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Claire Lawrence
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kindom
| | - Karl Mann
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
- Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Jean-Luc Martinot
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM CEA Unit 1000 “Imaging & Psychiatry”, University Paris Sud, Orsay, and AP-HP Department of Adolescent Psychopathology and Medicine, Maison de Solenn, University Paris Descartes, Paris, France
| | - Frauke Nees
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
- Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | | | | | - Eva Loth
- Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre, London, United Kingdom
| | - Zdenka Pausova
- The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marcela Rietschel
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
- Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Michal N. Smolka
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Neuroimaging Center, Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andreas Ströhle
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Gunter Schumann
- Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Tomáš Paus
- Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kindom
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
|
42
|
Sieger T, Bonnet C, Serranová T, Wild J, Novák D, Růžička F, Urgošík D, Růžička E, Gaymard B, Jech R. Basal ganglia neuronal activity during scanning eye movements in Parkinson's disease. PLoS One 2013; 8:e78581. [PMID: 24223158 PMCID: PMC3819366 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2013] [Accepted: 09/16/2013] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The oculomotor role of the basal ganglia has been supported by extensive evidence, although their role in scanning eye movements is poorly understood. Nineteen Parkinsońs disease patients, which underwent implantation of deep brain stimulation electrodes, were investigated with simultaneous intraoperative microelectrode recordings and single channel electrooculography in a scanning eye movement task by viewing a series of colored pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System. Four patients additionally underwent a visually guided saccade task. Microelectrode recordings were analyzed selectively from the subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra pars reticulata and from the globus pallidus by the WaveClus program which allowed for detection and sorting of individual neurons. The relationship between neuronal firing rate and eye movements was studied by crosscorrelation analysis. Out of 183 neurons that were detected, 130 were found in the subthalamic nucleus, 30 in the substantia nigra and 23 in the globus pallidus. Twenty percent of the neurons in each of these structures showed eye movement-related activity. Neurons related to scanning eye movements were mostly unrelated to the visually guided saccades. We conclude that a relatively large number of basal ganglia neurons are involved in eye motion control. Surprisingly, neurons related to scanning eye movements differed from neurons activated during saccades suggesting functional specialization and segregation of both systems for eye movement control.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Sieger
- Department of Neurology and Center of Clinical Neuroscience, Charles University in Prague, 1st Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic ; Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
43
|
Millan MJ, Bales KL. Towards improved animal models for evaluating social cognition and its disruption in schizophrenia: the CNTRICS initiative. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2013; 37:2166-80. [PMID: 24090822 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2013] [Revised: 09/17/2013] [Accepted: 09/19/2013] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Social cognition refers to processes used to monitor and interpret social signals from others, to decipher their state of mind, emotional status and intentions, and select appropriate social behaviour. Social cognition is sophisticated in humans, being embedded with verbal language and enacted in a complex cultural environment. Its disruption characterises the entire course of schizophrenia and is correlated with poor functional outcome. Further, deficits in social cognition are related to impairment in other cognitive domains, positive symptoms (paranoia and delusions) and negative symptoms (social withdrawal and reduced motivation). In light of the significance and inadequate management of social cognition deficits, there is a need for translatable experimental procedures for their study, and identification of effective pharmacotherapy. No single paradigm captures the multi-dimensional nature of social cognition, and procedures for assessing ability to infer mental states are not well-developed for experimental therapeutic settings. Accordingly, a recent CNTRICS meeting prioritised procedures for measuring a specific construct: "acquisition and recognition of affective (emotional) states", coupled to individual recognition. Two complementary paradigms for refinement were identified: social recognition/preference in rodents, and visual tracking of social scenes in non-human primates (NHPs). Social recognition is disrupted in genetic, developmental or pharmacological disease models for schizophrenia, and performance in both procedures is improved by the neuropeptide oxytocin. The present article surveys a broad range of procedures for studying social cognition in rodents and NHPs, discusses advantages and drawbacks, and focuses on development of social recognition/preference and gaze-following paradigms for improved study of social cognition deficits in schizophrenia and their potential treatment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark J Millan
- Unit for Research and Discovery in Neuroscience, IDR Servier, 125 Chemin de Ronde, 78290 Croissy-sur-Seine, France.
| | | |
Collapse
|
44
|
Schwab S, Würmle O, Razavi N, Müri RM, Altorfer A. Eye-head coordination abnormalities in schizophrenia. PLoS One 2013; 8:e74845. [PMID: 24040351 PMCID: PMC3769305 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2013] [Accepted: 08/08/2013] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Eye-movement abnormalities in schizophrenia are a well-established phenomenon that has been observed in many studies. In such studies, visual targets are usually presented in the center of the visual field, and the subject's head remains fixed. However, in every-day life, targets may also appear in the periphery. This study is among the first to investigate eye and head movements in schizophrenia by presenting targets in the periphery of the visual field. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Two different visual recognition tasks, color recognition and Landolt orientation tasks, were presented at the periphery (at a visual angle of 55° from the center of the field of view). Each subject viewed 96 trials, and all eye and head movements were simultaneously recorded using video-based oculography and magnetic motion tracking of the head. Data from 14 patients with schizophrenia and 14 controls were considered. The patients had similar saccadic latencies in both tasks, whereas controls had shorter saccadic latencies in the Landolt task. Patients performed more head movements, and had increased eye-head offsets during combined eye-head shifts than controls. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Patients with schizophrenia may not be able to adapt to the two different tasks to the same extent as controls, as seen by the former's task-specific saccadic latency pattern. This can be interpreted as a specific oculomotoric attentional dysfunction and may support the hypothesis that schizophrenia patients have difficulties determining the relevance of stimuli. Patients may also show an uneconomic over-performance of head-movements, which is possibly caused by alterations in frontal executive function that impair the inhibition of head shifts. In addition, a model was created explaining 93% of the variance of the response times as a function of eye and head amplitude, which was only observed in the controls, indicating abnormal eye-head coordination in patients with schizophrenia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Simon Schwab
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- * E-mail:
| | - Othmar Würmle
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Nadja Razavi
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - René M. Müri
- Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Andreas Altorfer
- Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Current world literature. Curr Opin Psychiatry 2013; 26:231-6. [PMID: 23364282 DOI: 10.1097/yco.0b013e32835dd9de] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
|
46
|
Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis. Clin Psychol Rev 2012; 32:704-23. [PMID: 23059623 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2012.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 556] [Impact Index Per Article: 46.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2012] [Revised: 09/08/2012] [Accepted: 09/11/2012] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
A large body of research has demonstrated that affective disorders are characterized by attentional biases for emotional stimuli. However, this research relies heavily on manual reaction time (RT) measures that cannot fully delineate the time course and components of attentional bias. Eye tracking technology, which allows relatively direct and continuous measurement of overt visual attention, may provide an important supplement to RT measures. This article reviews eye tracking research on anxiety and depression, evaluating the experimental paradigms and eye movement indicators used to study attentional biases. Also included is a meta-analysis of extant eye tracking research (33 experiments; N=1579) on both anxiety and depression. Relative to controls, anxious individuals showed increased vigilance for threat during free viewing and visual search, and showed difficulty disengaging from threat in visual search tasks, but not during free viewing. In contrast, depressed individuals were not characterized by vigilance for threat during free viewing, but were characterized by reduced orienting to positive stimuli, as well as reduced maintenance of gaze on positive stimuli and increased maintenance of gaze on dysphoric stimuli. Implications of these findings for theoretical accounts of attentional bias in anxiety and depression are discussed, and avenues for future research using eye-tracking technology are outlined.
Collapse
|