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Velthorst E, Socrates A, Alizadeh BZ, van Amelsvoort T, Bartels-Velthuis AA, Bruggeman R, Cahn W, de Haan L, Schirmbeck F, Simons CJP, van Os J, Fett AK. Age-Related Social Cognitive Performance in Individuals With Psychotic Disorders and Their First-Degree Relatives. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:1460-1469. [PMID: 37210736 PMCID: PMC10686369 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbad069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social cognitive impairment is a recognized feature of psychotic disorders. However, potential age-related differences in social cognitive impairment have rarely been studied. STUDY DESIGN Data came from 905 individuals with a psychotic disorder, 966 unaffected siblings, and 544 never-psychotic controls aged 18-55 who participated in the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study. Multilevel linear models were fitted to study group main effects and the interaction between group and age on emotion perception and processing (EPP; degraded facial affect recognition) and theory of mind (ToM; hinting task) performance. Age-related differences in the association between socio-demographic and clinical factors, and EPP and ToM were also explored. STUDY RESULTS Across groups, EPP performance was associated with age (β = -0.02, z = -7.60, 95% CI: -0.02, -0.01, P < .001), with older participants performing worse than younger ones. A significant group-by-age interaction on ToM (X2(2) = 13.15, P = .001) indicated that older patients performed better than younger ones, while no age-related difference in performance was apparent among siblings and controls. In patients, the association between negative symptoms and ToM was stronger for younger than older patients (z = 2.16, P = .03). CONCLUSIONS The findings point to different age-related performance patterns on tests of 2 key social cognitive domains. ToM performance was better in older individuals, although this effect was only observed for patients. EPP was less accurate in older compared with younger individuals. These findings have implications with respect to when social cognitive training should be offered to patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Velthorst
- Department of Research, Mental Health Organization “GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord,”Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands
| | - Adam Socrates
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Behrooz Z Alizadeh
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Therese van Amelsvoort
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Agna A Bartels-Velthuis
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Richard Bruggeman
- Rob Giel Research Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, University Center for Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Wiepke Cahn
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Psychiatry, Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Altrecht, General Mental Health Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Lieuwe de Haan
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Arkin, Institute for Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Frederike Schirmbeck
- Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Arkin, Institute for Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Claudia J P Simons
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- GGzE Institute for Mental Health Care, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Jim van Os
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Psychiatry, Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, King’s Health Partners, London, UK
| | - Anne-Kathrin Fett
- Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London, UK
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
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Zheng R, Ren D, Xie C, Pan J, Zhou G. Normality mediates the effect of symmetry on facial attractiveness. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2021; 217:103311. [PMID: 33933836 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 04/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Although symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism are usually considered important to facial attractiveness, there are mixed findings regarding whether and how symmetry influences facial attractiveness. The present study introduced "facial normality" to explain the inconsistency of previous research. We hypothesized that symmetry only increased facial attractiveness when it improved facial normality. We manipulated symmetry and normality simultaneously on sixteen Chinese male faces and asked participants to rate the perceived symmetry, perceived normality, and facial attractiveness. The results demonstrated an interactive effect of symmetry and normality on facial attractiveness. The structural equation model results showed two paths from symmetry to facial attractiveness: (1) Symmetry reduced facial attractiveness by decreasing perceived normality; (2) Symmetry increased facial attractiveness by increasing the perceived symmetry and then improving perceived normality. In other words, perceived normality acted as a mediator between symmetry and facial attractiveness. The present study provides a solution to the different effects of symmetry on facial attractiveness in previous studies and suggests that future studies on symmetry and facial attractiveness should consider the mediating role of normality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruoying Zheng
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Dongyan Ren
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chunyan Xie
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Junhao Pan
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Guomei Zhou
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
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Proietti V, Laurence S, Matthews CM, Zhou X, Mondloch CJ. Attending to identity cues reduces the own-age but not the own-race recognition advantage. Vision Res 2019; 157:184-191. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2017.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2017] [Revised: 11/10/2017] [Accepted: 11/15/2017] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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Short LA, Mondloch CJ, deJong J, Chan H. Evidence for a young adult face bias in accuracy and consensus of age estimates. Br J Psychol 2018; 110:652-669. [PMID: 30592308 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2018] [Revised: 11/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Adults' face processing may be specialized for the dimensions of young adult faces. For example, young and older adults exhibit increased accuracy in normality judgments and greater agreement in attractiveness ratings for young versus older adult faces. The present study was designed to examine whether there is a similar young adult face bias in facial age estimates. In Experiment 1, we created a face age continuum by morphing an averaged young adult face with an averaged older adult face in 5% increments, for a total of 21 faces ranging from 0 to 100% old. Young and older adults estimated facial age for three stimulus age categories [young (morphs 0-30%), middle-aged (morphs 35-65%), and older adult (morphs 70-100%)]. Both age groups showed the least differentiation in age estimates for young adult faces, despite showing greater consensus across participants in estimates for young faces. In Experiment 2, young and older adults made age estimates for individual young and older adult identities. Both age groups were more accurate and showed greater consensus in age estimates for young faces. Collectively, these results provide evidence for a bias in processing young adult faces beyond that which is often observed in recognition and normality/attractiveness judgment tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey A Short
- Department of Psychology, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Julia deJong
- Department of Psychology, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
| | - Harmonie Chan
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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Zhang Q, Ran G, Li X. The Perception of Facial Emotional Change in Social Anxiety: An ERP Study. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1737. [PMID: 30323779 PMCID: PMC6172413 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2018] [Accepted: 08/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social anxiety is one of the psychological symptoms that most commonly occur in social interaction. Although previous behavioral studies have investigated the neutral-angry facial emotion change in social anxiety, none of the previous studies have, however, directly investigated the angry-neutral facial emotional change. Furthermore, less is known about the neural correlates of the facial emotion changes in individuals with social anxiety. The main goal of the present study was to explore the perception of facial emotional changes in individuals with social anxiety, using high temporal resolution event-related potential techniques. Behaviorally, accuracy in the angry-neutral facial emotional change trail was lower than that in the neutral-neutral case. Neurally, we found that the N170 amplitudes in angry-neutral facial emotional change trial were larger than those in the neutral-neutral case for high social anxiety (HAS) participants, probably reflecting that they might engage in more analytical processing of different facial elements. Interestingly, HSA participants showed smaller P200 left hemisphere amplitudes in the angry-neutral facial emotional change trial when compared with the neutral-neutral case, which suggested that they might have difficulties in processing emotions when they encounter these facial emotional changes. Finally, the late positive potential amplitudes in the neutral-angry and angry-neutral facial emotional change trials were smaller than those in the neutral-neutral case, regardless of the social anxiety. These results suggest that social anxiety influences the facial emotional changes mainly at an earlier stage of processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Zhang
- College of Preschool and Primary Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China
| | - Guangming Ran
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China
| | - Xueping Li
- College of Preschool and Primary Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China
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Ran G, Chen X. The Impact of Top-Down Prediction on Emotional Face Processing in Social Anxiety. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1269. [PMID: 28790960 PMCID: PMC5524894 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2017] [Accepted: 07/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
There is evidence that people with social anxiety show abnormal processing of emotional faces. To investigate the impact of top-down prediction on emotional face processing in social anxiety, brain responses of participants with high and low social anxiety (LSA) were recorded, while they performed a variation of the emotional task, using high temporal resolution event-related potential techniques. Behaviorally, we reported an effect of prediction with higher accuracy for predictable than unpredictable faces. Furthermore, we found that participants with high social anxiety (HSA), but not with LSA, recognized angry faces more accurately than happy faces. For the P100 and P200 components, HSA participants showed enhanced brain activity for angry faces compared to happy faces, suggesting a hypervigilance to angry faces. Importantly, HSA participants exhibited larger N170 amplitudes in the right hemisphere electrodes than LSA participants when they observed unpredictable angry faces, but not when the angry faces were predictable. This probably reflects the top-down prediction improving the deficiency at building a holistic face representation in HSA participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangming Ran
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, China West Normal UniversityNanchong, China
| | - Xu Chen
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest UniversityChongqing, China
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Zhou X, Short LA, Chan HSJ, Mondloch CJ. Judging Normality and Attractiveness in Faces: Direct Evidence of a More Refined Representation for Own-Race, Young Adult Faces. Perception 2016; 45:973-90. [DOI: 10.1177/0301006616652044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Young and older adults are more sensitive to deviations from normality in young than older adult faces, suggesting that the dimensions of face space are optimized for young adult faces. Here, we extend these findings to own-race faces and provide converging evidence using an attractiveness rating task. In Experiment 1, Caucasian and Chinese adults were shown own- and other-race face pairs; one member was undistorted and the other had compressed or expanded features. Participants indicated which member of each pair was more normal (a task that requires referencing a norm) and which was more expanded (a task that simply requires discrimination). Participants showed an own-race advantage in the normality task but not the discrimination task. In Experiment 2, participants rated the facial attractiveness of own- and other-race faces (Experiment 2a) or young and older adult faces (Experiment 2b). Between-rater variability in ratings of individual faces was higher for other-race and older adult faces; reduced consensus in attractiveness judgments reflects a less refined face space. Collectively, these results provide direct evidence that the dimensions of face space are optimized for own-race and young adult faces, which may underlie face race- and age-based deficits in recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaomei Zhou
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St Catharines, ON, Canada
| | - Lindsey A. Short
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St Catharines, Canada; Department of Psychology, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Canada
| | | | - Catherine J. Mondloch
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St Catharines, Canada; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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Gender differences in ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity associated with valuation of faces. Neuroscience 2016; 328:194-200. [PMID: 27155151 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.04.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Revised: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 04/28/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Psychological studies have indicated that males exhibit stronger preferences for physical attributes in the opposite gender, such as facial attractiveness, than females. However, whether gender differences in mate preference originate from differential brain activity remains unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the patterns of brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region critical for the valuation of faces, in response to elderly male, elderly female, young male, and young female faces. During fMRI, male and female subjects were presented with a face and asked to rate its pleasantness. Following fMRI, the subjects were presented with pairs of faces and asked to select the face that they preferred. We analyzed the vmPFC activity during the pleasantness-rating task according to the gender of the face stimulus (male and female) and the age of the face stimulus (elderly and young). Consistent with the results of previous studies, the vmPFC activity parametrically coded the subjective value of faces. Importantly, the vmPFC activity was sensitive to physical attributes, such as the youthfulness and gender of the faces, only in the male subjects. These findings provide a possible neural explanation for gender differences in mate preference.
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Short LA, Proietti V, Mondloch CJ. Representing young and older adult faces: Shared or age-specific prototypes? VISUAL COGNITION 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2015.1115794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Short LA, Semplonius T, Proietti V, Mondloch CJ. Differential attentional allocation and subsequent recognition for young and older adult faces. VISUAL COGNITION 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2014.993007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Proietti V, Macchi Cassia V, Mondloch CJ. The own-age face recognition bias is task dependent. Br J Psychol 2014; 106:446-67. [PMID: 25491773 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2014] [Revised: 10/15/2014] [Accepted: 10/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The own-age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own-age than other-age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other-age faces) completed a match-to-sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and older adults completed an identity detection task in which we manipulated the identity strength of target and distracter identities by morphing each face with an average face in 20% steps. Accuracy increased with identity strength and facial age influenced older adults' (but not younger adults') strategy, but there was no evidence of an OAB. Collectively, these results suggest that the OAB depends on task demands and may be absent when searching for one identity.
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Short LA, Mondloch CJ, Hackland AT. Attractiveness judgments and discrimination of mommies and grandmas: perceptual tuning for young adult faces. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 129:1-11. [PMID: 25222629 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2014] [Revised: 08/14/2014] [Accepted: 08/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Adults are more accurate in detecting deviations from normality in young adult faces than in older adult faces despite exhibiting comparable accuracy in discriminating both face ages. This deficit in judging the normality of older faces may be due to reliance on a face space optimized for the dimensions of young adult faces, perhaps because of early and continuous experience with young adult faces. Here we examined the emergence of this young adult face bias by testing 3- and 7-year-old children on a child-friendly version of the task used to test adults. In an attractiveness judgment task, children viewed young and older adult face pairs; each pair consisted of an unaltered face and a distorted face of the same identity. Children pointed to the prettiest face, which served as a measure of their sensitivity to the dimensions on which faces vary relative to a norm. To examine whether biases in the attractiveness task were specific to deficits in referencing a norm or extended to impaired discrimination, we tested children on a simultaneous match-to-sample task with the same stimuli. Both age groups were more accurate in judging the attractiveness of young faces relative to older faces; however, unlike adults, the young adult face bias extended to the match-to-sample task. These results suggest that by 3 years of age, children's perceptual system is more finely tuned for young adult faces than for older adult faces, which may support past findings of superior recognition for young adult faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey A Short
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada; Department of Psychology, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario L9K 1J4, Canada.
| | - Catherine J Mondloch
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada
| | - Anne T Hackland
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada
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