Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T21:54:44.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Let's Face It: Facial Emotion Processing Is Impaired in Bipolar Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2014

Tamsyn Elizabeth Van Rheenen  and
Susan Lee Rossell
Tamsyn Elizabeth Van Rheenen*
Affiliation:
Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Central Clinical School, Monash University and the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Susan Lee Rossell
Affiliation:
Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Central Clinical School, Monash University and the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Tamsyn Van Rheenen, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Lab, Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc), Level 4, 607 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia. E-mail: tvanrheenen@swin.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have difficulty in recognizing and discriminating facial emotions. However, beyond this broad finding, existing literature is equivocal about the specific nature of impairments, and progress toward adequately profiling facial emotion processing in BD is hampered by methodological inconsistencies. The current study aimed to advance the literature by comparing 50 BD patients and 52 controls on a series of facial emotion processing tasks. Results indicated that patients with BD had a small, yet consistent impairment in emotion processing overall. This impairment did not vary as a function of specific emotions, tasks, or intensities between groups, and was not influenced by current mood state. These results suggest that past inconsistencies in the literature are unlikely to be attributable to task related artifacts influencing the estimation of an effect. These findings add to our understanding of social cognition in BD, and have important implications for clinicians treating patients with the disorder. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–9)

Keywords

CognitionEmotionNeuropsychologyEmotion perceptionSocial cognitionMood disordersEmotion recognition
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , February 2014 , pp. 200 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrosoft (2012). Fantamorph.Google Scholar
Addington, J., Addington, D. (1998). Facial affect recognition and information processing in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Research, 32, 171–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ambadar, Z., Schooler, J.W., Cohn, J.F. (2005). Deciphering the enigmatic face. Psychological Science, 16, 403–410. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01548.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bozikas, V.P., Tonia, T., Fokas, K., Karavatos, A., Kosmidis, M.H. (2006). Impaired emotion processing in remitted patients with bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 91, 53–56.Google Scholar
Brotman, M.A., Guyer, A.E., Lawson, E.S., Horsey, S.E., Rich, B.A., Dickstein, D.P., Leibenluft, E. (2008). Facial emotion labeling deficits in children and adolescents at risk for bipolar disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 385–389.Google Scholar
Brotman, M.A., Skup, M., Rich, B.A., Blair, K.S., Pine, D.S., Blair, J.S., Leibenluft, E. (2008). Risk for bipolar disorder is associated with face processing deficits across emotions. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 1455–1461.Google Scholar
Derntl, B., Seidel, E.-M., Kryspin-Exner, I., Hasmann, A., Dobmeier, M. (2009). Facial emotion recognition in patients with bipolar I and bipolar II disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 363–375. doi:10.1348/014466509×404845 Google Scholar
Ekman, P., Friesen, W.V. (1976). Pictures of facial affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Google Scholar
Feinberg, T.E., Rifkin, A., Schaffer, C., Walker, E. (1986). Facial discrimination and emotional recognition in schizophrenia and affective disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 276–279. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1986.01800030094010 Google Scholar
Getz, G.E., Shear, P.K., Strakowski, S.M. (2003). Facial affect recognition deficits in bipolar disorder. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 623–632.Google Scholar
Gray, J., Venn, H., Montagne, B., Murray, L., Burt, M., Frigerio, E., Young, A.H. (2006). Bipolar patients show mood-congruent biases in sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion when exhibiting depressed symptoms, but not when exhibiting manic symptoms. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 11, 505–520. doi:10.1080/13546800544000028 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyer, A.E., McClure, E.B., Adler, A.D., Brotman, M.A., Rich, B.A., Kimes, A.S., Leibenluft, E. (2007). Specificity of facial expression labeling deficits in childhood psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 863–871. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01758.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harmer, C.J., Grayson, L., Goodwin, G.M. (2002). Enhanced recognition of disgust in bipolar illness. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 298–304.Google Scholar
Hoertnagl, C.M., Muehlbacher, M., Biedermann, F., Yalcin, N., Baumgartner, S., Schwitzer, G., Hofer, A. (2011). Facial emotion recognition and its relationship to subjective and functional outcomes in remitted patients with bipolar I disorder. Bipolar Disorders, 13, 537–544. doi:10.1111/j.1399-5618.2011.00947.x Google Scholar
Lembke, A., Ketter, T.A. (2002). Impaired recognition of facial emotion in mania. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 302–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martino, D.J., Strejilevich, S.A., Fassi, G., Marengo, E., Igoa, A. (2011). Theory of mind and facial emotion recognition in euthymic bipolar I and bipolar II disorders. Psychiatry Research, 189, 379–384. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2011.04.033 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montgomery, S.A., Asberg, M. (1979). A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 382–389.Google Scholar
Neurobehavioral Systems Inc (2012). Presentation, Version 14.8.Google Scholar
Rossell, S.L., Van Rheenen, T.E., Groot, C., Gogos, A., Joshua, N.R. (2013). Investigating affective prosody in psychosis: A study using the Comprehensive Affective Testing System. Psychiatry Research, 210, 896–900. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2013.07.037 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samamé, C., Martino, D.J., Strejilevich, S.A. (2012). Social cognition in euthymic bipolar disorder: Systematic review and meta-analytic approach. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 125, 266–280. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2011.01808.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaefer, K.L., Baumann, J., Rich, B.A., Luckenbaugh, D.A., Zarate, C.A. Jr (2010). Perception of facial emotion in adults with bipolar or unipolar depression and controls. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 44, 1229–1235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schenkel, L.S., Pavuluri, M.N., Herbener, E.S., Harral, E.M., Sweeney, J.A. (2007). Facial emotion processing in acutely ill and euthymic patients with pediatric bipolar disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 1070–1079.Google Scholar
Sheehan, D.V., Lecrubier, Y., Harnett Sheehan, K., Amorim, P., Janavs, J., Weiller, E., Dunbar, G.C. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59, 22–33.Google Scholar
Summers, M., Papadopoulou, K., Bruno, S., Cipolotti, L., Ron, M.A. (2006). Bipolar I and bipolar II disorder: Cognition and emotion processing. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1799–1809.Google Scholar
Van Rheenen, T.E., Rossell, S.L. (2013a). Genetic and neurocognitive foundations of emotion abnormalities in bipolar disorder. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 18, 168–207. doi:10.1080/13546805.2012.690938 Google Scholar
Van Rheenen, T.E., Rossell, S.L. (2013b). Is the non-verbal behavioural emotion-processing profile of bipolar disorder impaired? A critical review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128, 163–178. doi:10.1111/acps.12125 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaskinn, A., Sundet, K., Friis, S., Simonsen, C., Birkenæs, A.B., Engh, J.A., Andreassen, O.A. (2007). The effect of gender on emotion perception in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 116, 263–270. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.00991.x Google Scholar
Vederman, A.C., Weisenbach, S.L., Rapport, L.J., Leon, H.M., Haase, B.D., Franti, L.M., McInnis, M.G. (2012). Modality-specific alterations in the perception of emotional stimuli in bipolar disorder compared to healthy controls and major depressive disorder. Cortex, 48, 1027–1034.Google Scholar
Venn, H.R., Gray, J.M., Montagne, B., Murray, L.K., Michael Burt, D., Frigerio, E., Young, A.H. (2004). Perception of facial expressions of emotion in bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorders, 6, 286–293. doi:10.1111/j.1399-5618.2004.00121.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, E., McGuire, M., Bettes, B. (1984). Recognition and identification of facial stimuli by schizophrenics and patients with affective disorders. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 37–44. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8260.1984.tb00624.x Google Scholar
Young, R., Biggs, J., Ziegler, V., Meyer, D. (1978). A rating scale for mania: Reliability, validity and sensitivity. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 429–435. doi:10.1192/bjp.133.5.429 Google Scholar