Author:

Keywords:

post-traumatic stress disorder, ptsd, facial expression, emotion recognition, face perception, event-related potentials, facial expressions, impaired recognition, hippocampal volume, sexual-abuse, brain-injury, emotion, perception, ptsd, depression, Science & Technology, Social Sciences, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Behavioral Sciences, Neurosciences, Psychology, Experimental, Neurosciences & Neurology, Psychology, Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, Facial expression, Emotion recognition, Face perception, EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS, FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, IMPAIRED RECOGNITION, HIPPOCAMPAL VOLUME, SEXUAL-ABUSE, BRAIN-INJURY, EMOTION, PERCEPTION, PTSD, DEPRESSION, Adult, Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Recognition, Psychology, Social Perception, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, 1109 Neurosciences, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Experimental Psychology, 3209 Neurosciences, 5202 Biological psychology, 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology

Abstract:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with impairments in emotional experience and expression. The current study examined the recognition of emotional facial expressions in PTSD patients and matched healthy controls, both in terms of accuracy and sensitivity. The task involved short video clips of a neutral face changing (morphing) into one of the six basic emotions (happiness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and sadness). Clips differed in length, with short clips terminating at 20% of maximum emotional intensity, and the longest ones ending with a full-blown expression. We observed a specific impairment in the PTSD group for recognizing the emotions fear and sadness. This result was observed via a reduced accuracy and a decreased sensitivity for these emotions. We discuss the observed altered affective processing and its possible clinical implications. (C) 2010 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.