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Visual processing of emotional dynamic faces in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
Author(s) -
Franchini M.,
Schaer M.,
Glaser B.,
KottRadecka M.,
Debanné M.,
Schneider M.,
Menghetti S.,
Sander D.,
Eliez S.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/jir.12250
Subject(s) - psychology , facial expression , deletion syndrome , cognitive psychology , task (project management) , cognition , emotion recognition , emotional expression , developmental psychology , social cognition , eye tracking , neuroscience , communication , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , management , optics , economics , gene , phenotype
Abstract Introduction The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a neurogenetic syndrome. Individuals affected by this syndrome present poor social functioning and a high risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. Accurate emotion recognition and visual exploration of faces represent important skills for appropriate development of social cognition in individuals with 22q11DS. For these reasons, there is elevated interest in establishing relevant ways to test the mechanisms associated with emotion recognition in patients with 22q11DS. Methods This study investigated emotional recognition and visual exploration of emotional faces in persons with 22q11DS, with a dynamic emotion task using an eye‐tracking device. To our knowledge, no previous studies have used emotional dynamic stimuli with 22q11DS, despite improved ecological validity of dynamic stimuli compared with static images. Furthermore, these stimuli provide the opportunity to collect reaction times, as indicators of the emotional intensity necessary for identifying each emotion. Results In our task, we observed comparable accuracy in emotion recognition in the 22q11DS and healthy control groups. However, individuals with 22q11DS were slower to recognise the emotions. They also spent less time looking at the nose during happy and fearful faces. Conclusions These results suggest that individuals with 22q11DS may need either more time or more pronounced emotional cues to correctly label facial expressions.