Open AccessPsychological functioning in survivors of COVID-19: Evidence from recognition of fearful facial expressions
Author(s) -
Federica Scarpina,
Marco Godi,
Stefano Corna,
Ionathan Seitanidis,
Paolo Capodaglio,
Alessandro Mauro
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0254438
Subject(s) - facial expression , psychology , covid-19 , psychological intervention , distress , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , communication , disease
Evidence about the psychological functioning in individuals who survived the COVID-19 infectious is still rare in the literature. In this paper, we investigated fearful facial expressions recognition, as a behavioural means to assess psychological functioning. From May 15th, 2020 to January 30th, 2021, we enrolled sixty Italian individuals admitted in multiple Italian COVID-19 post-intensive care units. The detection and recognition of fearful facial expressions were assessed through an experimental task grounded on an attentional mechanism (i.e., the redundant target effect). According to the results, our participants showed an altered behaviour in detecting and recognizing fearful expressions. Specifically, their performance was in disagreement with the expected behavioural effect. Our study suggested altered processing of fearful expressions in individuals who survived the COVID-19 infectious. Such a difficulty might represent a crucial sign of psychological distress and it should be addressed in tailored psychological interventions in rehabilitative settings and after discharge.