Alcoholism and judgments of affective stimuli.

Abstract

This study sought to differentiate alcoholism-related changes in judgments of emotional stimuli from those of other populations in which such changes have been documented. Two sets of visual stimuli, one containing words and the other containing drawings of faces (representing a range of emotional content), were presented to abstinent alcoholic adults with and without Korsakoff's syndrome, as well as to a healthy control group and four groups of patients with other neurobehavioral disorders: Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Participants rated the stimuli according to emotional valence and intensity of emotion. Results implicated bi-hemispheric frontal and subcortical involvement in the abnormalities of emotion identification associated with alcoholism, and they also support the notion of age-related vulnerabilities in conjunction with alcoholism. Keywords alcoholism; aging; Korsakoff's syndrome; emotion; neurobehavioral disorders Emotional changes that accompany long-term chronic alcoholism cover a broad spectrum (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1997) and have significant social and interpersonal significance (Kornreich et al., 2002). Among the abnormalities are affective processing deficits such as a diminished ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion (Howard, Oscar-Berman, Marinkovic, O'Reilly, & Harris, 2003;Kornreich et al., 2002;Philippot et al., 1999;Townshend & Duka, 2003) and reduced ability to decipher affective prosody in spoken language (Monnot, Nixon, Lovallo, & Ross, 2001). The abnormalities in Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Marlene Oscar-Berman, Boston University School of Medicine L-815, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118. oscar@bu.edu. Uraina S. Clark, Department of Psychology, Boston University; Marlene Oscar-Berman, Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Psychiatry, and Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, and Psychology Research Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Boston Campus; Barbara Shagrin, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Boston Campus; Michael Pencina, Department of Mathematics, Boston University. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptNeuropsychology. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 July 08. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript emotional perception have been attributed to a combination of underlying factors, for example, visuospatial deficits, abnormal processing of social information, poor inhibitory control, and interpersonal stress (Moselhy, Georgiou, & Kahn, 2001;Philippot et al., 1999). Brain changes associated with these deficits include pathology of frontosubcortical and limbic systems or disturbances in the functioning of the right hemisphere (Bowirrat & Oscar-Berman, 2005;. For example, it has been suggested that alcoholic individuals' tendencies to overestimate facial emotions could be related to interference with frontally mediated disinhibition proces...

The effect of alcohol dependence on automatic visuo-spatial perspective taking

“…Moreover, AD participants were also more likely to interpret a happy face as expressing a negative mood. Similarly, Clark et al (2007) report that AD participants rated drawings and emotional words, across valences, as more intense than controls, and Kornreich et al (2013) report higher emotional intensity ratings to music, faces and voices by AD participants compared with controls. Taken together, these data suggest that a wide variety of emotional stimuli and emotional expressions are often interpreted differently by AD participants compared to controls.…”

“…Alcohol abuse over a significant period, may well lead to slower cognitive skill, manifested in memory, mental speed and motor responses (Clark et al, 2007;OscarBerman and Marinkovic, 2003). There is also a high comorbidity between alcohol dependence and anxiety and depression with both these clinical conditions reported to heighten awareness of emotional stimuli (Williams et al, 1996).…”

“…Social cognition can be slow and intentional, e.g., the deliberation of a jury in a court of law, but it is also important for successful communication that we are able to process social information quickly and economically in real time social interactions (Apperly, 2012). Increasing evidence shows that social cognition is compromised in those who are alcohol dependent (AD) including the recognition and evaluation of emotional stimuli (Clark et al, 2007;Kornreich et al, 2013;Maurage et al, 2007Maurage et al, , 2008Philippot et al, 1999;Townshend and Duka, 2003); humour processing (Uekermann et al, 2007), understanding how others might feel (Bosco et al, 2014) and tracking the beliefs of others (Maurage et al, 2015).…”

Dissociation Between Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Alcoholism: A Specific Deficit for the Emotional Dimension

“…Indeed, alcoholic individuals present a differential deficit for emotional stimuli, as they have preserved cognitive and semantic evaluation of emotional stimuli (e.g., Clark et al, 2007;Maurage et al, 2009), but impaired affective evaluation of these stimuli (e.g., Marinkovic et al, 2009;Uekermann et al, 2005). Alcoholism could thus be the first clinical condition to combine preserved cognitive and impaired emotional empathy.…”

Theory of Mind Among Young Adult Children From Alcoholic Families

“…Studies also have shown evidence for impaired cognitive processing of simple emotions in alcohol-dependent patients (Clark et al, 2007;Kornreich et al, 2001aKornreich et al, , 2001bKornreich et al, , 2002Kornreich et al, , 2003Philippot et al, 1999;Townshend and Duka, 2003). Because poor neuropsychological function may be a risk factor for substance use disorders that are transmitted from parent to child, we hypothesized that poor perception of social information may likewise be a risk factor for substance use disorders and may be transmitted from parent to child, whether biologically or environmentally.…”