Effects of the mu-opioid receptor agonist morphine on facial mimicry and emotion recognition

Massaccesi, Claudia; Korb, Sebastian; Willeit, M.; Quednow, Boris B.; Silani, Giorgia

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105801

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…pleasantness of pain relief (Sirucek et al, 2021), photos of rewarding faces and bodies (Buchel et al, 2018;Chelnokova et al, 2014Chelnokova et al, , 2016, monetary reward (Eikemo et al, 2017) and taste reward (Eikemo et al, 2016;Korb et al, 2020). Small (or null) effects are also often reported in opioid antagonist studies of socially relevant behaviours such as emotion perception (Løseth et al, 2018;Massaccesi et al, 2022;Wardle et al, 2016), facial mimicry (Korb et al, 2023), responses to music (Laeng et al, 2021;Mallik et al, 2017;Mas-Herrero et al, 2023) and stroking touch (Case et al, 2016;Loseth et al, 2019). Consistent with this literature -though perhaps more surprising -are studies reporting small or even null effects of opioid antagonism on experimental (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Endogenous Mu-Opioid Modulation of Social Connection in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Løseth,

Trøstheim,

Leknes

2023

Preprint

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Background: Social bonding, essential for health and survival in all social species, depends on mu-opioid signalling in non-human mammals. A growing neuroimaging and psychopharmacology literature also implicates mu-opioids in human social connectedness. Methods: To determine the role of mu-opioids for social connectedness in healthy humans, we conducted a preregistered (osf.io/x5wmq) multilevel random-effects meta-analysis of randomized double-blind placebo-controlled opioid antagonist studies. We included data from 8 publications and 2 unpublished projects, totalling 17 outcomes (N = 455) sourced from a final literature search in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and EMBASE on October 12, 2023, and through community contributions. All studies used naltrexone (25-100mg) to block the mu-opioid system and measured social connectedness by self-report. Results: Opioid antagonism slightly reduced feelings of social connectedness (Hedges’ g [95% CI) = -0.20 [-0.32, -0.07]. Results were highly consistent within and between studies (I2 = 23%). However, there was some indication of bias in favour of larger effects among smaller studies (Egger’s test: B = -2.16, SE = 0.93, z = -2.33, p = 0.02), and publication bias analysis indicated that the effect of naltrexone might be overestimated.Discussion: The results clearly demonstrate that intact mu-opioid signalling is not essential for experiencing social connectedness, as robust feelings of connectedness are evident even during full pharmacological mu-opioid blockade. Nevertheless, antagonism reduced measures of social connection, consistent with a modulatory role of mu-opioids for human social connectedness. The modest effect size relative to findings in non-human animals, could be related to differences in measurement (subjective human responses versus behavioural/motivation indices in animals), species specific neural mechanisms, or naltrexone effects on other opioid receptor subtypes. In sum, these results help explain how mu-opioid dysregulation and social disconnection can contribute to disability, and conversely – how social connection can buffer risk of ill health. Other: This work was supported by the European Research Council.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Endogenous Mu-Opioid Modulation of Social Connection in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Løseth,

Trøstheim,

Leknes

2023

Preprint

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“…Dopamine and endogenous opioids have been established as the lead chemicals involved in the anticipation of and response to both social and non-social rewards (Berridge and Kringelbach 2015 ; Massaccesi et al 2022 ), and previous research has shown that these neurotransmitter systems are reliably modulated by the here-used drugs and doses (Racagni et al 2004 ; Trøstheim et al 2023 ; Weber et al 2016 ). Pharmacological challenges of the opioidergic system have however resulted in mixed effects on facial mimicry, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pharmacological challenges of the opioidergic system have however resulted in mixed effects on facial mimicry, i.e. reduced frowning (Meier et al 2016 ) or no change in facial mimicry (Wardle et al 2016 ) after administration of the opioid-receptor antagonist naltrexone, and reduced mimicry of fear (but not happiness nor anger) after administration of the mu-opioid receptor agonist morphine (Massaccesi et al 2022 ). Measures of facial mimicry after a targeted modulation of the dopamine system are lacking, but greater corrugator relaxation in response to happy faces was found after administration of MDMA (Wardle and de Wit 2014 ), which mainly acts on the serotonin and noradrenaline system, but also influences the dopamine system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, reduced frowning, but no change in smiling, have been observed in response to happy faces after administration of 50 mg of naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist (Meier et al 2016 ), while another study found no significant effects of 25 or 50 mg of naltrexone on the facial mimicry of angry, fearful, happy, and sad facial expressions (Wardle et al 2016 ). Recently, we reported some reduction in the mimicry of fear, but no effects on mimicry of happiness or anger, after administration of 10 mg of morphine, a highly selective mu-opioid receptor agonist (Massaccesi et al 2022 ). Even less is known about the role of the dopamine system in facial mimicry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Facial mimicry is not modulated by dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism

et al. 2023

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Rationale According to theories of embodied cognition, facial mimicry — the spontaneous, low-intensity imitation of a perceived emotional facial expression — is first an automatic motor response, whose accompanying proprioceptive feedback contributes to emotion recognition. Alternative theoretical accounts, however, view facial mimicry as an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, and/or an affiliative signal, and thus reject the view of an automatic motor copy. Objectives To contribute to this debate and further investigate the neural basis of facial mimicry, as well as its relation to reward processing, we measured facial reactions to dynamic happy and angry faces after pharmacologically manipulating the opioid and dopamine systems — respectively, thought to subserve ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’ of rewards. Methods In a placebo-controlled, double-blind experiment, 130 volunteers received in a between-subjects design 50 mg of the opioidergic antagonist naltrexone, 400 mg of the dopaminergic antagonist amisulpride, or placebo. Results Clear occurrence of facial mimicry, measured 4 h after drug intake with electromyography (EMG) of the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles, was found. However, facial mimicry was not affected by either compound, as shown with both frequentist statistics, and a Bayesian asymptotic regression model. Conclusions This null finding does not support the hypothesis that facial mimicry (of happiness) reflects an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, leaving open the possibility of facial mimicry being an automatic motor copy. The results are relevant to the discussion about the psychological nature and the neural basis of facial mimicry, although they should be considered preliminary, given the challenges of interpreting null findings when targeting a novel effect of unknown size.

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Facial expression and body gesture emotion recognition: A systematic review on the use of visual data in affective computing

Leong¹,

Tang

Lai³

et al. 2023

Computer Science Review

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Effects of the mu-opioid receptor agonist morphine on facial mimicry and emotion recognition

Cited by 5 publications

References 49 publications

Endogenous Mu-Opioid Modulation of Social Connection in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Endogenous Mu-Opioid Modulation of Social Connection in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Facial mimicry is not modulated by dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism

Facial expression and body gesture emotion recognition: A systematic review on the use of visual data in affective computing

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