Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions in Depressed Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Of the neurobiological models of children's and adolescents' depression, the neuropsychological one is considered here. Experimental and clinical evidence has allowed us to identify a lateralization of emotional functions from the very beginning of development, and a right hemisphere dominance for emotions is by now well-known. Many studies have also correlated depression with a right hemisphere dysfunction in patients of different ages. The aim of our study was to analyze recognition of different facial emotions by a group of depressed children and adolescents. Patients affected by Major Depressive Disorder recognized less fear in six fundamental emotions than a group of healthy controls, and Dysthymic subjects recognized less anger. The group of patients' failure to recognize negative-aroused facial expressions could indicate a subtle right hemisphere dysfunction in depressed children and adolescents.

Mental State Decoding in Adolescent Boys with Major Depressive Disorder versus Sex-Matched Healthy Controls

“…However, we found no significant within-group effect of valence meaning that both groups were similarly accurate across positive, negative and neutral mental states. These collective results deviate from some mental state decoding findings in adults and adolescents [11,24,25]; however, they are consistent with reports of a positive cross-sectional relation between depression and mental state decoding, with higher depression being associated with better decoding [21]. Additionally, the fact that depressed boys exhibited greater accuracy for negative items, specifically, is in line with findings by Wolkenstein et al [19].…”

“…However, it is difficult to meaningfully contrast these findings due to differences in measurement. The types of affective stimuli used in these studies measure emotional identification specifically, rather than mental states [24,25]. Nonetheless, our findings do support the association between depression and a propensity for the identification of negatively valenced stimuli [39].…”

“…While there has yet to be an RMET investigation of adolescents with current MDD, other studies using nonclinical [22,23] and clinical youth samples [24,25] have examined the relation between mental state decoding and depression using stimuli depicting entire faces. Among nonclinical community participants, greater depressive symptoms were associated with poorer decoding accuracy among boys but not girls [22].…”

“…A separate nonclinical study found depression to be associated with greater perceived intensity of anger and joy [23]. Poorer overall decoding accuracy with a bias toward negative emotion has been reported in clinically anxious-depressed youth [24]; however, adolescents with remitted MDD or dysthymia, a combined depression group, were found to exhibit similar decoding accuracy as compared to HCs [25]. While informative, these clinical studies had mixed findings, were limited by small sample sizes of depressive participants (n = 15), and did not include youth experiencing current MDD.…”

Affect Recognition in Adults With ADHD

“…Second, there is evidence of emotion dysregulation in adults with ADHD (Reimherr et al, 2005). Third, some research has shown evidence of deficits in affect recognition in children with ADHD (e.g., Pelc, Kornreich, Foisy, & Dan, 2006), although findings have been somewhat mixed and stronger associations have been found linking nonverbal deficits to mood and anxiety disorders (Brotman et al, 2008; Easter et al, 2005; Lenti, Giacobbe, & Pegna, 2000; McClure, Pope, Hoberman, Pine, & Leibenluft, 2003; McClure et al, 2005). …”