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Angry Faces (angry + face)
Selected AbstractsBias in attending to emotional facial expressions: Anxiety and visual search efficiencyAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Eriko Matsumoto There has been much controversy around the relationship between anxiety and attentional processing of threat-related information. The purpose of this study was to examine how threatening facial expressions affect attentional processing, according to the level of trait anxiety. Through visual search tasks, two different components of attentional bias to threat were investigated: engagement and disengagement of attention from an angry face. Two main results were found. First, reaction times (RTs) were slower in detecting the absence of a discrepant face in the all angry-display conditions rather than other expression conditions; however, there was no difference between anxiety groups. Second, the difference in search efficiency for the angry versus happy target was significant within the high-anxiety group but not within the low-anxiety group. The results suggest that the detection process for angry faces is more efficient for highly anxious people. On the other hand, the time to disengage attention from angry faces was not associated with anxiety level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Serotonergic genes modulate amygdala activity in major depressionGENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 7 2007U. Dannlowski Serotonergic genes have been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression probably via their influence on neural activity during emotion processing. This study used an imaging genomics approach to investigate amygdala activity in major depression as a function of common functional polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and the serotonin receptor 1A gene (5-HT1A -1019C/G). In 27 medicated patients with major depression, amygdala responses to happy, sad and angry faces were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla. Patients were genotyped for the 5-HT1A -1019C/G and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, including the newly described 5-HTT-rs25531 single nucleotide polymorphism. Risk allele carriers for either gene showed significantly increased bilateral amygdala activation in response to emotional stimuli, implicating an additive effect of both genotypes. Our data suggest that the genetic susceptibility for major depression might be transported via dysfunctional neural activity in brain regions critical for emotion processing. [source] In the face of anger: Startle modulation to graded facial expressionsPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Jonathan P. Dunning Abstract In the present study, the startle reflex was examined with respect to the degree of anger displayed in facial expressions. To this end, 52 participants viewed faces that were morphed to display 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100% anger. As the percentage of anger in faces increased from 0 to 100%, faces were perceived as increasingly angry; however, relative to neutral facial expressions, startle amplitude was only potentiated to maximally angry faces. These data imply a non-linear relationship between the intensity of angry faces and defensive physiological activity. This pattern of startle modulation suggests a categorical distinction between threatening (100% anger) and other facial expressions presented. These results are further discussed in terms of existing data, and how this paradigm might be utilized in psychopathology research. [source] The influence of children's self-report trait anxiety and depression on visual search for emotional facesTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 3 2003Julie A. Hadwin Background: This study presents two experiments that investigated the relationship between7- and 10-year-olds' levels of self-report trait anxiety and depression and their visual search for threatening (angry faces) and non-threatening (happy and neutral faces) stimuli. Method: In both experiments a visual search paradigm was used to measure participants' reaction times to detect the presence or absence of angry, happy or neutral schematic faces (Experiment 1) or cartoon drawings (Experiment 2). On target present trials, a target face was displayed alongside three, five or seven distractor items. On target absent trials all items were distractors. Results: Both experiments demonstrated that on target absent (but not present) trials, increased levels of anxiety produced significantly faster search times in the angry face condition, but not in the neutral condition. In Experiment 2 there was some trend towards significance between anxiety and searches for happy faces in absent trials. There were no effects of depression on search times in any condition. Conclusion: The results support previous work highlighting a specific link between anxiety and attention to threat in childhood. [source] Does modified interpretation bias influence automatic avoidance behaviour?APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Wolf-Gero Lange Cognitive bias modification (CBM) studies suggest a causal role of interpretation biases in the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder. However, it is unknown if the effects of induced biases transfer to behaviour. In two analogue studies, behavioural changes in response to aversive and positive stimuli were measured after the induction of positive and negative interpretation biases in ,averagely anxious' participants. Responses to emotional multi-facial displays (,crowds') were measured using an indirect Approach,Avoidance Task (AAT). The crowds comprised different ratios of either neutral and angry faces or happy and angry faces. In Experiment 1, negatively trained participants (NETs) showed a faster avoidance response for the neutral,angry crowds when the number of angry pictures in the crowd increased. This response pattern resembles the one previously found in socially anxious individuals. Experiment 2 replicated the effect of the cognitive bias manipulation on conceptually comparable material, but did not show transfer to the behavioural task. These studies add to the body of knowledge regarding successful modification of interpretive bias and generalizability to a behavioural task. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Bias in attending to emotional facial expressions: Anxiety and visual search efficiencyAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Eriko Matsumoto There has been much controversy around the relationship between anxiety and attentional processing of threat-related information. The purpose of this study was to examine how threatening facial expressions affect attentional processing, according to the level of trait anxiety. Through visual search tasks, two different components of attentional bias to threat were investigated: engagement and disengagement of attention from an angry face. Two main results were found. First, reaction times (RTs) were slower in detecting the absence of a discrepant face in the all angry-display conditions rather than other expression conditions; however, there was no difference between anxiety groups. Second, the difference in search efficiency for the angry versus happy target was significant within the high-anxiety group but not within the low-anxiety group. The results suggest that the detection process for angry faces is more efficient for highly anxious people. On the other hand, the time to disengage attention from angry faces was not associated with anxiety level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Neural activation during encoding of emotional faces in pediatric bipolar disorderBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 7 2007Daniel P Dickstein Objective:, Neurobiological understanding of bipolar disorder (BD) is limited by a paucity of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research examining correlates of psychological processes. To begin to address these limitations, the current study tests the hypothesis that pediatric BD (PBD) subjects exhibit altered neural activation during encoding of emotional faces compared to typically developing controls. Methods:, Pediatric BD subjects (n = 23; mean age = 14.2 ± 3.1 years) and controls (n = 22; mean age = 14.7 ± 2.3 years) were matched on age, gender, and IQ. In this event-related fMRI study, subjects were scanned while viewing emotional faces and given a surprise recognition memory test 30 min postscan. Our main outcome measure was between-group differences in neural activation during successful versus unsuccessful face encoding. Results:, Pediatric BD youth exhibited reduced memory for emotional faces, relative to healthy comparisons, particularly on fearful faces. Event-related fMRI analyses controlling for this behavioral difference showed that PBD subjects, compared to controls, had increased neural activation in the striatum and anterior cingulate cortex when successfully encoding happy faces and in the orbitofrontal cortex when successfully encoding angry faces. There were no between-group differences in neural activation during fearful face encoding. Conclusions:, Our results extend what is known about memory and face emotion processing impairments in PBD subjects by showing increased fronto-striatal activation during encoding of emotional faces. Further work is required to determine the impact of mood state, medication, and comorbid illnesses on these findings. [source] | ||||||||||