Steven M. Gillespie

Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions: Effects of Expression, Intensity, and Sex on Eye Gaze

The identification of emotional expressions is vital for social interaction, and can be affected by various factors, including the expressed emotion, the intensity of the expression, the sex of the face, and the gender of the observer. This study investigates how these factors affect the speed and accuracy of expression recognition, as well as dwell time on the two most significant areas of the face: the eyes and the mouth. Participants were asked to identify expressions from female and male faces displaying six expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), each with three levels of intensity (low, moderate, and normal). Overall, responses were fastest and most accurate for happy expressions, but slowest and least accurate for fearful expressions. More intense expressions were also classified most accurately. Reaction time showed a different pattern, with slowest response times recorded for expressions of moderate intensity. Overall, responses were slowest, but also most accurate, for female faces. Relative to male observers, women showed greater accuracy and speed when recognizing female expressions. Dwell time analyses revealed that attention to the eyes was about three times greater than on the mouth, with fearful eyes in particular attracting longer dwell times. The mouth region was attended to the most for fearful, angry, and disgusted expressions and least for surprise. These results extend upon previous findings to show important effects of expression, emotion intensity, and sex on expression recognition and gaze behaviour, and may have implications for understanding the ways in which emotion recognition abilities break down.

Spontaneous versus deliberate vicarious representations: different routes to empathy in psychopathy and autism.

Sir, We read the article recently published by Meffert et al. (2013) with great interest. The authors used functional MRI to investigate vicarious emotional representation in psychopathic offenders, scanning 18 psychopaths and 26 non-offending control subjects. Participants were either presented with video clips of short emotional interactions or experienced similar interactions themselves. Results showed that although psychopaths showed normal patterns of neural activation in response to experience, abnormal patterns of activation were observed during observation of others’ interactions in those regions known to be involved in vicarious emotional experience. However, when participants were instructed to ‘feel with the hands in the videos’ differences in activation between psychopaths and control subjects were significantly reduced in numerous regions of interest, including the medial and anterior left insula, left anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral angular gyri (Meffert et al. , 2013). The authors conclude that these results point toward reduced spontaneous but intact deliberate vicarious representations in psychopathy. Psychopathy represents a severe disorder of personality, characterized by a callous lack of empathy, shallow affect, and a lack of remorse or guilt (Hare, 1991, 2003). Traditional theories have emphasized poor recognition of others’ distress cues, including emotional facial expressions, as central to empathy deficits observed in psychopathy (Blair et al. , 2001, 2004; Montagne et al. , 2005; Dadds et al. , 2006; Dolan and Fullam, 2006; see also meta-analyses by Marsh and Blair, 2008; Wilson et al. , 2011). These findings are extended through the more recent results of Meffert et al. (2013), which suggest that psychopaths may exhibit a particular breakdown in the neural processes that underlie the spontaneous vicarious experience of the emotions of others. Thus, Meffert et al. (2013) findings add significantly to current understanding of empathy deficits in psychopathy, distinguishing between …

Psychopathic traits are associated with reduced attention to the eyes of emotional faces among adult male non-offenders.

Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These impairments may, in part, reflect reduced attention to the eyes of emotional faces. Although reduced attention to the eyes has been noted among children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits, similar findings are yet to be found in relation to psychopathic traits among adult male participants. Here we investigated the relationship of primary (selfish, uncaring) and secondary (impulsive, antisocial) psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes among adult male non-offenders during an emotion recognition task. We measured the number of fixations, and overall dwell time, on the eyes, and the mouth of male and female faces showing the six basic emotions at varying levels of intensity. We found no relationship of primary or secondary psychopathic traits with recognition accuracy. However, primary psychopathic traits were associated with a reduced number of fixations, and lower overall dwell time, on the eyes relative to the mouth across expressions, intensity, and sex. Furthermore, the relationship of primary psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes of angry and fearful faces was influenced by the sex and intensity of the expression. We also showed that a greater number of fixations on the eyes, relative to the mouth, were associated with increased accuracy for angry and fearful expression recognition. These results are the first to show effects of psychopathic traits on attention to the eyes of emotional faces in an adult male sample, and may support amygdala based accounts of psychopathy. These findings may also have methodological implications for clinical studies of emotion recognition.

Similar effects of intranasal oxytocin administration and acute alcohol consumption on socio-cognitions, emotions and behaviour: Implications for the mechanisms of action.

Oxytocin (OT) plays a critical role in the formation of long lasting social attachments across a range of mammalian species. Raising intracerebral OT levels by intranasal administration of the neuropeptide (inOT) can also have pronounced effects on human sociocognitive functioning. inOT has been associated with increasing altruism, generosity, empathy and trust while decreasing fear, anxiety and stress reactions via neural mechanisms which are yet to be fully elucidated. The observation of the prosocial effects of OT has led to speculation about the role the peptide might play in some psychiatric conditions and debate as to its potential therapeutic uses. Here we note the great similarity in the sociocognitive effects that can be induced by inOT and the effects of acute consumption of modest does of alcohol. We further reflect on how both compounds may act on limbic and prefrontal cortical structures to increase GABAergic transmission, thereby facilitating the release of prepotent responses, that is, more automatic responses which are associated with earlier developmental stages.

Emotional expression recognition and attribution bias among sexual and violent offenders: a signal detection analysis.

Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other’s facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10, 55, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d′) and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors.

Metacognitive impairments in schizophrenia are arrested at extreme levels of psychopathy: The cut-off effect.

Psychopathy and metacognitive difficulties have been associated with the occurrence of violence in schizophrenia. However, evidence suggests that nonschizophrenic psychopaths match or even outperform healthy controls on tests of metacognition. We hypothesize that the metacognitive difficulties associated with schizophrenia may be ameliorated by comorbid psychopathy. To this end, metacognition (using the Metacognition Assessment Scale-Abbreviated [MAS-A]) and psychopathy (using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [PCL-R]) are assessed in 79 patients with schizophrenia with a history of criminal offending. Piecewise regression reveals that the association between metacognition and psychopathy changes from a negative to a positive association at a breakpoint corresponding to a score of 24 on the PCL-R. This score is within the range of the cut-off point used for the diagnosis of psychopathy in Europe, which corresponds to a score of 26 on the PCL-R. The patients scoring above 24 on the PCL-R demonstrated better overall metacognitive abilities, suggesting that these patients constitute a specific group in which schizophrenia has an attenuated impairing effect on metacognition. However, this effect was absent for the Mastery subscale of the MAS-A, which refers to the ability to use ones own mental states to solve social and psychological dilemmas. Our results suggest that the relative preservation of metacognitive abilities in schizophrenic patients with extreme levels of psychopathy may contribute to their offending behavior as it may enable them to understand how to manipulate and extort their victims. However, enhancing the Mastery domain of metacognition in these patients may attenuate this offending behavior.

Characteristics of females who sexually offend: A comparison of solo and co-offenders

Although recent typologies of female sexual offenders have recognized the importance of having a co-offender, the clinical characteristics of solo and co-female sexual offenders remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to compare solo (n = 20) and co- (n = 20) female sexual offenders on a variety of clinical characteristics. It was found that although solo and co-offenders reported similar developmental experiences and psychological dispositions, differences were found in environmental niche, offense preceding, and positive factors. Specifically, solo offenders demonstrated a greater presence of personal vulnerabilities including mental health and substance abuse difficulties. Co-offenders reported a greater presence of environmentally based factors, including a current partner who was a known sex offender and involvement with antisocial peers. It is suggested that these results have implications for understanding assessment and intervention needs for these groups of sexual offenders.

An Evaluation of a Community-Based Psycho-Educational Program for Users of Child Sexual Exploitation Material.

Online sexual offenders represent an increasingly large proportion of all sexual offenders. Many of these offenders receive noncustodial sentences, and there is a growing need for community-based interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate a psycho-educational program for community dwelling users of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM). A total of 92 adult male participants completed self-report measures at pre and post. A subset of participants also completed measures after a follow-up period. Results suggested benefits across depression, anxiety, and stress; social competency, including locus of control and self-esteem; and distorted attitudes. Furthermore, these effects remained 8 to 12 weeks following program completion. Our results suggest that CSEM users are amenable to treatment in the community and that there are beneficial outcomes in affective and interpersonal functioning following psycho-education. These factors represent treatment targets for sexual offenders and are recognized risk factors for contact sexual offense recidivism.

Relations of Distinct Psychopathic Personality Traits with Anxiety and Fear: Findings from Offenders and Non-Offenders

Early descriptions of psychopathy emphasise fearlessness and a lack of nervousness or anxiety as key characteristics of the disorder. However, conflicting evidence suggests that anxiety may be positively correlated with some aspects of the psychopathy construct. This position may seem somewhat paradoxical when considered alongside impaired processing of fear related stimuli in psychopathic personality. The aim of the current paper was to examine the distinct relations of callous, egocentric, and antisocial psychopathic traits with measures of anxiety and social anxiety in samples of non-offenders (Study 1) and violent offenders (Study 2). In Study 2 we also used an emotion recognition task to examine fearful face recognition. In Studies 1 and 2 we showed distinct and opposite significant relationships of egocentric and antisocial psychopathic traits with trait anxiety. Thus, while trait anxiety was negatively predicted by egocentric traits, it was predicted in a positive direction by antisocial traits in both samples. In Study 2 we found that callous traits were predictive of greater impairments in fearful face recognition. These findings suggest that anxiety and fear are distinguishable constructs in relation to psychopathic personality traits, and are discussed in terms of potentially separable mechanisms for these two constructs.

Self-regulation and aggressive antisocial behaviour: insights from amygdala-prefrontal and heart-brain interactions

ABSTRACT Explanations of aggressive and antisocial behaviour often refer to impairments in self-regulation, or the ability to implement control over ones thoughts, emotions and behaviours. However, the evidence that impaired self-regulation is associated with antisocial behaviour is somewhat mixed, and is likely to depend on the type (e.g. reactive versus proactive aggression) and severity of the antisocial behaviour. The amygdala and prefrontal cortex are critically involved in the process of self-regulation, and neuroimaging and behavioural methods, including the role of executive functions, have been used to study abnormalities of prefrontal structure and function in individuals who display aggressive and antisocial behaviours. The functioning of these circuits is also influenced by activity of the autonomic nervous system, and a robust and consistent relationship has been observed between low resting heart rate and violent and non-violent crime. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this relationship may lead to the development of interventions aimed at reducing aggressive and antisocial behaviour based on a well-defined mechanism of change. Neuroimaging and physiology research on heart-brain interactions offers new insights in to the role of self-regulation in aggressive and antisocial behaviour, and for understanding who might benefit the most from interventions aimed at improving self-regulation.