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“Now I see it, now I don’t”: Determining Threshold Levels of Facial Emotion Recognition for Use in Patient Populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

Isabelle Chiu ,
Regina I. Gfrörer ,
Olivier Piguet ,
Manfred Berres ,
Andreas U. Monsch  and
Marc Sollberger
Isabelle Chiu
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix Platter-Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Regina I. Gfrörer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Olivier Piguet
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Research Australia, and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
Manfred Berres
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Technology, University of Applied Sciences Koblenz, Koblenz, Germany
Andreas U. Monsch
Affiliation:
Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix Platter-Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Marc Sollberger*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix Platter-Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Marc Sollberger, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Schanzenstrasse 55, 4031 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: marc.sollberger@usb.ch
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Abstract

The importance of including measures of emotion processing, such as tests of facial emotion recognition (FER), as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is being increasingly recognized. In clinical settings, FER tests need to be sensitive, short, and easy to administer, given the limited time available and patient limitations. Current tests, however, commonly use stimuli that either display prototypical emotions, bearing the risk of ceiling effects and unequal task difficulty, or are cognitively too demanding and time-consuming. To overcome these limitations in FER testing in patient populations, we aimed to define FER threshold levels for the six basic emotions in healthy individuals. Forty-nine healthy individuals between 52 and 79 years of age were asked to identify the six basic emotions at different intensity levels (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 125% of the prototypical emotion). Analyses uncovered differing threshold levels across emotions and sex of facial stimuli, ranging from 50% up to 100% intensities. Using these findings as “healthy population benchmarks”, we propose to apply these threshold levels to clinical populations either as facial emotion recognition or intensity rating tasks. As part of any comprehensive social cognition test battery, this approach should allow for a rapid and sensitive assessment of potential FER deficits. (JINS, 2015, 21, 568–572)

Keywords

ThresholdEmotion recognitionFacial expressionBasic emotionsFace morphingNeuropsychological disorder
Type
Brief Communication
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 21 , Supplement 7 , August 2015 , pp. 568 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2015 

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