Facial Emotion Recognition Difficulties in Individuals with PTSDSymptoms Open Access

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship of exposure to traumatic events and PTSD symptoms to facial emotion recognition difficulties. Recent studies have found hyper-responsivity of the amygdala in individuals with PTSD in response to emotional facial stimuli. The amygdala has been implicated in both the processing of emotions and facial expressions. On the behavioral side, facial emotion recognition difficulties have been found in individuals with a variety of psychiatric disorders. Finally, facial emotion recognition difficulties have been found in maltreated children. The current study tested the facial emotion recognition abilities of 162 participants from a NIMH-funded study investigating environmental and genetic risk factors for PTSD in a sample of low SES, African American men and women seeking care in the primary care clinics of a public urban hospital. Results indicated that individuals with a current or lifetime CAPS diagnosis of PTSD made more errors to faces ( p<.05). In contrast, exposure to childhood sexual and physical abuse, and to traumatic events as an adult were associated with fewer errors to faces ( p<.05). Thus, facial emotion recognition may be one mechanism underlying interpersonal difficulties in individuals with PTSD. This is the first study to document an association between PTSD and facial emotion recognition difficulties and implications for future research are discussed.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction................................................................................3 II. Background................................................................................4 a. Neurobiology of PTSD..............................................................5 b. General and Specific Functions of the Amygdala................................8 c. Studies of Amygdala Damage in Humans.......................................11 d. Studies of Amygdala Activation in PTSD.......................................15 e. Alternative Explanations for Facial Affect Recognition Difficulty I: Child Maltreatment................................................................18 f. Alternative Explanations for Facial Affect Recognition Difficulty II: Alexithymia.........................................................................21 g. Emotion Recognition of Faces in Psychiatric Disorders........................23 h. Gender, the Amygdala and Facial Emotion Recognition.....................29 III. Statement of the Problem..............................................................30 IV. Method....................................................................................34 V. Results....................................................................................41 VI. Discussion................................................................................50 a. Implications.........................................................................62 b. Future Directions...................................................................64 c. Limitations..........................................................................65 d. Conclusion...........................................................................67 VII. References...............................................................................69 VIII. Appendices..............................................................................88 a. Appendix A: Modified Posttraumatic Symptom Scale........................88 b. Appendix B: Traumatic Events Inventory.......................................90 c. Appendix C: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire...............................101 IX. Tables...................................................................................105 a. Table 1: Rates of Trauma Exposure by Gender...............................105 b. Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations of Continuous Measures..........106 c. Table 3: Number of Individuals in Each Group for Categorical Variables107 d. Table 4: Bivariate Correlations among Measures..............................108 X. Figures..................................................................................109

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Clinical Psychology, General
Keyword	PTSD Facial Emotion
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Duke, Marshall, Emory University
Committee Members	Bradley-Davino, Bekh, Emory University Nowicki Jr., Stephen, Emory University Fivush, Robyn, Emory University Ressler, Kerry, Emory University

Last modified

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Facial Emotion Recognition Difficulties in Individuals with PTSDSymptoms ()	2018-08-28 14:53:02 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions