Masked emotions: does children's affective state influence emotion recognition?

Introduction: Facial emotion recognition abilities of children have been the focus of attention across various fields, with implications for communication, social interaction, and human behavior. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a face mask in public became mandatory in many countries, hindering social information perception and emotion recognition. Given the importance of visual communication for children's social-emotional development, concerns have been raised on whether face masks could impair their ability to recognize emotions and thereby possibly impact their social-emotional development. Methods: To this extent, a quasiexperimental study was designed with a two-fold objective: firstly, to identify children's accuracy in recognizing basic emotions (anger, happiness, fear, disgust, sadness) and emotional neutrality when presented with faces under two conditions: one with no-masks and another with faces partially covered by various types of masks (medical, nonmedical, surgical, or cloth); secondly, to explore any correlation between children's emotion recognition accuracy and their affective state. Sixty-nine (69) elementary school students aged 6-7 years old from Greece were recruited for this purpose. Following specific requirements of the second phase of the experiment students were assigned to one of three (3) distinct affective condition groups: Group A-Happiness, Group B-Sadness, and Group C-Emotional Neutrality. Image stimuli were drawn from the FACES Dataset, and students' affective state was registered using the self-reporting emotions-registration tool, AffectLecture app. Results: The study's findings indicate that children can accurately recognize emotions even with masks, although recognizing disgust is more challenging. Additionally, following both positive and negative affective state priming promoted systematic inaccuracies in emotion recognition. Most significantly, results showed a negative bias for children in negative affective state and a positive bias for those in positive affective state. Discussion: Children's affective state significantly influenced their emotion recognition abilities; sad affective states led to lower recognition overall and a bias toward recognizing sad expressions, while happy affective states resulted in a positive bias, improving recognition of happiness, and affecting how emotional neutrality and sadness were actually perceived. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the intriguing dynamics of how face masks affect children's emotion recognition, but also underlines the profound influence of their affective state.

Introducing New Paths towards Public Primary Healthcare Services in Greece: Efforts for Scaling-Up Mental Healthcare Services Addressed to Older Adults.

The exponential growth in the aging population challenges the Primary Care Providers (PCPs) who provide health care services to older adults who are considered highly vulnerable and are in need of specialized healthcare services. The development of new policies and the adoption of appropriate health strategies by PCPs may improve the early detection and prevention of mental disorders in older adults. This reduces both queuing and costs in outpatient clinics while preventing stigma for patients and families. To this end, specialized training for PCPs at the Local Primary Health Care Unit (LPHCU) was provided in order to conduct efficient assessments of older adults (65 and above years old, without previously diagnosed depression or dementia, and willing to participate). The assessment is based on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Older adults identified with MMSE <20 and GDS >5 were referred to the psychiatric outpatient clinic. The aim of this study is to discuss evidence-informed policymaking in Greece with a focus on advancing mental health practices and scaling up quality primary healthcare services for older adults.

Supporting Healthcare Integration of Refugees Exploiting Reusable Learning Objects: The ASPIRE Framework.

The significant increase of refugees' migration has demonstrated an overwhelming need for their access and integration to healthcare systems. E-learning, especially in the form of experiential digital learning, has been highlighted as an important ally in supporting refugees' health needs. This paper aims to discuss the design and development process of Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) to enhance digital health applications for refugees and integrate them to healthcare systems. The participatory approach based on the "ASPIRE" framework was followed. Using the "ASPIRE" process, 9 stakeholders were involved in the first phase of the development process, where a co-creation storyboarding workshop was held in Greece by the Medical Physics Laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Essential qualitative and quantitative feedback was collected from stakeholders through an online questionnaire administered in Google Forms. Overall, enlightening ideas were expressed and all stakeholders commented positively on the value and efficacy of the workshop.

Eliminating the gap between the use of assistive technologies and the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in leisure activities.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and Assistive Technologies (AT) can support people with Down Syndrome (PDS) and Intellectual Disabilities (PID) in increasing their self-confidence and independence, enhancing skills, and competences, participating in leisure activities. For families of PDS/PID, professionals, non-formal caregivers and volunteers, the challenge is to appreciate the benefits of ICT Tools in promoting inclusion. The aim of this study is to present the interdisciplinary and multidimensional scope of the DS Leisure project aiming at promoting the inclusion of PDS/PID through innovative ICT tools and their participation in inclusive leisure activities. Particularly, 24 individuals were asked to assess the global satisfaction and performance of PDS/PID, as well as the exploitation of ICT tools. Findings suggested that PDS/PID specific social, decision-making, and communication skills were significantly improved after their participation in the Experiential Activity and the e-Training platform was positively rated and considered a constructive learning experience.

Health and Social Care During Coronavirus Outbreak: The Exploitation of Long Lasting Memories - LLM Care.

The Covid-19 pandemic has globally introduced a new crisis with severe consequences and led to a series of pandemic-related containment measures, including social distancing and self-isolation may cause significant impact on mental health. This study describes a social care initiative that was actualized during the Covid-19 outbreak with regard to the potential benefits in older adults' quality of life through the use of the Integrated Healthcare System Long Lasting Memories Care (LLM Care), and specifically the web-based cognitive training software. Online questionnaires, assessing various psychosocial and mental health domains, were distributed to 28 older adults before and after the interaction with the software aiming at evaluating the potential positive effect and usability of cognitive training software. Overall, the study demonstrates that the interaction with the web-based cognitive training software during the pandemic plays a significant role in maintaining mental health among older people, through improvements in well-being.

Technology Enhanced Health and Social Care for Vulnerable People During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly worldwide with critical consequences in health, as well as in social, economic, and particularly in psychological conditions of vulnerable people, especially older adults. Therefore, it is necessary the direct attention to their health care needs and related interventions. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have direct impact on older adults' health and quality of life leading to decreased depression and loneliness, along with empowerment of independent life. Many studies involve cognitive training programs/software based on new technological systems that provide to vulnerable people access to gamified, attractive, cognitive exercises for overall functionality everywhere and at any time. Twenty-four participants (mean age 69.3 years) were assigned to this study. The cognitive training component of LLM Care was used as an interactive software to enhance participants' cognitive functions. The intervention lasted 12 weeks with the frequency of 2-4 times per week in sessions of at least 30 min. Participants used their personal devices (tablets/laptops) in their own residence, while technical and consulting guidance was provided by LLM Care certified trainers. They were informed about the purpose of the study, while consent forms along with psychological assessments were distributed every 2 weeks to periodically evaluate their psychosocial and mental health conditions. The assessments included the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), the Short Anxiety Screening Test (SAST), the System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Impact Factor Event Scale (IES-R). According to the results, the participants with improved well-being tended to report decreased subjective distress caused by COVID-19, and their engagement with new technologies can potentially minimize the negative outcomes occurred by the current stressful situation, mitigating the effect of hyperarousal symptoms, while increasing their overall well-being. Well-being seems to remain relatively stable among older adults and decreases only when adversities occur, while the usability of the software was perceived as marginally acceptable by participants. The exploitation of the LLM Care contributes to the improvement of older adults' well-being and alleviates the negative experience caused by stressful situations like COVID-19.