Processing of facial affect in social drinkers: a dose-response study of alcohol using dynamic emotion expressions.
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
; 227(1): 31-9, 2013 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23263458
ABSTRACT
RATIONALE Studies of affect recognition can inform our understanding of the interpersonal effects of alcohol and help develop a more complete neuropsychological profile of this drug. OBJECTIVES:
The objective of the study was to examine affect recognition in social drinkers using a novel dynamic affect-recognition task, sampling performance across a range of evolutionarily significant target emotions and neutral expressions.METHODS:
Participants received 0, 0.4 or 0.8 g/kg alcohol in a double-blind, independent groups design. Relatively naturalistic changes in facial expression-from neutral (mouth open) to increasing intensities of target emotions, as well as neutral (mouth closed)-were simulated using computer-generated dynamic morphs. Accuracy and reaction time were measured and a two-high-threshold model applied to hits and false-alarm data to determine sensitivity and response bias.RESULTS:
While there was no effect on the principal emotion expressions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger and disgust), compared to those receiving 0.8 g/kg of alcohol and placebo, participants administered with 0.4 g/kg alcohol tended to show an enhanced response bias to neutral expressions. Exploration of this effect suggested an accompanying tendency to misattribute neutrality to sad expressions following the 0.4-g/kg dose.CONCLUSIONS:
The 0.4-g/kg alcohol-but not 0.8 g/kg-produced a limited and specific modification in affect recognition evidenced by a neutral response bias and possibly an accompanying tendency to misclassify sad expressions as neutral. In light of previous findings on involuntary negative memory following the 0.4-g/kg dose, we suggest that moderate-but not high-doses of alcohol have a special relevance to emotional processing in social drinkers.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Consumo de Bebidas Alcoólicas
/
Etanol
/
Emoções
/
Expressão Facial
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Reino Unido