Background: Emotion recognition constitutes a pivotal process of social cognition. It involves decoding social cues (e.g., facial expressions) to maximise social adjustment. Current theoretical... Show moreBackground: Emotion recognition constitutes a pivotal process of social cognition. It involves decoding social cues (e.g., facial expressions) to maximise social adjustment. Current theoretical models posit the relationship between social withdrawal factors (social disengagement, lack of social interactions and loneliness) and emotion decoding. Objective: To investigate the role of social withdrawal in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) or probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), neuropsychiatric conditions associated with social dysfunction. Methods: A sample of 156 participants was recruited: schizophrenia patients (SZ; n = 53), Alzheimer's disease patients (AD; n = 46), and two age-matched control groups (SZc, n = 29; ADc, n = 28). All participants provided self-report measures of loneliness and social functioning, and completed a facial emotion detection task. Results: Neuropsychiatric patients (both groups) showed poorer performance in detecting both positive and negative emotions compared with their healthy counterparts (p < .01). Social withdrawal was associated with higher accuracy in negative emotion detection, across all groups. Additionally, neuropsychiatric patients with higher social withdrawal showed lower positive emotion misclassification. Conclusions: Our findings help to detail the similarities and differences in social function and facial emotion recognition in two disorders rarely studied in parallel, AD and SZ. Transdiagnostic patterns in these results suggest that social withdrawal is associated with heightened sensitivity to negative emotion expressions, potentially reflecting hypervigilance to social threat. Across the neuropsychiatric groups specifically, this hypervigilance associated with social withdrawal extended to positive emotion expressions, an emotionalcognitive bias that may impact social functioning in people with severe mental illness. Show less
This thesis investigated the development of emotional functioning in 2-to-6-year-old children with and without autism. Whereas autistic children experienced more challenges in the emotional domain,... Show moreThis thesis investigated the development of emotional functioning in 2-to-6-year-old children with and without autism. Whereas autistic children experienced more challenges in the emotional domain, their emotional abilities improved with age, and developed in similar ways as observed in non-autistic children. On the one hand, this thesis showed that autistic children might deal with emotions in a different way, and they might experience various difficulties when communicating emotions with non-autistic people. One the other hand, it is important to note that the difficulties could be bidirectional. As stated by the “double empathy problem”, non-autistic people may experience the same difficulties when communicating with autistic people. This could be a meaningful direction for future research, investigating emotional communication as a two-way interaction rather than focusing only on how people with autism react to people without autism. Furthermore, this thesis showed that autistic children had the potential to learn and to develop in the emotional domain. Again, this points to the importance of investigating how to create an inclusive social environment, which is not only nurturing for children without autism, but can also benefit the development of children with autism and with other special needs. Show less
This thesis describes a cross-sectional behavioral and neuroimaging study in a sample of n=85 adolescents with a history of childhood sexual abuse related PTSD (CSA-related PTSD), anxiety and/or... Show moreThis thesis describes a cross-sectional behavioral and neuroimaging study in a sample of n=85 adolescents with a history of childhood sexual abuse related PTSD (CSA-related PTSD), anxiety and/or depressive disorders or no psychiatric symptoms. We assessed attachment representation as well as psychopathological symptoms, attentional bias and emotional face processing among diagnostic groups. We also correlated unresolved-disorganized attachment representation (Ud) and psychopathology using a general psychopathology factor (GPF) to grey matter (volume), white matter (tracts) and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the brain in the entire sample. We found that clinical groups did not significantly differ in psychopathology. The unresolved-disorganized cannot classify category (Ud/CC) was overrepresented in the CSA-related PTSD group. Coherence of mind also differentiated the clinical groups, but Ud did not. The CSA-related PTSD group had a negative attention bias for neutral and fearful faces, the anxiety/depressive disorders group only for fearful faces. No differences were found for emotional face processing among diagnostic groups. We found a differential relationship of Ud and a GPF to grey matter volume, white matter integrity of white matter tracts and RSFC for Ud. Ud was associated with lateralization of the brain to the left with regard to amygdala RSFC and hippocampal volume. Show less
Knowledge of risk factors associated with child maltreatment is critical in assessing the risk for future child maltreatment, and for preventing child maltreatment. Using data from two... Show moreKnowledge of risk factors associated with child maltreatment is critical in assessing the risk for future child maltreatment, and for preventing child maltreatment. Using data from two empirical studies, this dissertation focuses on the risk associated with having experienced childhood maltreatment and on emotion processing deficits as a risk factor. Additionally, because accurately measuring maltreatment experiences is important, we explored the relation between parents’ and children’s perspectives on maltreatment. Results revealed that there was modest agreement between parents and children on parent-to-child maltreatment, especially on emotional neglect. On average, children reported more emotional neglect as victims than parents as perpetrators. Next, we found evidence for type-to-type intergenerational transmission of maltreatment: Abused parents were more likely to abuse their own children, while neglected parents were more likely to neglect. Moreover, neglecting parents showed difficulties identifying fear in others, but this could not explain the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment. Lastly, maltreating mothers used excessive force more often while listening to infant crying and laughter than non-maltreating mothers. Overall, maltreating parents –and neglectful parents in particular– seem less adept in emotion processing: They were less successful in regulating their behavior when exposed to child-related emotional stimuli and showed specific difficulties in emotion recognition. Show less
Ketelaars, M.P.; In 't Velt, A.; Mol, A.; Swaab, J.T.; Rijn, S. van 2016
During early adolescence, there is no association between internalizing behaviour and cannabis use. There is an association between externalizing behaviour and cannabis use, where externalizing... Show moreDuring early adolescence, there is no association between internalizing behaviour and cannabis use. There is an association between externalizing behaviour and cannabis use, where externalizing behaviour precedes cannabis use rather than the other way around. Secondly, during adolescence, there is an association between psychosis vulnerability and cannabis use, where cannabis use predicts psychosis vulnerability and vice versa, suggesting a bi-directional cascading association. Thirdly, during early adolescence, the social skill “self-control” was (unexpectedly) unrelated to cannabis use. Cooperation and assertiveness are associated with cannabis use during this life phase, where higher levels of cooperation decrease the chance of using cannabis and higher levels of assertiveness increase the chance of using cannabis during early adolescence. Cooperation and assertiveness did not differentiate between early and late onset of cannabis use or predict frequency of use. In addition, compared to non-users, cannabis users experience problems only in motivational inhibitory control, not in cognitive inhibitory control. Also, cannabis users experience problems in behavioural impulsivity, which is related to motivational inhibitory control. Lastly, cannabis users have problems with social perception in comparison to non-using controls, particularly when these social perception skills involve emotion recognition. Also, heavy cannabis users experience significantly more psychological problems when they have relatively poor social perception skills. Future research must determine whether the behavioural and cognitive concepts and constructs examined in this thesis in relation to cannabis use should be incorporated in prevention and intervention programs. Show less
