Assessing the effectiveness of online emotion recognition training in healthy volunteers

Autor: Zoe E. Reed, Steph Suddell, Andy Eastwood, Lilian Thomas, Imogen Dwyer, Ian S. Penton-Voak, Christopher Jarrold, Marcus R. Munafò, Angela S. Attwood
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Royal Society Open Science, Vol 10, Iss 9 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2054-5703
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230372
Popis: Facial emotion recognition (ER) difficulties are associated with mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and poorer social functioning. ER interventions may therefore have clinical potential. We investigated the efficacy of ER training (ERT). We conducted three online studies with healthy volunteers completing one ERT session. Studies 1 and 2 included active and control/sham training groups and tested the efficacy of (i) four-emotion ERT (angry, happy, sad and scared) (n = 101), and (ii) six-emotion ERT (adding disgusted and surprised) (n = 109). Study 3 tested generalizability of ERT to non-trained stimuli with groups trained and tested on the same stimuli, or different stimuli (n = 120). Training effects on total correct hits were estimated using linear mixed effects models. We did not observe clear evidence of improvement in study 1 but note the effect was in the direction of improvement (b = 0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.02 to 0.07). Study 2 indicated greater total hits following training (b = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.03–0.12). Study 3 demonstrated similar improvement across groups (b = −0.01, 95% CI = −0.05 to 0.02). Our results indicate improved ER (as measured by our task), which generalizes to different facial stimulus sets. Future studies should further explore generalizability, longer-term effects and ERT in populations with known ER difficulties.
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