Depression severity is associated with impaired facial emotion processing in a large international sample.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Depression is associated with biases in facial emotion processing, which have an impact on the course and treatment of depression. While decades of research have established a negativity bias in processing in depression, there is still a gap in our understanding of how depression severity impacts sensitivity to detecting differences in emotional faces.

Methods

We examined emotion sensitivity (ES), or the ability to to detect subtle differences in emotional faces, in a large, geographically and culturally diverse, web-based sample (N = 6598, age range = 18-96, 56.50% female, 66% Caucasian). Participants completed ES tasks (fear, anger, or happiness) and a Beck Depression Inventory-II, to determine depression severity.

Results

Depression severity was correlat

SUBMITTER: Rutter LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7428842 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature