A computational account of the mechanisms underlying face perception biases in depression.

ABSTRACT: Here, we take a computational approach to understand the mechanisms underlying face perception biases in depression. Thirty participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder and 30 healthy control participants took part in three studies involving recognition of identity and emotion in faces. We used signal detection theory to determine whether any perceptual biases exist in depression aside from decisional biases. We found lower sensitivity to happiness in general, and lower sensitivity to both happiness and sadness with ambiguous stimuli. Our use of highly-controlled face stimuli ensures that such asymmetry is truly perceptual in nature, rather than the result of studying expressions with inherently different discriminability. We found no systematic effect of depression on the percept

SUBMITTER: Soto FA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8425597 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature