| Affiliation: | (1) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology and MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK;(2) Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK;(3) Department of Psychiatry, The Montreal Children’s Hospital, McGill University, 4018 St. Catherine St. W., Montreal, QC, H3Z 1P2, Canada;(4) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology and MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University School of Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK |
| Abstract: | Studies of adults with depression point to characteristic neurocognitive deficits, including differences in processing facial expressions. Few studies have examined face processing in juvenile depression, or taken account of other comorbid disorders. Three groups were compared: depressed children and adolescents with conduct disorder (n = 23), depressed children and adolescents without conduct disorder (n = 29) and children and adolescents without disorder (n = 37). A novel face emotion processing experiment presented faces with ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’, or ‘fearful’ expressions of varying emotional intensity using morphed stimuli. Those with depression showed no overall or specific deficits in facial expression recognition accuracy. Instead, they showed biases affecting processing of low-intensity expressions, more often perceiving these as sad. In contrast, non-depressed controls more often misperceived low intensity negative emotions as happy. There were no differences between depressed children and adolescents with and without conduct disorder, or between children with comorbid depression/conduct disorder and controls. Face emotion processing biases rather than deficits appear to distinguish depressed from non-depressed children and adolescents. |
