Emotion recognition in adolescents

Influences of emotion processing in the brain and level of social anxiety

expressionsChildren’s ability to accurately identify the basic emotions reaches adult levels between the ages of 10-12 (Watling et al., 2012); however individual differences in emotion recognition (ER) have been noted throughout the lifespan. Two key factors influencing ER ability include the degree of lateralisation for emotion processing (e.g. Watling & Bourne, 2013; 2014) and level of social anxiety (Koizumi et al., 2010). Research in this area has focussed predominantly on adult and child audiences and has yet to explore this relationship in adolescence. As adolescence marks a significant time of social and emotional changes, this presents an opportunity to explore how ER may be influenced by both emotion processing and levels of SA.

Research has demonstrated that adults tend to be right hemisphere dominant in emotion processing and that with age children become increasingly more RH dominant. Two studies have illustrated that children who show an increased RH dominance for emotion processing perform with greater accuracy on emotion recognition tasks (Aljuhanay et al., 2010; Watling & Bourne, 2013). Additionally research has established that adults with greater fear of negative evaluation (linked to SA) tend to be more strongly RH lateralised for emotion processing. Furthermore those with high levels of SA have been shown to make atypical judgements on ER tasks. Research is yet to explore together how SA and emotion processing influence emotion recognition.

This study will employ both behavioural measures and eye-tracking techniques to assess where the individual is attending when making ER decisions. Research has demonstrated that shy children tend to have increased dwell times on the eye region (Brunet et al., 2009), whereas adults tend to avoid the eye region (Horley et al., 2003). This study will examine adolescent’s fixations during an ER task to infer whether those with high in levels of SA and those who are more RH dominant for emotion processing show biases in emotion recognition.

This proposed research will examine these relationships in three studies. Study 1 will examine longitudinally how ER may be influenced by laterality for emotion processing and level of SA. Furthermore Study 2 will establish using eye-tracking where individuals are attending to when making decisions about ER, to see if those with higher levels of SA or more RH lateralised for emotion processing show biases in fixations of particular facial regions. Following this, Study 3 will use factors informed from the aforementioned studies to manipulate factors that may influence ER with the aim to minimise difference in ER abilities for those with high and low levels of SA. All studies will use the chimeric face task (CFT), measures of SA (e.g. Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, Brief fear of negative evaluation scale) and an emotion recognition task using Ekman faces of the basic six emotions at varying intensities (Ekman & Friesen, 1971).

If you would like to get involved please contact Rachel.Nesbit.2012@live.rhul.ac.uk