The emotional content of material and reality monitoring function in subjects predisposed towards hallucinations

in Brain and Cognition (2003), 51

Emotional Facial Expression Recognition and Expressivity in Type I and Type II Alcohol Dependent Patients

in Journal of Nonverbal Behavior (in press)

Objective: Alcohol dependent patients (ADs) are known to encounter severe interpersonal problems. Nonverbal communication skills are important for the development of healthy relationships. The present ... [more ▼]

Objective: Alcohol dependent patients (ADs) are known to encounter severe interpersonal problems. Nonverbal communication skills are important for the development of healthy relationships. The present study aimed to explore emotional facial expression (EFE) recognition and posed and spontaneous EFE expressivity in male ADs divided into two groups according to Cloninger’s typology and the impact of their interpersonal relationship quality on the potential nonverbal deficits. Method: Twenty type I ADs, twenty-one type II ADs, and twenty control participants took part in an EFE recognition task and an EFE expressivity task that considered personal emotional events (spontaneous expressivity) and EFE in response to a photo or word cue (posed expressivity). Coding was based on judges’ ratings of participants’ emotional facial expressions. Participants additionally completed a questionnaire on interpersonal relationship quality. Results: No difference between the three groups emerged in the EFE recognition task. Type II ADs showed heightened deficits compared with type I ADs in EFE expressivity: Judges perceived less accurate posed EFE in response to a cue word and less intense and positive spontaneous EFE in type II ADs compared to control participants. In addition, type II ADs reported more relationship difficulties compared to both type I ADs and control participants. These interpersonal relationship difficulties were related to some of the EFE expressivity deficits of AD-IIs. Conclusions: This study underlines the important differences between the interpersonal functioning of AD subtypes. [less ▲]

Emotional intelligence and personality in major depression: Trait versus state effects.

in Psychiatry Research (2009), 166(1), 63-8

Several studies have explored the link between depression and personality with classical personality questionnaires like the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and the Temperament and Character Inventory ... [more ▼]

Several studies have explored the link between depression and personality with classical personality questionnaires like the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). However, no studies have been conducted with the revised form of the TCI (TCI-R). Moreover, since a few studies conducted on normal subjects suggest that Emotional Intelligence (EI) would be lower in depression, but that the concept has not been explicitly measured in patients with major depressive disorder, EI was assessed here with the modified version of Schutte's scale among a group of depressive patients. In addition, both personality and EI measures were carried out during the clinical state of depression and after the remission to assess the state versus trait aspect. The study was conducted on 54 major depressive inpatients (20 in remission) and 54 matched controls. As expected, depressive patients exhibited higher score on harm avoidance (HA), and lower scores on persistence (P), self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (C), optimism/emotional regulation subscore, and total EI score as compared with controls. In the period of remission, patients again had elevated scores on HA, and lower scores on SD. In contrast, the total EI score did not differ between controls and depressive patients in remission. The results confirm that some personality dimensions are dependent on both state and trait aspects of depression, and suggest that EI only seems to be affected during the clinical state. [less ▲]

Emotional Processing in Down Syndrome

in Books of Abstracts: 13th conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (2003)

In addition to mental retardation, Down Syndrome (DS) children present emotional deficits. Some authors have suggested that the emotional deficits observed in DS can be related to developmental changes ... [more ▼]

In addition to mental retardation, Down Syndrome (DS) children present emotional deficits. Some authors have suggested that the emotional deficits observed in DS can be related to developmental changes. However, the link between emotion and cognitive processing remains unclear.This study aims to assess the relationships between emotional and cognitive processing in DS children. More specifically, we wanted to assess whether cognitive development could predict emotional deficits. Eighteen children DS and 18 chronological age-matched (CA) children were presented with emotional tasks designed to tap their abilities (i) to label emotion through emotional faces and prosody, (ii) to attribute, from stories, cognitive and emotional states to characters and (iii) to process face identity and gaze behaviour. Cognitive functioning was assessed including attentional treatment, visuo-spatial working memory, receptive language and logical reasoning. The results confirmed that DS performed worse on both cognitive and emotional tasks than CA children. There are also strong correlations between cognitive (including language and logical reasoning measures) and emotional measures. These results suggest that emotional troubles in DS are related to their global cognitive development; they also suggest that the degree of mental retardation can predict the importance of emotional deficits in DS. [less ▲]

Emotional Response to Body and Facial Feedback in Alcohol-Dependent Patients

in Alcoologie et Addictologie (in press)

Introduction: The object of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of body postures and facial expressions manipulation on subjective feelings in male alcohol dependent (ADs) divided into two ... [more ▼]

Introduction: The object of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of body postures and facial expressions manipulation on subjective feelings in male alcohol dependent (ADs) divided into two groups according to Cloninger’s typology in order to gain some understanding of their difficulties in the regulation of emotions and in interpersonal relationships. Method: Twenty type I ADs, twenty-one type II ADs, and twenty control participants adopted facial expressions and body postures according to specific instructions and maintained these positions for 10 seconds. Expressions and postures entailed anger, sadness, and happiness as well as a neutral (baseline) condition. After each expression/posture manipulation, participants evaluated their subjective emotional state (including cheerfulness, sadness, and irritation). Results: The three groups reported heightened subjective feelings in concordance with the facial and posture manipulation with no difference emerging between AD and control participants, F(1, 60) = 0.01, p = .91, or between the three groups, F(2, 59) = 1.03, p = .36. Conclusions: Similarly to control participants, ADs from the two subtypes may be responsive to the combined effect of facial and body feedback and could, subsequently, benefit from its regulative effects. [less ▲]

Emotional valence influences the rates of false memories

Poster (2006, July)

Empathie et Trouble Oppositionnel chez l'enfant de 8 à 12 ans

in Revue Francophone de Clinique Comportementale et Cognitive (2004), IX(1), 3-11

A literature review underlines strong links between facial expression recognition difficulty, lack of empathy and behaviour disorder. The main goal of this study was to assess if, as it is suggested in ... [more ▼]

A literature review underlines strong links between facial expression recognition difficulty, lack of empathy and behaviour disorder. The main goal of this study was to assess if, as it is suggested in the literature, oppositional children presented an empathy deficit that can make them more aggressive. Forty children between 8 and 10 years old (15 control children and 15 oppositional children) were subjected to the “Empathy Response Task” from Ricard et Kamberk-Kilicci (1995). As expected, results show that oppositional children are significantly less empathic that control children. Anger is often assigned to protagonists even when it isn’t present. This can be interpreted by the “hostile attribution distortion” according to wich the children with behaviour disorders tend to allocate hostile intentions to others (Milich & Dodge, 1984). Working on empathy must be integrated in behaviour disorder children therapy. [less ▲]

Empathy for pain and Alexithymia : a rTMS study

Poster (2012, December 12)

Empathy is a multi-facet function regulating social life. In this study, we investigated empathy in relation to alexithymia. Alexithymia is considered as a state showing difficulties in identification and ... [more ▼]

Empathy is a multi-facet function regulating social life. In this study, we investigated empathy in relation to alexithymia. Alexithymia is considered as a state showing difficulties in identification and distinction of one’s own emotional life, as well as difficulties in identification/distinction of others emotions. Thus, alexithymia is considered as an empathy trouble. Previous studies demonstrated that alexithymia is characterized by a particular pattern of cerebral activation comprising some important zones of emotional control (i.e., left DLPFC hyperactivation, left ACC hypoactivation). In the present study, we investigated the electrodermal response of participants during an empathy for pain task before and after an inhibiting rTMS on the right DLPFC to facilitate the ACC activation, with the aim to enhance the emotional expression for alexithymic population. Results showed that rTMS on the right DLPFC increase the relaxation of the alexithymic participants facing the stimuli. This can match our assumptions but further research is needed to clarify this situation. [less ▲]

Les empereurs julio-claudiens et les lettres grecques

Conference (2013, April)

Emperipolesis of lymphoid cells by human follicular dendritic cells in vitro.

in Virchows Archiv. B : Cell pathology (1992), 62(2), 69-78

Isolated follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) showed true and pseudoemperipolesis of fresh tonsillar lymphocytes, even after long-term (50-day) cultivation. Emperipolesis by FDCs was not restricted by ... [more ▼]

Isolated follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) showed true and pseudoemperipolesis of fresh tonsillar lymphocytes, even after long-term (50-day) cultivation. Emperipolesis by FDCs was not restricted by allotype specificity, nor was it inhibited by the addition of antibodies against MHC-I & II antigens. Follicular dendritic cells predominantly engulfed B-cells; monocytes and macrophages were not found between FDC cytoplasmic extensions. When highly purified T-cell populations were added to FDC cultures emperipolesis of T-cells occurred, particularly those of the CD4-positive phenotype. Mitoses appeared within 6 h in the emperipolesed lymphocytes and, after an additional 18 h, some lymphocytes exhibited apoptosis. [less ▲]