title: Emotion recognition deficits in pediatric anxiety disorders: implications for amygdala research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety disorders in adults involve aberrant processing of emotional information that is hypothesized to reflect perturbations in the amygdala. This study examines the relationship between face-emotion recognition and anxiety in a sample of children and adolescents participating in a brain-imaging study of amygdala structure and function.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study recruited 15 children and adolescents with ongoing anxiety disorders and 11 psychiatrically healthy comparisons group-matched on age, gender, and IQ. Face-emotion recognition was assessed using the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale (DANVA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children and adolescents with anxiety disorders exhibited significantly poorer performance on the face-emotion recognition task compared to healthy controls (z = 2.2; p < 0.05). This difference was found only for expressions posed by adults but not children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reduced accuracy on a face-emotion recognition test is consistent with perturbed amygdala function in pediatric anxiety disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As this study was conducted in a sample undergoing a neuroimaging investigation of amygdala integrity, future analyses will examine associations among amygdala function, clinical anxiety, and face-recognition abilities.
authors.affiliation: Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2670, USA.
authors.forename: Josh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Easter
authors.forename: Erin B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: McClure
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Monk
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dhanani
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hodgdon
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
authors.forename: Dennis S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Charney
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000523:psychology; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012938:Social Perception